Katherine Bird, Author at Katherine Bird

Red Flags in Spiritual Teachers, Coaches, and Shamans

Posted on October 3, 2022October 3, 2022 by Katherine Bird

It doesn’t matter if you have been around spiritual teachers, healers, and Shamans for a long time or are new to these communities it is important to understand that there are cases of abuse, manipulation, harm, and cult-like structures. A loving community, spiritual truths, and energy that feels good can mask very dark situations.

As you search for healing, community, and a teacher to guide you it is wise to know what red flags to look out for.

Here are a few red flags in spiritual teachers, coaches and Shamans to look out for:

Teachings that tell you to discount your body, emotions, and mind. These things protect you.

People who tell you that they are the in-between for Spirit or that they are the ones that are supposed to give you information from your guides. When you tap into your own truth, body, and wisdom and train yourself you can get your own messages. (if you want to learn this let me know)

Love and light people who talk a lot about the horrible things of the world, the dark sides, the Kabal, the apocalypse, government control, mind control, etc. You might notice this in a more religious group but not recognize it in your spiritual community. If your spiritual teacher makes you feel more fear than love there is something off.

Teachers who seem to be distancing you from your family and friends. Sure, you might need support getting out of a toxic relationship or understanding that your family might not get you. But, if they are saying things that make you want to distance yourself from healthy relationships get out of there. If you are growing in consciousness you will see what needs to happen in your life and make better decisions naturally.

Those that have an “us and them” attitude. This is setting it up so that you feel safe in the community like there is harm in the outside world and so you trust the world less and don’t question them as much. This includes all of the “love and light” language that goes on. It can be a technique to create separation.

The slow and steady erosion of boundaries. This can be like the frog in the pot situation.

Boundaries are crossed bit by bit until you don’t know how you got into the situation.

Boundaries are hard for a lot of us and when someone says “I love you” it is easy to be taken advantage of.

Putting down your thoughts, ideas, or questions. If you can’t question your spiritual teacher, you need to go.

Intense experiences designed to break you down such as long periods of practices, fasting, sleep deprivation, or being uncomfortable in your body. This is well known to create the conditions for manipulation in your mind. Can these things be good for you? Sure. But there is a fine line here.

Breaking the ego. If someone keeps telling you that they are happy you are struggling because it’s a sign that your ego is breaking or you need to do something in order to break your ego, really question that. Often people use the destruction of the ego to really mean, destruction of your will.

Sexual advances, creepy touch, comments about your body, etc. Your spiritual teacher should not be having sex with you!

End of story, Enough, Stop it.

Your healer, coach etc should not be having sex with you! (some very specific sexual healing modalities might involve this energetic, but that should be known and agreed on with full consent prior to anything happening).

If someone tells you that they need to have sex w you to heal you, leave.

This can be hard as often we shut down and freeze in these situations.

I don’t recommend doing medicine work in a container that is not with a larger group and/ or with someone that you know will not do this.

This is so common in medicine work that you must be aware of this issue before sitting with anyone!

Coercive language, NLP and hypnosis. These things are well known by manipulators. They know how to instigate an emotional response, how to get you to say yes when you mean no and how to manipulate your subconscious mind. This is tricky stuff that you might not see coming. Educate yourself.

Using things like human design or other astrology or personality tests to manipulate you with a false sense of intimacy and awareness about you.

This is the only way or path. Nope. It’s not. Many paths to the One. And yours is valid and valuable.

Pushing you too far into trauma responses and not knowing how to help you regulate or putting you down for having the response you are having. Our nervous systems are fragile. They need to be cared for and healing can’t be pushed and we all have different timelines.

Highly encouraging you to do a lot of medicine work. Especially really ungrounding ones like Bufo.

Any teacher who does not allow themselves to be questioned. If you can’t reach out with concerns or you see that when others do they are made into a villain and kicked out of the group, pay attention.

If someone is constantly the victim of ‘toxic, abusive, negative energy’ people that are attacking them after they ‘helped them so much’ they might not be the victim they are saying they are.

The sad thing is there is just SO much more.

But, I hope this helps.

If you have been experiencing these things, I am really sorry. This shouldn’t happen.

It is really helpful to share these things with someone that you trust.

Just talking about what your experiences are can be helpful and release the shame and guilt and self-judgment that we experience when we come out of these situations.
This could be a friend, therapist or other coach or healer.

Please understand that the shame that you feel is not your own. It is theirs. They are so unable to be with it that they are projecting it onto you. It isn’t yours. You can and should take your energy back and send back what is actually theirs.

If you need help and support reach out. I have access to a group container for female bodied people to process harm in medicine work and other resources if your experience or body is differnet than that.

Being Spiritual Sucks – It’s Not What People Think

Posted on April 21, 2022May 4, 2022 by Katherine Bird

So many people want to be ‘spiritual’. Workshops to learn how to be intuitive, psychic and spiritually connected are all over. Ceremonies that open people up are happening all the time.

People want to feel less alone, get spiritual downloads and have the information they receive lead them to more love, money and purpose.

But, honestly, this path is not all about bright lights, chubby angels and everything feeling good.

When you are open to spirits, when you are open psychically to the world you are open to more than just the ‘good stuff’.

