Day 72 Freedom

Let me tell you about fear.

We are taught fear from birth. Our parents use fear to control us. If you have raised children yourself you know that you may have used fear to scare the kids into doing what you wanted them to do. Then fear is the controller in school. You will be punished if you do not do things the way they want, stay after school, detention, principal's office, failing grades, its all about fear.

So by adulthood, we are totally controlled by fear and it is the biggest part of our lives. Then we go to work. We learn to fear coming in late, displeasing the boss, not doing a super job every day, taking too long a lunch break, all kinds of things. So fear dominates our work life. Then we get married. And we use fear to control each other. “I won't love you if you ....( displease) me in any way.” “Get that supper on the table in time or I will be angry.” “Mow that lawn or I will shame you to the neighbors.” More, more, more. Fear of anger becomes the control in a relationship many times.

Wow! We are fear based people aren't we! How sad! At what point do we get to breathe??? No wonder we are unhappy. What a crumby way to live!

And who has time now to unravel 30 or 40 years of fear based thinking? It seems easier to take Prozac than to go to a counselor and work on the psychological factors for months or years. It seems easier to medicate than to break the chain. And it takes breaking the chain to find freedom, happiness and power.

What would you like to do? How precious is your freedom to you? How badly do you want to be happy? How much is your personal power worth to you?

Taking my course in Traditional Shamanism requires one to accept his or her own power. It teaches you where it is and shows the way. The course teaches you how to be a hunter, a warrior and work with the tools that have been given to you already but that you are afraid to use (because everybody told you not to). Why did they say that? Because, if you learn to use your God given tools they will no longer be able to control you with fear.

When we truly take back our power, no person can have power over us again.

When we truly take back our power, we become responsible for everything that happens to us. We can make wonderful things happen in our lives. We are no longer under the influence of other people’s poor plans for our lives.

Who knows you better than you? Why do you let others decide what is best for you? Only you know what is best for you. Step up and make your choices, take responsibility for your choices and watch those fear based controllers run for the hills. Those who were controlling you will leave. Why should they stay if they can't touch you anymore! Believe me it a very freeing feeling and all it take is a choice, a different way of living.

Traditional Shamanism teaches you to reclaim your power; that you are strong and yes, you do create your own reality. Traditional Shamanism also expects you to accept responsibility for yourself and for your actions and consequences. But that is not as bad as sitting back saying, "Well, they made me do this." What is that??! It is wonderful to be in charge of your own life! It is great to know that whatever you want in life is yours with the proper knowledge, the sincere intent and the correct emotional control. Traditional Shamanism gives you the skills. It is a great thing!

Should you fear studying Traditional Shamanism? Fear is a choice you can make. The other choice is freedom. Let someone control you, fear; or take control of yourself, freedom. My course in Traditional Shamanism will teach you how to take control of yourself and experience the freedom to have anything you really want out of life.

To become a student of Traditional Shamanism with Shaman Elder Maggie just go to http://www.shamanelder.com and begin today!

To get a copy of Shaman Elder Maggie’s new book The Shaman Speaks go here http://www.shamanspeaks.com

To contact Shaman Elder Maggie, Email: shaman@shamanelder.com)

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Day 57 Betrayal

In every person’s life as a child, there comes  a day when we discover that our parents lied to us. It is usually not a very big lie, but these parents who we trusted completely and believed every single thing they said and did and we even attempted to imitate them thinking that they knew what they were doing and were experts on how to live life in the best possible way, we catch them in a lie. It might be simply that there is no Santa Claus, it might be that we see them doing some act of selfishness at our expense. It might be one of those do as I say not as I do events. It might be overhearing our parents talking trash about us in the heat of an argument saying things they don’t really mean. But in every child’s life there comes a moment when that child realizes that her parents have lied to her. And this feels like the ultimate betrayal. It is usually the first time we are betrayed by anyone we truly loved. 

So it depends on how that child handles that betrayal that can color their whole life experience. Most of us suddenly realize that our parents are not gods. We may realize that our parents are struggling and suffering and not having a very good time here after all. We may realize that our parents do not know everything after all and so we change how we see them and they become human beings instead of gods and we learn to rely on our own selves from that point on. This is that moment in a young teen’s life when she stops confiding in her parents, when she starts making her own decisions, when she would rather choose for herself than rely on her now human parents to make choices for her anymore. This is normal and healthy. 

But there are some kids who are so traumatized by the idea that their parents would actually lie to them,  that they never got over it. They feel such a sense of betrayal that they cannot forgive their parents for being human. It becomes blown out of proportion in the child’s mind and there is no one around to seek counseling from, to explain this betrayal is just a human being- being human. 

And, instead of going through what most of us go through and learning at this time of childhood that it is better to make our own way than to rely on other humans to do it for us, this person has not recovered from this natural point in every child’s life when they catch the ones they trust doing untrustworthy things. She did not reach that decision to create her own life the best she could and instead just rejected her parents as defective and she is still thinking that there are gods in the world who can run her life for her and not betray her. So time and time again she trusts in someone and makes them the parent god for her life and tine and time again they betray her. It is a broken record. 

