Today, I want to share with you an aspect of my life that is actually becoming a more talked about interest/belief as we become more open minded about life (and death!). As book bloggers and certainly as book readers we know of the many books out there that move us to tears. We sob our little hearts out and sales in Kleenex rapidly rise (Not an absolute fact). When a much loved character dies (Think the Harry Potter series), when we read about the tragic journey of illness and death of either a Celebrity (Lynda Bellingham), or a epic novel that becomes a epic movie (The Fault in Our Stars), we become all to aware of death and our own expiry date.
But to lift us out of the sadness we have to live with hope. And, the one way in which people do this, especially when they have lost a loved one is to think about the possibility that life continues after death in some way. We like to hope that there is 'someone' or 'something' bigger than we are, and 'out there' that we can call upon, talk to and maybe receive a sign from. We do this as a coping mechanism for our grief. I know from my own experience with losing loved ones, that whilst your heart is breaking beyond belief, you like to think that they can still hear you, see you, touch you and be with you.
From this, we can seek comfort in talking to them as if they are still here, we place Guardian Angel stones on their graves, or next to their photos on the mantle, and if we look a little further into the book shelves in the bookstore as we search for the next great read, we might just come across books about 'Angels' and they are filled with experiences and accounts of people just like you and me who go about our day to day life and we come across a white feather just at that moment when we are thinking about of dear departed Grandma, or we're not sure about applying for that job and we hear our Dad's favourite song on the radio. And just for a second, we wonder, and we hope and we believe. And in that second, that helps us to carry on and live our lives in honour of them.
Dawn: I'm aware of your work with writing about mind body and spirit topics, especially books about angels and deceased loved ones. But for anyone reading who may not have known about you or your work, could you give us a little introduction about yourself?
Theresa: There's a lot about my life and spiritual journey in my books but in short I was born into a family of psychics and spiritualists, studied theology and English at King's college, Cambridge University and then launched into a career in teaching, journalism and writing. Have written countless books on health in mind, body and spirit and have two Sunday Times top 10 best sellers to my credit. My next book, How to Find Heaven will be published in July 2015.
Dawn: A lot of your books are about angels and everyday experiences that people have with angels and loved ones in heaven, and not all of them are what some would describe as "New agey", could you expand upon this?
Theresa: I dislike the term new age because to me it doesn't mean anything. There is nothing new age about the search for meaning in life. My books are about ordinary people, like myself, who have extraordinary experiences and these experiences prove to them that this life is not all that there is. I hope when people read my books they will see that heaven can speak to us in many different ways and all we need to do is notice these ways, see the magic in the everyday. Once we do that heaven starts speaking to us all the time through signs, dreams, coincidences and magical encounters.
Dawn: I completely agree and the term 'New Age', I feel is inappropriate to describe these experiences and beliefs. In your books you explain the difference between an angelic experience and one with deceased loved ones, how would people reading the blog know if they've experienced such?
Theresa: Angelic experiences tend to be coincidences, subtle signs, or bursts of intuition that seem to come out of nowhere and convince us we are being guided or watched over. It may also involve hearing or seeing things you can't explain. Contact with departed loved ones tends to occur in dreams, a sense that your loved one is around you or on rare occasions full blown visions. However, both angelic experiences and departed loved one experiences are heaven sent so in my mind they are interchangeable.
Dawn: When we lose someone we loved are naturally devastated and bereaved deeply, but some people say that they can feel their loved ones around them or they just know. Do you think this is part of grief and denial, or is it the possibility that our loved ones are reaching out to us from heaven?
Theresa: The grief process is important because we need to mourn the loss of a loved one's physical presence before we can enter fully into a new relationship with them in spirit. During the grieving process, however, many people report feeling their loved one close by and this is because grief is painful and in spirit our loved ones want to help us through that painful journey - they want to comfort us by reminding us that love is stronger the death.
Dawn: I've been psychic and spiritually aware since childhood, so one of my first memories of seeing spirits was when I was 3 years old and I saw a little girl on my landing. What's your first memory of experiencing spirit?
Theresa: You are way ahead of me. I am in awe and a little jealous:) my first experience wasn't until my early 30s when I believe the voice of my mother in spirit saved me from almost certain death by telling me at the last minute to turn right instead of left. If I had turned left as I originally intended I would have been involved in a motorway pile up with multiple casualties. I still have not had visions but I have had astonishing dreams, bursts of intuition and spectacular coincidences.
Dawn: Isn't it truly extraordinary how hearing the voice of your mother literally saved you. Can anyone see angels and loved ones in heaven or is it something you can't learn?
Theresa: Heaven is our birthright so I believe we all have that potential. Some of us, however, are more naturally sensitive to spirit than others and these are usually people with great empathy for others.
Dawn: Is there anything we can do to enhance the opportunity to feel/see/hear loved ones in heaven and angels?
Theresa: Yes, open your mind to the possibility of magic in your everyday life and to the idea that heaven is real. An open mind is incredibly powerful. Expect the unexpected.
Dawn: We love reading books here at A Page of Love, but we also like to find out about the authors writing them. What has been your favourite book to write and why?
Theresa: I fall in love with every book I write but my next book due to be published in July 2015 is something I am very proud of. It is a book I simply could not have written until now and is a culmination of all my research and experience to date. It may also be a little controversial as I tackle some really tough questions - like why do bad things happen to good people - but I hope my readers will be inspired by it.
Dawn: It sounds very interesting, and I am sure that readers will enjoy it. For anyone who's reading and maybe hasn't ever read about the topics which you write about, but is interested, what would you recommend them to read first?
Theresa: A book I wrote a few years ago, published by Simon and Schuster and called How to See Your Angels is a really good introduction.
Dawn: When you're not writing, what do you enjoy doing?
Theresa: Thinking about my books:)
Dawn: I love thinking about books too ha ha. Do you read books from the chick lit/ women's fiction genre, and if so what's your favourite, and which author/s do you enjoy reading?
Theresa: As I'm always writing I don't read as much as I used to and if I do read I tend to read around my subject area. I recently read Gone Girl and kind of liked that but typically my favourite books are those like The Celestine Prophecy or The First Five People you meet in heaven.
Dawn: Gone Girl has been a big hit, I'm yet to read it myself. You have a new book coming out later this year, which we've briefly mentioned, so what can we expect from it?
Theresa: A lot I hope as it took me over a year to write and with a title like How to find Heaven you can imagine how much I could include and I do try to cover all the major world religions as paths to heaven and what the difference between religion and spirituality is and how to know what the right path is for you. So a huge project and it is close to 100,000 words. Luckily my editor at Simon and Schuster happy with the word count.
Dawn: Wow! That is a lot of words! Do you have plans to write further books and what topics?
Theresa: Yes, I'm very fortunate as have recently been signed up to write my 2016 title and this one will be called Secrets of Heaven. It will be a bit of a magical, mystery tour of the afterlife using near death experiences as a guide to reveal the secrets of heaven and earth.
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Dawn: Congratulations on being signed for 2016! It's been so lovely sitting down and talking with you, I'm sure readers have learnt something new and perhaps will look for a sign from their angels and loved ones in heaven today. Thank you for being so inspirational and I look forward to welcoming you back soon to talk about your new book in detail xxx
I would love to hear your feedback, Have you ever sensed a loved one or received a sign from an angelic presence or heaven? Maybe you've read one of Theresa's books... get in touch and share the love.
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