The unseen world is massive. Psychic information is not always easy to process.

People want to have spiritual connection… until they realize that part of the job description is sometimes helping suffering souls to the other side.

And that sometimes means seeing and feeling the pain and torment of spirits that have been trapped and learning how to effectively help them leave this plane of existence.

People want to be energy healers… until they realize that part of the job description is sometimes feeling in your body the pain of another person and being present to a person’s darkest moments.

We have been sold a strange bill of goods. The new age has made it seem like this path is angel cards and unicorn farts. It isn’t.

It is often deep trips to the underworld.

It is meeting with guides that scare the shit out of us.

It is removing hooks and cords and dark, sticky tar.

It is being flooded by the intense pain of a being who has been murdered or witnessing the past life of someone tortured and abused.

And being centered, grounded and present enough to stand in that and do the work that needs to be done.

When you are tuned in this way you are a beacon for this work. You decide at a certain point to be okay with the weirdness of it all and commit to service.

That service will not always look or feel ‘good’.

You will confront the darkest parts of yourself as you are schooled by your guides into the layers of the underworld.

Through that, you become strong, effective and a true light.

This work is needed. Yet so many push it away, trying to be ‘normal’.

Fuck that. You can master this service which is often uncomfortable. You can be safe inside of it all. And, imagine what a human you will be at the end.

So, if your spiritual, energetic development feels like it sucks sometimes… that’s okay.

Part of the path.

And it is totally worth it.

Receiving Spiritual Guidance: When your Spirit Guides or Inner Guidance isn’t Giving You the Answers You Seek

Posted on February 23, 2022February 25, 2022 by Katherine Bird

Do you feel like sometimes you want your spiritual guides and teachers to share more, give more clear advice and show up in a more concrete way? Do you find yourself sitting and asking for support and then feel like maybe you aren’t connected at all? Have you had some significant spiritual experiences, yet are feeling like you are having a dry spell and not getting the guidance and support you are looking for?

Something that people often come to me with is that they are seeking so much, working so hard and asking over and over for guidance and not getting ‘clear answers’.

There seems to be a disconnect from the space of open connection, having some significant experiences and yet feeling like the messages one gets from guides or Source simply aren’t loud enough, clear enough or strong enough.

Yet, on looking more closely, usually these people are very guided.

It seems there are a few things at play here:

Your guides don’t want to give you all the answers all the time. They want you to have free will, your own process and choose based on your values and creative life force, not just being guided.

When we work with only a vertical plane (you to the guide) it is coming through energetically and there isn’t a need for translation as there would be with someone sitting in front of you. No pull on that horizontal plane (you translating the energy for another)? Not as concrete information. It’s almost always easier to receive for someone else instead of yourself.

Guides will transition out of communication as you go through other important life and energetic shifts. You might be reconnected or you might connect to a different primary guide later.

You are probably getting a lot of information and it is subtle. It actually becomes more subtle over time. This requires more trust, more patience and deeper listening. Of course your guides want you to develop this!

Do the things that you have already been guided to do. If you ask for a bunch of advice from someone and never take it, how long do you think they will keep giving you advice? Sometimes the guidance we receive feels too big and it takes a while to fully align to it. Keep taking those small steps.

What I want you to get from this is to stop questioning and worrying so much. You’re Not Alone. You are guided.

But, what this also means is that it is important to stay connected:

Offer gratitude even when you get nothing. That opens the flow more than anything. You aren’t coming from a needy, less than space but ‘in right relationship’.

Do your practices. This means energetic clearing, cultivation and connection practices, prayer, gratitude, making offerings and sitting in silence not asking for anything.

Invite others into your process to see if you get more for them.

Be patient. Be kind to yourself. Listen deeply and open your heart.

Align to your values and create based on those. Do your work and be willing to not know. That’s part of the fun of being human isn’t it? Take aligned action again and again to enter the stream of guidance.

Guidance can take the form of something that you don’t expect. A person arrives. A book pops out at you. A teacher emerges. You are invited to an event or place. Energy slowly integrates into your being.

Even something challenging might be just the opening you need to find healing, growth and evolution. THAT is what this work is about, not just knowing everything all of the time.

I support people to develop consistent and effective connection to inner guidance and their spiritual team.

If you want to develop your channeling and mediumship abilities and trust your guidance fully, You can sign up for early registration for Open Your Channel cohort this year.

Open Your Channel-Sign up

If you feel called to that work but know you have more stabilization and practice cultivation to do, empower your energy, clear out what is holding you back, heal your nervous system and emotional upset, address your underlying trauma and learn effective practices in 5 Elements for Empaths. Learn Qi Gong, Chinese Energetic Medicine, Breath Work and how to work with emotions and trauma.

You can jump into the waitlist now!

5 Elements for Empaths – Join the Waitlist!

Spirituality and Entrepreneurship Must Be Intertwined

Posted on November 29, 2021November 29, 2021 by Katherine Bird

Spirituality must be intertwined with business and entrepreneurship. These aspects of self can’t remain separate. As you evolve and grow you will only be more drawn to a higher alignment with your spiritual self.

