Andrea's Interview with Personal Development Forum

1) Can you tell us a little about your background and how you came to write
“A Hit of Heaven”?

I ascribe to the quote that says….all those who wander are not lost. My life has been a series of adventures that have taught me many things. I have been a teacher and a counselor, a coach, a mother, a daughter, a wife and many variations on those themes. I wrote “A Hit of Heaven” because I felt a need to share with people a particular path of spiritual recovery from pain to joy.

That path is using your own life as a meditation. All the events in our lives are teachers for us. Doing the heart work of healing the wounds is our own personal life guides us to wholeness, an alignment of the outer and the inner selves, the ego and the soul. The book was the basis of my doctoral dissertation for spiritual coaching and I was encouraged to publish it.


2) Briefly, what is A Hit of Heaven about? What message were you trying to
communicate?

The main message of this book is about taking responsibility for our lives. If we can see how we learn from every circumstance in our lives and from every relationship, then we can see that our lives bring us everything that we need to grow out of fear and into love for ourselves and others.

When we move out of a victim-mode and take responsibility for ourselves then we realize that our thoughts and perceptions have the ability to create our reality. We are not our stories; we are connected to something much greater than a 3-Dimensional personality-self. When we focus our thoughts on the idea of well-being and love, then that is what we create. If we focus our thoughts on fear and struggle, then that is what we create. By learning to love and accept those parts of us that fear, we bring more light and joy into our hearts.

I wanted to write for the people who have chosen challenging lives and honor them for having the courage to work towards healing themselves and to find love and joy in the present moment. We all have challenges on one level or another and I wanted to honor all of us who are choosing to walk their talk with a deep passion to awaken.



3) You paint a beautiful image of heaven in your book. Where did the
inspiration for such imagery come from?

My meditations are very colorful and give me the feelings of the beauty of love and joy. I see everything as a vibration of light manifested in all things. The descriptions of heaven are a metaphor for those beautiful vibrations of higher consciousness.

Michael Newton’s books….Journey of the Soul and Destiny of the Soul and the Education of Oversoul Seven by Jane Roberts were also influential in my visual thinking.

I like to think that every night when we sleep that our souls leave our resting bodies and move into the higher dimensions where we do service work as well as to learn from the angels and masters. We are in school at night learning about love and fear. When we wake up we bring that wisdom back with us but it may not be readily accessible. In our meditations we are able to connect with that learning more easily and remember who we really are.



4) You note that some souls choose to study in the 'Earth school'. Are there
other schools? What are they and do they have the same purpose?

The Course in Miracles says….the Holy Spirit…sees the world as a teaching device for bringing you home. This statement resonates with me. I don’t really know about other schools. I just know in my heart that the earth experience is about loving and allowing love to be our source of motivation in our lives. Learning to love ourselves is a life or lives-long experience. It takes courage and work. The parts of ourselves that we do not love fully remain separated and cause us to feel isolated and not good enough at times. Those are the times of our greatest learning.




5) A central premise of your book is that a soul chooses his or her life
before birth and then lives out that predetermined reality, exercising free
will while coming into contact with benevolent teachers that take on
different roles in order to mentor the soul. This is a point that fascinates
me about the Law of Attraction in general. In your opinion, do others - that
is, the teachers - have free will while on earth?

An intuitive said to a friend once that she must be very loved in the Universe because so many people had contracted to play challenging parts in this person’s life. That concept stuck with me as a loving assessment of what some might describe as a difficult life. That you must be so loved to have so many souls willing to be teachers for you lights my heart.

The idea of a soul contract has always interested me. If we look carefully at our lives, we can see how certain players, whether it be a mother, father, sibling, wife, husband, child, friend, boss, etc. are perfect for our learning. They have a part of our puzzle that we can heal to bring ourselves to wholeness. The parts that we play for others in these relationships are a source of teachings for them as well. We are the students and the teachers for each other.

For example, in the book, a mother who was not loved for who she was becomes a mother who cannot love her daughter. The reason is not because she doesn’t want to but because she doesn’t have the love in her heart for herself. The mother’s parents had not learned how to love either and they passed it on to the mother of this young woman. You can’t love another truly without loving yourself first. So the daughter carries that lack of self-love until she decides to learn to love herself.

She could have not chosen to experience that learning and passed it unhealed onto her children. It is always a choice. Everyone has a choice. The soul creates a life for the human personality that gives the opportunity for the personality to heal and the soul to evolve. The soul knows exactly what part of the personality needs to heal and a teacher is attracted to the situation in order to teach the student. The teaching experience extends to the teacher as a learning experience for that soul as well.



