May 21, 2025 • 54 mins
Meet April Rose, a wonderful soul, who joined Nicolle for a candid conversation about her paranormal experiences and the spiritual journey she’s on, including her practices of meditation and self-reflection.
Subscribe to Nicolle’s newsletter, find her books, or book a healing session at https://www.nicollemorock.com/
The talented Mr. Jeremy Moss http://jeremymosscomposer.com/ provides theme music (Listen through the end of the podcast to hear the whole theme song.)
Connect with Nicolle at www.peeppodcast.com and https://www.facebook.com/P.E.E.P.Podcast
Get merchandise at https://www.teepublic.com/user/peep-podcast
Subscribe to Nicolle’s newsletter, find her books, or book a healing session at https://www.nicollemorock.com/
The talented Mr. Jeremy Moss http://jeremymosscomposer.com/ provides theme music (Listen through the end of the podcast to hear the whole theme song.)
Connect with Nicolle at www.peeppodcast.com and https://www.facebook.com/P.E.E.P.Podcast
Get merchandise at https://www.teepublic.com/user/peep-podcast
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
My interest in all things paranormal has led me to
meet some pretty amazing humans, and in this episode, I'll
introduce you to one of them. Welcome to the PEA Podcast.
(00:39):
I'm your host, Nicole Morock, and I'm grateful you're here.
The two big ideas behind the peap podcast are to
show that the paranormal is more normal than most people think,
and to connect the science to the SI, including esp psychokinesis,
and intuition. In this episode, you'll meet April Rose, a
wonderful soul whom I I was lucky enough to briefly
(01:01):
meet last year at Monsterfest too. We connected on social
media after the event, and her posts are always positive
and often full of wisdom. I could tell she's a
kindred spirit, so I asked her on the show to
just talk about her paranormal experiences and the journey she's on,
including her practices of meditation and self reflection. Let's dive
(01:24):
in with April. Hi, April, how are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I'm doing great? How are you?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I'm doing so well and I am so thankful that
you were here joining me on the Peak Podcast. I
have been wanting to talk to you for a while
because you post some really cool stuff on your social
media Facebook in particular, you're always talking about not always,
(01:51):
but often talking about meditation, and you have these little
bits of wisdom that you share, and I just feel
like you have a lot of wisdom that you can
share with my listeners. But you also have paranormal stories,
and of course, as the podcast being about people experiencing
(02:13):
every day paranormal, super interested in those two. So I think,
if it's okay with you and you just want to
launch into your stories, I'm all ears, Okay.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well, thank you for having me. I'm honored to be here.
So if we're going into paranormal, there have been a
couple of things that happened that I could only consider
ghost sightings because I don't know what else to classify
(02:48):
them as. Not that I understand the way that the
entire universe works or anything, but that's what I would
call them. So the first one, I was about fifteen,
and my dad was downstairs washing his truck outside and
(03:09):
he had the front door open, and I remember watching
TV and I saw my dad walk by and go
around the in the hall and around the corner into
his bedroom and close the door. And then a few
minutes later, my dad came in the front door again
(03:30):
without having passed by, And when I asked my dad
how he got passed without me seeing him again, he said,
I haven't been up here, So then he went and
checked his room and nothing was you know, no one
was in there. So something walked by, and I wasn't
looking directly at it, so it was just kind of
(03:53):
like barely registering that my dad had walked by, but
it wasn't my dad. So whoever that was.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Did it sound like you, dad, You know, like everybody
has a way of walking, don't that.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
I don't think I registered. It was just I think
our floor was carpeted, I believe, and I don't remember
any particular sounds, and it was broad daylight, and I
don't know. It was just sort of weird. The other
one I find more interesting. The second time that I
(04:31):
saw something I couldn't explain was I was about twenty one,
living with my ex boyfriend and our two roommates and
other couple, and I was it was a weekend morning
and I woke up in a weird way, like I
woke up and I just sat up in bed like automatically,
(04:55):
without without kind of opening my eyes giving a stretch
like normally would, I just like sat straight up, like
as if out of a dream suddenly, And that's never
happened to me before or since. And when I looked
at the end of the bed, it was morning, and
there was a little boy standing at the end of
my bed, and he was watching me, and he just
(05:17):
looked like a normal person. And there were no other
kids or anything in this house. It was just our
two roommates in their bedroom sleeping and us in our
bedroom sleeping. And the little boy was looking at me,
and he had brown hair and his striped shirt on,
kind of like eighties seventies or eighties style T shirt.
(05:38):
And then I kind of laid back down and chuckled,
which kind of woke my thin boyfriend up a little bit,
and he said, what happened? I said, oh, nothing, I thought.
I just saw a little boy at the end of
our bed. And I went back to sleep. And then
a few days later I forgot about that whole situation.
(05:58):
We didn't even talk about it, and we fully woke
up a few days later. We wake up to my
female roommate crying, like loudly crying. She was very upset,
and we go out and into the hall and say, hey,
what's going on, what's wrong? And she said that she
woke up in her room and there was a little
boy in her room and he was looking at her,
(06:21):
and she said, I got scared and pulled the covers
over my head and pulled them down, and then he
got closer, and she freaked out and just started bawling.
And I said, oh, and I got a chill over
my body. I said, what did he look like? And
she described him wearing a striped shirt and had brown hair,
and he was about seven or eight, I'd say, as
(06:45):
far as my memory serves. But then I knew, oh,
that wasn't a dream. I thought I kind of had
a like a dream where I thought my eyes were opened,
but they weren't until that happened. And then I was like, WHOA,
so confirmed, we've all saw the same thing.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
That's intense.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
So did he look pretty solid?
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Mm hmmm yeah, just like as if a little boy
had walked into our house. And for some reason I
didn't feel scared or shocked or freaked out, which is
also weird. I just kind of was like, huh, okay,
that's not real.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
But I mean, we all react differently, but yeah, if
that's not exactly how you would have expected to react, Yeah, yeah,
I think her reaction was like the opposite extreme to
start crying and be that freaked out. So did how
much longer did you stay in that house after that?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Probably less than a year. And it wasn't because we
were afraid or anything to actually calm things down, because
she had more sort of fear about hauntings and things
like that, and she had more experiences in her life
that were really intense before we ever lived together and
(08:16):
all that. So I said, well, let's just name him Bobby,
you know, and he's our little house ghost friend. It's fine,
So we would call him Bobby. Hi, Bobby, like, never
saw him again, but you know, just to try and
make it kind of fun and not so scary.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yeah, for her, did you you never saw him again?
But did you have any other experiences that might have
felt like Bobby was around?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
No, I don't believe. So I don't recall anything else
strange happening in that house. Yeah, nothing that I can
think of, And it was just some kind of modern apartments.
Someone suggested many years later, if you know, you could
have looked up that apartment and that unit and see
(09:03):
if any if there was a family with little boy,
you know, that age and the time period you think
he came from. Did someone die in the house, stuff
like that. But that was quite some time ago. Now
I don't even know that I can remember the name
of the apartment units.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yeah, I understand that I can't even remember half of
the streets I've lived on over the years at this point. No,
that's still really interesting. So you got your cooperation from
your roommate and I you know, there are so many
reasons that something like that could happen, and everybody jumps
to ghost, but it could have also been like some
(09:43):
weird time slip where you know, he might have just
kind of faded in from some other time period or
a dimension. Yeah, there's so many possible ways, and people
are so much more open to all the different potential
reasons for experiences like that. So I just I just
(10:06):
love hearing the stories because it makes me feel better
about the experiences I've had in my life.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
I don't want to hear those.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, when we get together and talk.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Okay, that's perfect.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Okay, So have you had any other experiences.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Had this really strange situation happened once that I do
not know how to explain. I moved into a new
house and all our things were not completely put together
in their right place and everything yet, so our mattress
(10:48):
was on the floor, and I had a stainless steel
water canteen that I would wash out every night or
every morning and then used throughout the day and then
refill it at night and put it next to my bed.
And one morning, when I woke up to get ready
(11:09):
for work, I took my water canteen downstairs to go
wash it, and I noticed that the canteen felt warm
instead of cold. And I always put cold water in it,
so like straight out of the fridge kind of thing,
and it was warm. But I dumped what was in it,
(11:29):
and it was brown, and I was like, why, he's
my water brown? So that freaked me out of you know, gross,
What's that? I smelled the canteen and it smells like
black tea, just like real, just normal black tea. So
I'm going, how I put water in it last night,
(11:51):
and there's just a bit of tea in here, like
maybe you know, a few ounces of tea. And I
looked in the trash can and there's no tea bags.
