Empower Your Soul

Shamanic Awakening #5: Lessons and Frustrations

• Medium Nicole • Season 1 • Episode 99

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Buckle up for a candid exploration of expectations versus reality in spiritual training. This episode peels back the curtain on my ongoing shamanic education, revealing both frustrations and profound discoveries along the way.

My current shamanic training program has delivered a mixed bag of experiences. While marketed as shamanic study, much of the curriculum has ventured into non-shamanic territories – from EFT tapping to I Ching readings, with liberal doses of yoga and Tai Chi filling precious weekend hours. Many classmates and I have found ourselves questioning whether this program delivers what was promised or if it's simply a collection of various healing modalities under a misleading label.

Despite these frustrations, when the training actually focuses on genuine shamanic practices, the results have been nothing short of transformative. Learning to work with energy attachments, resolve residual trauma, and conduct cord-cutting ceremonies has yielded powerful results – including immediate shifts for clients who've experienced these techniques. These moments validate the incredible potency of shamanic work when taught and practiced authentically.

The most unexpected gift from this journey has been newfound confidence in my relationship with shamanic practices. I entered wanting to learn "properly" to avoid cultural appropriation, but discovered that shamanism, like all spiritual modalities, is meant to evolve and be personalized. This realization has freed me to work more intuitively while still maintaining respect for the traditions that inform these practices. Have you ever found unexpected wisdom in disappointing experiences? I'd love to hear your stories!

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Speaker 1:

Hello everyone, welcome back to empower your soul. I am here with a shamanic update. I'm really realizing I missed a few classes and wanted to give you an update on how it's going in my shamanism training. So I think the last time I talked about shamanism don't mind my rustling of papers here we talked about Ayurvedic, we talked about that kind of stuff, right, the doshas, etc. So in the last few weeks it's been really interesting, or the last few classes, rather, it's been a little interesting, because the I'm gonna say it, I'm gonna say it, I'm not thrilled with what we have been covering in the shamanism class, and I just say that because I think I was looking for more traditional shamanism and the stuff that we're covering, I think, although very helpful, very insightful, and I'm loving a few of the things that I've learned not necessarily shamanic in my book and this is my opinion and you can take it or toss it in the trash, I don't really care which. So, in terms of the things that we've been covering, I'm looking at my agendas. We've been talking about the use of passwords, which I think I got one nugget out of there, which was a really good nugget, but I loved the idea of passwords and how different words mean different things to different people, which is something I preach about in a lot of my mediumship classes, because 99% of this work isn't necessarily receiving the information. It's just trying to make sure that your client kind of understands the information that's been received, because, again, I might say someone is mischievous and you might say no, they weren't. And then I might be like, well, they liked to trick people in a very fun, silly way, and they'll say, yes, and that's my definition of mischievous, and maybe theirs is is a different definition. So so, the power of words in mediumship readings, which I've talked about a lot, so they went over that, um, they went through the meridians, the flow of energy, the eft tapping, not shamanistic, right, um, I, I've gotten a ton of acupuncture done. Love it, love the Love, the idea of the meridians.

Speaker 1:

I know EFT is a very, very powerful tool, but again, not to me. It's not shamanism, it's important tools to know, though, and so like I feel like I feel like this would be a really good class if it were marketed differently, and I think this is more about using any sort of tool across many, I'm going to say, indigenous cultures, and I don't know if that's the right word. Apologies if that is offensive in any way, but it is taking like taking the fruits of all of these really great cultures, like EFT the next weekend we did I Ching right, and, and and also like soul retrievals, and it's taking these little nuggets of gold from all of these different practices and putting them into this training for the purpose of healing yourself. And I think if it were marketed that way and if it were talked about that way, that would be a whole different training, because I think what's so interesting and the woman I love you, you know who you are that helps run this school is probably listening to this podcast and I like, and so for me, when you market something as shamanism, I think there's a very particular clientele for that right and I think people who want to learn shamanism are looking for shamanism specific training, and so I'm going to actually say that probably narrows down your potential clientele for this type of work, for that type of class, because the people that are coming to you want shamanic practices, the people who might want these more broad brush practices that help with healing with EFT, with I Ching, with the Meridians, with Ayurvedic right. I think that's a very different audience and I think if it were marketed differently as in, we take the best of the best from all of the healing practices across the world and not put the word shamanic in it then I think you would have a huge clientele opportunity and I think you could market this program very differently and I think you would get the right people in there. But when I'm in my breakout groups with some of my peers in this class, a lot of them are scratching their head saying what the hell is this? It's good information, right, it's very helpful, but I don't think it's what a lot of us expected in this class. So that's my two cents there.

