Wisdom Rising

Awakening to Soul - Releasing Ego and Healing Through Divine Connection

• Christine Renee, Isabel Wells, and Shantel Ochoa • Season 1 • Episode 25

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Set your ego aside. As we step forward on our spiritual path, it's impossible to escape concepts like 'ego death' or 'setting the ego aside', but what does that really mean? In this episode, we delve into the nature of the ego, challenging our conventional perceptions of it and uncovering its potential as a supportive ally when aligned with divine energies.

In this conversation, we'll cover:

  •  The Shamanic perspective of ego​
  •  What setting aside the ego really means
  •  Ego as a gift
  •  Healthy ego vs. Destructive ego
  •  The importance of co-creating with the Divine​
  •  Humility as the antidote to anxiety
  •  The wound of separation
  •  Cultivating Sacred humility and appreciation
  •  Ways to connect to the Divine
  •  The concept of Soul and how to cultivate it​
  •  Connecting with your Soul purpose
  •  Right Relationship, Honorable Harvest, and Compassionate Community
  •  And more!

This episode is more than just a discussion; it’s a call to shift from fear to love and gratitude, embracing humility along the way. By acknowledging our interconnectedness, we open ourselves to collective healing and shared wisdom. We invite you to continue this journey with us, sharing insights in the Moon Rising Shamanic Mystics Facebook group, and supporting each other in our lifelong paths of healing and connection. Join our growing community to deepen your understanding and enhance your journey toward spiritual and personal growth.

Moon Rising Shamanic Institute Links:
Website: https://moonrisinginstitute.com/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/moonrisinginstitute
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/moonrisingmystics
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moonrising.institute
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@moonrisinginstitute

Book a session with Isabel: https://calendly.com/into-the-deep/schedule

Book a FREE 15 minute connect call with Izzy: https://calendly.com/moonrisinginstitute/connect

Book a session with Christine: https://calendly.com/christinerenee/90-minutes-intensive

Book a FREE 10 minute connect call with Christine: https://calendly.com/christinerenee/10-minute-connect-call-srpt

Speaker 1:

It's time to remember your divine purpose and limitless potential. Welcome to Wisdom Rising, the official podcast of Moon Rising Shamanic Institute. Join shamanic Reiki practitioners Christine Rene, isabel Wells and Chantel Ochoa as we guide you on a journey of radical self-discovery and spiritual guidance. Each week, we'll dance through the realms of shamanism, mysticism, energy, healing and personal development to illuminate your path to true healing and self-sourced wisdom Through weekly inspired conversations and interviews with leading spiritual and shamanic practitioners. We are here to help you acknowledge, reconcile and balance your energy so that you can awaken to the whispers of wisdom rising from within. Welcome back to another amazing episode of the Wisdom Rising podcast. Today we're diving into releasing ego and connecting with the divine for healing and transformation.

Speaker 1:

In today's podcast episode, you'll hear myself and Christine discuss why the ego isn't what we think it is, how the spiritual community has misrepresented the ego. How the ego can actually be perceived as a beautiful gift, but when it transitions into being a destructive force, it's often rooted in a disconnection or separation from the divine and our souls. We'll talk about how we can renew that connection, why that connection is vital to our feeling of balance, how honoring principles like right relationship with the earth, compassionate community and honorable harvest are vital to not only our own healing, but the health of the planet and everything in it people, plants, animals, rocks and more and why we can use these principles to guide our life and our spiritual practice, coming back into the understanding that as we heal ourselves, we heal the world. So if you're interested in learning more about how we can befriend the ego instead of trying to kill it, bring it back into connection with our soul to create a beautiful system of harmony, compassion, humility, alignment, balance, healing and more, then this episode is for you.

Speaker 1:

If you enjoy today's conversation, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so that you can get access to new episodes sooner, and be sure to join our Moon Rising Shamanic Mystics Facebook group to keep the conversation going. Until then, let's dive in to today's episode. Welcome. Welcome to another amazing conversation. I am joined with Christine Rene, our moon rising visionary, this morning as we discuss how we can release our ego and step into connection with the divine so we can have this co-creative relationship and partnership in our lives. So, christine, I'm excited to talk with you today.

Speaker 2:

I'm excited to talk with you today because I really find that this is a really important conversation to have. If you're a spiritualist, if you're a spiritual entrepreneur, if you are a practitioner of any kind, this is a very crucial conversation each and every one of us need to have with ourselves as we step forward as practitioners, as being in support for other people and making sure our ego is in check. And I was just recently teaching a Reiki level two class, and I feel like this is something I talk about often enough of like you can't care. We can't be more invested in how the outcome is than the client is, because that's ego. And when we show up in a way of like this is what the client needs to experience and what the outcome should be, and this is what I'm going to do in the hand placements or the symbols I'm going to use, and we get all up in our head about it, well then there's no more room for the Reiki or the healing practice to actually authentically show up the way it needs to, right and so there, and there's just a lot of different avenues in our lives as practitioners where ego can try to sneak in and kind of take over, and so this is an invitation to kind of listen with an open mind and recognize that we all have an ego, like we all have it.

