Soul Retrieval: Spiritual Healing for Trauma

Healing, Healing Touch, Shamanic healing, Shamanic Journey, Shamanism, Spiritual Healing

Most of us who live here on planet Earth will experience a trauma during our lifetime. It may be the death of a loved one, an accident or illness, an act of violence, abuse, or other distressing situation.

During a traumatic experience, part of your spirit or soul may split off and drop out of your life. In the shamanic worldview, this splitting off creates a condition called soul loss. Those who suffer from soul loss may feel that part of them died or was cut off from the flow of life when the trauma occurred. If this happened to you, you may feel out of body, empty, without vitality, or disconnected from full participation in life.

Soul retrieval is the shamanic remedy for the spiritual aspects of trauma and soul loss. The human spirit can be deeply affected by loss and harm, hardship, sudden illness, violence, injury, and abuse. Trauma can cast a dark cloud over a person’s life and keep them from living fully. Soul retrieval does not erase trauma, but helps a person regain their wholeness and return to the center of their own life.

This shamanic healing work can complement psychotherapy and western medicine for those who have experienced trauma. Western medicine concentrates on the physical body. Mental health therapy deals with the emotions and mind while shamanic healing focuses on the dimension of the spirit.

While focusing on the spiritual aspects of trauma, all levels of your being – body, mind and emotions – can be positively affected as your spirit heals and becomes whole again. Other areas of your life may come into balance as well because there is no separation between these four aspects of your existence.

For over a decade, my spirit helpers have been working in partnership with me doing soul retrievals for people of all ages. During a shamanic journey, my spiritual guidance shows me the “soul part” – the lost inner child or distressed adult- that split off and left their body behind after a trauma. They are shown to me at the approximate age they were when the soul loss occurred. I’m shown the state of their emotions through symbolic images, impressions and feelings. The information coming through from my spirit guides and helpers does not reflect the actual experience of the person, but symbolizes their spiritual and emotional truth at the time of the soul loss.

The journey unfolds with my guides showing me a symbolic narrative. These stories always include the state of the soul part’s emotions at the time they split off, a recovery of the soul part, a healing and clearing for the soul part, a retrieval for any power that was lost or stolen during the trauma, and, finally a return.

The return brings the healing into the physical world through a brief shamanic ceremony in which the energy of the soul part is returned to the person who lost it. Many times people who’ve had soul retrievals report feeling the familiar energy of their soul part return to them during this ceremony.

The basic structure of each soul retrieval journey is the same, but my helpers tailor the healing, narrative, messages, and images to each individual’s unique experience and needs.

Integration

On occasion, a soul part may be hesitant to return to full life again and rejoin their present day self . They may need reassurance that their life will be different now than it was at the time of the trauma, that they are safe, and will be taken care of, loved, seen and heard. This helps integrate them into your life once again.If you were a child when the soul loss occurred and are now an adult, explain that. Talk that through. Let them know they are safe now, that you are in charge of your life, that you will protect them. Explain where you live, if you have your own children and partner, the work you do… anything that occurs to you.

To continue the integration after a soul retrieval, there are several questions to ask your returned soul part that will help you create an ongoing dialog with them.

Why did you leave?

Why do you come back now?

What gifts do you bring back with you?

Soul parts always return with several gifts of the spirit such as a strong true voice, an open heart, a peaceful mind, a sense of playfulness, etc.

What can I do to sustain this healing?

For a child soul part this might include such things as playing outside, walking barefoot, hugging a tree, swinging, laying on the grass, spending time in a place of safety…. pay attention to what they are telling you and do the best you can to give them what they need and want.

To communicate with your soul part/inner child, tune into your heart, ask, and listen for the answers. You might hear the answers telepathically, see images, or feel a knowing in your body. If you have trouble connecting you might work one on one with a friend, healer or therapist to do this dialog together. You can write down the answers or draw pictures, speak them into a recorder- whatever works for you.

Shamanic healing is not a cure for trauma, anxiety, illness or injury, but can help bring balance, wholeness, and life changing insights into your life. Shamanic healing is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health care.

photo credits: Hand with hawk feather – jenelle – K2SXdKPEhcg – unsplash unsplash.com White feather – evie-s-white feather – unsplash unsplash.com

Earth Element Release Ceremony

Nature, Shamanism, Spiritual Healing, Spiritual Wisdom, Web of Life

We belong to the Earth. We are attuned to the gravitational pull of our native planet, it’s powerful energy filling and anchoring our lives. She gives and gives. Her web of life supports all life forms. Our bodies thrive on the wide variety of food earth provides. We find shelter in materials gathered from the earth. She provides everything we need to survive and generously supports our lives of plenty.

Earth is the foundation for our physical lives which gives us a platform for the growth and the development of our souls as we meet the challenges of life in a body.

Earth heals. Nature heals. Think of the peace of a riverbank, resting on a pebbly sandbar, the solid bedrock beneath your feet, holding you steady, the peace and patience and beauty of trees, the fragrance of the evergreens, breathtaking and inspiring landscapes of all varieties.

Attuning ourselves to nature and connecting to Earth energy, we feel calmer, at home. Feeling calmer gives us the ability to slow down and tune into the quiet rhythms of life. The rhythms of life are those of the energies and cycles of nature, the ebb and flow of our breath, the beat of our hearts, sleeping and waking, light and dark, life and death.

The spirit of the Earth teaches us through the love and wisdom contained in the ancient stones here since our planet’s fiery beginning. We learn from the past through buried clues and hints from those who came before us, the transformation and renewal of new life feeding on the decay of the old. She shows us how all things are interconnected, interdependent, how nothing and no-one stands alone in the web of life. Her example is one of generosity. Earth teaches us giving and receiving when the timing is right, going inward and reflecting in season, gathering strength and sending down roots, grounding ourselves and opening to the light of spirit.

Release Ceremony with the Earth Element

What feelings, negative patterns, ingrained false beliefs are you ready to release to the Earth? For this release ceremony, create a power object of nature materials to hold those feelings. You will infuse the object with the feelings you wish to release, then bury it in the earth. The earth will dissolve it into its component elements that will feed the soil and fuel new growth when the timing is right.

The Earth will disintegrate or dissolve your object over time in some way. Because of this, don’t get too attached to your object or make it too precious. Your creation must be biodegradable. Plastics or artificial materials that persist in the environment for many years are not suitable.

Your handmade article doesn’t have to be beautiful, clever, or complicated. Since it contains the energy you are releasing the earth will will dissolve, disintegrate, and recycle that as well. The physical object will rust, wither away, decay and dissolve, return to its original elements and feed the soil. At the same time, the earth will absorb and re-integrate the energy of emotions and feelings you are releasing.

Your power object is a symbolic assembly that will represent those feelings, beliefs, patterns of thought or action you wish to release. Before you create your object, spend some time thinking and writing about the concerns and challenges you are ready to release. Think about how you life will improve after letting them go, surrendering them to nature.

For your object, you might use leaves, small sticks, slabs of tree bark, seed pods, paper, an offering of food, vegetable matter such as you would place in a compost pile, a bouquet of wildflowers, a bundle of hedge trimmings, cotton string or hemp baling twine, Use your imagination and creativity and enjoy the process of making this article.

Now assemble your power object. It doesn’t have to be artistically pleasing or pretty. Remember, it will be destroyed. After your object is ready, gather the energy of those feelings you wish to release into your lungs on a deep in-breath and then breathe the feelings into your power object. This powerful out-breath empties you of those unwanted, unhealthy feelings, and transfers them to the object you will shortly surrender to the Earth. The earth will cleanse and clear, and make new again.

