MOUNTAIN MIND TRICKS
THE BLOG
Weathering Transitions Well
by Cheri Timko
One of the unique things about being a Wildland Firefighter is that you spend a lot of time away from home. During fire season, you deploy frequently and for lengthy periods of time. The work is deeply fulfilling because you are making an important contribution to the world.
However, being away for long periods of time can be hell for your relationship. It’s hard to focus on the home when you are away. Things feel unimportant compared with your work life. Your spouse doesn’t understand why you don’t care about which shade of off-white to paint the walls or which restaurant to eat at for dinner.
When you’re away, it’s like you are in a different world. The rules that govern your “home life” don’t make much sense when you are out in the field. Then the most important thing is the job. It’s not that you don’t think about home or miss your family. But, it’s like they are not the most relevant issue. They fade into the background as you focus on life-and-death situations. Even when you have time to talk with them, they feel so distant that it’s hard to connect. You do your best, but sometimes you wish you could just focus on the job without the distraction.
It's not that you want to give up your family or your job. You want a way for both parts of your life to flow easily. You want both to exist at the same time and a way to move between them that doesn’t cause conflict and disruption.
Paying close attention to relationship transitions can make all the difference. Transitions are a problem for all couples. But for wildland firefighters, these problems are on steroids. For the average couple, being apart for work causes a minor bump in the road that is easy to get over. For wildland firefighters and their spouses, the transitions can be deal-breakers.
A relationship transition is when a couple moves from being together to being apart or being apart to being together. These transitions occur every time you deploy to the field for the season or even for a shift. They trigger strong feelings in you as the firefighter, and in your spouse as the one left behind. If you don’t have a plan to manage them, they will manage you.
There are predictable symptoms that you are having trouble with these transitions. See if you recognize your relationship in any of these.
Symptoms that your relationship transitions are causing problems in your relationship:
You have an argument before, during, or after a transition.
You feel frustrated and irritable about minor details.
Your partner gets agitated about small issues.
You pull back emotionally from your partner.
Your partner seems disconnected or cold.
You wait until the last minute to talk about a problem.
Both of you busy yourselves with other things rather than focusing on one another.
You wonder if this relationship is worth it.
You feel excited to return home after a trip, but things fall apart quickly.
You feel frustrated that it takes days to get back in sync when you return home.
You wonder if your relationship can handle the separation.
There are three transition points: 1) saying goodbye, 2) being apart, and 3) reuniting. Each transition point is an opportunity to connect and strengthen your relationship. When you intentionally plan them, they become happier experiences.
Good transitions happen when you are thoughtful and intentional about planning for them. That means that you have specific activities that you do to help you move back and forth.
Here are specific tips to use at each of the transition points:
Saying Goodbye:
Have an open discussion about what each of you needs at each of the transition points.
Identify what each of you needs to feel secure in the relationship.
Identify support people and organizations to help each of you.
Revisit the agreements that you have with one another, especially around relationships with others and time apart.
Agree on a Minimum Level of Contact. This is how much and when you expect to communicate with one another while separated.
Plan time together to feel relaxed and connected.
Take care of the things you said you would do before leaving. If a task is not finished, inform your partner of the status and pass off the task.
Do tasks that will make your partner's life easier when you are separated. For instance, recording bedtime stories for the kids, paying bills ahead of time, doing preventive house maintenance, and leaving notes or letters.
Develop a ritual for saying goodbye.
Being apart
Follow your plan to connect while separated. This might include phone calls, texts, sharing photos, audio or video messages, emails, drawings, and notes.
Reach out to your partner in some way every single day.
Meet your responsibilities in the Minimum Level of Contact each day.
Alert your partner if your plans change.
Don't make decisions your partner will have a hard time living with.
Honor your relationship.
Reuniting
Develop a ritual to say hello.
Discuss what happened to each of you while you were apart.
Have a conversation about where each of you is in the relationship and what you need.
Identify any supports that either of you needs (therapy, support groups, healing activities, spa days).
Re-establish that you are partners and allies with common goals.
Formally turn over tasks that were handled by the partner at home.
Expect that things will be rocky for a few days until you get back in sync.
Plan time for each of you to rest and recuperate.
Get back to your normal “home” routine as soon as possible.
Return to previous good relationship habits:
Say good morning and good night.
Make eye contact when your partner enters the room.
Talk about each partner's day.
Spend some quality time together each day.
You don’t have to take all of these suggestions. Taking a couple from each of the transition points can change how it goes. Reading through the list might even give you your own ideas to try. The most important thing is to move through these transitions while intentionally doing things to make them better. When you blindly go through transitions or avoid thinking about them, they cause the most problems.
Imagine: feeling closer to your partner as you transition between work and returning home. What if your job actually strengthened the bond between you?
