Dearest 
My life has taken quite the turn lately. Less than a fortnight ago, my husband had a heart attack, and since then has, thankfully, been treated and is in recovery. Of course at that same time, the children became ill with a variety of symptoms, most notable being vomiting and full on spots caused by Hand Foot and Mouth (not the same as Foot and Mouth in Cows).

I have had a mini medical education, now knowing my myocardial infarctionsfrom my cardiac arrests, and my chicken pox from my ordinary pox. I have a deeper understanding of cholesterol and a newfound passion for all green and whole foods. 

What a few days it has been, it feels like a lifetime, and here we are, suddenly in February. I am tired, so bone tired. And so bone grateful too. Things like this are gifts to our imagination, so that we can envisage the worst and find the way through. As we navigate the drama, so we can stick tight to hope and faith, and at times, be rewarded with the simple things, such as life, and not the other... 

I am currently a little out of words though, even art is not stirring my soul. I am sure that will all come in time, and I will likely plough it into the courses and books that I had such high hopes to complete sooner than this!

I simply wanted to drop you a line full of love, so that if you happen to be negotiating the chaotic curves of life, you might feel less alone.

Here is something I wrote a whole ago, in The High Heeled Guide to Spiritual Living, I allowed the book to open on a random page, and just like my tarot cards, the book gifted me the perfect resilient answer... 

"The dark feelings & external chaos swoop in to cause madness sot hat when the madness lifts, all that is left are things that are useful to life. True chaos allows for progressive, exciting and creative change. Life falls to pieces, but then on the other side, and with a little faith, things can come up rosy."

I will leave you with that, 

With love, Alice 

www.alicegrist.co.uk

​A Note from the Author…
 
Yesterday my husband, James and I were clearing out the house looking for a lost passport. Somewhere in the mêlée of drawers, boxes and paperwork he came across my diary from nine years ago. The diary began just a few weeks before I met him. It documented my arrival in the town of Leicester, our meeting and my general life around that time.

It was like being confronted with a total stranger. Even James remarked that I am now a totally different woman from the lost, self conscious, slightly conceited girl that I had been then.

It made for hard reading. I was horrified by some of my small-minded comments and throwaway asides. I felt sorry for the child inside me who had been very confused about the world, about relationships and about where on earth her life was headed. It was the diary of someone consumed by her own messy life, and was desperately trying to fathom a way out, but without having to make too much effort. It was Bridget Jones but with soft drugs, hard rock and a boyfriend.

What scares me now when reading back through my diary, is how unconscious I was to anything. These days I am stringently aware of myself, of others, of the world, the planet, animals and all of our spiritual places within it. Back then, I could not see past my own bed, work and another rampaging night out. I was living the fantastical young woman’s life. I was exploring all that life had to offer when living in a two up two down on the hard side of town.

I was making friends, meeting people, shopping with the funds from my first proper job, misbehaving and apparently having massive amounts of fun.

But my thoughts never drifted beyond all of this. The only inner seeking I did, was to harp back to my life just before Leicester and wonder where it all went wrong.

This may sound like a familiar scenario to you. Many of us have a tendency to live shallow, self-seeking lives, not because we are bad people, but because there are few other options apparent to us. We earn money, we buy things, we feather our nest and we believe that this gives our lives meaning. At weekends we pour this money into a social account that sees us through another week with a few funny memories. The lucky few of us have great careers, or wonderful children to focus on. But still… we are not thinking outside of the four walls of our own lives.
I believe there is more to our lives than we currently realize. We are not simply little human consumption machines, we are powerful spiritual beings and it is time we started to explore this. Accessing this knowledge and empowering ourselves with it is the aim of this book.
The High Heeled Guide to Spiritual Living will help take you from the shallow side to a deeper and more fulfilling existence.

I intend to show you that beyond our little lives, you are connected to infinity.

You are in cahoots with all other people and things on this planet, and when you know this you can begin living above and beyond your current, somewhat limited, potential.

I want you to know that you are a spiritual being, having a human experience. To explore this you do not need to wait until you die. You are spiritual now, this is your life now. The two things can be merged to great effect and all things can become more meaningful than you ever anticipated.

Whilst we didn’t find James’s passport during our clear out, it became clear to me that somewhere along the line I had found my passport to a crazily fulfilling life. By realizing my spirituality and the life force and energy of all things, I too had realized who I am. I have found my purpose and flown to greater, happier heights.
 
