Mental Health Warrior & Neurospicy Mama
Welcome to a safe space to talk about mental health and neurodivergence with someone who understands. I personally have bipolar disorder, ADHD and anxiety and suspect I have autism as well. I am a single mom to a teenage daughter who has AuDHD and anxiety. I strive to open up the discussion on these topics and erase the stigma that surrounds them. I also hope to let others know that there is always hope and they are not alone. Hope you enjoy!
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Mental Health Warrior & Neurospicy Mama
Your Intrusive Thoughts Are Not Your Intuition: A Chat with a Modern Medium
We explore the fascinating world of psychic abilities and spiritual intuition with Nikki Williams, a medium who shares insights about distinguishing true intuition from intrusive thoughts. Nikki reveals how her neurodivergent mind enhances her spiritual gifts while offering practical advice for developing your own intuitive abilities.
• Nikki explains her various psychic abilities including clairvoyance, clairaudience, and medical intuition
• The clear difference between intrusive thoughts (which create anxiety) and true intuition (which has a stillness to it)
• How meditation and breathwork can help quiet the mind and enhance intuitive abilities
• The ethical considerations when receiving psychic information about others
• Connection between neurodivergence and heightened spiritual sensitivity
• Practical advice for trusting your inner voice without self-doubt
• The importance of creative outlets like baking, singing, and coloring for entering meditative states
Follow your intuition to explore more with Nikki including her Pampered Chef offerings!
http://pamperedchef.com/pws/mimismunchies
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Welcome back to Advancing with Amy, mental Health Warrior and Neuro Spicy Mama. It's Amy here and I'm super excited about today's episode because I have a very special guest joining me, my longtime friend, Nikki Williams. Nikki and I go way back we're talking high school days way back and fun pampered chef parties kind of back. She's one of the most fascinating people I know. Nikki is neurodivergent and she shares about her OCD and intrusive thoughts as well, but she's also a singer, a community theater enthusiast and a psychic extraordinaire. She's got some seriously cool stories and insights to share about tarot, astrology and tapping into your inner intuition. Plus, she's got a knack for turning everyday moments into something magical. Trust me, you're going to love her as much as I do. So sit back, relax and let's dive into the world of spirituality and a bit of kitchen fun with Nikki. All right, we're here with Nikki Williams today and welcome Nikki. Hi, amy, it's good to be, here.
Amy Taylor:Yeah, Nikki is a longtime friend of mine. We went to high school together and we just did a pampered chef party together.
Nikki Williams:Yes, we did.
Amy Taylor:It was so much fun it was it was, and I got some good stuff that says it's coming Monday.
Nikki Williams:Oh, that's great. I do think the air fryer ovens are on back order, so be aware of that.
Amy Taylor:I was told that, but then it says it's coming.
Nikki Williams:Oh great, wonderful. Mine did not get here today, but it should be soon. Thanks to your party, I earned a free oven and air fryer. Oh yay.
Amy Taylor:That's awesome. Well, it was very fun, so you do a lot of fun things.
Nikki Williams:I do.
Amy Taylor:Yeah, you want to tell us a little bit about the fun things you do.
Nikki Williams:Oh my gosh. Well, of course, as you know, I'm doing the Pampered Chef thing now, which is a ball. I'm passionate about that. I'm also a singer. I also do community theater and things like that. I have one right behind my house, actually, so that worked out nicely. And I am a psychic, Wow yeah. And in that umbrella term of psychic we're talking clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience. I'm a medical intuitive. I'm also a natal astrologer. I've been drawing up birth charts since I was nine years old and I'm a Reiki master, which is a Japanese form of energy healing. I'm an empath. That kind of goes along with some interesting psychological issues we can delve into at some point.
Amy Taylor:Along with some interesting psychological issues we can delve into at some point.
Nikki Williams:But along with being clairvoyant, it kind of goes in the same territory. I'm a medium as well. I don't usually do a lot of mediumship work because spirits don't shut up.
Amy Taylor:Now tell me what's the difference between medium and psychic?
Nikki Williams:Well, a medium is someone who can communicate with spirits, whether they be people who have passed or whether they be spirit guides, angelic beings, nature spirits. It can be any form of I guess we'll call it paranormal communication, and it kind of also goes with the clairaudience you can see and hear. So the clairvoyant means clear seeing, which is funny because I'm blind, but I see things that other people in general do not see, including auras.
Amy Taylor:I see people's auras and chakras and meridian points, other types of energy centers and, yeah, have you been able to do all this since you were young? You said you started nine with the natal charts. But yeah, or good stuff, did that come early on?
Nikki Williams:I have always, and I and I didn't know. Here's an interesting thing I've always always seen and spoken to other beings or spirits, I guess we will call them. I was always told they were my imaginary friends. When I was really little. I've always seen, seen auras around people and I would ask, like my parents, I'm like do you see the, the, the colors around? And they're like uh, what are you talking about? I also I have something called, and there's been an interesting book about that.
Nikki Williams:Oh, what is the word for it? It is, it's a sensory type of issue where, for example, you can see feelings or you can hear them, or there's a word for this and I can't think of it right now, but there's a book about it called Monday is a Blue Day, which it is. Monday is blue, very much. So. I asked my mom one time if she could see her headaches, because I was having a lot of headaches when I hit puberty, you know like hormone induced type migraines, and I could see them. I could tell you the shape of them and the color of them, and she was like no, but my father said, well, yeah, I know what that is. So I think that might have.
