Most of the time, we think that connecting to spirit guides needs to be super esoteric, possibly involving time spent in Peru or in a sweat lodge. And while those are absolutely great ways to receive the guidance you're seeking, you can also find that guidance even while you're folding the laundry or driving the kids to soccer.

Connecting to your spirit guides also doesn't need to wait for a soul crisis, either! Our guides are here to support us in our very real-world concerns, too, for everything from, "But just how am I going to pay that bill?" to, "How do I get my kids to stop eating potato chips?" And if you are seeking deeper guidance, for things like, "But just what IS my soul purpose," or, "How do we save the planet?” then of course your guides are ready to support you in those questions, too.

The most simple way of connecting to your spirit guides is by closing your eyes and asking for guidance. The real work is in trusting that the answer you receive is an answer—and not believing that your mind is just "making things up."

This trust is the work for most of us who were raised in non-magical cultures. We tend to disbelieve or dismiss the guidance and intuitive wisdom that we receive. So the practice of connecting and tending to our connections to our spirit guides is one of continual relaxation into trusting, and then trusting again.

And while you can simply close your eyes and ask for guidance, here are a few practices that can support you in deepening those connections. Begin by setting a specific intention, or by asking a specific question.

The intention might be something more fluid like asking for "connection" or "guidance," or you may have a more specific question that you wish to receive more perspective around from your guides. You might also wish to receive a healing around a particular situation, person, belief, or pattern, and all of those are possible, too. I'll often take a particular situation into my work with my guides and ask for guidance and be shown a new way of viewing the situation.

Here are five different ways you can begin to connect with your guides, or deepen into connection if you have already explored working with your guides. The work below encompasses many different types of guides, from angelic beings to Mother Earth.

1. While out in nature, place your hand on a plant or tree. Close your eyes and breathe deeply for a few moments. Acknowledge the spirit of the plant or tree. Then listen to what the plant or tree might share with you.
2. Find a patch of grass or soft earth. Lie down and close your eyes. Acknowledge Mother Earth and her support. Feel her nourishing energy below you. Listen to what she might share with you.
3. Find a drumming track on YouTube. Allow the beat of the drum to bring you into relaxation. Ask to meet with an animal guide or spirit. Trust that whichever animal shows up, in whichever form, is there for your highest good. You might choose here to ask for a healing, or to ask a specific question of your guide.
4. When an animal crosses your path, for instance a cardinal alighting on a tree outside your window, or a fox in the moonlight, and it feels like there's something more to that encounter, you can close your eyes and ask the animal for a message or guidance.
5. Enter into a meditation with any sort of music that allows you to let go of conscious thought, and ask to be connected to a light being, an ascended master, or an angelic guide. Allow whichever guide shows up to be exactly perfect and then ask your question of your guide.

Again, what happens to most of us, though, is that we don't trust the answer that we're receiving. But this work (like any spiritual work) is a practice, and not an end destination. So if you feel like, "But nothing's happening! I don't know if I'm getting any messages at all!," please know, that's totally normal.

Relax again. Let go again. Allow again. Allow your guides to appear and offer their wisdom to you. And know that even if your mind is generating the answers, as opposed to guidance from the other realms—well, isn't your mind also part of Source energy, too? Aren't you just as much a part of the wisdom of the universe as everything else on our planet?

Over time, you'll start to recognize that even if your mind was giving you the answer, the messages that you're receiving are ones that are inspiring, loving, perspective-shifting, and powerful. For instance, I'm continually being shown by my guides very specific practices for letting go of anger or sadness and relaxing more into love and abundance and joy. And so even if my mind is just, "making those things up, they're still powerful messages and guidance that I can bring into my everyday life experience of being a mom, wife, daughter, friend, and business owner.

And so if there's something you're currently struggling with in your very real-world life, you can utilize one of these practices to connect with the spirits of the land, the earth, and the ether in order to hear a message that will be of benefit to you.

Of course, the harder part is actually putting the message from your guides into practice!