Next, find a place to bury your power object and give it up to the earth. Get permission if needed, and dig a shallow depression or hole. (If you dig deeper you may need to plan ahead and check with the utilities locator in your area.) Place your object in the earth and cover it with soil. You may also want to place an arrangement of stones, flowers, or dried grasses on top of your refilled hole.

Thank Earth for her assistance, her healing and clearing power, for her ability to recycle, transform and transmute energy, to clear you of those feelings that were holding you back in life. If you are so moved, do a happy dance, sing, drum in gratitude for the healing Earth has so readily provided.

Trust the earth to work in its own time to heal and diffuse the energy of your stagnant emotions, dissolve your object and return it to the soil. This is the power of the earth element in action.

Earth will hold you, she will shade you under her magnificent trees, she will calm you and restore you.

Truth or lie? Your body knows.

Connect with spirit, Life Tips, Spiritual Healing, Spiritual Wisdom, Spirtual Guidance

Are the messages you receive coming from your spirit helpers, or are they just thoughts in your head?

As a beginner on your spiritual journey, you may experience some uncertainty in trusting the messages that start coming through. This is part of the learning process and happens to everyone. How can you tell the true messages and genuine guidance from some random thoughts in your head? – Are they truly from spirit, or generated by ego? This is a very common dilemma when starting out.

Learning to trust yourself and the subtle information you receive is vital to building and deepening relationships with your spiritual guides and helpers. This truth or lie exercise will help you discern which messages are trustworthy and ring with the feeling of truth, and which do not.

Remember, you are a being of both spirit and a physical body. This exercise helps you discern the truth of spiritual messages in your body.

Truth or lies exercise

Find a comfortable seated position in a quiet place. Ground yourself by massaging your feet, rubbing the soles of your feet with a stainless steel spoon, or tapping your cheekbones and upper chest.

Take several mindful breaths to relax yourself and bring your awareness to your heart. Pay attention to the physical sensations you feel there. Can you sense your heart beating? If it helps you tune in, place both palms over the center of your chest, your heart chakra, as you breathe.

Truth:

When you feel relaxed, think back to a time in your life when you knew the truth without a doubt. For instance, this could be when you first knew you were in love with a person, the first time you met your newborn, when you saw a breathtaking landscape in nature, or another amazing situation you remember.

Now tune in and pay attention to the feelings in your body as you remember this significant moment of truth in your life. Where in your body do you feel the feelings of “truth”? Can you describe them? What qualities and emotions do you sense in the feelings? Pay attention to the sensations, the feelings that move through you while holding the memory. The memory is in the past, but the feelings are moving through you now as they did originally in response to that peak moment in your life.

You might write or record what you noticed and felt about the your physical response to the truth to help you remember these feelings.

Lies:

Next, tune in to a time in your life when you were lied to and you knew it, or when you yourself told a lie to someone. This could be a betrayal by a friend or partner, something that happened at your job, or the first time your mom caught you in a lie…

Once again, focus on your body as you remember the past lie. Pay attention to the feelings and physical sensations moving through you as you remember. In what part of your body did you feel them? What qualities did the feelings have? How did you know without a doubt that what you experienced was a lie? Write down or record what you noticed and felt.

How are the feelings of truth in your body different than the feelings of a lie?

Use this information for discernment as you begin receiving messages from spirit. Let your body and heart react to the information you’re not sure of by paying attention to the subtle energy moving through you. How do these messages feel in your body? When you believe spirit is giving you a message, does it feel like the truth in your body and heart, or does it feel like a lie to you?

If it feels like the truth in your body and heart, allow yourself to trust it. Now, pay attention to what happens when you trust the message and follow your guidance. Does it work out for you? How does it feel?

If a message feels like a lie in your body, it is probably not coming from spirit. Try letting it go and asking your helpers to clear any interfering thoughts. Next time you tune in, ask them for the truth.

Don’t try too hard, push or strive to get the “right” answers. If something isn’t clear, ask for clarity, go on about your day and come back to this later. Learning to discern by attending to your subtle body sensations is a basic skill in connecting with spirit, part of the learning process.

Have patience! You’ll get this. Trust your body to know the truth!

Photo credits: Sunset water person – Mohamed Nohassi on Unspash; Colored Night Sky – Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

Tips for working with your spiritual guidance

Connect with spirit, Life Tips, Shamanism, Spiritual Healing, Spiritual Wisdom, Spirtual Guidance

Dear friends, this blog post is an excerpt from my upcoming eBook (as yet untitled) about how to connect and work effectively with your spiritual guidance.

In the shamanic worldview, everything and every living being has a spirit, and we can communicate with them to improve our lives and bring our visions into physical reality. They have wisdom, knowledge, practical advice, and unconditional love to share with us.

Spirit is the energy and consciousness of any object or organism. Every human, every physical object and living being is composed of energy, and has an invisible energy field containing the innate intelligence of that being. All have wisdom and supportive guidance to share with us.

Connecting with your spiritual guidance is not difficult to learn or practice. However, your connection to your helpers will be much more effective when…

...your intention to connect with spirit is sincere and heartfelt

…you approach this work with curiosity and flexibility, letting go of preconceived expectations or a need to control outcomes.

…you seek to discern and understand the messages of spirit with both your heart and mind.

…you carry out the directions and advice of your spirit guides as best you can.

…you have patience with the process

Your non-physical helpers are ready to help you. Trust that they hear you, know you, love you. But they will not act on your behalf until you ask for what you want. I repeat: You must ask for what you want!

To ask for what you want – converse with your spirit guides, share your heart, your concerns, your challenges. Share your joys, your deepest feelings, your intentions. Ask for the feelings you want to feel! Make this a habit. Form relationships with your spirit helpers.

You might sit in meditation, drum, sing your words, connect as you walk , write, make art, dance, listen to music that quiets your mind, find a book on the subject, all with the intention of connecting with spirit. Know that you are heard!

Now, be open to the signs, answers and messages your guidance sends you in response to your asking. Spirit communicates quietly in symbols, metaphor, telepathy, signs in nature, feelings, humor, and through your senses. The meaning of some messages may not be clear to you immediately. You will gain clarity with time as you let them percolate quietly in the back of your mind. If, after a time you are still unclear about the meaning of a message, ask your helpers for clarification. Keep asking until you understand.

(True spiritual guidance will never ask, suggest or command that you harm any person or any living thing, cause damage, put a curse on someone, lie, cheat, or steal.)

Spirit Works in Divine Timing.

Unfortunately, there is no rushing the process of receiving advice and information from your spiritual guidance. Patience is called for! When you work with spirit, part of the process is living with some uncertainty and possible unanswered questions for awhile, because spirit time is non-linear. Your intentions may not be manifested in 3D reality on your preferred timeline!

Because of this, surrender, or letting go, is often called for after you’ve asked spirit for your desires to come into physical reality. This means asking for the feelings and experiences you want, giving it your all, pouring your heart out to spirit. Then, knowing you’ve asked, and made yourself clear, do not push, strive, or try to control outcomes or set deadlines.

During this period of waiting, stay open to what does come through no matter how small. Notice any movement toward your goals, thank your helpers and celebrate each victory no matter how small! (A little happy dance works!) This shows spirit you are paying attention!

While spirit works for you behind the scenes, go on about your daily life, living mindfully, enjoying yourself. Your spirit helpers work for you in unseen realms, drawing together all the threads and connections, meetings, and coincidences needed to bring your visions to life. Give the seeds of your dreams time to germinate and begin growing!

When we connect with spiritual guidance, we are not in the “logical zone”.

This means temporarily releasing the ego’s need to control outcomes, letting go of left brained logic and a need to think rationally. One way to let go of your ego is to visualize it as a toddler, and take him or her to the babysitter while you ease your mind, and let go of worries, fear, and doubts. Then your mind is free to relax, become playful, open like a flower to new insights and feelings, and connect with the magic and wisdom of spirit.

