What if surrender isn’t weakness, but the moment your intuition finally speaks? Discover how letting go can open the door to courage, clarity, and a deeper connection with Spirit.
In this episode, I open up about something we all face on the spiritual path — fear, resistance, and the challenge of letting go. You’ll hear the powerful story of my student Kylie, who moved from deep fear of the non-physical world into a moment of surrender that completely transformed her connection with Spirit.
I also share my own raw experience of burnout, and how surrendering in that season taught me what true trust really looks like. Together, we’ll explore how curiosity becomes the bridge to channeling, the difference between surrender and giving up, and a simple practice you can try this week to invite Spirit’s guidance into your everyday life.
If you’ve ever doubted your intuition, tried to control the outcome, or worried that letting go makes you weak, this episode will remind you: surrender is not the end — it’s the beginning. It’s the gateway to clarity, courage, and deeper connection with Spirit.
🌿 Episode Highlights
- How fear and resistance show up when you begin channeling
- Kylie’s transformation from fear to trust
- My personal story of burnout and surrender
- Why curiosity unlocks deeper guidance
- A simple practice to bring Spirit into your daily life
🎧 Support the podcast:
If this episode inspired you, you can help me keep creating and sharing messages from Spirit:
👉 https://www.buzzsprout.com/2411547/support
Hosted by Lisa Brandis—bestselling author, founder of Intuitive Reiki International®, and intuitive channel for Anya—Connecting to Spirit is your sacred space for intuitive insight, energy healing, and soul-led transformation.
With over two decades of experience as a Reiki Master Teacher, channel, and spiritual mentor, I blend grounded wisdom with higher guidance to help you strengthen your intuition, trust your connection to Spirit, and awaken your gifts with confidence.
Each episode invites you to open your heart, raise your vibration, and remember the divine guidance that’s been within you all along. Whether you’re a healer, seeker, or spiritual teacher, you’ll find inspiration, real stories, and practical tools to support your journey of awakening.
💛 Want to go deeper?
Explore my latest courses, live events, and spiritual resources at:
👉 https://www.connectedtospirit.com
🎧 Love the show?
Follow, rate, or share—it helps others reconnect with Spirit and purpose.
📲 Connect with me:
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Episode Transcript
Welcome to Connecting to Spirit.
I am your host, Lisa Brandis,and I'm here to help you unlock
your intuition channel withclarity and deep dive into
self-discovery, all whilenavigating the ups and downs of
personal and spiritual growth.
If you're ready to say goodbyeto self-doubt, embrace your
(00:21):
unique gifts and connect with asupportive community on the same
journey, then you're in theright place.
Whether you're just starting outor you've been walking this path
for years, this podcast is hereto guide you, support you, and
inspire you every step of theway.
So grab a cozy spot, settle in,and let's dive into some
(00:43):
empowering insights together.
Lisa Brandis (00:46):
I am so excited to be here with you today.
In one of my most popularepisodes, I explored the basics
of channeling what it is, whyit's powerful, and how you can
begin.
If you haven't listened to thatepisode yet, I'm going to
suggest you go back becausetoday we are diving even deeper.
(01:10):
We are going to be talking aboutsomething that.
Every single one of my students,and yes, myself too, has had to
face on this path, fear,resistance, and the art of
surrender.
And I'm also going to share twovery real stories with you.
(01:30):
One from my student, Kylie, whohad to overcome her fear of the
non-physical world, and one frommy own journey through burnout,
where spirit reminded me whatunconditional love.
Really looks like both storiesshow us the same truth.
Surrender isn't weakness.
It's the gateway to trust,intuition, and connection with
(01:55):
spirit.
When Kylie first joined my Learnto Channel course, I noticed
something straight away.
She was beautifully open.
She really wanted to be thereand she wanted to soak up
everything.
But like many of my otherstudents, she was also very,
very hard on herself.
(02:17):
She'd been through some personaldifficulties before joining.
So she was looking not just forlearning, but for healing.
She wanted inspiration.
She wanted something that shecould feel passionate about, but
alongside that desire wasresistance and a little bit of
fear of the non-physical world.
And I wanna say this is socommon.
(02:40):
Many of us who are drawn tochanneling both feel the
calling.
And the fear.
So for Kylie, the turning pointfor her came when she shared in
our zoom group about seeing asnake when she tried to connect
with spirit, and she told me shewas terrified.
Snakes were one of her personalfears.
(03:00):
So what happened?
The group held her in absolutelove, and they were in awe of
her courage.
They offered her nothing butsupport, and I know many of them
were feeling the same way.
I explained that often theimages we see can represent our
fears and that the snake wasn'tthere to harm her.
(03:21):
It was actually a symbol of thefear itself, and when we face
those fears, we stop runningfrom them and they simply
dissolve.
I shared with the group andKylie, one of my own matic
meditation experiences I had afew years back where a massive.
Snake came and faced me, and Iliterally had this fear come
(03:45):
through my body and I felt likeit was gonna kill me.
But what it did, I kind ofthought it was gonna swallow me
whole, but I just stood theregoing, well, there's nothing I
could do.
It's bigger than me.
It was so big.
It was like.
The size of a house coming at meand I felt like this tiny little
(04:05):
human, so what could I do?
Really?
I could try fighting this snake,but it kind of reminded me a
little bit of the Harry PotterSnake.
Anyway, you know what, I didnothing.
I basically stayed in thatguided meditation in the space
and instead of destroying me, itkind of.
