My Spiritual Journey from Childhood Fascination to Psychic Awakening

I thought it would be fun to share a little bit about my own Spiritual journey.  I hope to convey that I know, first hand, what it is like in the trenches of a Spiritual Awakening. Disclaimer: much of what I will share about my experience, especially the information about me as a child, is only recognized as significant in retrospect.

Growing up, I was a pretty normal kid.  I grew up in the Midwest with a mother, father, and younger brother.  I did not know much about the Spiritual realm or metaphysics but I do remember being fascinated by the psychics on TV.  Whenever I saw John Edwards or Sylvia Brown on the TV, you would be hard pressed to pull me away - even if I had already seen that particular episode.  I was not only in awe of them but also felt something I now recognize as a kindred connection with them.  There are times throughout my childhood I can recall knowing things that I had no idea how I knew them.  I knew the answers to questions on TV trivia shows.  I knew the phone was going to ring before or did and who was going to be on the other end of the line.  I knew things about grandparents and other family members that I could not explain.  These things only happened sporadically, so I did not think anything of them and definitely did not compare these moments to what I witnessed the psychics on TV doing.  

Another experience I had as a child that I now realize is important to include as part of my journey is that I would often feel a presence in my room, particularly at night.  At some point, I had convinced myself that there was someone watching me from outside my window and that, if I pulled my covers all the way up to my ears, they would not be able to see me.  I did not feel as if they wanted to hurt me, but feeling them watching was eerie enough.  To make matters worse, I would sometimes hear my name called, but this increased in frequency only later in my adult years.  

As I aged into adulthood, things picked up.  I began to hear my name whispered more frequently at night, usually just as I was about to fall asleep.  I would have more instances where I would know things that I should have no way of knowing, such as the gender of a baby that someone was having or that someone was ill before they had told anyone.  I also started noticing the presence of Spirits in my home.  I have seen apparitions of a man’s lower legs and feet walk into my spare bedroom, heard someone whistling as they seemingly walked past me, and hear people greet me with a warm “hello” when I walked into an empty house.

Though these events may sound strange and disconcerting - maybe even alarming - to the average person, looking back, I was surprisingly comfortable during those times.  There was a stretch of time - probably several months - when I would hang a towel or washcloth over a bar in the bathroom or over the edge of the sink and when I would return to the bathroom, it would be on the floor.  I lived alone during this time, so it was not as if someone else in the house had pulled it down; and it happened frequently enough that it was not simply that I had hung it up poorly the first time.  Again, I was oddly ok with it and would just pick it up and hang it where it had been.  At one point, after watching my bath towel fall from the shower rod, I laughed and called out “hello, John.”  I had no idea why I felt the Spirit’s name was John, but that is just what came out… so I went with it.  

It was shortly after this that I turned 30 years old and began the most rapid progression of my journey.  I had gone to a psychic fair at a local metaphysical shop and sat down to have my tarot cards read.  The reader put down her deck and asked me a question that has stuck with me nearly a decade later, “ do you ever get home and even your eyelashes are tired?”  I was completely stunned.  I had never thought of it that way and this complete stranger just pinpointed what I had been feeling for the past 15 or more years.  

As a side note, I work in healthcare as my day job and am constantly surrounded by energetically charged situations.  I would come home at the end of the day so exhausted, I would sometimes collapse in my hallway and begin bawling uncontrollably for no obvious reason.  Now the reason was finally (about to be come) clear.  

I nodded at the tarot card reader and she said, “You are an empath.  You don’t know what that is, but look it up.  I think it will explain a lot of things you have had happen throughout your life.  And it will open a lot of doors.”

Boy, was she right… and holy smokes did I underestimate the power of what she said.  

For the next three months, solid, I lived, breathed, and (barely slept) all things metaphysical and psychic development.  I went down rabbit holes about every metaphysical modality you can think of, read every list of “signs you might be psychic” I could find, and watched every video on spiritual development that I could get my hands on.  I bought crystals and tarot cards.  I set up alters and did meditations.  I dug to the depths of my hope chest and found my birth certificate so I could create the most accurate online birth chart the world had ever seen (or at least, that I had).  

I was exhausted.  

I had to make the conscious effort to slow down and support my growth at a rate that I could adjust to and absorb in a healthy manner.  I enrolled in a webinar that helped me learn to ground so that I was not absorbing the energy around me at work every day.  I signed on for a mentorship with a fantastic medium who helped me hone my psychic and mediumship skills.  

And now, after coming up on a hiatus due to graduate school, I am finally here and so excited to be sharing this journey with you.  I hope you are finding inspiration and education in the pages of this blog. 

I would love to hear from you!  Please feel free to reach out to me via email at kayla.martin.medium@gmail.com or through my contact form attached to this blog.  I would love to hear where you are in your spiritual journey and hear your own personal story.