Speaker 2:

And it's not to say that the ego is bad and evil. It has a job and it does its job well and it's helping us in a survival pattern and to make sure that we are going to be successful in some way, and it's not in a place for a lot of our avenues as practitioners. So that's really like I'm excited to kind of have the conversation because I think there's a lot of different angles we can look at this, and it doesn't necessarily need to come from a practitioner point of view, but anytime we have a personal practice, even just for ourselves, it's like where's my mind, where's my ego, where's that thought process getting in the way of true fundamental healing so that we can sink down into our heart space?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I think that's a really beautiful place to start this conversation off with is especially entering into this like you said open-minded area of what exactly is the ego. This is something that I see mentioned so often in the broader spiritual community this idea that we need to release our ego or we need to have an ego death. There's all of these phrases and words and beliefs that we have that the ego is bad and we need to eradicate it. What I find really interesting about this we were actually having a conversation about this in one of our Still Rising Shamanic Reiki classes the other day is that when we look at our ego, what we're really talking about on a broad scale level, if you look at how the spiritual community uses that term and how the psychological community uses that term, we're looking at, basically, our mind, right, we have our soul, which is that intuitive, loving place that is connected to the divine. That is the truth of all things. And then we have our mind, which is what you could maybe call our human self. Right, we have this mind that has these beliefs and these thoughts and it knows how to problem solve and it's really good at identifying the problems and it's meant to keep us safe, right. And so one of the things that we talk about all the time here on the show is the fact that so much of our mind is subconscious right, it's that 95% or more of our mind that is subconscious processes, and that subconscious mind develops between the time that you are born to the time that you're six to eight years old, and so suddenly we have this wealth of information about ourselves and how the world works that forms the majority of our identity on a human level, right. And so suddenly we have all of these I am statements about ourselves. A lot of times they're limiting beliefs if they were formed when we were kids, right, things like I'm not enough, I'm not lovable, I'm not worthy we talk about those all the time here. But then we also have our positive beliefs, right, like I am strong, I am resourceful, I am resilient, I am whatever.

Speaker 1:

But we have this entire framework in our mind, in our human headspace, of who we are and how we fit into the world and how the world works, and that center of I am is the ego. When we are looking at ourselves or the world from a frame of reference of I, it's not bad. There's nothing inherently wrong with the ego, and I think this is something that frustrates me because I don't hear it talked about in the spiritual community and I find that so many people come to Moon Rising with this sense of guilt and this sense of shame for the fact that they have an ego or that they need to let go of it, or that I know it's just ego saying this, but I had this experience, or I feel this way, about working with energy and there's this kind of subtle undertone of denying yourself again, of saying I know it's just my ego saying this. I shouldn't be having this much self-esteem, pride, confidence, whatever you want to call it. And there is a line right. There does come a point where those I am statements become destructive, and we can see that in things like pride or greed, but we can also see that in things like self-deprecation and shame. It goes on both ends of the spectrum.

Speaker 1:

But what we're talking about when we talk about ego is that ability to witness yourself. That's really all ego is. The problem comes when we put that I am framework, that ability to witness yourself, into a system of stories, beliefs, thoughts, emotions that is disconnected, and what I mean by disconnected is that it's disconnected from our soul, it's disconnected from the divine, it's disconnected from nature with a capital N, it's unrooted. And we can all think about times in our life, just in general right, where we have felt unrooted. You know, maybe you didn't eat as much that day, maybe you were going through a really big life transition, but we weren't grounded. And think about how erratic everything feels when you as a person are not grounded and rooted. And now imagine that you're doing that to your entire frame of reference for yourself and how the world works. And that's where we get this out of balance ego state that we feel like we need to eradicate or we need to step away from or have an ego.

Speaker 1:

Death is when we are unrooted, meaning we have this fundamental sense that we aren't safe, we aren't worthy, we aren't connected, we aren't enough. We have those core limiting beliefs that untethers us from any kind of grounding, aligning or balancing force. And so when we have that belief that I'm not safe, that nothing ever works out for me, that life is hard, that whatever it is that's causing that sense of insecurity, because our ego, that I am center of our brains, is designed to keep us safe, it's designed to tell us how to move around in the world so that we can succeed essentially so that we can stay alive, because it's designed to do that. If we have this fundamental feeling of disconnection, then it's going to feel unsafe and it's going to do everything that it can to try and bring us back into alignment how Typically by trying to control everything in our environment around us. And so this is where we start to see this in. You know, even in our Reiki practice.

Speaker 1:

I think that's one of the hardest things for new Reiki practitioners, whether you're level one or all the way up through a teacher level. To wrap your mind around is this idea that we can't be attached to the outcome and maybe can't is the wrong word there, but it's the idea that we're not in control. We don't get to choose the outcome right. We're dealing with this inherent flow of energy and life, and as Reiki practitioners, as energy healers, we are here to help shape that flow. We're here to hold space for that flow, but we're not here to tell it what it needs to do.

Speaker 1:

And that process of stepping back into connection with something greater than yourself, that is what I believe a true ego death is. It's not saying. This part of me is wrong. My ability to say I am is harmful. My ability to be self-centered is harmful. It's not that, it's that those things become destructive when taken out of context, and I think we can all think of things in our lives. I think about religion in this way a lot. When things are taken out of context, they become harmful.

Speaker 1:

But our ego in and of itself is neutral. It's this blank space and so when we are able to bring it back into connection with something greater than itself, for example with Reiki, when you're a new Reiki practitioner and you discover energy and you have that friend who has cancer or needs surgery or has a really severe health condition and you want to heal them, you want to fix them, that level of need right, it ceases to become a want and it becomes a need, that need for them to survive, to heal, to whatever. That need is rooted in, that fear or that feeling of unsafety or that fear of loss or whatever it is, and that suddenly we're into ego in the way that we typically think of it ego in this self-fulfilled, self-propelled, self-destructive force. But as you go through that process of your Reiki training and you learn how to set your ego aside and step into connection with Reiki and trust that that energy is flowing for reason and purpose. You are still holding ego space. You always will.