I look up in the cupboard. No that kind of tea.
No clue, no idea how it happened, asked my son
if he had pranked us. No, like, I don't, I
(12:15):
have no idea. It's the weirdest thing. And I don't
know what the purpose of that would be unless it's
just like, you know, people or something likes to play tricks.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
I mean there supposedly there are tricksters out there, like, yeah,
the old stories of Coyota, Coyote and all the different
all the different cultures have some sort of trixtra element
to them. Yeah, that's a strange one. Or I mean,
if you really like tea, you could call it a miracle.
(12:51):
You turned water into tea without the tea bag or something.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
I thought of that. I was like Jesus turned water
into wine. They say that's funny. I did think of that,
but I was like, I don't get it. Still, you
can't find a spiritual meaning. It's just odd.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Yeah, it's just kind of random.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yeah, I would random.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I would totally talk that up to a trickster.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Could be yeah. Yeah. So that's that's the ones that
really stand out yeah, i'd say that's that's all at
the moment. If I think of anything, I'll mention it. Yeah,
if there's an opportune time.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Oh, you can always interrupt me and tell me about it. Okay,
So let's talk about meditation. When did you first start
doing meditation?
Speaker 2 (13:53):
I was thinking about that today, knowing we were gonna
talk about it a bit, and I remember my friend
Dennis telling me about meditation for the first time when
I was probably fifteen. Again, I have always been kind
of an anxious person, and when I remember, we were
(14:17):
on the phone and he was just kind of talking
me through some life stuff and giving me advice, and
then he told me how to do a meditation. I
was already laying on the couch. He said, just kind
of relax your body one section at a time, So
start with like your feet, move up to your ankles
(14:37):
and your cabs and your knees and so on. So
I did that whole thing, and I was like, Wow,
that felt amazing. I like to just relax that way,
and so that was my first exposure to it. And
then I started getting into like the spiritual direction pretty
soon after that, with books and meeting friends who were
(15:01):
into spiritual stuff and meditation and things, so sporadic throughout
my life until about there were times where I would
do it for a little while. But in twenty twenty one,
I think it was I made a pact to my
(15:22):
sort of like a deal with myself that I would
do it every single day, no matter what, And so
I did it for like over two hundred days, and wow.
On there were days at first where I was like,
is this even doing anything? And sometimes I'm in a
rush and sometimes I can do it two minute one.
(15:45):
Sometimes I am in a crazy rush, and I'm like,
does driving meditation exist? So I searched that up and
what do you know it does? And is this safe?
And well, it keeps you focused on in the moment
what you're doing right now, So yeah, it's cool, it's safe.
So you know, I just found a way to do
it no matter what, every single day at the start
(16:05):
of every day. And in addition to doing that, I
was also spending maybe thirty minutes per evening just self
reflecting and analyzing, thinking about my own patterns, journaling, making
lists of gratitude, and just really trying to understand myself
(16:29):
and why I sort of am the way I am
not that it's bad or anything, but just sort of
understand my general patterns and habits and where they came from,
and what am I trying to gain through those and accomplish,
and are there better ways to accomplish whatever I'm trying
(16:54):
to do. So yeah, I worked on that and meditation
day and then after about thirty days, not knowing if
it was doing anything beneficial, suddenly I realized that my
baseline mood was very, very even keeled, whereas usually it
(17:15):
was kind of like jittery, nervous, like bouncing around energy
getting you know, tons of stuff done, but just this
nervous energy.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
And so.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
I noticed I had calmed down. My mind had quieted
down just regularly throughout the day. It wasn't so chattery,
and I was able to handle stressors a lot better
and get over things much quicker. So I was like, wow,
I feel amazing. This is the best thing ever. So
(17:48):
I continued and did that. That was about thirty days
in and I continued throughout, you know, over two hundred days.
And then and then I made some unwise life decision
that led me to kind of veer off the path
and get distracted by things that were stressful instead, which
(18:12):
taught me another lesson. Yeah, you need to get to
take care of you no matter what, and if something
is veering you away from taking care of you, you
need to analyze that.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
So absolutely, two hundred days straight is pretty amazing. Like
I for lint this year, I told myself I was
going to meditate at least five days a week, Like
I always give myself an out because I have such
a hard time sticking with something for so long, and
(18:47):
so I'm like, Okay, I'm just going to do it
five days a week for at least five minutes a day.
And I did. I stuck with it, and then as
soon as Easter hit, I did it for like two
more days. And then id that a kid Like, I'm
I'm in awe that you were able to do it
two hundred days straight. And I know there were people
out there who who were probably probably in that Yeah,
(19:11):
raise their hand. I've never missed a day for twenty years.
That's amazing too. But that that amount of dedication is
always impressive to me. I have to ask about the
driving meditation, like how does that work?
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Well. I was a little nervous about that at first
because I was like I don't want to, you know,
be unsafe and crash into somebody. I'm sorry. I was meditating,
you know, but I I just did. It keeps you focused,
so it's like your hands are on the steering wheel,
your eyes are on the road, you know, things like
(19:47):
that where it just really keeps you in the moment
and alert, not sleepy. It's not too the voice isn't
too relaxing, at least one I found. So yeah, it's
it's fair focused on here and now, which is helpful,
which is mindfulness, and that's good to practice in general.
I've noticed that practicing mindfulness kind of slows time down
(20:13):
a little bit, because time always feels like it's going
by so fast. Right the year is, how where did
the year go? It's already November, blah blah blah. But
mindfulness like being present in this moment. You can just
keep bringing yourself back again and again when your mind
is wandering to tomorrow, to yesterday and so on, all
(20:34):
the maybes and the noise, just quiet it down, bring
yourself back right here each time you notice yourself doing that,
and it really helps you to appreciate and get the
most out of every day. I think That's what I found.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
So when you journal, do you free flow right or
do you have like something that you focus on every night?
Like I I did a five year gratitude journal, So
every night I wrote down something I was thankful for.
Sometimes it was just I'm thankful, I'm alive, you know.
(21:17):
Other times it was big things. Sometimes it's just, you know,
thankful I had an hour with my sister or something
like that. But I typically I journal just like every
My life is very much in spurts, like oh, if
I feel the need to do something, I will do
it until I no longer feel the need to do it,
and then I stop, even though it was a good
(21:38):
thing that I should keep doing. That's one of my patterns.
But when you were doing like or when you when
you journal, do you have anything specific that you focus on.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
I think I just kind of go with whatever is
on my mind at the times. So if I feel
something to work through a problem in anywhere in life,
I can just sit there and write it all out,
like write every thought and feeling, and then it helps
(22:13):
me to kind of see the big picture and maybe
figure out what's important here and what I can do
to change something that needs changing. Or change my perspective,
or talk through it with another person, whatever is needed.
But yeah, just kind of whatever's in the forefront of
(22:35):
my mind at that time is usually what I write about.
But Gratitude five year Gratitude journal. That's wonderful. I would
love to get in the same habit of doing that
again every day because even voicing it out loud at
the end of your day, even if you don't write
it down, if you are with your partner or just
(22:56):
by yourself, it really doesn't matter. But just thinking, okay,
what well today. That's a doctor amen tip. Have you
heard of doctor Daniel Aman. He's a brain doctor. He's
done all kinds of brain scans, and he's written several
books that I've read. I've followed his work for quite
(23:17):
some time, like eight years or something. Anyway, says, even
if you have the worst day in the world, think okay,
what was one thing that went right today? And so
he talks about how when his father passed away, like
he still found one thing that went well or right,
and so there's always things to be grateful for, is
(23:39):
the point. And focusing on that kind of rewires our
energy and changes our perspective because we as humans have
a negativity bias naturally in our brain. We're wired to
look for danger and bad you know, stay away from
(24:02):
that stuff because scary. So we have to intentionally rewire
our brain to focus on what's good. Let me find positive.
What's you know, Oh, look an active kindness that some
person is doing for another person, or tell somebody something
nice about themselves that you didn't have to say it,
(24:25):
but you might make them smile. It's just focus on
the good. Speak about the good, and you start to
feel better inside. It rewires your thoughts. You're changing your words,
and you start to change your actions, your energy, and
then what I feel like, what we put out we
(24:49):
often get back. So you know, I don't know, I'm
a little.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Bit No, you're not. No, that all made sense to me, flowed. Yeah,
And I say, I stopped doing the Gratitude journal, but
I still like I got into that habit. Before I
fall asleep every night, I go through this list of
what I'm thankful for and thank you for whatever good
(25:16):
thing happened today. And I've kind of done that since
a really rough patch back in two thousand and three.
