S1 E31 - Rituals, Ceremony, and the Magic of Connection - LightSong Talking Stick Podcast

LightSong School of 21st-Century Shamanism and Energy Medicine Talking Stick Podcast Reclaim Your Energy: Letting Go of the Past and Reclaiming Your Power How much of yourself are you still giving to a past you've already left behind? We invest enormous time, energy, emotion, and attention in our relationships, careers, dreams, and personal goals. But what happens when those chapters end? Do we truly let them go, or do we continue carrying their weight without even realizing it? In this episode of LightSong Talking Stick, Jan Engels-Smith and Micah Schwader explore the fascinating relationship between personal energy, intention, awareness, and the attachments we accumulate throughout our lives. Drawing on decades of shamanic practice and personal experience, Jan and Micah discuss how our expectations, beliefs, and unconscious patterns can keep us connected to things that no longer serve us. They explore the shamanic concept of reclaiming our energy from past experiences and how doing so can create space for renewed clarity, creativity, and personal empowerment. The conversation also examines one of the great challenges of personal and spiritual growth: learning the difference between taking purposeful action and trying to control the outcome. How often do we become so focused on what we think should happen that we miss what is actually unfolding? How might our lives change if we approached our experiences with greater awareness, curiosity, and a willingness to surrender? Jan and Micah explore several interconnected themes: Reclaiming your energy: Understanding the shamanic perspective on how we invest ourselves in experiences and how we can consciously reconnect with that personal power. Letting go of outdated attachments: Recognizing when old dreams, relationships, expectations, and commitments are still influencing our present lives. The power of awareness: Discovering how unconscious beliefs and recurring patterns shape our reactions, decisions, and experiences. Intention versus expectation: Learning to create meaningful change without becoming attached to a particular outcome. Aligning actions with intentions: Understanding why what we do matters just as much as what we say we want. Choosing where your energy goes: Exploring simple practices such as journaling, meditation, and conscious reflection to support greater clarity and personal choice. At the heart of this conversation is a powerful invitation to examine where your attention and energy are going—and whether those investments reflect the life you want to live today. You don't have to keep carrying every expectation you've ever held, every dream you've pursued, or every story you've told yourself about who you are. Sometimes moving forward isn't about finding more energy, working harder, or doing something new. Sometimes it's about reclaiming what you've already given away. Join Jan and Micah for an engaging exploration of energy, surrender, and the freedom that comes from consciously choosing what you carry forward—and what you're finally ready to release. About Jan Engels-Smith Jan Engels-Smith is a shamanic practitioner, teacher, author, and founder of LightSong School of 21st Century Shamanism and Energy Medicine. For more than four decades, Jan has explored consciousness, healing, personal transformation, and humanity's relationship with the unseen realms. She has performed thousands of soul retrievals and trained students around the world in shamanic practices designed to help people reconnect with their innate wisdom and spiritual nature. Jan is the author of Becoming Yourself: The Journey from Head to Heart and Through the Rabbit Hole: Explore and Experience the Shamanic Journey and Energy Medicine. Learn more about Jan, LightSong, classes, and shamanic training at LightSong.net. About Micah Schwader Micah Schwader is a transformational writing coach, editor, publisher, author, and shamanic practitioner who has spent more than 30 yea

LightSong School of 21st-Century Shamanism and Energy Medicine Talking Stick Podcast Ayahuasca and Spiritual Awakening: Is There Another Way? Can a powerful psychedelic experience lead to lasting spiritual transformation? Or is there a deeper connection available without plant medicine? Ayahuasca has become increasingly popular among people seeking spiritual awakening, healing, personal transformation, and a deeper understanding of themselves. But what happens when the experience ends? And are there risks that aren't always discussed? In this thought-provoking episode of LightSong Talking Stick, Jan Engels-Smith and Micah Schwader explore the growing fascination with ayahuasca, the spiritual traditions surrounding its use, and the important distinction between having an extraordinary experience and developing a lasting relationship with the divine. Jan brings decades of experience as a shamanic practitioner and teacher, including working with people who have struggled following plant medicine ceremonies. Micah offers a different perspective, sharing his firsthand experiences with ayahuasca in Costa Rica—and the unexpected message he received each time: "You already know how to do this. Why are you doing this to yourself?" What began as curiosity ultimately became a powerful confirmation of something he had already learned through years of shamanic journeying. Together, Jan and Micah explore the questions that anyone considering plant medicine—or simply seeking a deeper spiritual connection—may want to ask. In this episode, you'll discover: Ayahuasca and its cultural roots: Why understanding the traditions, training, and relationships surrounding sacred plant medicine matters.