Your spiritual life will hold you as you grow. It will help you to make decisions based on trust, intuition and higher understanding instead of fear, scarcity or trauma. The decisions you make now will affect the way that your life emerges in the future. Ones rooted in self-awareness, service and connection are sustainable and will grow with you. Ones that are held back by lower desires and habits will be harder to break free of without destroying what you have already built.

You want your impact in the world to be one of integrity, service and full creative expression.

Entrepreneurs are their work. Business is connected to how one is living and growing. You can’t separate yourself from your mission. By engaging in spiritual and energetic practices and then integrating them fully in a heart-centered and aligned way, you can emerge as a thought leader that people want to follow, collaborate with and support.

More importantly, what they are following will lead them to a place of more self-love, fulfillment, joy and service to the world instead of the influencing forces that are only giving them a desire to be an illusion.

What you create and comes through you will be more true and not just another business, but a contribution to the world.

In this time of upheaval, great shift and change, as old ways are dying and new ones emerge we are being called to higher levels of self-awareness and awareness of our connection to Spirit and energy. Our old fears, beliefs, projections and wounds are not going to serve a new world being built from our very thoughts and feelings.

We have seen what disconnected decision making has created. Maybe you have even seen it in your life as you’ve had to move away from choices, relationships and businesses that you have invested your life force into.

We can’t afford to keep looking at the world from the perspective of, “How much more money can I make?” or really, “How can I try to make myself feel safe by building something even if I do not fully believe in it?”

We can’t keep ignoring the call of our soul because it will leave us dissatisfied in the end. And, maybe everything will have to crumble in order to hear that call fully.

In order to elevate more people, to have a greater impact we must be willing to commit to our own self-growth, worth and development.

You don’t need a new marketing strategy, you need a fully aligned, integrated mastery that emerges when one is willing to step into their full power, expression and service.

It is about healing, opening, cultivating more energy and awareness and coming from that place.

Being aligned in this way allows greater intuitive information to come in and empathic skills to emerge without being taken out by other’s energy and emotions. It brings ease, flow and a level of certainty to path and process that does not happen otherwise.

I am interested in how we can fully activate and then integrate our new spiritual and energetic awareness so that it is of the highest service to what is being created.

If this is resonating with you, let’s chat about my one on one program called INTEGRATE, Spiritual and Energetic Development for Leaders and Change Makers.

Integrate – Spiritual and Energetic Development for Entrepreneurs, Leaders and Change Makers.

Dark Forces Aren’t Attacking Us Through Covid-19

Posted on April 3, 2020April 5, 2020 by Katherine Bird

I am a spiritual mentor, a Shamanic Practitioner and I teach channeling and spiritual works connecting with all sorts of energies and beings.

I have seen, felt and experienced a lot of intense and interesting things, what would be scary or dark for most people. I have done exorcistic works and I have had plenty of conversations with lower level beings. And, I still do not see service in believing or spreading that we are being attacked by dark forces. I am going to both tell you why I feel this way and what you can do instead.

As a member of many spiritual and conscious communities, I see a lot of posts, videos and writing about how ‘dark forces’ are trying to take us over, stop our ascension and keep us down. They are supposedly doing this through this virus, Covid-19.

What happens when we fall down this rabbit hole:

We give away our agency

When we place an overpowering, illusive force outside of ourselves, one that controls governments, people and media, we are up against something which can’t be worked with. We are now under control or being attacked. This is an incredible energy drain. It is actively pulling attention and life force. It is not inspiring creativity or positive, beneficial action in most cases. It often awakens more fear, anxiety and stress.

Many times, when someone feels that dark beings are coming for them they lose sleep, focus and are distracted from purpose and path. Not exactly what we need right now.

Sometimes the power that we give away is to the spiritual leader, healer or other person who is saying these things. It is then easy to get wrapped up in their videos, writing, courses and programs, wanting someone to save us as we buy readings, prayers and healings in an attempt to find out how to be one of the lucky ones that aren’t taken over. This is often accompanied by a ‘save me!’, ‘help!’ energetic.

This is a great way to give up personal power to a savior outside of self. It is also a great way to be the savior by reinforcing this dynamic for others. Neither is helpful.

I even see that there are some spiritual leaders who are so invested in this paradigm that they are actively in a way supporting these ‘dark forces’ by gathering groups of people to invest their energy there.

Creating battles between dark and light, bad and good keeps us invested in duality and a fight

We all love movies and stories about the good guys and the bad guys. It is a deep part of our storytelling matrix. We have been trained all of our lives to look for this everywhere. It only makes sense to do the same here. Yet, when we do this we are living in separation. We are reinforcing duality and shutting off our own personal awakening to awareness of Source, the Dao, the Ultimate, or Oneness.

This radiates out into our communities where it is then easy to demonize people and groups, see others as muggles holding back our ascension process, judge, blame and put others under us so that we feel spiritually superior and not part of the whole.

It is also easy to lean into our subconscious beliefs of ‘I am rejected’ or ‘I am abandoned’, or ‘No one understands me.’ when we are not met with complete acceptance of these views from others. This is a sneaky way our ego gets us to reinforce our own feeling of separation.