What she needs to do is take responsibility for her own life, just like that teenage girl who decided it is better to make her own decisions for her own life, no matter how bad or mistaken they may be, rather than to let any other human being run her life for her. We learn by experience how to make better and better choices as we go along. But this person has not even picked up the baton and tried to make her own choices. She has spent her life looking for someone else to make her choices for her. I would encourage her to stand in her power now and begin to create her own life for herself rather than looking for another parent figure god. There are no gods in this world. There is no one else here who would know how to live her life in the best way. Only she can determine that and create that for herself.

For FREE counseling just visit www.shamanelder.com

Day 54 Dealing with Beliefs Given to us in Fear

When I was in first grade my first experience in school, We didn’t even have to go to any kindergarten or preschool then, my teacher was a nun dressed in black and white  habit who stood 6 foot 11 and wore size 16 men’s basketball sneakers, the only shoes that would fit her. Imagine this teeny little 6 year old girl sitting in an oversized desk looking at those gigantic shoes that could just stomp her out. I would look up to the top of the world and see that mean face wrapped in that nun outfit glaring down at me. I would feel the sting of her ruler on my back if I didn’t’ sit up straight enough. Yes I was definitely afraid of her.

When children are afraid of the parental authority like I was of this nun, and she tells me that girls are dumber than boys, I don’t need any facts or logic to believe what she is telling me. I believe simply because she said so! And I will believe it with all my heart and soul rather than have her come down on me and hit me or stomp on me. Anything she told me- I took for the whole truth.

As we grow up, even though that adult is no longer present in our lives. The feelings of fear that pushed non benefitting beliefs into our minds and souls is still there. Those beliefs are held in our psyche by a lock of fear. We still subconsciously fear the authority that taught us that belief. So even into my adulthood I still believed that men were smarter than women. There is certainly no data to back that up. No proof of that, in fact just about everybody would tell you it is not true, but because that belief was given to me as a result of a fear based authority figure telling me what to believe, I am going to believe that belief and not be able to change that belief. I will even make up my own reasons why that belief is true and I might even refuse to hear any one try to tell me it is not true. I clutch that belief because I am afraid to let go of it because I still have a child’s fear of that nun inside me, what might happen if I let go of her belief, how will I be punished, what terrible thing will happen to me if I doubt that belief. I subconsciously feel safe by continuing to believe this non benefitting belief. To change it would make me feel unsafe as though I was violating something and would get hurt. It is this feeling of safety I get from believing this belief that makes me keep it no matter how disabling it might be to me.

So with beliefs like these we have to see WHO taught us these non benefitting beliefs and are we still afraid of those authority figures? Do they still hold power over us? Until we can face the authority who taught us these non benefitting belief, face to face, adult to adult, until we can remove the fear that they had over us consciously, we cannot remove these beliefs.  We must realize that it is no longer dangerous to disagree with that authority figure who told us to believe in these beliefs and we can now update our beliefs based on the current reality of things in our lives today. I think we all have been given beliefs like these. I think it is worth it to find them and deal with them. What do you think?

Email me at shaman@shamanelder.com and we can work through such a  non-benefitting beliefs of yours for free! Or visit http://www.shamanelder.com/

Aho

Shaman Elder Maggie

Day 52 Bad Karma is a Cause of Disease

The most dangerous being in all the world is the human being. It is the only being that will deliberately violate your free will choice. So this is the being we need to protect ourselves from. All the other beings can do nothing without your permission or willingness. They are nothing compared to the human being who will violate you and rip your life apart and hurt you or imprison you or kill you.  These are the beings we must learn to deal with yes. Some ways my family taught me to deal with people is to respect that they too have free will choice. There is no reason for me to violate the free will choice of any created thing. I learned to respect the free will of people and of trees and of mountains and of spoons. I will not violate their free will as they too are sentient beings having a life experience here just as I am. But I also respect my own free will and I take responsibility for what I create on this planet too. WE get into trouble when we start trying to push our views, our beliefs onto other beings. When we forget that the spoon is sentient and just throw it in the sink as though it is nothing, that creates bad karma for us. And that karma amasses until nothing is going right for us at all. I was taught at age three how to respect my toys so that I did not create negative karma. I have spent my whole life respecting the free will of everything around me and perhaps it is because I have not created the decades of bad karma by ignoring the free will of everything that I have such joy and peace and abundance in my life. If I can give you one gift from this course , this would be it.

There is an old lama from Tibet. His name is Tsongkhapa. He lived about 1200 AD and is still very famous for his words of wisdom today. And he said, “if the maturation of a karma is in progress, it cannot be altered, even by Buddha. There are many different causes of insanity: intense fear, a chemical imbalance, an imbalance in the body’s elements, deep sorrow, intense greed, and so on. Some become mentally ill simply because of the natural progression of their karma. In this latter case, no ordinary treatment can help. If mental or physical illness is brought about from the maturation of a karma, then the best treatment is the collection of merit and the purification of negativities”.

My Shaman Grandmother knew about the devastating effects of accumulating negative karma in this lifetime. And so she taught me when I was a wee little kid with no more understanding about life than how to play with dollies that I needed to respect  the free will of every sentient being, every creation and offer random acts of kindness anonymously to create good karma in my life.

To read more of what my Shaman grandmother taught to me just go to www.shamanspeaks.com

To take my online email course just go to www.shamanelder.com

Aho

Shaman Elder Maggie