janacreativity

Some really good points Karl. Practical advice is important indeed. Thank you again!

Thank you Karl. "But with more self-healing work, I think our energy tends to stabilize and not shift around so easily. (For most people) There's always certain combinations that will just hit you a certain way, where it wouldn't hit most people that way. You learn it over time, as you take in knowledge about your own energy and other people's. It's a very complex dance." I'm grateful for that response. Thank you. (Ha ha ha - I tend to get a little lost in the cave forum and forget where I posted - its like a game finding what threads I've posted on and asked questions on and remembering to come back to review them). Sandstorm 333 - to piggy back off of what Lorrie said - I self identify as an empath. Now looking back it helps explain a lot of what felt so confusing and hard and chaotic in this lifetime (b/c it wasn't even my energy) and like "energetic co-dependency." Life basically took me to the point of a big health breakdown a couple years ago where I was shown I had to learn to relate to my energy and energy in general in new ways. I'm new to the cave and by no means an expert but I'm so happy to share my experiences to help empower other empaths if you have questions. I've finally come to the point in my life where I see and can use my gifts as gifts rather than a curse. Recap 1 is wonderful for learning to care and be compassionate but from a detached place (versus entangled) place. From my awareness there is a lot of pain and suffering in this world. Sometimes (for me) it has felt like I was going crazy with the awareness of it all but its gotten easier in time. There is a lot of beauty, love and joy to perceive too. All of it feels easier to be aware of from a more detached place. Learning to re-ground and re-center within my own body has been a big part of my journey too. I used to fly out of my body all the time to feel safe but thats actually a dis-empowered place to be. Learning to feel safe in my body and grounding and connecting to the earth (sometimes just being barefoot on the earth or lying on it) has and continues to be a huge part of my journey as well. Water, sea-salt baths, ocean, spending time in nature and with animals, spending time alone (like Lorrie said), using art and creativty to express what I feel - are life savers for me. Part of it for me has also been learning to accept I am different and embrace the "weirdness" of who I am -which is a daily and lifetime practice. Step by step. I am learning to be an empowered empath ... It is possible. Also practices where I've come to relate to my body in a safe and joyous way have been wonderful too. Learning to let myself move slower through life has been good too. I also find that I'm extra senstive to substances - processed food, alcohol, sugar, fake sugar, tobacco, coffee, gluten - again this maybe part of how I'm made or it may be an energetic pattern that will change with recap but its been something to play with and see what helps me to feel better. Also - as an aside, being female - I find my "empath" nature gets more porous and psychically aware around certain moon cycles. I make sure to give myself extra "space" during those times. This may change with more recapping - we shall see. I hope this helps!

Hi Sweet soul! I am pretty new to the cave myself. Recap 1 is my first class ... Ralph is teaching the class I am in and Cate is the TA. They both are teaching me a lot. Ralph answered your question as did Michelle, she is also in my class. As for my experience with the class - well you'll probably get this from lots of folks around here - but its all so personal. Each one of us has a unique path and journey and I imagine comes to the cave for different reasons. I'm approaching the practice with a sense of curiosity and wonderment. I'm enjoying it - even when it feels challenging - and its lead me to many A-Ha moments - many subtle and simple yet powerful about my life, relationships and the patterns in my life. So fascinating. Its an empowering practice for me and its helping me to see where I've been hiding things from myself or denying my own power in life. In my humble opionin, you have nothing to lose by trying Recap and yet (to be a little punny and paradoxical) a lot of energetic baggage to lose if you so desire. What you gain is a better sense of yourself and your own energy - that's what I'm learning or finding. For me, its a practice of energetic elucidation. And you get from it what you put into it. It takes some patience and diligence - unlike a lot of our modern world, recap is not about instant gratification and results (although a lot can shift quickly for some, but again its really personal)- its about a lifetime practice if you choose for it to be one. Hope that helps! Again just to reiterate this is all from my POV. Just one perspective in an infinite sea of perspectives and points of view. We all have our own truths...

I'm really grateful for this thread. It speaks deeply to me. I've felt called to the shamanic for a long time and yet still have no idea what exactly that means but am happy to have found my way here to the Cave for now. And as I seem to keep saying every day these days ... one step at a time, one day at a time... It's become like a mantra. It feels like the most honest way to live right now...one step at a time. I resonate with you both Lorrie and Michelle "about how the individual will determine their own path in shamanism in modern times. Where we no longer have shamanism as part of our cultural identity yet, it is as you say, part of the DNA of being human, different ways of being called are being found." My sense of the shamanic is about feeling like I've been walking my own individual path and no one can do it for me. I also appreciate (at least in my understanding) how the shamanic came before religion - it allowed us all to have access to the divine and to me has always felt more empowering than religion (or today's new age spirituality or whatever) where we give our power over to a guru that digests life for us. I'm also appreciating how here - our own experience is one of our beacons. (I believe the Buddha had a similar teaching... but don't quote me on that). That to me is priceless - no one can take your own experience away from you and its truly different for each one us. And it taking me time to learn that my experience doesn't have to match anyone elses - not even the people I'm the closest withfor it to be as true and valid as anything else in this crazy universe. This one takes so much inner strength and still seems to be a hard one for me to fully digest. But I can't really make sense of it any other way. Nor do I want too. (and Michelle - all the cups of tea you've been. That one made me laugh out loud. Something inside me wants to say- enjoy the tea and say thank you! Or if you prefer coffee, green juice or bourbon - maybe ask and they'll serve you that instead).

