No wonder Saint told me I shouldn’t add Alchemist to my stack yet. Thanks for sharing your Alchemist experience, I trust you don’t mind my interruption.
Sounds like you were in a trance-state, focus internal instead of external. That allows your mind to operate faster, making the world seem slower, and also makes it so that some of the things that seemed important before are no longer important, giving the idea that the world around you is different. It also gets you closer to your energetic self, which is when you get more drawn towards things that are inherently energetically vibrant and alive. Like nature.
You should try gazing sometimes. Let your eyes go completely relaxed, staring into nowhere. At some point your vision gets a bit blurry/hazy as physical constructs fade. This is when your conscious mind starts getting uncomfortable and will try to make you feel like something is wrong. If you persist, you can get to a very peaceful state.
Coincidentally, this is also the state where you can visually perceive energy like auras. Once your third eye gets de-calcified and awake again, it will start to incorporate that extra information into your perception, blending your senses together with its own to create a more complete picture.
I’m not there yet, although I can gaze quite well. Just waiting for my third eye. I do believe candle-gazing has a similar effect.
As for the girlfriend, most women just want to feel needed and loved. If you’re not going for the sex, maybe just hold her sometimes, sharing in the closeness. Or cuddle on the couch while watching TV. I’ve done that during my more “spiritual” phases and the relationship stayed strong (although getting her interested in regular sex again afterwards was a whole new challenge).
On the other hand, if she’s looking for new things to get your attention, you could always “accidentally” leave her near a Victoria’s Secret… 