Planning well for time apart means you will avoid a lot of problems. Executing the plans will strengthen your relationship. Being apart will always be hard, but your relationship can grow as you move through the transitions.
Transitions are hard. Safeguard your marriage by thinking about these transitions and preparing for them. Don't just let them happen to your relationship.
Cheri Timko is a Relationship Coach and Couples Psychotherapist. She teaches individuals and couples to deepen the connection with their partner using Micro-moments (small actions that lead to big relationship changes). Want to know more? Go to www.cheritimko.com for free resources and articles with tips to improve your long-term relationship.
Benefits of Hypnotherapy
The Benefits of Hypnotherapy
What is it?
Hypnosis is a concept that helps you enter the subconscious.
The conscious mind is only about 10% of the mind. The unconscious mind is the part that runs our body. It is our habits, feelings, values, and a connection with our higher self. Hypnotherapy takes advantage of a natural, frequently occurring trance state we all experience called an Alpha Brainwave State. This state is common when you’re immersed in a movie, and you forget that you’re sitting in a chair at the theater. Or you drive home from work with so much on your mind that you don’t remember the driving part (were all those lights green?). Or it can feel like when you wake up first thing in the morning and haven’t quite processed everything around you yet. You can also experience an Alpha Brainwave State during a meditation.
The practitioner will talk to you and give you prompts to get you to relax. When you slow down your conscious mind, it will stop giving you all the excuses for why you “can’t do something.” When you are so relaxed, the practitioner can talk directly with the unconscious mind and give it instructions. When you work with a practitioner that understands this state, they can connect with your values and give you encouraging, appropriate, and motivating suggestions. These are usually suggestions that are in line with your goals and statements of what you want to be doing (not things that you don’t want to do. The unconscious has trouble processing negatives like the word “don’t”). In this brainwave state, your unconscious mind takes these suggestions literally, like instructions, and it will follow directions. Your practitioner will work with you, so you are resourced and anchored (you have a place to go, a feeling, or a person to call on if things get overwhelming). Your practitioner will help you dismantle any resistance that your active and conscious mind may be insistent on keeping.
Why Hypnotherapy?
Hypnotherapy has been clinically proven and firmly associated with treating PTSD and trauma resolution. It has been proven to assist in or get rid of a smoking habit and help people lose weight and develop healthy eating habits. In my experience, Hypnotherapy gets rid of the very critical thoughts of our conscious brain that continue to interfere with our goals. When you temporarily turn them off, you can give your body and it’s resting state new instructions. These changes can help you achieve your goals by identifying obstacles, completing unfinished business, storing experiences and emotions, and providing clear instructions for the future. You can replace negative emotions associated with trauma with a corrective experience of positive thoughts, improving the body’s function, and resources to call on at any time.
It provides an extraordinarily safe, compassionate healing space to explore sensitive emotional experiences. It can effectively lead to lasting satisfaction and ease of suffering. Hypnotherapy works so well because you are fully conscious of the experience, and your mind won’t let you do anything that you don’t want to do. Everyone can be hypnotized if they want to be.
What is it not?
Hypnotherapy will not make you cluck like a chicken or stare at a swinging clock. It is not sleep, and you will remember everything that happened and the thoughts you had. It also won’t make you completely re-live a trauma. Hypnotherapy is not intended to harm you, make fun of you, or make you resemble a puppet. Hypnotherapy is exclusively for you, and it can help you have a different reaction to a past experience. It can also allow you to program and embody new thoughts and feelings in the future. It can also help bring calm and relaxation to a very stressed and overworked mind.
How do I do it?
When you experience Hypnotherapy, you will be seated or lying down. Your practitioner will go through an “induction” which will help you relax by listening to the sound of their voice and imagining. You will be in such a state of relaxation that you will be in an Alpha Brainwave State. This state will allow your conscious brain to relax, and you can experience the therapeutic suggestions the practitioner gives you. (Again, you won’t do anything your mind doesn’t want you to do). You will be incredibly relaxed and completely awake for the process; you will remember it. When you feel complete and the suggestions have set in appropriately, your practitioner will slowly bring you out of your relaxed state and back into the waking world.
I’m nervous and/or skeptical.
I’m glad you mentioned that. Nerves are normal when you try something new – it’s your conscious brain and body resisting change and not wanting to leave the comfort and predictability of things you’re familiar with. If you’re skeptical, I challenge you to try something new – to learn and have an experience so you can tell everyone what your experience was like. Hypnotherapy is not done to you; it’s something you do for yourself. You won’t know what it is or if it works until you try it.
Motivation vs. Discipline
I used to think all I needed to accomplish my goals was more motivation. If I was just motivated, I could accomplish whatever I wanted. I would watch an inspiring YouTube video and hear of someone else's success story. But all of my motivation seemed to come and go. So why was my solution to my stuckness so temporary? Why did the goals I wrote down keep slipping away after a while?
