Unfinished: A Personal Journey of Healing, Self-Discovery and Resilience

Halloween has come and gone for another year along with all the leftover chips and chocolate bars. As a kid, I couldn't wait, eagerly anticipating the entire event: the costume that I would wear and the plans to cover as much territory as possible in the allotted time. It was great fun!

I have noticed over the past decade or so, a large increase in the number of households that go to great extremes to enhance the various themes of the occasion. Some are amazing to say the least. But as I walked past the many Halloween displays in my neighborhood, I became very aware of the ones that oozed a foreboding vibration.

Over the last few years, I have purposefully focused more of my attention on energy, both the positive and negative that I pick up from people, locations or objects.

Everything radiates one or the other and it can be extremely powerful. I had such an experience when I was a police officer working a midnight shift. This particular night, I drove to a remote area that I would often check on. The parking area was vacant and no one was in sight. I got out of my cruiser to discard some trash in a nearby garbage bin. From out of nowhere, I became engulfed in an ominous energy of fear and alarm prompting me to get the hell out of there as fast as possible. Logically, it couldn't be explained but what occurred, undeniable.

Have you ever crossed paths with someone that just exudes a negative aura? Far different than those that prompts quite the opposite, the kind of people that inspire and motivate; the kind of people that just feel good to be around.

James Redfield, the author of "The Celestine Prophecy" series, discusses this energy that is present in our physical world; we only have to allow ourselves to be open to its presence.

I am particularly energized when I immerse myself in nature. Even when I was experiencing some of my darkest moments, being in a forest or near water, instilled some hope that helped me to go on.

Becoming more aware of "energy" has changed the dynamics of some of my friendships, some dissolving entirely. Not that they were bad people, we just no longer resonated at the same level and it was time to move on.

There certainly are days when I am out of sorts, for whatever reason and my negativity only attracts more of the same (also known as the Law of Attraction!). But sometimes that energy can totally shift when someone offers me a kind word or gesture or a compliment and I realize the importance of what I put out there (negatively or positively), really does matter.

Halloween was a good reminder for me to take stock of my feelings and intuitions: they are there for a reason! I urge you (and myself!) to become more consciously aware of our thoughts and words. Their power can be under estimated and we tend to forget that they really do become our reality.