In today’s episode of Healing from Within, Sheryl Glick host of “Healing from Within” and author of her newest book, The Living Spirit: Answers of Healing and Infinite Love, welcomes HeatherAsh Amara author of Warrior Goddess Training - an approach drawing on the wisdom from Buddhism, the Toltec tradition and ancient Earth based goddess spirituality to encourage you to remember your inner wisdom and potential to become all you were meant to be.
HeatherAsh will remind us how women of today are juggling a lot as they now make up more than half the workforce in the United States and are busier than ever with partners, children, family, friends and often putting the needs of other ahead of their own personal needs. We will see how being overwhelmed and feeling like we are falling short of perfection has lead us to be our own worst critic and our own worst enemy at times. We will focus on ways to release unrealistic views and expectations and to find a more gentle realistic loving way to value life and our role in the humanization process during these challenging and changing times.
HeatherAsh Amara is the founder of Toci-The Toltec Center of Creative Intent and the author of The Toltec Path of Transformation Embracing the Four Elements of Change. According to Don Miguel Ruiz a Medical Surgeon and Shaman and author of The Four Agreements “We are all shamans of creative change and the main focus of a healer or shaman is to recognize their inner potential for love and compassion and to work to release this inner compassion in order to bring beauty kindness and love into all that we create in our thoughts and actions in our physical world.” HeatherAsh met Don Miguel Ruiz twenty years ago when she took on many teachers in her search for answers to her many questions. At first she wanted to understand everything outside of herself but her teachers pointed her continually inward.
Sheryl says “I understand that many people who have integrity honesty and a sense of fairness wish to understand the inequities of the world and may blame systems and behaviors as the problem but when it is understood that all is as it should be and it is only by self-development that we can achieve joy peace harmony and balance and that an inner state of knowingness reflects its beauty and goodness into the world creating a vibration of hope and then change and so better results begin within the universe of each person and ultimately changes the outside world…that is how we each can contribute to manifesting the world that lovers dreamers and healers wish to see.”
Sheryl shares with HeatherAsh that their journey’s have allowed them both to meet many wonderful masters in their fields of metaphysical studies but it is in our personal experiences and evolved perceptions that we have been helped by inspiration and perhaps a deep seated need or wish within us to write our books and share our inward journey so others might have some help as they pursue their own awakening process to INNER truth and Infinite love as Sheryl shared in The Living Spirit.
Don Miguel Ruiz in honoring his student so beautifully wrote “In the Toltec tradition the last step before an apprentice becomes a master is when the student lets go of the teacher as a crutch for support and learns to walk with the strength of her own will. The traces of her teacher’s lessons may remain with subsequent steps but what shines through is the wisdom of her own experiences…HeatherAsh Amara was once my apprentice, and now is my peer ….and she has become an expression of unconditional love.”
The Toltec were a group of ancient people who chose to come together in South and Central Mexico over one thousand years ago. They considered themselves, “artists of the Spirit.”
As Don Miguel Ruiz writes, “ Find yourself and express yourself in your own particular way. Express your love openly. Life is nothing but a dream, and if you create your life with love, your dream becomes a masterpiece of art.” HeatherAsh was able to find a powerful balance between the teachings of European shamanism and the Toltec wisdom to empower them to create positive change in their lives.
HeatherAsh gives her definition of shamanism and tells us that Shamanism teaches us that everything that exists is alive and has a spirit. Shamans speak of a web of life that connects all of life and the spirit that lives in all things. Everything on Earth is interconnected and any belief that we are separate from other life forms including the Earth stars wind etc is purely an illusion. And it is the shaman’s role in the community to keep harmony and balance between humankind and the forces of nature.
It is much the same with our greatest resource…our children and Sheryl expresses in her new book The Living Spirit her hope that parents may learn to appreciate the wisdom of their children and allow them the gift of choice and honor their soul needs by supporting their experiences and perceptions rather than impressing opinions and outdated belief systems on their pure and highly aware soul essence. Listen more to them rather than talking at them about your own goals and desires.
HeatherAsh expresses how she has structured her new book…The first three lessons of Warrior Goddess Training will help center yourself and assess where you are and the next 6 lessons will guide you through a path of personal transformation and the final lesson invites you to live your truth as a Warrior Goddess in your everyday life.
Sheryl believes we can all begin to find an antidote to the flawed idea… “I am not enough”. Direct, honest and unapologetic Amara teaches women how to release layers of self-judgment and societal expectations and an unrealistic view of perfection to cultivate the authentic perceptive perfect soul or goddess they already are. Sheryl shares her concern that our society and media impress many unhealthy approaches for how a woman must view herself in terms of physical beauty rather than developing inner goodness love beauty and authentic appreciation for life on many levels and realities. In her book The Living Spirit Answers for Healing and Infinite Love an understanding of the dual nature of life: our spiritual and physical values which need to be brought into alignment for the greatest purpose of a physical life which is to refine our soul Being Sheryl wrote…Change and growth occur within the mind and physical bodies also within the evolution of the soul or energy body. Growing our physical body and spiritual aspects equally in alignment to universal energy is one pathway to fulfilling one’s destiny.”
Proceeding to talk about “Earth-based spirituality” we discover it is any religion or tradition that at its center honors the Earth, nature and all manifestations of life. Practiced by people all over the world from Native American tribes to African Shamans to modern day scientists, Earth based spirituality views the Earth as the Mother or living force who gives us life and nourishment and brings insight and wisdom. Connected to the cycles of the Earth and Sun these traditional teachings honor light and dark, beginnings and endings, male and female, birth and death. Everything is included and all is sacred.