On the other hand, discipline is defined as training or developing by instruction or exercise, and especially self-control. Discipline is the habit and group of patterns that keep you doing what you want and need. Discipline is a practice that encourages you to make the most beneficial and healthiest actions for yourself and your goals regardless of your feelings or circumstances. Discipline can be very powerful when combined with motivation, inspiration, clarity, purpose, and joy. Discipline with direction is how you achieve your goals.
Now, this isn't to say that motivation is not important. On the contrary, many things wouldn't get done without a motivator because motivation creates ideas, plans, inspiration, and connection. Motivation, however, is a temporary feeling like joy or sadness or like the warmth of the sun that leaves and returns. Motivation is beneficial and sometimes necessary to complete goals, but it shouldn't be what you depend on to get where you want to be.
Instead, combine as many things as you can and be resourceful – do research, use motivation, use inspiration, talk with other experts and mentors, and remember the four requisites for positive and lasting change:
#1 – Get rid of negative emotions, limiting decisions and baggage
#2 – Create the future, set goals
#3 – Take action (this includes enforcing boundaries)
#4 – Focus on what you want
The best way to complete the four requisites for change is by having discipline and motivation. The motivation gets you to schedule the sessions and do the hard work that lets you release the negative things surrounding your problem. It has taken a lot of life to get you right now. To achieve and fully live the ideal version of you in the future, you have to work to get there. You won't make it by simply writing your goals and putting them up on the refrigerator. You have to take steps toward what you want. Create discipline in showing up and getting through the things that hold you back.
Make sure the discipline you created holds as you construct your future – the person you want to be in the future should have discipline instilled in their routine, and it should start at this point in the process. Once you've made your goals and are consistently taking action, you've got a plan that thrives off discipline. As you take action, some of it may get difficult. Maybe you're not interested in getting out of bed and doing the hard work because of a situation or circumstance in your life. Discipline makes the action easier and having a support system to make sure you complete your action steps helps you get all the things you've wanted in life.
Finally, for focus – discipline is so important. Energy flows where your attention goes. What you pay attention to will keep showing up in your life. If you keep focusing on your goals and seeing yourself happy, successful, resilient, confident, and connected, you will keep doing the necessary actions to get there. When you concentrate on the good things you will achieve, you will see that the world brings you opportunities. Motivation and discipline are keys to your focus.
Motivation is encouraging. Motivation develops your passion. Motivation creates and instills a sense of purpose and a sense of "why." Discipline designs the path. Discipline is a learned skill. Discipline develops your purpose into something real that you can see, feel, and experience.
Create a new life for yourself, accomplish your goals, get rid of your baggage. Do this by following the Four Requisites for Positive and Lasting Change and instilling discipline and motivation into your routine for the best results.
Asking for help
I was raised never to ask this question. I practiced figuring out everything on my own through school and at work. I was never offered help, and I didn’t trust people meeting my expectations. I learned from the culture of “figure it out or go home.” I had no desire to be dependent on anybody because that meant that I was weak.
A simple lesson that changed my mind was that no one is good at everything. There are things you have talents and skills in and that you can excel in. There are things that you’re not good at or don’t have any interest in learning or doing at all. Personally, I have a desire to be of service to my community in a more significant way utilizing emergency services like fighting fire and challenging people’s thoughts to help them live healthier lives. I also have no desire to be a hair or makeup specialist because those have no value in my life.
The problem for us “Type A” personalities have is that we take on too much responsibility and think we can handle everything on our own, and it’s expected of us. But the purpose of asking for help is not to label us as weak; asking for help is simply an act of becoming better. It offers us a chance to learn, a chance to embody humility, patience, kindness, appreciation, and an opportunity to achieve new things. So, to ask the question, “I need help, will you help me?” is asking to grow.
I was only able to thrive, learn, become resilient and grow as a person because I asked for help. I wasn’t taught about mental health growing up, but my service taught me that it’s essential that I take responsibility and show up as the best person I can be. The best version of myself supports my family with love, I gain experiences from the world, and I lead myself before others. Asking for help is asking, “will you be my teacher?”
A friend of mine named Macy was struggling in the off-season after suffering a physical injury on a fire. The off-season can be challenging for many reasons, including lack of work, lack of purpose, and lack of support. She had severely broken her wrist and strained her neck in a traumatic fall while completing an assignment that was deemed unnecessary. After having surgery, but still being so injured that she would never have full use of her wrist again, she began feeling depressed, angry, and, as she put it, “useless.” The injury had taken away her purpose and motivation for doing things she loved because of her hand’s lack of flexibility and strength. Finally, she came to me in the new year after suffering for months. We had worked together for several seasons, and I was happy to hear from her but didn’t know how much she was suffering.
