I can look at the absolutely tangled, jumbled mess of a necklace’s chain, and with my fingers pull the string this way and that until–voila! The necklace is untangled and returned to full glory so you can wear it proudly again.
Where I untangled a knot…
Just a couple of years ago, a one-time gig employer had a massive floor of costumes and a necklace she irritatedly swore up and down “had been tangled for ten years.” No less than seven minutes later, the necklace was gleaming in the light, dangling from my finger completely untangled. Her jaw dropped. “Do you mind if I bring you back to my house to fix the rest of my necklaces?”
How editing is like untangling knots
It looks at the big picture while also diving into the details to make sure everything is aligned and correct in your content. Editing takes what’s there, makes a few adjustments, offers suggestions, and smooths out the errors. In the end, you have your beautiful, compelling, and kink-free content ready to be presented to the world. And you’ll feel pretty confident putting it out there too, knowing that it’s exactly how it’s meant to show up!
Just like untangling a necklace or a knot, editing is a precise art.
I just love taking piece of writing and making it truly sing by untangling the knots, smoothing the clunky language, and polishing it up. I can get lost in the best way while working with words. Honing in on the message, stripping away the unnecessary, and correcting any unsightly spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors… All while maintaining your true voice and making sure the message shines through without any discrediting or unprofessional distractions.
And sometimes while untangling something, you have to work with what you can hardly see… And that’s where my intuitive skills come in to help fill the gaps between what’s not on the page and what should (or shouldn’t) be.
Untangling text is my specialty.
Many of my previous colleagues and employers can attest to what I do. A few keep me on speed dial for when they need a final proof since they know I deliver impeccable editorial feedback time and time again. Like the lady whose necklace I fixed, they wanted to keep me on standby for their projects that need editing. I’m honored to be their go-to proofing person, and I love having on-going relationships with clients so I can get to know their style and so the knots get easier to spot and smooth out as we work together.
It’s such a delight when I get a message that says, “Hey Mikael, can you proof this for me please?” Because that tells me that they trust me, love my feedback, and value my contribution to their work–and that’s the best feeling in the world.
Plus, the clarifying process of editing and proofreading is my absolute favorite way to help people. It’s within my zone of genius, and I’m stoked to offer my skills in this way… It’s one of the core reasons The Intuitive Editor was born!
Do you need an eagle-eyed proofreader or insightful editor to help untangle the knots of your content or your book?
Did you know that each of us has a team of spirit guides working with us from the ethers? Because we do, and it’s magical.
Whether you want to choose to be aware of or meet them, they are always working with us. It helps when you actively ask for their help. They are always conspiring on your behalf for your highest and best good and the experiences and lessons you’re here to learn from.
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye. shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
Matthew 7:7-8, KJV The Bible
Their help may show up as thoughtful nudges, reminders, synchronicities, conversations that spark something, inspiration to watch a certain show or read a certain book, or when you think you might be picking up on another voice in your head that doesn’t quite sound like yours but maybe offers warnings or other promptings.
All those kinds of things that line up in at just the right time are often because of their involvement.
How I met my spirit guides
I first met my guides back in 2015, and they came roaring onto the scene when I started working with my intuitive coach. My main guide came to me in my sleep in one of those “sleep paralysis” moments. Freaked me out a little bit until I heard him say, “I’m here for you!” He’s one of my main protectors, obviously.
It took some piecing together of his highly unusual name before I realized his name was one that had come to me years before during a writing project (the one I’ve been working on again lately!). I had named my beta fish in college with his name. Goes to show how it stuck with me through the years, even if I didn’t know where it came from!
Then, as if in a line, I discovered I had about 6-7 guides working with me at any given time, though four seem to be the most prominent since I’ve gotten acquainted with them. “The Core Four” as they call themselves.
So, who are your guides?
Your guides might be people you’ve known before in previous lives. They might be beings you’ve never met before. They are spirits that have a soul contract to help you from the behind the scenes in this life for you. Odds are, you’ve been a guide for them at some point in another life.
