When I left my corporate job in 2017, I didn’t realize I was walking away from far more than a paycheck. I was walking away from a version of myself that had learned to survive by ignoring every whisper of intuition, every ache of exhaustion, every sign that something wasn’t right. I had become so accustomed to performing, to pleasing, to over-delivering, that I couldn’t hear my own soul anymore.
By the time I quit, I was spiritually and emotionally bankrupt, drowning in shame and guilt for having stayed in a place that had drained the light right out of me. I remember lying on my yoga mat every morning, shaking with quiet grief and asking my spirit guides the same question: Please, help me never lose myself like that again.
For months, I practiced yoga and meditation daily. I would spend ninety minutes stretching and sweating before sinking into stillness. In that stillness, I began to feel something move, not outside of me, but within me. At first it was just a warmth, a flicker behind my eyes. Then one morning, I saw a bright sphere of light in my mind’s eye. It shimmered softly, pulsing with presence. When I asked who or what it was, a single word appeared: BE.
From then on, I spoke to BE every morning. I don’t remember every conversation, but I remember the feeling, like a deep, knowing calm that wrapped itself around my spirit. That was when I first realized that the Universe doesn’t always speak in words. Sometimes it hums through the body. Sometimes it paints pictures across your mind. Sometimes it sends a shimmer of peace so strong you can’t help but listen.
That’s where my journey of learning to listen began. But it wasn’t until I entered recovery that I understood just how much listening really mattered.
When the World Got Loud
When I got sober, something inside me shifted. I began to feel the world again, every sound, every vibration, every ripple of energy that passed through a room. Television became too loud. Two people talking at once made my whole body buzz. At first, I thought something was wrong with me. But soon I realized that I was tuning back in, not just to the world around me, but to the energetic realm as well.
I was hearing both the 3D and the 5D. I could sense conversations happening in spirit as clearly as those happening in the room. And when I paused and asked, What is that about? I usually got an answer. Sometimes it was a whisper. Sometimes it was a knowing. Always, it was an invitation to trust.
That’s what recovery has taught me more than anything, to trust the unseen, to believe that the Universe is conspiring in my favor even when it speaks softly, and to stop needing proof before I allow myself to believe.
The Witch’s Steps to Recovery remind us that each step is an act of reclamation, reclaiming intuition, reclaiming trust, reclaiming the sacred conversation between self and spirit. For me, that reclamation often arrives through signs and synchronicities. The trick is learning to notice them before they have to shout.
The Bee
This past weekend, I was reminded what happens when I notice and what could if I don’t.
I was sitting in a small-town coffee shop in northern Ohio, waiting for the barista to finish with a drive-through customer, when I noticed what I thought was a fly. It buzzed lazily near the pastry case, then circled back around my head. I realized it wasn’t a fly at all, it was a bee. In a coffee shop. In October.
That alone felt like a message.
I watched it hover for a moment, thinking how odd it was to see a bee indoors this late in the season. I took it as a simple curiosity and moved on. A few minutes later, after getting my coffee and heading down the block to meet a friend, another bee swooped right past my face, so close I could have swallowed it.
That was no coincidence.
I paused, took a breath, and asked the bee what message it had for me. What I heard was clear and immediate: Be careful. Be aware. Stay safe on your trip today.
I thanked the bee and continued on my way, but I’ll admit I didn’t know how relevant that bee was at that moment. The day unfolded fine, but there were a few moments where caution would have served me better, times when my body whispered pause and I didn’t. The bee was trying to teach me to listen to the small warnings, not just the big ones. (I can’t count the number of turns I missed on one hand that day!)
Sometimes the Universe doesn’t send lightning bolts. Sometimes it sends wings.
The Duck
Later that day, my friend and I found ourselves in a metaphysical shop in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The woman behind the counter told us we had to meet their psychic that day because she was “going to love your book.” My friend laughed, she already knew her, and soon we were in the back room meeting this beautiful, grounded woman surrounded by tools and crystals.
What caught my eye immediately were the ducks.
Seven of them in all, some carved from stone, some crystal, one a bright yellow rubber duck. I couldn’t help but ask about them. She smiled and told me her story, how her dear friends had hidden hundreds of ducks around her home, a symbol of playfulness and connection that turned into a ritual of joy.
