Anna (not her real name) attended one of my Day of the Dead sharing circles a few years ago. She felt a quiet but strong need to honor her Irish ancestors. Even though she didn’t know much about her ancestors or ancestry, she spoke about how moved she was after seeing how Mexican and Latinx communities remember their loved ones who have passed away.

Especially, when she saw beautiful Día de Muertos ofrendas online — colorful altars softly lit by candles and cherished photos of great-grandparents placed alongside pictures of those who had died more recently. She wanted that for her ancestors.

What moved me most was Anna’s desire to approach this tradition with real respect. She didn’t want to just copy it; she wanted to listen to and learn from the Mexican and Latinx communities, seeking ways to honor her own ancestors through these rituals. Instead of simply taking, she wanted to learn whether and how she could hold her own Day of the Dead observance that respected its original culture and spiritual meaning.

When Anna joined our group conversations, she had no idea how much they would change her and her desire to learn more about her own ancestry.

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Stories emerged of Mexican American and Native-American families being uprooted and displaced from their homelands, parents being silenced for speaking Spanish or one of their Native languages, children taken from them by force, and how healing traditions were demonized and criminalized. The way their grandparents had been made to feel inferior due to their way of dressing and speaking. How their cultural and spiritual traditions faded over time. How they were made to feel ashamed of their ethnicity, of their accents. Tears came as old, ancient grief surfaced.

Euro-Americans in the group began to realize that some of the reasons they were seeking traditions outside their culture was because, without realizing it, they themselves had been quietly assimilated from one generation to the next, to the point that they no longer knew much about their ancestry, customs, or that their ancestors might have had birth, wedding, and funeral rituals unique to their land of origin.

“No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish”

Some participants were surprised to learn that in the 1840s, newly arrived Irish immigrants faced ostracism and discrimination.

British settlers in what is now the U.S. criticized Irish immigrants for their “... supposed laziness, lack of discipline, public drinking style, Catholic religion, and capacity for criminality and collective violence. Critics often judged Irish character by supposed physical appearance.”

However, unlike African Americans, Native Americans, and Mexican Americans, the Irish could become citizens, vote, file lawsuits, and move freely from place to place.

During this same time, Native American tribes experienced forced removal from lands where they had lived since time immemorial, violent massacres, systemic efforts to destroy cultural identity, and the kidnapping of children for government and church-run “residential” schools — all due to colonization.

The more people in the group learned how colonialism, racism, and divisions created trauma patterns passed from generation to generation, the more they began to understand why their parents behaved in certain ways or suffered from mental health problems and substance misuse.

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It was not that there was something inherently wrong with them or us; it was the result of our ancestors being in continual survival mode. They were resilient and persevered, and they also passed on trauma through learned unhealthy behaviors, an inability to trust, protective fearfulness, or not having the ability to parent us appropriately.

Compassion for their parents, grandparents, and themselves began to open a door to understanding how unresolved trauma can lead to abusive behaviors, neglect, or substance abuse within families. It also sparked a new determination to find help and resources to begin healing the inherited, unhealthy patterns they were uncovering.

Understanding how untold hidden history has helped erase our ancestral memories and ties to stories, songs, rituals, and ceremonies can be the impetus to reclaim, reconnect, and practice our ancestral customs.

Our collective historical traumas have made some of us unknowing perpetrators and others undeserving victims of harm, inspiring us to take an honest look at our personal and familial histories. To begin the search that will help us reconnect with our ancestors, all of our ancestors: good, bad, or indifferent.

For those who came before us and for those who come after us, we ask for forgiveness, give forgiveness, and pledge to repair and mend our relationships with our diverse communities, and to heal ourselves, our children, families, our ancestral lineage, and each other. To actively look for ways to create a healthier future in community, rather than isolation.

Doing so, we will be able to exchange generously with each other because we know who our ancestors are and where they came from, and we can practice our own cultural ways. We are rooted in our culture and our identity. We share as equals.

We become the ancestors who retrieved the soul of our lineage, our culture, our healing practices, our food, our language, and our traditions.

We become a bright and beautiful thread in the healing tapestry of generations.

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Resources:

• Wang, K. (2024). “It can be life-changing”: How exploring ancestry helps mental health https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240829-healing-generational-trauma-and-mental-health-by-understanding-ancestry

• Castillo, E. (2017). A Cross of Thorns: The enslavement of California’s Indians by the Spanish missions. Craven Street Books.

• Reese, E. M., Barlow, M. J., Dillon, M., Villalon, S., Barnes, M. D., & Crandall, A. (2022). Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma: The Mediating Effects of Family Health. International journal of environmental research and public health, 19(10), 5944. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19105944

• Hankerson, S. H., Moise, N., Wilson, D., Waller, B. Y., Arnold, K. T., Duarte, C., Lugo-Candelas, C., Weissman, M. M., Wainberg, M., Yehuda, R., & Shim, R. (2022). The Intergenerational Impact of Structural Racism and Cumulative Trauma on Depression. The American journal of psychiatry, 179(6), 434–440.

https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.21101000

• Kenny, K. (2026). Irish immigrant stereotypes and American racism. Picturing U.S. History. https://picturinghistory.gc.cuny.edu/irish-immigrant-stereotypes-and-american-racism/

• No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish: a short history of discrimination against Irish migrants, https://rebelnews.ie/2023/01/18/no-blacks-no-dogs-no-irish-a-short-history-of-discrimination-against-irish-migrants/

Maestra Grace examines the colonial wounds you didn’t know you carry in her exclusive online event with The Shift Network. Learn more here.

Maestra Grace Alvarez Sesma is of Yaqui descent and born in Mexico. She was called to the path of curanderismo (a traditional Mexican Indigenous healing system) in childhood during which she was profoundly influenced by the work of one of her aunts, a curandera; an uncle who was a well-known huesero, a traditional Latin American healer specializing in treating bone, joint, and muscle issues through hands-on, ancestral techniques, and her mother’s remedies that were part of her family’s daily life. Grace was visited in dreams by Our Lady of Guadalupe and a group of Indigenous Grandmothers dressed in the traditional clothing of different Native tribes of the Americas, who urged her to return to Indigenous healing ways and help bring forth the call from Mother Earth for a return to Indigenous values and the protection of the land, water, and holy places. Grace serves her community as a practitioner of Traditional Indigenous Medicine, a cultural educator, and a social justice advocate. Her work centers on the preservation and application of Indigenous knowledge systems in contemporary settings, with a focus on healing, education, and cultural revitalization. Find her at curanderismo.org and gracesesma.com

by Brandy Gillmore

I’ve seen so many people achieve incredible breakthroughs using the power of their own mind to transform their lives, shift their emotions, and even begin healing.

But here’s the part that often gets missed — they didn’t do it the way most people think.

Because so often, you’re doing all the “right things”...

• Meditating

• Using affirmations

• Reading books

• Journaling

• Listening to podcasts

• Visualizing

• Working with frequencies

• Trying to rewire their mind

And yet, you still feel stuck.

Maybe you’ve seen that in someone you love. Or maybe you’ve felt that yourself.

Sometimes, you can even see signs of change, feel glimpses of progress, notice shifts here and there — yet the deeper, life-changing transformation?

It still feels just out of reach.

You know it’s possible, you can feel that it’s possible, yet you can’t quite access it.

That’s not rare. It’s incredibly common. And it’s not because you’re not trying hard enough. It’s because there are deeper emotional patterns — hidden beneath the surface — that haven’t been fully seen or shifted yet.

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The Misconception That Keeps So Many People Stuck
One of the most common beliefs in mind-body healing is this: “If I can just change my thoughts, everything else will follow.”

While thoughts do matter, changing your thoughts isn’t the same as changing what’s happening underneath them.

You can rewire your thinking, and still feel stuck. You can understand something logically, and still not experience real change.

Real change comes from shifting the deeper patterns that drive how you feel, how you react, and what your mind and body believe is true.

Especially when deeper emotions are mixed underneath.

For example, you might feel excited about success — yet at the same time, deep down, you may feel:

• Undeserving

• Afraid of being judged

• Worried about losing connection

Even if you “know better,” that inner conflict creates resistance. It’s like pressing the gas and the brake at the same time.

