5 Key Soul Messages

Many people are taught to evade discomfort, or that moving away from hardship is always the best course. Yet, is it? Consider this story:

Two men visit a Zen master. The first man says: “I’m thinking of moving to this town. What’s it like?” The Zen master asks: “What was your old town like?” The first man responds: “Dreadful. Everyone was hateful. I hated it.” The Zen master says: “This town is very much the same. I don’t think you should move here.”

The first man leaves and the second man arrives. The second man says: “I’m thinking of moving to this town. What’s it like?” The Zen master asks: “What was your old town like?” The second man responds: “It was wonderful. Everyone was friendly and I was happy. Just interested in a change now.”
The Zen master says: “This town is very much the same. I think you will like it here.”

One view of this story relates to karma (the Law of Cause and Effect). It echoes that whatever happens stems from our actions. We may travel far and wide in the hopes of escaping a life we disliked. Turns out that we are the common thread. That is, how we feel about ourselves is with us wherever we go.

Another view of this Zen story is that discomfort or moving away from difficult situations may offer short-term relief, but often prevents the deep growth and integration that such challenges are designed to catalyze. Consider 5 Key Soul Messages:

1. Discomfort is a Messenger
Difficult emotions — grief, rage, shame, fear — are not enemies. They are signals from the soul, pointing to unmet needs, unhealed wounds, or inner misalignments. When we avoid them, we silence our internal guidance system and miss the deeper message encoded in the pain or suffering.

2. What We Resist, Persists
Unresolved trauma or avoidance of conflict doesn't disappear—it gets stored in the body, nervous system, and energy field. It tends to resurface in different forms: new relationships, repeated patterns, or even physical illness. The soul repeats lessons until we consciously engage.

3. True Freedom Requires Integration
Freedom isn’t escape; it’s the capacity to remain present with discomfort. Facing the fire allows us to alchemize pain into wisdom, fear into clarity. Avoidance may feel like protection, but it often prolongs the suffering.

4. Initiation Requires Ordeal
Ancient sages echo that discomfort is the portal to transformation. The dark night, the betrayal, the collapse— brings greater consciousness. By staying present in the challenge, we gain resilience, awareness, and spiritual maturity.

5. Our Presence Is the Healing Agent
Sometimes we are placed in challenging situations not just for our healing, but to bring light to the collective field. By staying—consciously, not passively—we become a stabilizing force, a living transmission of courage and wholeness.

In short, while discernment is essential (not every situation must be endured), evading discomfort as a default strategy cuts us off from our soul evolution.

Top 50 Fears (based on our reader survey)

A recent reader survey revealed a list of the top 50 fears. Reflect on whether you relate to any here or add a comment about your own experience. Which fears do you overcome and which still linger?

