Sunday, August 10, 2014

The Man Who Prayed Away Hurricanes


Many of you know that my eighty five year old dad recently took a bad fall. Off I went to Florida from my home in Virginia to be with dad and my sister.

On the way down I connected with my dad' s soul. My sister told me that he was in and out of awareness. I felt that dad was spending some time going back and forth between this side and the other side, and was having to choose between staying and going.

I tried to think of anything that might make dad think he had any unfinished business. I told him that the house was taken care of. I told him that Darlene and I would take up the mantle of praying away hurricanes (yes he was quite gifted in that).

I told him that whatever he decided was fine with us.

Dad always prayed blessings on us each time we talked and he usually said the same exact words:

You are crowned with God's glory and honor and every earthly blessing. You are surrounded with goodness and mercy. You are blessed in every way.


I said the blessing over him and gave him a kiss.

Who knows. Maybe he is not yet ready to give up the mantle of praying away hurricanes. He is a man who has fought death and won many times over.

What is your legacy?

When you come to the end of your life, what will people say about you? You may not pray away hurricanes. Maybe you are a really great mom. Maybe you are an amazing cook.

When we come to the time in our life when death comes calling, it will not matter how many likes your Facebook page had or who you knew or how much was in your bank account. What will matter is how many people you touched with love.




Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Day Six... This Book Changed My Life!

If you are just beginning to read my blog, the whole month of August I am  participating in a blog challenge from Amethyst Mahoney and her group .. Spiritual Badasses.. You can find a link for it HERE.

Every day she sends a suggested topic, and we can choose whether to blog about the suggested topic or come up with one of our own. So far I have pretty much stayed on topic.

Today's topic is books. What books inspire me, or I can share about my books and why someone should want to read them.

Let's start with books that inspire me.

I have a very  long relationship with books. When I was small, my mother was always challenged to find me another book to read. I read all the time. I read instead of going outside to play. Looking back, I am pretty sure I was an adult in a child's body.
 One of the things she did was sign up for Reader's Digest Book of the Month. Usually the book that came had an abridged version of three or four books. I read them all.

Of course, being brought up Born Again Christian, the Bible was always a book I dutifully read. Over and over. Even the boring parts.

But there was one book that completely changed my life.

Here is a short version of what happened. (you can find the longer version HERE.)

I was attending a Charismatic Born Again Church. There was a woman in the church who did "inner healing." I began to go to her on a semi-regular basis. This woman was amazing. She used some really unorthodox methods for her practices. We did regressions, we did anger therapy, we did dream therapy. She would assign me books to read. Some of the books were Christian, and some not so much.

Are you chomping at the bit yet to find out what book changed my life? Not yet? Okay. A little more information.

Okay, so, one of the books she assigned me to read was Louise Hay's You Can Heal Your Life.


Link HERE

This is it. This is the book that changed my life.

If I was stranded on a desert island with only one book, this is the one I would take with me.

Why? Because if you believe everything in this book, you will find a way off that island.

At first my little born again Christian brain did not fully latch on to all the principles in this book. I was a slow learner. I had to chew on some of the principles. But now this is my Bible. I have given away more copies of this book than any other book, other than the ones I have written myself.

Okay, so here is the fun part of this story.

I was dirt poor. Yes, I worked at the Post Office. However, due to some REALLY  bad decisions, I never had any money. My bills were always late. So I would go down to the local Books a Million and go to the Self Help section of the store and pull a book down that looked good and sit there on one of their very comfortable chairs and read the book, and then put it back.

Guess what happened.

Eventually things changed.

Now I am writing my own books.

I guess my point to this story is that if you want to change bad enough, there is a way to do it.

Yes, I could have used today's theme to plug my own book. (okay, so if you are really interested, HERE
is a link. I think my books are amazing!)

But what I really want you to do is look within yourself and ask your soul, what do YOU need? If you need to read some messages from Spirit, or you want to read an AMAZING story of how this super conservative Born Again Christian began to receive messages from the Spirit world and how she overcame her prejudices and upbringing to finally answer the call, then you need to read MY book..

But if you need healing in your soul, or you need to find out why that nasty cold just won't go away, or why you keep having car accidents, then you need to read YOU CAN HEAL YOUR LIFE. If you need to overcome shame, then I recommend HEALING THE SHAME THAT BINDS YOU by John Bradshaw.

