Spiritual Living

By Katie A. Nelson

What is the difference between a spirit and a ghost? Where are the signs I keep asking for? What's a spirit guide? Why are some people just straight awful?

Getting straight to the heart of it, this book is written in an easy to read, easy to understand, and easy to apply manner. It covers the very basics of the soul, the other side, and psychic senses. As a psychic medium, I'm asked many of the same questions, and off of that, I wrote this book. Questions like:

What is the meaning of life? What psychic gift do I have and how do I use it? Why can't I get ahead in life? Why do I keep getting sick with the same thing?

My wish is that from channeling my own spirit team and from my own life lessons, and the leassons of those closest to me, that this book points you in your right direction to living a loving, free, and adventurous life.

Enjoy and Blessed Be

xxx

• Language: English
• Publisher: Katie A. Nelson
• Release date: May 31, 2016
• ISBN: 9780692729786

Book preview

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my family; past, present, and future.

To my relatives of the past, even though I may not know you, or your names, I thank you. I thank you for laying the foundation that would become my life. Without you, I would not be here and neither would this book.

To my present family, I thank you.

To my mother, that supported me even though she may not have understood it all. You taught me how to be true to myself, and that it’s okay to walk your own path, even if you do it alone. You also taught me that just because life gets hard doesn’t mean you give up. You taught me to keep fighting because there is always a light in the dark, if you are willing to fight for it. You also taught me to take chances and trust in myself. That, if I follow my heart, I will never be let down. Most importantly, you taught me how to be the best mother I could be.

To my grandmother, I thank you. You taught me to be strong and honest while also having fun. After all, what’s the point of living if you can’t have fun? You have showed me how to keep the young spirit in us all, alive. I thank you for always being there for me. I thank you for your honesty, and I thank you for your unconditional love.

To my (step) father and grandfather, I thank you. You both taught me that while all men are created equal they are not all the same, and that I cannot judge one person for the actions of another. You both showed me what it truly means to have a father that loves you, and that holds you up when you feel you are falling. It is because of the two of you that I found the courage to fall in love with my husband.

To my husband, I thank you. I wholeheartedly don’t know what I would do without you, and I never want to imagine a life where you are not with me. You have been my strength, my rock, my heart, and my Universe. I would gladly live a thousand lives with you.

To my mother in law, Julie, I thank you. You have taught me that there are strong women in the world no matter what life throws at them. You have taught me that just because times turn dark, it is not a reason to stop loving, but that it becomes every reason to love. So, for that, I thank you.

To Debbie, who has read and reread this book so many times to help me get it right, and who has pushed me out of my confining box of comfort, I thank you. Thank you for always believing in me even when I didn’t believe in myself. For helping me to branch out in what I do without even second guessing me. Thank you for loving my children, and thank you for staying up all hours of many nights to help me figure out my own mind.

To Chris, my Sifu, I thank you. You taught me that I have every right to stand up for myself. You taught me that when you fight for the side of good you will never lose, and you taught me how to be a strong and confident woman. You have taken away my fear of losing control. You have given me the tools that I need to be the best me I can be, physically and mentally. Then, lastly, I thank you for completely understanding everything one goes through when a spiritual dilemma occurs.

To my friends, I thank you. You have been with me at my highs, and at my lows. Together we have been silly, sad, happy, and intrigued by what life has thrown at us. You have all helped me to be who I am today, and you all truly inspire me. So, for that I thank you all.

To my children; my life, my world, and my reason for living. You are young now, but one day you will read this. I want you to know that I have been there. We have all been there at some point or another. There is nothing you cannot achieve, and there is nothing that is impossible. I wrote this book for you and for all our family’s generations to come.  I have done much of the work and laid it out for you, so that you would have an easier time of it than I did. That’s not to say you will not have your own battles in life, because you will. Just know that you can achieve anything, if you truly want it.  Just follow your heart, listen to your instincts, see the signs, and have the faith to take that leap.

I love all of you so much, and I am so very thankful and grateful for all of you.

Blessed Be

xxx

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Life is my lesson, and experience my teacher,

-Katie Nelson

I started my spiritual journey from the first memory of my life. I was about five when I was taking a nap in my mom’s room, and my blanket was hanging slightly over the edge of the bed. That’s when something under the bed grabbed my blanket, and we had a tug of war over it. I lost, and I was frightened by this. I remember telling my mother about it, and though she didn’t fully understand what I was talking about, she was supportive all the same. This is when the realization that I was ‘different’ came to light.