I will say no more, save for the fact that this book is written for you. My last book, if I am honest was written for me, it was a kind of therapy that prepared me for my spiritual path.
​
Instead now I devote this book to you in your high heels, your biker boots, your sandals and your bare feet. I devote it to women, and to men, and to children should they feel that way inclined.
 
All I want to do is help change the world and if I can get your consciousness to budge one tiny little millimeter, then I am smiling.
 
Peace and Love
 
Alice
 
Introduction
 
“I believe that we are so unenlightened in our ever distracting world that simply opening ourselves gently to the notion of enlightenment is a small enlightenment in itself. It is an achievement simply to choose to believe and to let the faith that follows become a life guide.”
Alice’s Diary March 2010
 
If you learn one thing whilst reading this, then let it be this, you are already spiritual; you must be, because you are spirit. This is one spiritual truth that is often overlooked and lost in the complexities and varied opinions that inform you how to become a spiritual person.
The premise of this book is that your spirituality is entirely individual to you. The High Heeled Guide to Spiritual Living aims to show you that the true discovery of your spirituality can only ever come from your own personal existence. Gurus, books and mantras aside, I believe that your spirituality is innately and unequivocally yours, it already exists, it is you, and I hope to help you scratch the surface and set it free.
I started learning about spirituality through consulting the wisdom of ancient faiths, as is depicted in my book The High Heeled Guide to Enlightenment. That was hugely profitable in beginning to understand a global view of what spirituality is, and how I could bring it into my modern life. After finishing my explorations of faith, I found myself at a loose end, and it was within this loose end and the resulting year or so of living that my own spirituality truly found me.
In writing The High Heeled Guide to Enlightenment I had opened myself up to a spiritual life. At the beginning of my trip towards enlightenment I may well have believed spiritual life to be all fairies, angels and wishing upon a star. However as my divine trip progressed I soon came to see that spirituality is found more powerfully in the things that you see and experience every day.
There is spirituality in your work, in your arguments, in your debt and in your grievances. There is spirituality in your bad hair days, your best friend’s pony and the way your sister always borrows your clothes without asking. There is spirituality in your heart, your mind, your flesh, your bones, in your walk and in your talk.
Let me assure you of this, a bus ride home from work can be as spiritually enlightening as a private dinner with the Dalai Lama. Your life is your spiritual teacher, and The High Heeled Guide to Spiritual Living is your personal road map to your own version of spiritual freedom and enlightenment.
Through the pages of this book I wish to show you that spiritual living is not the sole remit of a far-flung journey to the mystical corners of the planet. It is not a guru chanting mysteries of the universe into your ever-willing ear, whilst you pay by the hour. It is not found solely in a spirituality class, through meditations or via a strict cleansing, fasting and praying regime.
Spirituality is found through your every day life. It is discovered through the highs, the lows, the boredoms and the barmy! Any guru worth their robes and title should tell you that fact. A good guru should tell you that what you are seeking is yourself, and they should tell you to look inside yourself for answers. But that is a bit vague isn’t it? Yes a few meditations may help, but what about when the boiler breaks and the tires burst or your best friend runs off with your husband? What about real life? How are you supposed to get spiritualized when life gets in the way?
Well I have lived through that dilemma and I am now finding my way to the other side of it. I am beginning to understand that spirituality will find me no matter what, but I will not see this unless I alter my way of understanding the world.
This far along in my spiritual path I have been forced to examine a number of areas in my life in minute spiritual detail. I have had to open up my heart and soul to really get to grips with what is true and real to me. I have had to decide for myself what I believe in and what I do not.
I am not only talking about spiritual subjects, I am talking about topics like the environment, and beauty, shopping, my body, diet, my liking of alcohol and my tendency of feeling sorry for myself sometimes. I have held a spiritual mirror up to all of that and more, and the results of this are reflected back in the pages of this book.
The High Heeled Guide to Spiritual Living sets out my spiritual experience, as an example. My life is one that is lived very normally. I do not hang out with writers, spiritual gurus, psychics or celebrities. I do not have Oprah on speed dial. I work full time, I see my friends, I have minor car crashes, I have pets, I love to eat and I moan when my jeans get too tight. I too have seriously bad hair days.
Within this book I do not attest to tell you The Truth. I can only tell you my truth. If that rocks something deep inside of you, then jump on it and experience it for yourself. I intend to help you to understand the intrinsic spirituality that is already inside you.
It is my mission to assist you to find your personal spirituality. I intend to show you how to find it through the familiar, through the ups and the downs of your everyday existence. ‘Is this possible?’ I hear you shrill and shriek. ‘How can little old me, up to my eyeballs in business, bills, nappies, shoe choices and housework, possibly find the spiritual divine in my own life?’ ‘Surely a trip to India is needed?’ I hear you cry! ‘Maybe a trip to the local meditation retreat at the least?’
Well maybe… but then again, I really do not think any of those are necessary. The reason they are not necessary, and the fact that we all tend to gloss over, is, as I stated before, that you are already spiritual. You are a spiritual being hacking it out in a human body. I believe that part of our purpose in life is to somehow fuse the two.
Nobody owns spirituality, they can tell it to you all day long, they may even try to sell it to you, but it is not a product, it is not something you can purchase. Spirituality must be lived. Spirituality is what you are. You simply need to realize that fact. When you have realized it, then it is your job to find a way to live it.
Unlike my first book, the only person’s advice I have taken on writing this is my own. I have had one or two dealings with potential gurus, but they have had their own set of complications and unexpected spiritual lessons. Instead of following someone else’s lead I have trusted my personal connection to the spiritual divine, as I will encourage you to trust yours. 
I am not trained, or attuned in anything (other than a dose of Reiki). I am not your guru. I am a woman who has learned thorough the mayhem that is life, and who has a better idea about how to understand and interpret her own very special spirituality. It is my aim now, to help you to do the same. No trips to India required!
The adventures and mishaps that are contained within these pages are fresh and steaming from the annals of my own life. Seriously, I went through the mill on this one for you! I aim to show you how it is the every day events, and our spiritual interpretation of them that make each of us our own Guru. I hope that through the everyday enlightenment of my daily occurrences, you will see similarities in your own life.
I have set the book out in ‘lessons’. Each of the lessons covered is something that I have had to plough through to get myself a little closer to the genuine spiritual being that lays inside of this human woman’s body. I believe each ‘lesson’ will address aspects of your life that are similar to mine, and some that I believe to be the sicknesses of our society and generations. Each lesson will help you to knock down blocks that are barring you from your own spiritual self. Each lesson will assist you to see life a little more spiritually and in turn help you to forge a stronger link to your true, higher, divine self.
As well as setting out lessons, I have proposed many fun and easy exercises to help you get stuck into fast track spiritualization! From there onward you can start to get to know your own personal and highly individual version of spirituality and enlightenment.
You are here to learn your spiritual lessons, as I am here to learn mine, I am sure that our paths are quite different. It is the similarities within our lives through which we might both find some solidarity and some spiritualization. I hope that this little offering, The High Heeled Guide to Spiritual Living, helps us both on our way!
 