But the journal made me really like get into the
daily habit like I'd already I'd been practicing it, like
when things are tough, you know, the whole I count
(25:38):
my I fall asleep, counting my blessings kind of thing,
because I was I was going through a separation and
ultimately a divorce, and I wasn't sleeping, and I wasn't eating,
and I was you know, it was just tough time.
It was a it was kind of a shocking situation,
and I wasn't dealing with it well. But once I started,
once I started remembering all the things that were going
(26:02):
right in my life, you know, stopped stopped focusing on
the thing that was going wrong or that I thought
was going wrong at the time. Turned out it was
probably the best thing that could ever happen to me.
But you know, when you're going through it, that's hard
to that's hard to know. But yeah, I started counting
my blessings. And then my best friend gave me the
(26:24):
five year Gratitude Journal, and I was like, Okay, I'm committed.
It's right next to my bed, it's the last thing
I'll look at before I go to sleep, all write
down the one thing, and now I just literally every
night before I fall asleep, go through my list of
everything I'm grateful for, and sometimes I fall asleep in
the middle of the list.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
And that's okay too. You went gratitude.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Exactly, but it is. It does what you said, like,
it does rewire your brain, and it also helps with mindfulness.
Like during the day, I'll have moments of, well, this
is so cool that I get to talk to this person,
or you know, this is so cool that I'm sitting
in the sunshine and just you know, relaxing for five
(27:16):
minutes between meetings or something. You know, like just those
moments of I am really lucky to be where I
am right now.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
You know, Oh man, that makes me happy. Yeah, that
kind of stuff just feels way better than you think
it would if people haven't naturally been known to do
that or haven't been taught to do that. Like it
just doing something like that repeatedly releases good chemicals and
(27:49):
hormones in our bodies, and it just makes us feel
better overall, and we're not so complaining and yeah, gruggy,
and I feel you. I mean, there's reasons to be
complaining and grouchy, But the more what we focus on
is what is going to persist and grow, So we
(28:10):
have to choose.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yeah, and you get to wake up every morning and choose, and.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Yeah, you can change right now at any moment.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah, it's really it's awesome. Yeah. So when we talk
about things like self reflection and looking at your own patterns,
when you first started doing that, was there like a
specific moment where you, like where you were thinking, oh wait,
(28:43):
why does this keep happening? Or was you know, was
there any sort of epiphany moment, or did you just
kind of slide into that habit.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
It. I just felt like I knew I had some
healing to do, and I had been in relationships that
were ultimately painful and didn't end peacefully because they weren't
(29:21):
going peacefully. But I just knew that I needed to
do some healing, that the only thing I could change
was myself, that the only thing I had power over
was myself and what I chose to do. So after
each end of a relationship or another hard time in life,
(29:44):
I would try to look at what lessons I gained
from it, how I could have been better, how I
should be better in the future, how I handled things,
and tried to understand why, you know, why do I
tend to react this way when someone does something like
this to me, you know, what's that about? Where did
(30:07):
that for? I was listening to all kinds of positive
content too, so that helped books and podcasts and other things.
So I was like, Okay, where did that first show
up that I can remember? And what was the situation
back then? And what am I trying to feel when
I do this?
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Like?
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Am I trying to feel safe? Am I trying to
feel loved? And I you know, what do I need?
And so how do I meet my own needs to
give myself what I'm looking for? So, yeah, it was
just kind of that process that based on trying to
quiet down my exit me sorry, my anxiety with all
(30:47):
kinds of positive and uplifting content leading to me understanding
step by step ways that I could begin to heal
my past and a better version me be better in
the world in my relationships. And it feels like that's
(31:08):
kind of the goal, be gaining knowledge and experience and wisdom,
And I mean that excites me. I want to be
the best I can be in the world because that's
what I have the most control over.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
That's so true. Yeah, it's very true. I kind of
did the same thing lots of listening to podcasts and
reading and just I've always had friends who are into
psychic stuff and meditation and just having enough people say
(31:47):
you know, hmmm, I kind of see a pattern here,
you know, And finally I listened at some point and
started thinking, Okay, what is it the same thing? What
is why? Why am I doing these things? Like what
is it in my past that makes me react to
situations this way? And why? And what can I do
(32:12):
to change that? Like even if it's something as simple
as reminding myself that the person standing in front of
me who's saying whatever it is that triggers me is
not the same person who, you know, thirty years ago
caused me to feel this way. So I can't be
mad at the person standing in front of me. They
don't know that history, right, and that's not where they're
(32:35):
coming from, like they're you know, and just that sort
of thing. So the interactions with with others I used
to I mean, I've always been sensitive because I'm an impath,
but I used to be like overly sensitive about things
like any any criticism. Like, you know, I never thought
I was perfect, but if you point out that I'm
(32:56):
not perfect, it just really hurt my feelings so much
that it was you know, this is a long time ago,
but yeah, it was like, just well, that means you
hate me, and that's not that's not at all where
people are coming from, you know, but that's that was
the kind of stuff that I had to deal with,
you know, for myself, Like, and I'm not going to
(33:18):
have a good relationship with anybody if I can't take
criticism when they're trying to help me, you know, and
it's you know, you're even construction. Constructive criticism would set
me off back then, and now I'm like, yeah, please
criticize me because I don't. I don't know any better
until you tell me better, you know. So Yeah, it's
(33:42):
it's really important work, and it's I think eventually most
people come to it at some point in their lives.
I hope. I'm an optimist.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yeah, I hope for everyone that they do, because it
really makes a huge difference and life doesn't have to
be crap like for some people. It literally feels like
it always is, you know, and it doesn't have to
be that way. Yeah, It's just yeah, that self work
(34:18):
is amazing and we're never done, we're never perfect. Now,
we're never oh I've arrived, I'm the best me ever,
it doesn't work that way, but just continuing on that
journey actually feels good. Do you feel like you're always
growing and learning?
Speaker 1 (34:37):
And I think that's what we're here for, is to learn.
So yeah, and does yeah eventually be just always try
to be a better person than you were yesterday.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Yes, yeah. Don't compete with other people exactly if you
were yesterday self.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Yeah. And if you're having a day where you just
can't compete with your yesterday's self, there's always tomorrow. It's
gonna be okay.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Yeah, that's a good point. You don't have to be
a go getter every single day, but just do your
best with where you're at each day, and it's better
than not trying at all.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
So all right, we've had words of wisdom from April.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
I love it you too, ma'am. This is really nice.
I like to be able to talk with people about
stuff like this because it's just really rewarding to be
doing it, and it's nice to connect with others about
it and kind of hear other people's journeys through healing
(35:50):
and all that too.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
I'm a spiritual person. These things like I don't believe
in anything as far as paranormal. I've had experiences, but
I don't like religiously believe in anything. Personally, I am
just open to a lot of things, and I do
not know how the world works. I can only guess
(36:13):
and I like to speculate about it. It's fun to
have conversations, and I like it when I have experiences.
It's really cool. I want to hear about other people's experiences. Yeah, yeah,
I'm spiritual and oh just a little bit with my
head in the clouds, but my feet still on the
(36:34):
ground most of the time.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
I knew you were a kindred spirit. No, it's it is.
It's fun to talk about this stuff. And it doesn't
always have to be ghost stories and Bigfoot and you know,
all the stuff that I love to cover. Sometimes it's
just really important to share how you've gone through your
(36:57):
healing journey, and because there are so many people out
there who, you know, maybe having like a really crappy year,
and I get it. I have. I have a lot
of friends who are in the midst of very crappy years.
And it's not just because of you know, the bigger
picture of everything that's going on in the world. They're
(37:19):
just you know, injuries and rough times at work and
stuff like that, and just you know, I hope that
they get some pearls of wisdom from listening to conversations
like this, some little thing that they can grab onto
and maybe put into practice that can help them at
(37:43):
least turn around the way that they're reacting to what's
going on, you know, or just finding that one little
thing each day to be thankful for, like we were
talking about, even even if you just find the one thing,
it's you don't have to be like all happiness and
sunshine every minute of the day, but yeah, if you can,
(38:05):
if you can in the day with a happy thought,
it's okay. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yeah, Or even just so this didn't suck, right, this
one thing didn't suck today. That's the best you can muster.