Speaker 1:

That's part of being human. Part of being human is having an ego. We cannot ever get rid of it and that's why that idea of ego death is so misleading, because we can't ever get rid of it and we don't need to. What needs to happen is it needs to be brought into balance. It's that ultimate state of balance, and so when we bring it back into connection with Reiki and that flow of energy, suddenly we've grounded it into connection with the divine and we're able to use that to witness the healing, to witness the divine, and in that way, our ego becomes this divine witnesser rather than this divine controller. And I think that's really the main switch that we're looking for is it's not that we need to completely get rid of ego, it's just that it needs to be balanced and grounded, just like we do as a whole.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I feel like there's so much of that space in which we realize, especially as empaths, that when we see someone suffering, we really want to go fix it because it will make us feel better as an empath. And so much of that is driven by the ego of like, needing to make everything right. It's the fawn system out of the fight, flight freeze, fawn nervous system of like. Oftentimes, if we're fawning, we're looking around, going. How can I fix everything for everyone else to make the situation safe? And so this is where ego is like okay, great, I can do it, I can, I can fix it, I can make the situation better. I just need to go control this and fix that and do this over here and then everyone will be happy and I'll feel safe. And so it's bringing that state into awareness so that we can recognize when ego is driving and having more of a choice in it of going. You know, actually I don't need to fix it. This is their spiritual journey, this is their healing story. This is their healing story and I can witness it, I can be a supporting role in it, but I'm not the main character in this story and they have to choose their healing and I think this is a fundamental lesson for healing practitioners whatever healing practice that you have of going, it's their story, it's their journey. They're the main character and their own story and I'm the main character in mine and I have to witness that if they're struggling, that's part of their journey.

Speaker 2:

I think that's one of the biggest aha moments I've had recently.

Speaker 2:

I think that's one of the biggest aha moments I've had recently is recognizing that there's even in the most beautiful stories, there's still the thorns on the rose. Like I'm like seeing the roses and such a different light these days because in their natural state, not the ones that you get at the grocery store that have already been trimmed. Of all of the thorns there's the fragrance, there's the blessings, there's the beauty of the flower, but the flower comes with a thorns and the thorns are the life lessons. The thorns are those things that we have to work through and overcome while we're appreciating the beauty of the rose, and so it's not that we can just strip away all of the thorns. The thorns are there for reason of purpose and if we don't work through it in this lifetime, it's going to come up in another or in another relationship or later on in your life, like you can't deny that aspect of our journeys. And where does ego show up in all of that? It's just something to get really curious about, yeah.

Speaker 1:

And again, I think it's bringing that level of acceptance to it. This isn't a conversation that we want to invite in shame or guilt. In fact it's the opposite of that, because it's bringing this awareness and acceptance of just like Christine was saying, with the thorns on a rose having an ego is part of our human experience. You could even potentially say that it's part of why we chose to embody, because when we are spirit, when we are soul, we don't really have a mind, we don't have an ego, we just are. And so, coming into a human form, it gives us this really unique opportunity to be able to experience life not only with our five physical senses, but also as the witnesser, as this consciousness, that any separate thing to be aware of. But when we come into human form, suddenly that consciousness has something to be conscious of, it has something to do. We can put that consciousness, that ability to witness, into our ego and suddenly we become that divine witnesser, we become the one who has embodied to come to earth to witness the plants, to witness the relationships, to witness ourselves, to feel the emotions, to think the thoughts, to have the experiences. And in that our ego is serving its purpose, it is doing what it needs to do. So much is because this is in alignment with one of those original teachings that we see that everything has a gift and with its gift comes a responsibility to use it in right relationship with all things. And so we can look at this in a couple of different ways. The way that we've been talking about it most here on the show is like with trees right. They have this incredible gift of being able to perform photosynthesis, which releases the oxygen that we need to breathe right. But they're also able to take the carbon dioxide that we're exhaling and use it for that process. They're able to pull the nutrients up from the roots and use their leaves to give back to the soil so that that soil is revitalized right. There's so many more gifts that they have, but that idea, that kind of cycling through of the elements, is a tree's gift, and what it does is it stands and it performs that ritual, it performs that ceremony, it does what it does, what it was designed to do, knowing that through that process it's allowing itself to live. Right. When the tree pulls up nutrients from the roots, it gives it to itself first. It's not giving it away to all of the other trees. It's pulling it up into itself, knowing that in that process it has divine work to do. It was given that gift for a reason because it is now part of a greater cosmic hole, of a greater puzzle where it is its own piece. And if it were to try and do something else, if it were to try and give all those nutrients to a different tree, the puzzle would fall apart, because now there would be a hole where that tree's gift was meant to be in this big cogwork of how the universe works.

Speaker 1:

And it's the same thing with humans, right? And it's the same thing with the different parts of our being. Our soul has a reason, a purpose and a gift. And our ego has a reason, a purpose and a gift. And our ego has a reason, a purpose and a gift. Our ego's gift is the ability to witness. It's the ability to hold space right. Think of all the times that you have been struggling in your life and you have had somebody who just sits with you, right. Maybe they hold your hand, maybe they ask you some questions, maybe they just give you a hug, maybe they just sit in silence, but that person who is there to hold space for you is often the person that creates the most healing, simply by witnessing you.