1. Fear of death-or even discussing it (Thanatophobia)

2. Fear of Failure (Atychiphobia) & Fear of Success (Achievemephobia)

3. Fear of insects (Entomophobia) and spiders (Arachnophobia)  

4. Fear of snakes (Ophidiophobia)

5. Fear of enclosed spaces (Clausterphobia)

6. Fear of thunder and lightning (Astraphobia)

7. Fear of sex (Erotophobia) and intimacy (Aphenphosmphobia)

8. Fear of Flying (Aerophobia)

9. Fear of public speaking (Glassophibia)

10. Fear of solitude (Monophobia)

11. Fear of crowds (Enochlophobia)

12. Fear of needles (Trypanophobia)

13. Fear of people (Anthropophobia)

14. Fear of water or being near it (Aquaphobia) 

15. Fear of Abandonnment (Autophobia)

16. Fear of blood or sight of it (Hematophobia)

17. Fear of commitment or 'sticking it out' (Gamophobia)

18. Fear of the unknown (Xenophobia)

19. Fear of falling (Basiphobia)

20. Fear of God (Theophobia)

21. Fear of cats (Ailurophobia)

22. Fear of change or transformation (Metathesiophobia)

23. Fear of the dark (Nyctophobia)

24. Fear of men (Androphobia) or Fear of women (Gynophobia)-*often unresolved mother issues

25. Fear of  falling in Love or losing inhibitions (Philophoba)

26.  Fear of sharks, the ocean or pools (Galeophobia)

27. Fear of #13 or belief in bad luck to follow (Triskaldekaphobia)

28. Fear of vomiting and loss of self-control (Emetophobia)

29. Fear of Everything or that terrible things are coming (Panophobia)

30. Fear of Animals (Zoophobia)

31. Fear of Crime, Burglars or Attackers (Sclerophobia)

32. Fear of Pain (Agliophobia) and fear of suffering (Algophobia)

33. Fear of Mice (Musophobia)

34. Fear of Ghosts (Phamophobia)

35. Fear of Aging (Gerascophobia)

36. Fear of Sleep or what might happen as you sleep (Somniphobia)

37. Fear of Fire (Pyrophobia)

38. Fear of forgetting or not remembering (Athazagoraphobia)

39. Fear of Horses (Equinophobia)

40. Fear of Loud Noises (Ligyirophobia)

41. Fear of work (Ergophobia)

42. Fear of being buried alive (Taphophobia)

43. Fear of Cockroaches or filth (Katsaridophobia)

44. Fear of Food (Cibophobia)

45. Fear of bees (Apiphobia) and wasps (Spheksophobia)

46. Fear of Judgement (Social Phobia)

47. Fear of getting rid of stuff (Disposophobia)

48. Fear of hearing other's opinons of you (Allodoxaphobia)

49. Fear of Superstitions (Triskaidekaphobia)

50. Fear of Feet (Podophobia)

12 Stages of Awakening

Its common to reach a crossroads in life.  This is that point when you begin asking more questions without always getting quick answers.  Consider where in these twelve stages you may relate most:

Stage 1: Suffering Disconnection

We don’t feel our bodies unless they hurt. We do everything to disconnect. We may perpetuate addictions,  numb out. Suffering comes because we have lost the ability to listen to the subtle messages and rely on loud messages like physical pain or nightmares which echo our body would like our attention. 

Tips: engaging in Somatic movement exercises can help reconnect us to our body, to find comfort and resources we had forgotten we had. 

Stage 2: Identifying Polarity

Although we are healthier than in Stage 1, we are still not fully connecting to our body. We tend to look for external solutions. Things can be very black and white, good or bad. We are still blaming, not accepting responsibility for our body, but instead look for someone  to fix us, or blame for our issues.  The moment is ripe to start to recognise that we have different parts, needs and emotions. we start to connect to the parts of us we like and don’t.

Tips:  Reflect on what brings us more into our body and less affected by what people and media say. Be aware that parts of us that we reject often contain the seeds that will heal us, if only we can listen.

Stage 3: Feeling Stuck

Here we feel like we have done a lot: seen therapists, taken courses, tested out fad diets and exercises and, yet we are still not where we want to be. We are at a loss, feel stuck in repeating patterns and still resist change.  It helps to explore soma (body awareness) and observe how “we” hold ourselves in a pattern. The common factor in our situations is us. Maybe we have something to do with it?

Tips: Tune into your vibes. Sometimes a course, healing or program can help. Yet, at some point, we must  work though obstacles alone.

Stage 4: Reclaiming Power

This is a turning point. You decide to confidently reclaim power. You deserve a different attitude and existence. You are ready to accept responsibility for your thoughts, feelings and conditions. Personal power is about taking action, owning the consequences and integrating wisdom.

Tips: It’s about trusting yourself, discovering what this feels like. This is  where you reflect on life lessons, and begin to apply them.

Stage 5: Dismantling Illusions

As products of society, we adopt rules, create beliefs and ways of being from our carers and entourages. Some of the rules we outgrow. Many adopted beliefs limit our progress and keep us small and dismpowered. 

Tips: Keep a journal. This is the point we explore and integrate parts of us we have disowned, embrace the energy we exert to keep us separate and alone. It is a key step towards authenticity.

Stage 6: Willingness to change

The energy is building, we can see the finish line. We know that we have done the work. Now we must go deeper again and prepare to clear out the patterns and beliefs that no longer serve us.

Tips: Explore what authrnticity feels like and means inside.The better we know ourselves, the easier it is to fully step into true nature.

Stage 7: Releasing stage

We release our patterns. It could be through sound, emotions, some people even throw up. Whatever is necessary it feels healthy and our bodies clear out what no longer serves.

Tips: Keep an open mind. Explore ecstatic dance, belly dancing, or activities that guide stepping outside comfort zones, lose inhibitions.

Stage 8: Emptying chaos

Peaceful waiting.  There are no voices telling us what we must do, what we should do. We no longer feel obligated to meet everyone elses needs. We are peaceful. There is space, space to wait and observe and see what unfolds and fill when ready.

Tips: Be still, wait, allow the experience of peace. Emotions of this stage include grace, peace, expansion, love.

Stage 9: Seeing light beyond form

We become aware that we are more than our physical bodies and that there is an energy that surrounds and connects us all.

Tips: Keep an open heart. We feel so much more than taught.  Connect to what is beyond self. We can often read others' energy and in situations. We experience deep love, acceptance.

