You Can''t Make This Stuff Up 1 Your Lessons Matter Hey you, with the TV on in the background and the dog barking his freakin'' head off: Are you paying attention here? Seriously-turn down the noise, get comfortable, and make yourself something to eat. While you''re at it, make me a snack too. Sorry if I sound pushy, but I''m just excited to share the awesome lessons I''ve learned from Spirit that will help you embrace the life you''re meant to live, and I want to make sure you''re listening to what I''m about to say. OK? You good now? Let''s do this. I''m a medium, but my job is about so much more than talking to dead people. I deliver healing messages from Spirit that can be life- and soul-changing experiences. I talk a lot about how Spirit''s messages validate that they''re loving, supporting, and guiding you from the Other Side, which I believe is Heaven. But what I don''t always say is that these messages often contain essential lessons that can make your happiness grow and your soul thrive.

Whether Spirit presents the messages in a direct, subtle, or hysterical way, their words usually double as teachable moments for the person who''s getting the reading, friends who hear about it later, and anyone else that''s watching or listening in. Spirit''s told me that your soul chooses to live in the physical world many times to learn various lessons. These lessons help you to have a positive outlook and be of service to others. I also believe that you have an overarching lesson to learn in each lifetime, with smaller teachings folded into that journey. All your lessons tend to revolve around topics that make you a joyful and healthy person, including love, blame, faith, acceptance, sacrifice, forgiveness . that kind of thing. Given the powerful influence that these themes can have in your life here, it''s no wonder Spirit makes me circle them over and over. And since I''m the only one who goes to all my readings, hello, I feel it''s important to share Spirit''s most compelling lessons with you.

This way you don''t miss out! I think every person is searching for happiness, answers, and for things to make sense in life-basically, we''re trying to learn the lessons. We look for sources of laughter, guidance, and unconditional love. We wrestle with fear, blame, regret, and oh my gosh, the guilt. We struggle with faith and gratitude, especially when signs and miracles don''t seem to happen as often as we''d like. We look for a reason behind it all, and peace, no matter what we find, because these are the significant and revealing tasks we''re meant to complete. Why Bother to Learn Lessons? I''m all for enjoying life to the fullest, so I don''t want you to go through your day like you have one foot in the grave. But to understand why you should care about Spirit''s lessons, both now and in the afterlife, you do need to recognize the role they play when you die and go to the Other Side. Spirit tells me that when you pass, your soul peacefully leaves your body, and you''re greeted by the souls of family and friends who died before you.

You move toward a brilliant light I call God, but as I said earlier, if you want to call Him by another name like Higher Power, Yahweh, or Allah, go right ahead-God doesn''t mind. On earth, you are a piece of God''s energy, but in Heaven, your soul is one with His. You have a primary guide who''s helped you throughout your life (some feel this is the same as a guardian angel) and who is there to greet you on the Other Side. With this main guide, your soul then reviews and evaluates the journey you had here, and you get to see how your actions affected others. While in a soul state, you experience what you made them feel, physically and emotionally, and how it related to your purpose in that lifetime. During this life review, you''re reminded that your soul chose its body, family, path, and purpose, and that learning lessons is why you went to the physical world in the first place. Basically, you learn lessons that enrich and mature your soul, with the ultimate goal of aligning with God''s ways. But you also go for others, since your choices have a ripple affect; your journey impacts their happiness too, and a lot of what happens to you is part of a lesson for them.

Another way you learn lessons is through people and events that force you to use the traits you''re meant to acquire here. Marrying a sick spouse, for instance, might help you learn compassion, or choosing a handicapped body could teach you perseverance. Your lessons and purpose could also relate to advancing society somehow, like through humanitarian, artistic, scientific, or spiritual efforts. No matter what, we all come to the physical world to learn to be better people and souls. On earth, you learn lessons faster than in Heaven, since life''s obstacles and setbacks help you grow faster and more fully. Before your most recent journey began, your primary guide reviewed certain details of what it would be like; the basic outline came from God. You knew what some of your tests and experiences would be and maybe even prepared for them. You also discussed your purpose with your guide.

Sometimes Spirit will reveal, during a reading, what a soul''s purpose was if it will comfort the living. This might happen with an organ donor or an infant whose destiny was to pass from twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (this is when a twin dies in utero, but its mom carries it to term so the living child can take in enough nutrients to survive). Once you''re here, though, most people learn about their purpose through soul-searching. Finally realizing your purpose feels like one heck of a prize too. It''ll make you happier than finding a plastic whistle in a Cracker Jack box! Spirit''s shown me that when you enter Heaven, you do this at a certain level, or point of spiritual growth, and that your life assessment is based on this level''s criteria. A level is like a grade in school-the lower the level, the more lessons the soul has to learn. When your soul grows, it moves to new levels, and you have to finish one before moving higher or deeper into the next. Levels are related to your soul''s energy frequency, since this rises as you grow.

Among other purposes, your frequency, also called a vibration, influences how well your soul communicates with the living after you die. Higher-level souls are better able to send more regular and harder-to-execute signs, like moving objects and futzing with electricity. They can also communicate more clearly with a medium. As for Hell, I''m not sure there is one, but I''m told that the souls of people who have learned few lessons and/or did serious harm in the physical world-think murder, abuse, deliberate evil-enter the Other Side at very low levels. They can become negative forces. I don''t need to know where or how this energy source exists. I want nothing to do with negative energy of any kind. When it''s time to learn new lessons, your soul can do it in Heaven or reincarnate in a new body, with new experiences, in another lifetime.

In every go-round, you have free will to make choices related to your lessons; you can choose one path or another, but they will all have the same general purpose and destiny. Throughout it all, God, guides, angels, souls of faith, and loved ones protect, direct, send messages, and intervene. They put people and situations in your path that prompt you to make decisions affecting future growth. Eventually you die, and it starts all over again. If you can''t be bothered to think about the afterlife while you''re still kickin'', it wouldn''t kill you to learn lessons anyway. They''re a huge part of what characterizes your soul, which is the core of who you are and aspire to be. No matter what your objective, making choices that satisfy your soul feels good. Are You My Lesson? Though some lessons might smack you in the face, be on the lookout for less obvious ones.

I think most people assume that all lessons happen during major moments, like a heartbreaking death or beautiful soul mate reunion, because you feel their impact long after they happen. Certainly, losing a parent or gaining a best friend changes your life in an instant. But Spirit also tells me that we learn lessons in small, everyday interactions too. If you feel the urge to buy a stranger a cookie, say, or hold the door for a father lugging groceries, a diaper bag, and a car seat, everyone''s day and souls benefit from that kindness. On a more frustrating and stupid note, you know that jerk who took your seat on the bus? He could be a lesson in patience. How about your money-mooching brother? Generosity. Or your husband''s friends who got pizza sauce on your couch during Sunday Night Football? Probably sacrifice. So the next time you''re at Thanksgiving dinner, and your sister-in-law leaves you out of family photos, don''t try to control, overanalyze, fight against it, or go cryin'' in the bathroom, "Why is this happening to me, of all people?" Look for the lesson instead.

Let the situation unfold, and find the reason. It helps you deal, and here''s why: When the reason, and not the problem, becomes your focus, you don''t think about how sad, pissed-off, or doomed you are. You can accept the outcome, then concentrate on how to move past it. Your life is your responsibility-your soul chose it long ago. If you want a positive and fulfilling journey, don''t let people hold you back. And don''t forget, Spirit is ready to intervene when you ask. When I accepted m.