Paperback
-
PICK UP IN STORECheck Availability at Nearby Stores
Available within 2 business hours
Related collections and offers
Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781452505404 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Balboa Press |
| Publication date: | 06/06/2012 |
| Pages: | 80 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.19(d) |
Read an Excerpt
Discover Spirit at Any Age
An Awakening into My Spiritual JourneyBy Karen Nash
Balboa Press
Copyright © 2012 Karen NashAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4525-0540-4
Chapter One
I Am Me!
I have always believed that someone or something is watching over us; I just wasn't sure who or what it was. I am also a strong believer in fate, destiny, or whatever you like to call it. One of my favourite sayings is "if it's meant to be, it will be." Everything happens for a reason. The places you visit, the people you meet—there is a reason for it all, and only you will understand why.
I also believe that there is life after death and that when we leave this earthly plane and our physical bodies cease to work, our spirits live on in those we love and those who love us. I am fortunate enough to have been given proof of this.
I am very lucky to have a loving, stable family and to have had a happy upbringing. I am the eldest of three children; I have a younger sister and brother. My mum and dad are still married after nearly forty years. They worked very hard to give us everything we needed, not just the material things—although we had everything we wanted. I also remember lots of hugs and kisses, which we still get. Most of all, they gave us love and the courage to dream and to believe that dreams do come true, especially when you're not looking for them.
I am also very grateful and blessed to have a very loving and hard- working husband who is my best friend and someone who balances me out. He makes me laugh and lifts my spirits when I need it. Together we have two beautiful children who are very spirited and full of energy, hugs, and laughter. They are growing up very quickly into caring and thoughtful individuals.
I classify myself as a "normal," everyday person, though some may disagree. I am me! I'm a wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend. What you see is what you get. I tell it like it is, and that has gotten me into trouble many times. I enjoy socialising and eating—not all that healthily. One of the only types of fruit I eat is raisins, and they are covered in chocolate. I enjoy having the occasional drink. I laugh, I cry, and I love spending time with my family. And I'm guessing you do too.
The point I would like to make is that everyday people can live their dreams, achieve anything they put their minds to, and inspire and bring happiness to others whenever possible.
Don't get me wrong; my life is far from perfect, whatever perfect is. We all have our ups and downs. I feel sad at times, frustrated at times, and angry, too, but I also know there are reasons why I'm feeling that way. The downs make us realise how great the ups are. Generally, I haven't had too much to complain about. I feel very blessed by the people in my life and those who have passed through my life, for teaching me a variety of things. Some are not in my life now, for one reason or another; their purpose may have been to teach me how I don't want to be! But nonetheless, they have taught me something. I haven't had any near-death experiences or any real trauma in my life—for which I am eternally grateful.
I know a lot of people, including me, have thought that they needed to go through some really traumatic experience to be able to connect to spirit. Maybe they thought that if they didn't communicate with spirit when they were children, they wouldn't be able to as they got older. Well, I am living proof that you can connect and communicate.
I believe that more and more people these days are talking about spirituality and are willing to share their strange or unexplainable experiences with others. I think this is fantastic. Everyone has and is entitled to his or her own opinion, and as we are all unique, the feelings we get are personal. That doesn't mean that others haven't had similar experiences themselves. I feel as long as you are open-minded and willing to give yourself the chance of looking at life with different eyes, you will get to experience the wonderful, amazing feelings that are available for all of us to receive. I have been receiving these feelings for a while already and have not even realised it. For me, it doesn't get much better than that.
I believe we meet different people throughout our lives who bring us feelings, emotions, and questions about ourselves; we call these lessons. Such lessons help us grow and find out truths about ourselves. When we look inside ourselves, we often find things we don't like, but these are things to work on. If everything was perfect, we wouldn't grow and become the best people we could possibly be, so don't look at these lessons as challenges. Look at them as promotion to the next stage of personal growth. Be grateful that we can improve ourselves and develop into fantastic, lovable human beings. Be thankful that we look outside the box and are open-minded enough to believe in miracles, bring magic in to our lives, and then, in turn, leave lasting impressions on the people we meet, to assist them in their growth. I am a very positive person and have always been that way; my glass is always half-full. I am stubborn at times (although I never admit that), but
I am a determined person who likes to achieve as much as I possibly can, even if it's only for myself. I am a chatterbox, always have been, and I don't think that will ever change. I am constantly being teased to remember to breathe. If I am especially excited or passionate about something, you'll never shut me up!
I would never force my beliefs on anyone, but if you ask me, I will tell you what I know. I know not everyone believes in an afterlife, and I respect them for that. I understand that some people only see things in a certain way for proof. I feel we all need to be a little sceptical, otherwise we would believe everything everyone told us. I don't believe that's healthy.