Sheryl says that for her Spirituality is a self-investigation and self-mastery of inner soul essence heightening intuition healing and building the best environment for our personal growth. Spirituality honors Self and respects everyone- male and female, those of different religions and cultures all as divine manifestations of the same Universal Energy or Source regardless of the material or physical aspects of our ego based life experiences.
HeatherAsh goes on to talk about the archetypes of maiden mother and crone as they apply to the different aspects of the Goddess and encourages women to love themselves rather than strive to be like the Male God that in the past during the development of the Patriarchal religious and political systems held up men as role models and guides empowered the men and disempowered women.
Sheryl says “I personally realize that there is only energy and as we are energetic beings having a physical reality at the present moment. We all exhibit male and female energy abilities and interests in varying degrees due to our karmic past life and present life conditions. While men and women are physically and hormonally different societies have reinforced and emphasized the separation and divisiveness much like religions have and in that separation the roots of many negative beliefs and consequences are founded….In my new book The Living Spirit Answers for Healing and Infinite Love I share thoughts on some of these ungrounded and overemphasized ideas which do not empower women or men and lead to relationship issues that could be resolved easily with clearer perceptions on the values of all souls- man or woman….. I wrote “The Divine Source encompasses both the masculine and the feminine, hence the terms Father God and Mother Earth. Men and women are the human manifestation of these male and female energies. But while it is true that we are all aspects of Source, it is also true that men and women exhibit different energy, interests, hormonal structures, needs and obligations. In addition each of us has both male and female energies in varying degrees. It is in utilizing both energies that we become well-functioning individuals and can recognize the unique qualities whether male or female honoring all.” I go on to describe scientific studies that help in understanding communication patterns for male and female and how in working with these scientific realities we can encourage a better flow of communication between men and women and more loving equalitarian connections.”
The path of the Warrior Goddess is the new women’s evolution from being other focused to inner focused realizing our self worth is not based on who loves us or doesn’t love us, if we need to lose 5 or 50 pounds and if we can juggle 3 tasks while keeping a smile on our face. When we bring our attention back to discovering who we are on the inside not who we wish to be for the world to validate us we begin a sacred path of transformation towards innate, authentic embodied personal power.
The path of the Warrior Goddess is therefore a combination of focus dedication purpose and determination helping one to be confident clear and bring 100% of ourselves to each action. When we claim our goddess energy we live in joyful self-acceptance and self-respect and we listen to our sacred inner voice..that is the beginning and we must be willing to give up false beliefs and self limiting stories which are what we tell ourselves and others to explain why we are the way we are….our stories might fill us with energy health and positive inspiration or make us feel helpless victimized or angry and defensive… We must ask ourselves Is my story and behavior causing internal and external drama or is it bringing me peace and fulfillment. Answering that question will aid you in selecting what personally is your best choice at any given moment.
Sheryl says when HeatherAsh began her awakening process through the Toltec approach to living with an alignment to Spirit and Universal Energy Sheryl began hers by practicing Reiki Energy Healing System and throughout the world there are many systems and tools that help us recognize our magnificent soul presence and to appreciate these extraordinary truths about our spiritual and human life qualities in search of a healthier happier more purposeful life journey.
Sheryl says “Isn’t that what people call love? Isn’t that the search to find an intimate relationship where your being will be honored treasured and respected? For those who know the secret of their inner soul voice they know that love of Self and others, man, and the world or Universe and every living thing unconditionally and as a vibration of the eternal force of Source and Energy is what we were born to remember and rediscover as we look beyond the trials and challenges of everyday life to go within to a place of peace and oneness unity with the Eternal.”
HeatherAsh shares her understanding of how religion and spirituality might be defined. Religion offers a scripture and a structure: a place of refuge in the form of a building and a community where the teachings of a prophet or culture are taught. Spirituality is a conscious personal connection to the Divine as varied as each individual. Earth spirituality treats the Earth as the elements such as air, fire, water, earth and the cycles of life as sacred and views God not as an outside being, but as the creative force that is imminent within all things. Goddess spirituality takes inspiration from the reflection of the feminine divine, which is manifested in all compassionate figures such as Kuan Yin from China, Mother Mary from Europe, the Virgin of Guadalupe from Mexico. Most Goddess traditions from around the world do not exclude the masculine.
It seems that modern day understanding of EQUALITY OF MALE AND FEMALE is still somewhat in conflict to ancient possibilities and our advancement to a more Equalitarian state. Data from ancient Neolithic sites indicate that in these societies where women were priestesses and craftspeople the female was not subordinate to the male…although the sacred union of female and male was an important religious mystery, the powers that create and govern the universe were generally depicted as a goddess rather than a god.
Sheryl and HeatherAash have looked at the Ancient Mindset and practices of many cultures in search of the most divine inner aspects of Self for creating a more self-actualized means for personal power and intuitive wisdom for women and men These inner spiritual gifts and awakening thought processes are the way into developing a future world that allows us to use our creativity and a more refined sense of love to create better relationships and a world community that honors all people equally…In moving past the restrictions of philosophies or religions or any tradition which causes separation between male and female values we may discover that Universal Energy or the Divine is not male or female but just a force for Eternal life love and inspiration to be all we can be as we move from illusion and false beliefs to our deepest inner sense of Being.
HeatherAsh and Sheryl would have you remember to become a conscious participant in choosing what is most beneficial to your growth and to embrace the challenges of your life—loving yourself, your weaknesses and strengths, and trusting that you have everything you need within and the personal power to transform any situation into a healthy outcome.
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