When we partner with our non-physical helpers, we connect with unconditional love, practical advice, fearlessness, true power, acceptance, healing miracles, and limitless potential!

photo credits:

evergreen forest Photo by Joseph Young on Unsplash Evergreen sunset Nikola-Tasic on Unsplash – Everygreen sunrise – Les Anderson on Unsplash

What are Your Intentions for the New Year?

Connect with spirit, Healing, Life Tips, Spiritual Healing, Spiritual Wisdom, Spirtual Guidance

Many years ago I wrote down this quote for myself: “Intention is aligning your heart and mind to a single purpose.” (Unfortunately, I don’t remember where it came from.)

What do you intend to align your heart and mind to create in this coming year? What are your intentions for this precious gift of life and time you’ve been given? This new year represents a portion of your future that you can plan for, look forward to, design in your mind and heart to bring your dreams into physical manifestation. Setting new year’s intentions help you manifest your dreams into being and keep promises to yourself.

The earth is turning back toward the sun. It is It is time to rededicate yourself to those dreams and intentions that are closest to your heart. Those that drive you to get out of bed, satisfy your soul, inspire your creativity, and resonate in your heart.

Think about what you want to create, accomplish, spend your limited and precious time on this year. How you will take care of yourself, how you will carry out your life’s purpose, how you want to feel as you live another year on our sweet green planet.

How will you focus your energy this year?

Do your intentions reflect the true desires of your heart and mind? Do they come from your connection to spirit, from inside yourself? Or are they a result of cultural or family expectations, coming from outside yourself, from other people’s ideas of how you should be? Do they make sense only to your logical mind, your willingness to please others, bypassing your heart and intuitions and deep knowings? Do they tell you what you should do, ought to do, must do? These types of commands and demands do not come from your heart.

To make your life sing, to manifest your true purpose and desires in life, please learn to trust yourself, the feelings, impressions, emotions, and the subtle messages that come from your spirit, your body and heart. Pay close attention, and follow the subtle guidance of spirit which will never steer you wrong.

Spirit messages will never ask you to harm others, cause damage, destroy, put others down or hurt them, take advantage of others. Spirit messages will be uplifting or energizing to you and through you bring more connection and love and understanding into the world.

These spirit messages may come to you in various ways, through your intuition, your knowing, any of your senses, your body – as in a gut feeling, or a knowing in your heart. They will not be loud or invasive or strident. They will be quiet and subtle, and you will know them to be true.

To set your intentions, find a quiet time every day when you can tune into your heart and spirit. Listen to your intuition, that still small voice, or gut feeling, and know what is true for you. As you practice, you will gain clarity on how best to focus your intentions of heart and mind and bring your dreams into being.

I wish you and your family a beautiful, peaceful, and happy New Year!

Photo credits: Photo of balanced stones by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

Photo by Mohammad Nohasi sunset water person on Unsplash

Winter Solstice

Nature, Shamanism, Spiritual Healing

The Low angled sun illuminates our land with brilliant light,

Bathing the mundane, the everyday scene with exquisite beauty, with burnished gold for a fleeting moment.

sunlight low in the sky, reaching into dark corners that have been without light for many months. Piercing and illuminating the shadows with long sunbeams across the land, reaching into the unlit corners your homes, Creating great beauty, Spotlighting this fleeting and precious moment in time.

The cycles of our seasons, those contrasts of light and dark, winter and summer are integral to our existence. The autumnal earth tilts slowly on her axis, as the northern hemisphere moves farther away from the sun, bringing darker, colder, days, snow and winter.

The winter solstice, the day the earth stands still, and begins its tilt back toward the sun, is our time to welcome life and light returning. Know this: Even in winter, sleeping life is stirring deep underground in the roots and seeds, the hibernating creatures as they wait for their time to grow, to wake. when conditions are right – for spring.

You may doubt that the light, warmer days, and growing buds will come again now that we are deep into this season of cold. There is no way to rush or hurry the cycles of our lives or the order and timing of the heavenly bodies.

This is the time of Dormancy, resting fields, and fallow ground. This is the time to let your soul rest, your mind restore itself, regain energy beneath the surface, releasing what is stagnant and used up within, making room for fresh new ideas to emerge.

Even during playful, quiet or idle moments the mind and heart percolate deep below the surface of life and create new connections, new insights, and ideas that will come forth effortlessly when the timing and conditions are right.

So, Celebrate! Now is the time to welcome the light returning, the Earth tilting back toward the sun, toward growth and spring and new life once again!

Everyday Cycles of Renewal

Energy Healing, Healing, Health Tips, Spiritual Healing, Spiritual Wisdom, Wellness Tips

Each in-breath you take is a renewal of your being, an infusion of fresh air, permeating every cell of your body with life-giving oxygen, circulating the life force (also known as chi) through you. Each out-breath is a release, a letting go of airborne toxins and stale energies from your body, a cleansing, making way for the next inhalation. This cycle of inhalation and exhalation is life itself.

Can you slow down and tune into your body for a moment? As you inhale, pay attention to the flow of cool air into your nose, your airway, your lungs, then on the exhalation as you empty your lungs, notice the warmer out breath flowing over your tongue and teeth and lips, and out of your mouth.

Your breath is an everyday miracle of renewal that cleanses and refreshes your being, then releases what is no longer needed.

Sunset Evergreen
Photo by Nicola Tasic on Unsplash

As you prepare for sleep, your brain slows down and withdraws from daily worries, anxieties, looping and spinning thoughts. This rest period allows for deep repair, for fresh new energy to enter, an opportunity for the renewal and resetting of your mind and heart as you wake to the new day. As the old energies are released, space is made for new thoughts, new ideas to enter your consciousness.

Your sleeping body repairs itself at the cellular level, reweaving the inner energy of heart and mind. All systems are renewed and refreshed as you sleep, surrendering consciousness, allowing the bed to support you, letting go of your thoughts and any resistance. You wake, refreshed, renewed, energized, ready to move, live, create!

Cycles of Renewal. You Inhale, exhale, Inhale. tides ebb and flow and ebb again. Seasons move through their yearly cycle. Underground life wakes when conditions permit, roots stir and seek nourishment, seeds germinate and begin to grow and send out shoots reaching to the light. They grow to maturity, flower, produce seeds, then decline and die. All the while, seeds and roots rest underground, waiting for spring to warm them so they can begin the cycle once again.

It is possible to consciously let go of the stale, stagnant, unneeded energy, attitudes, beliefs, and negative patterns in our lives. Then we can renew ourselves with fresh energy, attitudes, activities, and inspirations. This is an unfolding process that takes time, focus, and patience. It is a vital cycle of renewal in our lives like inhaling and exhaling, sleeping and waking. It is called healing.

You can set an intention to bring fresh new inspirations and creative ideas into your life when the timing is right. Let them percolate in your heart and mind. Let them energize you. Let them bring you life!

Then later, when you feel stagnant, tired, or stale, gently release and surrender what you no longer need in your life and make room, once again for the fresh and new.

What is your heart telling you? Can you hear its messages?

Connect with spirit, Healing, Life Tips, Spiritual Healing, Spiritual Wisdom, Wellness Tips

The teabag of wisdom… Years ago, while making myself a cup of herbal tea, the paper tag on the teabag had a simple yet profound message for me: “Trust the wisdom of your heart”.

The heart chakra is known as the chakra where matter and spirit join in your being. It sits between the lower three chakras, the root, sacral and solar plexus, the chakras of physical existence, and the higher three chakras, the throat, brow and crown, the chakras of our more spiritual nature.

It is your own receiver and interpreter of spiritual messages tempered through the wisdom of your body, and your physical life on Earth. The heart is a receiver of spirit at the same time understands the joys and limitations of embodiment in human form. The heart chakra gives us humans the capacity for unconditional love.

