Day 61 What causes my suffering

It is those non benefitting beliefs, those untrue beliefs that we were given by outside sources that make us struggle and suffer . The fact that they are not true makes it impossible to live under those beliefs comfortably or easily. Its like trying to get your foot into a size 4 shoe because someone told you had to! By choosing to believe that there is some fate, some kind of destiny you cannot control, your whole life has turned upside down and you are powerless at this point. However, at this point in your life, you are all grown up now. What other people have told you to believe, for the most part, were neither correct or completely true or beneficial to you at all. So now, as an adult, its time to review what you were told to believe and determine for yourself which of those childhood beliefs still benefit you today and which ones are hogwash and you wish to replace. Then choose beliefs that do benefit your life today. I can help you do this if you like. When you have beliefs that do benefit your life today you will find that you no longer suffer or struggle at all and your life becomes a beautiful thing indeed! Just like Mine!

Make sense? Send me an email at shaman@shamanelder.com and tell me you are reading my 100 day blog.

To learn more about traditional shamanism visit www.shamanelder.com

To purchase my new paperback called The Shaman Speaks visit  www.shamanspeaks.com

Day 60 Boundaries

Boundaries tell you what you will and will not do. What you are willing to partake in and what you are not willing to partake in for yourself. They are not leashes you can put on other people and make them do things or not do things, at all. They are to protect you and keep you safe. One of my boundaries is that I will not go down a dark alley at night! That boundary I have created for myself is to keep me safe and I don't care who tells me its ok to walk down that dark alley I will not go there because I have already set up this boundary that I refuse to cross.

I have a boundary that I will not let just anyone come and move into my house with me. This is a boundary for me. It keeps me safe and out of trouble. I set this boundary up now ahead of time and so if someone calls me up and says, Hey Shaman Maggie I need to come live with you and get my head on straight, I say no. I have this boundary and I will not go beyond it. I have another boundary that says I will not let someone disrespect me. I set it up beforehand that if someone is being rude or abusive to me I will leave that environment, I will walk way. And that is what I do. It keeps me safe and protected. Boundaries are things we set up for our own selves that delineate what we will and will not do. Then, when that situation comes up that tries to push us beyond our boundaries, we will not go there.

Boundaries are not meant to control other people. You cannot control what other people do or say or think. They have free will and we should respect their free will choice no matter what. ( if we violate the free will of others , we will have our own free will violated too. What goes around comes around)But we have to respect our own free will too and setting up these boundaries that create a safety net for us to stay within is a good thing to do.

So send me a list of your boundaries to shaman@shamanelder.com. We should know what our boundaries are and be very aware of them at all times. By making me a list, you will become area of what boundaries you choose to create for yourself and that is a very good thing to do!

To learn more about traditional shamanism visit www.shamanelder.com

To purchase my new paperback called The Shaman Speaks visit  www.shamanspeaks.com

Aho

Shaman Elder Maggie

Day 59 The Inevitable Storms of Life

When its the middle of the night , and the wind is screaming through the rigging at 45 knots, and the boat is heeled 30 degrees, and the seas are running high against you, and water is breaking on deck, and you are all alone... and there is white water and black death on the lee shore... and everything is confusion, and noise, and icy fear that approaches absolute terror... and you feel that the possibility of death is no longer remote, but very real...., and very near....

Then, you had best to know what you are doing,

Hope, will not take you off that boat.

For more information www.shamanelder.com

To read more teachings from Shaman Maggie’s own lineage visit www.shamanspeaks.com

Day 58 Choosing to be a Victim

All people have free will choice. It is the greatest gift we are given in this life experience. We are accountable for our choices. No one is a victim here. We create our own victimhood by how we react to the things that happen around us and also by the choices we make for ourselves.

A person might decide that they choose to have blackberries. That is what they want to eat. But they don't think about the fact that they then have to go out and find a field of blackberries and crawl through the thorny bushes and pick them and wash them in order to have them. People only see the end result and forget about all the in between parts. So this person who wants blackberries does do the work to go out and find a blackberry patch. That was hard work. Then he sees that the bushes have thorns. Well he wants the blackberries so he starts to pick them and every time he gets a few he gets pricked again. At this point most people give up. It was too hard or too uncomfortable to get what he wanted. And he knows there was still more work. He changed his mind here and chose not to have blackberries because it is too much work.

So he goes home all frustrated and angry. He is angry at the blackberries for being so hard to find and pick. But did the blackberries do anything to anger him? No. They were just being their happy natural selves. He is angry that he got pricked by the thorns. Did anyone force him to get pricked? No he did that himself. He is angry at the thorns. But they were just being themselves, carrying on with their natural state of being. He is angry that he wasted gas in his car to go find the blackberry patch. But did the car make him go there? No, he chose to do this. He is angry that he wasted his time. But it was his choice to want this. So at first he had this marvelous picture of a pile of fresh blackberries to eat and in the end he was injured and angry and had spent time and gas for nothing.

Is this what you are feeling?

It is really good to see all the steps you will have to take to accomplish the choice you are choosing before you ever set out to accomplish it. When we choose something we are choosing all those steps too.  But if you really want something, if you have passion about what you want, you are willing to accept the steps necessary to achieve it. So this man did not have that kind of passion. He obviously didn't want the blackberries that much! Tell me more about what it was you were choosing and how it did not work out for you at shaman@shamanelder.com.

Or sign up today for my email course at www.shamanelder.com

Aho

Shaman Elder Maggie

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 56 Choosing Your Beliefs

You are accountable ultimately for your beliefs so it is important to know what you believe and why. And if you have some belief that doesn't work for you, that may have been given to you by someone else, especially childhood beliefs, this course is a good time to get rid of what doesn't work and get something that makes you feel whole, that is yours, that you do really believe in. This is the process of becoming an authentic person. This is what I offer you in this course at www.shamanelder.com.  A Shaman is authentic with him or herself first and foremost. In 50 years of examining my belief system, believe me, I know where my human frailties lie, I know my strengths and weaknesses, I know which beliefs are authentic to me and which ones are still held over from other people's belief systems that I still have to come to grips with. It is a process. And I accept myself as fully human, fully alive. I love life! I love being human! I have found the joy and happiness, the peace by creating a more authentic life for myself by examining my belief system and making it my own!

But with each belief you examine, whether you choose to keep it or replace it with something that does work for you, you will feel this coming home to yourself, this growing in your own self, this sense of freedom to be who you really are.

Its up to you!

Aho

Shaman Elder Maggie

To learn more visit www.shamanelder.com

To read Shaman Maggie’s new book visit www.shamanspeaks.com

Special Post for Japan Victims - A Prayer

A Prayer for Japan

By Shaman Elder Maggie Wahls

Creator, Father, Mother, Source, Grandmother, Grandfather, Elders and ancestors of the ancient land of Japan, Mother Earth and all her children;

We lift up the people and all sentient beings of Japan to your loving arms.

You know what is needed in this place; You know what is in each heart and soul there.

We ask you to do your will and shower yourself down to bring your peace and calm to those minds and hearts;

To bring solace to so many who have lost a loved one.

To all those that have been destroyed,

To all the people who have lost everything they own and will not be able ever to go home again,

Bring your light and love to your people, Father.

Bring solutions to those in power;

Bring food and water to those in need;

Bring your healing in every way to our brothers and sisters in that ancient land.

We lift them up to you and know that You will do everything for them.

Inspire us to do our part—

To donate what we can and to hold them in our hearts.

Father, we leave these brothers and sisters in your capable hands

And ask your blessings on all of them and on ourselves and our families, too.  AMEN.