I practice my mediumship often on friends and friends of friends–I typically take on 2 to 3 readings in a week. One of the most frequent questions I hear is “how did you first know you were a medium?” My answer is always fretfully complicated but is easy to sum up in fewer words than I typically use.

It was an accident.

I knew as a teen that I had odd dreams. This is typical of young people, before the world horns in to change their minds. Specifically, when I was 19, I dreamed of a terrible violent act that happened several miles from my residence, but unfortunately I dreamed of it 6 months too early and did not recognize the faces of the people in the dream. This did not convince me that I was psychic, although I had terribly disturbed sleep, particularly when sleeping in a room across from a cemetery (cemeteries actually do hold energy because they are sacred places that the living, as well as the dead, often visit).

I still was not a psychic medium at this time. I connected to Spirit and could feel that connection strongly, but I would not solidly be a psychic medium yet for more than a decade. For most of my 20s and a couple of years into my 30s, I suffered from clinical depression and severe anxiety. My condition limited me in ways that I describe in the book I am composing in detail. I am 34 and not suffering any signs of this condition that plagued me, arguably, from the age of 17 until 32–15 years of pain that I could not shake. I also share in an appendix to the book the wide variety of holistic remedies that I used while overcoming both anxiety and depression.

In the depths of this painful time, I attended a psychic fair as a way to get out of the house by myself and learn more about the occult, which had always interested me. The psychic reading I received did not do much for me, but the meditation that I learned in one of the lectures blew my mind wide open. I connected with Spirit and experienced peace that I had never known before. My soul was recharged and motivated before, but this time it was like someone flipped a switch and there was no going back.

I began meditating every day and taking epsom salt baths to detoxify both my body and my spirit. The baths still work to this day and help bring me back to center when my energy is too frantic. The baths and the meditations were my bridge to overcoming anxiety and depression. My meditations, however, lead me to a powerful tipping point where I would meet spiritual energy so strongly that I would begin to suffer again from anxiety attacks at the fear of the unknown forces at work. At this time, I sought help in a meditation group, and I continued my meditation work on my own as well.

Several events, all involving spiritual work during meditation, occurred in a row and lead, I believe, to my recovery. I pushed the boundaries of my spirituality to the hilt with a group of psychics and healers who lead regular meditations and psychic circles in my local area. As I worked with these people, the sense of community assisted me in releasing the fear and gave me a greater sense of purpose. I first attended a meditation group with these healers because I feared that I needed help from experts while I explored this side of myself–I had a lot of terrifying, preconceived notions that were causing me a great deal of paranoia as I tried to open myself up to God and the powers of meditation. Ultimately, attending psychic message circles and meditation groups lead me to the healing art of Reiki.

Not until I was attuned to Reiki did I discover what it is like to have full psychic medium abilities. In sharing Reiki with other healers, I discovered that their loved ones would leave messages with me–first only in symbols and pictures, then later in full action. I became a psychic medium purely by accident, as a result of seeking peace after over a decade of fear and sadness. It was in pushing my spiritual boundaries that I discovered this ability and, simultaneously, dropped the painful conditions I had carried within me in secret for so long.

Now, at 34 years old, I still have minor flare-ups of the depression that once plagued me, but they are few. The anxiety attacks are gone. As a hobby, I read Tarot regularly, as well as palms, and I offer messages to my friends from their departed loved ones. Most importantly, I meditate and I communicate with my own guides often to decide my best next step. As a survivor of clinical depression and anxiety, I fully believe in the healing powers of meditation and promise to share more about this with you both here and in my book.

In love and light—Erica.