Some of us only look at how our family might have blocked us from being able to manifest a healthy and fulfilling life. It is important for us to acknowledge the hurts, betrayals, and traumas that occurred in our childhood. At the same time it is important to remember that you would not be here if you were not carrying gifts and strengths through y

Ask your teacher if he or she has a strength or gift to share with you. Allow your teacher to transmit and pass this strength to you through your hands. Take with you all you have gained from this experience and journey back knowing that this experience will create positive benefits in your life.

Before the helping spirits can assist in healing the Earth, we need to learn how to live in a more responsible fashion and make decisions that honor the Earth and the nature beings who share it with us. The helping spirits do not have a body or a personality. They are formless energies that show us a form as it provides comfort for our ego. But as

humor helps keep them centered and balanced as they witness the challenges in the world. Humor also lights up the path into the inner worlds as you delve into the deep, beautiful, rich places where guidance and healing is waiting for you.

When completing a ceremony that you perform whether it is simple or more complex, you can also thank the helping spirits you worked with. State that the ceremony is done for now. This is a way of ending where you honor the helping spirits while also making a clear indication to your psyche that the work is complete.

After completing your shamanic journeywork or ceremonial work, if you feel spacey, disoriented, agitated, or emotional for no identifiable reason, it means that you are not grounded in your body and have not returned fully into an ordinary state of consciousness.

If mind chatter is interfering with your journey, come back and engage in more preparation work. Sing, dance, or take a time out to walk in nature and clear your mind. If you keep hearing a looping thought such as I am just making this all up, agree with your mind. In this way you do not waste all your time in the journey fighting with yourself. Ju

Journaling after you complete a ceremony will help you to return fully to your ordinary state of consciousness. While writing out your experience, you might find insights bubbling up from deep within. As you reflect on and review your notes over time, you might find a new deeper interpretation emerging.

The helping spirits do not have physical bodies; therefore, they do not get tired or ill—they are literally showing you personal issues that need to be examined.