Nikki Williams:So, he knew. It's kind of a sensory integration type of issue where the senses kind of overlap each other, and I've always done interesting things like astral travel, even as a kid, just by accident. Things like astral travel, even as a kid, just by accident, I would be somewhere, complete somewhere else completely, but yet physically I would be here.
Nikki Williams:Was that scary? Huh, was that ever scary? Yeah, it's been more scary as an adult. As a kid I was just like, okay, well, I'm just, you know somewhere, and then it'd be like earth to Nikki wait what? And you have the sensation of literally snapping back into your own body. But I didn't know that's what that was, because I didn't grow up in a family where any of that was really explored or much less condoned, because I did grow up Baptist.
Nikki Williams:Um, but but my mom had is the one that developed the interest in astrology and she bought a book I don't remember the name of it, but by an astrologer named Linda Goodman, who I love. She passed away a long time ago, I think in the 90s Still one of my favorite astrology authors to this day but she had a book and you could learn to draw up natal charts with this book and my mom was like you should see if you can make anything out of this, because she didn't get it and I literally sat down and went oh yeah, I know how to do this and started doing the math and everything and drawing up birth charts, like it was second nature, which I think all of this really is for most people that express any type of psychic or occult science gift.
Nikki Williams:It's kind of an eight and all children, for example, are inherently spiritually gifted but unfortunately society just kind of trains that out of you you're taught no matter what to doubt yourself. Yeah, that's, and that trans transcends just psychic issues. We're all, unfortunately, taught as we get older we'll always second guess yourself, always doubt that, that inherent, intuitive, still small voice oh yeah, did you ever question your mental health, or did anybody else Um?
Nikki Williams:uh, I think that I grew up in a time period where, well, first of all, girls were never, hardly ever, diagnosed with anything. You had boys that were diagnosed as quote unquote, hyperactive and about that time they were given out Ritalin. But I was always a bit of a problem kid in school, not as far as being mean or being rotten, but I was the kid who couldn't focus very ADHD of me. I ended up in the hallway all the time because I was a distraction. I was the kid who got talks too much, doodling in the margins, all that kind of stuff.
Nikki Williams:But nobody really ever questioned my mental health. As far as wondering if I had some type of. I had some type of diagnosable condition, I did go through a very severe time of depression when I was about sixth, seventh, eighth grade. A lot of it had to do with bullying. I was definitely different, extremely different, and my mother always said I was the square peg trying to fit into the round hole. Now, with my youngest daughter, my youngest daughter is on the spectrum and I see so much of myself in her and I forget the name of the test. There's a test that you can take. It's even online, where it gives you the likelihood of whether you are on the autism spectrum and I scored about off the charts. I was incredibly immature and socially awkward, and those were the words used at the time. You know that was. That was in the eighties.
Amy Taylor:Well, yeah, my daughter, my youngest child, my daughter is autistic as well and and I've questioned whether I am or not I never felt like I belonged. I always felt like everybody else knew something I didn't.
Nikki Williams:Yeah, I kind of felt that way myself and I thought I should belong. I tried to.
Amy Taylor:Right.
Nikki Williams:I really did. I didn't grow up in an uncaring home. We had our own issues, but, like my mom is awesome. You know my mom Amazing. Yeah, she is an amazing woman and it's thanks to her that I didn't completely abandon these spiritual gifts, because she was exploring and questioning a little bit herself just in that area of astrology. She's always thought that was interesting and it's kind of because of that that I started to delve further and further into. I started with that and then I just started reading more on different subjects and then, when I was 17 years old my very best friend at the time I don't know if she her name was Erica she gave me my very first tarot deck and I literally sat down and did a reading for her, right there.
Amy Taylor:You didn't even have to read the book, did you?
Nikki Williams:No, and you're not really. I mean, you can read the book, but that's not really how tarot works. Tarot is supposed to be interpretive. It has some general guidelines here and there, but it's supposed to be more inspired by things like free association.
Nikki Williams:It's supposed to be more inspired by things like free association, and because the language of spirit is very symbolic in nature and like dreams, dreams are very symbolic in nature. They are not meant to be taken literally. Once in a blue moon, yeah, you'll have something. That's very precognitive. I've had those dreams before and that can be scary, but frequently. For example, I know when I dream about earthquakes it doesn't mean literal earthquakes, but it does mean that things are about to go really sideways on probably a global scale. Needless to say, I've had a lot of earthquake dreams lately.
Amy Taylor:I can see that.
Nikki Williams:And tornado dreams tend to be tied more to personal emotional chaos for me.
Amy Taylor:Do you just figure that out after having the dream, and then those things happen enough times.
Nikki Williams:Yeah, and that one I started figuring out when I was a terror of tornadoes. I don't have that fear anymore, I overcame that, but I was, literally up until my late 20s, early 30s, petrified. It was a phobia for me, but I'd had so many dreams. And then I started to delve into a little bit more dream interpretation and realized that it was very similar to tarot interpretation, that the symbolic language speaks mainly to the right, that more right brain and I know that's an outdated perspective, but that more right brain, what we typically use to associate with that perspective, the more symbology and that it needed the free association in order for that other part of the brain to go. Oh, oh, that's making sense now.