Your heart speaks the truth to you in a quiet voice. The noise, activity, clatter, and clutter of everyday life can often drown out the wisdom and knowing of your heart. Much like a loud rock band making it impossible to hear someone sitting right next to you even when they are speaking in a normal voice.

For your health and well being, for living a balanced life, listen to your heart daily, learn to understand what it’s telling you and to trust it’s messages. Your heart’s wisdom will help you with discernment and insight into life’s challenges and joys.

Two easy practices to help you tune into your heart’s wisdom

Practice Toning

Hold both palms over the center of your chest. Now make the “AH” sound at a pitch that resonates in your heart. Pay attention to how this feels in your body. It may take some practice to find the right pitch. You can do this by making your AH sound higher or lower until it vibrates most strongly in your heart area and feels good. Continue to tone for several breaths.

Ask and Listen

Find a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted. Hold both palms over your heart and ask: What can I learn from you today? What do you have to tell me today? What do you need and want me to know? Formulate your own questions and ask them as well.

The true answers from your heart will be subtle, quiet, simple, wise, supportive, and loving. If you do not receive anything right away, don’t force it or try too hard. Instead, pay attention to the subtle undercurrents of feeling and insight you pick up on throughout your day. Allow the information to gently enter your awareness in it’s own timing. Receiving these messages may take some practice. The answers may take a while to take shape in your awareness, materialize, and become clear in your mind.

Pay attention to your quiet and subtle thoughts, feelings, and knowings. As you become familiar with your heart messages and learn to trust them, you will learn that your heart that never steer you wrong.

Your logical mind may not always be ready to hear or listen to your heart messages. You may want to tune them out if they don’t fit with your beliefs or attitudes about life. These might include preconceived notions about others, knowing when it’s time to leave a partner or a job, a once good situation no longer working out for you… If you are not ready to follow through on your heart’s advice, allow its messages to enter your consciousness and percolate in your mind for a time.

Your heart understands your needs and desires. It connects you to the knowing of your mind, body, spirit, emotions, and the wisdom and insight of spirit. Whenever you are unsure about your next step in life, remember the message from the teabag of wisdom!

photo credits: man with hand on heart ashkan-forouzani on Unsplash and Girl with hands on heart – Fa Barboza on Unsplash

The Bracelet: A Story of Lost and Found

Connect with spirit, Healing, Shamanic healing, Spiritual Healing, Storytelling

When I was five years old, Dad took me to the ramshackle Victorian house of an elderly couple he visited often as a Methodist minister. He told me they were antique dealers. The house was loaded with curios and objects of art large and small. They seemed delighted to see me and allowed me to choose several treasures from their amazing hoard. Finally, after much dithering, I chose a shiny gold expansion band bracelet with a filigree heart and a tiny diamond chip (more likely rhinestone) in the middle.

This was a precious treasure to me! It was the prettiest thing I’d ever owned, and I wore it everywhere.

Lost

One day, my bracelet couldn’t be found. I looked everywhere in my room, in the house, growing frantic at losing my treasure. It did not turn up. In the days and weeks that followed I gradually forgot my bracelet and learned to live without it.

Found

Months later, in summer, while playing in the dirt under the church steps, I found my bracelet buried there, caked with soil, and dug it out. It must have fallen off my wrist while playing. My heart expanded with happiness! “I found it! I found it!”, my dad remembered me yelling as I ran into the house with my treasure.

Looking back, I owned myself as child, feeling happy, carefree, sensitive, and connected to nature. I loved trees, seeds, dirt, grass, gardening, loved to observe other children, to roughhouse and run, wrestle and climb trees, to laugh and be silly with my brothers, to pet and hold our Siamese cat as she purred.

Soul Loss

Then somehow, over time on my path to adulthood, my inborn wild and authentic nature deserted me, my personal power and vital parts of my soul were just gone. My self confidence was non-existent leaving me with little sense of self.

I knew something was missing in me. Pieces of myself were scattered, some even seemed to be buried in the dark soil like my bracelet. I felt unreal, ill at ease in the world. I didn’t feel confident or complete. I thought I was a mistake.

How did my once sparkling and free spirit get muffled, gagged and silenced? How did I allow it to withdraw into the shadows until I couldn’t connect with my inner spark any more?

Looking back, I freely gave parts of my spirit and power away to fit in to my family or group of friends. Others I depended on demanded that I give up parts of myself to be accepted and approved of. Yet others stole parts of my spirit and personal power from me through abusive acts or words.

The worst part of this was I didn’t realize that I was giving away and denying my most sacred treasure, the essence of my spirit. I couldn’t know as a child that these losses and thefts would hinder my life and impede my development as a young adult.

After living like this for years, I realized I didn’t want to exist in this fragmented way, feeling empty and isolated. But, there was no blueprint available, no book or self help guide to reclaiming my own self and my spirit.

The path to recovering myself was unclear at first. I had to reinvent my life, starting from an uncomfortable place of confusion, feeling alone and un-moored. I finally had to surrender and ask Spirit to guide me and show me my path.

It took me several years of dedicated focus to bring back the missing pieces of my spirit one by one and weave my inner life back together into wholeness. I couldn’t do this alone; energy healers, shamanic healers, dear friends, teachers, therapists, beloved spirit guides, and compassionate spirit helpers, self help books, and listening to my body and energy wisdom all contributed to my healing journey.

Like my shiny bracelet that was buried in the dark soil, I found and reclaimed my soul again. In shamanic terms what I did for myself was soul retrieval and integration– many times over.

I tell you my story because I want you to know that healing is possible. Reclaiming what you’ve lost is possible, reweaving your life, your spirit into wholeness is possible. You too can bring back the golden bracelet, your lost soul parts, your lost power, and connect once again with your true self.

Helping others like you navigate your personal healing path is now my life’s work, in partnership with compassionate and helping spirits. I am here to help you regain confidence, to develop, own, and trust your gifts!

I am here to assist you on your journey to wholeness, to reclaiming and reweaving the vital parts of yourself you’ve lost along life’s way.

Will You Choose Life?

Healing, Spiritual Healing, Spiritual Wisdom, Spirtual Guidance

“My will has chosen life.”

This is a memorable line from the 1993 movie, The Piano, written and directed by Jane Campion, and starring Holly Hunter as Ada, a mute woman whose beloved piano stands in for her silenced voice. We hear Ada’s thoughts after she has had a harrowing escape from death. We watch in horror as she chooses what looks like suicide by drowning, then as she is sinking under the waves, change her mind and fight for her life and breath.

In dramatic fashion, Ada chooses life, and recommits to living fully, being present to life, no matter how difficult it might be at times.

Throughout your time on Earth, you will be given many opportunities to recommit to being fully alive, choosing growth over stagnation, love over fear. During these choice points, your heart’s wisdom. the inner compass, will guide you.

Red Wing Blackbird

This path is not always easy, it takes courage, commitment, endurance, and will to blaze your own trail in life and follow your inner guidance.

Several years ago in early February I fell on a patch of ice and struck the outer corner of my left eyebrow hard on the concrete sidewalk . It seemed that my outer world and body were mirroring my inner ambivalence about my life at that time and asking me – will you commit to staying here in this body and living fully, or will you choose to coast and stop growing and reaching for your heart’s desires?

This accident was a wake up call! It made me pay attention to how my life had gotten into a rut, how I had become complacent, taking life for granted, how I was allowing fear to rule me.

After the fall, I had a choice. I could recommit to this life and meet the challenges and changes I was facing with grace and courage or stay stuck in ways that diminished me and my spirit. For about a month after my fall, I had a huge purple and black eye to remind me of this.

