“Essentially, all I do is love the wounded parts in me to help you love the wounded parts in you.” ~Sarah
Our gifts are our Way. It can take years to discover how we best connect with the spirit world and the healing energy in the Universe. I believe every person has a knack or a niche. A Way. Do you just 'know' things? Do you hear Spirit? Feel Spirit? See Spirits? Smell Spirit? Do you need to be moving your body out in nature to connect with higher dimensional energy? Do you need silence? Music? Drumming? Body work? How do you connect with the loving energy in your Soul?
Learning how to tap into your gifts on a daily basis is so important in order to learn how to become your own Shaman. If there is one bit of advice that I can offer you for cultivating your Shamanic healing practice IS to practice. To do some form of meditation or relaxation technique every day without fail. The more you get used to relaxing your body and mind, the easier it is to fly to alternate realms! Shamanic journeying is most successful when we are in a relaxed state of mind, body and spirit.
What do you do to feel bliss? A oneness with the earth and Universe? What brings you peace? Music? Silence? What is the best way for you to connect with the Spirit world? Here is my Way, what is your Way?
The Spirits That Move Me- My Way
I have always felt Spirits step in, and out, of my body. Sometimes, they move my head and curiously look around the room. I’ve learned that I can pop Spirits out of my body as easily as I can let them in. I can tell if they are just lost (in limbo) and want a body to make them feel alive again--or if they have a specific reason for making themselves at home inside of me. I can feel if they are angry Souls or...if they are free, if they like to dance, if they have wings, if they are healers, if they are animals, if they are funny (and, they often are), or if they are dark or full of light. Some have messages for me. Others are just passing through. One thing is for sure...they know, that I KNOW they are there. Oh the fabulous and interesting life of a channeler!
This all started long ago…one of the first times I remember having a Spirit jump inside my chest was while I was meditating on my couch. I saw a quick, blurry shadow cross in front of me and then the Soul was inside of me, moving my head, arms, torso, fingers, etc. I felt crazy. I mean, I couldn't even IMAGINE what I must look like as I experienced these random movements.
Soon, though, being a medium for Spirits simply became a part of my life. Some Souls made me dance while others used sharper hand movements as if to clear the air of bad energy. As I sit here writing now, my writing Spirit is in me, moving me. I am swaying on my chair and letting the words flow through me.
They always have something to say. The Spirits often tell me their thoughts or what to say to my clients. They heal my clients by working
through me or they clearly show me what a client needs to learn/heal so that they can move forward in their lives.
A Spirit may even communicate a personality trait, show me a hair color, express a body gesture that only the client would understand or reveal a special symbolic message. Sometimes, Spirit will point out when a cord is attached between two people. We will, then, cut this cord together! Other times, Spirit will lead me into a past life of a client, identify a current pain or illness, help me locate a trauma that is stored in a client's body or even guide me to where fragmented parts of a client's Soul is hidden so I can do a 'soul retrieval'.
So, what started out as a simple channeling of a Soul in my living room 20 years ago has turned into my Way of healing. I am a medium or vehicle for the Spirits to heal myself and my clients. They dance inside of me as I close my eyes and completely remove myself from my body. I call it ‘sitting down’ in the chair in my office. I trust that my Spirit Guides will heal my client. It is when I remove myself completely that I am the clearest channel for their healing.
I learned early on that it is
NOT about me.
I am not a Guru or Healer.
With the help of the Spirits, I am a channel for the healing that needs to take place in the current moment.
Since I am a trained Reiki Master and Shamanic Practitioner, I combine these ancient healing techniques in my healing work. I begin by closing my eyes and opening up my crown chakra, third eye, throat chakra, heart and let the LOVE flow out of my arms and palms into the client’s feet. I tap into pure love in the Universe. It is not a religion or even a New Age spiritual practice. It is just connecting with the love, allowing it to flow in my body, fill me up and therefore pass it along to the person that needs healing. When my arms lift up from my elbows (as they are doing now), this is my cue that the Reiki energy is flowing. I shut my eyes and begin to see what is around the person, or within, the person.
Sometimes, I see darkness or stuck energy in a chakra. I will call on Archangel Michael to help remove the dark energy. I call it psychic surgery. It all depends on the person for what Angels, Healers, Spirits or Guides come help them during a session. Often living, or dead, Spirits will enter a session if a person still has a pain attachment to that person.
