LightSong School of 21st-Century Shamanism and Energy Medicine Talking Stick Podcast

Lightsong School of 21st-Century Shamanism and Energy Medicine Talking Stick Podcast
Recognizing the Patterns That Shape Your Life
Why do we keep finding ourselves in the same situations, even when the people, places, and circumstances change?
In this thought-provoking episode of the LightSong Talking Stick Podcast, Jan Engels-Smith and Micah Schwader explore one of the most transformative concepts in personal growth and shamanic practice: patterns. From recurring relationships and life choices to deeply held beliefs and daily habits, they discuss how recognizing these patterns can become the key to healing, self-awareness, and lasting transformation.
Drawing from decades of experience in shamanism, counseling, writing, and personal development, Jan and Micah share powerful stories about how journaling, memoir writing, shamanic healing, and conscious self-reflection reveal the hidden narratives that quietly direct our lives. They explain why we often remain trapped in familiar cycles, how our stories shape our reality, and what it takes to finally break free.
The conversation also explores:
How journaling and stream-of-consciousness writing uncover lifelong patterns.

Why recurring life experiences often point to deeper spiritual lessons.

The difference between habits and patterns—and why both matter.

How changing your story can transform your future.

The role of the Medicine Wheel in breaking repetitive cycles.

Why vulnerability is essential for healing and authentic storytelling.

The importance of witnessing yourself rather than remaining trapped inside your story.

Shamanic perspectives on soul loss, unfulfilled dreams, and reclaiming your energy.

How healing requires changing not only your energy but also your daily behaviors.

Why patterns can be blessings as well as obstacles.

Along the way, Jan shares remarkable insights from her books Becoming Yourself and Through the Rabbit Hole, while Micah reflects on the life-changing lessons that emerged from writing his memoir, Stumbling Into Grace. Together, they reveal how awareness is the first step toward freedom—and why the stories we tell ourselves may be the very thing standing between us and the life we're meant to live.
If you've ever wondered why certain experiences keep repeating, or you're ready to create a new chapter in your life, this episode offers practical wisdom, compassionate guidance, and a fresh perspective on transformation.
About Your Hosts
Jan Engels-Smith is a shamanic practitioner, teacher, and founder of the LightSong School of 21st Century Shamanism and Energy Medicine. With more than four decades of experience, she has trained thousands of students worldwide in shamanic healing and spiritual practices. Learn more at LightSong.net.
Micah Schwader is an author, transformational writing coach, editor, and shamanic practitioner who helps people discover clarity, purpose, and healing through the power of story. Learn more at InspiredLifePublications.com and ShamanSezz.com.
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LightSong School of 21st-Century Shamanism and Energy Medicine Talking Stick Podcast
Unconditional Love: A Shamanic Path Beyond Judgment
What does unconditional love really mean? Is it something humans can truly experience, or is it an ideal we continually grow toward?
In this thoughtful episode of the Talking Stick Podcast, Jan Engels-Smith and Micah Schwader explore unconditional love through the lens of shamanism, spirituality, and everyday life. Together they examine why the human mind naturally creates judgments and conditions, while the spirit world embodies an entirely different state of awareness—one of acceptance, allowing, and profound connection.
Their conversation moves beyond philosophy into practical ways of cultivating greater peace and presence. They discuss the healing power of nature, journeying, meditation, breathwork, and reconnecting with the rhythms of the Earth. Jan shares the remarkable story of spending more than a year sleeping outdoors after receiving guidance from Spirit, and how that experience transformed her relationship with nature, rhythm, and consciousness. Micah reflects on the lessons of his own vision quest, discovering how asking for grace brought life's greatest challenges—and deepest transformation.
Together they explore:
What unconditional love really means in shamanic practice
Why the ego struggles with acceptance and comparison
How nature offers one of our clearest experiences of unconditional presence
The spiritual practice of journeying beyond judgment
Why intention matters—and why we should be careful what we ask for
The difference between love, kindness, acceptance, and allowing
Simple practices that help us reconnect with ourselves, Spirit, and the natural world
Whether you're new to shamanism or simply seeking greater peace in a complex world, this conversation offers a compassionate invitation to move from judgment toward presence, from separation toward connection, and from striving toward simply being.
About Jan Engels-Smith
Jan Engels-Smith is an internationally respected shamanic teacher, author, and healer with more than four decades of experience helping people reconnect with Spirit, nature, and their inner wisdom. She is the founder of Lightsong School of 21st-Century Shamanism and Energy Medicine, where she taught Core Shamanism, spiritual healing, and personal transformation.
Jan is the author of Through the Rabbit Hole: Explore and Experience the Shamanic Journey and Energy Medicine and Becoming Yourself: The Journey from Head to Heart.
Learn more about Jan, her books, classes, and events: https://www.lightsong.net
About Micah Schwader
Micah Schwader is a transformational writing coach, developmental editor, publisher, life guide, and shamanic practitioner with more than 30 years of experience helping authors, thought leaders, and changemakers discover and express their authentic voice. Drawing on his experience as a writing coach, he now helps people looking to make changes in their lives reconnect with their inner guidance system through the practice and power of writing.
Micah is the author of Stumbling Into Grace: The Adventures of a Transgender Shaman, a memoir chronicling his journey through identity, spirituality, and profound personal transformation. Through his coaching, writing, and The Art of Discernment Method™, he helps people use writing as a path to clarity, self-trust, and meaningful change.
Learn more about Micah's writing, coaching, retreats, and resources: https://www.shamansezz.com