I remember seeing spirits all the time. Sometimes they looked dead, and sometimes they didn’t. I would draw pictures of people dying, or being sentenced to death, and I would give them to my grandmother, like most kids do. I was very proud of my childhood art work. My grandmother would look at the pictures I drew, she would look at me, and she would then cover up her look of concern as she hung my art on her fridge. She still has some of that art work today. Like my mother, my grandmother didn’t quite understand why I was acting the way I did, with the drawings and such, as I was not exposed to anything even remotely violent at this age. Both my mother and grandmother supported me, and never made me feel insecure about any of it.   I would speak of the ghosts I saw all the time, and I could describe them easily. So far as I know, I never made my mother or grandmother worried or frightened, but I’m sure they were shocked by it all, and it was kept very hush hush. Being gifted runs in my family as far back as I could track it, which is about seven generations, but it was always kept quiet. This is understandable, because back in the day, people would be institutionalized for such talk. So, when I came out of the closet as an adult with what I can do, and with what I experience daily, my family was a little hesitant. They were concerned for my safety, and of what people may think of me.

I had an imaginary friend growing up, and my family treated him as if he were a real person- which he was. He wasn’t imaginary at all. He was, and is, my spirit guide, Jay. Though during my childhood, I called him Petey because I liked that name, and Jay didn’t mind at all. And, after our dog died, I remember clear as day him crawling into my bed at night to sleep with me, and in the morning, he would be gone. With my dog, even in spirit form, with me, I was no longer afraid to be alone at night, because I knew he was there. Then as I got better during the nights, he stopped coming. Not that he was gone for good, but he no longer needed to stay with me, so, he moved on to other things on the other side. If at any moment, even today, I need him, I only have to call out to him.

School was very difficult for me. I had trouble sleeping at nights and would often sneak into my parent’s room to lay on the floor, just so I wouldn’t be left alone in the dark. This is normal for children, but I was old enough to not be afraid, and yet I was terrified. This mixed with what doctors called ADHD as well as dyslexia, made me a combination for a teacher’s nightmare. It’s not that I was a bad kid, because I wasn’t, I was a great kid, but my attention span was zip. Later, I would come to find, that it was because of constant energy and spirit activity.

As I got older, into my teen years, my life became very difficult as my idol, my father, turned out to be someone other then what I thought. It turned out that he was very sick with alcoholism, and later prescription drugs. This was devastating to me because we did everything together when I was little. My mother tried everything she could to help him, but he became such a nightmare, that we were genuinely afraid for our lives most every night.

During this time, my contact with the spirit world lessened, as I had begun to build walls around myself. I no longer spoke to Jay, I rarely saw anything even remotely spiritual or otherworldly, and I felt as though I was numb and wandering aimlessly through life. This is when I began my gothic phase, long before it was even slightly popular. I wore black, didn’t care about much, and just didn’t see the point in anything anymore. Luckily, I still had my amazing mother who worked tirelessly for us. I had my grandmother, my best friends, and I had my animals. With all that, I was kept grounded just enough to keep pushing forward. One day my mother and I had had enough, and we finally acted to remove my father from the house and our lives. I will spare you the details of what she and I went through with him, but let me tell you, she and I still suffer from nightmares of him, and what he put us through.  

After, my father all but disappeared, which was a blessing to us, we had to sell everything we had including our horses and little ranch. We had to move to an older house where we had no furniture, and basically had nothing. I still remember us sitting on the floor, eating crummy take out, and smiling so big at each other because we had made it out of hell. After that, things got better. Not right away, but slowly over time.

I should tell you, that during all this my grandfather, a man I loved more than anything, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The family was crushed by this news. He lived much longer than expected, but passed just weeks after my mother met her boyfriend, my now totally awesome stepfather. That was a blow we did not know how to handle very well, but again, our family bonded together, and we made it.

