Our human nature is, in essence, shamanic.
When we are separate from this deep relationship with life, we tend to suffer in some way.
We all have and always have had the innate ability to feel into multiple dimensions of our experience in any moment. But what happened is that we, at some point when we were younger, became separate from this sensitivity. We stopped listening deeply when we were looking for stability in our lives, and got drawn into using our highly conditioned minds as the interface between our experiences, rather than our highly intuitive nervous system. Basically, we think about feelings more than we feel feelings. We also often believe what we are thinking is totally true. And to add to this, our ego-structure has tremendous resistance to accepting the fact that there are numerous dimensions that is beyond it’s comprehension – so we deny the possibilities when we are merged with the ego, subtle as ego may be.
If we use our mind as the sole interface, at best, we’ll catch a glimpse of the experience. At worst, we miss the more profound totality of the teachings that are arising. It would be like trying to paint a wall with a hammer – it’s just not the right tool for the job.
Because it hurts like hell or can trigger deep fears, it can be super intense to face ourselves deeply in these uncomfortable places. But the reality is that pain is not so much an issue as “thinking” that pain is an issue. Pain is, of course, part of life – when we deny it we are denying some of the most essential teachings on how to become integrated and balanced. When we ignore pain we rob ourselves of the ability to heal. The real work is learning how receive the blessings that are born from processing these intensities.
Being raw was not safe for most of us as children, so we learned to shut down our sensitivities and vulnerabilities when in actuality it’s different now – because as adults we can learn to set boundaries, speak our truths skillfully, choose friends and battles more wisely, and say “no” or “yes” from a place that is honoring ourselves more powerfully. We can have a self-agency that was not supported in the times when we were developing our brains.
By feeling the place in our physical bodes where we hold emotional energy – where we feel the felt sensation of it, we open the door to letting our nature process the medicine we are being given, rather than our mind. We gotta feel it. And getting support with this kind of thing can make a universe of difference. When we focus on breathing into these feelings (and learn to continually shoe away the thought-flies that come buzzing around our heads) we become more healed, wise, sensitive, compassionate, peaceful, and over time, far happier – which are all attributes of our nature that preceded our conditioning.
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