intention – Surrender to Soul Healing & Wellness Blog

What is a Shaman?

A Shaman in its most fundamental and westernized terminology means Healer. However, all Healers practice different modalities, and some may not resonate with Shamanic specific techniques. Therefore, not all Healers are Shamans. This word is used often, especially in Boulder County, which in most cases is a great thing (as it speaks to the ancient practices being revolutionized to fit our changing world!), but it can also be a bit confusing. No, Shamans do not have to be from indigenous societies to be powerful practitioners and healers, although there are many that are. Shamanism stems back hundreds of thousands of years. We do not know exactly how far back, but it is shown in prehistoric cave drawings that there was reverence for the animals and people in the community.

Shaman also means “one who sees in the dark”. Shamans are frequently referred to as hollow; they act as channels for high vibrational Spirit energy to move through them for a specific purpose and intention. Shamans clearly see and heal through their ability to be heart-centered, present and open, yet humble and honest. Acting as hollow vessels for frequencies that we are typically closed off to in our everyday lives, Shamans are bridges between this world and the spiritual worlds. Shamans work closely with Spirit helpers and guides, power animals, angels, ancestors, nature beings and invisible forces to serve the highest good and benefit of all. They are highly intuitive and open to their psychic abilities by being connected to that which is greater. It is their mission to bring enhanced balance and ease to the people and life forms of Earth. It is also common for Shamans to work closely with herbs, rocks, minerals and other earthly spirits. A shaman knows and feels that there is a Spirit in all things and works to build “right” relationship with each.

Shamans understand the importance of ritual, community, ceremony and rites of passage. They were the original doctors back before we had Western medicine. Those in need would visit the Shaman for healing from everything and anything: physical symptoms, emotional pain, mental instability and more. Shamans understand that illness, disease, imbalance, pain and suffering are more complex than our modern society likes to think, however I do feel that this is changing. Shamans treat illness and imbalance on subtle levels, because they know that all physical things have a spiritual root. We would be silly to ignore the power of Western medicine today, but Shamanism can offer a deeper and adjacent route to address the ailment and provide positive, healthy change.

There are many practices and techniques, including: Shamanic Journeys, Transmissions, Extractions, Soul Retrievals, Power Renewals and more. They also have many tools in their toolbox, not limited to: medicine songs, healing words, buffalo drums, rattles, feathers, herbs, plants, crystals and more.

Shamanic principles, practices and tools are available to all of us. You do not have to be called a Shaman to embrace the benefits! It is a way of life – to bring in greater harmony, respect, connection, truth, love and energy into the everyday. It is the path of direct revelation, meaning each person who lives a Shamanic life has their own unique experiences within it. It is not limited; there are no rights or wrongs; there are no rules. It is that of meaning and that of liberation. You and Spirit lead the way together.

I hope this information was valuable to you!

Wishing you a blessed & safe holiday, new year & new decade! XOXO, S

Surrender to Soul Healing & Wellness

Enhance. Embody. Empower.

Ride the Waves

Recently I attended a beautiful Sound Healing where I set intentions to be open to receive any healing messages for myself, for those I love, for the greatest good of our planet, and for the greatest benefit of Life on Earth. My promise that evening was to act as a completely open vessel for truth, sight, love, and energy. It is also a very good reminder that we always have the ability to receive guidance from our helpers in the “unseen” worlds. With my intention, the messages certainly came through!

“Float, Don’t Fight. Think, Don’t Sink.”

This was one of many that came through that evening from Helping Spirits like Bear, the Elemental Spirit of Water, and even Celestial Beings like Angels. These Spirits are wanting to help provide a greater sense of ease on Earth as they assist us during this intense time of transition, evolution, and change. We can interpret this time personally within ourselves, outwardly in our relationships, and even globally throughout the world.

Living on Earth is certainly a beautiful miracle, but it does come with conditional challenges, waves, and cycles. As I have spoken about previously, Life is not linear. Over the past month, and specifically in the last week, it has become very clear to me that we are all riding the waves of our emotions and of our lives.

It is up to us if we choose to float with the current, fight against the motion, or sink into the depths.