Here is my recommendation. Go to the bookstore. This might be hard if you shop online, but maybe not. Stand in front of the SELF HELP section or the METAPHYSICAL section or even the SPIRITUALITY section. Then just look and see what jumps out at you. I have had books actually jump off the shelf and land on the floor in front of me. Talk about a message from Spirit.

Your life will change. 
When you change your mind, you change your life.






Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Day Five.. the Bucket List



This morning I got up at my usual 5 a.m. to get ready for my day, and I wanted to glance at the suggested topic for the day so that while I was working at my part time job at the Post Office I could contemplate how I would approach today's blog.

So there were two suggested topics... one was... talk about your bucket list.. what do you just HAVE to do before you kick the bucket? ... and ... the other one was... what is on your vision board?

Well, since I don't have a vision board... Yikes!! did I just admit that to the world.. that I, a spiritual seeker, teacher, messenger for Spirit... I, who have actually taught a class on vision boards.. don't have a vision board?

Oh so I guess I am stuck with the other topic... what is on my bucket list?

Several years ago when I found myself in transition from a life that revolved around my chosen branch of organized religion and also in transition from my first husband, I actually did come up with a bucket list. On my list was everything that I had been taught all my life was a sin or at least not allowed.. or not a good idea if you were to present yourself to the world as a Christian.

So...

I got a tattoo.
I got multiple piercings in my ears.
I got severely, tremendously, laying on the sidewalk outside of my girlfriend's apartment drunk.
I got intimate with someone that I was not married to...
I attended a new age church.
I got a reading from a psychic.

These things, although now looking back, are very mild and bordering on boring, were life changing for me.

I will admit that there were a couple of things on my bucket list I never got around to...

I never did smoke marajuana.
I never made it to Sedona Arizona.

THAT'S IT? YOU SAY? THAT IS ALL YOU HAVE EVER WANTED TO DO?

No, I wouldn't say that.

But the other stuff I have always wanted to do or see or visit I am either doing now or have done.

I love that I am doing my spiritual work and helping others on a regular basis. When someone says to me, "your words changed my life, (which, by the way, or not my words, just words given to me by Spirit.. I am a pretty good repeater), that makes my heart leap for joy!

I love teaching classes on various spiritual subjects.

I love meeting new people in all kinds of various places and under different circumstances.

I love learning about various belief systems and adding them to the cosmic soup I live by.

So, you ask me, have you added anything to your list?

Hmmm.. I think I would still like to visit Sedona Arizona some day.

I would like to meet a real, honest to goodness shaman in some remote tribe somewhere sometime. 

My husband says that when I visit Sedona or I meet a real shaman that I may be disappointed. Sometimes the fantasy is better than the real thing.

He said that also about our recent trip to the Mayan ruins. 

I guess you could say visiting the Mayan ruins was on my bucket list. I had a picture on my refrigerator for, oh, about seven years or so. This year we went. 



No I was not disappointed. It was amazing. Spirit gave us the best tour guide. He was incredible! We went with a tour group called Go Mexico..(I highly recommend them!) He was telling us to feel the vibrations of the pyramids and talking about energy and stuff like that. ..hmm.. come to think of it, maybe he was the shaman I have been wanting to meet. Shamans come in regular people's clothing now....

Is it time to update my bucket list? I don't know. I am pretty content with my life. Sure I would like to one day leave the Post Office and just do my spiritual stuff for a living. But whether or not that ever happens... I am content. Life is good.

What is on your bucket list? I would love to hear from you! Feel free to comment and share!



Monday, August 4, 2014

Day Four.. I Am Awesome and So Are YOU!

It's day four of the Spiritual Badass 30 Day Blog Challenge and today's topic is... what makes me awesome?

As a lifetime member of Low Self Esteem Anonymous, I could probably write a book on this topic.

Here is an excerpt from my recently released book that describes my perception that even as a young child I was not even good enough for God:

There are two parables that Jesus told that my mom used to read to me
over and over from my Bible story book. It was my favorite book and I
wanted it read to me every night.
They are the parables of the lost coins and the lost sheep. In the first
parable, Jesus tells of a man who has one hundred sheep and one gets
loose and runs away. He leaves the remaining ninety nine sheep in the pen
while he goes to look for the one that ran away. I did not connect with the
sheep that ran away but with the others who were safe in the pen. In my
mind, Jesus rejected the ones who stayed in the pen for the one who was
lost. The story of the lost coin is the same. The owner of the coins is more
concerned with finding the coin that was lost than the other coins which
were safe in his home. The story goes that when the lost coin and the lost
sheep were found, the owners had great celebrations over finding that
which was lost. I was never lost and no one celebrated me. I was just one
of the ones who stayed safe.