We all can learn from one another, and we do every day, whether we realise it or not. Sometimes it's not until we go through something traumatic that we realise the love and support that is around us all the time. We lead very busy lives, and it's hard to find time to connect with the ones we love or even meet new people, but it is down to us and only us to do that. The same applies to doing the things we love—taking time out and treating ourselves; we have to take control of our lives in order to do what we love.
My life has changed in positive ways since I started to open up and discover spirit: the way I see things, hear things, and word things. My belief in and love for myself has returned. For many years of my adult life, I wasn't happy with who I was, the way I looked, or the way I saw myself. People would tell me I was loved, but I really didn't believe it because I didn't love myself. I suffered from rosacea, a condition that affects the skin (adult acne), and I'd had it since giving birth to my son fifteen years earlier. I figured it was something I had to live with, not realising I could get it treated. When I looked at myself in the mirror, all I would see was my red, pimply, infected skin. It was horrible, and I hated it. I couldn't see past it, and it really affected my confidence and self-esteem, since it was not something I had suffered from before.
I knew I was a good person, but this really made me hide away and not show people the real me. It was like I was wearing a mask, and I certainly wasn't being true to myself. After our local doctors' office closed, we had to re-register at another surgery. The doctor asked how he could help me, and I told him we were just there to register; nothing really to complain about. He wheeled his chair over to me and asked again, "How can I help you today?"
I said, "There really isn't anything, but oh, if you like, you can tell me what this is on my face!"
He referred me to a dermatologist, and within weeks, I discovered that I had a treatable condition. It began to clear up straight away with the help of tablets. The difference I felt was immense; my confidence began to return, and I wasn't conscious of the way people looked at me anymore.
I am a perfectionist, and I don't like getting things wrong, so while I was getting into my spirituality it was hard for me to look at myself as someone who needed healing. I knew I needed to let go of things that were in the past and forgive myself instead of beating myself up. I was very self-critical, but I did let go, and I have been working on myself ever since. I now love myself again, even though I would like to shed a few kilos, but I know that is down to me and no one else. I know I can help many people with what I do and that it's not about the way we look on the outside that counts. It's how we act from our hearts—the actions and words that help ourselves and others to live the best possible life ever. We are not on this earthly plane for very long, so our time here should be spent making the most of what we have to make a difference.
Chapter Two
Have I Always Had This Ability?
We are all born with the ability to connect with spirit, but that doesn't mean we all use it. It does come to us, I believe, when we are ready. I'm not saying I've had this gift from a young age, because truly, I cannot recall if I had; but all through my life, I have felt a little different from others. Not really sure why. It was a feeling of being alone, even when you are in a room full of people. I enjoy being around people. I love to make people laugh and feel good about themselves, but I am more than happy to spend time alone. I know now that we are never really alone, but at the time, I didn't realise that! All through my life, I have given advice to others about various things. Different people at different times would come up to me and feel they could chat about anything; somehow, from somewhere, I would be able to help them.
As a young child, I remember playing outside all the time (in the days without computers and mobile phones) with friends and family who lived nearby. I lived in a small village growing up, with no more than thirty houses in the village. There wasn't a lot to do, but we used our imaginations when we played. The village was in the middle of nowhere, and there was a bus only twice a week to the nearest town. Our village was surrounded by fields owned by local farmers, bringing us the lovely, fresh smells of the countryside, the sounds of tractors, cows, and sheep, but it was home.
Opposite our house was what we called "The Green," a flat, grassy area with a mound in the middle of it. It was a place where we played for hours on end. We would run around on it, skip, roll down the mound, and see who could reach the bottom fastest. Off of The Green was "The Holly Bush," next to my granddad's allotment. We would make camps inside, after finding old furniture and dragging it for miles to make it into a home to play in. I remember playing in there one day on my own but feeling like someone was watching me. I didn't actually see anyone there. I felt safe and comforted, and I'm pretty sure I would have been talking to them!
I remember my parents telling me about how I would talk in my sleep. One night they were listening to me talking about six white horses. I've since been told that white horses are very spiritual. I also remember having a very vivid dream on more than one occasion about flying. I would be flying high in the sky and looking down at everything; I felt like I was on top of the world. The feeling of excitement and achievement was immense. At the time, I remember being one of the eldest at our primary school and having been chosen for the lead role in the school play. No wonder I was flying high!