Speaker 1:

The act of being witnessed is something that is unique to humans, sometimes to animals, depending on how you look at it. But our specific way of witnessing, in that that witnessing can be paired with action and that that action can be inspired by our soul, right, our soul comes in with this inherent connection to the divine, to spirit, to source, to all that is. Our soul is the truth bearer, right, the peacemaker. It comes in with this knowledge and information that it can then transfer to our mind. And in that back and forth relationship between the divine speaking through our soul and the witnesser, that spirit consciousness working through our ego, suddenly we have become the perfect beings with this gift to witness and care for the nature around us. Right, and when I say nature, I don't just mean the tree or the garden those are obviously big parts of it but when I say nature, I mean all of it. Right, this giant cosmic puzzle that we all have our parts in.

Speaker 1:

And I think that this is where I was actually having a conversation with my fiance last night about this idea that we look at, particularly in North America. We look at the indigenous peoples as these keepers of this immense knowledge of what it meant to really work with nature and how the plants sing and what. That wisdom is right. And I was thinking about how we were all not we in our present day forms, but our lineage right At some point. We were all native to somewhere, we were all indigenous to place at some point, meaning we all had connection to this way of living, to nature, to working with spirit directly.

Speaker 1:

And what was it that caused us to separate and to come to this point where we are now, where we see ourselves as better than or overseers of the land, rather than working with. And to me, that's exactly where this idea of ego as we think of it today right, not ego as the witnesser, but ego as this destructive force comes in. Because it's that moment where, instead of viewing ourselves as one with all things, as just part of a cog in that wheel of the universe, we saw ourselves as the creator of it all, or the controller of it all, or the one who has to make it all work. And suddenly we've created a hierarchy. And that's something that you never see, and I think this can take us through the whole conversation. But, christine, your thoughts.

Speaker 2:

Well, I get really riled up with this because I have that fundamental belief that humans are good and, in our divine, natural state of being humans on the earth, we live in right relationship with the earth. We don't anymore because of the patriarchy. Because of that, we need to dominate the earth and its resources and capitalize on those resources, right, but I don't believe that that is the way we are fundamentally born into. I feel like we are born into a society that makes it incredibly difficult to live in right relationship with the earth because of the culture and the society that says these are the norms and to even be able to have your own garden is an act of radical, you know, opposition to the man, you know, and it's just. It's so interesting to me that over a thousand years or 2000 years or 3000 years, how out of balance we are with the earth and how ego plays into that of like I am better than I am dominant of and coming from that judo Christianity framework of like we are here to multiply and we are here to dominate and and you know, I'm, I'm better than the earth and I'm just. It's so and it's very frustrating for me to to be like how, and I think I've strived so much in this lifetime of going how can I better live in right relationship with earth, with the resources that I have, in the culture that I live in? How can I do that better? So I move into co-housing community that's based on sustainability. So the house that I'm living in is like for example, my heating bill was $40, like because it's so energy efficient. So like, okay, I'm trying, I'm trying to to do this. And and then it's like okay, well, I'm going to be part of the garden and okay, well, I can't use plastic bags at the grocery store because that's not good. And it just becomes this whole thing of like, how can I strive to pick up the tomato at the grocery store and go, is this in right relationship with the earth? Like, do I know the farmers? Is it organic? Do they use pesticides? And it becomes freaking, overwhelming to go. Am I doing the best that I absolutely can? And how can I make everything from scratch? And how can I grow my own garden and how can I, you know, have my own livestock and chickens? Because I don't want to be a participatory over this model and it's freaking hard.

Speaker 2:

You can probably hear in my voice like we can strive, but the model itself in which we live isn't making it easy and part of it is breaking apart the village mentality. We have taken society and said here was our tribes, that were all family bonds and how we're going to support one another and those units. Those communities are now into single family homes and there is no interconnectedness and there is no barter system and if you're going to do it, you got to figure out how to do it all on your own. And we wonder why women have postpartum depression and we wonder why we have such high rates of depression and anxiety in our country. And I feel like it's this breakdown of the system. And if we come together and community and we come together and form our own gardens and we come together, there's less of that overarching hierarchical roles that come into play. And I feel like that is the way I personally have strived to figure out how to live in right relationship with earth.

Speaker 2:

Because I can't do it. Ideally I can have a garden and I can do my best with what I purchased at the grocery store. Do my best with what I purchased at the grocery store and it comes down to are we acknowledging our neighbor and seeing them for who they are. Can we see them in the light that they hold, versus their external appearances or their their, you know, political affiliation or whatever it may be? Where, then, ego is like I'm better than what if we're all equal? What if we're all the same? What if I saw life where the person on the corner who has their want, my money, they're looking for change and that they're struggling, is the same as a freaking CEO? And I just I feel like there's a whole way to look at the world differently If we all recognize that we are all defined and we're all coming into this, the roles in which we play, for lessons to learn, and that there is no one person's better than the other.

Speaker 2:

There's no I'm better than you or you're better than me.

Speaker 2:

It's that we're all here to learn lessons. And what if we didn't try to deny those lessons? What if we actually went on them head on? And we all made evolutionary progress, and so it's like, okay, I know I'm going way off on tangents and like I'm doing my thing over here, but this is the kind of shit that I think about.