Stage 10: Being the Light 

Being open to receive and grow aware of your gifts allows them to blossom. We are not separate from them. We have unique gifts that enrich the collective.

Tips:  connect to our own uniqueness and potential whilst experiencing unity, part of something vast. We share the sun, water, air, earth and are the shared energy. 

Stage 11: Sharing your Gifts

Know you have innate gifts to share. We offer as we can, not because we are better or worse than anyone or, but because we do and because of who and what we are. We see from equality and equanimity.

Tips: Be aware serendipity is synchronicity. We experience joy and gratitude

Stage 12: Communing with Kindred Spirits

Our smallest community is the cells that make up our body. We then expand this to our family, friends, colleagues, then our village, our county, our country, the world, the universe?

Tips: the size and nature of our community depends on our aopproach to expanding our consciousness.

As we expand, we start to see where we sit in relation to humanity. We see into the origins of our actions, thoughts, emotions nd how they have a domino effect. As we grow to consciously connect with ourselves, our connection to the external shifts.  This raises and stabilizes our vibes, grounds our behaviour in radiant love.

13 Things you can do to shift in Lucid Dreams

Dreaming can be developed as a skill to sharpen aptitudes in waking life. Daytime experience is helping night and night is helping day. In practicing of raising consciousness in sleep states, you prepare for Bardo (in between life and death). Yet you do not have to wait for Bardo to put this into practice. Consider 13 things you can do to shift life course in Lucid Dreams: 

1. If you feel held back, change speed

2. if its about size, you can grow or shrink

3. If feeling stuck, free yourself 

4. If you resist something, let go

5. If you imagine self as human, shapeshift into another creature

6. If some creature scares you, transform it into a kind and loving creature (i.e. puppy) or something ridiculous

7. If you freel frozen, allow yourself to move

8.  If you feel uninspired, stagnant, engage your creativity

9. If you experience scarcity,  transmute the situation into abundance

10. If you are serious, allow yourself to laugh, be happy, experienfe aliveness

11. If you have problems, devise effective solutions

12. if you feel limited, stretch save yourself, escape chains that bind you

13. If its about monkey mind, focus on smthg long enough and it becomes effortless

Consciously engage in this moment

Notice regardless of what we encounter, a shamanic initiation mirrors our own healing journey. Initiation is also a metaphor for the journey of transformation we are now making and experiencing through the matrix of the Earth, planetary and cosmic environments. More than ever, each of us benefit from stepping up into new levels of initiation, going deeper into our psyche, working out how we really process energies in this world. The point is to grow familliar with strong forces that when misused can hurt ourselves, others, prevent us from seeing beyond.

The classic shamanic initiation involves the experience of a catastrophe, mental and physical suffering. Heredity may come into play, signs at birth, a gift detected in childhood, a realization arising from a pivotal ceremony, vision quest, our response to the crisis of someone we know. However it comes, we accept or resist the information we bring to the surface of ourselves for healing. Every thought and feeling is directing and redirecting the course of our existence.

My experience is genuine initiation begins as unforeseen crisis, but this is actually the tip of the iceberg. Our illusions are systematically called into question, until we dismantle them and let go. Encounters with illness, suffering, and death, not only open other worlds to the shaman within, they also ground the work of social, personal, and environmental healing. Our personal reality is shaken up when we are ready. Everything prepares us for the unforeseen.

We share our journey with mythic heroes, those who have had death-rebirth experiences in rites of passage, the posthumous journey of the soul, clinical death experiences and LSD or other hallucinogenic experiences, and to what one can encounter in deep spiritual and meditation practices. Its all here right now.

To embark on a shamanic journey offers us insight into human development, evolution, devolution, and society's relationship to nature. This guides us to understand social values as they are reflected in art, myth and shape our relationship with the Earth.  It is significant to understand what happens in the journey of unravelling our crisis because we are undergoing this on a personal, collective (global) and cosmic levels simultaneously.We a re a filter for energy flow until the filter is no longer.

At some stage it dawns, for initiation to be effective, it must be entered personally, whoelheartedly, not thru heresay. It is an experience that does not function at a distance but under the skin of each the energy passes through. The benefits of initiation only arise as the path is directly experienced and known. Its visceral and energetic language flows through the body. When one is ready, opportunity is knocking. Everyone is chosen but not everyone hears the call. Opportunity passes through our timelines and experiences again and again in varied forms.  Consciously engage in this moment.  Watch that happens.

Shamans are conscious shapeshifters.  This requires the ability to transcend our attachments (ego) to identity and who we are. To move through attachment to labeling self and openly letting go of identity, we can be virtually anybody. We can slip in and out of different shells, masks, even different animal forms or deity forms.