Rebecca Rosen sees dead people. It started 20 years ago, when she was in college. She was depressed and her dead grandmother began talking to her. "My grandmother took her life when I was 10 years old," Rebecca says, "and wanted to save me from going down that road." From there, her grandmother told her to use her gift to help other people. Rebecca was resistant at first but she asked for signs to prove that she should be a medium. "I say God is my publicist, meaning, I told God, 'If you want me to do this for a living, you bring all the right people and opportunities to me. I’m not going to go seek it out.' And people have always found me."
Now, Rebecca lives in Denver, where she has an office from which she communicates with what she calls the Other Side. In addition to fielding messages from spirits, Rebecca is also mother to six children (two from a previous marriage, three from her husband's previous marriage, and a baby). How does she she manage it all? Rebecca talked to Cosmopolitan.com to walk through what a day in the life of a medium is really like. (Hint: It involves a lot of meditation.)
5:50 a.m.
I had a radio show that I was supposed to do but I woke up with a few sick kids. I have six kids; we do week-on, week-off with the five kids. The minute I got up, one of my kids came in: “Mommy, my throat hurts.” I sent him out and I told him, “I will deal with this in a moment, I need my five minutes.”
So I sat up in bed, and I prayed and meditated. I set an intention, the way I feel I want to line up my day. I imagined everything that was swirling, and I gave it over into the hands of God. Then I imagined this bubble of light coming down around me and I asked that my day be flowy — I call it flowtastic — and that I be guided to keep me in a place of love and not fear. And then I was able to get out of bed.
5:55 a.m.
I texted the guy who I do radio with and postponed it. One of our nannies was downstairs, getting all the kids’ breakfasts. I try and be present to my kids, but we had two sick kids, and I have a baby. I did the five minutes of meditation but sometimes it’s not enough. So I went upstairs for a minute, and I said, “God and guides, help me see this differently.” Because I was getting really stressed out.
7:15 a.m.
The kids all have to leave the house at 7:15 to get to drop-offs and they all go to different schools. I got four of the six kids off to school, minus the baby and my 8-year-old son, who goes to school across the street.
7:30 a.m.
I got showered and dressed, and in my shower, I just felt like I needed a little extra cleaning. So I took two minutes and imagined the water being white light cleansing me and imagined filling myself up with this pure, positive energy.
8:10 a.m.
I made a quick smoothie for me, made sure my 8-year-old had his breakfast, and then walked him to school. I came back, said good-bye to my baby, left her with the nanny, and then I rushed off to my office.
8:30 a.m.
First thing at the office, my assistant started asking me all these questions. Normally I’m OK with diving right in but I just was not in the space. So I went into my office and I closed the door. I again called in my God and my guides, and I asked them to prioritize for me where I needed to put my time, energy, and attention. People think you can meditate once and you’re good for the day; I do it every hour. Mentally, I dumped it in God’s hands and then I came out — this was seven to 10 minutes, not long. And then I was open for business. Things were flowy and good.
9:40 a.m.
I start my readings at 10 o’ clock. I had eight people coming in for this group reading. Most days, I either do a small group, which is two hours and really intense, and I read eight people. Or I do five private readings, some phone, some in person. I have a wait list five years long.
I meditate about 20 minutes before the readings for my clients, and my intention is, “OK, spirits, I’m open, now talk to me.” All the dead people start lining up in my head, and I start hearing names. I kept getting somebody’s dad named Michael and I got a young guy who killed himself.
10:00 a.m.
I gave my group the download of what was about to happen, I walked them through a five-minute meditation, and then I said, “There’s been this spirit, somebody’s dad named Michael who died with somebody who was a younger man who committed suicide.” Sure enough, one of the guys there, he’s like, “Oh my god, Michael is my stepdad and he raised me. And my brother Brian killed himself.” So right away, the group was just powerful.
I’m the biggest one to say, “Hey, I need to get enough evidence from your dead mother to know that this is really her, so I feel good about it and I feel responsible giving you this information.” I make sure I get at least one if not 10 things that are specific so you know there’s no way I could research that.
For two hours, I was the messenger and loving it. I love what I get to do. It gets me in this alignment where it doesn’t matter how my morning went, I am in the best mood because I’m doing what my soul’s meant to be doing. It brings me so much joy to be able to show people this is real and empower them. They walk out of my office and trust their loved ones are watching and listening.
1:00 p.m.
After my group, I always eat to ground myself. I eat pretty clean, so I had chicken and vegetables. And I’m starting this book tour, so I had to prepare my talk for what I want people to know.
2:45 p.m.
I usually go to yoga and I just I didn’t have the energy today. So often, our minds tell us what we should do, but we really need to listen to our feelings and our bodies. So that’s what I did. I was in the flow, so I stayed at the office, and I worked on writing my blog, and I did more administrative work.
4:30 p.m.
I was supposed to meet a friend for a drink, and the friend called and canceled. I was like, you know what? This is good. I need to go home. On my drive home from work, there was a California license plate, and it said “in God’s hands,” and it had a symbol of a hand at the end. All day, I kept putting it in God’s hands, and that was a huge sign for me, like, “Got it, they heard me.” The spirits talk to me through license plates. You’re dealing with the mundane, earthly, everyday stuff, but there’s magic that’s sprinkled in there from the spirits.
I got home and my house was chaos. I let the nanny go, and my husband was home early from work because he was sick, and he was of no help because he’s sick, and I have six kids. But it was totally fine because I was in a good place.
6:00 p.m.
I got dinner ready. All the kids have to help with dishes and dinner. Then I took care of the baby and gave her a bath.
8:30 p.m.
I got the kids in their rooms and they all went to bed because it was a school night.
9:30 p.m.
My husband and I always make time at night to talk. We call it “keeping love on top” and make sure that we connect. He was sick, but for about a half hour, we caught up on each other’s days and then I went to bed. I love going to bed early, so I love when my kids have school nights.
Rebecca's book, What the Dead Have Taught Me About Living Well, is out Feb. 14.
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