Speaker 1:

So, like I said, we did the I Ching, we did sand painting, which was really cool, and then, most recently so needless to say I skipped a couple weekends because I have to spend 9am to 3pm all day Saturday, all day Sunday, sitting in front of my computer, after I sat in front of my computer all week. So, needless to say, I've looked at a couple of these agendas and I'm like Nope, I'm good, I'm not wasting my weekend. And so I just caught the recordings afterwards and watched it at two times speed and instead of wasting sorry, I'm, it's the term I'm going to use instead of wasting. You know six and a half hours of my of you know, well, 13 hours in total for these two weekends that I was listening to these classes. Instead, I just, you know, got to the meat of it and probably watched the replay that I needed to hear over the course of like an hour hour and a half tops. So I mean I'm getting efficient in in this shamanic stuff.

Speaker 1:

But I will say the latest class we had was truly shamanic in every sense of the word and I loved it, like I was obsessed with this class, and what I loved about it is it was specific. It was very specific to shamanism. So the tools that we learned were how to deal with, like energy attachments whether you think they're real or not. That was cool. Whether how to resolve residual trauma in the body, like energetic imprints in the body, how to find them and how to remove them, which was super cool. And then also energetic worms, which is just like stagnant thought patterns using shamanic tools.

Speaker 1:

Now, I loved this because I've never approached number one Again. I don't know if I necessarily. I don't. I don't know enough. I don't know if I think entity attachments are real or not. I'm leaning on the side of not, but that's open to change based on more information. But what's so cool about these things is that I've kind of done a little bit of thought pattern stuff right, a thought pattern clearing right. I've done removing energetic objects, which is, I think, another term that I've used it under is called psychic surgery, I think it's the word I want to use under is called psychic psychic surgery. I think it's the word I want to use. So it's like a form of psychic surgery which I've kind of done historically, like intuitively, through my Reiki practices, but it was just cool to see it implemented in a different way here.

Speaker 1:

So I loved this last weekend and then it was the beginning of the third trimester, so we had the Peruvian shaman in in there like doing the blessing, which was really cool, and it was a really, really packed full weekend where I was actually thrilled to be there. It was awesome, and I think this is what I'm talking about is when we're going through true shamanic practices. I'm there, I'm engaged, I'm asking questions. I'm so excited to be there and learn these things, and with the other stuff it just doesn't, I don't know. It just doesn't resonate as much with me. It's not. I feel like it's not what I paid for and, speaking of, we continue to have essentially the first half of each class each day, or I'm going to say like the first third, instead of half the first third of each class, either doing yoga or Tai Chi again like if I knew that it's not what I, it's not what I signed up for.

Speaker 1:

I can do yoga before the class, right? I can do Tai Chi before the class. If I want to do that, can we just use the class time to learn the things? So, um, I'm a pain in the ass. I'm sorry, but I'm real. I'm a pain in the ass, I'm sorry, but I'm real. So it was. So I really really loved it.

Speaker 1:

I really loved this latest weekend and I haven't looked at the upcoming agenda for the upcoming weekend. I don't think I can go to the whole thing and I'm hoping it's more of these shamanic specific practices. And I also hope if you're listening to this, you know who you are If we are going to continue the yoga and Tai Chi. They tend to run 30 minutes over, like no joke. So we're supposed to do it for an hour. Then they end up doing it for like an hour and a half and so, and then what ends up happening is then we learn the lesson, we learn the cool fucking shamanic tool, and then we don't have enough time to practice it. It's a rushed practice.

Speaker 1:

I'm like if we could just like rejigger how we allocate our time in this class, it would be one of the best classes ever if they could stick to the shamanic and like rejigger this thing, because the knowledge my teachers have is clearly vast and incredible. It really is, and, and so I love the teachers. I just wish for me and I know this is going to be different for everybody I'm sure everybody in the class wishes there were some changes we could make for some of this work, but for me, I just I wish there were just these few tweaks of just like get rid of the yoga and the Tai Chi, like focus more on the actual shamanic practices, and then, if they want to upsell this extra shit like the EFT and the I Ching, fucking do that then. But like give me the basics. I don't give me the stuff that I came here to learn. I digress.