LightSong School of 21st-Century Shamanism and Energy Medicine Talking Stick Podcast
Raise Your Vibration: How Your Thoughts, Words, and Beliefs Shape Your Health and Life
Can your thoughts, emotions, and beliefs influence your physical health?
In this thought-provoking episode, Jan Engels-Smith and Micah Schwader explore the relationship between consciousness, energy, and well-being through the lens of shamanism, personal experience, and everyday life. They examine how the frequencies we embody—through our thoughts, emotions, words, and beliefs—may affect not only our emotional state but also our physical health, relationships, and the experiences we attract.
The conversation begins with a simple story: a friend experiencing high blood pressure after suppressing difficult conversations at work. What initially appeared to be stress caused by someone else revealed a deeper truth—the body's response wasn't to the external situation, but to the internal resistance of avoiding it.
From there, Jan and Micah discuss the shamanic perspective that illness often begins as an energetic imbalance long before it manifests physically. Rather than viewing symptoms as isolated problems, they invite listeners to see the body as a messenger, constantly communicating where healing, honesty, or change may be needed.
In this episode, you'll discover:
How your body reflects emotional and energetic patterns
The difference between repression and genuine acceptance
Why words carry energetic power that shapes how we feel
How childhood labels and beliefs continue influencing adult life
The connection between vibration, manifestation, and daily experiences
Practical ways to raise your personal frequency through gratitude, awareness, and intentional thinking
Why your response to life's challenges matters more than the challenges themselves
How changing your beliefs can begin changing your reality
Stories of healing, resilience, and unexpected transformation through mindset shifts
Simple daily practices that can help cultivate greater joy, peace, and well-being
Micah shares personal stories about recognizing when his own body signaled misalignment, including becoming physically ill before attending a class that conflicted with his deeper values. He also reflects on remarkable experiences of "parking karma," effortless travel, and unexpected synchronicities that emerged when approaching life with optimism and positive expectation.
Jan introduces practical exercises for maintaining a higher vibration, including creating a daily list of high-frequency words, keeping a gratitude journal, and paying close attention to the beliefs that quietly govern our lives. Together they emphasize a recurring theme throughout the podcast: beliefs are choices, and changing those choices begins by becoming aware of them.
The episode also explores inspiring stories of people who faced serious illness by changing their outlook on life—including an author who lived nine years with Stage 4 lung cancer after transforming her relationships, priorities, environment, and inner world, as well as discussions of the work of physicians who integrate mindset and healing into their approach to medicine.
Whether you view these ideas through a spiritual, psychological, or personal growth lens, this conversation offers practical insights into becoming more conscious of the energy you bring into every interaction—and how small shifts in awareness may create profound changes over time.
Ultimately, Jan and Micah leave listeners with a simple but powerful reminder: If you want your life to change, begin by changing your vibration.
About Jan Engels-Smith
Jan Engels-Smith is a shamanic practitioner, teacher, and founder of the LightSong School of 21st Century Shamanism and Energy Medicine. For more than three decades, she has trained practitioners around the world in shamanic healing, energy medicine, and spiritual development. Her teachings emphasize personal empowerment, direct spiritual experience, and practical tools for living with greater awareness and vitality.
About Micah Schwader
Micah Schwader is a transformational writing coach, editor, publisher, shamanic life coach, and author of Stumbling Into Grace. Through storytelling, coaching, and spiritual practice, he helps people reconnect with their authentic voice, navigate life's transitions, and transform personal experiences into wisdom. He is the founder of Inspired Life Publications and lives in the cloud forests of Costa Rica, where nature continually informs his work. Visit ShamanSezz.com for Micah's shamanic work.