As you can see, I have a long relationship with low self esteem. When as a young child you believe that even Jesus has rejected you, you better believe that it is one of those issues that rears its ugly head more than once.

How did I overcome my years of berating myself and believing that I was "less than" everyone else?

 A couple of years ago I was getting ready to see a client who had expressed interest in connecting with her brother on the other side. Although I had gained a good bit of confidence in hearing messages from Angels and Guides, I did not have confidence in the area of mediumship. Since this woman was a fairly good friend of mine, I did not feel uncomfortable expressing this lack of confidence to her. She would not be deterred, however, so the day before she was to come to see me, I sat with Spirit and this is the message I received:

"The only thing that is holding you back from communicating with those on the other side is the belief that you cannot do it. You have been talking to those on the other side for years. You just don't see yourself as a medium."

My assignment from Spirit was that I was to say to myself out loud and inside my  head all day until she came, "I am a confident medium. I am a medium. I am a medium."

My friend came and we had a wonderful session! I described her brother perfectly and was able to answer some questions she had for him. That was the day I took on the mantle of medium. Up until that day I considered myself a messenger from Spirit. I guess I was just intimidated by the term "medium." I wasn't sure if I qualified. I wasn't sure if I had taken enough classes or maybe I needed some sort of certificate that said, "you are a medium."

No. What makes a person a medium or anything else is that when people come to you for help they leave better than they came. Those you serve are the ones who validate you. Not a certificate on the wall, not a list of who you have studied with, not all of those titles or initials after your name. 



My lifelong battle with non-awesomeness has finally been laid to rest.

So what makes me awesome?

I think what makes me awesome is not that I can communicate with the dead or that I can read the tarot or that I can retrieve lost soul pieces through the shamanic healing technique of "soul retrieval." What makes me awesome is that I have compassion for those who are hurting and whatever I can do to be of service, that is what I want to do.

What makes you awesome?


Are you an amazing cook, or an amazing mom, or an amazing marathon runner? 

Whatever gives you joy and makes you want to wake up in the morning, that is one part of why you are awesome! 

But you are awesome just because you are you! It doesn't matter what so and so thinks about you or whether or not you burned dinner for the tenth time. It doesn't matter whether or not you came in last for the marathon, what matters is that you were so awesome you ran it!

The difference between winners and losers is that when winners fall down, they get back up. A hundred times. 

Just for today, remember that YOU ARE AWESOME!

I would love for you to comment on this blog and tell me what is awesome about YOU!!




Sunday, August 3, 2014

Day Two and Three of the 30 Day Blog Challenge!

Yes, I missed writing my blog yesterday for the 30 Day Blog Challenge.

For those of you just tuning in, I have joined a 30 day blog challenge from Amethyst Mahoney and her Spiritual Badass group which you can find a link to HERE. I joined this group because in it I found a spiritual group of entrepreneurs and seekers that are very accepting and interesting! Not only have I learned some stuff, but I have found acceptance and camaraderie from an ecclectic group of people from all over the world!

Yesterday's suggested topic was this: how does spirituality fit into your business or life?

My answer is this: I am not sure how to really separate who I am spiritually to who I am as a wife, mother, grandmother, employee, and entrepreneur.

We are all souls living in a physical body. What we choose to do while we are living in our bodies is totally up to us, but every breath we take, every flower we observe, every step we take, everything we think, do, see, observe, or feel is a part of our spirituality.


 I believe that every thought we think is a prayer. We must really watch what we are thinking, because the Universe hears every thought and takes it as a request.


 



Remember when we were children? The thought of danger or fear really did not exist until our parents or loved ones instilled in us the idea that some things were not a good idea.

This is good when it comes to: don't touch a hot stove, or don't go out into deep water until you learn to swim, but eventually more intangible fears were instilled in us. 

We spend the next twenty or thirty years or even more unlearning some of those fears we were taught, either intentionally or unintentionally by our loved ones.