Calling Red Wing Blackbird

Life circumstances will give us all plenty of opportunities to choose growth and the uncertainty that comes with it, to step with courage into the unknown, to choose the path that our hearts and spirits desire. alternatively, we may choose to stay with the easy, the familiar, the well trodden but unsatisfying existence that no longer feeds our spirits or makes our hearts sing.

Will you choose life? Will you choose to speak and live your truth? Life means growth. Growth is not always easy, but is the path to self respect and fulfillment.

Like Ada in the The Piano will you find your voice? Will you choose life?

7 Benefits of Energy Healing

Energy Healing, Healing, Healing Touch, Spiritual Healing

Scientists studying the nature of reality know that everything is composed of energy including our bodies and environment. Every human being has an aura which is an energy field surrounding us, similar to the atmosphere surrounding the Earth. Energy healers can sense the subtle energy, the auras and chakras of other people, through touch, sight, or other senses.

At a subtle level, our aura, chakras, meridians, and other energy systems support our physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental health. If our energy is not flowing freely or is out of balance, we will eventually feel it in our bodies and we may become ill in time.

Here are 7 of the many benefits of energy healing.

Calming for stress and anxiety –

Energy healing is wonderful for natural stress relief, for calming the nervous system and helping your body and mind relax without the use of drugs. It is not a cure, but helps ease anxiety and quiet distracting mental chatter, gently re-patterning your energy system into healthier habits.

For stress relief, I clear stale energy from your aura, open and balance your chakras using gentle touch, allowing your energy to flow more freely. Special attention is given to those areas of the body where you hold the most tension allowing for relaxation and release of the stresses you’ve been holding onto.

Relief for fatigue and energetic depletion.

Energy healing is chakra healing. Your chakras may be compromised – not spinning properly- therefore not able to pull in the energy your body mind and spirit need to feel fully alive, energetic and healthy. Opening and balancing your chakras can bring new energy and vitality to your life and areas of the body affected by blocked chakras.

Energy healing is also aura healing – The electromagnetic energy in a healer’s hands along with a strong intention for healing can help clear the aura of stagnant energy, allowing fresh energy to flow and respond more freely to the ever changing conditions of your life.

Holistic care (mind body spirit, emotions) for high stress transitions or major changes in your life – a move, divorce, new job, new baby, or the loss of a loved one.

Energy healing techniques, such as mind clearing, chakra spread, chakra connection, heart chakra healing, and many others can help during times of high stress by calming anxiety and feelings of uncertainty and fear.

These techniques promote relaxation, release of energetic “clutter” and emotional pain. Energy healing can help you feel more energized and clear during uncertain times.

Heart chakra healing and energy clearing for times of grief, times you feel broken-hearted or overwhelmed.

This does not make grief or strong emotions magically go away, but helps you experience grief and strong emotions with less depletion in mind body, spirit and emotions. Energy techniques can help you feel more present in your body and help you navigate this difficult time with greater calm clarity and grace. During these sessions, I hold sacred space for you to be and feel what you need to feel.

Support for trauma care and emotional release.

When you are healing from trauma, an energy healer can be part of your support system – along with your medical doctor and counselor, therapist, massage professional, etc. An energy healer will gently re-pattern and clear your energy so it remembers how to flow freely, how to be balanced and open.

My energy healing practices allow for the safe release of emotions and stagnant energy relating to the trauma in my peaceful supportive and sacred space. This work helps you gently release the tangled energies of the past over time, and move on with your life.

Subtle energy assessment, healing, and clearing for times you are not feeling well and your doctor can’t find anything wrong.

This happened to me – I had a chronic sore throat and fatigue one summer. My doctor did many tests over weeks and couldn’t find a reason for my condition.

An energy healer was able to help me get back on track by opening and balancing my chakras, especially around the throat chakra, and clearing blocked energy in my aura. I was sensitive enough to feel the imbalances in my system while it was still in my subtle energy field. This was before the condition progressed to the point where the medical testing would have discovered something measurably and physically wrong.

If no-one believes your story, if you are not taken seriously, if you know something is wrong but the medical professionals can’t figure it out, consider energy healing as a complement to your doctor’s care.

Complement cancer care with aura clearing and chakra balancing.

Using energy healing techniques, I help clear and balance the aura and chakras of cancer patients after chemo treatments and surgery (which can be very hard on your subtle energy systems). Energetic pain relief techniques can provide an easing of pain without extra drugs.

Energy healing can keep your energy flowing after and between treatments, supporting emotional release, mental, spiritual, and emotional health. Finally, with deep listening, I hold sacred space for you as you work through your healing journey.

These are some of the many ways energy healing can benefit you and your loved ones and enhance your well being. My clients have found this work to be effective, helpful and life affirming.

7 Reasons to Consider Shamanic Healing

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Shamanic healing is a powerful ancient method of receiving information and healing energy from spirit for the highest good of yourself, another person, or your community. This information may come through symbolic stories, images, and messages that can reveal new perspectives on your life and situation.

Practitioners channel energy and information from spirit helpers that is unique to each individual. Shamanic healing works with the spirits in all things to restore balance, harmony, and wholeness to your life.

Shamanic healing can complement your work with therapists and other health care professionals. It works with the spiritual aspects of illness and other obstacles in life.

Have you felt empty, off balance, or lost since you experienced a trauma or injury?

Are you at a crossroads in life, unsure about your direction, unable to make a decision?

Do you have energy that does not belong to you?

1. You feel something vital is missing in your life or that part of you died when a loss or trauma occurred.

Soul retrieval provides spiritual healing for soul loss. This is a process by which the practitioner works with spirit helpers to find your lost soul essence that left during a traumatic event and bring it back so you can be whole in spirit again. In addition to soul retrieval, shamanic journeys for healing and healing with spiritual light can help shine light on the spiritual aspects of soul loss.

2. You feel powerless at times

Was your power stolen from you by a family member, partner, stranger, friend, or co-worker? Did you unknowingly give your power away to someone? Did another person misuse and abuse your trust? Power retrievals locate and restore your lost or stolen power through the guidance of spirit helpers.

3. You feel that you have energy that does not belong to you, that is holding you back or overshadowing you.

This might include thoughts, feelings, emotions, or physical sensations that are out of character for you. There may be an attachment, or disembodied spirit that has been attracted by your light depleting your energy and life force. This is a common occurrence in our culture since we no longer “tend the gates of death” and help disembodied spirits cross to the light as was the custom in ancient times.

Compassionate Depossession is a gentle process in which the misplaced spirit is contacted, their concerns are heard, healing is given, and they are taken out of the living person’s energy field and sent to the light where they belong. This creates a win-win situation for the person who is seeking relief and the disembodied confused and lost spirit who can now move on to their next adventure.

4. You are at a crossroads in life, not sure how to move forward, what choices to make.

Journeys for divination (answering questions) can bring through images, stories, symbols, words, and knowings that give you new and different perspectives on your life and the situations you face. Journeys can show you possibilities you never expected or thought of. The information contained in journeys are unique to the individual receiving them.

5. Tough problems seem to be stuck in the cells of your body, are persistent and difficult to shift. These issues may come from the lives and unresolved problems of your ancestors or from your own past lives.

Past life work or ancestral healing may be called for in these situations. We often carry the burdens of those who’ve gone before us and who have not been able to reconcile or heal their guilt, shame, anger, or fear before death. For Ancestral healing, the practitioner and spirit helpers travel into the past and look into any traumas in your ancestral lines that may have been the cause of the toxic patterns you wish to clear. For past life traumas that you may be re-experiencing in this life, spirit helpers discern what happened in the past and do clearing and healing as would be done for issues in this life.

6. You have a feeling that you or your family have been cursed in some way

Curses are thought forms, beliefs, and patterns of thinking and being that can be passed from generation to generation and affect your life adversely. Curse unraveling locates the originator of the curse, often the reason for the curse, the toxic energy of the curse and and removes it from all who’ve been affected since the curse was made. This sometimes involves many individuals over many years who’ve been affected.