In conversation, it came out that she “didn’t know where she was going.” As we dove deeper, we discussed that she was feeling hopeless, and she had lost her meaning of continuing to fight for what she wanted in her life. She wasn’t excited to go back to work. We ended up talking for a couple of hours. I didn’t need to tell her, “everything’s going to be fine if you have a good mindset.” Macy just needed to work through her grief on her own time. She did all the hard work; opening up to a “safe” person and dealing with the issues she had going on with a trusted person.
Macy is now a captain on a wildland fire crew and is thriving in life. My presence had nothing to do with the fact that she was doing so well. Instead, her willingness to be open and strong to deal with the things holding her down was the key to her success. It may seem incredibly difficult to ask for help when the weight of the issues seems so large, but it will be worth it.
We spend much of our lives learning things in different ways: In school, from experiences, from failures, from our family and friends, and our thinking. We learn to become better, to increase our value and positive emotions in our lives. Asking for help is just another way of learning, making your own life happier, more exciting, more confident, and resilient so you can lead yourself and help others.
It’s important to ask for help.
The Ancient Healers Inside Entheogens
An Entheogen is a psychoactive substance that induces altered states of consciousness for the purposes of ceremonial healing of the mind, body, and spirit. The indigenous cultures worldwide have used entheogens for thousands of years and have passed down the traditional knowledge from their ancestors. If you talk to the shamans, they will say that the plants are their teachers, and the spirits inside the plants guide them during the ceremony. Of course, the Auywausca craze sweeping the west is an interesting phenomenon with mixed reports about the sacred plant teachers.
Some cultures don’t use substances, but deep meditation like Tibet or like the Lakota tradition of sun dancing for days without food or water to induce altered states of consciousness. Graham Hancock researched this phenomenon in great detail in his book Supernatural. He even journeyed to Peru to drink Auyausca from a journalist’s point of view. Graham’s entire life changed in one sitting, as often reported. Now, Seattle, Oregon, and even Detroit have decriminalized entheogens which is a significant step toward introducing sacred plant medicine to the United States.
But what is the big deal about altered states of consciousness? I recently participated in a solo ceremony in the desert with an entheogen to find some deeper healing inside myself. Only a trained shaman or expert meditator can safely ingest sacred plant medicine alone.
My experience was beyond words. While watching the sunset over the Anza-Borrego desert, I had a deep realization that I am mixing Mother Earth and Father Sky energies into a union inside my body. I am creating my own creation, and it was the first time I embodied these feelings.
Soon, the moonlit the desert floor, and Sacred Geometry enveloped me as I surrendered to the weight of cosmic wisdom flowing through my body. Then, I remember thinking, am I dying? That’s when I knew that old parts of myself were dying and being released to unconditional love.
I felt this vibration come over my body like a massage chair vibrating my skull. Like a fast-paced shiver that released all of the trauma in my body. I found myself in the rattle of a shaman, and with every shake of his rattle, I was watching old pieces of myself fall away until there was nothing left.
I opened my eyes to black sludge inside my body, and my hands had healing lights inside my palms. I placed my palms on the pains inside my body and melted away the darkness with the oneness and unconditional love of the universe. I healed every part of my mind, body, and spirit that night. I went deeper than any hypnosis, therapy, or acupuncture treatment I have ever tried. This was a real medicine that shamans could only access with a strong intention. Traditionally the icaro (shamanic song) is as important as the plants themselves because they carry the intention.
My crown chakra is already wide open, maybe too open sometimes, which means that I had to work hard for a few weeks to normalize my inner vision. My psychic gifts were turned up to eleven, and I had to relearn how to ground myself and calm my nervous system. In a clinical sense, I experienced a short period of Psychosis which has happened to me just from meditating too much. Most people don’t have to work this hard to integrate after such an experience. I caution anyone with psychological disorders to consult a clinical practitioner before even thinking about using entheogens.
The effects of entheogens on a healthy individual may be more profound than any other treatments available. The MAPS Institute is in phase three trials with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. The results have been challenging modern psychiatry with the word “cure” being used for depression and PTSD.
The only danger is using the entheogens to access the mystical realms without integrating the groundwork to back up the lessons. There must be new action, focus, and goals to work toward as you rewire your brain. There has to be a strong intention for healing, a proper mindset, and a powerful setting that feels comfortable during the ceremony. The indigenous shamans are masters of the set, setting, and dosage, which are critical for having a positive experience.
Clinical studies have shown massive amounts of neurogenesis with magic mushrooms, which means your neural pathways grow and change after a mystical experience. Most participants that experience the magic mushroom report that the experience may be the most important experience of their entire life. As important as their wedding or child being born. After Micheal Pollan had his own experience, he wrote a new book and went on speaking tours to promote Psilocybin for healing. Find his book here: Change Your Mind by Micheal Pollan.
