In the blog I posted on Sunday (read it here), I passed along to you what Michelle Belanger taught me about creating a safe spiritual space. You need to have mastered the directions in that blog before you can attempt the directions in this blog. They are directly connected and this one is a little more advanced. The lesson in this blog was something I learned several years ago. I don’t remember exactly where I learned it but it has evolved over the years into something tailored to fit my needs. You can take what I’ve learned and play with it until you’ve tailored it into something that fits your needs. That’s the beautiful thing about following an individual spiritual path.

Defending yourself against problems in the physical world.

There is always that person. You know the one. This person seems to have everything together and they know it, so they tend to belittle people around them, especially you. It feels like your energy gets sucked dry whenever you’re around them and you begin to doubt your self-worth. If that person gives the appearance of having everything, yet nobody sees what that person really is, then what are you doing wrong? There must be something inherently wrong with you, right?

Wrong.

You can’t change anything about how people feel about you or what they think of you, so now is the time to stop approaching such problems that way. You can only change how you cope with it and how you apply the lessons of negativity hurled at you into your own life. The beginning is establishing defenses for yourself that have a lot to do with refusing to give those people power over you. It’s not as simple as saying, “You have no power over me,” because we all say that but most of us still let people control our self-perceptions. It begins with the desire to maintain your own power and ends with mastering that power.

Let’s begin by finding your comfortable position. We went over this in the last blog. You don’t need to lie down or anything – just get comfortable enough that you can relax. Focus on your breathing. Inhale slowly and exhale slowly, feeling the breath pass through all of your limbs and giving you life. Eventually as you relax, use your breaths to pull yourself away from the physical world and down into the safe spiritual place you already created. The surroundings are familiar and comfortable. You know your space as well as you know your own body and soul. It’s an extension of your consciousness. Nothing can touch you here.

Once you are acclimated to your spiritual space again, it’s time to get to work. Visualize that person giving you trouble right in front of you, whether it’s a physical representation or a photograph or painting. It may not even be a person. It may be an idea or a problem that has too much control over your self-perception. Whatever the problem or person is, you’ve got to get a visual representation established. Now visualize the negative things binding you to that entity – person or not. Use colored cords or pieces of fabric to represent different emotions. In my case, I use thin colored pieces of rope that are tied to the entity and tied to me. Black is hatred. Blue is sorrow. Green is jealousy. Yellow is control over self-worth. It goes on from there into any negative emotion brought to you by that person, thing or idea. These are my colors but your colors may come out differently. On the positive side, choose pleasing colors for good, selfless emotions like love, peace, healing, kindness, etc. Visualize yourself all tangled up in both the good and the bad with the thing giving you trouble.

Now materialize some kind of destructive tool in your hand. This could be scissors, a sword, a Bowie knife, a blowtorch, or anything else that will cut through those cords. Be deliberate as you untangle yourself from the troublesome thing. Cut through each negative cord while announcing your intentions: “Person/Thing/Idea no longer has the power to make me feel [insert negative emotion here]. I cut all negative ties and leave behind only love, generosity and healing.” Repeat that phrase or one like it for each negative cord. Words are not enough though. You have to put every ounce of yourself into feeling the release of each cord being freed of your body and freeing you of negativity through the process. It’s not about changing that person, thing or idea. It’s about changing how you react to the negativity it brings to you. As you cut the cords away, you’re cutting all negative ties. That means teaching yourself to react only with positive emotions no matter what might happen in the future. This is a continuing process meant to help you evolve yourself. Again, it’s not about changing outside circumstances. It’s about strengthening your own defenses and bringing more positive light to you that will help you in all areas of your life. Once the last negative cords are cut away, remind yourself that negative emotion is poison to the soul. You will not get along with everyone you meet but you can choose to react with love rather than hate. You may not immediately see the affects of love vs hate but it does have a rippling impact.