That's okay.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
There are so many things like going for a walk
every day is hugely beneficial to your body and your
mind and your spirit, your mood, everything. So little habits
that you can implement that you don't have to take
a long time to do can make all the difference.
(38:43):
Reframing situations. I'll have to look that one up because
It's really an interesting concept. I try to reframe all
the time, because our perception is what makes things painful
or hard or sad. It's you know, it's two people
(39:05):
can experience the same situation very differently based on their perspective.
So being able to figure out how to change our
perspective a little at a time is extremely helpful.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Yeah, making easier, Yes, anytime you can step back and
kind of look at things a little more objectively, which
can be really hard in some situations. But to step
back and say, Okay, why why am I responding this way?
What is in their background that's making them respond that way?
(39:44):
Because we all have different frames of reference and that's like,
that's I learned that in interpersonal communication one oh one
back in college. You know, like everybody brings their own
frame of reference and that's the filter that they experience
the world through. Yes, and so if you can step
back and like, you know, you know what your frame
(40:06):
of reference is, but step back and realize that that
person has had a completely different life than you have,
and so so why why are they responding or why
are they feeling what they're feeling? And you don't have
to sit down and have like a full on counseling
session with them, you know, But just to be able
to like calm the emotions down and look at it
(40:28):
with some curiosity can help diffuse, diffuse arguments and that
sort of thing. Or even just yeah, like sometimes you're
not even a participant. You just witness like an exchange,
and yet because the energy of the exchange was very
(40:52):
you know, chaotic or negative, it leaves an impression on
you and so or you may maybe people that you
like close to and you don't want them arguing or
that sort of thing. But to be able to kind
of step back and start asking those questions can help
you deal with it a little bit better. But maybe
it could also help you know what to say to
(41:15):
kind of help calm the situation. But don't you know,
you don't have to be a superhero nobody, And I'm
not telling everybody to just jump in the middle of
a fight or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
Right, but it's good to develop skills of de escalating
situations like that for sure, because yeah, people, I think
a huge part of the problem in arguments between people
who know each other and maybe even people who don't,
(41:47):
but they assume the other person's attention intentions, and so
they're you did that because you you know, like they
envision that this person is just doesn't care about them,
and so they did this thing or any number of
other things. And so assuming that bad intention from someone
(42:12):
who loves you and normally doesn't do things that reflect
what you just thought about them, you know, you need
to kind of analyze all of it and go, Okay,
what's the usual behavior. Could this have been an honest mistake?
Could they have meant it another way? Should I hear
them out? Yes? You should always hear them.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
Out, yes, So yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
That curiosity thing, I think is really important. And I've
heard kind of imagining your partner or anyone else that
you're close to as a little kid. You know, because
our our responses to triggers, which is outbursts, sometimes come
(42:57):
from things we copingisms we developed as little kids. I
think you mentioned that earlier. So like we're really just
all little kids doing the best you know that we
can in our adult bodies. But yeah, emotionally we revert
back to things we did as children. So it takes
(43:20):
some work to practice getting out of that. When we
work together, like back and forth, give each other feedback
and help each other and understand each other all that
it really helps to heal more and more people, which
is necessary for the whole world. Honestly, we're all a
(43:43):
little bit damaged. Yeah, but I don't feel like anything
can touch that that core of us, you know, that
spirit like heart, whatever you want to call it. It's yeah, yeah,
I think that we can always tune into that if
(44:04):
we kind of figure out how I guess there's always
that inner wisdom and that little light that hopefully maybe
never goes out.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
Yeah. Yeah, thinking back to like what I was saying
about how I was, I did not handle criticism. Well,
I don't think either of my parents listened a bit
this podcast, so I can share a little bit because
and if they do, you know, mom and dad, it's okay.
But I was one or I am one of four children,
(44:39):
and I was the straight A student nerd. You know,
I'm the one of the middle children. So there was
always the middle child issues like you know, and then
on top of that the straight A student. So I
was expected to always forever get straight a's because I did,
And so I if I got to be oh my gosh,
(45:03):
why did you get to be like this is horrible,
the world's going to end kind of attitude. But if
my brothers or my sister got to be, it was
celebrating time. So I did not, you know, I was
held to a different standard, and you know, it would
be what the heck is wrong with you? Why did
you get to be? And I that that is the reason. Yeah,
(45:26):
that is, you're the angel. But that's the reason that
as I got older, I didn't handle criticism well because
it was like, there's what, no, I'm supposed to be.
I'm supposed to be the good one. I'm supposed to
be the smart one. Why how how did I mess
that up? And you know, so then I get to
beat myself up, and and of course, because i'm beating
(45:48):
myself up, I don't want to be around the people
who just criticized me because they made me feel bad
about my and that's not that was never their intention,
you know, but that's that was one of the things
that I had to work through for myself, Like there
was nobody else could do that for me. I just
had to figure it out. And now when I talk
about it to my boyfriend, he's like, well, I'm sorry
(46:10):
you went through that. I'm like, I really, I'm actually
I'm not sorry I went through that because that was
part of my learning experience in this lifetime, and now
I can be empathetic to other people who've had to
go through the same thing and maybe help them if
they aren't quite to the point where they've figured out
(46:31):
how to change the way they respond.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
It's so good. Yeah, oh man, Yeah, I don't think
we go through anything without the opportunity to gain something
from it. So it's great that you have have that
wisdom from it, you know. Yeah, awareness of how it's valuable.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
And that all of it plays together, the optimism, the gratitude.
Like if you look at every experience, and sometimes it
takes years before you can look back at some experiences
with that, Oh that's the lesson I was I was learning,
you know. But if you look at everything is a
lesson learned and what can you take from it, then
(47:22):
it does make the hard days a little bit easier.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
Yeah, there's something something there. You can dig through all
the muck and find silver lining, a lesson, a blessing.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
You know.
Speaker 2 (47:39):
I have all these quotes that float around in my
head all the time, and I sometimes mix them up,
but there's I made myself lose my train of thought.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
Actually, I do that all the time.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
There's always there's always something to be fat.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
That's good.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
Oh. Some people say something like not getting what you
want is the biggest blessing. You know, what you thought
you wanted, it can turn out to be the biggest blessing. So, yeah,
there was earlier when you were in it, it's painful.
(48:25):
Later you're like, oh, thank god it went that way. Yeah,
I wouldn't I wouldn't have then gotten to do this,
this is, and this, or I wouldn't have become better
in this way or met these people or whatever exactly. Yeah,
whether it's a job or anything anything in life.
Speaker 1 (48:46):
Yeah, yeah, that old country song. Some some of God's
greatest gifts are unsure prayers, which that's I mean. And
I wasn't much of a entry fan, but that was
one that stuck with me.
Speaker 2 (49:03):
Yeah, that's a good one. I like that.
Speaker 1 (49:04):
Yeah. Yeah, I'm an old metal head, so the fact
that I can quote country from the eighties kind of funny.
Speaker 2 (49:14):
I have definitely been into quite a bit of metal
myself throughout my life. Nice. We'll have to talk about
that sometime too. Yeah, he's like music yes.
Speaker 1 (49:28):
Yeah, well this has been great. I don't want to
keep you any later. It's we've been talking for about
an hour now, so I totally appreciate your time. This
has been a really fun conversation and I appreciate it.
I hope that my listeners also got a little something
(49:49):
out of it, or at least, you know, we're like
yelling at their speaker going yes, I get that too,
or something along this line. Thank you, I hope, so
thank you.
Speaker 2 (50:02):
I'm honored. Like I said, I've never been on any podcasts,
so thank you for having me. I really appreciate you
and your time too, and just having a great conversation
with you.
Speaker 1 (50:14):
I'm honored that I got to be your first podcast.
Speaker 2 (50:18):
Ah, thank you.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
Thanks again to April for sharing her experiences and wisdom,
and thanks to you for listening. If you are interested
in sharing your own paranormal experiences, or if you have
an idea for an episode topic, please reach out through
the contact form at peappodcast dot com. That's peeppodcast dot com.
(50:41):
Remember that stands for people experiencing everyday paranormal. While you're there,
subscribe to my newsletter to keep up with the podcast
and all my creative and energetic endeavors. I usually only
email it once a month. You'll receive briefs on recent episodes,
information on any upcoming appearances, and some occasional fun extras.