No matter how much mindset work you do, something still holds you back.

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My Turning Point

I know that feeling personally.

For years, I worked with my mind every single day.

I meditated. I visualized. I practiced gratitude. I tried to rewire my thinking. And still, nothing truly changed.

I felt better on the surface. Yet my life didn’t really change.

It took me years to understand what was missing.

One of the most important realizations I had was this: I used to think that subtle emotions didn’t really matter. That if something wasn’t intense, it wasn’t important.

Yet what I didn’t realize was that those subtle thoughts and emotions weren’t weak at all. They were just buried. And because they were buried, they were quietly influencing everything.

My patterns. My choices. My entire life.

Once I truly saw that, everything began to shift.

I started going deeper — into the subconscious patterns, the mixed emotions, the hidden layers that were really driving everything.

And it became clear. It wasn’t about trying harder. I needed a different approach. I needed to transform what was underneath.

Once those patterns shifted, the changes weren’t small. They were profound.

The problem is that these patterns can repeat and keep replaying in a variety of different ways.

What These Patterns Can Look Like
These patterns can show up as:

• Feeling rejected or unloved

• Being hard on yourself

• Feeling hurt, overlooked, or abandoned

• Overgiving and ending up depleted

• Living with an underlying sense of fear

They can also show up as:

• Feeling undeserving of love, success, or healing

• Fearing judgment or disconnection

• Carrying guilt, shame, or emotional pain

• Patterns around safety, survival, or identity

If these patterns aren’t addressed, they can continue to shape your life — even when you’re doing everything you can to change.

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Questions That Can Help You See What’s Beneath the Surface
If you’ve been doing the work yet still feel stuck, you might gently ask yourself:

• Is there a part of me that feels differently than what I say I want?

• Am I pushing down emotions instead of truly shifting them?

• Are similar patterns showing up in different areas of my life?

Often, these patterns are subtle. They don’t always show up clearly at first. And many people don’t even realize they’re there.

The Truth About Healing and Transformation
If you’ve felt stuck — even while doing everything “right,” it’s not because you’re broken. It’s not because the mind doesn’t work.

It’s because real change doesn’t happen at the surface. It happens when the deeper patterns shift. When that happens…

… everything begins to change.

Not just your thoughts, but how you feel. How you experience life. How you respond.

When that deeper shift happens, it finally feels real. And that’s when transformation truly begins.

Because the truth is, we are incredible beings. The power of the mind is real.

Yet to create real results, you have to work with it at a deeper level than most people ever realize.

Brandy Gillmore is an internationally bestselling author, TEDx speaker, researcher, and award-winning podcast host known for her groundbreaking work showing how the mind can create rapid self-healing and profound transformation. After a life-altering injury left her disabled and dependent on a wheelchair, walker, and cane, she began researching the mind-body connection and ultimately made breakthrough discoveries that enabled her to heal herself and help others begin doing the same. She’s pioneered demonstrations of measurable mind-body healing, with results published in a peer-reviewed medical journal and featured in multiple award-winning documentaries. Find her at BrandyGillmore.com

Marla Leigh is a classically trained musician and one of the world’s few professional female frame drummers. An award-winning percussionist and flautist, she’s a trailblazer in bringing the ancient art of frame drumming to modern audiences around the globe.

The first time you picked up a frame drum, did you know this would be so important in your life?
I knew music would always be central to my life — but I didn’t know it would be the frame drum. Still, the first time I heard it played, I felt it in my body. I got chills.

I had just begun my undergraduate studies in Jazz Flute and Composition at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) when John Bergamo — who later became my first mentor — performed on the frame drum in a concert. The sound was simple, yet ancient. Direct. It seemed to bypass thought and go straight to my heart. It was love at first sound. I knew I needed to learn it.

After that concert, John invited me to study with him, and what followed was an unfolding — a widening of my musical world. I immersed myself in the art of percussion, studying African, Indian, and Balinese drumming, and eventually earned my MFA in Percussion from CalArts.

I remain deeply grateful for my teachers. I studied for over a decade with John Bergamo and Glen Velez — two pioneers of the modern frame drum — and also received guidance from Layne Redmond, all central figures in the contemporary revival of the instrument.

Over time, I came to understand that the frame drum was more than an instrument for me. It became a steady companion — shaping my creativity, sharpening my listening, and grounding me through every chapter of my life.

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Is there a special connection between women and drumming?
Historical imagery from ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, Turkey, and Egypt shows women playing the frame drum as early as the 6th millennium BCE. In many of these cultures, the instrument was present in communal life and ceremonial settings.

Today, the frame drum is embraced by people of all genders. Two of my primary mentors — Glen Velez and John Bergamo — were central figures in the modern revival of the instrument.

Studying the frame drum connects us to a long and evolving lineage. It’s an instrument with deep history — and it remains fully accessible to anyone who feels called to learn it.

What are the essential things you’d like people to understand about your work and your mission?
First and foremost, learning music is accessible. It’s not limited by age, background, or identity. You don’t need to consider yourself “musical” to begin.

My mission is to make learning to drum supportive, engaging, and genuinely enjoyable. I want students to experience success early and build real skill from there. There are also well-documented benefits to maintaining a drum practice; even a few minutes of focused drumming can increase alertness, coordination, and mental clarity.

I also love sharing my music and witnessing how others receive it. In addition to teaching, I’ve been composing since I was a young girl. I released my debut album, Rhythms of Tof Miriam, in 2020, and I’m VERY excited to release my next studio album later this year.

Whether through teaching or composing, I hold one core belief: music is a universal language that fosters connection. That principle guides everything I do.

What do people in your life think about what you’re doing?
They feel the devotion. After 31 years of teaching, they know this isn’t just a job for me. It’s something I’ve committed to with consistency, discipline, and heart. I’m grateful that music still brings me joy every single day.

I started music lessons at three years old and, truthfully, I never really stopped. Even after college, I kept studying — frame drum, tabla, music technology. I’ve always loved the process of learning and refining.

That steady practice keeps me grounded. It keeps me growing. And it reminds me that mastery isn’t about arriving — it’s about staying curious.

How does your teaching method help change people’s perceptions?
Over the years, I’ve met so many students who arrive carrying old music stories — “I have no rhythm,” “I’m not musical.” I understand that story. Many of us were handed it early.

So I built a way of teaching that gently helps people rewrite that narrative.

My approach is structured and supportive, but it’s also kind. We learn through listening and repetition, one clear step at a time — not through pressure or performance. When people realize rhythm is something that develops with practice, not something you’re born with, you can almost see their shoulders drop.

As their timing steadies and their coordination improves, confidence grows naturally. And that confidence doesn’t stay in the drum — it carries into the rest of their life.

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What’s different about how you see the world?
I notice rhythm everywhere — in speech, in movement, in silence between words.

Rhythm reveals when something is rushed, grounded, or out of sync. Just as a metronome teaches steadiness in music, it teaches patience and attentiveness in life. Over time, that way of listening becomes a way of living. I try to move through the world the same way I approach music: listening first, then responding with intention.

How does drumming nourish or challenge you personally?
Drumming brings me back to center. It quiets distraction and requires full presence.

It also challenges me. Precision matters. Listening matters. Refinement matters. Improvisation, especially, demands growth. I practice creating new rhythmic ideas regularly, rather than repeating what is familiar.

The drum offers both structure and freedom — and that balance continues to shape me as a musician and as a person.

Can complete beginners really learn to drum?
Absolutely. Rhythm is deeply human. Before we ever speak, we hear a heartbeat. When someone says, “I have no rhythm,” I gently question that belief. If you can clap a steady beat, you can begin.

My method is progressive and clearly structured. Students develop timing, coordination, and musical confidence at a pace that feels steady and achievable. Most people do not lack rhythm — they simply haven’t been shown how to cultivate it.

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What can someone do with their newfound drumming skills?
The possibilities are meaningful and varied. Students have drummed with grandchildren, bringing rhythm into intergenerational connection. Others incorporate drumming into therapeutic settings or psychotherapy sessions. Some begin composing or performing original music. Others form local community circles.

