Part of my safe space.

One of the most valuable lessons I learned in San Francisco was from Michelle Belanger. I knew about visualization exercises to calm frayed nerves or to create a shield from bad energy, but I had never been taught to build my own spiritual safety space in such an easy-to-follow manner. Maybe it’s because Michelle and I naturally get along, but I do think she’s a natural teacher and has the ability to help a lot of people. I want to pass along some of the things she taught me but then take it a step further and add some exercises that I’ve taught myself and also learned from my mentor, Nellie Kampmann.

Let’s first begin by talking about what is a safe spiritual space. In simple terms, it’s a place of your own design where you may access it through visualization and relaxation techniques and nobody may enter the space without your permission. Nobody living and nobody in spirit. It’s your space to control as you please. It’s your space to be quiet and think out your problems, seek spiritual answers, calm the affects of physical pain, or anything else you might need from a space of your own design. This, I’ve found, is the cornerstone of any successful meditation experience as well as preparing for and decompressing after a paranormal experience. So if you’re an investigator, it may be important for you to learn these techniques to protect yourself spiritually from energies or entities that you may not realize are there. This can also help build your defenses against psychic vampires – people who seem to suck the life out of you at an abnormal rate whether they are trying to do do or not.

So what you want to do is first find comfortable position. It doesn’t matter where or what position, just as long as your body is able to relax to a degree. First you want to begin by closing your eyes and taking slow, deep breaths. I’m an anxious person by nature, so this step takes me longer than others. There is no time limit. Focus on your breathing. Let yourself experience the rhythm of breath in your body, how it fills your limbs with life, and feel your lungs filling and deflating with each breath. As you feel your body beginning to relax, take further deep breaths. Each breath pulls you further under a warm blanket of comfort and further into your spiritual self. The noise of the tangible world fades away with each breath.

Your awareness will sink into a void if you haven’t built your safe space yet. For some people, the void is white shapeless space. For others, it may be black shapeless space. Begin laying out a small space around your spiritual self that makes you feel comfortable. You can design it to your heart’s content but don’t get too specific at first. Are you indoors? Keep the space manageable and small, like a room. Place each wall with your mind. Some people will reach out with a hand in the vision to place walls or objects. That’s okay too. Anything that gets the job done is okay. What’s on the walls? Paint? Wallpaper? This is your space – it’s all your choice, but be increasingly deliberate in putting it together in your meditative state. Are you outdoors? Decide whether you’re more comfortable in daylight or at night. Shape your land, place the grass, dirt, trees, and even water if you choose. As you get more comfortable with your space, indoors or outdoors, you can begin being more specific with the details and placing objects that make you feel at home. Spend as much time as you need building your space and make it your own. Remember that you can add, detract or change your space at any time, so you don’t have to get too absorbed in details right now. Just declare it as your own at put enough into it that makes you comfortable.

You will need a doorway in your space. This is a doorway completely under your control and nobody can get in unless you allow it. This doorway can have any appearance you choose as well. Supposing your space is outdoors, perhaps you could establish a wrought iron gate on the edge of your property, or a pool of water where souls may come and go, or trees that make a doorway shape, or anything else to your heart’s content. Supposing your space is indoors, simply install a door in one of the walls. You may add a few windows as well but don’t worry too much about what’s beyond your space. It should just be a void out there.

Now comes taking security measures. Use your spirit body to move around the perimeter of your space. Some people feel their spirit bodies are just like physical bodies while others tend to float along without a body – just a consciousness. Whatever is most comfortable for you is fine. Move around the perimeter touching things and announcing that nothing is allowed to invade your space without your consent. Create your energy boundaries by visualizing golden light or any means necessary to establish your space. If you have windows and a door, go through the process of unlocking and re-locking them while announcing your intent that this space belongs to you. Feel the locks in your hands. Or feel the warmth of the protective light as you lay it out around your spiritual home. Bottom line is you’re marking your territory and making your intentions known to the spirit world. Once you’ve completed the loop around your space and locked everything that can be locked, then your space is your own. Occasionally, if you feel insecure, you may go around and repeat this process of reestablishing your spiritual boundaries.

At this point, you will need to come out of the meditative state if it’s your first time in your new space. You don’t want to do too much too fast. Get to know your space when you have quiet time and you will start to find yourself feeling calmer and more centered progressively each day (if you meditate daily). 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.

In the next blog, I’ll teach you how to use your safe spiritual space to strengthen your inner self so that those who mean you harm or diminish your self-worth. You can use your internal spiritual space to find your own power. I’ll teach you the exercises this week.