7. You sense that there are wandering spirits, (aka ghosts) or “negative” energy in your home or a space that you frequent.

Space clearing is a process of discerning if there are spirits inhabiting a space, locating and communicating with them, and helping them find their way to the light where they belong, assisting them in vacating the house, building or space where their presence causes disquiet.

After the spirits are cleared, the space can be cleansed further with spiritual light, sound vibrations, a smudge ritual. Often the story of the spirit or spirits will come through. They usually have a reason to stay behind in a particular place. They are often stuck in their own emotions and fears and can’t move forward without help.

Shamanic healing is effective, drug free, life affirming, and promotes wholeness in mind body and spirit.

If you are overwhelmed, feel cut off from your body, if you are seeking spiritual guidance, shamanic healing may be a good fit for you.

Why learn shamanic journeying?

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What are shamanic journeys? Where did journeying come from?

In the worldview of shamanism, every thing and every living being on our planet has a spirit. Shamanic journeying is a practice developed before recorded history for humans to connect with and learn from the spirit world.

Receiving accurate and valid information and acting on it meant survival in those harsh times. In turn humans learned to offer respect to the spirits who helped them by creating ceremonies, dances, works of art, rituals and offerings to honor them.

Why ask the spirits for help?

The compassionate helping spirits who work with humans have access to a much wider perspective on our lives and everything that has happened, is happening and will happen. They understand and witness the amazing and constantly shifting web of life and energy that connects all beings.

The spirits are always with us and they have always been with us, waiting for us to ask for their help. Journeys tap into this wellspring of compassionate spiritual information that is freely shared with us out of a wish to be of service. The well of spiritual information and guidance never run dry! There is constant revelation of new finely tuned information for those who ask.

Why learn to journey?

Journeys are still relevant to our lives now, many tens of thousands of years after the first person discovered they could connect to the spirit world.

We no longer fear as much for our physical safety and survival. Yet, even as we have access to medical care and miracle drugs, smart phones, comfortable and reliable heating and cooling of our homes, a stable food supply, easy transportation and communication, we face challenges in our individual lives and our collective societies undreamed of by the first shamans who painted on torch-lit cave walls.

We can use the time honored practice of shamanic journeying to ask the spirits for help with our current personal challenges; our emotional, mental, physical and spiritual health, our relationships, families, children, our jobs, life decisions large and small…

We can also journey for practical information about how we can help in reweaving the web of life – healing the larger challenges of our planet – environmental problems, economic troubles, widespread poverty, epidemics, pollution, violence…

How can journeying help me? Several stories…

Practical advice

I was having a hard time deciding on how to organize one of my longer classes. Fresh new ideas and inspirations were needed to make my class more interesting. In a journey, I asked for a sign from nature. The next day on my walk in the woods there was an huge spider web lit by the morning sun. I knew in my body and heart that was my sign! It showed me how to organize my class in an effective way that had never occurred to me.

Shift in perspective on the everyday dilemmas of life:

When you can’t figure something out from your normal daily perspective, the spirits can show you another way to look at things. A client asked about her difficult relationship with her daughter-in-law. She was shown some information that helped her understand the younger woman better and allowed her to create a more fulfilling and peaceful connection with her.

Spiritual messages can that help shift your focus.

C had been diagnosed with a deadly form of cancer. She was having a hard time with her diagnosis and the treatments were making her sick. Then she received a message from spirit that came through in a journey– “Your soul is indestructible.” That message changed everything for her. She was able to carry on while maintaining a sense of peace and acceptance about the truth of her situation, knowing she was so much more than her body.

Healing Energy

When I journey with an intention of healing for others, my spirit helpers often fill the physical body and aura with divine light and beautiful rainbow colors. I see and feel this beautiful light and color filling every cell and energy particle of my client. There is no effort involved. I simply ask and the person on the table receives. This healing energy can shift a person’s mood and thinking to a more peaceful place, helping them feel calmer and more centered. The journeys end with thanks to those spirits and helpers who have worked with my client and me.

When you connect to the spirit world from the heart with sincerity and integrity and ask respectfully for help you will receive advice, guidance, insights, and healing. – It won’t necessarily be what you expect, but it will be finely tuned to your needs and your level of understanding right now.

What is healing?

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Healing means trusting and stepping into the unknown from the well-worn, the comfort zone, the tried and tired old ways of being.

Healing means a change, a movement toward wholeness in your life. Healing means letting go of old stale harmful beliefs, self harming thoughts, energy patterns that no longer keep you safe or comfortable.

Healing means gathering your courage, looking honestly at your life and facing facts, then realizing you can transcend and grow and release what seems to hold you back, what seems a bedrock fact of your life.

You can hold a vision for what you want your life to become and begin your movement toward that, one step at a time. There is no need to rush! Hold your vision to your heart. No one can take it from you!

Healing is letting go, healing is allowing yourself to open to new possibilities and ideas and visions that harmonize with the core of who you really are. Healing brings your true self into focus.

Healing is not the same as curing. They are two separate things. Curing means the abolishment, the erasing of illness or disease. Healing is the movement of your spirit, heart, and mind toward your own clarity and light.

Healing is a gentle opening to your wise and true self, a letting go of all that blocks your spirit. If you are alive on this planet, in a body, you can heal.

(Dear readers, this post has been borrowed from my channeled blog, askgrandmothercottonwood.com)

What are your intentions for healing?

Healing Touch, Shamanic healing, Spiritual Healing

What quality of life do you desire?

What are your long and short term goals for healing?

Do you feel it is possible to reach your goals for health and well-being? Do you feel it is OK to ask for and receive healing?

What is intention and why it is so powerful?

Many years ago I wrote down this quote: “Intention is aligning your heart and mind to a single purpose.” (Unfortunately, I don’t remember where it came from.)

I love this definition of intention. The visual image it brings to me is a person lit up like a straight and true column of white light with no bending, wavering, warping, stooping, or veering off center.

When your head and heart are in agreement with your desires – with no doubts or indecision- you become a powerful force in support of your aspirations in life. Instead of pushing or begging or pleading with the universe for what you want, you align and attune with it energetically via intention, imagination, visualization, and feeling.

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What feelings will you feel when your desires manifest?

Can you see a picture of yourself in full robust health? What would that feel like? Do you believe that you can have this? Do you feel worthy to receive it?

Let yourself imagine what you want using all of your senses. This make your intentions even more effective.

Specific intentions help focus your healing sessions effectively

When you come to me for energy healing and shamanic healing we begin by considering your goals for health and well-being, what you want to bring into your life, what you want to release.

Creating your intentions

Think about the problems and limiting beliefs that you’ve been grappling with. Now think about what you do want in life. Think about how you want to feel. Dream! Can you put these inner feelings, longings, and dreams into words?

Make your intention statement positive. Make it about what you do want, not what you don’t want. For example, “I intend to feel calmer and more peaceful in my life” will be more effective than “I’m sick and tired of feeling anxious.”

When you feel that the words and phrases ring true in your heart and mind, you have created your intention. You can do this on your own or with another supportive person in your life. It can be a powerful exercise!

Real life examples of healing intentions

I want…

…spiritual and energetic healing for trauma and abuse

…to release energetic blocks that hold me back in life,

…full recovery from an accident, including spiritual healing

…to feel lighter, calmer, and happier in life

…to receive energy healing and spirit guided support during cancer surgery, treatments and care

…to reduce physical and emotional stress in my life

…spiritual healing and energy healing support for my mental health.

Spiritual healing and energy healing work in partnership with your medical care, mental health care, and other healing modalities.