Hmmmm... Ok, I will digest this Karl. I'm sure I'll come to understand this more in time. On that note, I've also noticed that there are particular people whose energy tends to shift me and affect me more dramatically than others. Its interesting why some people I maintain my energy around and some people I tend to contract around (although this happens less and less these days) and some people my energy totally scrambles around or I go "spacey" and out of my body (although that happens less and less these days too). And sometimes teh same people on different days or with different groups or "combinations of energy" or in different places or at different times can trigger different energetic responses... It's fascinating to notice. I've been aware of this my whole life but my awareness around it is broadening. Still a darn mystery to me... I'm learning to have reverence for the mystery instead of needing to "figure it all out."

I had some really strange experiences with otherwordly as a little girl and being aware of "ghosts" or late night music from the 1920's blaring from the water heater and cat paw prints that disappeared into the wooden floor and things like that. Spending some time living back in the home I grew up in and having other energetically sensitive and intuitive friends be aware that there was a lot going on in this house (one friend who came over and went to the bathroom near this water heater/closet - said she felt like she heard a symphony of voices going off in her head). I had a sense that the so called space heater was a portal - a entry point between dimensions? (using some tools from access consciousness) - I always hated that my bedroom was right next to it growing up- now I wasn't really sure what I was doing but using my intent and energy and doing the best I could with the awareness I had - I asked to close it and a lot of the "activity" in my home slowed down and stopped. It's still all a big mystery to me. But then again - everything is these days. The more aware I become, the stranger everything seems to be and less I pretend to understand anything. I'd be curious to learn more about "portals" from the maker tradition too. Is it even part of the lexicon or understanding?

Thank you Beth!

Thank you for starting this post Ralph. "Today, with the internet, there's a lot of information out there about various practices, and it's easy to get some concrete experience with workshops and conventions, hearing charismatic people talking about how you can become master of your life, clean your home from bad energies, or heal an old backpain. All that is fine and there's a lot to learn from it, but there is a risk to become a simple consumer of 'personal improvement' techniques." My own journey of self-healing began with making art after losing my brother to bone cancer, which I like, b/c like (what I understand of) shamanism it kept the power for change and transformation and healing in my hands / heart / system and not in some external guru. Although making art isn't always a detached process - it can be messy as hell but its always felt empowering. My first understanding of working with energy came with learning Reiki when I was 27 (while living in London) - the Ursui method - and then man, I feel like in the past 7 years (from 27 until now) - I've tried everything under the sun and spent a lot of money doing it. Some was good, some was phoney baloney as they say. I've learned the hard way that some people are really gifted business people or charismatic and that's how you get pulled into their courses or workshops. At best - something helps you transform and become more empowered and at worst they do some harm and cause more trauma. ( For example, my second level Reiki teacher was really ungrounded and unprofessional - after my attunement I was left w/ a searing headache for days b/c she didn't do something with closing up my crown chakra right). It hasn't always been fun but I've learned to really trust myself a lot more and not to get to seduced by bells and whistles / smoke and mirror. (As ralph said to become a consumer of personal improvement techniques and/or spiritual, transcendtal experienes). Maybe it was a necessary process to get where I am - to be way more discerning and not really interested in enganging in more than a couple of tried and true practices. AND TO JUST SLOW DOWN. Maybe its part of the maturation process. (Making art still feels good to me, as does dancing, nature and yoga). Now I do have a deeper understanding that I am some unique combo of an empath/ wounded healer / artist / dreamer / intuitive / seer /witch indigo/ old soul/weirdo - I've heard it all (and maybe in pas lives been it all)... but to be honest I don't really know, I don't know - there are so many names but none really "fit" and I'm finally just ok with being me and letting it all remain some kind of a humorous, weird, beautiful, tragic, joyous mystery. I just found my way here a couple weeks ago thanks to Rebecca. I've just started Recap 1 a week ago w/ Ralph. I find it funny that its a beginner class b/c to me it feels really advanced. 10-15 minutes is enough, 20 minutes and I'm wiped out. This stuff is no joke. One step at a time... who knows where this journey will lead - but i'm happy to have found my way to the Cave for now. - Jana