Speaker 2:

This is the kind of stuff that that keeps me up at night of going is there? Is there a best way to live? And it's not even the best because once again there's ego in that. It's like how can I live as gently as possible in connection with others, with a sense of compassion for all who I witness and for myself, right Like, can I give myself the compassion, the love, the mercy, the grace to go? You know, I'm doing the best I can with the resources that I have and I don't need to compare myself to others. I'm okay. I'm okay with the life lessons in the life. I chose the role that I came into for the lessons that I need to learn, so that I can have my own progress and not from an egoic standpoint.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, and it's, you know, it's one of those things where, like you said, when we're starting to look at it as this to-do list, right, when we look at it as here are all of the ways that we have separated from quote, unquote right relationship with the earth, with ourselves, with our community, right, it starts to feel really overwhelming because we have gone so far. Right, and I think this is part of what this conversation was intended to be was this moment of let's all look, let's stop turning our eyes away because this is just how it is and actually really look at all of the ways that we have come so far from nature. And I think we all have this inherent desire to be connected, to be part of something. We feel that separation. I think every single person in our community that I talk to can relate to that feeling of something's missing, something's disconnected. I don't know what it is, but I'm just not happy, right? This is something that so many of us feel and when we look at you know whether it's the waste plants that we've created and polluted the lakes, or it's the plastic that you know captures sea turtles or whatever, it is right, we can look around our world and see so many places where we've come so far from living with respect for the earth, and I think this is really where we can go back to that idea that when ego becomes a destructive force is when it's disconnected, when it's ungrounded.

Speaker 1:

And we can even look at things like you had brought up, the Judeo-Christian way of thinking, and one of the things that we see across origin stories for humanity is this idea that we are here to be stewards of the earth, and we see this whether it's in those Judeo-Christian religions or it's in the Native American origin stories and the original instructions. This idea that we were here to be stewards, that we were here to tend the earth, is pretty consistent across time. But what I find is that when we look at it, for example, in that Judeo-Christian way, that when we look at it, for example, in that Judeo-Christian way, it has become unrooted. It is this idea that we are here to oversee the land, we're here to control it, we're here to make it multiply, we're here to make it better, we're here to make it more. But when we look at it through indigenous eyes, the way that we were meant to be stewards of the earth was by witnessing it, by harvesting in alignment with those honorable harvest principles, by knowing that each plant, each rock, each mineral, each, everything has consciousness and spirit and purpose, and by connecting with it, by respecting it, by honoring its autonomy, we immediately come into those relationships and rules.

Speaker 1:

Right, you would never treat a fellow human the way that you treat the plants outside your window. Right, you would never give them poison. You would never forget to water them. You would never harvest all of their energy because they're just there. Right, when you think about someone that you love, you make sure that they have the resources that they need. You make sure that they feel connected. You make sure that they feel seen through your own inherent gift as a human being of being able to witness and caretake.

Speaker 1:

And that's how we used to live with the land. Right, we used to never harvest more than half. We used to never harvest unless we had the plant's permission. We used to see everything outside of our window as our equal, as our relation, as something that we were connected to. And yet, suddenly, when we see this turn of religion and agriculture and empires and all of these things, it becomes unrooted and we simply see ourselves as better than we're no longer working with. We are working to contain or to control, and we can see this.

Speaker 1:

And again, this isn't meant to bring us into fear, because what I'm trying to get at here is that, rather than looking at it as this to-do list of okay, in order to be sustainable, I need to buy only recycled paper towels and I need to use paper bags at the grocery store and I need to do all these things, those to-do lists that mentality is, in itself, coming from a place of fear. It's just now. We've come into fear of our own separation. We've come into fear of our own abilities instead of fear of nature. So the fear has just changed locations.

Speaker 1:

But what if we came into a place of love of? I am so grateful for this earth and all that she gives me. I am so grateful for my neighbor, right, and we see this in gift cultures. Right, where monetary value isn't a thing. Everything is given in kind, because it's a psychological fact that when you are given a gift, you are more likely to return it and they work, right? We have examples of this across the world, of where gift culture functions because it's in reciprocity. It's that idea of when I give energy, I receive energy, and when I receive energy, I give energy.

Speaker 1:

And what if, instead of viewing this as a to-do list of whether it's in connection with nature, it's in connection with your clients, of they need to heal, they need to feel better, they need to do this, they need to do that, it becomes this to-do list, rooted in fear of what if it doesn't work? Instead of being rooted in fear, can we come back into love of? I am so grateful for this person on my Reiki table. I am so grateful for this neighbor across the street from me. I am so grateful for their own perspectives and gifts and love and from that gratitude, from that appreciation, those principles of right action and honorable harvest and compassionate community. They naturally occur because you would never treat a person the way you treat a plant right.

Speaker 1:

And so when we think about this, we know that it's just inherent. It's just a mindset switch that we can come back into connection with when we take our ego, that beautiful, wonderful tool that is so able to feel fear and notify us of. When we take our ego, that beautiful, wonderful tool that is so able to feel fear and notify us of when we're in danger or when something could go wrong, or do all these things. When we take that tool and we root it back into that love that exists in our soul, that truth that exists in our soul, suddenly we've created this beautifully cohesive system that's going to allow us to not only appreciate the things around us but to take action on that appreciation, to come into this understanding that we are just part of something greater than ourselves. And we see this play out in, for example, talking about being a Reiki practitioner with our clients, right, when we're in a session and we start thinking, maybe it's even with ourselves, right, maybe you're not a practitioner, you just have a self-practice and you have a headache and you really want that headache to go away. You're going to do Reiki and it's going to heal, it's going to get better, it's going to go away.

