Journey

When we think of the word journey – there may be many kinds of things that pop into our heads depending on who we are, where we are in life, and what is happening in our lives at present. What is a journey?  An adventure for sure, according to webster – the act of traveling from one place to another or to travel “somewhere”.  So where is one traveling to?

In the shamanic path we talk about taking our life on journey – to be a participant of the act of traveling from one place to another.  To participate in walking the path of our life and not just letting life happen or go by.  I think at this point in life many of us have heard and probably even subscribe to the idea that we do want to participate and not let our life just happen along.

But what does it mean to “take” your life on journey? I have come to think of it as being fully accountable and participatory in the co-creating and design of what is unfolding.  Up to a point obviously as we can’t necessarily control our lives and the unfolding – but we can make choices in how we come to it and navigate it.  We also absolutely want to put ourselves into the equation of our life and what we want and desire.

In the Medicine Wheel classes I teach we talk a lot about taking it on journey and in this context, we are talking about the choice of how we will engage and look at something.  If we get fired from a job unexpectedly, we can be the victim of the situation and be angry at the person who fired us and wronged us.......or we can look at it as an abrupt ending that is now thrusting us into something new. 

This doesn’t mean that sometimes things are unjust and unwarranted – that happens in life, we are wronged, and we still have a choice in how we will navigate the wrong. We will often ask the question to our students or clients “ok, so how would you take this on journey?” - meaning, how will you choose to look at this.  We can choose how we will look at something – which in turn will absolutely determine what kind of experience you are going to have with whatever it is that is happening.

To take it on journey in the context of what we teach here at Shamanic Twist – is to look at how something is affecting us at all levels of our multidimensional selves.  How is this affecting me at a physical level, how is it affecting me at a mental/emotional level, how is this affecting me at the soul level.  Often, we will have slightly different answers depending on what level we are tuned into.  We are complex and paradoxical beings – we can hold multiple truths simultaneously that seem like they should cancel each other out.  However, it is more that depending on the aspect we are specifically looking at, we will have a different answer to the same question.  “I am angry that I got fired and feel hurt” (mental/emotional) --- “I have been wanting a shift in my life, I have felt stagnant in that job, and it no longer feels aligned with me” (soul level answer). Both things can be true – and where we put our focus will contribute to how we experience the situation.

We participate in the act of traveling from one place to another! Every day is traveling from one place to another – one day to the next, every year, every decade and as the timeline of this life goes on – we are on a lifelong adventure – a journey. Choosing to see something as an opportunity, a gift (even the most challenging), an adventure, is a co-creative process.

So, my dear ones – let us not get lost in the mundane of life just going along – let us make a choice to see it as the journey it is and be open to the places, we can add our creation into the equation of what is unfolding.  Take your life on Journey – let it be the act of moving from one place to another – and may you have joy, beauty, and magic as it unfolds.