For many, it becomes a simple and fun daily coordination and focus practice — keeping the hands active, the mind engaged, and creativity alive. One student began at 88 years old. After several months of steady practice, she reported improved hand coordination and a renewed sense of purpose.

Drumming can be creative, restorative, social, or deeply personal. It is a skill that can grow with you for a lifetime.

Marla Leigh holds bachelor and master’s degrees in flute, percussion, and composition from the California Institute of the Arts, and has studied at Ali Akbar College in San Rafael and the Bhavan Center in London, England. She’s shared the stage with many artists, including Grammy award-winner Glen Velez, John Bergamo, and Pandit Swapan. She is the CEO of Frame Drum Academy, and has released two albums. Her music has been featured on Hala Khouri’s Yoga for Stress Release, Janet Stone’s yoga application, and films Bold Native and The Cellist. She offers retreats and clinics around the world. Find her at framedrumacademy.com

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by Deb Sheppard

There was a time when intuition was treated as sacred intelligence.

Not a trend.
Not a buzzword.
Not something reserved for “gifted” people.

It was understood as a natural human capacity — an inner knowing that could guide us toward truth, safety, healing, purpose, and deeper connection.

But today, many people are disconnected from that inner guidance system.

Not because intuition is gone, but because noise has gotten louder.

Over the years, I’ve worked with thousands of people navigating grief, trauma, burnout, spiritual awakening, relationship pain, identity loss, and profound life transitions. Again and again, I’ve witnessed the same thing:

People often believe they have “lost” their intuition when in reality, their nervous system, emotional wounds, subconscious conditioning, or unprocessed survival patterns are simply drowning it out.

Intuition does not disappear. It becomes harder to hear beneath fear, hypervigilance, self-protection, emotional suppression, and internalized conditioning.

This is one of the core foundations behind the work I teach through The Spiral Codes Method™ — a transformational framework designed to help people move through healing, remembrance, emotional integration, and spiritual reconnection in a grounded and sustainable way.

The Spiral Codes Method is rooted in an understanding that healing is not linear.
We revisit layers.
We return to old lessons with new awareness.
We spiral deeper into truth, embodiment, and self-trust.

And when we do, intuition naturally begins to return.

Here are five surprising ways the psyche can block intuition — and what actually helps restore clearer inner guidance.

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1. Survival Mode Can Masquerade as Intuition

One of the biggest misconceptions I see is people confusing anxiety, fear, or hypervigilance with intuition.

Intuition is clear.
Fear is loud.

When the nervous system has been conditioned by trauma, emotional unpredictability, chronic stress, betrayal, or instability, the psyche becomes focused on survival.

In survival mode, the mind constantly scans for danger.

This can create:

• overthinking

• catastrophizing

• people-pleasing

• emotional reactivity

• obsessive questioning

• difficulty trusting oneself

• chronic second-guessing

Many people think they are “receiving guidance” when they are actually reacting from unresolved fear.

True intuition rarely feels frantic.
It often arrives quietly.

Sometimes it is a calm inner knowing.
Sometimes it is a subtle body sensation.
Sometimes it is a deep sense of resonance.
Sometimes it is a gentle but undeniable truth.

But if the nervous system is dysregulated, those quieter signals can become inaccessible.

What Helps

One of the most powerful ways to reconnect with intuition is not through forcing spiritual practices — but through nervous system regulation.

Breathwork, grounding, emotional processing, somatic awareness, rest, silence, and creating internal safety all help the body move out of chronic defense states.

The Spiral Codes Method teaches that intuition is not just spiritual. It is physiological.

A regulated nervous system creates space for deeper listening.

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2. Unprocessed Emotional Pain Distorts Inner Guidance

Many people want spiritual clarity while simultaneously avoiding emotional truth.

But intuition and emotional honesty are deeply connected.

The psyche has remarkable protective mechanisms.

If grief, shame, abandonment wounds, rejection, heartbreak, anger, or fear have not been processed, the subconscious mind often creates defenses to avoid discomfort.

These defenses can sound like:

• “I already know what they’re going to say.”

• “I can’t trust anyone.”

• “Nothing ever works out for me.”

• “I’m too much.”

• “I’m not enough.”

• “If I open my heart, I’ll get hurt again.”

Over time, emotional pain can become mistaken for truth.

This is where many people lose connection with genuine intuition.

Because intuition is not rooted in old wounds. It emerges beneath them.

In my work, I’ve found that people often experience major intuitive breakthroughs after allowing themselves to finally feel what they’ve spent years avoiding.

Not because suffering is spiritual.
But because emotional suppression disconnects us from ourselves.

What Helps

Healing requires compassionate honesty.

Not spiritual bypassing.
Not pretending to be “high vibe.”
Not forcing positivity.

Real healing asks us to acknowledge what hurts.

Journaling, somatic work, grief processing, therapy, breathwork, sacred conversation, inner child work, and intentional reflection can all help release emotional congestion that blocks inner clarity.

The Spiral Codes Method emphasizes emotional integration rather than emotional avoidance.

Because intuition becomes clearer when the psyche no longer has to spend enormous energy protecting unhealed pain.

3. Over-Identification With External Validation Weakens Self-Trust

Many people have spent decades being conditioned to seek approval before trusting themselves.

We are taught to look outside of ourselves for certainty.

To authority figures.
To social media.
To partners.
To experts.
To systems.
To external validation.

Eventually, people stop asking:
“What do I actually feel?”

And start asking:
“What will make me accepted?”

This disconnect can profoundly weaken intuitive development.

Intuition requires self-trust.

Not perfection.
Not certainty.
Not always getting it right.

But a willingness to listen inwardly.

One of the most heartbreaking things I witness is how many deeply intuitive people have learned to distrust themselves because they were criticized, dismissed, gaslit, shamed, or emotionally invalidated.

Especially highly sensitive people.

Over time, the psyche begins abandoning its own signals in order to maintain belonging or emotional safety.

What Helps

Rebuilding self-trust happens through small acts of inner alignment.

Listening to your body.
Honoring boundaries.
Allowing rest.
Saying no when something feels misaligned.
Telling the truth.
Practicing discernment.
Paying attention to what expands or contracts your energy.

The Spiral Codes Method teaches that intuition strengthens through embodied practice.

Not through dependency.

Real spiritual growth is not about becoming more disconnected from yourself.
It is about learning to trust yourself again.

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4. Constant Stimulation Drowns Out Inner Wisdom

Modern life is profoundly overstimulating.

Most people are consuming more information in a single day than previous generations processed in weeks.

Notifications.
Social media.
Podcasts.
News.
Messages.
Opinions.
Content.
Endless noise.

But intuition rarely competes with chaos.

It emerges in stillness.

Many people say they want clarity while giving themselves almost no uninterrupted silence.

The psyche needs spaciousness.

Without pause, reflection, or stillness, the deeper layers of awareness become difficult to access.

This is why so many people suddenly receive insights while:

• walking in nature

• taking a shower

• meditating

• sitting quietly

• driving alone

• journaling

• breathing deeply

• disconnecting from devices

The mind softens.
The nervous system slows.
The deeper self becomes audible again.

What Helps

You do not necessarily need more spiritual information.
You may need more silence.

Creating intentional space for stillness can radically change intuitive clarity.

Even 10 minutes of uninterrupted presence each day can begin reconnecting you to yourself.

The Spiral Codes Method encourages cycles of reflection, pause, integration, and inward listening.

Because wisdom is not always found through more consumption.
Sometimes it emerges through subtraction.

5. Many People Are Trying to Ascend Without Fully Embodying

One of the greatest misunderstandings in spirituality is the idea that awakening means escaping humanity.

True spiritual development is not dissociation.
It is deeper embodiment.

Many people attempt to bypass pain, emotions, relationships, responsibilities, boundaries, or personal accountability in the name of spirituality.

But intuition becomes distorted when we disconnect from the body.

The body is not separate from spiritual intelligence.
It is part of it.

Your body constantly communicates through sensation, tension, resonance, contraction, openness, exhaustion, expansion, and emotional response.