LightSong School of 21st-Century Shamanism and Energy Medicine Talking Stick Podcast Hold the Vibration: Trusting the Dream Before Seeing the Results What happens when you believe in the life you're creating—but the results haven't shown up yet? In this episode of LightSong Talking Stick - Manifesting Miracles, Jan Engels-Smith and members of the LightSong community explore what manifestation looks like in everyday life—not simply imagining what you want, but learning how to remain grounded, trusting, and connected to your vision when circumstances seem to say otherwise. Through personal stories and practical examples, the conversation explores the delicate balance between taking action and letting go of the outcome. How do you pursue a dream, build a business, make a major life change, or move through uncertainty without allowing fear, disappointing numbers, other people's opinions, or the constant need for external validation to take over? Jan shares one of the central teachings of the episode: "The only job that you have in this creation is holding the vibration." That doesn't mean sitting back and waiting for something magical to happen. It means noticing the energy from which you're acting. Are you creating from inspiration, trust, and possibility—or from fear, urgency, and desperation? The group discusses how easily the mind can turn uncertainty into worry, how slowing down and becoming present can interrupt that cycle, and why practices such as meditation, prayer, visualization, gratitude, and time spent in stillness can help us reconnect with what we know internally. You'll also hear creative and practical approaches to manifestation, including personalized AI vision boards, manifestation documents, gratitude lists, celebrating small successes, working with spiritual allies, and imagining how you would live today if the future you desire were already secure. The conversation also explores: Why small miracles build trust for bigger changes

LightSong School of 21st-Century Shamanism and Energy Medicine Talking Stick Podcast Finding the Magic: Breaking Free from Doomscrolling and Choosing What Feeds You What are you feeding with your attention? In this episode of LightSong Talking Stick, Jan Engels-Smith and Micah Schwader explore how easily we can become caught in the noise, conflict, fear, and constant stream of information surrounding us—and what happens when we consciously choose something different. The conversation begins with a phenomenon many of us know all too well: doomscrolling. Social media algorithms quickly learn what captures our attention. If we're drawn toward conflict, fear, outrage, conspiracy, or drama, we're likely to be shown more of it. Before long, that stream of information can begin to feel like an accurate picture of the entire world. But is it? Jan and Micah explore the difference between the world we're being shown and the world we actually experience when we step away from the screen and engage directly with life. The question becomes: What are we looking for? Are we continually searching for evidence that the world is dangerous, divided, and falling apart? Or are we also noticing beauty, kindness, creativity, possibility, and connection? From a shamanic perspective, Jan explains, attention is energy. What we continually focus upon affects our emotional and energetic state and influences how we experience our lives. The antidote doesn't require pretending difficult things aren't happening. It begins by deliberately noticing what else is here. A sunrise. The sky. The sound of the river. Thousands of shades of green in a forest. Music. Art. A conversation with someone you love. The simple experience of stepping outside and reconnecting with the natural world. The magic hasn't disappeared. We may simply have stopped noticing it. Jan and Micah discuss practical ways to interrupt the patterns that keep us trapped in fear or frustration: putting down the phone, changing what we consume online, spending time in nature, creating art, learning something new, taking a nap, changing our physical environment, and surrounding ourselves with people who support the life we're trying to create. We may not control everything happening around us, but we can become more conscious of what we give our attention to, what environments we place ourselves in, what stories we repeatedly tell, and what energy we choose to carry forward. Ask yourself how you feel after consuming something—and whether it is feeding you or draining you. And perhaps most importantly, ask: How do I want my life to be? Then begin making choices that support that life. Because even amid the noise, uncertainty, and chaos, the magic is still there. We simply have to choose to look for it. About Jan Engels-Smith Jan Engels-Smith is a shamanic practitioner, teacher, author, and founder of LightSong School of 21st Century Shamanism and Energy Medicine. For more than four decades, Jan has explored consciousness, healing, personal transformation, and humanity's relationship with the unseen realms. She has performed thousands of soul retrievals and trained students around the world in shamanic practices designed to help people reconnect with their innate wisdom and spiritual nature. Jan is the author of Becoming Yourself: The Journey from Head to Heart and Through the Rabbit Hole: Explore and Experience the Shamanic Journey and Energy Medicine. Learn more about Jan, LightSong, classes, and shamanic training at LightSong.net. About Micah Schwader Micah Schwader is a transformational writing coach, editor, publisher, author, and shamanic practitioner who has spent more than 30 years helping people discover and express the stories that matter most. His work explores the intersection of writing, creativity, discernment, inner guidance, and personal transformation, helping writers move beyond formulas and external expectations to uncover what is authentically their own. Mi