Speaker 1:

We've stepped into ego, not in a quote, unquote negative way, but we have stepped into a fear state, an activated ego state, where we believe that we are the only ones in control. We have suddenly separated ourselves from everything else once again and said that I am the only one who can make this headache go away. We're not saying it in that many words, but that's the feeling, that's the energy, it's this isolated state of I have been put into a position where I have to heal the headache and suddenly we're incredibly anxious. Right, because we're not meant to exist in a vacuum, we're not meant to exist in this isolated state. But when we look at anxiety, the antidote to anxiety is humility, because anxiety is really saying I feel like I am the only one who can do this thing, that I have to control it, that I have to fix it, that I am the problem and I have to do better.

Speaker 1:

But in a way, that's an incredibly prideful statement to believe that we exist in a vacuum, to believe that we, out of all of the infinite sources of input and stimulus and support and care and everything in the universe, that we are the only ones in that moment who can fix something or who are the problem or who know how to solve the problem. And so when we come back into humility of recognizing there are so many ways that my headache could go away. It could be through Reiki, it could be by getting some nettle, it could be by going and giving someone a hug, it could be by journaling, it could be by going for a walk and meeting a neighbor and having that flow of energy. There are so many ways that my headache could heal. It doesn't start or end with me. I don't exist in a vacuum that anxiety immediately releases, because all anxiety is is a manifestation of that separation that causes our ego to flare. That's all it is, and I say all as if it's not intense, right, I myself suffer from really severe anxiety and I know how difficult that can be.

Speaker 1:

But when we can step into this idea of the antidote to anxiety being humility, what that looks like is recognizing that when we step into this space where it's not, I have this ability to work with energy and so therefore I can and must heal, or therefore I can and must fix everything. It's I have an ability to work with energy and I recognize that that is, in this lifetime, this human's gift and that in using that gift, in working with that gift, in walking with it in right relationship without being attached to it, has to happen this way when I can walk with that gift, in the mindset of gift culture, if you will, of I will give it when it is needed and I will use it for myself when it's needed, just like the tree right, I will stand in my roots and I will perform this gift that I am meant to perform, knowing that it doesn't start or end with me. I am just one piece of this entire cosmic puzzle and I will never know how much of an impact I have right, Whether the person on my Reiki table experiences a deep healing of what they wanted or not. I will never know how far this gift goes, but I know that this is my reason and purpose and therefore it fits into the reason and purpose of all things and therefore it fits into the reason and purpose of all things. I do not exist in a vacuum.

Speaker 1:

A human being, and recognizing that every other person, every other plant, every other rock, every other animal has the same they all have a reason and a purpose. We're not different, we're not special, we're not separated. We are one with all things. And, yes, we experience that healing through ourselves because we are that witnesser. We experience it in our individual experience because we have that I am capacity, which is a beautiful and unique part of that gift that we have as humans. But just because we experience the world through I am does not mean that the world exists in relation to you. The world exists and you happen to be in it and that perspective opens up our ability to feel connected and one with all things and immediately put us in this space of right relationship and honorable harvest. Because we just are. We know that we are nothing without everything else.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love that idea of the opposite of anxiety is the humility, and in the humility can we ask for help, can we seek out others. And I find that that is probably the most humble thing that we can do is go to someone and say I need support, I need help, can you help me? I need support, I need help, can you help me. And I find that when we do, when we can say I I can't fix all of my problems, I need a therapist or I need a, a Reiki practitioner, or I need a coach or whatever it may be for you, um, how how much more you're available to heal, when you don't put all the pressure on yourself to be able to do it all. Like I recognize that when I have a client that comes to me and asks for help and I ask them the question are you ready for healing? It's not for me to know the answer, like, I don't care what your answer is. I want you to communicate with divine source that yes, I'm ready for healing, because when you can say a strong yes, I am ready for healing, that's when you can have this amazing divine intercession. You can have these miracles that show up for you, is when you can say I am ready for healing, whatever it takes. I'm ready to, I'm ready to walk that line and I can even walk into the unknown. I can walk into the dark, walk into the shadow and I'm willing to go there, knowing that I have the support from perhaps this practitioner or this divine resource and Archangel, whatever it may be, and know that I can go into the dark and I can humbly say I'm ready for healing, please heal me. And in that that perspective, I love witnessing clients transformations. But it's that deep surrendering, that deep humility of saying I can't control this, I can't control this aspect of my life. I need help and I need help from source. I need to help from someone to help me walk this path of the unknown and receive the blessings that are meant for me to help me come into alignment, to help me come into understanding, embracing my shadow, understanding, embracing my inner child that was wounded as a child. And from that point, wow, things really dramatically shift for our clients and our students who can come into that space of surrender, of humility, of saying I don't have all of the answers. I want to heal my life, I want to be able to give that control over to divine and let go and let God, if you will, and in that way, letting your life unfold in service to the divine, and things will radically change when, when, when, we can have that level of trust. And recently the you know, the affirmation has come back the universe has my back. The universe has my back. I can't fuck it up. The universe has my back. It doesn't matter what decision I make.

Speaker 2:

The path before me will curve in the way that it's meant to. I was doing a what I like to call a goddess play date yesterday with some women in my community and it was on Kuan Yin and we had the Kuan Yin deck out and we were playing with some of the Oracle cards and literally the card that I pulled was like let the path be the path, and it was basically saying you can't mess it up. You can't mess it up. Even just take the path that's before you and even if it's not quote unquote the right path, I will curve the path to make sure you get the life lessons and the learnings that you're meant to have. So just keep walking forward.