6) You borrow the term karma. What does this term mean to you and how does
it relate to a Christian-inspired view of heaven and a soul?

To me karma means the simple act of experiencing what it is that you create. Karma is not a good thing or a bad thing; it just is. You could say that you reap what you sow. If you make a choice you will experience the consequence of that choice. So if you create with a sense of love, the effects of your choice will reflect that love.

If you choose to create from a place of fear, the effects of your choice will reflect that fear. The idea of karma transcends religions….it reflects the consequences of your choices. It has a boomerang effect that you receive and helps you to learn what consequences you would like to create. That is how we change, by taking responsibility for our choices without attaching judgment to the process. It just is.



7) One of the insights you provide is to separate the 'thinking self' from
the 'inner self'. What are the key differences between the two?

Another term for thinking self might be the “ego.” The ego gets a lot of bad press but it is just that personality part of ourselves that is attempting to protect us. If the ego is not in alignment with the soul or higher self, that part of us that is eternal, then the human personality will react from a basis of fear. The basis of fear comes from the feeling of being separate from the “inner self” or higher self, the vibration of higher consciousness that is love.

For me the ego is not something to suppress or resist. It is not bad; it just is. If we attempt to create situations and relationships in our lives from a point of fear or the thinking self, then that is what we will create. The universe vibrates with love and responds to us as we vibrate. If we vibrate fear, then fear is attracted to us. If we vibrate from trust and love, then that is what we create.

So to answer your question…….the ‘thinking self’ is differentiated from the ‘inner self’ by raising the fear-based vibration of the ego up into alignment with the soul by consciously creating your thoughts motivated by the higher energy of love.



8) Why do you believe trusting our intuition is so important?

The Course in Miracles says….if you cannot hear the Voice for God, it is because you do not choose to listen. We all have access to hearing our inner voice of intuition. Sometimes we just don’t believe that we are good enough to hear it. Our “thinking mind” takes over and we say we can’t and that mindset reinforces that we can’t. When we come from a place of trust and allowing, then we begin to recognize the flow because it resonates with our hearts. If it does not, then we drop it and move on.

I began by writing as in journaling….asking questions and listening for the resonance in my heart. As I learned to trust the process over time, I was able to strengthen my connection. Learning to trust and to allow the process (rather than control) were my lessons in learning how to connect with my intuition. The beautiful energy that comes through fills up my heart and continually reminds me that we are all always connected to the highest vibrations of love. We are always supported and loved.



9) Why should someone read A Hit of Heaven? What relevance does it have to
life?

A Hit of Heaven was written as a gift to anyone who responds to its vibration. I choose to write it for the people in this world who have the courage to live their lives deeply. We are all making progress in the direction of higher consciousness in every moment of our lives. The relevance comes forth to the reader because all of us live our lives in some degree of struggle….whether it be relationships with ourselves or others, etc.

A Hit of Heaven can assist those who choose the path of taking responsibility to learn our lessons, to look at and heal our addictions….large and small…..that keep us estranged from our true nature. By following the main character’s struggle with her childhood and the perceptions that she develops about herself from those early relationships, we can see how the tendency to make unhealthy decisions is a natural consequence of our beliefs about ourselves. And we can also follow along with her process as she learns to heal those beliefs to create a more peaceful heart.

As we ask for our lessons to come in more gentle ways, and when we live from a greater place of responsibility, acknowledging our inner wisdom in alignment with our soul, lessons come and go with less and less struggle. Peace in our heart comes from knowing that we are truly loved and supported in the universe; that we are that universal loving energy; that we deserve such joy in our beings; that loving ourselves no matter what and sharing that gift with others is our purpose here on earth.



10) You are currently working on a second book. Can you tell us about it?

The second book deals with a spiritual path through relationships. It is entitled: “How I Love You is How I Love God.” It continues the story of Anisea from “A Hit of Heaven” as she learns to manifest a soulful relationship into her life. Through the ups and downs of the dynamics of the partnership, the parts of herself that contain fear in the midst of such a deep love come forward to be healed. The premise is that how we love in our most intimate relationships is how we love spirit. Whatever keeps us from unity in Oneness is clearly shown to us in partnership. And so, the main character takes us through the obstacle course of love on an adventure to which most of us can relate. Hopefully, it will be published early 2009.