In fact, you may have guides that show up for only certain periods of your life. Some guides are on a rotation or only come to help you during a set time in your life (teenage years, maybe?).
And yes, we are surrounded by souls and spirits at all times. Not all of them are ghosts… These particular spirits that have contracts as your guides are here to help you!
These are souls who love you unconditionally and want to protect you, guide you, and care for you from the ethers. No need to be afraid of them.
How can you connect with your spirit guides?
There are different ways you can connect with your spirit guides.
~ Meditate or do breath work before asking for their help or protection.
~ You can also simply ask, “What would you have me know? What would you have me do?” Trust the first thing that comes to you that’s peaceful and loving.
(Though some can get sassy too, depending on their character… I’ll never forget when one of them yelled, “Go get some! … Then come back!”)
~ Figure out a symbol that means something to you, and ask your guides to show it to you when you’re on the right track. This could be anything! For me, shiny face-up pennies work. Also, certain animals sometimes reflect different guides, messages, or loved ones who have passed on.
There is one particular way that is quite fun and it’s super easy to do every day as I check in with them for any guidance or pointers.
I call it the Spirit Shuffle.
At its simplest, I call on my guides to offer insights, guidance, and anything I might need to know for the day… through song. And then I hit the shuffle button on my entire music library and see what song(s) come up. It’s often so eerie when the songs perfectly align, uplift me at a time I need it, or give me tough love.
I always love playing Spirit Shuffle with my guides, and I do it most days of the week as a regular check in with them. It’s one of the most fun ways to connect with my spirits guides. When something is fun, I’m in!
The songs that play are often are so aligned with where I’m at, and it’s great way for them to pick songs with either titles or lyrics that I most need to hear.
Pay attention if any particular lyrics stick out!
You can also learn your spirit guides individual characters in the Spirit Shuffle. One of my guides is a hopeless romantic, so I almost always know when he’s chosen the song since he’s been a recurring past life love.
Presently my guides are being cheeky and playing songs back to back that say “When we’re human (again)” and it’s hilarious!
Sometimes they just remind me that they are there for me whenever I need them, that they love me, and even that is comforting. To know that I have a spiritual team at my side always. Highly recommend!
A message from my guides to you!
So… Here’s what I’ve done for us today. I asked my guides to present me a song that can help us through the autumn, since today marks the autumnal equinox!
Here’s the song they played for me:
That’s Amore! by Dean Martin (though specifically the one from Enchanted that James Marsden sings)
What this song makes me think of are simple moments that are much bigger and brighter when they are enjoyed with love. The enjoyment of little moments. Recognizing that as the connecting piece of us all… Love. Love can be seen in the moon, in the stars, when you dance, and in practically anything if you let it.
Also, “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore!” clearly was talking about the full moon in Pisces we just had.
So, this fall, spirit wants us to remember to find joy and love in the little things that make us smile. To return to seeing love in all things—because that’s truly what connects us all. It’s also a reminder that when we look at the world through a lens of love, everything is a little bit brighter. Seek enjoyment however you can this fall. It’s not an easy time in the world, but when we focus more on the love and enjoyment of moments, it gets easier. What you focus on expands, so focus on loving the moments in between everything else.
What you focus on expands, so focus on loving the moments in between everything else.
I love the alignment of this message.
When I first started The Intuitive Editor, I had the inspiration to have my regular newsletter be called the Joy Challenge. It contains prompts each week to lean into and savor little moments that hopefully inspire you to bring more joy into your life. That joy, enjoyment, and love are all intertwined, and how these elements further spark your creativity and guide your intuition.
If you want in, join the list at theintuitiveeditor.com to receive these promptings and nudges to find moments to return to your joy.
If you feel inspired to play the Spirit Shuffle game with your guides, I’d love to hear how it goes!
In case you’re wondering who is behind The Intuitive Editor, look no further.
My name is Mikael (pronounced Mih-kehl, she/her), and I am the editor & writer behind this purple curtain.