Speaker 2:

The universe has your back, and I love that so much and the fact that it comes back to the trust, it comes back to the humility, it comes back to the surrender, it comes back to this knowingness that I am okay. And just for today, do not worry. Just for today I can show up as I am and respond to the world with the best, next right choice, whatever that looks like for me. And how can we relax our self-judgment, how can we relax our worry and concern about what others think about us? How can we relax into our, our divine heart space of saying I can listen to my heart, I hear you ego, I hear you mind, and what does my heart have to say about this? How do I feel and how can I, gently with myself and with others, move forward in that?

Speaker 1:

and recognizing that, in that space of having the ability to ask for help, having the ability to stand in your own healing and to trust in the process, recognizing that we are not again, our healing doesn't exist in a vacuum, right At the end of the day, you are the only one who can pull in all of the wisdom and techniques and tools for your own life, right, you are the only one who has the responsibility and ability to truly heal yourself, in that you are taking action and integrating all of this wisdom. But we recognize that that wisdom and those techniques and those tools and the path has been paved for us by our ancestors. And what I mean by ancestors is both, yes, our human ancestors, right, everyone who has come before, whether they are our genealogical ancestors, and our own lineage or it's, you know, if you're in a shamanic practice, every single shaman and every single shamanic practitioner who has come before you and, on a soul level, recognizing that our ancestor, on a soul level, is the divine, it is God, source, universe, spirit. And so when we say we're walking in the footsteps of our ancestors, we are recognizing that we weren't here first, right, we're not the first ones to experience this feeling or this healing path, or discover this healing technique, or find this way of working with clients and this is where, again, I see that ego kind of start to poke through is in the spiritual community, when we have those thoughts of this modality that I created, or this way of working with clients that came through me, or this idea of I am doing this thing, when we have in that way become separated from the wisdom of all of our ancestors that came before. And this is part of, again, why I love shamanism so much is because there's this recognition that these techniques, this way of healing, this path that has been paved for us was paved over hundreds and hundreds of years in direct connection with the divine, with our guides, with the goddesses, with the archangels, with the saints, with all guides, with the goddesses, with the archangels, with the saints, with all of these healing energies that come through, so that today, in this experience, those energies, that wisdom, those pathways are open to us. And so when we look at a shamanic practice, right, there's never this sense of I am doing the healing. It's always in this understanding that I am working with the divine, I am working with my guides, I am working with my power animal. I am working with the archangels. This healing is coming through me as the physical conduit, but that healing itself is the reflection of the wisdom of many, not the wisdom of one right. It's not my healing, it's not my technique, it's not my way of doing this. It is. I am a conduit for this. It has come through me as the physical vessel, but I am one with so many other healing forces around me and you know, we even see this in true shamanic teachings.

Speaker 1:

There's this idea that if we step into ego, our power animals leave, our spirit guides leave. They don't stick around. If we step into this space of I did this or I did the healing or I am doing this, they leave. They don't have time for that, because they know that true healing occurs when we are in a space of thank you for all of the wisdom that has come before. And how can I once again, in right relationship, pass that on? How can I use this gift that has come through me in this lifetime, rooted in the wisdom of my ancestors, both spiritual and physical and genealogical and all of the other avenues? How can I stand in that and carry it forward for the next generation and using that as this again, this giant web of reciprocity, knowing that every time we heal something in our own lives, that energy impacts everything else. Right, we never see it, we don't get to know how far that ripple effect goes out, but we know that, whether we look at it through quantum physics and we know that all the electrons are impacting all of the other electrons, or we look at it in Reiki and we know that Reiki is in all things, and so when we can come back into alignment with the Reiki energy, that energy is heightened in everything else. Or we look at ho'oponopono, this idea that when we bring that forgiveness, acceptance, love and gratitude into ourselves, it is radiated out from us. There's this understanding that our healing impacts everything else.

Speaker 1:

And so how would you approach your healing if you knew that, as you heal, the tree outside your window is healing? How would you approach healing if you knew that, as you're healing, that child in Africa is healing? Not in a directly tangible way, right, not in an egoic way of I'm doing this so that they can heal, but coming back into that connected, rooted understanding that we are all one, and so, on some level, as we stand in our gifts, as we stand in our truth, as we stand in our healing journey, that is radiating out. We are just like the tree in that, as we pull that nutrients up from our roots, it's spreading out into the leaves, which is then coming to us through the air in our lungs. We know that, as we stand in our truth, it is benefiting everyone. And how would you live, how would you heal, how would you act, how would you talk if that were true? Right, and this is something you know.

Speaker 1:

To counter Christine's little outburst earlier that I loved, this is where I get really, really passionate is this idea that we didn't start this. You know, there's that song we Didn't Start the Fire, but it's so true on multiple levels, including the spiritual one. Right, we aren't the ones who discovered Reiki. We didn't discover these shamanic techniques, we didn't find this new way to heal. We don't exist in a vacuum. There's no such thing as I discovered this or I created this. There's no such thing, because we exist in a web.

