Lynn Andrews was an art collector before she embarked on the mysterious process to become a shaman and medicine woman.  From the moment she realized she had courage to step into the unknown, she learned why and how she became a spiritual apprentice. 

Her journey as a healer and writer reveals how each human being is always in the process of becoming.  Nothing she did was ever enough, ever satisfying, until she learned to love and accept herself completely.  Over time, she gained new insight into why people could appear to build success and still be miserable.  From her journey, I retain these lessons: 

1) Unveil your own delusions.  Stop giving into the tricks you play with your mind.  Recognize fear and self-limitation are veils you create to hide things  from yourself.  Discern why you hide and from what.  You're where you need to be, but initially too terrified to see what you have been born to do, to grow and become self-realized.

2) Listen to teachers.  A teacher's name is not important, only the wisdom he or she imparts.  A teacher will guide you to a fork in the road and leave you to navigate on your own.  You learn life doesn't present problems, but only simple challenges to help you evolve.  Now will only exist when you completely exist as who you are in your soul.

3) Harness your pride.  You may evolve from ordinary pride to be snagged by pride of inner truth.  This isn't pride that drives outward accomplishment.  Its a pride based in sorrow for the blindness of people around you and reluctance to let go. Lift yourself out of a mechanical existence of fear addiction and barriers to your own consciousness.   

4)  Create acts of beauty.  The reason for creating acts of beauty is to create a mirror of yourself so you can begin to know intimately who you are.  This can help you work through pain, greed, sorrow, guilt and misgivings that are shadows of your spirit.

5) Dream with intent.  Honor of the power of the moment.  Perseverence in following your life dream requires a special kind of endurance. Return to the creative use of instinct.  You lie within your own personal dreaming during your lifetime.  Its common to get used to the false dream forms of duality and separation rather than connectedness.

6)  Become a shape shifter.  Fear is the shape shifter's greatest enemy.  All of us are shape-shifters, but many people don't know it. As you perfect self-understanding, you may shift  your shape and focus to become part of another person's dream.  How do you know you're not a shape shifter already? How do you know you aren't an aspect of another person's dream? Maybe you don't remember?  To look at a person, don't look at what they appear to be, imagine what they can become.  Unleash the power in your soul.