Physical and Mental Housekeeping

My spiritual journey is still quite new. In fact, it really only got moving in the past few months. Since that kick-start, I have been compelled to do some pretty unusual things. What's been most interesting to me is to learn after the fact that the "odd" things I had been driven to do are exactly what I should have been doing to ready myself for this sort of spiritual development. So far, the results have been amazing! For those hoping to make room for your own psychic or spiritual growth, here is what I've been up to:


De-Cluttering

This has been both a physical and a mental sort of housekeeping. I wrangled the help of my husband and the two of us began mercilessly combing through our belongings and getting rid of things that were no longer (if they were ever) useful to us. In less than a week, we donated over 100 pounds of clothing, eight paper grocery bags of books, four boxes of household items, and at least two extra-large garbage bags of toys to a local charity. It truly felt as though a weight was lifted or like a dark cloud had moved from over our home.

Something strange happened after we moved out the excess - my mental clarity seemed to sharpen tremendously. I then had the overpowering need to tie up loose ends, to finish anything I had left dangling. I just sort of went with it and tidied up whatever came to mind. Those things varied from the mundane (an art project I started and then abandoned for months) to the extremely important (expressing my gratitude to people who had been tremendously influential to me.)

By the end of a month, I felt like a completely new person. New opportunities and fantastic little sychronistic things started coming into my life like I had simply opened a door and invited them. Perhaps in a way that is what I did.


Purging Physical Impurities

Having been a vegetarian for twenty-two years, I thought I had a pretty good handle on my diet. When I decided to curb my caffeine intake and cut out sugar and junk in early November, I was not prepared for what a drastic change I would feel - for the better!

I am making sure to drink more than enough water each day, keep my vitamins in check, get plenty of sleep, and eat the freshest fruits and vegetables possible. I would almost swear that my cognitive ability has improved as a result.

Grounding and Meditation

Oh, this is a big one. I've paid so much more attention to breathing, releasing tension, and focusing on the positive than I ever have before. Making conscious movements, staying mentally in the moment, and just really being present has made all of life's little stress factors seem insignificant. This has allowed me to notice things that I would normally have let slip by - things that I can only with certainty call "unusual" at this point, but which may have some paranormal significance.

I feel like I have reached some sort of plateau for now, but I am following my instincts and looking for the next turn in the road. Even without a map, I'm sure I will recognize it when I get there.

A Strange Journey of Spiritual Discovery

I don't know about you, but this year has certainly been a memorable one for me! Aside from being incredibly busy with writing and painting (one new book and two complete series of paintings to show for it, too) I have had more than a handful of life-changing moments in 2010 that have left me winded.

What started as a year of routine research and exploration turned into the beginning of a spiritual journey that a I never expected to stumble upon. I had an up-close and personal paranormal encounter that shook my belief system to its core. For weeks, my nerves were raw and my psyche strained to its limits. When I finally processed what I'd been through, I realized that it was just the wake-up call I needed. I was reminded, in a not so subtle way, of what it was that I had been searching for regarding "the other side."

It wasn't the excitement of the paranormal investigations themselves that led me to the field more than twenty years ago. It wasn't the "evidence" or the "proof" I hoped to catch. It was needing to know what happened to all the people I knew and loved after they took their last breath. Ghost-hunting at various historic locations, private homes, and the like was fascinating, but this recent encounter showed me that those avenues of exploring the paranormal were not helping me achieve the closure I needed.

So, what did I do? I gave up all the field investigations to study a new form of spirit communication, the only one so far that has proven to me that there is something truly piercing the veil. Essentially, I have started over. I've wiped my mind clean of everything I thought I knew about the spirit world and I'm looking at it all again for the first time. My focus has sharpened and my priorities are realigned.

What does this mean for you as a friend or a fan? You may see and hear less of me for a while (for a start, I will no longer be appearing on internet radio) but this is only temporary. Precious time is being spent now concentrating on all of the new things I'm learning so that I can share them with you in the near future. Yes, there is a new book in the works, as well as a major new project chronicling this strange journey of spiritual discovery. Because of this, I am traveling more than I ever have before (five new states this past year!) and will continue that pattern during 2011.

I will be appearing at several conferences next year, but that number will be significantly lower than in years past because of new projects.  Rest assured that I am still reachable! If you would like to contact me, you are always welcome to comment here at the Paranormal Paradigm.

I hope to have updates for you as they develop!