(51:04):
If you enjoy the podcast, please give it some rating
love on your favorite podcast app, Share it with friends
and subscribes. You don't miss an episode. Ratings, reviews and
shares help platforms like Apple podcast and Spotify. I know
it's worthy of surfacing to new listeners, and as we
build our audience, we have more chances to hear their
paranormal stories. A huge thank you to everyone who has
(51:27):
given the show some love. You're hoping it grow. No
matter how you support the show, listening, telling others about it,
or any other way, I absolutely appreciate your being here.
Thanks again for listening. Stay safe and be well.
Speaker 4 (52:09):
Instead the scot As the income.
Speaker 3 (52:45):
Disco become the care there to be my own.
Speaker 5 (53:01):
Up A Supersteps said the Sad Set Supper at Alida
(53:30):
sat superst Superstist
My interest in all things paranormal has led me to
meet some pretty amazing humans, and in this episode, I'll
introduce you to one of them. Welcome to the PEA Podcast.
(00:39):
I'm your host, Nicole Morock, and I'm grateful you're here.
The two big ideas behind the peap podcast are to
show that the paranormal is more normal than most people think,
and to connect the science to the SI, including esp psychokinesis,
and intuition. In this episode, you'll meet April Rose, a
wonderful soul whom I I was lucky enough to briefly
(01:01):
meet last year at Monsterfest too. We connected on social
media after the event, and her posts are always positive
and often full of wisdom. I could tell she's a
kindred spirit, so I asked her on the show to
just talk about her paranormal experiences and the journey she's on,
including her practices of meditation and self reflection. Let's dive
(01:24):
in with April. Hi, April, how are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I'm doing great? How are you?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I'm doing so well and I am so thankful that
you were here joining me on the Peak Podcast. I
have been wanting to talk to you for a while
because you post some really cool stuff on your social
media Facebook in particular, you're always talking about not always,
(01:51):
but often talking about meditation, and you have these little
bits of wisdom that you share, and I just feel
like you have a lot of wisdom that you can
share with my listeners. But you also have paranormal stories,
and of course, as the podcast being about people experiencing
(02:13):
every day paranormal, super interested in those two. So I think,
if it's okay with you and you just want to
launch into your stories, I'm all ears, Okay.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well, thank you for having me. I'm honored to be here.
So if we're going into paranormal, there have been a
couple of things that happened that I could only consider
ghost sightings because I don't know what else to classify
(02:48):
them as. Not that I understand the way that the
entire universe works or anything, but that's what I would
call them. So the first one, I was about fifteen,
and my dad was downstairs washing his truck outside and
(03:09):
he had the front door open, and I remember watching
TV and I saw my dad walk by and go
around the in the hall and around the corner into
his bedroom and close the door. And then a few
minutes later, my dad came in the front door again
(03:30):
without having passed by, And when I asked my dad
how he got passed without me seeing him again, he said,
I haven't been up here, So then he went and
checked his room and nothing was you know, no one
was in there. So something walked by, and I wasn't
looking directly at it, so it was just kind of
(03:53):
like barely registering that my dad had walked by, but
it wasn't my dad. So whoever that was.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Did it sound like you, dad, You know, like everybody
has a way of walking, don't that.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
I don't think I registered. It was just I think
our floor was carpeted, I believe, and I don't remember
any particular sounds, and it was broad daylight, and I
don't know. It was just sort of weird. The other
one I find more interesting. The second time that I
(04:31):
saw something I couldn't explain was I was about twenty one,
living with my ex boyfriend and our two roommates and
other couple, and I was it was a weekend morning
and I woke up in a weird way, like I
woke up and I just sat up in bed like automatically,
(04:55):
without without kind of opening my eyes giving a stretch
like normally would, I just like sat straight up, like
as if out of a dream suddenly, And that's never
happened to me before or since. And when I looked
at the end of the bed, it was morning, and
there was a little boy standing at the end of
my bed, and he was watching me, and he just
(05:17):
looked like a normal person. And there were no other
kids or anything in this house. It was just our
two roommates in their bedroom sleeping and us in our
bedroom sleeping. And the little boy was looking at me,
and he had brown hair and his striped shirt on,
kind of like eighties seventies or eighties style T shirt.
(05:38):
And then I kind of laid back down and chuckled,
which kind of woke my thin boyfriend up a little bit,
and he said, what happened? I said, oh, nothing, I thought.
I just saw a little boy at the end of
our bed. And I went back to sleep. And then
a few days later I forgot about that whole situation.
(05:58):
We didn't even talk about it, and we fully woke
up a few days later. We wake up to my
female roommate crying, like loudly crying. She was very upset,
and we go out and into the hall and say, hey,
what's going on, what's wrong? And she said that she
woke up in her room and there was a little
boy in her room and he was looking at her,
(06:21):
and she said, I got scared and pulled the covers
over my head and pulled them down, and then he
got closer, and she freaked out and just started bawling.
And I said, oh, and I got a chill over
my body. I said, what did he look like? And
she described him wearing a striped shirt and had brown hair,
and he was about seven or eight, I'd say, as
(06:45):
far as my memory serves. But then I knew, oh,
that wasn't a dream. I thought I kind of had
a like a dream where I thought my eyes were opened,
but they weren't until that happened. And then I was like, WHOA,
so confirmed, we've all saw the same thing.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
That's intense.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
So did he look pretty solid?
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Mm hmmm yeah, just like as if a little boy
had walked into our house. And for some reason I
didn't feel scared or shocked or freaked out, which is
also weird. I just kind of was like, huh, okay,
that's not real.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
But I mean, we all react differently, but yeah, if
that's not exactly how you would have expected to react, Yeah, yeah,
I think her reaction was like the opposite extreme to
start crying and be that freaked out. So did how
much longer did you stay in that house after that?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Probably less than a year. And it wasn't because we
were afraid or anything to actually calm things down, because
she had more sort of fear about hauntings and things
like that, and she had more experiences in her life
that were really intense before we ever lived together and
(08:16):
all that. So I said, well, let's just name him Bobby,
you know, and he's our little house ghost friend. It's fine,
So we would call him Bobby. Hi, Bobby, like, never
saw him again, but you know, just to try and
make it kind of fun and not so scary.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yeah, for her, did you you never saw him again?
But did you have any other experiences that might have
felt like Bobby was around?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
No, I don't believe. So I don't recall anything else
strange happening in that house. Yeah, nothing that I can
think of, And it was just some kind of modern apartments.
Someone suggested many years later, if you know, you could
have looked up that apartment and that unit and see
(09:03):
if any if there was a family with little boy,
you know, that age and the time period you think
he came from. Did someone die in the house, stuff
like that. But that was quite some time ago. Now
I don't even know that I can remember the name
of the apartment units.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yeah, I understand that I can't even remember half of
the streets I've lived on over the years at this point. No,
that's still really interesting. So you got your cooperation from
your roommate and I you know, there are so many
reasons that something like that could happen, and everybody jumps
to ghost, but it could have also been like some
(09:43):
weird time slip where you know, he might have just
kind of faded in from some other time period or
a dimension. Yeah, there's so many possible ways, and people
are so much more open to all the different potential
reasons for experiences like that. So I just I just
(10:06):
love hearing the stories because it makes me feel better
about the experiences I've had in my life.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
I don't want to hear those.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, when we get together and talk.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Okay, that's perfect.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Okay, So have you had any other experiences.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Had this really strange situation happened once that I do
not know how to explain. I moved into a new
house and all our things were not completely put together
in their right place and everything yet, so our mattress
(10:48):
was on the floor, and I had a stainless steel
water canteen that I would wash out every night or
every morning and then used throughout the day and then
refill it at night and put it next to my bed.
And one morning, when I woke up to get ready
(11:09):
for work, I took my water canteen downstairs to go
wash it, and I noticed that the canteen felt warm
instead of cold. And I always put cold water in it,
so like straight out of the fridge kind of thing,
and it was warm. But I dumped what was in it,
(11:29):
and it was brown, and I was like, why, he's
my water brown? So that freaked me out of you know, gross,
What's that? I smelled the canteen and it smells like
black tea, just like real, just normal black tea. So
I'm going, how I put water in it last night,
(11:51):
and there's just a bit of tea in here, like
maybe you know, a few ounces of tea. And I
looked in the trash can and there's no tea bags.
I look up in the cupboard. No that kind of tea.