(04:26):
It, it, it opened its big fangsand its big mouth and swallowed
me up and spat me out into theuniverse.
And in that moment taught methat fear really is false
evidence appearing real.
So by sharing that story, whichis a lot of how I teach,
something shifted for Kylie thatday.
She realised that her fearwasn't worth feeding, so she
(04:49):
simply put it down and insteadof trying, instead of striving.
Taking my advice, she moved intoa state of curiosity.
Now curiosity is the secret keyto opening the door to channel.
Why?
Because curiosity has noexpectation.
It puts us in a learning stateand an allowing state, which is
(05:13):
what needs to happen for us toreceive guidance.
And in that space, Kyliereceived her first profound
message.
She described it as if a doorhad opened, and once she had
that first experience, it justsimply became easier and easier,
and her intuition came throughway more often.
She has grown with confidenceover the years and trusted more
(05:36):
and more and later in hereveryday life.
Something extraordinaryhappened.
So Kylie was at a horse propertywhen a horse got startled and
began galloping wildly aroundthe space.
There were people around,everyone was terrified.
Horses are huge animals, andwhen they're in fear, they can
(05:56):
be very dangerous.
But Kylie walked straight up tothat horse.
She placed her hands on it.
She was a reiki master andconnected with absolute love,
and the horse calmed downinstantly.
People were stunned.
They said, how did you do that?
Weren't you scared?
She became like the horsewhisperer, but she said to me
(06:17):
she wasn't, because she'dalready faced her fears in the
inner world and she'd learntwhat happens when you surrender,
and that moment was spirit inaction, courage, alignment, and
love flowing through her.
Now, I'm not suggesting that yougo and put yourself in unsafe
situations.
(06:38):
And it really was a decision shemade at that time that she
trusted and felt like it was theright thing to do.
Um, and luckily for her, thehorse responded well.
Now let me share one of my ownvivid surrender moments.
Unfortunately, it wasn'tmystical.
It wasn't dramatic in the spiritworld.
It was unfortunately, painfullyhuman.
(07:02):
Years ago, I burnt out in mybusiness.
Here I was teaching happinessand spirituality.
Yet inside, I was falling apart.
I had insomnia.
My emotions were spilling over,and I was so desperate to hold
it all together.
And underneath all of that, Ihad a lot of self-judgment.
Now I wanna say I never judgedanyone else for their struggles.
(07:24):
I always met others withcompassion and love, but to be
honest, for myself, I was alittle harder than I would like
to admit.
And.
I thought I should be stronger.
I thought that I shouldn't needhelp, and one day after a
frantic phone call with myaccountant, she actually said to
me on the phone, Lisa, you needto hang up the phone drive to
(07:49):
your mother's house and ask herfor help, because I was
catastrophising on the phone toher.
So.
I did.
I took her wise advice and sheactually did share with me that
she had experienced somethingsimilar.
So straight away there was nojudgment from her.
So I was able to soften myjudgment for myself.
(08:09):
I drove straight to my mum's.
I broke down sobbing, and shesaid to me, Lisa, you're not a
robot.
It's okay to stop.
And that for me was my moment ofsurrender.
I remember just sobbing in mymum's arms and she gave me a big
hug.
That was my surrender.
It was admitting I wasn'tperfect, admitting I couldn't
(08:33):
keep holding up the image ofalways being the wise, happy,
spiritual teacher..
And do you know what Spiritsshowed me?
That my guide to Anya doesn'tjust love me when I'm radiant
and serene.
She loves me when I'm cranky,when I'm yelling at the kids,
when I'm fighting with myhusband, or even when I'm just
struggling to get through theday.
That is unconditional love.
(08:54):
And here's a beautiful part.
When I finally began sharing myvulnerability with my Reiki
classes, something shiftedinstead of losing respect, which
is what I feared the most, theopposite actually happened.
People began to relate to memore.
They resonated with my humanity.
They offered me love andcompassion in return, and that's
(09:16):
when I realised we don't connectthrough perfection.
We connect through humanity.
So what does this mean for youif you resonated with Kylie's
fear or with my burnout story?
Here's a simple practice to trythis week.
Go for a walk.
Leave your phone behind.
(09:37):
I know it's tough.
Notice the color of the trees,the sound of the birds, the
feeling of the wind on yourskin.
That presence, that groundedawareness is a foundation for
channeling because spirit speaksin the here and now, not in the
frantic noise of the mind.
(09:57):
And you might be wondering, howdo you tell the difference
between surrendering and givingup?
Here's how I see it.
Giving up feels heavy, hopeless,full of despair.
Surrender feels like relief.
It's like opening a window andletting the light rush in.
(10:18):
It feels like love movingtowards you, whether it's
spirit, your guides, or afriend, or in my case, your
mother giving you a hug andsaying it's all gonna be okay.
Surrender opens a door for life.
For spirit, for love, and italways comes.
So as you move through your ownjourney, remember this,
(10:38):
surrender isn't the end, it'sthe beginning.
It's a doorway to trust, tocourage, and to connection with
spirit.
And if you'd like to take thesepractices deeper to meet your
own guides and learn in a safe,supportive way.
I'd love to welcome you into myConnecting to Spirit Bootcamp.
You'll find the links in theshow notes.
(11:00):
Thanks so much for sharing thistime with me today.
Keep trusting, keepsurrendering, and keep
remembering.
You don't have to do it allalone.
Spirit is with you every step ofthe way.
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