This dynamic is a great way to not take personal responsibility for internal states and for our communities and structures

If we are busy fighting and blaming something outside of self, there is little time for owning our own shit and looking at our own part in the larger problems on the planet. We can easily distract ourselves from seeing our own dark forces within which are anger, blame, judgement, desire, envy and lack of love, forgiveness and compassion.

With this dynamic we get to reinforce our victim consciousness

We all have a bit of victim in us. It is easy to stay in this dynamic and one very easy way is to put dark forces always pushing against us. If something goes ‘wrong’, like a lot of people dying, or whatever it is we have a scapegoat and can focus on weaknesses instead of strengths.

The feeling of being constantly attacked is a huge drain on life-force.

In a way, this is stepping into hell. That hell is one in which there is division, there are massively powerful entities that are out to get us and we are at battle.

Now there are a bunch of spiritual hoops to jump through in order to be safe

If one is only safe by praying a specific number of hours, or adhering to very specific actions or thoughts, or if elaborate rituals are required for life to progress, that is not freedom. That is another form of repression. It is not a true embrace of joy and expansion. It is at the root a fear based practice system which in turn creates only more need to stay in that compressed system.

One of my teachers often says, “If the practice is not inspiring virtues, making you calmer, more relaxed, getting the mind focused on positive creativity and your ‘natural state’ of creative love and possibility it should be questioned. Fear and superstitions will lead in the opposite direction.”

The consciousness of Earth, the basic ways that ecosystems work to balance themselves are not taken into account

When we forget that we exist on a living organism connected to all other organisms, we take ourselves out of the flow of nature. Being in the flow of nature is the solution to most of our problems.

Nature is all about balance. When a species over populates an area and uses up the natural resources, nature steps in. The environment has an intelligence which rights itself. One way that it often does this is through a virus which targets a species for a period of time and then disappears when it is no longer needed.

When we deny this, we stop looking at how we are collectively out of balance and how we can as individuals make real world changes to fix that.

This takes away the possibility that this is in some way a gift

We know that we are out of balance. We see it everywhere. Our systems are fundamentally broken. People, animals and ecosystems are suffering. We are not changing things fast enough and this, as challenging as it might be, could be used as a powerful wake up call and shift for the entire planet. It will only be so if we actively choose that.

Focus on dark entities takes focus from solutions.

We see everything as outside of self instead of turning within

If we engage in a ‘holy war’ on the spiritual planes we are either acting as if we are watching a movie and seeing how it will all play out or using our own attention to create more of that and invest in something that has no presence in the here and now.

Everything is a mirror. Everything is here as an opening toward growth. Everything is welcoming us into a new way of being and new awareness.

We create tension where there does not need to be tension

Life is really hard as it is. Flow and surrender are the ways to ride out a challenging situation. Tension in one area equals tension in all areas.

What are we going to do about it anyway?

I rarely ever see anyone offer a solution to this problem other than to raise your vibration, do more 12th dimensional meditations, shield and protect. This is great advice in general, we should all be working on our own fields and internal energy to be as light filled and positive as possible. But, when we bathe ourselves in fear of dark forces, guess what? Lowered vibration. A powerful energy practice coming from this place only creates more powerful energy focused toward fear and darkness.

On one level, just attention is feeding them. We are such powerful creators, in a way we just created more of them. What we pay attention to grows. That is a fact. So, you just gave them exactly what they wanted. Your time, attention and life force.

We don’t see the teacher in the demon

In my years as a Shamanic Practitioner and healer I have rarely seen someone with an entity that did not have a lesson attached as well. There is always a blessing in the darkness which is why in so many traditions the darkness has been sought out and sat in for extended periods of time. When one engages with a vision quest, there are often disturbing images or beings who arrive. It is helpful to not label them as good or bad but to seek to understand the deeper meaning and message, and realize that there is more than what we first perceive.

People often spiral when they feel they are being attacked by evil spirits. When often, these are either wake up calls or unintegrated aspects of self trying to signal healing.

This is where we often put the power outside of ourselves, complain, try to get others to save us and most often, not actually do anything. When we fight the external demons without confronting our internal ones we rarely make much progress.

It feeds self-importance and ego

When we feed into these beliefs we feed into an idea that we are so important dark forces are fighting against us. This gives us anchor points for more ego projections. We get to build an identity out of it all. True spiritual work seeks to relinquish grasping to identity. Yet, these beliefs are crystalized aspects of ego structures.

No matter if one is the victim, the spiritual warrior or the savior it is all a building of an identity which creates more identity and holding and less connection to surrender to the awareness that we are all one.

So, what can you do instead?

What if instead you choose to see this as a natural part of the world?

What if you choose to see how this is a teacher, a guide and an awakening presence?

A helpful perspective might be that if there are dark forces, and you are a powerful creator being and everything is a mirror, how are you the creators of these dark forces?

How are you creating them within by focusing on fear, talking down to yourself, not taking care of your energy, boundaries or expressing yourself creatively?

How are you an expression of dark forces in the world? How are you not living in kindness, compassion and acceptance?

How are you using spiritual practices or awareness to separate instead of being more connected?

How are you judging others for being ‘low vibe’ or for manifesting in their lives illness or difficult situations when you could simply offer compassion and thank them for their service to the whole?

