I’d like to share an interview I recently did for LetsMote.com, were I give my views on the reasons for depression, the energy body and more.
LetsMote.com is the first Emotional Networking and self-help platform that gives users easy and insightful tools to express and analyze their emotions, and allows them to connect in real-time with others feeling the same way. The interview is below. Click here to visit their site:
1. Why is depression and failure on the rise despite so many new opportunities for people to succeed?
A wise shaman once said, “A man not living his vision is living death.” When we pursue goals that are not inspired by our inner vision, we can feel empty and disillusioned.
From a high vantage point, there are two types of goals:
1) Goals driven by the rational mind to appease the ego and 2) goals inspired by our inner vision or higher mind. Often, we pursue goals that seem alluring, and later we discover that they were not in our best interests because they only serve to appease the ego. Goals that are inner vision inspired help us to be fulfilled because we strengthen our connection with the force that guides us.
Inspired ideas help us avoid foolish decisions that can cost us our health, relationships, money and happiness. Why? When we connect with our inner vision, that inner voice within, we become whole as we integrate the spiritual and physical aspects of our being.
How do you connect with your inner vision?
You can tune into that faint voice within by quieting the daily mind chatter. One way to do this is to spend time alone in nature or to do a meditative-type practice. By spending even 30 minutes alone in nature, we can enter the deeper mind state of alpha. When we learn how to quiet our mind chatter (or rational mind), we can more easily access deeper mind states that help us tune into the messages we receive from our higher mind.
2. What shamanism techniques work best for being fit mentally and also for physical healing?
The shamanic journey is the most common method used by shamans to access inner power. It is a basic technique that anyone can use to quiet the daily mind chatter. Though the main purpose of journeying is to gain insights, answers and help about your life, you also can gain many physical and emotional benefits. The shamanic journey takes you into a deep meditative state, such as theta and delta, but it is not a “meditation.”
It’s different from meditation in two main ways:
- Unlike typical meditations, journeying is not an end result, but rather a bridge to higher levels of consciousness. Shamans believe it’s not enough to just reach a deep meditative state, we need to cross that bridge and be active participants while we are in deeper mind states. We need to be active not passive while we access our mind powers. Shamanic journeys fulfill a purpose. Before you start a journey, you focus on a specific question or issue that you want insights on or help with. In other words, you have a purpose when you journey.
- Journeying is also different from “meditation” because it does not need to be a sedentary practice. You can learn how to enter a deeper mind state while you walk, run and even in a noisy environment. In addition to gaining insights about important life questions, you also can gain many physical and emotional benefits. Journeying helps you to noticeably decrease physical and emotional stress. It’s no secret that when you reduce stress at a deep enough level, you change your physiology. People who regularly do some sort of meditative practice tend to be healthier and even age differently. Scientists have proven that in profound states of mind and body relaxation, we produce less hormones that age us.
- The shamanic journey is one practice we can use to stay fit mentally and physically because when we enter the deeper mind states of theta and delta, our mind and physical body undergo physical transformation. Studies have shown that theta and delta mind states dramatically affect the production of hormones that increase feelings of happiness and reduce aging
3. Your views and guidance on people achieving mind-body balance?
From a shamanic perspective, being divided is our human condition. But our division is not between the mind and body, but between the body, which houses the mind, and the energy body, which is the receptacle for our energy or life force. The “energy body” is an energetic duplicate of the physical body and is sometimes referred to as “the double.”
Shamans are not the only ones that teach about the energy body. The ancient Egyptian teachings of alchemy, for example, refer to the energy body as the “Ka” body.
As far as balance in general, I believe the most basic way of achieving balance in our lives is to learn how to integrate both our higher mind with our rational mind. As I explained earlier, when we learn how to use both minds, we become whole.
4. Tell us a little about the evolution in the self help industry with the advancement of technology.
Advancements in technology, such as brain wave entrainment, have helped people to quickly achieve deeper mind states, such as theta, and I think many of these tools are very useful because we all need to learn how to use our mind powers as soon as possible. While brain wave entrainment tools, such as mind machines and CDs, are powerful and effective teaching devices, we need to be careful not to become dependent on them. We need to use them as training tools. Once we train ourselves to access deeper mind states, we should then drop the tools.
Mind technology tools are like training wheels of a bike. Once we learn how to ride the bike, we remove the training wheels. Ultimately, the goal is to learn how to access deeper mind states with only your intention.
What would happen if you could only enter a deeply meditative state by listening to a certain sound on your cd player and one day you didn’t have that external tool? Well, you’d be limited. That wouldn’t be empowering. That’s why it’s key that you eventually drop the training tool and learn to access that higher mind state by using only your inner power. You’ll always have access to that.
http://blog.letsmote.com/expertinterviews/learn-shamanism-techniques-mary-rivas/