And I cannot wait to help you make your content shine. Whether it’s a book, a website, articles or blogs, your resume or cover letters, I’ve literally done it all! With more than 12 years under my belt as a professional writer and editor, I have a plethora of experience writing and editing that spans a number of industries and styles.
Not only that, but I’ve spent the last six years honing my intuitive abilities since they came roaring onto the scene with my Saturn return—my most attuned psychic abilities include clairvoyance (clear seeing), clairsentience (clear feeling), and claircognizance (clear knowing).
This means I can see straight into the heart of the matter and channel what’s there—whether its your business, book, or message—so we can strip away what’s unnecessary, clarify what’s there for more impact, and proof & polish it all to how it’s best meant to serve you and your audience.
With the technical editorial experience combined with crystal clear intuitive insights, I help you to elevate your writing to new heights while also offering suggestions to further improve your writing skills. And because I enjoy this work so much, I aim to make it an enjoyable experience for you as an author too. (I, too, am a writer and understand how scary it can be to hire an editor in the first place.)
What matters is that I help your words shine through in your own voice so you can make the impact that you desire to make and reach the people that resonate most with your message. I’m here to help make your writing sing with confidence & heart while also keeping away those distracting grammar/punctuation/spelling mistakes that make you look unprofessional.
Your words are what represent you… And I can help you to make them sparkle and shine from the inside out. Let’s talk.
Did you know the Universe is trying to communicate with you all the time? All. The. Time.
You just have to pay attention and stay curious.
While I came out of the spiritual closet a few years back, sometimes I still end up having to tell people some strange things. Or, things that I don’t think are strange, but other people may think are strange.
I’ve gotten really quite open with talking about the fact that I get messages from the Universe on a constant basis.
Seeing feathers on the street delight me. I giggle at seeing hair bands littering the ground. Getting messages and songs from my angels to know what I most need to know in the moment. The Universe tells me things. Sometimes a baby or toddler communicates with me with zero words. Dead people talk to me in my dreams (sometimes while I’m awake). This is just scraping the icing off the cake…
Specifically, I am an empathic medium (or channel) with claircognizance (clear knowing) and clairsentience (clear feeling) very much alive and working in my sphere. This means I can also tap into people’s energies and guides to see what’s going on with them, or if they have messages waiting for them in the spirit realm.
When it comes to my editing work, I get impulses about what needs to be changed for that narration to be just right. Like I can feel what the author meant but maybe couldn’t find the word or phrase for.
There have been a gamut of reactions from people, from intrigue, shock, confusion, belief, disbelief, excitement… I worry about freaking people out sometimes, but most of the time, people seem to react at least positively, if not politely or curiously. Sometimes I say something and I’m met with silence, then I move onto safer topics. Usually I can judge when someone isn’t open to hearing about my intuitive hits.
To be honest, I see this “talent” as just connecting the dots of the Universe and finding the magic in every day, in every little thing.
Some people say magic doesn’t exist, and I beg to differ. I see it every day.
I don’t expect everyone to understand; I feel lucky just to have the wonderful group of magic makers that do understand.
For me, I don’t believe in hiding who I really am. It was jarring at first, but I’ve learned that this is a huge piece of who I am. Intuitive, powerful, and magical. And I aim to bring that magic to all the work I do.
You can take me as I am, or move onto the next normal person; because I know I’m not normal, and that’s perfectly perfect.
I’m going to leave you with a message from my own guides:
Shine on. Every little bit that makes up who you are is that way for a reason. You’ve got something special in you.
Embrace your own magic, no matter what anyone else thinks. Create what your soul commands you create. Create art you love through your life. Create the life you want, every minute of every day. You’re worth it.
My grandmother used to sit with me when I was very little, and she’d read me stories before bed—or even at my insistent request.
I knew very quickly that I wanted to be able to read them for myself.
One day, she started reading to me The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. It didn’t have pictures, but I was enraptured nonetheless. I remember looking at the page, filled with so many words I hadn’t seen before, astounded I could still see what was happening in my mind as my grandma told me the story (my clairvoyance working for me and clearly wanting to play).