For instance, if someone has been raped physically, the person that did the rape may show up if the client is ready to heal this part of themselves. The Spirit may be alive or deceased. It doesn’t matter. It is just the energy that is still attached or bonding them together. The Spirits that visit my clients during their energy healing sessions will describe or demonstrate their individual characteristics to me. This is to prove to a client that it is really them. They show me only what their living loved one could possibly know about them.
For example, I was once working on a client that was in the war. All of a sudden, a male Spirit started pacing back and forth near my client. I described this rageful, angry and swearing man to my client. The Spirit was chain smoking and saying that the 'war was bullshit' over and over. My client's eyes widened and said that one of his soldiers that recently passed away always said this particular (exact) phrase over and over. He said he was so mad at the world before he died. So, this deceased Spirit used the same language that he once used when he was alive. He embodied a distinct personality and physical attributes in a way that only my client understood.
Other times, the Spirits that join my sessions may be crying and trying to give the client an object that only held meaning between the two of them. They may express remorse for how they treated someone during their human life. Or, the Soul may be coughing or acting out his/her own death because this is what they did right before they passed away. Sometimes, the Spirit that shows up may be knitting or placing a bag of groceries on the client’s chest if the two of them sewed, or cooked, together. It is really whatever symbolized their relationship that is revealed to me. This helps my clients ‘trust’ that the Soul appearing is trying to communicate directly with them.
Every morning, I sit down to meditate before working. I usually take on the personas of my clients that I will see that day. I close my eyes and my appearance changes. For instance, I can 'feel' like I am smoking a joint and 'see' cut marks all over my arms. This tells me that I may be working on a client that smokes pot or self-harms that day. I may even act out a scenario in the client’s life the morning before I have my session with them. If a person is being beaten, I will see myself being hit or actually 'feel' the beatings.
If there is a national tragedy, I may hear the screams of Mother’s losing their children, I may feel the pain in my chest if people are going to be shot or feel the earth shake below my feet if there is about to be an earthquake. I will see myself crying almost always before something dramatic happens. And, my Guides will appear in the Spirit realms wearing all black like they are at a funeral.
I have many powerful Spirit Guides and power animals. One of my master guides is a Native American Chief that flutters and chops his hands over the body's of my clients to rid them of toxic energy or spirit possessions. I, also, have an Angel named Sasha that flies into my chest so that I can feel her wings heavy on my back. She forces me to open my heart, stand in my power, and remember who I am. She is there for the sole purpose of helping my clients feel self-love. I have a dancer Spirit Guide that picks up the natural, vibrational rhythm of my clients. I literally sway back and forth for several minutes when he shows up. He helps me identify blockages or stagnant energies in the body's of my clients. I have a hawk guide that I flies inside of my body and takes me to alternate realms in the spirit world. I see through his eyes and my shoulder blades flap their wings! It's pretty amazing stuff! And, I am so humbled and grateful that I am their vessel. Every day feels like a miracle that I can be a part of another person's healing journey.
The only problem that I have with channeling so many lively, interesting, funny, powerful, and loving Spirit Guides is that I don’t remember what they said or did once a session is over. My clients will ask, "don’t you remember when?" and I will look at them with a blank stare. This is because the information is not for me to hold onto.
The healing energy shared is for the my client’s healing only. It is what reminds me that the sacred messages offered is flowing through me--not from me.
I am not Sarah Norwood during my sessions. I simply jump between the physical realm and the Shamanic (spirit world) realms in order to receive answers to questions and become a medium for the healing energy.
I never had to 'try' and do what I do. Sitting and 'going' on journeys during my meditations was always instant. In some ways, I guess years of being dissociated as a child was actually where I learned to move between the human and spirit worlds. During sexual abuse and other traumas, I would leave my body. Afterwards, I would come back 'home' to myself. So in some ways, my earlier childhood traumas actually facilitated my innate ability to do Shamanic journeying. See? Everything leads us on the path we are supposed to be on!
Quite often, our pain leads to our purpose.