What also helps:

Movement, breath work, lots of sound, shake your body all over everyday, dance, laugh, cry and scream if feel it. Release attachment to your own shadows and wounds and welcome in a new way of being which embraces joy, peace and creativity.

Grieve when you need to and know that you are doing it for us all. Feel everything and allow it to just be. Listen deeply to your body. Spend more time for silence. Walk in nature whenever you can. Build a support system and community. Reach out to others.

Vision a new Earth, the ultimate version in all areas: housing, food, schools, communications, government, social structures. Sit with that vision as much as possible and then ask, “What am I doing to create this now?” “What is my first step?”, “If this was here now, what would I be doing with my life?”…. And then do that!

Pray. Not to be saved but to be blessed with wisdom and compassion through it all. Pray for all those that are struggling and who will leave the planet as a part of this process. Pray from your heart to find your own alignment through this and to awaken even further to your intrinsic truths.

Be willing to share your truth, your vulnerability and your gifts with the world.

As a channel, I encourage you to not believe all of the people who are channeling. It is often unhelpful at best. There is so much static and so many personal beliefs that people are running information through that you can get quite confused out there.

When you hear information, listen to your heart. And, when you feel, yes this is true, then question that. Am I filtering this through my own beliefs and trauma? Do I feel more joy, expansion and creative potential in this? Does this inspire fear, contraction or a need to fix or control?

Am I connecting with my own creator aspect to make myself and the world a better place because of this?

Am I investing myself in this belief as a way to avoid the current reality and try to dissociate from this messy human existence? Am I trying to avoid pain and loss and the feeling of being out of control? What if I could just surrender instead?

This is not about being so love and light that we do not see the world in all possibilities. You can hold that there are things that are not operating in the highest frequency, people or other beings who are not holding the light, who actively feed off of others in many ways and also not be taken out by that awareness or generate more energy around it in any way. It is about intentional cultivation of what is going to serve you and the world the most.

I believe that this time is one in which a powerful possibility field is open for us. Tune to that, activate your creator self and don’t be distracted by fanciful stories. Be an example of an awakened being holding it down exactly where you are even if you are struggling.

Anchor in so much light and love that no dark force has a chance. Do not give them your time. Do not give them your energy. Build your light in all ways and shine so brightly there is no mistaking who you are.

INITIATIONS, AWAKENED GIFTS AND THE ROAD TO MASTERY

Posted on March 10, 2020March 10, 2020 by Katherine Bird

10,000 Hours to Mastery does not always apply in the same way to channeled works and initiations.

Generally, when we want to learn a new task and become a master we look to the form of 10,000 hours to mastery. We start with the basics, repeat, repeat, repeat and keep adding until we reach proficiency and then keep practicing and developing skill.

Yet, often in spiritual and healing work we can receive a channeled transmission or have a soul remembering or open in a way that we suddenly are aware of how to do something that we have not done before.

This can be confusing and overwhelming. It can also be inspiring and feel like we have just come home to ourselves in a new way.

All of the sudden a whole healing modality or a meditative practice can spring through us.

Our hands are ‘turned on’, our senses are sharpened, our intuitive and empathic awareness has radically upgraded with little to no notice.

When this occurs there are several things to keep in mind:

Because we are dealing with a ‘training system’ and an evolution of growth that does not fit the way that we were conditioned to believe that learning occurs we can get lost in doubt, shutting things down, pushing new information away or being unwilling to go down that road. We do this because we realize that there is a fundamental change and shift occurring and there are parts of us that will need to die to ‘live into’ this new person that has just been born.

While, yes you might have a powerful new skill or awareness it is as yet untested. Those 10,000 hours are going to come in as you start to work with these new abilities and remembered skills and hone them into something that is functional on this plane of being.

You do not need to start charging for these skills right away. But, you will want to practice them and get real, constructive feedback.
As we uplevel in this type of way, there is often an accompanying purification process so be ready for your shit to come up, old traumas to emerge and you might feel worse before feeling better, get ill for a time or need more support.
The inner work still has to be done. That means: trauma release, consciousness work, learning your own personal energetic cultivation and management. Healing all parts of yourself. If you do not do the inner work to remain grounded and focused toward a higher version of yourself: more loving, kind, present and peaceful your added ‘powers’ or ‘knowings’ will not be of the highest service. This is a lifelong practice of inner reflection and looking at the hidden.

I often run into people who have new skills emerge but do not want to commit to self care, meditation, physical and energetic movement practices or serious life changes.

Whatever magical thing you are experiencing, it is not ‘that weird’ it is just out of context for what you have experienced before. Do not use it to make yourself ‘different’ or ‘special’. Both are traps. Often the ‘magical thing’ is not even the real point but a distraction from the deeper work.
Your life will change. Relationships, profession, living situation anything and everything is up for review and change. If what you are bringing in are higher aligning frequencies, anything not in resonance with that will need some sort of shift.
You are not alone. People are popping open and turning on all the time. And there are plenty of us with context, practices, healing work and support for those on the path. You do not have to do this alone, nor should you, as mentorship and friendship keeps us sane, steady and on track.