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Short term goals support your intentions

A goal for a single session might be to calm anxious thinking, or to release a part of the emotional baggage you’re holding onto, to regain equilibrium after a long stressful trip, to clear and balance your energy, to reduce physical or emotional pain energetically, to receive spiritual healing for a pattern of behavior that does not serve you…to gain insight and spiritual guidance for family problems… the possibilities are endless!

Each individual healing session becomes a stepping stone toward fulfillment of your intentions

When you create a strong intention and hold a powerful goal for healing in your heart and mind, energy healing and shamanic healing can help you make progress toward your desires.

How can energy healing help me?

Energy Healing, Healing, Healing Touch, Spiritual Healing

If you’re considering trying energy healing or new to the concept, here are a few basic facts I’ve learned over my years of doing this work.

We are all made of energy.

Our thoughts, feelings, emotions, physical bodies are all composed of energy. Our living cells respond to our thoughts, beliefs, intentions, and feelings. Our emotions send us messages important to our lives. This energy is meant to move and flow. It is the stuff of life!

When we try to bury an emotion, ignore a pain, hold on to the past, judge ourselves for thoughts we have or for feeling the way we do, our energy can get congested and build up like clouds in the Earth’s atmosphere before a storm. When this build up of stuck energy becomes overwhelming, it may lead to physical problems. Barbara Brennan who wrote the energy healing classic, Hands of Light, states that all disease and disharmony begins in the energy field.

Photo courtesy of ABMP

Layer by layer, at a pace that is right for you, energy healing helps you release these clouds of stagnant energy that have built up in your energy atmosphere, (your aura) and find clarity, balance, and harmony underneath. Many of my clients report feeling much lighter after a session.

Energy healing also works with the chakras, the subtle energy centers of your body.

Each of us has seven major chakras, each governing a different area of the body, from the crown of your head to the base of your spine. They are meant to spin freely, but if one or more are sluggish or blocked, your body is not getting the energy needed in those areas. If a chakra is chronically blocked, this could result in physical problems over time. By clearing and balancing the energy centers so they are open and spinning properly, your body has access to more energy and responds with renewed vigor and well-being.

Energy healing is holistic.

You are seen and treated as a whole person, not just a bundle of physical symptoms. Your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions are all taken into account and honored throughout the healing process. We are complex beings, and there is no one-size-fits all cure for anything! Everything is connected!

Energy healing, in partnership with your medical care and mental health care can help you reach your goals for health and well-being.

Physically, energy healing can help you gently ease pain without drugs, relax tension and stress, clear the effects of drugs after surgery or cancer treatments, accelerate healing of wounds, natural tension-headache relief , and much more. When needed, I refer clients to medical professionals.

Emotionally, the energy healing process can support you by creating a safe and sacred space for you to feel your feelings and release them when you are ready. Based on your intention, it can also calm energetic patterns of fear and anxiety. By providing acceptance for your feelings and your healing process, you are gently guided toward self love and self compassion. Many of my clients see mental health professionals as they work their way through tough emotions.

Mentally, energy healing can help you by bringing unhelpful patterns of thought and belief to your awareness. It can help promote mental clarity by calming and relaxing the mind. Many people that come to me for healing report “overthinking” or “monkey mind”. Energy healing can help you get out of your mind and into your heart and this helps you feel less anxious. Energy healing also helps bring in fresh new energy to your life, new ways of looking at your life, and new insights.

Spiritually, energy healing can help you by strengthening your connection to the divine. It can help you open up and trust the intuitive information and spiritual guidance you receive and allow you to see your life’s problems from a larger perspective. Energy healing can help make room in your mind, body, spirit, and life for growth and expansion into the person your higher self knows you to be.

Photo courtesy of ABMP

This work does not provide an easy pill that will magically take your problems away. It is an unfolding process that works in divine time – when your heart and spirit are ready. The healing begins within you when you hold a strong intention to heal your life.

Energy healing is not a substitute or replacement for your mental health care and medical care. It can complement your care along with other forms of integrative healing such as acupuncture and massage.

You can’t escape from your energy. To heal your life, you must transform it!

For more information or to schedule a session go to my contact page and send me a message. I’d love to hear from you!

Blessings for your journey!

Meeting and working with your spirit guides

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Do you need higher level help solving the baffling problems of your life? Do you know that you are never alone? Have you ever felt the presence or received the guidance of your spirit helpers?

We are all surrounded by compassionate loving spirits that offer us their support, advice, and guidance, protection and wisdom. I’ve learned as a shamanic healer that no one is ever alone, that we are constantly encircled and supported by these loving beings, and that they will provide help and guidance if asked respectfully. Our spirit helpers and angels will share their wisdom and show us what we need to know for healing, empowerment, and peace of mind.

Dragonfly

All human beings have the capacity to connect with the spirit world and receive help. We have been doing this since before recorded history. In the words of my teacher, it is “in our DNA”.

Shamanic healing is based on our human relationship with the spirit world. You can connect with your helping spirits when you let your body and mind relax and settle down, let go of the busyness, stress and constant chatter, the monkey mind of everyday living.

To Connect:

Create sacred space in your home. Make it relaxing and inviting. Clear all clutter, clean away dust, strike a chime or bowl to clear the energy of your space and set the tone. Make yourself comfortable.

You might put on soft instrumental music and close your eyes. Now sit comfortably and ask inwardly to meet one of your helpers. When you begin to relax, you might see a scene unfolding in which your guide appears. You might hear spoken words, you might feel their loving presence.

Your guide may appear in human form, or as an angel, a mythical creature, a beloved grandparent or ancestor who has crossed to the light, an animal, bird, insect, a bubble of light, a plant or tree… Be open to any possibility and accept who comes to you without judgment.

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My Grandparents, both spirit helpers for me

Greet your guide. Ask them a question you’ve been mulling over. Thank them for their presence. Feel the emotions they radiate. Even if you see or sense nothing, act as if your guide is there and hears you. (If you meet a being who appears to be a guide, but is mean, nasty, demeaning, it is not your spirit guide. Stop the exercise and try again when you are feeling better.)

Formulate your questions:

Your asking for help and guidance is the key to receiving it. If you are skeptical, if you expect your helpers to know what you want without taking the time to form a relationship, without thinking seriously about your questions, you will be disappointed.

To get started, ask them about themselves and how you will work together. After you’ve set this groundwork, you can ask your guides anything. Ask for what you want. Go right to the heart of your dreams and desires and start there.

Ask respectfully and with humility. I like to use the phrases “Show me more about…” “Show me what will happen if…” “What is needed now to heal this situation…? If you keep your questions open ended, you won’t shut down the possibilities that might occur otherwise.

Try to avoid asking your guides to predict the future with pinpoint accuracy. Because you are a being of free will, your free will interacts with all possibilities in the universe and these possibilities can generate many different conceivable outcomes for you.

The compassionate guidance you receive is to be taken seriously and acted upon. Perhaps you receive guidance to have more fun, to lighten your heart. Now it is up to you to decided how to do this. Use your intuition. What ideas are flowing into your mind as you think about this? Consider them all, do not dismiss the guidance you receive.

Orange butterfly on elderflower

Always express your thanks and gratitude for the guidance you receive.

Of course, if you are advised to make drastic changes, you must take it slow, test what you have been given against the conditions of your life, and move forward at your own pace within your comfort zone.

Connecting with your guides is like a prayer, a heart to heart conversion, or a soulful experience with a wise, loving, compassionate spirit that cares deeply for you and your well-being.

Working with spirit guides can change your life in amazing ways. Remember to take your guide’s advice to heart, open your mind to new ways of thinking and acting, and trust the advice you are given.

How soul retrieval can help you feel whole again

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Do you feel as though part of you is missing?

Do you feel like it is an effort to “get it all together”?

