Shamanism & Mental Health
Today is mental health awareness week and the statistics are worrying.
Approximately 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience a mental health problem every year [1] and in England, 1 in 6 people report experiencing a common mental health problem (such as anxiety and depression), in any given week [2].
However, with the current global pandemic due to Covid-19 we are suddenly facing a tsunami of mental health issues, as we face long periods of isolation, lack of touch and connection, and for many, not going outside for sunshine, fresh air and being in nature.
Adding to the impact is the fear of the unknown, and not knowing what the future holds. Especially stressful is the financial worries and fear of death and illness. Suddenly, the collective stress that we were feeling at the unconscious, but unable to express on a rational level has suddenly become more individualized, creating a perfect storm.
The blessing in this burden is that it is getting almost impossible to suppress our fears and anxieties. The things we held onto to give us stability and focus, like jobs, financial security, healthy relationships, have been swept away with this pandemic. We can no longer bury our heads in the sand and hope everything is going to be alright.
As we face an uncertain future, hopefully, the stigma around mental health will disappear, and more people reach out to find alternative practices to calm their stress and anxiety.
Shamanism and the its role in helping mental health issues
For the last six years I have been working with PTSD, anxiety, stress, mental health and addiction, using shamanic journeying and raw, unprocessed Cacao. The powerful effects of shamanic healing, is due to the fact that it goes straight to the root of the problem.
What I have realized, is that we suffer from a collective trauma of isolation, as well as from religious, social and ancestral conditioning that stops us from being truly ourselves. We feel separated from each other and nature, and this isolation is fueling our excessive consumerism that needs unsustainable growth and expansion from a finite planet with finite resources. The imposed social norms and controls and the pressure to satiate our personal material desires, regardless of the negative consequences of this behavior, are increasing suffering, dis-ease, and mental anguish.
Our role as humans
In our all-consuming determination to satiate our desires, isolated from the whole, we have forgotten our natural role as the stewards and guardian protectors that are here to maintain the delicate eco-system of our planet and keep it healthy for future generations.
And, each time a species becomes extinct, or another forest gets cut down, or we pollute our rivers, streams and oceans, or buy something that has been made using toxic materials, we are breaking our collective agreement to nurture and sustain life on Earth.
Our actions are having negative and destructive consequences, and on a soul level we know we are responsible for it so we feel it on the deepest level of the collective unconscious. We are becoming mentally depressed, and dis-eased because we are feeling the suffering of the whole, that is now being expressed at the personal and individual level.
Indigenous cultures
Chief Seattle said: “The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”
For millennia our ancestors have kept our ecosystem in balance. Our tribal and indigenous communities, who are symbiotically living with Nature, understood our role, as stewards and guardians of this Planet. Living so entwined with nature they knew they had to maintain the delicate ecosystem for their very survival.
Addiction
However, the more disconnected we are from Nature and the land, living in our urban concrete jungles, the more ignorant we are, of our actions. We are now so governed by this ego trauma of separation that we have forgotten who we are, and this pain of isolation is the root of addiction.
When we lose this connection to ourselves, and the great web, we lose touch with who we are, our purpose, and the isolation makes us feel alone, helpless, distressed and lost. To fill the void, we turn to substances or sex, to help us feel loved and connected.
Shamanic healing
Shamanic healing, heals the parts other modalities cannot reach, by melting the isolation and bringing those shattered and traumatised parts of ourselves back into alignment. It reconnects us back to Nature by helping us remember we are a part, and not apart, from the whole, and that we live in a multi-dimensional universe that is so much greater than our three-dimensional reality.
Humans have the unique ability to ‘consciously’ choose each action they take, and understand the consequences of each action. Shamanic healing helps to wake us up, so we ‘consciously’ understand our vital role, as stewards and guardians, and change our values and belief systems.
Here are some of the tools I have learned on my journey to deal with stress and anxiety:
1. Take deep breaths
Seven/eleven breathing immediately calms us down and brings us into the present.
Breath in for seven counts and breath out for eleven counts. This stimulates the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system and brings everything back into alignment so we can think clearly again.
