I will never forget the first time I met the beautiful spirit named Jill Leigh.

It was about six weeks after the Raven's visit and I was very much lost in the dark.  Noel, my yoga instructor, recently had met Jill at a workshop where she talked about clairvoyance, energy healing, the chakras and quantum physics.  Noel had been blown away by the fact that (a) Jill really knew her stuff and (b) she was not some kumbaya crackpot.  

“Call her,” Noel said.

"A call?" I protested.  "Doesn't she need to meet me in person?"

“No.  She can work with you over the phone.”

Good grief, I remember thinking.  This is what my life has come to.  I’ve become that person: the one who calls random strangers for life advice. 

Truth is, at that point in the journey, I pretty much was that person, so I called Jill.

From the second I heard Jill’s voice, I felt my entire being sigh in relief.   It was a glorious feeling..lasting for about 10 seconds.  Because that’s about how long it took me to tell Jill that I was looking for answers.  By July 4. 

“Honey,” she said. “Here’s an answer for you:  You’ve become the Wal-Mart of the spirit world. And that deadline?  Not gonna happen.”

Now, while I was pleased to have an answer, I most definitely did not like this answer.  You see, I did not like Wal-Mart.  Wal-Mart was where the unwashed masses congregated.  And now, according to Jill, I was where the unwashed spirits did the same!

Jill explained that, basically, some configuration of spirits had been trying to send me a message.  A message that "it was time" to be the clairvoyant, clairaudient channel that Jill believed I was.    

I hadn't paid attention to this message (would you?).  The spirits got antsy.  Then they got angry and  completely blew up my energetic circuitry, allowing all their spirit friends to crash my energetic field.  "Energetically, you look a bit like Wile E. Coyote at the end of a Road Runner episode," Jill said.  “You’re lucky you didn’t have a nervous breakdown.”

Now, I did like Wile E. Coyote, so that analogy went down a bit easier.  But I didn't want to run around looking like a bomb had gone off in my aura (whatever that was) and I most definitely didn’t want a breakdown.  So, I asked Jill what I should do.

She answered by saving my life.  In the simplest of ways.  With the most basic of practices.

"Energetic hygiene," she answered.  "We all take showers and brush our teeth," she explained, "but we don't do squat to take care of ourselves energetically. You need to politely tell these spirit squatters ‘my body, my space’ and shoo them away.  Then—and only then—you can start figuring out what it is they want to tell you."

Jill then walked me through the basics.  She taught me how to ground.  How to drain energy and balance my chakras.  It felt as foreign to me then as it feels natural today.    

By the end of our call, my inner-Wal-Mart had posted a “going out of business” sign (though, truth be told, it took another year before it totally closed its doors). I felt like a new me, with even a hint of the old, pre-Raven me peeking through.  "Yeah, don't get too excited about that," Jill said.  "I don't think the old you is ever coming back."

But I didn't care. At least not at that moment.  I felt great.  I felt quiet.  I felt calm.

I felt like I knew where I was.  But I had not a clue as to why I was there.  That answer, it turns out, would come two weeks later from what appeared to be an empty chair at a lovely restaurant in Lenox, Massachusetts. 

Think you could use a little Jill Leigh in your life?  Check out her Energy Healing Institute site!