A brief aside first: I will use the term spirituality frequently in this book, but I will also use other terms. I do not feel the term spirituality does justice to any of what I have written about. Having wrangled with other words, none, on their own, quite fit the bill. So instead I will use a variety of language, because it is colorful, I like it, and it fits into the realm of spirituality as I see it.
When I use terms such as divine, mystical, higher self, angels, guides, helpers, energy, vibration, please know that these all mean the same thing to me, more or less. These terms mean, the force, the energy, the spirit and the soul that makes up everything. They are spirituality spoken in a myriad of ways and so to reflect the dynamic, exciting and mysterious nature of spirituality, I have chosen to use them all. 
So let’s begin.
Having sat more deeply within my own spirituality for a few years since writing The High Heeled Guide to Enlightenment there are a few things I would like to share. This book represents my real life learning about what spirituality is to me. I hope The High Heeled Guide to Spiritual Living will kick-start your journey into the world of all things divine, mystical and spiritually exciting.
This book is here to help show you, that in fact, everything is sacred, and every action, movement and thought you undergo can easily be done with spirituality as its starting point and center point. As a society we have swayed too far from this path and it is for that reason that I believe our society is somewhat confused. We have in essence forgotten our essence! I believe that everything is spiritual, and that if we all lived that way our society would be a truly wonderful place.
The High Heeled Guide to Spiritual Living will help you to look at your own spirituality in a universal context. I want to show you how to keep your own spiritual self-true and then how to expand that beyond yourself so that you increase your own spiritual flow and assist others to find theirs too. This book is about peace, harmony and love; it is about finding it, keeping it and about beginning to live at your spiritual peak. It’s simple, come join me.