As I get ready to go off to my Shamanic class this week for the final direction on healing and becoming a practicing Shaman, it got me thinking about some questions, some observations, and it made me realize how much I truly love this group of people I have been working with over this past year. And I wanted to honor them and the work we have done.

What if for 24 hours you were given the opportunity to switch places with other people—so for that one day, you had the ability to see with complete clarity, how they see you— from their vantage point—what they thought of you, how they perceived you, what their overall impression of you was. Would you take that opportunity? Would you like to see how others see you?

I would venture to guess that if it were just that question, almost 100% of the people would respond, “Yes”. That they would love to see how other people view them.

But—now, what if in return, in order for you to be able to see how someone else sees you, you would have to surrender to them the opportunity to see and KNOW you as only YOU truly know yourself from within—they would know your every thought, see your every deed, and see your every action you have ever taken throughout your entire life. They would know everything about you as only you do right now. They would see into your soul.

Stop and think about that honestly…

Now, would you take the opportunity to switch places?
With that in mind, I’m guessing the vast majority of us would not trade places.
Yet, isn’t interesting that we live our lives far more concerned about how other people view us and and what others “think” of us and we put in much more effort on creating an image for others, than we do working on ourselves, “for ourselves” in such a way that we would not be ashamed to have everyone know us for who we truly are.

THAT is truly living an authentic life and a life based upon your truth.

It’s a hard thing to do, to work on yourself. It requires courage to be able to face yourself and the truths you know about yourself. We put a lot of fear in front of doing that. We’re often afraid of appearing weak or worse yet “unworthy”. Yet with your own loving heart and a willingness to forgive yourself and to offer acceptance to yourself, you can heal a lot of woundedness. And you can live a happier life.

Shamanic work and Shamanic healing is about doing just that. Going into your own dark places and your own darkness and healing your soul. Of your own choosing you bare your soul to the Spirits that surround you and love you. You learn to find the love for yourself, from yourself. That, is a truly unique gift to be given.

For one year now, I have worked with a group of 10 remarkable souls. Each has been willing to not only bare the truth of their own souls to each of us as a group, but each has held the sacred and loving space for me to bare mine. That’s what Shamans do. They simply hold the space with love for others to do the work of healing themselves. You can’t get any closer to any human being then when you share your soul and your truth.

I am forever grateful to all of them for their love and for the teachings.

And I would like to wish everyone reading this the miracle of being able to honor and live for yourself.