When people become disconnected from embodiment, they often become vulnerable to projection, fantasy, spiritual inflation, escapism, or confusion.

Grounded intuition requires presence, not just transcendence.

What Helps

Embodiment practices are essential.

Breathwork.
Movement.
Somatic awareness.
Nature.
Rest.
Nutrition.
Emotional honesty.
Grounding rituals.
Mindful presence.
Healthy relationships.
Boundaries.

The Spiral Codes Method teaches that spiritual awakening is not about leaving yourself.
It is about returning to yourself more fully.

And often, the clearest guidance arises not during dramatic mystical moments — but during grounded moments of genuine presence.

Intuition Is Not Something You Earn

It is something you remember.

Most people are not broken.
They are overwhelmed, disconnected, over-conditioned, emotionally burdened, exhausted, or afraid.

When healing begins to happen — emotionally, psychologically, physiologically, and spiritually — intuition often re-emerges naturally.

Not as performance.
Not as perfection.
Not as spiritual superiority.

But as deeper self-connection.

In many ways, intuition is less about becoming someone new and more about removing what was never truly you.

This is the deeper heart of The Spiral Codes Method.

Healing is not linear.
Awakening is layered.
Growth is cyclical.
And self-trust is rebuilt one honest moment at a time.

The more we regulate the nervous system, process emotional pain, reclaim self-trust, create stillness, and return to embodiment, the more accessible our inner wisdom becomes.

And perhaps that is what so many people are truly searching for:

Not someone else to tell them who they are.
But the ability to finally hear themselves clearly again.

Deb shares how to you can deepen your intuition with the Spiral Codes Method™ in her exclusive online event with The Shift Network. Learn more here.

Deb Sheppard is a spiritual teacher, medium, intuitive guide, and transformational facilitator who has spent more than 25 years helping thousands of people navigate grief, emotional healing, spiritual awakening, and soul-centered transformation.

Known for her grounded yet deeply spiritual approach, Deb’s work weaves together mediumship, intuitive development, emotional healing, embodiment practices, nervous system awareness, and expanded states of consciousness to help people reconnect with their intuition, inner wisdom, and authentic soul path.

As the founder of The SOULution Path and her Sacred Contracts teachings, Deb helps people understand the deeper spiritual patterns, lessons, and agreements shaping their lives. Her teachings invite people into greater clarity, healing, self-trust, and connection with the unseen wisdom guiding their journey.

Deb is also the creator of The Spiral Codes Method™, a transformational framework rooted in the understanding that healing and awakening are not linear, but unfold in layered cycles of remembrance, integration, embodiment, and deeper self-awareness.

I had just woken up from a midday nap.

I don’t even like to nap. But I was wrung out in a way that only certain seasons of life can produce — the kind of tired that lives in your chest.

I had been checking in on my family in Lebanon, making sure they were safe. I had dragged myself out of bed early enough for a 7:00am Pilates class. And there was the Blood Moon Eclipse rippling through the cosmic field, that quiet but unmistakable hum that those of us tuned to these things can always feel. So when 30 minutes opened up between work and meetings, the universe seemed to be insisting I close my eyes.

I did. And then, barely presentable from the waist up, I opened my laptop and hopped on a Zoom call to meet Puma Singona for the second time.

Puma is a Peruvian shaman who has done profound work with The Shift Network. I’d only spoken to him (briefly) once before, but his name had a way of arriving in conversations followed immediately by the same three words: “He’s so great.”

Even through a screen, I understood why immediately. He radiates warmth the way certain people do — not performed, not polished, but simply present. It travels. You feel it without being able to explain where it landed.

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We were in a development meeting, mapping out an upcoming free online event he’d be offering, and at some point the idea of reading coca leaves came up as a possibility. His face lit up. Without missing a beat, he reached into what appeared to be his pocket and pulled out a handful of dried leaves.

“I always have them with me,” he said, as though this were the most natural thing in the world.

What followed was one of those unexpected gifts that only arrives when you’ve stopped looking for it. Puma gave each of us on the call our own reading, one by one, blowing gently on the leaves before letting them fall out of his palm and speak. And then it was my turn.

“For Bruna…”

He held the leaves. Blew. Let them scatter.

“Open your heart. Especially for love. There have been a lot of fears, or maybe doubts, and it’s not letting you open your heart completely, because there is love. There is abundant love.”

Less than 30 seconds, and somehow, the entire last decade of my life compressed itself into that moment.

I held it together for the rest of the meeting… barely. The moment I closed my laptop, I was somewhere else entirely.

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Roughly 10 years ago, I arrived at The Marrakesh House in Culver City to experience my first soundbath.

I was sitting on a mat in a lavish backyard. The air was thick with incense and Palo Santo, and I watched as strangers began claiming their chosen space for the journey, writing their intentions for the evening on white index cards. I didn’t know what to expect.

I’d arrived quietly desperate — yearning for something to believe in beyond the visible edges of my life. That hunger had launched me into an exploration of all things spiritual, and I’d been following each thread wherever it led.

That night, as the shamanic drumming deepened and the room fell away, the first of what would become many past life visions arrived. It came with a clarity that startled me — not dreamlike or hazy, but vivid and immediate, the way a memory feels when it’s yours.

Suddenly, I was sitting beside a fire. The night was dark and open. Across the flames sat my partner — I could feel him completely, the specific gravity of his presence, though his face remained just out of reach. We were Indigenous people living simply, quietly. And then men on horseback broke through the darkness.

I ran. Hid the children. Through the sliver of a cracked door, I watched one of the intruders moving toward my husband with unmistakable intent. I didn’t think. I grabbed a dagger, and I made sure he never reached him.

The vision lurched forward in time. Quick flashes of unclear images that led to the final image — the one that has never left me.

My husband was gone. I don’t know how. I only felt the weight of it, the absolute and irreversible wrongness of a world without him in it. I watched myself walk out into the night, barefoot, naked, a dagger still in my hand. The stars above me, indifferent and ancient.

And I took my life.