Working with Soul Remembering and Power Places

Posted on October 17, 2019October 18, 2019 by Katherine Bird

I am sharing about what it means to have a soul remembering, why we have a soul led experience, and how to integrate when we have a past-life or soul remembered energy come into our lives. I am especially focused on power places and how they can affect us energetically in remembering who we are.

I have just gotten back from 4 and a half months of international travel. Add that to my travel in the US and I have been on the road for one year exactly this week.

I went to a lot of places in that time.

Within these travels, I had callings to some specific places. These were ones that I went out of my way to get to, that I had no real reason at and once the transmission I was to receive occurred, the place spit me out and I was again on my way.

I want to speak to this because we are in process of allowing our souls to remember. This is happening spontaneously, intentionally through past life work and also through going to specific places that hold keys for us. On my travels, I have encountered this in a few places which have activated new awareness and memory in me.

You might have these experiences of a knowing, an energy, maybe a vision or a wash of emotions when you visit a place. This might be a sacred sight that others know is important. It might be someplace that is more unique to you and your soul signature.

These can be powerful experiences and it is important to allow yourself to integrate them fully which can take some time and awareness.

When having a Soul Remembering:

Listen to your gut and what is calling to you. You may get a weird desire to visit a certain place or to go to an event. You might have never had an interest in this place or type of activity before. Do not judge it. Just go.
You might be overwhelmed with energy or emotions. This happens to me. I literally sobbed and bawled at a very crowded temple in Greece. People were worried about me. I couldn’t stop. Let the energy move, the emotions come up. Watch them but do not shut them off.
You will doubt. That is ok. We come from a cynical society and anything without form is ridiculed and not taken seriously. Go ahead, take it seriously. Go with what is coming to and through you. Stop judging and doubting and just be with the possibility. This will help to keep the energy opening and not to let it stagnate and constrict.
You might not get ‘visions’. It might simply be energetic and felt sensations. When I was in Greece, I was so aware of the energy and the emotions, I could not get a lot more. The trickles have been coming in over time. Sometimes that is all that you need.
Be sure to bring your journal as a lot of information comes through in this way.
It might not be the place that you think it should. You might have romantic notions of places or you want to connect to your ancestry that is held in your family lineage and yet there isn’t much there. Your soul lineage might have little to do with your DNA of this life and might be a place that would make no sense to you.

For example, Glastonbury was lovely for me and I got a transmission there, but the Avebury Stone Henge held a lot more personal power for me.

7. Don’t share these experiences with just anyone and everyone. Choose wisely and keep most of it for yourself. Don’t open yourself to people who will be judgemental and negate your experience.

8. Honor the transmission by giving it time and quiet reflection, bringing a reminder into your home or altar, doing more research and reading, and most importantly tuning in for yourself.

9. Ask, “How does this new energy help me remember who I am?” and, “How could this serve my service?”, “What do I need to heal or own in order to integrate the highest aspects of this transmission?”

10. Allow that you might have new interests or desires and follow those.

11. Accept that you are a multidimensional being and that you are remembering and recollecting yourself from many times and places. When these things occur it is because you are ready and able to incorporate a previously hidden aspect of self.

12. Play within that concept. Dance, sing, create art, dress up, what inspires you to creativity in this new energy?

Here is an image of me mid one hour uncontrollable crying at a temple in Greece:

These experiences are real. They have the ability to draw us closer to ourselves. Our souls are calling out for us to remember. They want us to see and feel it all so that we are aware of our grander truths, our deeper fears and our bold power. Listen and feel for them as they are waiting for you.

What Does It Mean To Be Healed?

Posted on September 3, 2019August 27, 2021 by Katherine Bird

I am going to break down some considerations of what it means to be healed and some questions and practices that you can engage with right away to support your own path to understanding what it means to be healed.

Have you ever sat in the painful inquiry, “How can I have done so much work and still not be healed?!”

Have you had clients who struggle with the fact that they are still dealing with certain issues even after what feels like ‘forever’ processing them?

Have you ever doubted yourself, your tools or your own commitment to your work because of your own or other’s inability to move past a certain point?

I think that this is almost a more complicated topic in my work because most of the people that I serve are in some way a healer or coach or one focused on healing for many years for themselves and their clients.

Often anything less than complete reduction in all symptoms and a total and complete shift to a fully whole and functioning life in every aspect is seen as some sort of failure.

I see that people discount or even forget how much progress that they have made. There is little celebration of small victories.

The focus is primarily on what is not working, what is still the sticking point or the pain and the transformations, realizations and expansion are forgotten.

It is easy to focus on what is not working. It takes more effort to focus on what is working, what has progressed. Yet, this is where the full reprogramming occurs. This is the doorway in which we travel to full transformation.

This is a function of our brain and it’s wiring to focus on negativity because it is both an ancient orientation to stay safe and also a learned aspect of our being.

For example, if we can focus on danger and negativity, we will be more likely to get into shelter at dark avoiding predators. If we are able to focus fully on pain in our bodies, we will tend to treat it instead of letting it get infected.

And, as we grow we are taught that we must pay attention to what is wrong, the wrong answers on the test are marked in red and cause pain, shame and change. The right ones, we rarely think about again. In fact, a lot of people get shamed for getting things right when others struggle.