After that fateful moment, I declared to myself that I was going to learn to read this book. I was spellbound by the words and the story, and I needed to know how to read them. And I was determined to show her that I could read it by myself.
At the tender age of four, I ran to my grandmother, grabbed her hand, and said, “Grandma, grandma, come here! I want to show you something!”
And I began to read that very same book to her like she had read it to me. I finished reading the first page out loud to her before I looked up and saw tears in her eyes. I knew they were good tears. And thus began my love of books and stories. Especially those that contained a bit of magic, adventure, and fantasy.
From a love of reading grew a love of writing stories. From writing stories, my writing abilities grew and grew. From writing and gaining professional writing experience grew another skill that I would later discover is one of my absolute favorite ways to help people: editing. Making writing better. Making stories come to life. To make them shine.
Hi there, lovely reader… I have a story on my heart I want to share with you today.
I remember asking as a young child, wandering around in a brick church with a white steeple, “Why isn’t there a picture of God?”
I remember going from room to room, looking at each of the paintings and artwork, pausing always in front of the framed images of Jesus Christ and wondering…
If he’s God’s son sent to earth, then why isn’t there a picture of God here too?
I wanted so much to understand what God looked like, that He was the one who made all things possible. He who we were made in the image and likeness of. If we were made in his likeness, why can’t we see Him?
“Mikael, stop being so difficult,” I was told when I asked for the third time.
“Why isn’t there a picture of God here?”
When I stopped to imagine what I feel God might look like, all I felt was a cosmic cloud. He didn’t look like anyone I knew, but His presence was felt more than anything.
As a grown adult now, I know that I can see and find God everywhere. To quote one of my very favorite musicals:
“To love another person is to see the face of God.” – Les Miserables
With that in mind, I’ll tell you another story from church around this same time period.
I was in primary class, probably no more than 4 years old, and the teacher asked us, “What are things we must do every day?” We had to act out the action or activity in front of the class. Kids got up and acted out showering, eating, praying, dressing, and other basic day-to-day activities.
Of all the things to come into my head, the movie in my mind showed me Beauty and the Beast. The part right after the Beast has transformed back into a human, and Belle approaches him and finally sees him for who he is. The love that shines in her eyes upon seeing him as himself. The gesture of Belle’s hand running through his hair in a caring caress is what stood out. Loving someone. Yes, I thought, that’s something we need to do every day. I felt so excited to share what had come to me.
When it came to be my turn, I stood up, all excited that I found something so wonderful to remind everyone of. As close as I could replicate from the movie, I mimicked Belle’s hand gesture through my own hair and did my best to put a loving expression on my face like hers.
“Yes, Mikael, we must comb our hair every day!” the teacher exclaimed, kind of exasperatedly as another kid had already acted out grooming.
Immediately, I shook my head and said, “No.” That is not what I meant. Instead, I threw myself even further into the action hoping someone else, anyone else even among the kids, would recognize that I was imitating Belle loving the Beast. I think I even tried to act it out with another kid, touching their hair and looking in their eyes like Belle had to the prince.
For some reason, that was the only action I could think of to express what I felt was important for us to do every day.
We needed to LOVE every day.
Why couldn’t they see that? What was I doing wrong? Couldn’t they see that I was acting out a scene? Couldn’t they see the expression of love on my face? How could I make them see?
No one ended up understanding, and I was told to sit down to let someone else have a turn. And no one else acted out what I was trying to say, but I felt it was so important that it was said. However, I don’t remember saying anything to the primary teacher after, instead feeling ashamed and defeated that I couldn’t communicate what I yearned to express. I remember feeling stupid because no one could understand me. That my message hadn’t been clear. Like I had done something wrong.
That’s why there was no picture of God in the church halls I went to years and years ago. Because, at the heart of it all, God is the highest expression of love. And love shows up everywhere.
The essence of God—or however you wish to name a greater power—is with us all of the time and can be seen in a rosebud, a friendly face, a sunrise, a book or movie, family, friends, significant others, or anything that stirs anything within us. God lives within us all as the love and light that created us all. God simply wants to experience love through us in our human bodies.