In the Hawaiian traditions, the black sludge I encountered inside my body is the black bags; check out an older blog about The Power of Forgiveness and black bags. The sacred plant medicine allowed me to access such a high level of unconditional love that the black bags dissolved, and a mind, body, spirit healing occurred. I remember having a sense of Sacred geometry flossing my spiritual body while I was laughing out loud.
No matter your opinion on entheogens, I think they are here to stay because they have the potential to change our entire planet. The planet is screaming for help as we abuse her land and oceans. Mother Gaia is speaking through the sacred plant medicines around the world. Mother Earths’ dis-ease is our dis-ease, and the more healing we do inside ourselves, the more trauma the planet releases. The Machine Apes are being called to the medicine, and I can only hope that we answer the call.
The Mystical Experience
As I intentionally set up my medicine wheel alone in the desert. I use obsidian for protection and incense to raise my vibration for my mystical experience.
I set an intention of self-healing; I pray for fourteen generations of healing that goes back seven generations and into the future seven generations.
As I chant and dance alone in the desert, I prepare my mind and body for the sacred experience that will release anger, sadness, fear, hurt, and guilt.
I once asked God to open my third eye, and I was ripped out of my body into the universe. But this time, I am praying for a gentle way forward with a deep release so I can serve my Wildland Firefighters in a better way.
As I watch the sun go down, I now understand that Mother Earth energy and Father Sky energy is mixed into creation by me! I am the creator of my own creation, my own reality. I soon dissolve into sacred geometry, where I must surrender to the weight of infinite wisdom.
There is a deep vibration rattling my body as if I'm in the rattle of a shaman. With every shake of his rattle, old beliefs, negative emotions fall away and dissolve into Mother Earth to be recycled. The healing hands of God come into my body and massage all of the trauma out of my organs as I breathe out black smoke to be recycled.
The mystical experience isn't logical; it's beyond beautiful, beyond healing; it's an experience that creates an affinity for unconditional love consciousness. The undeniable experience of God, creator, or spirit changes everything because you will be shown how to move forward in life without the old ways.
Sometimes our trauma is so deeply intertwined with our identity that you have to change who you are to release it. The sacred experience is life-altering, but more critical is integrating such experiences into three-dimensional reality. So how will you create habits that continue to connect you with spirit? How will you focus on the thoughts and feelings you want to cultivate? How will you show up in your relationships, at work, or in the field now?
The integration is where the real work begins, and that's why having goals to focus on while taking action is so important.
The Wildland Wellness Foundation and Mountain Mind Tricks have teamed up to create a holistic experience specifically for wildland firefighters.
The Covid Lessons
There is nothing scarier than feeling like you can't breathe, right? But most of us live our lives in the wrong job, the wrong relationship, and sometimes it feels like we're trapped. Every day you walk into that wrong office living the wrong life. All you want to do is write threatening haikus to your boss like Edward Norton in Fight Club. But the hard truth is, you are giving away your breath, energy, and life force. Simply, by allowing the situations of your life to stay stuck. The same thoughts, the same environment, the same consciousness.
The feeling of not being able to breathe, being trapped, feels the same as the coffin closing on you while you're still alive as your lowered into your hole in the ground and the dirt slams the outside of your box. With every thud of dirt, you're reminded of what could have been.
We all get stuck in life, but that doesn't mean you have to stay stuck. Being stuck is allowing the trapped thought forms and negative emotions to become who you are. You don't have to be your thoughts; it's a choice.
As I laid in my bed for two weeks, praying, saying affirmations, allowing the healing hands of my guides to fill me with light, I realized I had been stuck too. When I realized this, I knew there was a lesson waiting on the other side of my time with covid. Covid has taught me three major lessons in life. Maybe a better way to say it is that I was shown because sometimes spirit must kick me before I listen.
LESSON ONE: BREATH IS LIFE
As Wim Hof would say, "breathe, mother fucker”. You take for granted the ability to breathe easily and effortlessly. We forget how to breathe deep and focus on our breath sometimes. Some people never really breathe their entire life, right? Yet, the key to a healthy life, mission, and purpose-driven legacy is breath because without breathing, there is no being, doing, or having.
LESSON TWO: SURRENDER TO THE PROCESS
I had a western medicine phobia before covid from a during birth trauma. I was born so quickly, I was so unprepared that the doctor catching me created a trauma. Modern science and western medicine are real. I don't agree with western medicine sometimes, and science doesn't lie. It was my worst nightmare as I lay in the hospital getting tested, poked, and prodded.
The MD would walk in, and my EKG would show my heart rate jumping immediately. But I surrendered to the fear and let it go. I told myself, "This time is when western medicine can help you, trust the doctor has good intentions. Trust the process."
