Episode Summary
Sometimes we feel a call to deepen, to learn, to grow and while there are many amazing teachers in the world, one of the greatest resources we have is our own intuition and our unique connection to Spirit. But in day to day life, it can be difficult to tap into these sources of wisdom. How can we create an intentional space to hear their voices?
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About the Show
Shame Piñata is hosted by Ritual Artist Colleen Thomas, a Certified Meditation and Mindfulness teacher who helps people make sense of life through ceremony. Music by Terry Hughes.
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Full Transcript
Sometimes we feel a call to deepen, to learn, to grow. And while there are many amazing teachers in the world, one of the greatest resources we have is our own intuition and our unique connection to Spirit. But in day to day life, it can be difficult to tap into these sources of wisdom. How can we create an intentional space to hear their voices?
This is Shame Piñata. I’m Colleen Thomas. Welcome to Shame Piñata, where we talk about creating rites of passage for real-life transitions.
This is the 3rd episode in a 3-part series called "Do You Need a Ceremony?" In part 1, we looked at significant personal moments, times when something important happens in life that might call for a moment of reflection, or celebration, or silence. We talked about how ceremony can be a helpful tool in honoring these event or milestones. In part 2, we looked at how ritual can help us reinvent ourselves when things get hard, when we're forced to let go of something we love, or when we just feel ready for a change.
Today we will look at how ritual can help us learn more about ourselves and deepen into our own inner wisdom. Let me say more about what I mean by this. Sometimes when I'm feeling lost or when things are especially hard, I look around and wish there was someone there to tell me what to do. Even when I am standing there all alone, it's amazing to remember that there is someone there who can do that for me - potentially several someones. For me personally, there’s Spirit, my Ancestors, and my guides… As mythic astrologer Caroline Casey says, "Co-operators are standing by...." But also - perhaps most importantly - there's me, the deeper, wiser, older part of me, the part of me that I call "intuition", "gut feeling" or "body wisdom".
For you this may be different. You may experience Spirit differently or not at all. You may not experience any cooperators standing by, but you always have your internal compass, your knowing, your truth. And if by chance you've lost sight of that recently, know that that's something I don't believe we can ever truly lose.
This inner knowing can help me when I'm needing advice, looking for wisdom or when I just want to get some perspective on what's going on in my life and heart. For me, it's almost like my day-to-day mind keeps my attention on what needs to happen next and then next and then next to stay focused and meet my goals, while my deeper self holds the expansiveness of my being, the arc of my life, the complexity of the worlds I move through, the wonder of everything happening in each moment. And connecting to my deeper self bring me into that expansive space where it's all so much bigger than what I conceptualize as "me" and once I'm connected to that space, I can much more easily receive guidance or information from the co-operators.
Now, there are a myriad of ways you might already have cultivated to connect with your intuition. You might sort out the complexities of daily life while you’re running or doing yoga. Journaling might give you space to put out all out there on the page so you can see the next steps forward. You may find calm and deep connection through a meditation or mindfulness practice. What I'd like to share with you today are some thoughts on how ritual can create a container to let you take a deep dive into your inner wisdom, like in a specific period of time. We'll be right back.
It's wonderful to have you with us today! In this 3-part series, we're exploring how ritual can help us mark significant moments, reinvent ourselves, or go deeper. What about you? Have you created a ceremony that changed you, helped you start over, or took you to a new level of connection within yourself? If so, we'd love to hear how you did it. Tell us about it through the contact page at shamepinata.com.
Here are some examples of times when you mighty feel a call to go into a deep-dive of self-connection:
at the new year, whenever you might celebrate that
during the bleeding time of your cycle (if you have one) when intuition can be heightened
when you need a reset
when you're feeling lost
when something particularly difficult is going on or when you're struggling with something in your heart
at significant astrological moments, such as your birthday, half-birthday or Saturn return and speaking of astrology, Mercury retrograde is a great time to stop, deepen and reflect
All of these are examples of times when you might sense a desire to create a kind of power-moment to connect with the deeper self.
If you're resonating with this idea, I invite you to sense into an upcoming moment that might feel like a good match for a deepening ceremony. It could look like setting aside a few hours before your birthday party to meditate and read Tarot cards to wrap up the last year of your life. It could be an intentional dinner on your own where you really taste the food and notice the memories that come along with each flavor. You might take a weekend workshop to create some structure for your solo journey. You could do an all-night vigil on the longest or shortest night of the year.
These can be very rich internal experiences where we connect super deeply with ourselves and build trust and gain knowledge. Some modalities of connection to our wisdom are: dreamwork, Tarot, reiki, Tai Chi, freeform movement and dance, freeform painting, drawing or sculpting, journaling, or collage. We can invoke the Ancestors, listen deeply to their wisdom and create art based on what we hear. We can set up a mirror and take a deep dive into our eyes for hours by candlelight.
But wait, this might all sound silly and selfish and kind of weird! There are so many wonderful things and so many challenging things in life. The challenging ones can wear us down. In order to be our best, show up as fully as possible for the people we love, ceremonies like these can fill us up so we can be more available to the people we love, more available to our world.
It’s all about asking for what we need and being open to receiving answers to our questions and prayers. It's not so much making the thing happen as deeply listening to what is needed, taking our problems to the river or the ocean and listening to what we hear back. Trusting in what we hear back.
Our music is by Terry Hughes. Please follow us on IG or Twitter at shamepinata. And subscribe to the podcast on Radio Public, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite player. I’m Colleen Thomas. Thanks for listening.