God is there, even if we can’t see. What matters is that we believe in the highest frequency and vibration of all—love. That’s what God is. That’s where God resides. And that’s all found within you too. Because we were made in His likeness, our core, too, is love.
If you believe in Love, then there is no higher power than that.
I have a question niggling my noggin, lovely reader.
It also happens to be President’s Day in the USA, and I know it’s been a week (or… a long time more) of questioning the humanity and morals of what it means to be a representative of those living in America. So, perhaps this question is timely…
What defines you?
Admittedly, the source of how that question came up was due to an indulgent watch of Confessions of a Shopaholic—which, while quite corny, has a couple of one-liners that I had to jot down to myself to remember. Like, “Cost and worth are two very different things.”
Ever get a feeling or nudge to watch or read something in particular, even if it’s something you’ve already seen or read? I get that all the time, and I certainly love to listen to that nudge since I’ve come to trust it to know that I’m going to get something out of it this time that’s perfectly relevant to something going on in my life. A message is in it that I need to receive. Apparently, Confessions was my source this time…
This time, “What defines you?” stood out as I finished up the film.
Is it your career or creative projects? Your skills or talents? Your family? Your house? Your money or belongings? Or perhaps it’s something less concrete, less what you do, and more like who you are being?
Now I’m going to pull out another movie quote (like I always do), though its source is a book… See if you can guess which movie it is:
“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
And I think that’s an important distinction to make.
We get to choose what we do with our lives. We get to choose what we do with our money. We get to choose what we say or not say, do or not do. We get to choose how we respond to what life throws at us. We get to choose what we think and how we think.
In the end, our choices will distinguish and define us more than almost anything else.
So I pose these questions to you as they are the questions I’m asking myself…
Are your thoughts and choices reflecting what matters most to you? Are you choosing to respond to life in a way that reflects your values? And at the end of the day, are you proud of who you are being?
Growing up, I was often labeled as “the girl who sings in the bathroom” and “the walking sweet tooth.” I love singing and I love sweets—those are just small pieces of who I am and not the whole picture by any means. It’s how other people perceived me and these were the labels I liked best since they made me laugh while also being true. However, I’m not defined by these monikers.
Since I’m presently taking a break from social media, I find myself in yet another moment of checking in with myself, taking space to redefine (if necessary) and rewrite unhelpful beliefs, practices, and behaviors into something more constructive and more aligned with who I am. It’s easy to get distracted and far too easy to fall into what other people expect from you and the endless competition/comparison trap that comes with the endless scrolling. I don’t try to compete with anyone but myself, and in the last few years, I haven’t felt like sharing.
Only now am I beginning to crack open my process again to share with you.
It’s very fun to learn and peel back more layers of who I naturally am (especially thanks to Human Design for that). In getting to know more of myself, I’m learning who I want to be moving forward with that intel. In recognizing the kind of person I want to be and how I naturally operate, I can choose to better align with that vision (for example, like someone who loves to exercise regularly for health and wellness since I miss doing that, and I’m definitely doing better in that regard and feeling better because of it too—win!).
Right now, I’m choosing to get to know myself better and to follow what I feel guided to do, and it may not always be what’s “expected” from me. Trusting my intuition and instincts to know what the next right step is. And sharing this letter with you is part of it. So thank you for being here! <3
Ultimately, I’m learning that I’m defined by no one but myself, and my definition is in constant evolution—and that feels exciting. Like there’s always something new to discover, explore, integrate, or even release. Nothing wrong with a work in progress!
Just as I love to uncover more layers, I love to further understand the people and the world around me. I find we are all reflections of each other to some degree. We all have something to learn, and sometimes what we most need to discover about ourselves comes to us through other people (just like I find nuggets in rewatching movies as I feel inspired to).
So, perhaps in each other, we can also find a little more definition and purpose.
And (hopefully) definitely more love and compassion. We really need that these days.
What have you learned about yourself lately? I’d love to know!