Speaker 1:

This is the problem with me. It's not a problem, though, because I feel like this is. I'm hearing the word integrity in my head. I'm hearing the word integrity because if you're going to market this is the shamanic class, then let's do a shamanic class. Let's not do I Ching Right, um and so I think, and everyone's allowed to do whatever they want to do, but when they're not honest and upfront about it, that's when I have a problem with it, because if I was honest and upfront and knowing that a quarter of every single weekend or half of every single weekend was going to be doing yoga and Tai Chi, I don't know if I would have invested this money. And I think, for all the money and all the time I've dedicated to this, walking away knowing I'm probably going to end up going and taking like Sandra Ingerman's classes after this, because I don't feel like I got enough out of this. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I have made some lovely connections, though I love the people in the class.

Speaker 1:

Again, when we talk about the shamanic tools, I love it, but I just I wish it were a little different. But, fingers crossed, there's two weekends left coming up. I have, um, ah, I'm not sure what we're going to learn, but I'm really excited to hopefully wrap this up in the near future and, um, the only other thing Spirit is kind of talking about is the power of these tools when they're used, and so I don't want to minimize although I bitch and moan a lot about the format of the class for the shamanism class, I have to tell you that, in terms of the tools and the practice of shamanism, I really can't express how powerful this work is. I have never experienced anything like this, and for somebody who doesn't necessarily I'm going to say quote unquote believe some of this stuff, like I'm a you got to prove it to me kind of gal. They do back a lot of this stuff up with data and science. Most of it I can find online and validate right, and the impact of some of these tools has been absolutely mind blowing. So most recently I've done so, since I've done this training, I've done two cord cuttings and I don't um, I don't offer it, I don't, it's not on my website anywhere, but I have done it with two of my clients so far that just needed it and I'm like hey, do you want to try this tool? I learned it in my shamanism class. It's pretty easy, it's not difficult to do, but it has been very impactful for the clients I've done it on and those two clients that I've done it on. Both of them it was a cord cutting with a past relationship and it's like immediately that energetic tie that they had with this person was gone. It was gone, and so it's been impactful.

Speaker 1:

And I think I need to gather a few more tools in my tool belt and I'm getting a little confused on what tool to quote, unquote, use, when I know that that's a simple problem because I'm sure, intuitively, I'm going to know what tool to use. But a little more of that structure would be helpful, because you have cord cuttings, you have all these other things. Right, there's a there. I've probably been taught. Oh, I have a, I have a whole thing in front of me One, two, three, four I'm going to skip the ones that are dumb Um, five, nope, nope, nope. Six, seven I've been taught like seven major tools and so it's a little confusing on what to use, kind of when, so to speak. But either way, they've been immensely powerful, immensely powerful.

Speaker 1:

So I am, I am happy, I guess, overall that I took this course and I'm excited to kind of close it up and I think, the biggest thing, as I literally closing my, my journal that has all of my agendas and notes in here, and as I continue forward. I think the biggest thing this class has taught me so far is confidence in the shamanic work and I always thought and this might be a repeat from previous episodes I've recorded, but I've always thought that shamanism is like this black box I need to learn it from somebody. I want to be respectful. I don't want to do cultural black box. I need to learn it from somebody. I want to be respectful. I don't want to do cultural appropriation, I want to learn it in a way that's respectful to the traditions and the cultures. And again, like the history of this amazing work, and what I'm finding is it's meant to change, right, it's meant to be different. You're meant to take it and make it your own, just like every other spiritual modality.

Speaker 1:

I've done, and so for me, I love this modality, I love the shamanistic world and I think I will continue to study this and learn how to incorporate this more. But it's given me being in this class and kind of seeing how my teachers do it, how my peers have been doing it in the class, it's just given me confidence that I don't need anyone to really teach this to me. I just, like I always say, I need someone to kind of show me the way a little bit, give me an idea of what's possible, and then I'll work with my team to kind of figure out and how to make it mine. So I do love it. I do. I do love the modality itself. If you have any questions on my shamanic journey classes, let me know. My next, my next one's coming up this weekend, so you'll probably get an update from that in a little bit. But I just want to thank you all for being here and listening in and, from my soul to yours, I hope you have an absolutely wonderful day. Take care.

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