2. Accept the Situation
Sometimes shit happens. When it does, the best thing we can do is accept it, whereas most of us are fighting the reality and wishing it was different. Life always has its ups and downs and we must learn to accept reality as it is, and not as we would like it to be. When we can accept the situation as it is, we can start recognising the solutions.
3. Recognising the Solutions
There is always a solution to every problem, it is the law of nature. They are always obvious, simple and effective, just like in nature but we have lost our trust in Natural Lore so we feel anxious and fearful, which creates catastrophe thinking, which in turn increases the stress and anxiety. Once we know there is always a solution the easier it is to find it.
4. See the Blessing in the Burden
It is the law of nature that within every burden there is an equal blessing embedded within it, and within every blessing there is an equal burden embedded in it. Most of us choose to focus on the burden, and miss the amazing beauty of the blessing that is happening simultaneously! Choose to embrace your burdens and you will find that life is also full of magical blessings.
5. Bring yourself back to the present moment
When you are feeling stressed or anxious, make a checklist and ask yourself these questions:
Do I have enough money right at this moment?
Do I have enough food right at this moment?
Do I have somewhere to sleep right at this moment?
Do I have someone who loves me right at this moment?
Do I have someone to love right at this moment?
If you can answer YES to these questions, then there is no point in worrying about the future, and something you do not have control over. When we ask these questions, we realise that we have everything we need in the moment.
6. Take a Hot Bath
A shamanic bath can ease stress and anxiety. Run a hot bath with salts, natural essences, candles and some relaxing music. Turn the light off and once the bath is full set your intention asking the water to gently cleanse you of any negative or disruptive energy.
7. Do Regular Exercise
When we get physically tired we no longer overthink issues that we can’t control. Regular exercise can help clear the brain from too much ruminating, so that we can let go of the thoughts and see what solutions we have.
8. Releasing Negative Energy
Plant your bare feet firmly on the ground, feeling rooted into the Earth. Now, imagine the negative, stale or old thoughts just flowing out of the soles of your feet as black sludge, and imagine the fire at the centre of the planet burning it away. The more you can vision this, the more effective it becomes.
9. Imagine a positive outcome
Due to the Amygdala - the ancient part of our brains – we are defaulted to think negatively, so we will automatically think of all the terrible things that can happen to us, rather than the positives. If you are only thinking in ‘catastrophes’ find some time in silence to imagine a more positive outcome. Wherever we pay attention, that is what we are creating. Imagine and focus on what you want – not on what you don’t want! When we focus on what we want, we can achieve the positive outcome more easily and effortlessly.
10. Finding Forgiveness
If we are constantly berating and criticising ourselves it is very difficult to move forward. The quicker we can take forgive ourselves and take full responsibility for our actions the easier it is to let it go. We cannot control the actions of others so going over and over the injustices does not serve you. Forgiveness is the key to moving forward, learning from your mistakes and doing it differently next time. Using the technique of Ho’pono’pono is a wonderful and simple way of finding forgiveness for yourself.
Begin your ritual with a prayer of gratitude for all the blessings in your life and for the opportunity to bring more peace and harmony. Visualise the person that you need to do this ritual with, (it can also be yourself), and once you can see them in your mind, state these words with all the love and compassion:
Forgive me
I am sorry
Thank you
I Love You
Continue repeating these words until the words contain power and energy and you begin to feel a warm sensation of love and compassion flow through your body. Break through any resistances, knowing that life is too short for you to be carrying around anger, hate, sorrow, pain, and frustration. Once we let go of these emotions we free ourselves up to bring in more positive and loving experiences into our lives.
The purpose of this process is that by turning the attention inwards, where you are in control, rather than externally, where you are unable to change the actions of others, you shift whatever it is inside you that is attracting certain situations to you. Once you change your energy, you will find the outside world will change automatically, and effortlessly.
[1] McManus, S., Meltzer, H., Brugha, T. S., Bebbington, P. E., & Jenkins, R. (2009). Adult psychiatric morbidity in England, 2007: results of a household survey. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care.
[2] McManus S, Bebbington P, Jenkins R, Brugha T. (eds.) (2016). Mental health and wellbeing in England: Adult psychiatric morbidity survey 2014. Leeds: NHS digital.