As kids, we would hang out together, ride push bikes, play hide-and-seek, climb trees, and stay out after dark to tell ghost stories, trying to scare ourselves. I don't remember feeling really scared, but at the time, I probably was. We would walk to the churchyard and freak each other out, hiding behind the trees and making each other jump. I was never scared of the dark; in fact, I really enjoy the peace of the night. The moon and stars mesmerise me; I can watch them for hours.
Growing up, every Sunday my sister, my cousins, and I would attend Sunday school. I remember taking a two-pence piece to put in the leprosy box every week. It was a red plastic L-shaped box, and once it was full, the people running the Sunday school would send off the money collected to different countries to help out. If we were lucky enough, we would be chosen to walk around with the red box to collect the money. I remember sitting and listening to stories from the Bible and singing hymns.
As a family, we weren't very religious. We didn't go to church regularly, usually just for weddings, funerals, or christenings. It didn't mean we didn't have beliefs; we just didn't practise it on a regular basis. The best bit about Sundays for me, though, was playing with my cousins, making up dance routines to Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, and whatever other records—yes, vinyl records—we could find. Well, someone had to do it! And Mum's delicious roast dinners.
I remember lots of running around, inside and outside, and plenty of laughing—especially when we dressed up in Mum's clothes and shoes, pretending we were adults, clomping around. My brother came along when I was seven, and when he was around two or three, my sister and I dressed him up in our clothes. Poor thing would be scarred for life. I'm sure somewhere Mum has the photos of it too. But we had a good time, living near our family, next door to my aunt, uncle, and cousins and around the corner from Nan and Granddad's house, where my dad was born. So we could see them whenever we wanted.
There were eight children in my dad's family, Dad being the second youngest, so I had a lot of older cousins. As a young child, I remember playing in my grandparents' house and garden. They had a wooden horse—not the animal kind, a structure used for chopping wood—but we would always climb on it and pretend we were on a real horse. My granddad loved his veggies, and I remember him growing runner beans, peas, cabbages, and onions, and having gooseberry bushes, which I fell into on more than one occasion! He even had an allotment; there were plum trees and potatoes, which I remember helping my dad dig up. I would also help Nan to shell peas and slice the runner beans. She would always cook enough to feed an army. Well, I suppose having ten in the family, it was the norm for her.
Life was simple; we had great home-grown food, toys to play with, and clothes to wear. Some were hand-me-downs, some Mum made or Nan knitted, and we have photos of those too—especially our lovely purple-and-grey school uniform. The memories I have from that time are wonderful: no worries or cares in the world. Just as it should be for a child. I am very grateful for that. That's not to say I don't remember arguing with my sister, cousins, and friends, as we do when we start to grow up and discover our boundaries. I also felt grumpy at times when I didn't get my way or when I was getting told off, which I really hated. I remember laughing when my dad was telling us off, and we would get told off for laughing too! But on the whole, my childhood was great.
We lived only about twenty minutes away from my mum's side of the family too, so I was lucky enough to see them regularly. My mum is the youngest in her family. She has three older brothers. I remember our house always being full of family and friends, always with something going on. I loved the birthdays, Christmas, and Easter; we always ended up with lots of presents, Easter eggs, and chocolate, and always love and laughter.
Chapter Three
Lots of Things through My Life Have Been Spiritual. I Just Hadn't Realised It!
Some of my older cousins and friends had had readings with clairvoyants, but for one reason or another, I never got around to it until much later. I have always had a fascination with paranormal shows, and my mum always read the horoscopes. I loved to watch Most Haunted, and Lisa Williams and John Edward's shows on television and was amazed at what I saw. I always wished I could do what they did, and I would say this out loud while watching them. Little did I realise I was already setting my intention to do this, never thinking it would be a possibility.
I wanted to see Lisa Williams and John Edward in a live show, to see if they were as good in person as they were on television. I've been fortunate enough to see them both in live shows, and it was a great experience on both counts. They were exactly what you see on the television, very genuine people whose messages helped viewers a great deal. They are such an inspiration to me.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Discover Spirit at Any Age by Karen Nash Copyright © 2012 by Karen Nash. Excerpted by permission of Balboa Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Preface....................xiAcknowledgements....................xiii
Introduction....................xv
1. I Am Me!....................1
2. Have I Always Had This Ability?....................6
3. Lots of Things through My Life Have Been Spiritual. I Just Hadn't Realised It!....................11
4. They Are Only a Whisper Away....................17
5. A New Life....................22
6. Opening Up....................28
7. Experiences During Healing Sessions....................36
8. The next chapter on my journey....................42
9. Really Connecting with My Guides and the Angels....................51
10. You're Never Too Old....................56
Conclusion....................59
About the Author....................61
Resources....................63