That life ended. But the grief — the grief didn’t.

~~~

Love has always felt like something just beyond my grasp. While the people around me moved through dating and flirting and the ordinary rituals of romance, I’d walk into rooms scanning for a face I couldn’t describe, carrying a sense of longing I couldn’t name. I didn’t know who I was looking for.

But I knew the feeling of him — the particular frequency of a presence I’d loved so completely that it had worn grooves into my soul.

The love wasn’t lost. But the terror of losing it again? That never left, either.

I felt it again in Egypt, in 2024. I was visiting Saqqara — the sacred burial site that holds a different kind of silence than any other place I’ve known.

Something pulled me toward a particular wall. When I raised my hands and pressed them to the stone, I wept before I understood why. The grief came first. The knowing arrived after. Another life, another beloved taken. The same ache, wearing a different face.

All of the healing work I’ve moved through in this lifetime has circled back, again and again, to the heart. To what I call the bridge between our humanity and our divinity, that tender and terrifying place where we are most ourselves.

Puma’s words did what the best spiritual encounters do — remind me of something I already knew but had stopped embodying.

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I often share with my shadow-work clients that everything has a polar opposite. That the intensity of any darkness is always a precise measure of the light it mirrors. And so the grief I’ve carried across lifetimes — that still-raw, still-present ache — is not evidence of damage. It is evidence of depth. Of a capacity for love so vast it left marks on the very fabric of who I am.

The question has never been whether I’m capable of that love.

It’s always been which wolf I choose to feed: the one who knows that love and runs toward it, or the one who has felt the loss of it and can’t stop bracing for the next one.

For a long time, I’ve been feeding the wrong wolf.

The truth I keep returning to is this — we will never have enough time with the people we love most. That’s not a tragedy to be solved. It’s the very nature of love. It exists in bodies, in lifetimes, in the specific and irreplaceable texture of moments that will not come again.

All we can do is be present inside them. All we can do is choose, again and again, not to let the fear of loss be louder than the call of love.

And maybe — just maybe — the most radical thing any of us can do, especially in the world we’re experiencing today, is to love so completely, so without armor, that it writes itself into the root of our souls.

So that it travels.

So that it echoes forward through every lifetime there ever was and ever could be, and whatever version of us arrives in the next one already knows, somewhere beneath language, that this is what it’s here for.

There’s a lot of fear. But there’s abundant love, too.

Bruna Nessif, also known as Mystic Bru, is a writer, psychological astrologer, and shadow integration-focused intuitive guide for people who are deeply self-aware yet still feel stuck in repeating emotional and relational cycles. She is a certified professional coach for high-conscious living, author of Let That Shit Go: A Journey to Forgiveness, Healing, and Understanding Love, and founder of Return to Self, an online publication devoted to storytelling and guidance around shadow work, self-trust, and the art of balanced embodiment.

by John Holland

There are moments in life that feel too meaningful to be explained away.

After nearly 30 years as a practicing medium, I can still say this with complete honesty: the intelligence of the Spirit World never ceases to amaze me.

Again and again, I’ve witnessed how our loved ones on the other side remain aware of our lives, how deeply they continue to love us, and how they find ways to remind us that they are still with us. The love you share is not lost. It becomes the bridge that keeps you connected. Love never dies.

Over the years, I’ve experienced countless moments that go far beyond coincidence. In my work, we often refer to these as After-Death Communications, or ADCs. These are not done through a medium, but are personal, meaningful signs, symbols, or experiences through which individuals perceive communication from loved ones who have passed.

They can arrive in many ways: through dreams, visions, or a strong sense of presence — and often bring comfort, reassurance, and a quiet reminder that the bond has never been broken.

Sometimes these signs are subtle. At other times, they are unmistakable. And occasionally, they arrive at the exact moment they are needed most.

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This is a true story, and one of my favorite ADC experiences, shared with me by someone close to me… a gentle reminder of how a father’s love can still reach his son when it’s needed most.

They say that the sea speaks to the soul, and many times its sandy beaches hold very special treasures. Jeri and David had this beautifully romantic ritual that they always did together. They would head off to the local beach, not to watch the sunsets but to stroll, holding hands as they watched the beautiful ocean waves roll in. One thing they would usually do whenever they were on this specific beach was to look for sand dollars that had washed ashore.

It was their special time together, and it would be rare for them not to bring a few sand dollars home. Every token became a special memory of their romantic walks together.

Little did they know that one of these cherished treasures would someday mean more than they could ever have imagined.

They married and had a daughter, Riley, and two boys, Tegan and Logan. Everything seemed almost perfect. It came as a terrible shock when David developed an aggressive cancer and passed away far too quickly. Jeri lost the love of her life and her best friend; their children lost a doting father.

One day, some months after David passed, Jeri was hanging out in the living room with her youngest son, Logan, who was 14 years old at the time.

They’d both been thinking about David a lot recently. Logan was starting a new school year, his first year in high school, and she knew that he wished his dad could be there for support on this big day. Sensing Logan’s mood, Jeri reached out and whispered, “Do you want to join me for a walk down on Sand Dollar Beach?” — a name her children had given the beach years earlier when they were much younger.

Before she’d even finished asking, Logan had hopped off the couch with a smile and run to the door. That was his answer!

Without a word, they both started looking for sand dollars, just as Jeri and David had done together so many times before. They walked up and down the beach, pushing mounds of sand aside, scouring the shore for their treasure. Yet no matter how hard they looked, they couldn’t find a single sand dollar. Logan’s face couldn’t hide his frustration and disappointment.

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Jeri looked up to the sky and said in her mind, “David, please send us a sign. Logan is starting school tomorrow, and he really could use a hello from Heaven from you right now.” Jeri turned away for a moment, so Logan wouldn’t see the tear trickling down her face. It was then that she noticed a small boat approaching the shore.

She could have sworn it wasn’t there before, and she didn’t know where it had come from. The man in the boat stood up waving and yelling, “Hi! Are you looking for sand dollars?”

“Yes!” the two yelled back in unison, a resounding roar of excitement.

The man smiled and pointed, “Give that sand bar over there a try!” Jeri and Logan thanked the man and ran across the beach. She glanced back for a second, but he’d already turned the boat around and left.

She thought how strange it was that this man hadn’t asked them if they were looking for shells, sea glass, or even heart rocks. Instead, he’d specifically mentioned sand dollars!

Logan ran ahead excitedly, hoping to find just one memento. He soon saw, to his amazement and delight, a crisp sand dollar sticking out of the sand! Then another and then another lay before him. The more they looked, the more they found.

Jeri smiled as she heard her son shouting in joy, “Mom, Mom, here’s another one!” They found so many, they filled every pocket they had. As they walked back up the shore, they counted a total of 43 sand dollars.

Logan looked up at her, smiling, his eyes full of tears. “Mom, this is better than winning the lottery!”

In her heart, Jeri knew it had been David who’d helped them. She closed her eyes as she felt a gentle breeze caress her face like a kiss. Her skin tingled with his presence.

Logan kept asking, “Mom, how did the guy in the boat know what we were looking for? I bet it was Dad saying ‘Hi’!”

I’m sure there will be many more sand dollars (and other ADCs) waiting for Jeri and her family. They will always bring back happy memories of the sun, the laughs, the carefree walks, the gentle embraces, and the loving kisses that will be treasured always.

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Simple signs can be profound.

A special symbol, unique to you, has a way of filling your heart. Now, whenever Jeri walks along that special beach, whether alone or with her children, she knows that David is right beside her.

This is what I mean when I speak about the intelligence of the spirit world.

These experiences are not random. They are meaningful, personal, and often deeply timed. A simple sign, especially one tied to shared memories, has a way of reaching the heart in a way nothing else can.

The bond between loved ones does not end.

It continues. It changes form, but it remains just as real. And very often, those we love will find a way to remind us of that connection, if we are open enough to notice. So, when something happens in your life that feels a little too perfect, a little too meaningful, or a little too coincidental, pause for a moment and consider that it may be more than that.

Many people receive signs like this and then quickly dismiss them. I encourage you not to do that. Stay open. Stay aware. Acknowledge them, and let your loved ones in spirit know you recognize it was them reaching out to you.

Because sometimes, the signs we are looking for are already finding their way to us. And when they do, they arrive not by chance… but through love that still knows exactly where to reach you.

Inspired by:

Bridging Two Realms — Learn to Communicate with Your Loved Ones on the Other Side by John Holland, Hay House (2018)

John shares how to discover the signs and feel the presence of your loved ones reaching out from the afterlife in his exclusive online event with The Shift Network. Learn more here.

John Holland is a highly respected psychic medium, spiritual teacher, author, and founder of My Soul Community. In his demonstrations of mediumship in television shows and documentaries, he explains that he blends his own energy with that of spirit, to create a link and be able to communicate with the Other Side. He does this with his signature candor, integrity, humor, and a lightness of touch. He studied intensively in the UK for two years and has spent the last 30 years continually training and honing his gifts. He is the author of Born Knowing, Power of the Soul, Psychic Navigator, and Bridging Two Realms; of four oracle decks, including the best-selling Psychic Tarot Oracle Deck, and of Tarot and oracle deck mobile apps.

