Finding Inner Peace

Disclosure

I have a Guardian Angel. It’s true. I’d call myself “crazy” except there was a witness. It was back in 1994 when I met her. A blustery snow storm in South Carolina on my way back to Florida after a visit with my mom. My toddler and infant in the back seat, my husband next to me as I drove the Honda Civic slowly along the Interstate very much aware of the road conditions.Slowly, I turned the wheel to move into the lane that had more impressed tire tracks. It was a mistake. The car rebelled and we began to spin. I saw traffic behind me in the rear-view mirror as we rotated on the highway. Then I saw a concrete slab quickly approaching my side of the car as we slid sideways into the median. We spun several more times and then stopped. Resting on the shoulder of the Interstate, facing the direction we needed to go, with the engine still on.

My heart was pounding. We had spun with such force that the cassette tape we were listening to ejected itself from the player and was found UNDER my toddler’s car seat. My husband and I got out to assess the damage to the car. There was NOTHING wrong. There were no scrapes, no scratches, no dents or dings. As we stood there on the shoulder, looking at the car with our jaws a jar, my husband said, “What happened to the traffic?”

We were one of many cars on that Interstate. There were MANY cars behind us when I elected to change lanes. We hadn’t seen any of them and now the road was barren of vehicles. It was just us.

I glanced across the Interstate and a maroon Jeep Cherokee was stopped. The lights were on and a woman was standing behind the Jeep. The wind was blowing. Just like she was standing next to us she said, “You’ll find a rest stop just past this overpass. Follow me and we’ll stop there.”

My husband said, “Let’s get in the car and we’ll follow that lady to the rest stop.”

We blinked, literally, and she and the Jeep were gone!

My husband got behind the wheel and we passed under the overpass and saw the rest stop. We pulled in and calmed our nerves. We looked for the Jeep, the woman, but as quickly as she had appeared, they had disappeared!

That was the day I met my Guardian Angel. My husband saw her and heard her just like me.

Throughout my life there have been moments that have touched me. Too many instances where I’ve just “known” not to do something or “seen” something about to happen. I’m a believer.

Recently, I read the book, Spirited by Rebecca Rosen, published by Harper Collins, which talks exactly about the “things” I have experienced in my life. About the Guardian Angel, the “knowing”, the gut feelings. She validated them all. She also gave me hope, helped me heal and gave me a direction to a better me.

You may have seen Rebecca Rosen on Dateline where she talked about being a “Psychic Medium” and how she’s truly just a “normal” person. The interview really did a great job of projecting the youthful and down-to-earth Rosen that comes through the pages of her book. It was like sitting down to visit with a life-long girlfriend every time I sat down to read Spirited!

Throughout the book, Rosen shares her own life experiences. It really made me like her. My favorite story was how she met her husband. Her dead grandmother, Babe, foretold of her meeting with her future-husband. It was the sort of thing you find in fairy tales.

I diligently set out to do every exercise in this book, to experience “Spirit”. I appreciated the fact that it wasn’t centered on religion, but on the power within myself. As the mom to six kiddos, I found it challenging to sometimes find 5-minutes of quiet time to “let go” in the meditations. This was sometimes discouraging, but I kept at it.

By page 152, I was feeling like a champion, if only because by this point in the book, I was getting creative with my 5-minute meditation time. This page, this chapter “Tap the Source” talks about Guardian Angels.

“Our Spirit Guides come and go, but our Guardian Angel is with us for life…Angels respond to our calls for guidance, assistance, protection, and comfort.”

Hey! That was JUST when MY Guardian Angel appeared.” Like, Rosen, I’ve only seen mine once, but it was enough to make me believe!

Rosen also opens up to the trials in her life and how she has had to work diligently to overcome them and find herself. She talks about her struggle with her parent’s divorce, how it spiraled her into eating while sleep-walking and a 40 pound weight gain. Her openness is admirable and made me feel like Rebecca Rosen was just like me and so many others.

As I read this book, I discovered it was truly a path to healing more than anything. It focused on forgiveness and setting goals and finding the path to make your life what you want it to be.

One of my favorite “A-ha!” moments in this book in on page 126. It’s in a chapter titled “Put Your Past In Your Past”. It’s a letter from a client, who gave birth to twins…one born alive and one stillborn. The one born alive had poorly developed lungs and passed away, 30-minutes after birth in the mother’s arms. I won’t give away the entire story, but it was a touching moment that made me realize I harbor a lot of baggage and need to stop carrying it around and start living!

The book is grounded by Rosen’s work and interactions with “spirits” (those who’ve passed on before us), but it is also a journey. She shares meditation exercises and provides a workbook throughout the chapters to “unload” the heavy things in life that weigh us down. I found these a valuable resource in helping me get started in my journey.

Some of the exercises are meditations, while other require thought and writing. The Chapter, “What’s Your Damage?” was borderline brutal for me to complete. I had to be honest with myself. The exercise is the most extensive in the book. Your task is to “take inventory” of your life. Identify the difference between Healthy and Toxic People and Experiences in your life. Let’s face it, we all have these. Now that I have identified the toxic in my life I can start the path to make my relationship healthy and discard the ones that are toxic to me.

There is another chapter dedicated to “Letting Go of Your Baggage”. This one was written just for me. It was important to me to give each exercise my all. This chapter was very difficult for me and I realize I have a lot of baggage. It was detailed and caused me to search deep within me. I cried a lot over things in my past. Rosen stepped up to the plate again and comforted me through-out the chapter. She knew right where I was prepared to abandon the exercise. She encouraged me and said, ‘Open your mind, drop your baggage at the door and invite in the new you.” It wasn’t easy, but once I did it, I felt much lighter.

This book was more of a self-help book for me. It really provided a tool box of how to put my past behind me, accept what lies ahead and live in the present. On page 134 Rosen explained it to perfectly when she wrote:

“Being present means fully embracing the right here, right now. When we stay focus on the now, our lives will unfold in perfect time.”

Whether you believe in a higher entity or that spirits surround us, I recommend reading Rebecca Rosen’s Spirited. I’m willing to bet the person who started the book, will be a much more awakened individual by the end of the book.

Are you ready to open your mind and meet the new you?

The Prize: “Spirited” book by Rebecca Rosen

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