Nikki Williams:Okay, and when I talk to people, when I'm giving them readings and we talk about their dreams, we talk about I'm saying, all right, you got to keep a dream journal first of all. Secondly, you need to sit down and write it down immediately. When you get a, when you have a dream that really sticks, it's going to stick with you, wake up before you go to the bathroom or anything, write it down, then you leave it alone and you come back to it like two weeks later and you read through it and you let that inspire some free association, and then you let that lead you in the direction of something that makes sense. Oftentimes, like numbers will repeat themselves or they'll stand out, or words or colors or specific imagery. But you know like, for example, when we dream usually when we dream about other people they aren't actually those other people. They tend to represent aspects of ourself. Now we're getting into some interesting Jungian type of dream interpretation.
Amy Taylor:Yeah, you know, I always think I'm going to remember the dream, so I don't need to write it down because it's so clear. At the time I think, how can I forget this? And then it's gone.
Nikki Williams:Yeah, Later on you come back and you go ah, I know, I dropped something, I know it. But you get so caught up in the day-to-day hustle and bustle of life. You've got so many things that your prefrontal cortex is trying to prioritize Emphasis on the word trying and you have these things that you have to prioritize in waking life for survival more than anything.
Nikki Williams:You've got to go to work, you've got to make the money, you've got to make food, you've got to. You know you got to pay the bills, you got to do this, that and the other. And it's no wonder that things like that get lost, because they're not really part of long-term memory, they're more stuck there in the working memory, which is fleeting.
Amy Taylor:Yeah, that's interesting. So do you think that your neurodivergence feeds into all of your gifts?
Nikki Williams:I think it does. I think that one is part of the other. Obviously, because things appear differently to me and because I can feel the mood in a room, because I can see the colors that are around people and things like that, I'm going to have a different perspective and that perspective is going to feed the way I behave. And when it comes to neurodivergence, it's all more about behavior than anything, but it's also about perspective and perception as well. I always say that perception is about nine-tenths of reality and the other tenth is unlimited possibility.
Nikki Williams:Oh, I love that I get all of this input. And, first of all, I don't believe in destiny. I don't believe in it. I believe in choices. Now, I do believe that there that stuff happens. I believe that we are dealt a certain hand of cards. You can't control most of the things that are happening but you can control you what you do with it.
Nikki Williams:So life is about choices. So I try and I've learned over time I mean, 51 years is a decent amount of time, this planet. So I have, and I think I've gotten a little better at it. I hope anyway that I can take those differences in perception and perspective and now I can use them to make more informed choices and to help other people make more informed choices, which is what I try to focus on when I read for someone, whether it be sitting down and getting messages from people who have passed, or whether I'm reading tarot, which I do almost everything along with tarot I'm reading tarot, which I do all of almost everything, along with tarot.
Nikki Williams:I call my version of reading tarot. I call it holistic tarot, because I look at the whole picture. I use my clairvoyance, my clairaudience, my clairsentience, I use my medical intuition. I use all of these different gifts, plus my knowledge of astrology and all of these different things and my mediumship, and I channel that through the symbology of tarot and I just put it all together to bring these messages to people. But I always try to emphasize it's still about your choice. If I tell you something you don't like and I am not the kind of person to sugarcoat anything.
Nikki Williams:That's also one of the things that always got me in trouble is that I'm relatively blunt, but I tell people if you don't like what I tell you, if you don't like what I'm seeing nine times out of 10, you have the ability to change it. I can't stand when people come back to me and go oh, you said this horrible thing was going to happen and it did. I'm like, but I told you that, so it wouldn't.
Amy Taylor:Right.
Nikki Williams:You know, I told you this was the wrong guy for you so you could get out of that relationship because you were going to get hurt.
Nikki Williams:Right, you know, and it's like, but unfortunately and this happens with I'm going to use this as an example this was many years ago. I was reading for someone and they sat down with a friend of theirs. Now, when people sit together, their auras change, and especially if they're close theirs. Now, when people sit together, their auras change, and especially if they're close good friends, married people, siblings they merge and create an entirely new field of energy. And they sat down.
Nikki Williams:I saw this red light, intense, painful red that came into this aura and goes from the right to the left, came in from the right, goes up and I got horrible chest pains. Horrible because that's part of medical intuition, as you can even feel other people's stuff and I can take things forward in time and backwards in time, see what caused it or see where it's headed. I don't diagnose things, but I see energy signatures. But what I told them, both said I'm not sure which one of you this refers to because there's too much energy for both of you going on, but both of you take yourself to the doctor, have your heart checked. This is serious stuff. This is serious stuff. I saw the one person that the one person I was reading for two months later at a diner, just chance meeting, and they said I asked how they were doing and they said you gave a reading to me, my friend, and I to myself, but my friend was with me and you told us about this potential cardiac problem.
Amy Taylor:I said yeah, I remember.
Nikki Williams:And they said well, I went to the doctor and got checked out and everything's fine, but they did not take the advice and they passed away of a heart attack just a few weeks ago. I'm like oh, my God, and, and I was in my probably mid thirties at the time and I hadn't dealt with anything that serious yet, and it devastated me. I almost quit reading.
Amy Taylor:I was just going to say that's a life changing kind of event.
Nikki Williams:It was. And then I sat with it, I meditated Meditation very important for developing your spiritual gifts. On the side note, I sat with it, I meditated on it and the message I got was you did what you were supposed to do. You gave them the message. You cannot control whether or not they do anything about it.
Amy Taylor:That makes sense to me and I've always thought. I've always heard with tarot cards that it's not telling your future. It's saying this is the path you're on. If you decide to stay on this path, this could happen.