It was during this time of crazy ups and downs, that I had begun to reunite myself with the spirit world. I had stayed at a friend’s house and as it turned out it was crazy active, and super spooky. I saw my first spirit in years at this house, and I haven’t had it shut down since. It was during this time, that I also took a major interest in world religions. I studied religions from all over the globe, and I began to question and theorize about much of it. I began asking the questions that most don’t ever think to ask, and I was maybe fifteen at the time. The second I had picked up a book on spirituality, I was hooked.  I knew that I was in the exact moment I was meant to be in. I had found my calling, but I chose to expand on the traditional spiritual world. I wanted to incorporate the Arch angels of Catholicism, the rituals of Paganism, and add a dash of Buddhism as well. I collected everything that I loved from religions across the world. I thought to myself, why can’t I keep this idea and just mix it with this one? Who says I can’t do that? So, that’s exactly what I did.

I opened myself up to the spiritual world, with total safety of course, and I decided I would let the Universe, God and the Goddess, guide me through my life. I had decided that if something sounded fun then I would try it. If there was something I loved, then I would do it. I had decided that I would try my best not to care what others thought, as life was way too fast and too precious to let others decide how I would live. It’s my life, and with harm to none, I would do with it what I please.  After that, life got much easier. Of course, there are days that are hard, as life is all about challenges. I don’t pray every night asking for an easy day. I pray every night asking for guidance and grace through whatever life throws at me.

Yes, I pray. Every. Single. Night.  Hands down I speak to God, Goddess, my guides, guardians, angels and loved ones, every single night. I thank them for everything in my life, and I name specifics. I ask for guidance with whatever I need guidance for. I ask for safety and blessings be gifted to my family and friends. Then lastly, I ask that the world be filled with peace, love, light and happiness. I do this every single night, and I cannot fall asleep now if I don’t, as I have engraved this habit into myself.

I have had a few jobs in my life, some better than others, but every one of them has taught me something vital about myself. As a nanny, the Universe ALWAYS sent me to the children that were gifted and/or lived in haunted houses. There was not a child I cared for. that was not gifted or affected spiritually in some way. This was easy for me as I remembered what it was like to be a gifted child. I saw what they saw, I heard what they heard, and I felt what they felt. With me they had someone that completely related to them. So, I could help the children and their parents, and guide them through this transition until they became older.  

I worked in an entertainment store, which was fine enough. It was nothing to shout about other than the fact that I met the love of my life there. My, now husband, worked there with me and he became my best friend before we were dating or even married. I remember one of the first nights we slept in the same bed.  We were just drifting off to sleep, and something on the end of the bed started slowly pulling the blankets off us. This was not my first rodeo and didn’t scare me in the slightest. My husband, who was just my boyfriend at the time, freaked out. Beside him on the nightstand was the remote to the ceiling fan with a button to turn on the light. I was laughing so hard as I was trying to convince him to turn the light on and he was having none of it. He just kept shouting, no, go to sleep, maybe it’ll go away. I couldn’t stop laughing at how funny the whole thing was.  I got the blanket back and drifted right off. Apparently, the same could not be said for him.  In the morning, I asked him how he slept, and he just looked at me and said "I slept fine"! That was when he realized life with me would be unique. I had told him stories, and I had explained to him my ‘normal’ day, but to experience it himself was completely different. Shockingly though, he didn’t run. Instead we moved in together, later got married, and started our family. He still isn’t too crazy about a lot of the things that happen in our house, or that happens anywhere we go, but he’s never let it sway or frighten him too badly. There are a few things he isn’t too pleased with. Our house loves to steal his things. It will steal everything of his from his watches to his contacts. It drives him nuts. No one else has this problem, just him. He also will usually keep TVs on all the time because he doesn’t want to hear the spirits moving or talking. Our home is very active, 24/7, it doesn’t stop. Even people who claim to have no psychic gifts whatsoever, will experience things here.

It was when I was working as a Certified Nursing Assistant, or CNA, that I began really connecting with the spirit world. Obviously, in a nursing home, there is constant spirit activity, but it was the living people that touched my heart the most. I was honored to care for our veterans, and for a generation of people that will not be around much longer. The stories they had were incredible. Of course, the war stories made me cry, but we would hug each other and cry together. The women I cared for were so strong and so funny. They would tell me stories that would have me in stiches with laughter. The families of those I cared for, were also so amazing. It truly was a blessing to be able to care for and help these people