No clue, no idea how it happened, asked my son
if he had pranked us. No, like, I don't, I
(12:15):
have no idea. It's the weirdest thing. And I don't
know what the purpose of that would be unless it's
just like, you know, people or something likes to play tricks.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
I mean there supposedly there are tricksters out there, like, yeah,
the old stories of Coyota, Coyote and all the different
all the different cultures have some sort of trixtra element
to them. Yeah, that's a strange one. Or I mean,
if you really like tea, you could call it a miracle.
(12:51):
You turned water into tea without the tea bag or something.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
I thought of that. I was like Jesus turned water
into wine. They say that's funny. I did think of that,
but I was like, I don't get it. Still, you
can't find a spiritual meaning. It's just odd.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Yeah, it's just kind of random.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yeah, I would random.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I would totally talk that up to a trickster.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Could be yeah. Yeah. So that's that's the ones that
really stand out yeah, i'd say that's that's all at
the moment. If I think of anything, I'll mention it. Yeah,
if there's an opportune time.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Oh, you can always interrupt me and tell me about it. Okay,
So let's talk about meditation. When did you first start
doing meditation?
Speaker 2 (13:53):
I was thinking about that today, knowing we were gonna
talk about it a bit, and I remember my friend
Dennis telling me about meditation for the first time when
I was probably fifteen. Again, I have always been kind
of an anxious person, and when I remember, we were
(14:17):
on the phone and he was just kind of talking
me through some life stuff and giving me advice, and
then he told me how to do a meditation. I
was already laying on the couch. He said, just kind
of relax your body one section at a time, So
start with like your feet, move up to your ankles
(14:37):
and your cabs and your knees and so on. So
I did that whole thing, and I was like, Wow,
that felt amazing. I like to just relax that way,
and so that was my first exposure to it. And
then I started getting into like the spiritual direction pretty
soon after that, with books and meeting friends who were
(15:01):
into spiritual stuff and meditation and things, so sporadic throughout
my life until about there were times where I would
do it for a little while. But in twenty twenty one,
I think it was I made a pact to my
(15:22):
sort of like a deal with myself that I would
do it every single day, no matter what, And so
I did it for like over two hundred days, and wow.
On there were days at first where I was like,
is this even doing anything? And sometimes I'm in a
rush and sometimes I can do it two minute one.
(15:45):
Sometimes I am in a crazy rush, and I'm like,
does driving meditation exist? So I searched that up and
what do you know it does? And is this safe?
And well, it keeps you focused on in the moment
what you're doing right now, So yeah, it's cool, it's safe.
So you know, I just found a way to do
it no matter what, every single day at the start
(16:05):
of every day. And in addition to doing that, I
was also spending maybe thirty minutes per evening just self
reflecting and analyzing, thinking about my own patterns, journaling, making
lists of gratitude, and just really trying to understand myself
(16:29):
and why I sort of am the way I am
not that it's bad or anything, but just sort of
understand my general patterns and habits and where they came from,
and what am I trying to gain through those and accomplish,
and are there better ways to accomplish whatever I'm trying
(16:54):
to do. So yeah, I worked on that and meditation
day and then after about thirty days, not knowing if
it was doing anything beneficial, suddenly I realized that my
baseline mood was very, very even keeled, whereas usually it
(17:15):
was kind of like jittery, nervous, like bouncing around energy
getting you know, tons of stuff done, but just this
nervous energy.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
And so.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
I noticed I had calmed down. My mind had quieted
down just regularly throughout the day. It wasn't so chattery,
and I was able to handle stressors a lot better
and get over things much quicker. So I was like, wow,
I feel amazing. This is the best thing ever. So
(17:48):
I continued and did that. That was about thirty days
in and I continued throughout, you know, over two hundred days.
And then and then I made some unwise life decision
that led me to kind of veer off the path
and get distracted by things that were stressful instead, which
(18:12):
taught me another lesson. Yeah, you need to get to
take care of you no matter what, and if something
is veering you away from taking care of you, you
need to analyze that.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
So absolutely, two hundred days straight is pretty amazing. Like
I for lint this year, I told myself I was
going to meditate at least five days a week, Like
I always give myself an out because I have such
a hard time sticking with something for so long, and
(18:47):
so I'm like, Okay, I'm just going to do it
five days a week for at least five minutes a day.
And I did. I stuck with it, and then as
soon as Easter hit, I did it for like two
more days. And then id that a kid Like, I'm
I'm in awe that you were able to do it
two hundred days straight. And I know there were people
out there who who were probably probably in that Yeah,
(19:11):
raise their hand. I've never missed a day for twenty years.
That's amazing too. But that that amount of dedication is
always impressive to me. I have to ask about the
driving meditation, like how does that work?
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Well. I was a little nervous about that at first
because I was like I don't want to, you know,
be unsafe and crash into somebody. I'm sorry. I was meditating,
you know, but I I just did. It keeps you focused,
so it's like your hands are on the steering wheel,
your eyes are on the road, you know, things like
(19:47):
that where it just really keeps you in the moment
and alert, not sleepy. It's not too the voice isn't
too relaxing, at least one I found. So yeah, it's
it's fair focused on here and now, which is helpful,
which is mindfulness, and that's good to practice in general.
I've noticed that practicing mindfulness kind of slows time down
(20:13):
a little bit, because time always feels like it's going
by so fast. Right the year is, how where did
the year go? It's already November, blah blah blah. But
mindfulness like being present in this moment. You can just
keep bringing yourself back again and again when your mind
is wandering to tomorrow, to yesterday and so on, all
(20:34):
the maybes and the noise, just quiet it down, bring
yourself back right here each time you notice yourself doing that,
and it really helps you to appreciate and get the
most out of every day. I think That's what I found.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
So when you journal, do you free flow right or
do you have like something that you focus on every night?
Like I I did a five year gratitude journal, So
every night I wrote down something I was thankful for.
Sometimes it was just I'm thankful, I'm alive, you know.
(21:17):
Other times it was big things. Sometimes it's just, you know,
thankful I had an hour with my sister or something
like that. But I typically I journal just like every
My life is very much in spurts, like oh, if
I feel the need to do something, I will do
it until I no longer feel the need to do it,
and then I stop, even though it was a good
(21:38):
thing that I should keep doing. That's one of my patterns.
But when you were doing like or when you when
you journal, do you have anything specific that you focus on.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
I think I just kind of go with whatever is
on my mind at the times. So if I feel
something to work through a problem in anywhere in life,
I can just sit there and write it all out,
like write every thought and feeling, and then it helps
(22:13):
me to kind of see the big picture and maybe
figure out what's important here and what I can do
to change something that needs changing. Or change my perspective,
or talk through it with another person, whatever is needed.
But yeah, just kind of whatever's in the forefront of
(22:35):
my mind at that time is usually what I write about.
But Gratitude five year Gratitude journal. That's wonderful. I would
love to get in the same habit of doing that
again every day because even voicing it out loud at
the end of your day, even if you don't write
it down, if you are with your partner or just
(22:56):
by yourself, it really doesn't matter. But just thinking, okay,
what well today. That's a doctor amen tip. Have you
heard of doctor Daniel Aman. He's a brain doctor. He's
done all kinds of brain scans, and he's written several
books that I've read. I've followed his work for quite
(23:17):
some time, like eight years or something. Anyway, says, even
if you have the worst day in the world, think okay,
what was one thing that went right today? And so
he talks about how when his father passed away, like
he still found one thing that went well or right,
and so there's always things to be grateful for, is
(23:39):
the point. And focusing on that kind of rewires our
energy and changes our perspective because we as humans have
a negativity bias naturally in our brain. We're wired to
look for danger and bad you know, stay away from
(24:02):
that stuff because scary. So we have to intentionally rewire
our brain to focus on what's good. Let me find positive.
What's you know, Oh, look an active kindness that some
person is doing for another person, or tell somebody something
nice about themselves that you didn't have to say it,
(24:25):
but you might make them smile. It's just focus on
the good. Speak about the good, and you start to
feel better inside. It rewires your thoughts. You're changing your words,
and you start to change your actions, your energy, and
then what I feel like, what we put out we
(24:49):
often get back. So you know, I don't know, I'm
a little.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Bit No, you're not. No, that all made sense to me, flowed. Yeah,
And I say, I stopped doing the Gratitude journal, but
I still like I got into that habit. Before I
fall asleep every night, I go through this list of
what I'm thankful for and thank you for whatever good
(25:16):
thing happened today. And I've kind of done that since
a really rough patch back in two thousand and three.