So, like I said, it takes a lot of conscious effort to recognize our progress and what we have done and take into account our process might be one that simply has some twists and turns as we learn, train and move through our emotions, energies and physical limitations.

Again, the question can be asked, “What does it mean to be healed?”

Honestly, this must be answered for each one of us as we go along and it will shift and change with the tides of your life.

Healed = Wholeness

You have probably heard that plenty of times.

If you want to see a cool video on healing, here is one from Chinese Medical Qi Gong Practitioners reducing a tumor in a patient. When I was shown this video, it was explained to me that they are chanting basically, “Already Done” and they are focused and imagining not that the patient is healing or the tumor is lessening but that it is “Already Done”. Full, complete, integrated and whole.

It is important for us as we go through our process to have this attitude. To see and imagine ourselves on a consistent basis as already whole, healed, complete and “Already Done.”

What might change if this was your mantra and meditation?

See if this practice helps:

Think of an issue that you have been dealing with.

First drop into your body. Feel yourself connected and receiving form the Earth and from Above.

Take some calming and deep breaths.

If this issue, pain, situation was completely healed, how would you feel?

What would you be doing?

Let the first things that come to you come out. Write them down. Imagine yourself feeling that way. Imagine yourself doing those things.

And, then… go do that. What will help you feel that way right now?

What can you do?

Before you start arguing with me about this one, just do the exercise.

And then.. you might argue.. “but, I have this pain, this issue so I can’t do the thing that I want”.

OK, maybe. Maybe your issue is that you broke your foot so you can’t go scuba diving like you want. But, maybe you can go to the seashore, you can go do something that will help sea life in some way, you can go float about in a bay.

You might be in really bad shape right now and all you can do is put on a recording of whales, lay in the bathtub and imagine to the very best of your ability that you are truly swimming about.

This will change your outlook. It will engage your muscles even through the power of imagination. The magical thing about us is that our brains don’t know the difference in what we are doing and what we are imagining. The imagination is a primary key into our healing.

All of the sudden more peace is found, more joy, more connection.

The body and soul start to heal themselves through this power of play and imagination instead of the ‘work’ that so many of us have become accustomed to as the path to healing.

Maybe you are depressed. If you consider, if you weren’t what would you be doing…and that might be making art. You might then come up with a lot of reasons why you can’t make art. Shift that to find some small way to engage with art. It might be just coloring, or building a beautiful altar or area in your home. It might be using materials from nature to make a mandala.

Because, what is healed? It is finding our way under the emotional, energetic issues that are holding us and manifesting in our bodies. It is finding a place of peace, joy and presence despite our issues, pain or struggles. It is moving forward, step by step acknowledging the profound shifts that we have already gone through, celebrating the small victories and leaning into the uncomfortable places.

I believe it is when we are able to be devoted to our practices, our intuition, our boundaries and our gifts. Because, you can go to one of those Medical Qi Gong Doctors, have them reduce your tumor, but if you are not making life changes, processing old emotions, coming into higher alignment with your truths and virtues, the healing has not really happened and disease will slowly come back.

We will all have pain, illness and struggle. Often, it is how we engage with these struggles that makes all the difference. They are our teachers. They ask us to show up brighter, more devoted, more caring and more compassionate to ourselves and others.

We are all healing, but we are also already whole. Be with your wholeness and allow it to inspire your actions.

If you are interested in this discussion of what is healing and how can we be of the highest service in healing, I hope you will join me for The Healer’s Masterclass Series starting Sept 12th. Sign Up For Free

Empath Misconception

Posted on July 9, 2019August 12, 2021 by Katherine Bird

This article will help to clear the Empath Misconceptions that there are. There are a ton of empath support groups and materials on surviving the world as an empath. There are a lot of articles, books and sites devoted to empaths. It is generally agreed upon that an empath is able to feel other’s emotions strongly and most of the time issues come up because they also take in and take on other’s emotions.

This is different from empathy because empathy is a way of being able to ‘stand in someone else’s shoes’ and see and feel from their perspective. Empathy can be practiced by everyone. Not everyone is an empath. Not all empaths are actually able to engage with empathy. They can feel an overwhelm of emotion and not actually put themselves in someone else’s place.

Emotions have energy. They leave the body and they go out into the world. They pick up energy of the same resonance and they come back home. There is a collective field of emotions and they are contagious. Empaths often suffer from a form of emotional contagion. This can be a complete overwhelm and create illness, shut down or inability to cope with the outside world. A lot of people think that the answer to these issues is to shield, block, avoid and blame.

We have already started working on the protective field to build strength, vitality and understand our own natures and recognize when we are taking on other’s emotions. I have discussed how some people simply have a more porous and open field. While some people are simply born this way and are natural empaths, it is also important to know that a lot of this is trained into the system when we are children and trying to manage the emotions and energies in a home which felt unstable or unsafe.

Another important reason (that I do not see talked about) that the feelings are so strong, so overwhelming is because of resonance to our own repressed, constricted emotions stored in our bodies. When we look at this it makes sense. A home is unsafe, the system goes into place to learn how to feel and suck up emotions from others. At the same time, personal emotions are not able to be fully expressed, seen and moved through. If we have not fully felt, accepted and expressed our pain, when we come in contact with this field in others it is highly triggering. We are overwhelmed not only by the emotional field of the other person but by the resonating energy stuck in our organs and energy field. This trigger, in a way, could be seen as trying to help us to tap into and release our own repressed emotions. But, instead of looking at it this way I see a lot of people who are only interested in declaring themselves a victim to other’s horrible energies.