Your energy fields are designed to be protective, connective and to hold you strong and resilient in all situations.

Since I was born, I’ve been able to see energy. If I was looking at you now, I would be able to watch your energy weave and flow within you, around you, and continually interact with every other form of energy and life around you. Paraphrasing Thich Nat Hahn, you are designed to inter-be.

How do you feel about that? Perhaps this knowledge lights you up as you realize just how essential and interconnective every being is in the great weave of the web of life. Perhaps it feels utterly exhausting and brings up awareness of overwhelm that you already experience in your daily life.

Because of the emerging shifts in planetary consciousness that we are all living within and being affected by — every second of every day — we are experiencing connection at a new depth than in previous decades.

And if you have a sensitive energy system, or already know that you are an empath, then you will likely be noticing a greater level of sensitivity — which, of course, can lead to overwhelm, and feeling bombarded by the energy of others, places, animals, plants, technology, EMFs, lights, and noise.

You may feel as if you always need to guard and protect your energy.

First, let’s explore what is meant by “empath” or “highly sensitive person.”

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Being empathic versus being an empath

While being empathic means showing an ability to understand and share the feelings of another, an empath is a person with the ability to perceive and often experience the mental or emotional state of another individual.

Sensitivity and the Highly Sensitive Person

Sensitivity can be defined as being quick to detect or respond to slight changes, signals, or influences, or as having and displaying a quick and delicate appreciation of others’ feelings. The Highly Sensitive Person is someone who experiences acute physical, mental, or emotional responses to stimuli. Highly Sensitive People know from long experience that they feel things far more strongly than others do.

How do you know if you’re an empath or highly sensitive?

Here are a few questions to ask yourself

• Do you find bright, busy, noisy places like supermarkets, shopping centers, or social gatherings overwhelming, draining, and stressful?

• Do you struggle to be around and connect with loved ones after you come home from a long day of work?

• Are you impacted by the emotions and energies of those around you?

• Do you feel wiped out or unwell after being on screens for a short amount of time?

• Do you feel you need a lot of quiet, alone time to recover from normal life?

If you are answering yes to any of these questions, it is likely that you have a highly sensitive or empathic energy system that is tuned into everything around you, potentially leaving you drained, frazzled, and fractious.

But does that mean that your sensitivity is a curse and you are always going to feel overwhelmed? That you have no choice?

No.

Before I go on, I want to share with you that everything you experience and perceive is energy.

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You are energy. Your thoughts are energy, your emotions are energy, your relationships are energy.
The cosmos is energy. Everything is energy.

You can’t be separate from it. You can’t protect or defend yourself from it. You are a co-creative vibration thrumming your own way through the cosmos connected to everything else.

I also want to let you know that as someone who has a super-tuned, super-sensitive, super-plugged-in system, you do not need to be a victim of your own sensitivity, and it is totally possible to thrive as an empath or highly sensitive person.

I love being connected at that vast and cosmic level. It lights me up and helps me sing my soul into the world, as well as deeply grounds me and holds me, keeping me feeling strong, trusting, and safe.

So, as an empath or Highly Sensitive Person, the big question is: how can you feel grounded, safe, protected and joyful in your everyday life?

It’s easy! You learn to understand and support your energy system, which is the foundation of your health. Understanding your energy is not only easy, it’s also key to being able to hold your own dynamic energetic container so you are protected and connected, so you can be you — joyfully, utterly you.

And yes, it is possible to be protected and connected at the same time.

Connection means protection. Protection means connection.

• Protection does not mean your shields go up and nothing penetrates

• Protection does not mean your intuition will be blocked

• Protection does not mean limited empathy or compassion

• Protection does not mean you miss out on anything in your life that enhances you and your ability to be your fullest self

When you activate your energy systems in their balance and health then your fullest, most magnificent protection kicks in.

• Protection means you can stay grounded in all situations

• Protection means your system is resilient

• Protection means not having to react in fight, flight, freeze response in situations that aren’t life-threatening

• Protection means an easy ability to connect and relate with others in your life

• Protection means not experiencing overwhelm

• Protection means always feeling safe

Being grounded and staying energetically cohesive are essential forms of protection, and therefore healthy, safe, and balanced connection. They also help you stay strong in the face of difficulties and still hold your own space. Your energy field becomes resilient.

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So what does being energetically grounded mean?

Simply put, being “grounded” means your energy fields are holding your energy body and physical body connected to the world beneath your feet, and the world above your head. You are physiologically and energetically designed to have an electromagnetic flow moving through every cell in your body every second of the day.

Without this flow, your energy fields will lose coherence and cohesion. Your system will not feel safe, your stress response will be easily triggered, and you will be in a spiral of energetic reactivity.

When you understand how to support your energy, you are able to support and sustain your groundedness — even when you are in stressful or sensitive situations.

Life should be about living, about thriving, about discovery and enlightenment. Your energy fields hold this understanding deep within their templates.

Along with your incredible protective system, you also have the template for optimum health and vitality at every level of your energetic anatomy. It is this pattern of optimum health that you need to encourage daily — and there are so many ways that you are able to do this.

One of the most wonderful and empowering aspects of understanding your energy anatomy is that you really can affect deep and lasting change every day by working with simple energy practices and techniques.

Here is one of my favorite practices for enhancing protection and connection, building resilience, and restoring grounding to your system.

Wings of Strength

1. Bring your hands together in front of your chest with your thumbs gently pressing into your breastbone.

2. Breathe in deeply as you visualize that the oxygen and fresh energy that you are bringing into your body are stoking up your battery one breath at a time.

3. As you breathe out, visualize that you are holding all of that fresh oxygen and energy deep inside you.

4. Do this for at least three breaths.

5. When you feel ready, bring in an energizing breath and this time, as you breathe out, move your hands out, palm first, as far as your arms can stretch. It doesn’t matter which direction you move your arms. You are moving them out to the edge of your own aura. As you go, that energy that you have been building inside you will be moving through your hands so that your aura becomes more and more energized. It is as if your arms are wings that build the strength all around you.

6. Keep repeating this breath with your arm and hand movement until you feel strong, safe, and resilient.

And here’s a video!

Prune shares how to cultivate Energetic Resilience in her exclusive online event with The Shift Network. Learn more here.

Prune Harris is an energy expert, British shaman, and soul activist who has been able to see energy of humans, animals, trees, and the Earth since birth. For the past 50 years, she has been tracking, understanding, and translating this world for us all to experience. Prune created an expansive collection of programs and resources that have already empowered thousands of people across the world to return to their natural patterns of health, harmony, and radiant resilience through understanding their energy and fully connecting with their vitality, deep wisdom, and soul path. You can find out more about Prune, and how you can evolve your energy systems and transform your health by visiting Prune’s Substack, website, online school, and global online community.

by Suzanne B. O’Brien, RN

There’s something I’ve known since the very beginning of my career — before I had the language for it, before I had the experience to explain it.

I felt it.

With my very first patient who died.

I was a new nurse, standing in a hospital room that felt like every other — white walls, fluorescent lights, machines humming in the background. Clinical. Sterile. Quiet in that artificial way hospitals often are.

She was alone.

And yet… she wasn’t.

Because in the moment that she was transitioning, as she took her last breaths, something happened.

The room changed.

The energy shifted in a way I had never felt before. Profound. Peaceful. Almost sacred.

It stopped me in my tracks.

No one had taught me this part. There was no charting language for it. No clinical explanation.

But I knew, without question: There was nothing to fear here.

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What I Discovered After 1,000 End-of-Life Experiences
That moment became the beginning of a journey that would shape my life.

I went on to become a hospice nurse, an oncology nurse, and eventually a pioneer in the global death doula movement, sitting at the bedside of over 1,000 people at the end of life.

And I can tell you this: What I felt in that very first room was not an exception.

It was the truth.

I have witnessed:

• Profound peace in the final weeks, days and hours

• Moments of deep connection between loved ones

• A natural unfolding that feels guided, not chaotic

• And again and again, a sacredness that is almost impossible to describe, but unmistakable when you experience it

If more people knew what I have seen, they would not be afraid of death.

And that’s why I’m telling you.

Death Was Never Meant to Be Feared
For most of human history, death wasn’t something we feared.

It was something we understood.

People died at home. Families gathered. Children were present. Communities supported one another.