In the Native traditions that I have studied and intuited, West and Water andBear are all united. West is the place where the sun sets every evening, promising us a chance to rest in darkness and renew in peace. The blackness of the sky is subtly illuminated by the nightlight of the moon and stars. This provides us a time to sleep, to recover, and to even shine glimmers of light on karmic patterns/beliefs/stories that are no longer encouraging the coming dawn of the next day – aka our Path/Purpose/Future in Life. Water as an Elemental offers us the potential to rejuvenate, cleanse, and wash away what is not in alignment with our true Self. Bear as the Spirit Guardian of the West provides us with the promise of the natural cycle of hibernation and reflection. Bear promises us a chance to go within to rest and heal, while also being protected, nurtured, and held safe while doing so. Perhaps you can feel for yourself how interconnected the “medicine” (or the teachings) of these are.

I saw clearly, and I feel strongly, that this is playing out right now within us and all around us.

There is profound opportunity and potential for the closure and finalized healing of certain dated ways of living and being that no longer serve our coming future.

These karmic bonds are being loosened and are asking for our awareness and acceptance in order to fully heal and close the cycle. During this process, there is potential for the opening of new doors and ways to shine our intrinsic Lights, all while staying grounded and rooted as humans of Earth. We have the ability to free ourselves from our pasts and create opportunities for our future, if we are willing to bring awareness around the ways that we may have encouraged those patterns to play out in our Lives until now.

We CAN clear and release karmic cycles, IF we allow ourselves the permission to ride the waves of our emotions, express how we feel, and ultimately trust in the flow that is always carrying us through.

Water wants to help us do this. As an ally, water can indefinitely guide us into a place of authentic truth, fluidity, and clear expression of who we are, how we feel, and what we are here to “do”.

We are aligning so that we may ride the waves of our lives in a more compassionate, balanced, and harmonious way with not only ourselves, but also with each other and the greater Mother Earth.

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Honoring the waters with presence and movement in CO.

Home Practice: Working with Water

*Bring awareness around water’s abilities while you are washing your hands, doing dishes, cleaning laundry, showering, etc.

*Offer gratitude for and mindfulness towards the water you drink and interact with each day.

*Honor the waters of the Earth and Sky. Spend time next to a local body of water/stream or collect fresh rain water outside – keep it in a special place in your home to remind you of the fluidity and help you are receiving!

*Take a rejuvenating Salt Bath. Epson/Mineral Salt combined with hot water in a bath helps to universally cleanse Mind, Body, & Spirit in an enjoyable and ease-filled way. Add essential oils or light candles to continue to create a healing space for yourself. I also like to call in healing energy from my Guides to help do this. Make it what you want! You may also want to try out this incantation: Speak out loud with conviction “Into the water and down the drain, goes all my worries, goes all my pain.” while you are exiting the bath, watching the water go down the drain. Repeat at least 3 times. Notice how you feel after!

*Listen to your intuition and respect how YOU are guided to work with Water!

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Surrender to Soul Wellness

Enhance. Embody. Empower.

With Love Always,

Shanin Weisberg

Yoga Teacher, Chef, Shamanic Energy Healer

(443) 974-8598 | [email protected] | surrendertosoulwellness.com

The Medicine Wheel: The Wheel of the Year

Happy New Year!

What a beautiful time to recognize and appreciate the ending of a year

& The passing through to a new!

This is a potent time to reflect on the previous year. This is also a potent time to clarify your intentions for the upcoming year – helping you to manifest and create the life of your dreams. Intention-setting practices like meditation or yoga or ceremony, vision boards, art, music, dance, and any other form of creation or expression is a beautiful way to call in the energies you wish to cultivate in the upcoming year. Through these conscious actions and efforts, we create space for our intentions to manifest and ground into our Earthly life.