Nikki Williams:Yes, or if you go this other way, this could be the outcome. These are potential outcomes. Now, sometimes you can get a clear yes and no and you can get a pretty clear answer. The more specific your questions, the more specific the answers are going to be. I can sit down and give a great general reading, but it's going to go wherever spirit wants it to go, not necessarily where the querent wants it to go. Right, yeah, Because oftentimes people have oh my Lord, I'm rolling my eyes right now, but you get so many love life questions.
Amy Taylor:Oh, I bet, and it's just now, but you get so many love life questions.
Nikki Williams:Oh, I bet, and it's just like. Obviously you need to work on yourself, or you wouldn't be asking me about this. Where's the right person?
Amy Taylor:Well, first of all, you have to be the right person for yourself. My mom used to tell me all the time when I'd ask her, why can't I find somebody, she'd say, amy, you have to love yourself first. And I always thought that was such a bunch of BS. And then later, when I finally learned to love myself, I was like, oh, that's what she meant.
Nikki Williams:Yes, I always use the analogy of the flight attendant that says if we lose cabin pressure and the oxygen masks drop down from the ceiling, put yours on first. Yes, before helping the people around you, because you cannot help them if you're passed out from oxygen deprivation.
Amy Taylor:Right, you're no good.
Nikki Williams:Yeah, you can be no good to anybody else if you're not good to and for yourself. And that delves into a whole lot of this too. I mean this we could go on for hours.
Amy Taylor:Oh, I'm sure so. Have you ever had a reading to make you just laugh?
Nikki Williams:Oh God, so many Really, I don't even know. I mean now sometimes, sometimes.
Nikki Williams:I get some wackadoodle out there, questions, but I have had some that I got so tickled about because I God there's been so many.
Nikki Williams:I'm trying to think of a specific example because, oddly enough, those are not the ones that stick with you as much.
Nikki Williams:Oh okay, but there have been times when my querens and I have been in stitches like I have almost literally fallen on the floor from laughing so hard, and it usually just has to do with something I see coming their way, like, for example, I frequently will see when a child is coming into someone's life and sometimes I get the coolest because these little souls already exist in the ether and they will come through and be like and some of them are just so you know, ornery, mischievous little souls that are showing me little glimpses of what their personality is going to be like and how they're going to be. And I'm like, oh my Lord, this kid is a corker, this is the kid that quietly plays the practical jokes but then looks at you like who? Me? You know, you just get so tickled. Or I will sometimes run across the spirit of someone who's passed. Grandpas are like this a lot. They tend to be the more ornery ones and they'll come through, yeah, frequently saying something that they said in life. So they can.
Nikki Williams:This is how they're going to know it's me and they get these mischievous little grins and maybe pull on somebody's ear, or you know, know, it's me and they get these mischievous little grins and maybe pull on somebody's ear, or you know, and it's like what, and then I've had some downright scary ones. Ooh, I've had some. Well, I think the issue with the heart attack is probably the most.
Amy Taylor:Yeah, that's severe.
Nikki Williams:Yeah, now, I haven't had any type of horribly horrible entities come through because, in all honesty, there isn't such a thing, right, because all there is, when you boil down to it, is love.
Amy Taylor:Yes, god is love.
Nikki Williams:Whatever you see as God, the universe, I don't care what word you use for it, in the end there's only love, and there is so much stigma and I will blame a lot of it on certain monotheistic religion. There's so much stigma around, oh yeah, oh, demonic possession. No, no, no, no, no. That is not how this works. A lot of these things that people get that come through, that are negative, are thought forms.
Nikki Williams:And in, in astral, in spirit, in the ether, all these different words for it. Thoughts are real, and if you put negative energy out there, that's what you're going to create.
Amy Taylor:Right, you're giving power to those thoughts.
Nikki Williams:Yes, that's what you're going to create, right, you're giving power to those thoughts, yes, and then you are creating the form of the thought that you have put out there, and you've got to be careful with that. However, actual beings, actual entities, whether spiritual or otherwise, are not demonic or evil or anything like that. It's not how it works and, oddly, we could really get into some interesting discussions about death and what happens after you die and things like that, because that's nothing like most people think it is. I will tell you that a lot of people who have the gift of mediumship are misdiagnosed, with disorders like schizophrenia Schizophrenia being a very, very real diagnosis.
Amy Taylor:Right.
Nikki Williams:And a friend of my daughter's had been diagnosed with this many, many, many years ago as a child. She came to my house. I'm a pagan and we celebrate the wheel of the year and one of our big time celebrations is the winter solstice, yule, and we do. My family at my house, we have celebrated Yule every year and sometimes we invite close, close friends over and things like that for our Yule celebration. And I do a Yule ritual, I do what's called calling the quarters and I bless everything and I cleanse the space.
Nikki Williams:And one of the things that I do when I'm blessing and I'm like no spirits or anything, no thoughts, nothing can come into this space without being of good intention. Only good and pure thoughts, and that's it. You know that's beautiful. Yeah, only good and pure thoughts, and that's it. You know that's beautiful, yeah, well, this young lady and I think that my daughters were early in high school at the time this young lady, after we were all done, the celebration was over, after I closed the circle and everything, she said that's the first time in my life I haven't heard the voices. And I said honey, that's because you're not schizophrenic, you're a medium. I kept spirit in general. I kept spirits out of my circle. I didn't want anything distracting from the energy we were trying to raise, from focusing on the good that comes with the returning of the sun. Little days getting longer that's what the soul says about the return of light in a time of dark, darkness and change your whole future yeah, and, and she it did.