LightSong School of 21st-Century Shamanism and Energy Medicine Talking Stick Podcast - Manifesting Miracles It's an Inside Job: How Our Beliefs Shape the World We Experience What if the thing you most want to change isn't actually outside of you? In this episode of LightSong Talking Stick - Manifesting Miracles, Jan Engels-Smith explores a foundational principle of shamanic practice and manifestation: lasting change begins within. Through questions and deeply personal stories from members of the LightSong community, Jan examines what happens when we stop trying to fix other people and begin paying attention to our own beliefs, expectations, judgments, and perceptions. The conversation begins with a difficult question about loving someone whose behavior has caused pain. How do we remain loving without expecting another person to change? Is it possible to accept someone exactly as they are while still honoring ourselves? And what role might challenging relationships play in our own spiritual evolution? Jan offers a deceptively simple answer: You don't have to change them. You change yourself. From there, the conversation opens into unconditional love, soul contracts, acceptance, and the ways our judgments can lock both ourselves and others into roles we've unconsciously assigned them. One participant shares a remarkable example from her own life. For years, she carried the painful belief that she was excluded by her family and that her father would never reach out to her. Rather than attempting to change him, she began examining the belief itself. She deliberately looked for evidence of inclusion, noticed the ways her father did express love, and interrupted the familiar thoughts that reinforced her old story. Then something unexpected happened. Her father called her. It was something he had never done throughout her adult life. For Jan, the story illustrates one of the central teachings of this conversation: change inside, and the world outside can begin to look very different. The discussion goes deeper into the nature of unconditional love. Is unconditional love truly possible while we're living a human life filled with opinions, reactions, and judgments? Jan suggests that learning about love is one of the purposes of being here—and that the difficult people and circumstances in our lives can become catalysts for that learning. Another participant shares an extraordinary experience after a severe injury in which her ordinary sense of identity disappeared. In its place was an overwhelming experience of oneness—a vast field in which there was no separation, conflict, personality, or judgment. There was simply love. She returned from the experience with one clear message: We are here to help each other. The group also explores the relationship between observation and reality, the energetic power of our opinions, shamanic journeying into possible futures, and what happens when we begin questioning beliefs we've previously treated as facts. Who have you placed into a category because of something they did years ago? What expectations are you carrying into your relationships? What belief about yourself or someone else have you repeated so often that it now feels like truth? And what might happen if you allowed something—or someone—to simply be? The episode closes with a word that captures much of the conversation: Allowing. Allowing doesn't mean approving of everything that happens. It means releasing the constant need to judge, label, control, or force an outcome. It creates the neutrality from which something new can emerge. Because ultimately, as one participant beautifully summarizes: "It's an inside job. All of the answers are within me." About Jan Engels-Smith Jan Engels-Smith is a shamanic practitioner, teacher, author, and founder of LightSong School of 21st Century Shamanism and Energy Medicine. For more than four decades, Jan has explored consciousness, healing, personal transformation, and hu