1. Your new book is A Survival Guide for Those Who Have Psychic Abilities and Don't Know What to Do with Them. What inspired you to write the book?

What really inspired me to write the book was just how many amazing people I was meeting who were struggling with their abilities as I did years ago. They were either aware they had abilities and had no idea how to hone them or they were not aware at all and were struggling with anxiety and other issues and didn't realize that they had abilities that were completely throwing them out of balance. The universe and my guides were constantly bringing these people into my life, and it quickly became my passion to help them. I realized that I needed to create a tool for them and the result was this book.

2. Many of us likely have psychic abilities, but don't recognize them as such. What is the first step to recognizing our psychic gifts?

I do believe that we all have abilities in some form—some of us just have them turned up stronger naturally than others. We can all learn to hone our abilities to enhance our lives and the lives of others.

I honestly think the first step is acceptance and commitment to yourself. I have witnessed so many people who need or want to hone their abilities only give up after a few weeks. It is very similar to joining a gym and wanting to work on your physical body: we are all into it in the beginning but slowly we turn away and give up. But, when you decide to make that commitment, it will change your whole life!

I would definitely say that the first step is to join a developmental meditation group or to start meditating on your own. This will teach you how to connect to yourself, your guides, and the universe. It will also teach you how your abilities work for you and how you really receive messages, whether it is one way or several ways. Trust me—it can be a really fun process!

If meditation isn't for you at the beginning, my other suggestion would be to connect to your abilities by using a form of divination (e.g. tarot or dowsing). Remember, if you are going to do any sort of divination you must do a prayer of protection to make sure you are only working with your highest and best, protecting yourself from anything negative that may be around.

3. What if we don’t want to acknowledge our psychic abilities? Can we simply ignore them?

I would love to say absolutely, but unfortunately that isn't the case. If we do so, we will always feel out of balance. Things will not work out the way we want them to. We will feel lost at times, even feeling ill. Sure, we can attempt to continue to ignore our abilities, but chances are the universe will not allow you to. In some way the universe will push you to connect to your abilities. You may start seeing more spirits, or you may become overwhelmed with anxiety only to find that no doctor or pill can help you. In my case the universe just increased everything. I would walk into a store and I'd not be able to tell who was living and who was dead. My eyesight went haywire; I'd go to the eye doctor and be told, "Oh, you need glasses to see far away." Then, a week later the glasses would not be helping, and I'd go back, and they would inform me that I needed glasses to read—not to see far away. This went on and on until they sent me for a brain scan to see if I had a tumor. Years later I realized I was picking up the energy of the spirits and the living that were around me. It was the universe opening up a flood gate of my abilities, forcing me to search for help to balance myself. The universe and our guides are always trying to help us down the correct path. For years they were always presenting me with opportunities to accept and commit to my abilities, but I constantly turned away from them. So, the universe and my guides finally decided to kick it in full gear and give me a huge kick in the behind to move down my correct path.

Also, embracing your abilities doesn't mean that you will be speaking with the dead 24/7 like I do; it could just mean that you learn to listen to the messages that you are receiving. Following the universe GPS that is there to help guide you down your life path allowing you to truly know what the right decision is in certain situations. This will remove stress and anxiety from your life. Trust me: there is more pluses to connecting to your abilities than not connecting. Imagine you have a mini super power and you have the ability to utilize that super power…why wouldn't you want to take advantage of that? You can do it and not have to become totally overtaken by the abilities.

4. Is psychic development an easy process?

I'm not going to lie and say that it is super easy, but honestly it isn't difficult. It can be a lot of fun and excited with equal amounts of frustration. It is a process, and like anything that we want or need to learn it takes time and practice. But the process can be extremely rewarding. Each step you take you become more in balance and become more who you are supposed to be. I laugh now thinking back, there would be times when I'd throw up my hands, put away all my tarot cards, rods, etc., and say, "I’m never looking at it again." This was usually when I thought something didn't turn out well for myself. Then, in a few days, I'd pull it all back out again and move forward, knowing that it really was helping me. I did the same thing with meditation. I thought it was a waste of time, and I had many frustrating attempts at doing it, but I just kept trying and practicing. Now I don't go a day without meditating and it is something that I feel we all need to do and that can transform your life completely.

Psychic development is different for all of us, and we can't judge our progress with that of someone else. It really is an individual journey.