095- When Life Gets Messy: Shamanic Field Notes on Fear, Fatigue, and Finding Center Again
Release Date: 07/10/2025
111- Being Human in an Uncertain World: Facing Hard Things Without Losing Your Center
Practical Shamanism
How do we face frightening news about someone we love without losing our footing? And how do we make peace with the vulnerability of being human when even our best efforts can’t guarantee that life will go the way we hope? In this personal episode, I share reflections prompted by a dear friend’s unexpected medical news. I explore how we can be a caring ally while staying grounded in our own lives—and how our desire to feel safe can lead us to search for explanations that inadvertently blame people for their suffering. Healthy habits, emotional healing, and spiritual practices can support...
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110- Healing With Imperfect Tools
Practical Shamanism
Sometimes the thing that helps us heal, grow, or change isn’t perfect. The teacher may be messy. The book may contain ideas we strongly disagree with. The therapist may be competent rather than extraordinary. The program may not be the ideal one. And yet, when we are genuinely committed to transformation, we can sometimes find exactly the piece of wisdom we need. In this episode, I explore the surprising power of imperfect tools, including the unlikely example of Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, a book that has plenty to critique and yet played a meaningful role in helping my parents...
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109- Are You Psychic? A Grounded Guide to Psychic Ability
Practical Shamanism
Are you psychic? In this episode, Katie explores why that may be the wrong question. Rather than treating psychic ability as a rare gift reserved for a chosen few, she offers a grounded perspective: energetic sensitivity and psychic perception are part of the human toolkit, although they show up differently from person to person and can be developed to very different levels. Katie looks at the many ways psychic information can appear, from images, sounds, and bodily sensations to intuition, energetic awareness, and the subtle information we constantly take in without consciously realizing it....
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108- When Your Belongings Hold Energy: Decluttering for Sensitive People
Practical Shamanism
Decluttering can look simple from the outside: sort the stuff, make decisions, let things go, and enjoy the clean space. But for energetically sensitive people, it is often much more layered than that. In this episode, I’m talking about the energetic side of decluttering, space clearing, and what it means to have your belongings be a contemporary fit for who you are now. Our things carry memories, meanings, old identities, hopes, regrets, and energetic signatures. Sometimes they bring beauty, connection, and support. Other times, they quietly take up life force. I share my own recent...
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107- When Your Strengths and Shadows Share the Same Root
Practical Shamanism
What if the thing you criticize in yourself is connected to one of your deepest gifts? In this episode, I explore the way our strengths and shadows often share the same root. The qualities that make us powerful, sensitive, insightful, effective, creative, or deeply attuned can also come with costs, limitations, and places where we may not function as easily. Inspired by the idea of “impossible opposites” in online dating profiles, this episode looks at the ways we may ask other people, and ourselves, to be contradictory things all at once. We may expect ourselves to be sensitive and tough,...
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106- You Are Descended from Survivors: Ancestral Resilience for Modern Life
Practical Shamanism
In this episode of Practical Shamanism, I explore a different kind of pep talk: one rooted not in false confidence or forcing yourself forward, but in remembering the strength, luck, resilience, and resourcefulness woven into your body through your ancestral line. Every one of us comes from an unbroken line of people who survived. They lived through hunger, illness, war, uncertainty, difficult births, harsh environments, bad odds, and all manner of human complexity. Not perfectly. Not always elegantly. But well enough for life to continue through them, generation after generation. That legacy...
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105- When Forgiveness Isn’t the Answer
Practical Shamanism
What if healing does not require you to forgive the people who hurt you? In this episode, I share why I do not believe forgiveness is always the goal, especially when it becomes a kind of spiritual bypass or pressure to feel something that is not actually true yet. Instead, I talk about the value of working toward neutrality: a place where the charge is gone, the rumination settles, and the past no longer has the same grip on your body, mind, and energy. I explore the difference between emotional processing and rumination, why the brain can get stuck replaying painful experiences, and how...
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104- Fear, Freedom, and the Edge of Personal Growth
Practical Shamanism
Fear is often framed as something we should push through or conquer. But in practice, the relationship with fear is usually more nuanced. In this episode, I share reflections from a solo trip through southern Utah, including a memorable night of stargazing under the Milky Way at Cedar Breaks National Monument. The experience brought up an interesting tension between awe and instinctive caution. From that moment, I explore a broader question: how do we grow without overwhelming ourselves? Rather than ignoring fear or letting it run the show, there is a middle path where we can listen to our...
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103- Psychic White Noise: Staying Grounded in the Modern World
Practical Shamanism
AKA- Sacred Gardens and Echo Chambers: What We’re Building With Our Attention We’re living in a time our ancestors couldn’t have imagined—urban density, the internet, constant information, and a level of psychic “noisiness” that can leave even grounded people feeling subtly stressed, reactive, or strangely disoriented. In this episode, I reflect on what’s universal across lifetimes and ancestry… and what’s truly unprecedented about modern life. We explore how our brains are wired for threat and drama, how echo chambers and information overload can shape our inner world, and...
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102- Parents, Rumination, and the Path Forward
Practical Shamanism
After 25 years in practice, I’ve noticed something consistent: when I do soul retrieval work, the most common place to find entanglement is with parents. Sometimes it’s literal soul part holding. Sometimes it’s outdated maps, control, codependent resourcing, or an adult child who is still being related to as if they’re 12. In this episode, I offer a different way of looking at the parent story, especially if you’ve already done plenty of processing and you can feel yourself looping. I’m not here to tell your heart what to do, or to insist you forgive, reconcile, or maintain...
info_outlineIn this episode, I’m sharing some personal field notes from a season when life has been undeniably complex. From navigating my mom’s cancer diagnosis and treatments to unexpected travel hiccups, tech crises, and the temptation to argue with customer service reps, I’ve been reminded how fear, fatigue, and old patterns can surface — even for those of us deeply rooted in spiritual practice.
I talk candidly about leaning on shamanic tools, managing energy as an empath, honoring boundaries, and finding unexpected resilience. I also explore the subtle art of not trying to fix someone else’s experience and the seductive pull of righteous indignation when life feels out of control.
If you’re moving through a challenging time — or simply curious about how shamanic practice weaves into real-life chaos — I hope these reflections offer insight, companionship, and encouragement.
Thanks for listening, and may you find your center, even when life gets messy.
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Sound editing by Kev Young. You can reach them at [email protected]
DISCLAIMER: The suggestions and information provided here are intended for personal growth and exploration. The content of this podcast is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice or psychological treatment. Please seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical or mental health condition.
To learn more about me and my work, please visit my website at https://handsoverheart.com