As she spoke, I felt a familiar tug in my heart. Only a few weeks before, I had bought a tiny duck during another leg of my book tour, no reason, just felt called. A week later, someone gifted me another duck at a pagan event. Both now sit on my altar.
Before that, I’d never owned a single duck in my life.
In that moment, I knew this was no accident. Spirit was affirming that this woman and I were kindred souls. The ducks were confirmation of alignment, signs that the threads of our paths were meant to cross.
We hugged when we parted, promising to stay in touch. I left the shop smiling, reminded that synchronicity often feels like déjà vu with a pulse. The ducks showed me that Spirit doesn’t just warn, it delights. It weaves joy and connection into the journey if we’re open to seeing it.
The Deer
The night ended hours later, the road home dark and lined with endless fields of corn. My friend and I were deep in conversation, talking about fear, about stepping into visibility, about the sacred terror of being seen. Spirit was moving through the car, and I could feel it. I sensed her fear, her hesitation to fully offer her gifts to her community because of they may “not be welcomed”.
And then, in the headlights ahead of us, a deer leapt across the road.
Everything stopped.
Time stretched into silence as I guided the car smoothly around it. The deer looked right at us before bounding safely into the dark. My friend and I sat in awe for a long moment before either of us spoke.
I felt the message instantly: She is protected.
The deer was Spirit’s way of showing that fear doesn’t prevent danger, trust does. The Universe was affirming that when we move with awareness and grace, even what looks like danger can pass us by without harm.
The deer became a symbol of divine reassurance, a gentle reminder that not every leap in the dark is a threat. Some are blessings disguised as tests of faith.
Listening as Recovery
Each of these animals carried a different frequency of the same lesson: Listen.
The bee warned me to pay attention to small signs before they become big ones. The duck reminded me that alignment often shows up as delight. The deer reaffirmed that trust is stronger than fear.
Together, they revealed something deeper, that recovery itself is an act of listening.
When I entered recovery, I learned to quiet the noise, to pause before reacting, to make space for messages that aren’t always spoken in words. Stillness became my teacher. Listening became my ritual. Birdsong replaced the background hum of chaos, and I started to hear the Universe in everything, the wind, the tarot, the way my body leaned toward truth.
The Witch’s Steps to Recovery teach that healing happens in three sacred movements: surrender, awareness, and transmutation.
Surrender is the stillness that allows us to hear. We can’t receive guidance if our minds are louder than Spirit.
Awareness is learning to discern what’s being said, to feel the difference between fear and intuition, projection and truth.
Transmutation is the act of trusting what we’ve heard, of turning knowledge into embodied wisdom.
The more I practice these steps, the more fluent I become in the language of the Universe. It’s not always clear at first, sometimes it’s a symbol, a pattern, a whisper, but over time I’ve learned that everything that happens carries meaning. Even silence is a message. Even confusion is a teacher.
The Universe Speaks in Subtle Ways
If recovery has taught me anything, it’s that the Universe rarely yells. It doesn’t need to. It will send gentle nudges again and again until we finally look up and listen. And when we do, we realize it’s been guiding us all along.
That’s why strengthening psychic sensitivity matters, not as a performance or a label, but as a way of being in conversation with life. These gifts are not random. They are sacred tools for navigating the path of recovery, for building trust in ourselves, and for walking in partnership with the Divine.
So when the next sign comes, a song that repeats on the radio, a number that follows you all day, a feather on your doorstep, pause. Don’t rush past it. Ask, What are you showing me?
You might not get the answer right away. You might only feel a shimmer, a knowing, or a peace that feels like a breath from somewhere ancient. But if you keep asking, if you keep listening, the Universe will always find a way to answer.
Because it’s never not speaking. It’s just waiting for you to notice.
Love and magick in recovery,
Sunshine
About Sunshine
Sunshine is a Psychic Medium, Soul Healer, Reiki Master, High Priestess and the pink-haired trailblazer behind The Sober Witch Life movement and founder of the Sovereign Phoenix. As a recovering alcoholic and spiritual mentor, she helps witches in recovery rediscover their magick and align with their highest purpose.
Join the Sober Witch Life Movement at SoberWitch.life
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Join Witches in Recovery at the Awakening Hope New Orleans Retreat: March 2026
Get her book Sober Witch Life: A Magickal Guide to Recovery