LightSong School of 21st-Century Shamanism and Energy Medicine Talking Stick Podcast
Inner Authority: Learning to Trust Yourself in an Uncertain World
Who—or what—is guiding your life?
In a world filled with competing opinions, social pressure, uncertainty, misinformation, and constant demands for your attention, it has never been more important to reconnect with your inner authority.
In this deeply personal episode, Jan Engels-Smith and Micah Schwader explore the profound difference between living from external authority—allowing others, institutions, fear, or culture to dictate your choices—and living from the quiet confidence of your inner knowing.
Micah shares intimate stories from his own life, including how losing trust in his intuition as a child eventually led to decades of searching for truth, identity, and belonging. He reflects on how his transgender journey became one of reclaiming his inner authority after years of listening to everyone else's expectations instead of his own soul.
Jan expands the conversation by examining how many cultures teach us to seek validation and permission from outside ourselves—whether through religion, institutions, experts, or societal expectations. She offers a different perspective: true inner authority doesn't need to be loud, defensive, or prove itself. It is calm, grounded, and quietly certain.
Together they explore:
The difference between inner authority and outer authority
Why many people lose trust in themselves early in life
How fear, conditioning, and past experiences disconnect us from intuition
The relationship between trust, courage, and personal transformation
Why trusting yourself is a choice that grows through practice
Learning to recognize physical and emotional signs of alignment
The role of discernment when receiving advice from teachers, experts, or spiritual practitioners
Powerful stories of healing through Lakota ceremonies and direct spiritual experience
Why life's greatest setbacks often become unexpected turning points
How uncertainty, artificial intelligence, political division, and social change are increasing the need for inner guidance
Practical ways to strengthen self-awareness and rebuild trust in your own decisions
Throughout the conversation, Jan and Micah return to a simple but transformative idea: trust is not something we wait to feel—it is something we choose to cultivate. As that trust grows, fear begins to lose its grip, decisions become clearer, and life becomes less about reacting to circumstances and more about responding from a place of grounded wisdom.
Whether you're navigating a major life transition, questioning long-held beliefs, or simply trying to find clarity in an increasingly noisy world, this episode offers a compassionate invitation to reconnect with the one voice that has always been with you—your own.
About Jan Engels-Smith
Jan Engels-Smith is a shamanic practitioner, teacher, and founder of the LightSong School of 21st Century Shamanism and Energy Medicine. For more than three decades, she has trained practitioners around the world in shamanic healing, energy medicine, and spiritual development. Jan's teachings emphasize personal empowerment, direct spiritual experience, and helping people rediscover the wisdom that already lives within them.
About Micah Schwader
Micah Schwader is a transformational writing coach, editor, publisher, shamanic life coach, and author of Stumbling Into Grace: The Adventures of a Transgender Shaman. Through storytelling, coaching, and spiritual practice, he helps people reconnect with their inner guidance system, navigate life's major transitions, and transform personal experiences into sources of wisdom and healing. Micah is the founder of Inspired Life Publications and lives in the cloud forests of Costa Rica, where nature and spirituality continually shape his work. For more information, visit ShamanSezz.com.

LightSong School of 21st-Century Shamanism and Energy Medicine Talking Stick Podcast
Discernment in a Noisy World: Wisdom, AI, Empathy, and Inner Knowing
How do we know what's true in a world overflowing with information, opinions, technology, and constant noise?
In this timely and thought-provoking episode, Jan Engels-Smith and Micah Schwader explore the art of discernment—the ability to recognize what aligns with your deepest truth, what serves your growth, and what deserves your attention.
The conversation begins with Micah's experience teaching Storytelling in the Age of AI and his growing realization that while technology can provide information and intelligence, it cannot replace human wisdom, intuition, lived experience, or heart-centered knowing. As artificial intelligence becomes more integrated into daily life, the need for discernment becomes increasingly important.
Jan brings the discussion into the world of shamanism, where discernment is essential for interpreting spiritual experiences, receiving guidance, and sharing healing stories. She explains how practitioners learn to set aside personal bias, avoid projection, and communicate spiritual messages in ways that empower rather than frighten.
Together, Jan and Micah explore:
What discernment really means beyond dictionary definitions
The difference between knowledge, intelligence, wisdom, and inner knowing
Why feelings and intuition are essential forms of guidance
How discernment plays a role in shamanic healing and spiritual practice
The importance of telling healing stories rather than fear-based stories
Lessons from dismemberment journeys and spiritual transformation
The relationship between discernment, empathy, compassion, and boundaries
How empaths can avoid taking on other people's emotions
The role of AI as a tool—and why human wisdom remains irreplaceable
Learning to trust your own inner authority in a rapidly changing world
Through personal stories, spiritual teachings, and practical examples, this episode offers listeners a powerful reminder that while information is abundant, wisdom still requires presence, experience, reflection, and heart.
Whether you're navigating spiritual growth, developing your intuition, exploring new technologies, or simply trying to make sense of a complex world, this conversation will help you strengthen one of the most important skills of our time: discernment.
About Jan Engels-Smith
Jan Engels-Smith is a shamanic practitioner, teacher, and founder of the LightSong School of 21st Century Shamanism and Energy Medicine. For decades, Jan has trained practitioners around the world in shamanic healing, spiritual development, and energy medicine. Her work helps people cultivate direct relationships with spirit, strengthen intuition, and access their own inner wisdom for healing and transformation.
About Micah Schwader
Micah Schwader is a transformational writing coach, editor, publisher, shamanic life coach, and author of Stumbling Into Grace: The Adventures of a Transgender Shaman. Through his work with writers, seekers, and changemakers, Micah helps people uncover their authentic stories, navigate life's transitions, and connect with deeper sources of wisdom and meaning. He is the founder of Inspired Life Publications and ShamanSezz.com and lives in the cloud forests of Costa Rica, where nature, spirituality, and storytelling continually intersect.