Nikki Williams:She's a practicing pagan herself now and it just completely changed her perspective and she was able to get control of that gift.
Amy Taylor:Oh, I got chills. That's so cool.
Nikki Williams:And I was like that's mediumship You're going to. When you have a very clear mediumship gift. You're going to hear messages and things from your spirit, guides and stuff, and that can easily be misinterpreted.
Amy Taylor:And that was a question I was going to ask you how do you distinguish between intuition and intrusive thoughts or just overthinking something?
Nikki Williams:Intrusive thoughts tend to snowball. Okay, they also tend to be really whack-a-doodle-off-the-wall thoughts, like real intrusive thoughts. I have obsessive compulsive disorder, so I deal with this on a regular basis. The actual intrusive thoughts Example you can be doing something totally normal, making macaroni and cheese. I really don't want to put this in anybody's head, but I'm going to. Anyway. I'm going to give you an example of an intrusive thought that I had while at dinner that spawned my ritualistic behaviors that I have to do in order to quell the anxiety from obsessive compulsive disorder. I'm making macaroni and cheese, just homemade macaroni and cheese. I've made it a million times.
Nikki Williams:Suddenly, what I see not literally see, but in my mind- is a bunch of roach eggs hatching in the macaroni and cheese and this massive amount of cockroaches crawling out of my macaroni and I'm like and I go into immediate panic it's not. I know it's not happening. I know it's not a realistic fear. I know it's my mind playing tricks on me, because that's not a thing that's going to be happening.
Nikki Williams:You know, particularly since I'm boiling stuff on the stove and things like that. But the fear is real. The fear is overwhelming. You can't make the intrusive thought go away with logic and reason. You have to find a way to quell the anxiety when you have obsessive compulsive disorder. Hence the compulsion. The obsession is the intrusive thought. The compulsion is the ritualistic behavior that follows. That's how you define obsessive compulsive disorder, not the same as obsessive compulsive disorder, not the same as obsessive personality disorder. That's a completely different thing. But the compulsive behavior has to be engaged in order to make the intrusive thought, anxiety, go away. Okay, now, that's an intrusive thought. The difference between that and intuition, the difference between that and intuition Intuition is a still. There's a stillness to intuition. Does that make sense? Yes, there's a sense of. My grandmother used to call it and it's actually in biblical scripture called it the gift of knowing.
Amy Taylor:Okay, yeah.
Nikki Williams:This is not a guess, this is not a possibility. Does that make sense? I mean, it is a possibility.
Nikki Williams:But, there's like no, I know this, I know this. And well, how do you know that? I can't explain this? Because I know, I just know when I have that sense of knowing it's not wrong, it's never wrong. Now, there are times when I get lost in interpretations and I might go because I'm human, I'm not God, you know like I might get lost in the interpretation and wander down the wrong path and usually, if I'm listening, spirit's going to go back this way, get back on the path, Come on. But that sense of knowing that comes with true intuition. That's different than the anxiety of intrusive thoughts. That makes sense. The anxiety is the what if. The what if game is not part of intuition.
Amy Taylor:I gotcha. Yeah, that makes complete sense. Have you ever had a message that came through that you didn't want to share with someone?
Nikki Williams:Um, let me think I'm pretty sure I have. I mean, there are times when I just go, not doing it, find somebody else, because the messages you get from those who've crossed over, for example, you don't have to pass them on. Now, sometimes, if I'm reading for somebody and a message does come through, I will give it to them.
Amy Taylor:Okay.
Nikki Williams:There are things you don't do ethically. You don't tell somebody if you see if they're going to die. You don't do that Completely unethical and nobody's meant to actually truly know that. You know now you can do what I did and say somebody needs to get to the doctor. Right, I'm feeling the symptoms of heart attack. I don't know which one of you that is because there's just too much energy and I'm overwhelmed by it. But just get checked out, because when I got that message I was supposed to pass it on. I had to pass it on in order because it was a preventable medical emergency. Yes, that could have been stopped. That could have been stopped. Somebody gets a heart cath, they get a stent, something to that effect, but that's not how that ended up being, unfortunately.
Amy Taylor:I know, that's so sad.
Nikki Williams:But there are times once in a while it's not really very common, but I have received some messages that I'm not. It's not that I don't want to pass them on, but I'm not going to go through the hullabaloo to find the person and do that. That's not what I do and I get to control that, because the cool thing about being living is we have domain. We have dominion over life. We have dominion over our physical time and space.
Amy Taylor:So does that mean you can like you did that ritual, you can turn it off.
Nikki Williams:It's not that I turn it off, I just I never. I can't ever turn mine off because I've literally walked with one foot on each side of that veil. But I can ignore it and go. I'm really good at going, you know, I'm going to do this. Instead, we'll put this on the back burner. It's kind of like background noise then.
Amy Taylor:Right.
Nikki Williams:One of the I know that I cover my hair, I wrap my, I wrap my hair.
Nikki Williams:Part of that is anxiety control. It's really good, it's like a weighted vest, but it's on my head, it's a head hug. Part of that actually comes from Kundalini yoga. Head wrapping is a global tradition, shared for many different reasons, but in Kundalini it covers the crown chakra, which helps cover that psychic antenna a little bit and tune out extra psychic noise. Oh wow, so you can focus better. It really does help me too. I'm not saying it helps everybody, but it for me.