But the journal made me really like get into the
daily habit like I'd already I'd been practicing it, like
when things are tough, you know, the whole I count
(25:38):
my I fall asleep, counting my blessings kind of thing,
because I was I was going through a separation and
ultimately a divorce, and I wasn't sleeping, and I wasn't eating,
and I was you know, it was just tough time.
It was a it was kind of a shocking situation,
and I wasn't dealing with it well. But once I started,
once I started remembering all the things that were going
(26:02):
right in my life, you know, stopped stopped focusing on
the thing that was going wrong or that I thought
was going wrong at the time. Turned out it was
probably the best thing that could ever happen to me.
But you know, when you're going through it, that's hard
to that's hard to know. But yeah, I started counting
my blessings. And then my best friend gave me the
(26:24):
five year Gratitude Journal, and I was like, Okay, I'm committed.
It's right next to my bed, it's the last thing
I'll look at before I go to sleep, all write
down the one thing, and now I just literally every
night before I fall asleep, go through my list of
everything I'm grateful for, and sometimes I fall asleep in
the middle of the list.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
And that's okay too. You went gratitude.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Exactly, but it is. It does what you said, like,
it does rewire your brain, and it also helps with mindfulness.
Like during the day, I'll have moments of, well, this
is so cool that I get to talk to this person,
or you know, this is so cool that I'm sitting
in the sunshine and just you know, relaxing for five
(27:16):
minutes between meetings or something. You know, like just those
moments of I am really lucky to be where I
am right now.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
You know, Oh man, that makes me happy. Yeah, that
kind of stuff just feels way better than you think
it would if people haven't naturally been known to do
that or haven't been taught to do that. Like it
just doing something like that repeatedly releases good chemicals and
(27:49):
hormones in our bodies, and it just makes us feel
better overall, and we're not so complaining and yeah, gruggy,
and I feel you. I mean, there's reasons to be
complaining and grouchy, But the more what we focus on
is what is going to persist and grow, So we
(28:10):
have to choose.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yeah, and you get to wake up every morning and choose, and.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Yeah, you can change right now at any moment.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah, it's really it's awesome. Yeah. So when we talk
about things like self reflection and looking at your own patterns,
when you first started doing that, was there like a
specific moment where you, like where you were thinking, oh wait,
(28:43):
why does this keep happening? Or was you know, was
there any sort of epiphany moment, or did you just
kind of slide into that habit.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
It. I just felt like I knew I had some
healing to do, and I had been in relationships that
were ultimately painful and didn't end peacefully because they weren't
(29:21):
going peacefully. But I just knew that I needed to
do some healing, that the only thing I could change
was myself, that the only thing I had power over
was myself and what I chose to do. So after
each end of a relationship or another hard time in life,
(29:44):
I would try to look at what lessons I gained
from it, how I could have been better, how I
should be better in the future, how I handled things,
and tried to understand why, you know, why do I
tend to react this way when someone does something like
this to me, you know, what's that about? Where did
(30:07):
that for? I was listening to all kinds of positive
content too, so that helped books and podcasts and other things.
So I was like, Okay, where did that first show
up that I can remember? And what was the situation
back then? And what am I trying to feel when
I do this?
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Like?
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Am I trying to feel safe? Am I trying to
feel loved? And I you know, what do I need?
And so how do I meet my own needs to
give myself what I'm looking for? So, yeah, it was
just kind of that process that based on trying to
quiet down my exit me sorry, my anxiety with all
(30:47):
kinds of positive and uplifting content leading to me understanding
step by step ways that I could begin to heal
my past and a better version me be better in
the world in my relationships. And it feels like that's
(31:08):
kind of the goal, be gaining knowledge and experience and wisdom,
And I mean that excites me. I want to be
the best I can be in the world because that's
what I have the most control over.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
That's so true. Yeah, it's very true. I kind of
did the same thing lots of listening to podcasts and
reading and just I've always had friends who are into
psychic stuff and meditation and just having enough people say
(31:47):
you know, hmmm, I kind of see a pattern here,
you know, And finally I listened at some point and
started thinking, Okay, what is it the same thing? What
is why? Why am I doing these things? Like what
is it in my past that makes me react to
situations this way? And why? And what can I do
(32:12):
to change that? Like even if it's something as simple
as reminding myself that the person standing in front of
me who's saying whatever it is that triggers me is
not the same person who, you know, thirty years ago
caused me to feel this way. So I can't be
mad at the person standing in front of me. They
don't know that history, right, and that's not where they're
(32:35):
coming from, like they're you know, and just that sort
of thing. So the interactions with with others I used
to I mean, I've always been sensitive because I'm an impath,
but I used to be like overly sensitive about things
like any any criticism. Like, you know, I never thought
I was perfect, but if you point out that I'm
(32:56):
not perfect, it just really hurt my feelings so much
that it was you know, this is a long time ago,
but yeah, it was like, just well, that means you
hate me, and that's not that's not at all where
people are coming from, you know, but that's that was
the kind of stuff that I had to deal with,
you know, for myself, Like, and I'm not going to
(33:18):
have a good relationship with anybody if I can't take
criticism when they're trying to help me, you know, and
it's you know, you're even construction. Constructive criticism would set
me off back then, and now I'm like, yeah, please
criticize me because I don't. I don't know any better
until you tell me better, you know. So Yeah, it's
(33:42):
it's really important work, and it's I think eventually most
people come to it at some point in their lives.
I hope. I'm an optimist.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yeah, I hope for everyone that they do, because it
really makes a huge difference and life doesn't have to
be crap like for some people. It literally feels like
it always is, you know, and it doesn't have to
be that way. Yeah, It's just yeah, that self work
(34:18):
is amazing and we're never done, we're never perfect. Now,
we're never oh I've arrived, I'm the best me ever,
it doesn't work that way, but just continuing on that
journey actually feels good. Do you feel like you're always
growing and learning?
Speaker 1 (34:37):
And I think that's what we're here for, is to learn.
So yeah, and does yeah eventually be just always try
to be a better person than you were yesterday.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Yes, yeah. Don't compete with other people exactly if you
were yesterday self.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Yeah. And if you're having a day where you just
can't compete with your yesterday's self, there's always tomorrow. It's
gonna be okay.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Yeah, that's a good point. You don't have to be
a go getter every single day, but just do your
best with where you're at each day, and it's better
than not trying at all.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
So all right, we've had words of wisdom from April.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
I love it you too, ma'am. This is really nice.
I like to be able to talk with people about
stuff like this because it's just really rewarding to be
doing it, and it's nice to connect with others about
it and kind of hear other people's journeys through healing
(35:50):
and all that too.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
I'm a spiritual person. These things like I don't believe
in anything as far as paranormal. I've had experiences, but
I don't like religiously believe in anything. Personally, I am
just open to a lot of things, and I do
not know how the world works. I can only guess
(36:13):
and I like to speculate about it. It's fun to
have conversations, and I like it when I have experiences.
It's really cool. I want to hear about other people's experiences. Yeah, yeah,
I'm spiritual and oh just a little bit with my
head in the clouds, but my feet still on the
(36:34):
ground most of the time.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
I knew you were a kindred spirit. No, it's it is.
It's fun to talk about this stuff. And it doesn't
always have to be ghost stories and Bigfoot and you know,
all the stuff that I love to cover. Sometimes it's
just really important to share how you've gone through your
(36:57):
healing journey, and because there are so many people out
there who, you know, maybe having like a really crappy year,
and I get it. I have. I have a lot
of friends who are in the midst of very crappy years.
And it's not just because of you know, the bigger
picture of everything that's going on in the world. They're
(37:19):
just you know, injuries and rough times at work and
stuff like that, and just you know, I hope that
they get some pearls of wisdom from listening to conversations
like this, some little thing that they can grab onto
and maybe put into practice that can help them at
(37:43):
least turn around the way that they're reacting to what's
going on, you know, or just finding that one little
thing each day to be thankful for, like we were
talking about, even even if you just find the one thing,
it's you don't have to be like all happiness and
sunshine every minute of the day, but yeah, if you can,
(38:05):
if you can in the day with a happy thought,
it's okay. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yeah, Or even just so this didn't suck, right, this
one thing didn't suck today. That's the best you can muster.
That's okay.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
There are so many things like going for a walk
every day is hugely beneficial to your body and your
mind and your spirit, your mood, everything. So little habits
that you can implement that you don't have to take
a long time to do can make all the difference.