This is what I mean by: every thought we think is a prayer.

And so, now I really want to shake up some of those beliefs. What about the food we eat? If we have a belief or we have been taught that a certain food or drink is not good for us, then that thought makes that food unhealthy for us! Oh this is really going to shake up our thoughts about food and what we think about food.

If we really are spiritual beings living in physical bodies, then it stands to reason that EVERYTHING we do is a spiritual activity. If every thought we think is a prayer, then if you are thinking that a certain food or drink is not good for you, you are actually creating the reality of that belief!

It is a proven fact that there are Buddhist monks who have gone for extended periods of time with  no food or water and have not been affected physically. Some of them have lived for months with no real nourishment, only meditation and connection with Spirit. There is also that passage in the Bible where Jesus said," it is not what goes into your body that makes you unclean. It is what comes out of you that makes you unclean. From within your heart come all sorts of emotions, good and bad. These are the things that make you unclean, not what you put in your body."

My intention is to really pay attention to everything in my life, and enjoy it all. If something does not give me joy, whether it is something that I choose to eat or not to eat, or whether it is a television show that gives me the creeps versus one that makes me feel good, that is my inner compass to tell me whether or not it is good for me.


Remember that you are the master of your life! Never allow someone else to take your power away or tell you that you can't be spiritual if you eat this food or watch this television show. Every breath you take is a spiritual experience and you are the only one who can decide what gives you joy and what make your skin crawl. Let that inner guidance direct you. 

As always, I would love to hear your comments! I am always available for private sessions. You can contact me through my website HERE.


Blessings to you on your path!

Friday, August 1, 2014

30 Day Blog Challenge!

Hi there, fellow seekers of spirituality in all its forms!

I am so excited to be participating in a 30 day blog challenge! The challenge is to write and share a blog here and then share it with your own followers as well as on the blog share site. I will be participating in this challenge, although I am  not sure I will be able to post a blog every day. I am going to give it my best shot, however!

I will be sharing blogs from fellow bloggers as well! This is going to be a great opportunity to meet people from all over and read and share thoughts from many different perspectives! I am so excited to be participating!

For those of you who are new to my blog, my name is Joy Andreasen and I have been blogging for about five years. It all started one day when my husband convinced me to accompany him to a paranormal event, where there happened to be a psychic there by the name of Susan Lynne. The words this woman spoke to me changed my life. I had been hearing messages from Spirit for many years, but at some point in my past had decided that God was mad at me and no longer speaking to me. Or was I mad at Him?  She convinced me that despite the fact that I had left the church that I had been attending and turned off the voice of Spirit, that I still had a link to the other side and that Spirit wished to use me to convey spiritual messages. She urged me to begin a blog as a medium for sharing the messages I received.

Now, five years and two books later, I am still blogging. No I am not an expert. I still get up and go to work every day at the Post Office. Sure, I dream of one day making a living doing my spiritual work so that I am not bound to getting up every morning at 5am, but so far that has not happened.  I have three grandchildren who continually inspire and challenge me. I have spent the past few years studying every spiritual possibility that comes across my path, with a particular interest in shamanism. I also get messages from the deceased, and have studied with various teachers to hone that gift as well.

 When I am not blogging, working at the Post Office, babysitting grandchildren, writing books or blogs, teaching classes on various spiritual subjects, giving readings, or talking to the dead, I like to run (outside preferably), do almost anything outside: hiking, flower gardening, sitting by my pond, or even mowing grass! Oh yes, and in my spare time (lol) I have found time to become a wedding officiant for the states of Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland. It is such a joy to participate in the sacred time when a new chapter of life begins for couples in love!

My latest book, just released, is my story of how I finally found my path after growing up a Born Again Christian. No, I do not bash Christianity in my book, or even the church that inspired me to begin to look elsewhere for my spirituality. I believe that everything we experience is a gift and a teacher.

I am currently offering a free one card tarot reading with the purchase of my book. I originally offered it to the first ten who purchased my book, but, it has been fun so I am going to keep doing it for awhile until it is no longer fun! You can purchase my book here.

Over the next thirty days, I will be sharing my perspective on a variety of subjects. I will also be sharing others' blogs who are participating in the challenge. I hope that I can get to know lots of new people this way and that we can all share this wild, wonderful ride together!