Amy Taylor:It is dodson plus it's pretty, so that's nice yeah, they are pretty, but that kind of grounds you and yeah it really does, because I wear shoes to keep my feet on the ground.
Nikki Williams:I'm sure you remember me from high school. I was a freshman when you were a senior and you were probably very much like that Nikki, Because everybody was kind of like that Nikki.
Amy Taylor:I don't know. No, I just remember you had an incredible voice.
Nikki Williams:Oh, thank you.
Amy Taylor:And that's coming from you, because you have an incredible voice.
Nikki Williams:I remember you making all-state choir and I was like I want to do that someday. And I did, I did, I followed, I followed an amy's book, oh yay that's awesome yeah and I was in annie with you and you were fantastic oh, thank you.
Amy Taylor:Yeah, I miss those days. I see you singing now at church and I'm like, oh, she's still doing it. I wish I was.
Nikki Williams:Well, you need to come sing with me sometime. Yeah, I really enjoy it there too. Now sometimes I sing at Unity Southeast, but I frequently sing at Unity Village Chapel. I'll be singing there at Easter and yeah, it's a really very open and embracing community. It's not a traditional Christian type of place.
Amy Taylor:It's. I would call it unity in Overland Park.
Nikki Williams:Yeah, it's very. They're very open, they're very interesting combination of many paths and pretty much, and the whole thing of we embrace all spiritual practices and the diversity of paths that lead to enlightenment.
Amy Taylor:That's what I liked is I could go on Sunday and I might hear what Buddha had to say, or I might hear what Mother Teresa had to say, or I might hear from the Bible, or you just didn't know. It was always interesting.
Nikki Williams:Yeah, it really is, and we're doing like small group things now and I'm a part of a small group and we'd go out. We do it on via zoom and we have a very large online community. That's also membership, but that's beside the point. It's a group called pen and soul and it's a creative writing group and exploring how to see the world through different characters, how to see the world through different characters, and we do little, just these little writing exercises, all based on the same thing, but seeing each other's different perspective. That's interesting. Like one time we wrote from the perspective of a cherry blossom. Oh, wow, and it was a cherry blossom that was being touched by a little blind boy. Oh, and it was the coolest thing. It was deep man, sounds like it, but I'm sorry, I got sidetracked.
Amy Taylor:That's OK, but I have a question for you. You do all these wonderful readings for people. Can you do it for people in your family and yourself? Can you see what's going on for you?
Nikki Williams:That is a lot harder to do, and actually I make it a point not to do readings for people I know extremely well or for myself, because I can't be objective and most of us don't read for ourselves or for people close to us for the same reason, we frequently will go well, that can't be right, no, no, no, that's got to mean something else, because you see what you want to see for that person as opposed to what is, and it's much harder to take the self-doubt and the subjective viewpoint out of the equation when you're reading for somebody close to you, when, especially for yourself, especially, it's really. And now there are a few people, I think, who do that, but they tend to read much more literal interpretive readings for themselves. So instead of interpreting spiritually, they'll sit down with the actual book and look up the actual meaning.
Amy Taylor:That's what I do with oracle cards.
Nikki Williams:Yeah, yeah, I know a lot of people who do that with oracle and I do it better with oracle cards for myself than I do with tarot, but I like oracle cards. I love that. There are a lot of wonderful oracles. I have a dear friend named Sapphire Moonbeam and she has the most beautiful oracle deck called moonbeam magic, which you can buy.
Nikki Williams:You can buy, I gotta look it up because I collect tarot cards and oracle cards oh yeah, me too, me too, but they are gorgeous and I I was a part of her kickstarter program, so I got that the deck. As for being one of the Kickstarters, this was way back when I want to say probably at least six or seven years ago and it is the most stunning. It's her own personal artwork. She does energy. Art is what she calls it. She's a self-taught artist and these cards are stunningly beautiful and she really, truly put her soul into this, including writing the book for it herself, and it's just. It's a wonderful deck.
Amy Taylor:It's wonderful I know there's a lady named hattie and I can't remember her last name right now. I have to look. Hattie thorn, have you ever heard? Yeah, I think I have.
Nikki Williams:Yeah she has some beautiful cards and I can't remember her last name right now. I have to look, hattie Thorne.
Amy Taylor:Have you ever heard of her? Yeah, I think I have. Yeah, she has some beautiful cards and I don't know if she does them herself or if she does AI, but they're gorgeous and I've got a few of her sets. They're not cheap but they're really nice.
Nikki Williams:My current deck of tarot that I use and I don't remember the author, but the current one that I use on a regular basis for reading like it fares is called the Chrysalis Tarot and it's this beautiful overarching theme of transformation and you can see it in the artwork. It's very butterfly inspired.
Nikki Williams:But, it's also uses a lot of, a lot of mythological like in its influences as far as the imagery, different gods and goddesses and from many different mythologies, particularly in the major arcana. It's got, it's, it's just and it's stunningly beautiful. Everybody who's it sounds like oh my gosh, I love your deck. I'm like thank you, I didn't make it Right have you ever made a deck. No, I have no artistic gift whatsoever. When it comes to things like that, I mean just none. I can't draw a circle. It looks like an amoeba with gas.
Amy Taylor:Me either. My sister and my daughter have the most incredible art talents, but it skipped me completely.
Nikki Williams:That's how I am. My sister is an incredible artist and both my girls are wonderful artists, and it already looks like my little granddaughter is quite the gift, but not me. Nope, nope, I got all the other things.