We all want everything now, especially in our high-tech world. We want it now, and we want it to feel good. In our modern society, we have lost the ability to trust the process. I had lost my ability to trust the process. Tell the universe what you want in life, take massive action, and then watch for the signs and symbols. Trust that your intention will be answered. The intention will show up differently than you imagined because it will be better than you could have created. Trust the process; this is my lesson.
My choice the last few months was to simplify my life and restart my mission back at zero, hit a reset button. What an amazing universe.
LESSON THREE: BE GRATEFUL
We act like tomorrow is guaranteed, but it's not. One of the most powerful experiences you can have is to feel gratitude at the deepest levels of your being. Being grateful for the sun, the air you breathe, the food you're eating, the loved ones around you. We Americans have a lot more than most of the world, but our eyes won’t see it.
Being grateful for our happiness, our health, and our abundance is easy. Being thankful for your misfortunes is how the human soul evolves. The only way to find gratitude is to find the lesson inside the suffering. What's the lesson? How can you integrate that lesson and take action toward a new perspective?
I am so grateful for my covid experience. I reconnected with my highest self in a meaningful way and proved my belief in the mind-body connection. I know I can control my mind, which controls my body because the separation is an illusion.
I began to turn a corner after I started doing internal work inside myself. Once I asked for the healing energy of the universe to change my body's chemistry, everything changed. I imagined dials that corresponded to my immune system, heart rate, oxygen exchange, and digestive enzymes. As I saw the dials, I changed the settings to maximize my healing. I could feel my body change and react to the control room adjustments.
I am grateful for my breath; I am thankful for my writing obsession; I am grateful for my amazing wife, my acupuncturist, and my family. Finally, I am grateful for the perspective changes that covid has given me.
It was just what I needed to take a hard reset in life. Covid takes all of your perceptions (sight, feeling, hearing, smell, taste) and twists them until your reality is unrecognizable.
There is the Thomas Wurm before covid and the person emerging after covid. I am so fucking excited and hopeful for this new way of being, aren't you?
Healing Through Writing
I recently interview aspiring author Amelia Zachry on the Shamanic Author podcast. She used the word "cathartic" a few times, and as I was editing the podcast, I had to look up the definition. Cathartic—involving the release of strong emotions through a particular activity or experience.
When I read the definition, my jaw dropped. I thought to myself; it's like when I learned about the property emergence. Emergence is when a system is more than the sum of its parts. See, writing a book is deeper than just writing, editing, formatting, and publishing. Healing emerges, and the author has a transformation that is embedded into the book.
Thoughts have power, and when you write down your thoughts on paper, they become amplified. As a result, the angels, spirit guides, and shamans on the other side of the veil serving on your council perk up. "she is writing again," let's go listen to what she is saying and help heal her on a deeper level. At least, this is how my highest self explains it to me.
The act of expressive writing lights up your neurology and everything connected to deeper negative emotions, limiting beliefs, and trauma. A writer automatically has a third-person view while writing it all out, which alters the trauma; there is a lesson that allows the beliefs behind the trauma to be rewritten. As you write the book, blog, or journal entry, your brain is rewriting the actual memory. The rewriting of past events is cathartic and leads to a deeper transformation than you could ever imagine.
The essence of healing through writing is rewriting your trauma. For my clients, we go deep into their timeline using hypnosis and rewrite the emotions behind their trauma. Then the writing process flows even faster because trauma disconnects you from your highest self. Your highest self is the real author. Every author will tell you, it's like my mind falls away, and something comes over me as I start writing. Then during the self-editing phase, the timeline work goes deeper and solidifies the rewriting of past traumas.
The act of expressive writing isn't just psychological. There is a deep energetic transformation at a spiritual level, and this is why writing can be so healing. It's like opening yourself up to a reiki master, except that reiki master is yourself writing your own book. So powerful, isn't it?
Check my latest episode with Amelia Zachry as I interview her cathartic writing experience. We go deep into trauma and how writing it all changed her point of view, healed her, and gave her voice back. "I got so much more than a healing; I found my voice!"
You Can Heal From Trauma
Trauma can feel like an open wound, and the world pours salt into it every time you get triggered, right? But trauma isn't a life sentence of hopelessly being broken inside.
Everyone has trauma and how you respond to that trauma is what's important. Trauma is an emotional charge behind a story you tell yourself, and every time you play that record, the knife goes deeper, and the hooks of pain sink in farther. But what if you could pull the knife out, heal the wound, and listen to a new playlist. Not to dismiss trauma because trauma can be debilitating. There is hope, and healing from the inside out is possible.
Sandra Cooze is one of the angels on Earth that helps people release and overcome their trauma. Sandra tells her story of transformation and how trauma isn't a life sentence of hopelessness. Sandra brings in divine energy, Trigger Release work, Tarot, and journaling to help her clients.