(38:43):
Reframing situations. I'll have to look that one up because
It's really an interesting concept. I try to reframe all
the time, because our perception is what makes things painful
or hard or sad. It's you know, it's two people
(39:05):
can experience the same situation very differently based on their perspective.
So being able to figure out how to change our
perspective a little at a time is extremely helpful.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Yeah, making easier, Yes, anytime you can step back and
kind of look at things a little more objectively, which
can be really hard in some situations. But to step
back and say, Okay, why why am I responding this way?
What is in their background that's making them respond that way?
(39:44):
Because we all have different frames of reference and that's like,
that's I learned that in interpersonal communication one oh one
back in college. You know, like everybody brings their own
frame of reference and that's the filter that they experience
the world through. Yes, and so if you can step
back and like, you know, you know what your frame
(40:06):
of reference is, but step back and realize that that
person has had a completely different life than you have,
and so so why why are they responding or why
are they feeling what they're feeling? And you don't have
to sit down and have like a full on counseling
session with them, you know, But just to be able
to like calm the emotions down and look at it
(40:28):
with some curiosity can help diffuse, diffuse arguments and that
sort of thing. Or even just yeah, like sometimes you're
not even a participant. You just witness like an exchange,
and yet because the energy of the exchange was very
(40:52):
you know, chaotic or negative, it leaves an impression on
you and so or you may maybe people that you
like close to and you don't want them arguing or
that sort of thing. But to be able to kind
of step back and start asking those questions can help
you deal with it a little bit better. But maybe
it could also help you know what to say to
(41:15):
kind of help calm the situation. But don't you know,
you don't have to be a superhero nobody, And I'm
not telling everybody to just jump in the middle of
a fight or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
Right, but it's good to develop skills of de escalating
situations like that for sure, because yeah, people, I think
a huge part of the problem in arguments between people
who know each other and maybe even people who don't,
(41:47):
but they assume the other person's attention intentions, and so
they're you did that because you you know, like they
envision that this person is just doesn't care about them,
and so they did this thing or any number of
other things. And so assuming that bad intention from someone
(42:12):
who loves you and normally doesn't do things that reflect
what you just thought about them, you know, you need
to kind of analyze all of it and go, Okay,
what's the usual behavior. Could this have been an honest mistake?
Could they have meant it another way? Should I hear
them out? Yes? You should always hear them.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
Out, yes, So yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
That curiosity thing, I think is really important. And I've
heard kind of imagining your partner or anyone else that
you're close to as a little kid. You know, because
our our responses to triggers, which is outbursts, sometimes come
(42:57):
from things we copingisms we developed as little kids. I
think you mentioned that earlier. So like we're really just
all little kids doing the best you know that we
can in our adult bodies. But yeah, emotionally we revert
back to things we did as children. So it takes
(43:20):
some work to practice getting out of that. When we
work together, like back and forth, give each other feedback
and help each other and understand each other all that
it really helps to heal more and more people, which
is necessary for the whole world. Honestly, we're all a
(43:43):
little bit damaged. Yeah, but I don't feel like anything
can touch that that core of us, you know, that
spirit like heart, whatever you want to call it. It's yeah, yeah,
I think that we can always tune into that if
(44:04):
we kind of figure out how I guess there's always
that inner wisdom and that little light that hopefully maybe
never goes out.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
Yeah. Yeah, thinking back to like what I was saying
about how I was, I did not handle criticism. Well,
I don't think either of my parents listened a bit
this podcast, so I can share a little bit because
and if they do, you know, mom and dad, it's okay.
But I was one or I am one of four children,
(44:39):
and I was the straight A student nerd. You know,
I'm the one of the middle children. So there was
always the middle child issues like you know, and then
on top of that the straight A student. So I
was expected to always forever get straight a's because I did,
And so I if I got to be oh my gosh,
(45:03):
why did you get to be like this is horrible,
the world's going to end kind of attitude. But if
my brothers or my sister got to be, it was
celebrating time. So I did not, you know, I was
held to a different standard, and you know, it would
be what the heck is wrong with you? Why did
you get to be? And I that that is the reason. Yeah,
(45:26):
that is, you're the angel. But that's the reason that
as I got older, I didn't handle criticism well because
it was like, there's what, no, I'm supposed to be.
I'm supposed to be the good one. I'm supposed to
be the smart one. Why how how did I mess
that up? And you know, so then I get to
beat myself up, and and of course, because i'm beating
(45:48):
myself up, I don't want to be around the people
who just criticized me because they made me feel bad
about my and that's not that was never their intention,
you know, but that's that was one of the things
that I had to work through for myself, Like there
was nobody else could do that for me. I just
had to figure it out. And now when I talk
about it to my boyfriend, he's like, well, I'm sorry
(46:10):
you went through that. I'm like, I really, I'm actually
I'm not sorry I went through that because that was
part of my learning experience in this lifetime, and now
I can be empathetic to other people who've had to
go through the same thing and maybe help them if
they aren't quite to the point where they've figured out
(46:31):
how to change the way they respond.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
It's so good. Yeah, oh man, Yeah, I don't think
we go through anything without the opportunity to gain something
from it. So it's great that you have have that
wisdom from it, you know. Yeah, awareness of how it's valuable.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
And that all of it plays together, the optimism, the gratitude.
Like if you look at every experience, and sometimes it
takes years before you can look back at some experiences
with that, Oh that's the lesson I was I was learning,
you know. But if you look at everything is a
lesson learned and what can you take from it, then
(47:22):
it does make the hard days a little bit easier.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
Yeah, there's something something there. You can dig through all
the muck and find silver lining, a lesson, a blessing.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
You know.
Speaker 2 (47:39):
I have all these quotes that float around in my
head all the time, and I sometimes mix them up,
but there's I made myself lose my train of thought.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
Actually, I do that all the time.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
There's always there's always something to be fat.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
That's good.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
Oh. Some people say something like not getting what you
want is the biggest blessing. You know, what you thought
you wanted, it can turn out to be the biggest blessing. So, yeah,
there was earlier when you were in it, it's painful.
(48:25):
Later you're like, oh, thank god it went that way. Yeah,
I wouldn't I wouldn't have then gotten to do this,
this is, and this, or I wouldn't have become better
in this way or met these people or whatever exactly. Yeah,
whether it's a job or anything anything in life.
Speaker 1 (48:46):
Yeah, yeah, that old country song. Some some of God's
greatest gifts are unsure prayers, which that's I mean. And
I wasn't much of a entry fan, but that was
one that stuck with me.
Speaker 2 (49:03):
Yeah, that's a good one. I like that.
Speaker 1 (49:04):
Yeah. Yeah, I'm an old metal head, so the fact
that I can quote country from the eighties kind of funny.
Speaker 2 (49:14):
I have definitely been into quite a bit of metal
myself throughout my life. Nice. We'll have to talk about
that sometime too. Yeah, he's like music yes.
Speaker 1 (49:28):
Yeah, well this has been great. I don't want to
keep you any later. It's we've been talking for about
an hour now, so I totally appreciate your time. This
has been a really fun conversation and I appreciate it.
I hope that my listeners also got a little something
(49:49):
out of it, or at least, you know, we're like
yelling at their speaker going yes, I get that too,
or something along this line. Thank you, I hope, so
thank you.
Speaker 2 (50:02):
I'm honored. Like I said, I've never been on any podcasts,
so thank you for having me. I really appreciate you
and your time too, and just having a great conversation
with you.
Speaker 1 (50:14):
I'm honored that I got to be your first podcast.
Speaker 2 (50:18):
Ah, thank you.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
Thanks again to April for sharing her experiences and wisdom,
and thanks to you for listening. If you are interested
in sharing your own paranormal experiences, or if you have
an idea for an episode topic, please reach out through
the contact form at peappodcast dot com. That's peeppodcast dot com.
(50:41):
Remember that stands for people experiencing everyday paranormal. While you're there,
subscribe to my newsletter to keep up with the podcast
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(51:04):
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(51:27):
given the show some love. You're hoping it grow. No
matter how you support the show, listening, telling others about it,
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Thanks again for listening. Stay safe and be well.
Speaker 4 (52:09):
Instead the scot As the income.
Speaker 3 (52:45):
Disco become the care there to be my own.
Speaker 5 (53:01):
Up A Supersteps said the Sad Set Supper at Alida
(53:30):
sat superst Superstist
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