Amy Taylor:I got the musical gifts and the acting gift, but now I can't draw to save my life, you've got a lot of gifts, so you did pretty well. So what would you say to a person that was trying to lean into their own insights and their own? You know what I mean.
Nikki Williams:Yes, yes. The first thing I would say is develop a meditation practice. You don't have to be good at it. Meditation is one of these really cool things that is beneficial, no matter how good you are at it, no matter how long you do it. You can sit down and just do breath work for a couple of minutes a day. And number one it's excellent for stress relief. Number two it's actually healing on multiple levels, including physically.
Amy Taylor:Number three it's also really good for lowering your blood pressure.
Nikki Williams:And number four it opens you up to receiving, to start receiving those messages more clearly. Whether you are clairvoyant or not, clairaudient, clairsentient, whatever it is, you cannot receive these messages, at least in the beginning, with all the noise in your brain constantly going. You've got to find a way to tone it down a little bit. And breath work is great, because what is the one thing that we are always doing? We're breathing. Right, you can live for a couple of weeks without food, a couple of days without water. You can't live for more than a few minutes without oxygen, and that breath is rhythmic. It's something you can always bring your focus to.
Nikki Williams:Now, that doesn't mean just go, I will not think. No, you're going to think, thoughts are going to happen. It's okay. You let them come in and then you let them pass and go. All right, did I leave the stove on? You know what? I'll find out in five minutes, because right now I'm breathing and that feels really good to breathe. And I always tell people to breathe through their nose and out of their mouth and through their nose, because that's your filter and you breathe out of your mouth so you're not exhaling the carbon dioxide to your nose.
Amy Taylor:That makes sense.
Nikki Williams:But your nose is your filter. You're going exhaling the carbon dioxide to your nose that makes sense, but your nose is your filter. You're going to filter the air better that way and then breathing it out through your mouth. Okay, but yeah, and you can do. There's two apps I really like for meditation. One is Calm. It's a good one, but my favorite is called Balance, and they have some fantastic whole programs all the way, for beginners all the way through advanced. They have sleep, different types of sleep meditations. I'm working on a program right now for pain, pain management meditation. I have learned some really good techniques and I teach meditation and I'm like, oh, I didn't even think about that, you know and does it reduce your pain?
Nikki Williams:It what it's, not that it reduces your pain, but it helps you not focus on your pain. So, for example, that's what led me to my love, my really passionate love that I have now of baking which led me to Pampered Chef is when I'm baking. I'm so focused on what I'm doing, baking wise, that I am not in, I'm not stuck in my pain.
Nikki Williams:I get that, so it's kind of like you know how morphine doesn't actually take your pain away, but it makes you not give a flying rip about it. It's not the same feeling, but it's a similar idea. It's a distraction from focus on pain when you are finding something else to focus on. That can really help. Yeah, it's going to be there when you get out of the focus, but I'll take whatever relief I can get till I get my back surgery on first.
Amy Taylor:Oh yeah, that's going to be a blessing.
Nikki Williams:Yes, it really is. I know not very many. Everybody's like I'm so sorry you have to have surgery and I'm like I'm not Cause it's going to help.
Amy Taylor:Yeah, you're like thank thankfully yeah.
Nikki Williams:But it really has helped, um, in the fact that when I found out that I don't have to be stuck in my pain, half the problem with the pain is being so focused on it that you don't, you can't, focus on anything else. Very well, yeah, for me, baking does that for and from, and music does that. When I'm singing, I am in another place, I'm on another plane of. That is the truest form for me of what we call the stillness and the silence, even though it's not literal silence, right? No, I get that. I'm in a place where I am so connected to spirit that it's just flowing. I'm letting it flow through me.
Amy Taylor:Yeah. That's how it is for me listening to music.
Nikki Williams:Yes, yes.
Amy Taylor:I never would have made it through the teenage years without music.
Nikki Williams:And I think that's especially true for people, our age people, those Gen Xers. Our music was our solace and our refuge.
Amy Taylor:Yes, yeah, that's exactly what I would say.
Nikki Williams:It really was. For some people, it's their artwork that puts them in that state. They've actually done studies that show that coloring can put people in a very similar state of consciousness as deep meditation.
Amy Taylor:That's fascinating, and they've got a new type of coloring out. Have you heard about this? No, they have a big picture and you draw the outlines of everything, like maybe it's flowers or whatever, but you don't know what it is until you draw the outlines on the page. That's kind of cool. Yeah, they're on amazon.
Nikki Williams:I saw those and was like that is different I'm always looking for new things because I do like to color and I'm always like you've got to have a creative outlet.
Amy Taylor:I think that is really important for that you can just do without thinking yes, exactly, and that's the point.
Nikki Williams:The point is to get out of the thinking, to get out of your own head, exactly because when you're in your head and you're stuck in there that it's like, ah, you know, and then you can't get in touch with those gifts as well, you can't open yourself up to receiving the messages that you, that are meant for you, because they're not in your brain. I mean, I'm sure they inspire thoughts, they inspire things like that, but it's deeper than that. A soul communication is deeper than a mental type of communication. So when I say, when we say clear seeing, it's not a physical form of seeing, although sometimes it can definitely seem that way. It is spiritual sight which can kind of overlay the physical sight. But you know very well that in the physical 3D reality that's not what your eyeballs are seeing, right? Does that make sense?