Trauma goes deeper than just the mental and emotional body. The science of the mind-body connection shows that deep unresolved emotions directly impact your immune function, ability to heal, illness probability, chronic disease, and overall shorter lifespans. The trauma gets trapped in the nervous system and the mental-emotional body.
Releasing trauma has to be within all four bodies, physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Is this why some traditional therapies lack the results of Mental-Emotional Release or Trigger Release work? The traditional way of medicine focuses only on one body, the physical.
Trauma isn't just chemicals in our brain... There is an energy that trauma carries and an emotional weight. The question is, how are you going to release your trauma?
Listen to the Shamanic Author Podcast as I interview Sandra Cooze on her healing author journey.
Are you a coach, holistic or spiritual entrepreneur wanting to expand your business by writing your first book but your self-doubt makes it impossible to start writing? Check out BreakthroughWritersblock.com
Taoism and Freemasonry
Did Freemasonry use ancient wisdom from the East to create the framework for rituals and philosophy inside the most well-known secret society?
When I think of mystery schools, I think of Dr. Strange from the Marvel comic books and how he used ancient teachings from the East to create energy with his hands. If there is any real Marvel content, Dr. Strange is ancient teachings hidden in our entertainment. Taoist medicine uses energy healing, and the practitioner waves their hands in symbols to call upon energies to clear the room or heal the client.
In Taoism, there are three phases of spiritual power. The first degree is awakening to your spiritual power and remembering that you have a soul. The second degree is learning how to move energy inside your body and revitalizing the physical form. In the second degree, the pupil can use their mind to manifest their dreams and control their reality. The third degree of ancient Chinese Shamanism is to strengthen the body's internal energy so that the practitioner could use the excess energy for healing others.
Christopher J. Earnshaw Ph.D. 33° has thoroughly researched the cross-overs from Taoism, mystical Christian traditions, and Freemasonry. We explored this idea on the podcast, and Chris spoke about his out-of-body experience while standing inside a Taoist temple in China. As we went deeper into exorcism, past life regression, and dowsing, I couldn't help but think of the word magic. Is magic real? During one of my recent training in Hawaiian Shamanism, one of the trainers welcomed the class and said, "You are no longer a Muggle, and going back into society will be challenging."
I wonder if Taoist spiritual alchemy, Freemasonry, and Shamanism around the world teach the same principles because all of the world's ancient wisdom came from a single place. A lost civilization of advanced spiritualists. Every ancient culture worldwide has the same myth of tall white-bearded men coming from the sea and empowering their culture with spiritual teachings.
My mentor explained to me; most spiritual teachers alter just one piece of their teaching. The spell, the technique, and the alchemy are less potent because the teachers fear that humanity is more powerful than we could ever imagine. That power scares most traditions, and I wonder what wisdom have we lost from our ancient civilizations because of this belief, "humans are too powerful..."
Is this the seed of fear, and often why we feel scared to step into our true potential?
Listen to the Shamanic Author Podcast with Christopher J. Earnshaw Ph.D. 33° to go even deeper.
Are you stuck in your writing process and feel scared to step into your highest potential as a writer? Learn to crush writer’s block with the Shamanic Writing Process.
Integrating the Author Entrepreneur Dichotomy
The universe is made up of dichotomies, and there is always a flip side to the coin. There are masculine and feminine energies in the universe. The yin and the yang, hot and cold, damp and dry. There is nothing wrong or good about each side, but you tend to judge them, right? We all do... But if you integrate both sides, a higher idea will emerge.
There is the writer and the reader dichotomy as an author, and the integration is what creates the journey. The author goes through a healing process to write the book, and the reader goes on a similar process while reading. When the book heals the author, the book heals the reader. The journey inside the book is the coin, and one side is the writer, and another side is the reader.
Another integration is success as an author. One side is publishing, marketing, and perfection on the outside. The flip side that most authors and writing coaches miss is the energy behind the book.
The power of the Shamanic Writing Process is the energy. As you clear your connection to your highest self, your marketing and writing energy gets brighter. The more focused on the marketing you become, the more people will experience your radiant energy and buy your book.
Authors aren't just writers anymore. You have to integrate author and entrepreneur now. Energy is everything, and there is nothing that makes this more apparent than entrepreneurship.
Learn more about the Shamanic Writing Process by clicking the link.
Have You Ever Heard the Words "You'll Never Change"
As Nate told his story on the podcast, I had waves of inspiration rolling through my spine. My life was reevaluating itself as he spoke to me. The inspirational tone comes through his writing. When you read his book, it's like a live event with Nate in your living room.
The value and simplicity of the comeback challenges at the end of every chapter will change your life. Some of the challenges include random acts of kindness, self-forgiveness, finding a mentor, evaluating your circle, and seeking help. These ideas are so simple, and that's why you probably forgot about them. His book You'll Never Change: Create Your Comeback and Prove Them Wrong will transform your desire to change into a commitment to changing now.