What I have found over the years of doing this kind of healing work is that most people want a quick fix. They want me to heal them overnight. They want me to tell them what to do. They want me to tell them ‘how’ to heal themselves, what meditations to practice, what stones to buy, whatever will make it ‘all go away’.
The truth is, Shamans don’t heal anyone. And, anyone that says that they can ‘heal’ you, beware!
There is not one set of guidelines, suggestions, prescription or rules that will heal you. You are the only one that can discover what works for YOU. No one else can ‘fix’ what is broken inside of you, but you. There is no step by step manual to your very UNIQUE healing process. You need to be an active participant in your own healing journey, taking 100% responsibility for the creation of your happiness.
People can offer suggestions, but I encourage you only to do the things that make your Soul feel good in some way. There are a lot of mindful, simple and quick things you can do to bring balance and peace to your body and mind.
One Way could be drinking a hot cup of green tea on a Tuesday afternoon while sitting on a porch swing. Another way to connect with your Soul could be driving with the tunes blaring from your car speakers with your sunroof open!
Healing yourself and tuning your unique Gifts is a private process.
Healers can help or assist, but YOU have to discover what works for you. You get to decide what tools to put in your healing tool box. You have to ask your guides, or whatever you believe in, to bring forth a ‘healing team’ and healing modalities that are for your individual, highest good.
I utilize so many interesting healing modalities and things that bring me such joy! Essentially, your healing is up to you. I do believe in what I do and what I can offer people, but if it does not ‘call your name’ or ‘speak to your soul’, then DON’T do it!
When I work on clients, I offer energy healing and Spirit messages, but it is not up to me to analyze the messages or where the energy I offer goes in your body. That is up to you. What you do with the Shamanic Reiki energy is yours. I am only a channel of love, energy and Spirit.
I assist in my client’s healing, but they are their own healer. I may help my client's connect with parts of themselves that have been suppressed, hurt or scared. But, at the end of the day, it is up to my wonderful clients to change their lives. The people that want ‘Sarah Norwood’ to heal them, usually don’t end up coming back.
This is because healing starts and ends with you.
What is YOUR Way?
Shamanic journeying is all about finding your Way back home to yourself. It helps you peel back your own layers and look beneath it all--exploring the depths of your Soul. Loving your dark AND your light. Loving ALL of you. Every day is a new opportunity to heal and get to know yourself better. Here are some questions to ponder:
1.) How did your life story shape you?
2.) How did you get here?
3.) What is it that you really want in this life?
4.) Did you have unexplained spiritual experiences that intrigued, or frightened you?
5.) Why do you REALLY want to learn about Shamanic healing techniques and (possibly) become Certified? What is your long term goal or intention?
6.) Have you always known you have gifts, but haven't known how to access them? Or, are you just interested in an alternative healing method as traditional medicine hasn't worked?
7.) What do you 'know' deep inside of yourself to be true?
8.) Are you Empath, A Feeler, A Seer, Clairaudient, Clairvoyant, a Channel, A Medium? We all have heightened senses. Which ones are yours? How do they work? If you don’t know, don’t worry! We will explore this deeper as we work together!
Another important way to become a good Shamanic Practitioner is simply to practice things that make you feel good. When we feel well, we have more energy to offer our loved ones and clients.
Write down what makes you feel GOOD:
-What makes you happy?
-What relaxes you?
-What do you LOVE to do? Conjure up an image of yourself doing it even if it isn't something that seems out of reach. Sit in that abundant energy. Soak it in.
-What does it feel like when you are doing something you enjoy?
-Does your energy change?
-How does it change?
Test several ways to fall into a relaxed state:
-Do you need to sit up or lay down?
-Does holding crystals or stones help?
-Do you need essential oils like lavender or peppermint to relax and focus?
-Does it feel better to meditate at night or during the day?
-What time of day feels best?
Find a sacred, comfortable place in your home that is your go-to space for Shamanic meditation and healing:
-Where in your home feels best?
-Does it have a special chair or pillow?
-Is it a room full of light or is it dark?
-Do you have blankets to cover your body with if you go into a deep Shamanic trance? The body temperature can go down while journeying to altered realms.
-Do you have comfortable clothes on? Does it matter?
Everyone is different! Just BE YOU and do what feels GOOD! Your Path and Purpose Will Always Find You if You Stay True To Yourself!