When someone has suffered a traumatic event, loss of a family member, accident, illness, or a distressing situation, they may have experienced soul loss. If you have ever said the words “I’ve never been the same since…” or “part of me died when…” you may have experienced soul loss.

A soul part can also be stolen – as when someone takes your power, bullies, or abuses you.

A soul retrieval is a shamanic journey that locates and restores this lost or stolen soul essence to the client. The power and gifts that were lost with the soul essence are returned as well. This can be a very moving and life-changing spiritual healing experience.

Often, the symbolic pictures and stories of a soul retrieval journey show the soul essence as a child or young person, or the age they were when the event or injury occurred. I have also brought back soul parts in the symbolic form of precious gems.

Winter bird’s nest

Please come with me as I take you into the heart of a soul retrieval. (This is an excerpt of a soul retrieval my helpers and I did several years ago.)

…my spirit helpers, power animals and I enter journey space and travel along a wide stream. At a shallow place, we cross the river on stepping stones and climb up the steep bank. A nearby fence row is full of dead leaves. One of my power animals sniffs the decaying leaves and noses them aside.

I come over and begin to dig with my hands. Under the matted leaves is a little 4 year old girl with blue eyes and short dark hair – a soul part who left my client many years before because she felt deep shame when her father treated her in a humiliating way…

After a deep healing and cleansing, this soul essence was ready to return to my client, so she could be whole again. The little girl brought the gifts of fun and play, easy happiness, and self confidence back to the woman who had lost this part of herself so many years ago….

I blew the soul part into my client’s crown and heart and sealed in the healing by rattling around her 4 times. In the next few days, my client contacted the soul part and asked 5 questions to begin the integration process:

Why did you leave? Why do you come back now? What do you want? What can I do to sustain this healing? What gifts do you bring?

After a soul retrieval it is common to spend some time getting re-integrated with your newly returned soul part. They bring with them the fullness of who you were at the time they left you. It is a tender time of getting to know each other again, of remembering, of learning to be whole again, of reclaiming the inner child or young person you once were.

You may dialog with your soul part and let them know about your life in the present. It is important for healing and integration to listen and try to do what the soul part asks of you. If her or she wants to play, sing, swing, swim, run, paint fingernails…skip stones… etc, see if you can allow yourself to do these things in an easy and comfortable way adapted to your present life conditions.

Lost or stolen soul parts return when you are ready for the healing, wholeness, renewal and new energy they will bring to your life.

Blessings, Betty

The healing gift of Compassionate Depossession

Energy Healing, Healing, Shamanic healing, Shamanism, Spiritual Healing, Spirtual Guidance

Compassionate depossession is one of the cornerstones of shamanic healing. Spirits who are trapped in this dimension and can’t move to their rightful home can cause problems, at times quite unpleasant.

With the help of my spirit guides, these beings are located, contacted, and helped to cross safely to the spirit world (or what I call “the light”). Possession is a common occurrence in our culture where the spirits of our deceased are not often thought of or cared for after the body dies.

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Who are possessing spirits?

Some spirits or “suffering beings” are not able to find their way to the light after death. For instance, if a person died in an accident or during a violent act, they may be confused, disoriented, lost, and afraid. Others may choose to stay behind to help loved ones, or because they are afraid to move to the next dimension. Suffering beings I’ve worked with have come from many sources including war zones, hospitals, crime and accident scenes, funeral homes, and old buildings.

What is possession?

When a suffering being is attracted to a living person they may become attached to that person’s energy field. The attached suffering being can become something like a parasite, feeding from the host’s energy and sapping their strength and overshadowing their energy. When this happens, the host can experience any number of symptoms. They may feel that they have thoughts, feelings, compulsions, and emotions that don’t belong to them. They may experience fuzzy thinking, emotional problems and addictions. They may feel that they’re going crazy.

A win-win healing scenario.

During a compassionate depossession, the suffering being, or possessing spirit is contacted, their story is brought to the light, and they are respectfully and compassionately removed from the host’s energy field and sent to the light (or their version of heaven). After the removal, the suffering being will not be able to return to the host or any other person. The suffering being wins by getting “unstuck” and moving forward with their spiritual journey.

The client wins because this work clears them forever of the heavy overshadowing energy, the emotions thoughts and feelings of the suffering being. The client often feels lighter, and more centered in their own body, more in control of their own mental, physical and emotional health. Their energy is no longer being sapped.

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I share this information with you because I have seen the powerful results that occur when suffering beings are removed from a person’s energy field and sent to the light. Compassionate depossession can be a potent life changing healing experience.

If you feel in need of compassionate depossession for yourself, please contact me through my website contact page. I will be happy to visit with you and we can decide how to proceed. This work can be done via distance healing if you live out of the central Iowa area.

I close with the words of a client after her own compassionate depossession experience. She had suffered from anxious thoughts for most of her 70 years:

“Fear is no longer my go-to emotion!”

Tips for working with power animals

Power Animal, Shamanic healing, Shamanic Journey, Spiritual Healing, Spiritual Wisdom, Spirtual Guidance

Has a power animal appeared for you? Why did that particular animal choose to work with you? What gifts and guidance do they bring you?

Monarch butterfly

I thought power animals were the product of fanciful and wishful and maybe even loony minds until Horse appeared at my side one day. I was out for a walk several days before a healing touch class in which I would experience a life-changing healing. It seemed like a normal summer’s day. Suddenly, a chestnut brown horse was walking close beside me. He seemed so real, I thought I could lean against him and smell his horsey scent, feel the texture of his course mane, hear his soft nicker, and scratch around his ears. But he was in spirit form; sent to guide, comfort and support me through my mind bending healing experience that was yet to come. He’s been a helper to me ever since.

If you don’t feel connected to a spirit animal, a shamanic practitioner can do a power animal retrieval for you. Or you can learn to do shamanic journeys and retrieve one for yourself. Remember, the animal actually chooses you, so be open to whoever comes your way offering their services. It could just as easily be snake, vulture, spider, or mouse, as wolf, bear or eagle!

Power animals are compassionate spirit guides that have taken on animal form. Each creature has special attributes and powers (superpowers!) that can help you with your unique needs. No list or book of animal attributes can capture the full meaning your power animal has for you. Be open to listening, learning and building a relationship with your helper. You will be richly rewarded!

Squirrel

To Connect: You can use journaling to connect, or go into a daydream state with a question ready. Do this at a time of day when you can be quiet for awhile. Connect directly by learning to do shamanic journeys.

Ask the power animal what you can do for them. After all the relationship is a two way street.

Always be respectful of your helpers. Thank them for their presence, their support, their advice. They have chosen to work with you, and that is an honor.

Questions: When you first visit with your helper, ask how they can help you and what gifts they bring to you. Ask what they want from you. After that you can ask other questions. “Why” questions don’t usually work too well. Try to re-word them: (Can you help me understand…? Show me about… )

Red winged blackbird

The answers may come to you in several different ways such as a picture or “movie” in your head, words, emotions, impressions, etc. Accept what comes. It won’t always be earth shattering. It might be quiet at times. It might take some time for the answer to become clear to you. The more you work with your helper, the easier it will be for you to know what they are communicating to you.

Follow the advice you are given if possible. Remember that your power animal will never ask you to do something that harms you or another person or living thing. If you get something like this, it is not coming from your power animal.

Disconnect: When you’re done visiting your power animal, thank them, say goodbye, open your eyes and take a drink of water, a bite of food, or dance around a little to get yourself back into this reality.

Above all, enjoy you power animal! They can bring you humor and fun, spot-on guidance and serious healing if you are open to their messages.

Blessings,

Betty

Resources:

Shamanic journeying by Sandra Ingerman ; Sounds True, Incorporated. 2006

Animal Speak by Ted Andrews; Llewellyn Publications. 2002