In the book, Nate Makes it clear that "no one is coming to fix your life for you." Nate is helping the reader and the listener of the podcast get their personal power back. Nate has mastered weaving inspirational truths into his story and you feel the energy as he writes.
In ancient Hawaiian culture, forgiveness is one of the most powerful ways of healing. Nate's comeback challenge to look in the mirror and forgive yourself for everything you have ever done is a practice that will release you from your dirty past.
The formatting, the writing, the inspirational tone makes this one of the best books I have ever read.
Read the book, go get your comeback and prove them wrong!
Check out the book here: You'll Never Change on Amazon
Listen to the podcast to catch the whole interview with Nate Dukes.
Self-Publishing 101
Self-Publishing can be like walking in the forest with no map, no compass, and no idea where you're going... With a gigantic mythical beast lurking in the woods waiting to eat your lunch. The beast is the Amazon algorithm. Nobody has seen it; nobody knows if it even exists. So they want you to believe.
Without proper guidance, equipment, and experience, your chances of failure rise exponentially in the self-publishing game.
As a new author, you're already feeling the doubt creep in; maybe you're trying not to even think about the publishing yet. The idea of getting a traditional publisher seems impossible, but you don't have time to self-publish... It's like you need a degree to self-publish on Amazon with the algorithm, keyword, and category research... What about finding a good editor or a book cover designer? I was scared once too.
Mountain Mind Tricks Publishing does it all for you, but the first step isn't some technical algorithm hack. All you have to do is listen to the Shamanic Author Podcast and listen to the episode I just published.
Emee Estacio is a Dr in Psychology and a self-publishing coach. She joined me for a powerful episode about Self-Publishing 101. This way, you can decide for yourself: Self-Publish, Hybrid Publish, or Traditional Publish.
Standing Meditation Will Change Your Life
Nate Rifkin blessed the Shamanic Author Podcast with his book The Standing Meditation. After the show, I took the time to read Nate's book, and I was shocked by the tales of despair and self-hate that Nate went through. Speaking with Nate now, I can hear in his voice and see in his face that his meditation practice changed his entire life.
I loved this book, Nate gives you step-by-step instructions to change your life while weaving in his story. The approach is simple on the outside, but Nate teaches you how to speak to your body in a way that unravels the cobwebs of old subconscious programming. In The Standing Meditation, Nate teaches you how to dissolve old beliefs, negative emotions, and old grudges by connecting to the energy of the universe.
Interwoven in the instructions of the life-changing meditation techniques, Nate tells his story. How he went from drinking every morning, buried in debt, losing everything, to spinning a sign on the street corner. Nate went through a transformation by standing in an ancient posture that dissolved and healed his past trauma. He proves it by telling his story throughout the book. One chapter is past sadness from family dynamics growing up, and the next is instructional. The mix keeps you engaged and wanting to follow Nate through his story as he guides you through a Daoist transformation.
If you need an energetic power wash that will change your life from the inside out. Read The Standing Meditation by Nate Rifkin.
Listen to his interview on the Shamanic Author podcast
If you are a first-time author struggling to write your book go to: breakthroughwritersblock.com
Becoming an Author
You will get triggered and want to quit writing because writing a book is an intense process. How you respond, dig deeper, overcome, and learn from those triggers will define you as an author.
Before you start writing your rough draft, it is important to frame the writing process as a healing process. As you sit down to write there will be things in your writing that jump off the page and stab you in the heart. You will get triggered and want to quit writing because writing a book is an intense process.
How you respond, dig deeper, overcome, and learn from those triggers will define you as an author. The writing process is a journey into your mind, body, and spirit, which ensures a transformational experience for the reader.
Then create a sacred space, pick a time, and commit to it every day. Writing must become a habit because every day that you miss writing is one more day your book isn't a reality. Start with a micro habit of writing for five minutes every day.
The thoughts that fire together wire together, which means every time you write, you are wiring your brain to become an author. It's not enough to feel like an author. It's time to become an author. Society wants you to believe that you have to have a book and write before becoming an author. What if you became the author first, and then the writing manifested a book through easy habits.
Additionally, you need to make sure your book is marketable, which means market research, audience awareness, and a professional look. The editing needs to be top-notch, the formatting has to look perfect, and your book cover has to be emotional for your audience. The book cover is the most critical piece of the book because you have three seconds to drawn in the reader. Then the first few paragraphs have to hook the reader. How do you shop for books? You look at the cover, crack it open, and read a page or two, right? Make this journey irresistible.
Everyone says self-publishing is easy, and this is true. But to sell a lot of books as a first-time self-published author is not. Then you must make a bulletproof marketing plan. And learn to market your book every day in different ways, like building an author platform that feeds straight into selling books and moving readers into your coaching, holistic or spiritual business.