Nikki Williams:And the same with hearing, like, I hear the messages, but I know they're not literally talking to me. I'm not actually hearing a person's voice. It is internal, but on a deeper level. Okay, person's voice, it is internal, but on a deeper level.
Amy Taylor:okay, but I, but it puts words to it because I'm just, I'm a very verbal processor, me too, and so oftentimes people are like who are you talking to?
Nikki Williams:I'm like, well, and I don't want to sit there and go. Well, I'm talking to my guides, but I speak out loud to them. You know we carry on conversations how funny.
Amy Taylor:Yeah, my daughter talks to her games all the time and I'll be in the other room and I'll go. Who are you talking to, honey? I think she's on the phone or something.
Nikki Williams:She's like my game my oldest daughter used to talk to her math homework oh, how funny and the other day she was over here grading papers and she was talking to her grading.
Amy Taylor:Oh, wow, that's great that is great, nikki. I have really enjoyed our conversation. I have learned so much oh thank you, I've enjoyed it too.
Nikki Williams:I love this oh great.
Amy Taylor:Is there anything that you'd like to just kind of leave our audience with something you'd like to say as a last kind of leave them with something?
Nikki Williams:I would very much like to say to take a deep breath and let yourself be guided gently by that still small voice, that still small voice inside, to not to just freaking. Stop overthinking everything, because we all do it. There's no place for self-doubt in the world of spiritual gifts. It's not. Self-doubt is not a spiritual gift right, oh that.
Amy Taylor:Oh, that's giving me chills again. That's tight in this conversation.
Nikki Williams:Oh, sweet, sweet, I love it. But yeah, learn to trust that still small voice because it isn't going to lead you wrong.
Amy Taylor:Right.
Nikki Williams:And it does not inspire anxiety. It might inspire a type of fear that's a self-preservation type of fear, like don't walk down that alley right now, but it's not the kind that leads to those weird intrusive type of thoughts we talked about earlier. It's the kind that just goes no, go this way, Take this other way this time.
Nikki Williams:Just kind of directs you. Yeah, it's gentle, it's a gentle type of, and even the alarm system is like now, hey, let's go this way tonight, you know. Hey, maybe you should take that umbrella with you because it makes good webbing. Maybe you should take that umbrella with you. You know what, maybe haul somebody and walk with them. You know, maybe make sure your spare tire is filled with air today. Just check that. You know.
Amy Taylor:I think of all the times I have ignored that inner voice and I need to do that more.
Nikki Williams:And I'm sure there are times when you've ignored that inner voice and you've thought later I wish I would have listened to myself oh yes, yeah, and I know we all have listened to myself yes, yeah, and we all, I know we all have those times.
Nikki Williams:And then I know that we all have those stories where it's like I knew that was coming. I felt that was coming and I'm so glad I didn't. You know, I didn't go that way today, Right, I didn't care about something happening you know later, or I'm so glad that I had to turn around and go get something that I left at home.
Amy Taylor:And you missed the accident.
Nikki Williams:Exactly, exactly, the saving world. Yeah, it really is. And when we listen and we pay attention to those little subtle they're very subtle communications, yeah, it's not going to shout at you and whack you upside the head.
Amy Taylor:On the other hand, if you're supposed to be learning something and you stubbornly don't, it will keep repeating the lesson over and over again and it gets more intense each time, until it hits you with the cosmic two-by-four, because about a month ago I was drawing Oracle cards on a daily basis I'm not kidding, daily basis, like I'm not kidding for like two weeks straight. No matter how I mixed that deck and shuffled it, I kept pulling the oh my, the high priestess, ah. And I was like what am I supposed to be getting from this? And I talked to my friend, you know, or tacy, yeah, yeah. And she said, well, did you get what you're supposed to get from that? And I said no, and she's like that's why you keep pulling it.
Nikki Williams:You have to sit with that. You have to sit with that.
Amy Taylor:Yeah.
Nikki Williams:Let it inspire you, let it reassociate with it for a while. Sit down and, when it comes to the cards, sit down and really focus on the details of the picture, things that stand out that you may not have noticed before, animals that might be in the background, or colors or shapes, or even numbers. Things will show up that you haven't noticed before and those will be important.
Amy Taylor:I'll have to try that. All right, Nikki. Well, thank you again. I really enjoyed you coming on the show today.
Nikki Williams:Oh, I really enjoyed being here and I enjoyed your Pampered Chef Party.
Amy Taylor:You were a great host by the way, that was really fun. Had a great time. It was fun and I will put your information in the show notes so that anybody else who's interested in the Pampered Chef Party can sign up.
Nikki Williams:The Psychic Pampered Chef Party. Yes, I believe you need an oven and air fryer yeah, hey, I got mine coming.
Amy Taylor:I'm excited.
Nikki Williams:I'm excited too. I'm excited too. All right, thank you so much, amy, I've really had fun oh, me too.
Amy Taylor:Hey everyone, it's Amy again just popping in to wrap things up. Wow, wasn't that an incredible chat with Nikki. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. She's got such a fun and unique outlook on the world and I love how she can just roll with anything and everything, from tarot to pampered chef parties. If you're curious about Nikki's work or you want to know more about those cool pampered chef goodies, I'll drop all her info in the show notes. Seriously, you won't want to miss out. Thanks so much for hanging out with us today and if you liked what you heard, be sure to hit that subscribe button and maybe we also review if you're feeling extra generous. Until next time, keep listening to that inner voice and remember a little magic is always possible in your day. Keep advancing, warriors. Thank you.
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