Speaker 1:

We are all connected, and so those moments that come through, when we have that inspiration or we have that aha moment, or we're able to experience a healing, it's because we are working in connection with everything else, because we are coming back to that aspect and that mindset of humility, of knowing that we don't exist in a vacuum, that we are all connected, that we are able to connect with the tree, the rock, the plant, the guide, the angel, the neighbor, the, whatever it is, in order to heal, and that it's just this cycle. And when we come back into that, that's when we can use that ego to bring us more into divine connection, when we can use our awareness and our consciousness and our I am to say I am one with all things, I am one with the divine. I am rooted in the knowledge of those who have come before me. I am rooted in the knowledge that I am a conduit. I am rooted in the knowledge that we are all one and therefore, when I heal, so does everything else. We can use that ego, that consciousness that I am, to facilitate that right relationship, to facilitate that honorable harvest, to facilitate the compassionate community. And suddenly ego becomes this amazing tool and gift that it is, rather than something to be afraid of, because that fear is just facilitating more of the destructive ego.

Speaker 1:

And I think that's really where I want this conversation to land.

Speaker 1:

Is this idea that we don't have to be afraid of our ego. We don't have to get rid of our ego. What we need to bring into balance is the fact that it's become disconnected, that it's become unrooted. And how can we bring it back into connection with our soul? Because in our soul is where that truth and that love and that balance and that harmony and that healing occurs, and when we can marry the two, when we can bring our ego down to meet the soul and vice versa. Suddenly we've created this amazing system where that feeling of separation that we've all had at some point or another cannot exist, because suddenly we are connected with ourselves and through that connection we're connected with the divine and we are one with all things. And we are standing in our passion and purpose of existing, exactly as we are knowing that, just like the tree, when we stand in that, everything benefits. We may not see it, but everything benefits simply by us standing in our truth, in that rooted, balanced way of knowing I'm just part of the whole.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, that's so beautiful and I feel very much in that space of recognizing that we each can play our parts and I and that understanding that collectively we're making a ripple effect. And this is why I feel like there's such an opportunity to help the world by helping ourselves, like we help the world by helping ourselves. And this is this is such a beautiful thing, as when we can do the soul work, when we can self-reflect, when we can bring in the awareness, when we can stop the victimhood mentality and step into empowerment and step into enlightenment and that process, like we are doing not just ourselves, that work, it's ripple effect out into the world in all forms and all things and all energy. And that's that's just, it's just beautiful, it's just beautiful. And and I think that's why right now, you know, when we're recording this, where you know a day away from the election and not to get political, but to have this recognition that the biggest thing I can do to bring the world into a place of harmony and to release the wars and everything else, is to do my self-care practice. That's it.

Speaker 2:

Like I might not be able to project my opinions and, and you know, be a political activist, like that is not my job in this lifetime, that is not who I am and in that I get really um self-aware that my job in this lifetime is exactly what I'm doing.

Speaker 2:

It's exactly what I'm doing to be the visionary for moon rising is my calling. It's to create a platform so everyone can have that their own self-awareness, to have their own spiritual awakening and have a safe space to do that. And it's not like an egoic, like I need to serve X amount of people. I'll serve as many people as ready as to come in into the space with us and who listened to this podcast and who joins the Facebook group, like I want to be an outpouring of this love and humility and recognition of wherever you are on that path. You have a safe place to work and heal and evolve and love one another. And what does that look like for you? And that's the invitation. That's the invitation. I'm going to do my work and I'm going to invite you to do your work and we can do our work together.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes, yes. That that is the invitation from this podcast, from this conversation, is not to you know, find your purpose or find your mission, or know exactly what you're doing, or serve this many people or go heal a community, it's. Can you step back for a moment, step into gratitude and appreciation for not only the role that you have, but the role that everything else has, every plant, animal, rock and person? Can you step back and recognize that you are part of this cosmic web? And when you release that anxiety, when you step into humility, what comes through? What gift do you have? What step can you take today? This isn't something to put you into a pressured state. If you need to find it now, it's. First. Can you come into appreciation, can you express that gratitude for the world around you, both the humans and the non-human, for everything that they contribute, and from that place can you move from anxiety into humility of recognizing that you are just one of many, and from that place can you then be open to what can you do today? Can you engage with your self-care, knowing that it will ripple out? Can you buy recycled paper towels instead of normal paper towels? Right, they don't have to be big actions. But what can you do to take this gratitude, this appreciation and this humility and allow it to move through you, through those natural, inherent consequences of right relationship and honorable harvest and compassionate community, knowing that when we take those steps, when we step out of fear, when we find a way to root in our ego, into that soul, into the divine, into nature, the path reveals itself. What we do next reveals itself. We can come back to, like Christine was saying, that idea that the universe has us, we are wrapped in love and light and can we extend that love and light to ourselves so that it can be extended to everything else? And that's the invitation for today.

Speaker 1:

So I hope that you enjoyed today's conversation. I hope that it gave you something to think about and chew on, knowing that this conversation is something that goes much deeper than just an hour-long topic time, but it's something that can open us up to a lifetime of healing and connection and thought-provoking conversation. So feel free to bring your thoughts over to our Moon Rising Shamanic Mystics Facebook group so we can continue the conversation there. And until next time, may you awaken to the whispers of wisdom rising from within.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for tuning in to today's show. The Wisdom Rising podcast is sponsored by Moon Rising Shamanic Institute. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcasting app and be the first to know when we release a new episode. You can find us on Instagram, facebook, youtube and TikTok at Moon Rising Institute or visit our website moonrisinginstitutecom to learn more about our mission and find future opportunities to connect with our community of shamanic mystics. Once again, thank you for sharing space with us today and until next time, may you awaken to the whispers of wisdom rising from within.