There were rituals — not to “fix” death, but to honor it.

Death was seen for what it is: a natural transition, a sacred rite of passage, a part of life.

The Moment Everything Changed
About 100 years ago, death left the home and moved into institutions.

Hospitals. Medical systems. Behind closed doors.

And while modern medicine has brought incredible advancements, in that shift, we lost something essential.

Death became:

• Medicalized

• Hidden

• Isolated

• And unfamiliar

And what we don’t understand, we begin to fear.

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Fear Was Never About Death
Fear didn’t come from death itself.

It came from our disconnection from it.

When we stop…

• Seeing death

• Talking about it

• Understanding it

• Participating in it

… it becomes unknown. And the unknown is where fear lives.

This is why today:

• Death is avoided in conversation

• Families feel unprepared

• Grief is often rushed or minimized

• And dying is treated like a failure instead of a natural part of life

But this isn’t the truth of death.

It’s the result of forgetting.

What We Lost — and Why It Matters
When we lost our connection to death, we also lost:

• The understanding of how to care for someone at the end of life

• The rituals that helped us process grief

• The communal support that held families through loss

• The profound teaching about life that people at the threshold often share

• The recognition that this moment is sacred

Without these, people are left navigating one of life’s most profound experiences without a map.

And that’s where fear takes over.

Bringing Death Back to Where It Belongs
The truth is — death hasn’t changed.

We have.

And the good news is, we can remember.

We can:

• Talk about death openly

• Bring presence back into the dying process

• Support families with education and compassion

• Reintroduce ritual and meaning

• Honor this time as the sacred transition it is

Because when we understand death, we don’t just fear it less.

We live differently.

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What My Patients Have Taught Me
After more than 1,000 end-of-life experiences, I can tell you this.

Death is not what people think it is.

It is not something to be feared.

It is something to be understood… honored… and even, in many ways, trusted.

Because the most consistent thing I have witnessed is this: There is a natural intelligence to the dying process.

And when we stop resisting it… when we support it instead of fear it… there can be profound peace.

That very first patient taught me something I have spent my entire career confirming:

Even in a sterile hospital room… even when no one else recognizes it… death is still sacred.

We just have to remember how to see it.

Suzanne shares the 7 core truths that emerge at life’s end in her exclusive online event with The Shift Network. Learn more here.

Suzanne B. O’Brien, RN, is a speaker, author, elder advocate, and wellness warrior. Suzanne spent most of her nursing career in hospice care and oncology care, and in 2008, began offering free community educational seminars at her local library to teach families how to care for their loved ones at the end of life. In hospice care, the nurse manages the care of the dying patient and teaches the family how to do the same. It is far from successful, due to the overwhelming fear of death (the number one fear in the U.S.) and how late in the dying process people commonly receive hospice services. Seeing this systemic break and the compounded amount of suffering it causes fueled Suzanne’s passion to help teach families the life-changing skill of how to care for their loved ones before the need actually arises. This training and concept proved so successful that Suzanne now travels to communities, offering training in person and on live webinars so that people around the world can attend. She was named a “Worldwide Leader In Healthcare” in 2016 by The International Nurses Association for her humanitarian work.

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by Jane Hardwicke Collings

There is a kind of forgetting that has happened in our culture.

Not a sudden loss, but a gradual drifting away from ways of knowing that once guided how we lived, how we cared for ourselves, and how we understood our place in the world.

Many women feel this without necessarily having words for it — a sense that something is missing, something that would help make sense of their bodies, their lives, and the changes they move through.

And yet, the clues for how to live in a more connected, sustainable, and meaningful way are still here.

There are clues hiding in plain view for how to live a sustainable, earth-honoring life — and one of the most overlooked places we can find them is in the menstrual cycle.

For most women, this idea is unfamiliar. We have been raised in a culture that largely ignores, suppresses, or even rejects the menstrual cycle and the wisdom it carries. This long-standing taboo has distanced women from their bodies, and from the natural rhythms that shape our lives.

And when we reject the cycle, we reject the body. It is the same thing.

When we look more closely, we begin to see that the way women’s bodies are treated mirrors the way the Earth is treated. The same pattern runs through menstruation, childbirth, and menopause. It is often said that how a culture values the feminine is how it values the Earth — and we can see the truth of that reflected everywhere.

The menstrual cycle offers a simple but profound teaching: honor the rest phase — or there will be consequences.

When a woman does not rest, nourish herself, and respond to her body’s needs during her bleeding phase, the rest of her cycle is affected. This often shows up as discomfort, imbalance, or distress. The cycle is not broken — it is responding.

This wisdom extends far beyond the body.

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We live in a culture that prioritizes constant growth, productivity, and output. There is little space for rest or renewal — yet these phases are essential to any living system. Without them, depletion is inevitable.

The cycle teaches us another way: to move with the phases of life rather than override them. Everything in life moves in cycles. The day moves from light to dark. The moon waxes and wanes. The seasons shift from growth to harvest to stillness. A woman’s body follows its own rhythmic pattern. And a human life unfolds through distinct stages or life seasons.

Each of these cycles reflects the same pattern: birth, growth, full bloom, harvest, decay, death, rebirth. There is an intelligence to cycles and our body’s cyclical nature. When women begin to understand this, something shifts.

Life starts to make more sense. There is less self-judgment, less confusion, and less pressure to keep going in ways that are unsustainable. Instead, there is an opportunity to align with what is actually happening, internally and externally.

One of the simplest and most powerful ways to develop cycle intelligence and begin reconnecting with this wisdom is through menstrual cycle charting. Tracking the body’s rhythms reveals patterns in energy, creativity, mood, and desire. Over time, this becomes a kind of map — a way of understanding oneself that is grounded in lived experience.

If there were such a thing as a woman’s body owner’s manual, this would be one of the first instructions.

At the heart of my work is the understanding that a woman’s life is shaped by her rites of passage. These are the moments when we change from one version of ourselves into another — menarche, sexual initiation, childbirth, menopause, and beyond.

They are not small events. They are transformational thresholds.

And yet, in our culture, these transitions are rarely recognized, supported, or honored in meaningful ways. What happens at a rite of passage matters deeply. It teaches us, often unconsciously, what is expected of us in the next stage of life, how we are valued, and how we must behave to belong.

When rites of passage are ignored, rushed, or stripped of meaning, they can become confusing or even wounding experiences. But even then, they are not without purpose. They become what I call soul-crafting opportunities — invitations to understand ourselves more deeply, to recognize the patterns that have shaped us, and to consciously choose a different way forward.

One of the most powerful questions a woman can ask is: “What did this experience teach me about being a woman?” And then: “Is that the message I want to continue living by?”

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It is never too late to reclaim a rite of passage. In fact, this is a lifelong process.

We begin by understanding the impact of what happened, and how it shaped our beliefs, behaviors, and sense of self. From there, we can consciously create new experiences that honor who we are and who we are becoming.

This might look like creating a personal ceremony, gathering in circle with other women, reflecting on past transitions with compassion, or offering new messages to younger parts of ourselves.

Rites of passage are not only personal. They build community. They create connection, belonging, and shared meaning. And when they are honored, they restore something that has been missing for many women: a sense of being seen, supported, and initiated into each stage of life.

We are living in a time of profound change. Many of the systems that have shaped our world are showing their limits. The model of endless growth and control is no longer sustainable, and the consequences are visible everywhere — especially in the state of women’s health and wellbeing.

Menstrual cycle pathology continues to rise. Unnecessary intervention in childbirth, and the resulting birth trauma, increases year by year. Menopause is increasingly medicalized. Women are being led to believe that their natural bodily processes are faulty and in need of fixing.

This is deeply demoralizing. It turns essential, intelligent functions of the body into problems to be feared, leaving women disconnected from — and even resentful of — their own bodies. And it comes at a cost — emotionally, physically, and financially.

What is being called for now is something different.

We need women who are resilient.
Adaptable.
Grounded.
Connected to both their inner world and the natural world.

This is not something we have been taught to do or become. The capacity for this kind of change emerges through inner work — through understanding how we have been shaped, releasing what no longer serves, and reconnecting with our own nature.

When women do this work, something shifts.

They begin to trust themselves.
They begin to see clearly.
They begin to act from a place of embodied knowing rather than external pressure.

And this is where menopause becomes particularly important. Because menopause is not simply an ending. It is an initiation into the Wise Woman stage of life — a time of clarity, authority, and perspective. When supported and understood, it prepares women to step into roles of leadership, guidance, and contribution in their communities.