I have felt a deep pulling, now more than ever, to work in closer harmony with The Medicine Wheel – especially during this compelling time of transition and completion, commencement and rebirth. The Medicine Wheel is of Native American decent, and it represents the cycles of life as they turn and turn around the symbolic Wheel of the Year. Appearing as a circle, the Medicine Wheel as a whole teaches us about the never-ending lessons, rhythms, and evolutions of life – spinning around and around as each year passes. The Wheel is split into 4 parts, a part for each of the 4 Directions/Elements/Seasons correlating with one another to share a similar message and teaching. For each section of the Wheel, there is also a Gatekeeper – a specific power animal that holds the “medicine” of that part of the cycle.

For those of you that have worked with me before or who know me well, know that I LOVE learning from Earth and her natural rhythms, as it encourages me to recognize and honor MY own cycles. The Medicine Wheel is a powerful Shamanic tool that helps us do this. If we embrace the “medicine” of the Wheel (otherwise known as the teaching), we can embody the different powers, strengths, and wisdoms it holds. If we implement into our Lives what reverberates and resonates for us, in return each rotation around our Wheel of Life is smoother and filled with greater peace and knowing. You can find many different variations of The Medicine Wheel out there – I offer one below that resonates with me. As always, you may discover your own and choose differently. 😊

Traditionally we rotate clockwise, beginning in the East. The element that correlates with the East is Air; the season is Spring; the color is Yellow. The Gatekeeper of the East is known as the Eagle. The Eagle offers us the medicine of clarity, of sight, of perspective. The Eagle soars high in the sky, blown by the wind, gazing down onto Earth and all of its workings. The Air in which the Eagle soars is representative of breath, of intuition. This part of the Wheel symbolizes new beginnings, as the sun rises in the East each and every day. It is said that we first enter our Earth bodies in the East; it is also the place of conception. You can observe and feel this conception taking place during the Spring – when the Earth is waking back up from the silent solace of winter. We give our gratitude and respect to the East for bestowing us with a new day, new beginnings, with clarity and perspective, and with the chance to start anew.

Transitioning to the South, it is the place of Fire, of Summer, of the color Red. The Gatekeeper of the South is known as the Coyote. The Coyote offers us the medicine of resilience, perseverance, determination, and a whole lot of playfulness and trickery. In the South, the heat of Summer burns like Red Fire to transform and grow and play. The South is a place of passion and action, of coming together in community to thrive. Beginnings conceptualized in the East gain momentum and shapeshift in the South, allowing for Divine manifestation.

Transitioning to the West, it is the place of Water, of Fall, of the color Black. The Gatekeeper of the West is known as the Bear. The Bear teaches us about renewal, hibernation,rejuvenation, and acceptance of the dark. The Bear is also a fierce protector and nurturer. The sun sets every evening the West, encompassing the sky with Black darkness. It is said that when we are ready to leave our Earthly bodies, we will exit through the doors of the West. We also call upon this Watery energy to become comfortable with fluidity, with our emotions, with the rain; Water is known to have very cleansing and purifying properties, too. You can feel or imagine this time similar to the final stages of pregnancy – where the fetus lies in the dark, watery womb, replenished and renewed.

The final transition is to the North – the Element of Earth, Season of Winter, Color of White. The Gatekeeper of the North is known as the Buffalo. The medicine of the Buffalo is that of knowing and wisdom, gratitude and abundance. When Native Americans would hunt and kill a Buffalo, they used EVERY part of the animal. This was seen as a representation of the ultimate surrender and an action that honored the cycles of life and death. The buffalo was respected greatly for it’s life-giving qualities. Everything comes full circle in the North. It is said that this is place where the Elders, Ancestors, and Spirits reside. I see Earth and the North as a place of coming home – of grounding into our foundation for the next turn of the Wheel. Do you remember Harriet Tubman? With help from a friendly white woman, she followed the North star to run away because she feared being sold as a slave. Once free, she went back to assist hundreds of others on their way to freedom on “The Underground Railroad”. Through the support of the North, she helped to close one cycle AND begin a new for the hundreds she saved.

We lean into the support of the North during this time of year – as we are preparing to cross the threshold into 2019.

Blessings & Best Wishes for you in 2019…

Surrender to Soul Wellness

Enhance. Embody. Empower.

Always Love,

Shanin Weisberg

Yoga Teacher, Chef, Shamanic Energy Healer