Secrets of Shamanism

JOSE ATID LEIIA STEVENS 151

Now you are ready to do a shamanic journey for the pur-

pose of asking what your obstacles are to this change and

finding out what your next steps are. This is similar to the

journey for problem solving. Remember that surrender is an

important ingredient to successful change, so take what

comes in your journey even if it's not what you wish to hear.

Take the information as it comes and without judgment. If

you don't understand something, ask for a better explana-

tion.

This step depends on the information you received during

your journey. Here you will make a plan of action that you

should try and stick with as much as possible. Your plan

should include any further journeys or exercises that have

been recommended. If during your journey you receive in-

formation that is vague and undefined, then try again and

specifically ask for action steps.

Exercise #4: The Steps

1. Identify the change you want to make.


2. Get agreement from your spirit body to proceed.


3. Get agreement from your physical body to proceed.


4. Ask for help from your power animal or ally.


5. Create an image of change.


6. Take a shamanic journey focused on change.


7. Make a plan of action.

Change does not happen overnight and is usually accom-
plished through determination and a series of baby steps.
During this process we recommend that you frequently check
in with your physical and spirit bodies to see how they are
faring. Rapid change is hard for the physical body to inte-
grate and it may take time for it to adapt. The body tends to
record all change, even positive change, as stressful. Baby
steps allow your body to adapt gracefully to the changes you
are making.
The exercise in Chapter 5 on symbolic dismemberment
and reconstruction of your body is especially useful during
times of intense change. This is particularly so if the change
is directly associated with the body, such as losing weight or
even moving to a different climate. When you picture your
body being remolded, you will often see that it goes together
somewhat differently from the way it looked before. You
may notice that your body looks slimmer or in some cases