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I live in the bush in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, at the edge of a vast forest. Living this way brings me into daily relationship with the cycles of the Earth — the seasons, the weather, the movement of life around me. It is quiet, spacious, and deeply grounding.

There is a kind of conversation that happens when you live close to nature.

You begin to feel the shifts.
You notice the changes.
You respond differently.

And this way of living is not separate from my work. It is the foundation of it. Because ultimately, the invitation is simple: to return to a way of being that honors the cycles of life.

To rest when it is time to rest.
To grow when it is time to grow.
To harvest what has been lived.
And to allow what is complete to fall away.

This is how regeneration happens — in the body, in our lives, and in the world.

Today there is a growing recognition that the menstrual cycle, childbirth, and menopause are not just inconvenient, messy, and risky biological events, but are profound life transitions that deserve understanding, support, and meaning.

When women are given a framework for these transitions — one that includes the body, the psyche, their lineage, and the spirit — everything begins to change.

This is the work I have devoted my life to.

Jane Hardwicke Collings is an author, teacher, and speaker on women’s mysteries, and the founder of the School of Shamanic Womancraft, an international women’s mystery school now in its 16th year, training hundreds of students worldwide. A retired registered nurse and former home birth midwife with 30 years of experience, she is an expert in menstrual cycle awareness, rites of passage, childbirth, menopause, and sacred feminine knowledge. Jane is also the creator of the Wisdom of the Cycles map; a sought-after contributor to podcasts, summits, and educational programs, and a facilitator of transformation using body wisdom, nature connection, and ancient spiritual practices. Find more about Jane here.

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by Dr. Divi Chandna, MD

I have worked as a professional intuitive for close to two decades. I trained as a physician more than three decades ago — yes, I am aging myself. And yet, despite all of that training and experience in the healing fields, I was shocked when I discovered something profound: parts of my own personality were blocking my intuition, limiting my business, and creating stress in my body.

This is what we often refer to as “shadows.”

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When Life Brings the Shadow to the Surface
I didn’t come to this realization in a quiet moment of reflection — it came through something much more confronting. A few months ago, I lost my vision in my left eye — completely. Thankfully, much of it has now returned. It was one of life’s big moments, and it brought me to my knees.

The medical diagnosis was a retinal detachment. And if you know me at all, you know that I deeply honor the medical perspective. I believe in understanding the clinical reality of what is happening in the body. But I also ask a deeper question: “Why did this happen?”

I have never been someone who can settle for “bad luck” or “this just happens with age.” Alongside receiving medical care, I began to explore what might have been happening beneath the surface — emotionally, energetically, and unconsciously. What I discovered surprised me. It opened my eyes to shadows that many of us as sensitives carry — patterns that may be quietly impacting our emotional wellbeing, finances, relationships, and health.

The Moment That Changed Everything
A few months before the detachment, I went home to see my parents. I only see them a few times a year because of the distance. They are both in their 90s, still living in the home I grew up in. During this visit, my mother was in the hospital, and I was shuttling my father back and forth to see her.

My father had already lost his vision due to glaucoma. Seeing him like that — physically weakened, dependent, and shut down — was deeply painful. There was grief, but underneath the grief, there was something else.

I couldn’t immediately name the emotion, but over time, I began to hear the thought looping in the background: “You didn’t do enough. You should have helped him more. His wellbeing is your responsibility. Your job is to take care of him.”

I could feel that thought moving through me — the guilt, the sense of responsibility for his health — even though logically I knew it wasn’t true. That thought stayed quietly in the background of my awareness. At the time, I didn’t fully understand the impact it had — but my body did.

The Hidden Pattern
As I reflected during my healing process, I realized that this moment had activated something much older — a pattern I had been carrying for most of my life. Somewhere in my childhood, I had internalized the belief that it was my job to take care of him, that his wellbeing depended on me, and that a part of my purpose was to make sure he was okay.

As I grew and moved through life, that belief extended into many areas — my husband, my business, my clients, my finances, my friendships, even my dog. How others were doing, emotionally or mentally, somehow became my responsibility.

Underneath it all was a simple but powerful belief: if something is wrong, it must be my fault.

On a conscious level, I knew this wasn’t true. As a physician, a coach, a healer, a mother, and a wife, I understood this logically. But the subconscious is faster and often more powerful than the conscious mind.

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A Different Kind of Vision
In my own way of understanding the world, I began to see that losing vision had brought me a different kind of clarity. It showed me that I was still looking at life through an old lens — one shaped by guilt, responsibility, and emotional burden.

And as I brought awareness to this subconscious pattern, something began to shift. Not through force, but through noticing. This is the essence of shadow work.

What Are Shadows, Really?
On the spiritual path, many of us eventually encounter shadow work — sometimes intentionally, and sometimes life brings it to the surface.

Shadows are unconscious patterns that hold onto stories we formed early in life. Most often, they begin in childhood, when we interpret experiences — big or small — as moments of emotional survival. Over time, these patterns become part of who we believe we are.

They are not “bad.” In fact, they are often the very patterns that helped us succeed. But eventually, they can begin to limit us.

Empaths and Shadows
As sensitive people, we tend to carry very similar shadow patterns — patterns that impact us in ways we often don’t even realize.

They affect our mental health, our relationships, our physical wellbeing, and even our financial flow. Some of the most common include perfectionism, chronic vigilance, and people-pleasing, among many others.

These patterns are not random. They are adaptations formed in childhood as a way to feel safe, loved, and seen.

When Strength Becomes Strain
Let me share a very common pattern I see, especially in many of the sensitive women I work with — in their relationships with partners, children, and even close friends. As you read this, just notice if you recognize even a small part of yourself here.

You’re at home at the end of a long day. Your partner walks through the door. Before they even take their jacket off… you can feel it. Something is off.

You don’t say anything right away. Maybe in the past, when you have, it hasn’t gone well. So instead, you try to keep peace. You might ask a gentle question, or maybe you will say nothing at all. You subtly pull your energy back — just enough to protect yourself.

But internally, everything is activated.

Your mind starts moving quickly: “What’s wrong? Did I do something? Are they upset with me? How can I fix this? How do I make this go away so I can feel okay again?”

At the same time, you’re scanning — using your intuitive sensitivity to read their tone, body language, and energy. Trying to understand, anticipate, and restore peace. And all that has happened is that they walked through the door.

This is the inner world of many sensitive people, and it can be exhausting. Because underneath this moment are multiple shadows operating at once — people-pleasing, perfectionism, chronic vigilance, fear of abandonment, and the need to feel loved and safe.

These patterns run unconsciously, shaping how we interpret situations and respond to them. Over time, they affect not just our relationships, but our nervous system, our energy, and our sense of self. We may feel overwhelmed, disconnected, or even “crazy” — without understanding why.

We often label this as being sensitive and feel like victims of our intuition. But this is not just intuition. Your intuition picked up the energy when they walked in the door. The rest — the mental and emotional spiral — is your shadow responding.

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The Sensitive’s Dilemma
These shadows do not have to hurt us. And yet, many of us feel powerless to our empathic gifts. A core part of my work is helping people understand the difference between intuition and shadow.

As you can see in the example above, this pattern can leave us drained and mentally exhausted. It impacts our relationships through subtle miscommunications. On a physical level, the nervous system stays activated — cycling through fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. Over time, the body begins to shut down.

For those of us who use our sensitivity in our work, the impact can also show up financially. If money is energy, and we are leaking energy through worry, tension, and self-doubt, we are ultimately costing ourselves.

So, the question becomes, “Does it have to be this way?”

The answer is no.

We do not have to live like this. Awareness is the first step. It takes honesty and vulnerability to notice these patterns, but once we do, we can begin to shift them. There are tools and practices that support this healing. The nervous system can be released from these cycles we have been living in.

Personally, I teach my clients to work with Divine Mother — the energy of unconditional love that resides in the heart. She is deeply compassionate and able to meet our pain and help release it, often in just a few breaths.

As someone who has experienced this personally, and who has supported thousands of clients in moving out of feeling like victims of their sensitivity, I can say this with certainty: it is possible to heal these shadows, and when you do, your sensitivity no longer becomes your burden — it becomes your super-power.

Dr. Divi explores the Shadow of the Empath in her exclusive online event with The Shift Network. Learn more here.

Dr. Divi Chandna, MD, is an intuitive spiritual teacher, author, and founder of Intuitive Coach Training, who helps clients shift, heal, and transform their lives through intuition, love, and waking up to their own power. She started her career as a family physician, but after becoming sick herself, discovered the power of yoga and meditation — practices that unlocked her intuitive gifts. She is a professional certified intuitive, and sees the link between our thoughts, emotions, illness, and health. Find more about her here.

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