When we are in right relation with our emotions and have dealt with the repressed emotions of our childhood, we can still have the experience of feeling other’s emotions, but they are more like signals and waves moving through. They present, give us information and then move on. There isn’t anything in our field or body to attach to. The intensity is when they come up against a block and basically start bouncing off of it and resonating with it creating a larger field of emotion. We can still feel these things, use them for helping us to navigate the world or to receive information in healing work, but it is not so triggering, exhausting and debilitating.

We can engage with this in a healthy way. It does require awareness not just of protecting ourselves from other’s toxic energy but of doing our own self work of moving repressed and stagnant energies so that we are not as resonant with their toxicity. This is why we must be devoted healers of ourselves, moving our repressed emotions and stagnant energies out of our bodies so that we can be a clear vessel for our work.

Join me for The Empath Misconception Webinar! https://katherinebird.com/em-register/

If you are ready to master your gifts, join 5 Elements for Empaths Waitlist and I will let you know when we are back open for registration: https://katherinebird.com/5-elements-for-empaths-waitlist/

Shamanic Shapeshifter in Healing, Coaching and Life

Posted on April 9, 2018July 3, 2019 by Katherine Bird

As Shamanic people (even if you present as an energy healer or coach this might be you), we sometimes forget that we are the Shamanic Shapeshifter and that we will show up in a completely new and different way for people. We can sometimes find ourselves getting stuck in a certain way of being and not allow the pure inspired energy to move through us allowing ourselves to be the Shamanic shapeshifter. This can be because we are in our ego or our comfort zone, thinking that we will show up in a certain way all of the time. For me, this might be as the warrior or sage and it might throw me off when the innocent or the nurturing mother comes through. These Archetypes are frequencies that often need to be expressed in sessions, given voice to because they are familiar to everyone and help people gain access to parts of themselves they have not yet explored or healed. People will need to receive from specific energies and Archetypes in order to understand that medicine.

Shutting down new energies or Archetypes can greatly reduce our effectiveness. It might look like being so invested in a particular being or animal spirit to be present that we forget to hold space for what most needs to arrive. For some, it is relying too heavily on galactic frequency when someone really needs an Earth-based energy, for others it is not allowing the soothing nurturing flow of water to come through, which might be simply being present with someone for a time with little happening instead of pushing fire through the system to burn away what is not serving. If you pull this out of the Shamanic shapeshifter realm and into the realm of coaching and energy healing you might see that this could mean relying on a particular methodology or way of being in session when authentic moment to moment expression, following the gut feeling or allowing words you have never spoken before to come through you is what is most needed for this person’s healing or transformation.

Jaguar Medicine Vs. Horse Medicine

For some people, you will bring the jaguar. But, for others, they will simply be unable to receive and relate to that frequency. You must become the horse or the doe. You must walk calmly and lightly into their field in order for them to relax and receive the medicine.

The Edge Walkers Need Shamanic Shapeshifters

For many that I describe as those that “serve the edge walkers”, this is even more important to remember. The edge walkers are those that are on the edge of awakening. They actually might not make significant personal, spiritual evolution in this lifetime. They are the vulnerable ones still operating in the old paradigm, in smallness, addictions, and discomfort. They are feeling a press forward, but they really have little idea what they are potentially opening to. They could go either way. Many of the people I support and serve are designed to help these edge walkers. This is such a vital and important role as we want to assist as many as possible to become self-actualized and closer to freedom and their true spiritual nature. We are tipping the scales and every person counts. Being overly spiritual and above the heads of these people does not serve them. It can shut them down. Utilizing too strong of an energetic current can shift things a little too quickly causing a push back and a shut down of their system. When we get used to presenting in a certain way and a new client or situation comes into our field, we might reject the frequency that is being called for us to express at that time.

This path is one of constant exploration, radical presence and sometimes discomfort. It often has a little voice in the head which is asking, “What the heck are you doing now?”. This is natural and that voice needs to be reminded.. no, we are safe, this is right. No problem here. I know this isn’t how it perhaps usually looks or feels and that is ok. This is why it is vital to get really comfortable with this for yourself in as many ways as possible, exploring your own practice, guides and energetics, getting used to the new as well as building solid foundational relationships with the familiar.

Remind yourself, “I am the Shamanic Shapeshifter and I allow what is needed to move through me.”

Because when you move from doing this for yourself to doing it for others you will be surprised, and the doubt this can bring up can shut down the flow that is needed at that moment. It only takes a breaths worth of doubt to spiral something away. These energetics can be elusive and the instructions that we are getting are subtle and momentarily inspired. These are the arts of regulation, exploration, and presence that the Shamanic healer must master in order to be of the highest service in every moment. Be the shapeshifter and remember that while your guides and access points will remain, there will be newness and the need to flow for the ones that you serve.

Join me for my next free master class:

Author: Katherine Bird