How Shamanism Can Help Mental Health & Wellbeing
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.
I hope you have found this blog post useful,
With Love & Gratitude,