When you feel a greater sense of peace, you will notice a sensation of being lighter as well. You may begin to return to the physical world at this point. Use the same method we talked about in the last blog. Coming out of it is the opposite of going into it. Focus on your breathing again and with each exhale, feel yourself rising up to the physical world. Start to hear the sounds around you, become aware of where you’re sitting, etc. Sometimes it can take a little longer to reconnect with the physical world, sort of like waking up from a long nap, so let your body re-acclimate slowly. Move around where you’re sitting, stretch your arms and legs, and so forth. You’ll feel more relaxed after you’re finished.

Defending yourself against problems in the spirit world.

This exercise is probably more pertinent to those more experienced in spiritual matters, or those who go on paranormal investigations. I would never advise people to go into or come out of paranormal experiences without some measure of preparation and fortification within yourself. Here’s how I do it. You can adapt the visualizations to be anything that makes sense to your own spiritual self.

Just like before, let’s begin by finding your comfortable position. We went over this in the last blog. You don’t need to lie down or anything – just get comfortable enough that you can relax. Focus on your breathing. Inhale slowly and exhale slowly, feeling the breath pass through all of your limbs and giving you life. Eventually as you relax, use your breaths to pull yourself away from the physical world and down into the safe spiritual place you already created. The surroundings are familiar and comfortable. You know your space as well as you know your own body and soul. It’s an extension of your consciousness. Nothing can touch you here.

If you’re preparing for a paranormal experience you want to establish your bubble – your personal space around both the spirit body and the physical body. The goal is to have deliberate visualizations of yourself being enveloped or covered in some sort of barrier that tells you and anything around you that this is my personal space and you can’t invade it without my consent. For me, I stand in the middle of my space established in the first blog and I visualize different thin silk veils descending from above to cover my limbs like a second skin. They are different shades of blue and purple. As I’m establishing this personal space to be carried throughout the pending paranormal experience, I’m reminding myself that I’m a strong spiritual being and nothing can harm me. The silk veils snake around my body, my arms, my legs, my hands, my feet, my head, etc., until I feel secure. Many, many people go for the standard of bathing themselves in white light and that works just as well but I’ve always had trouble visualizing white light so I tried other things. I also know people who visualize the process of putting on armor – like actual medieval armor – and that works very well for them too. As a medium, I tend to prefer thinner barriers that will keep me safe but allow me to communicate with my surroundings as well. Whatever you use, take the barriers with you as you return to the physical world and emerge from the meditation.

If you’re decompressing after a paranormal experience like an investigation, you want to get into your safe space and go through the opposite process. For me, this entails, the visualization of pulling off each silk veil. You may notice stuff clinging to whatever you’re removing from your spirit body or you may notice a dingy tinge to the white light. Don’t be alarmed if you see weird things like that because it means your barrier picked up extra energy in your experience, whether it was from spirits or the angst of living people around you. It’s very important to brush off anything that shouldn’t be there. You don’t want to carry the angst and problems from other entities with you, living or not, because it will build up and weigh you down in time. Sometimes I visualize water cleansing away anything foreign that my personal bubble acquired along the way and that works pretty well too.

Just like before, when you feel a greater sense of peace, you will notice a sensation of being lighter as well. You may begin to return to the physical world at this point. Use the same method we talked about in the last blog. Coming out of it is the opposite of going into it. Focus on your breathing again and with each exhale, feel yourself rising up to the physical world. Start to hear the sounds around you, become aware of where you’re sitting, etc. Sometimes it can take a little longer to reconnect with the physical world, sort of like waking up from a long nap, so let your body re-acclimate slowly. Move around where you’re sitting, stretch your arms and legs, and so forth. You’ll feel more relaxed after you’re finished.

Hint: if you’re having trouble shaking off a negative encounter, spirit or living, go take an actual shower. The mind has trained itself to view a shower as washing away filth. It’s easy to apply that to anything else that needs to be washed away too. (This hint credited to Michelle Belanger.)

In the next blog, we’ll talk about the way you can use your spiritual safe space to alleviate physical pain and illness.