Journey Work Circle - Frequently Asked Questions
How much audience participation is involved?
For most of the Journey you will be lying under a blanket with your eyes closed. I ask you to offer one word at the end if you feel comfortable to but unless you feel moved there is no further participation. You can arrive, lie down and enjoy your Journey, then leave.
Do I need to know anything about meditation?
Journey Work is not like other meditations. It is less active. There are a few grounding exercises to get you prepared but your requirement is to be open minded and ready to receive. You are mostly lying back and receiving the experience.
Do I need to register to come on a Journey?
It is my preference to know who is coming before about 6pm on the day of the Journey so I can set up the room accordingly and make sure there is a space for everyone. However, I'm happy for people to decide to come at the last minute.
What is Journey Work all about?
In our world there is too much noise…coming from inside of us and from outside of us… we are continually bombarded…
All of this noise makes it so difficult for us to hear ourselves… not the self that’s saying ‘does my bum look big in this? Or I must get milk on the way home? Am I really a good enough mother? Gosh there’s a lot of white cars on the road… it’s a deeper sense of self… the one that given the opportunity already knows we’re good enough…knows what’s for us and knows what’s not for us… it knows what decisions to make to create a healthy vibration in our mind, our body, our life, our world…
So essentially Journey Work is a process to take us beyond the noise to a place where we can access this more true sense of self… it will take us to a place of stillness and quiet where we can hear ourselves speak… Like in our dreams this part of us will often speak in symbols and metaphors and other less direct ways… so the Journey requires us to be open and spacious with what we’re given and approach it with curiosity and it will reveal itself in time…
What is the process of Journey Work?
We begin by bringing ourselves ‘in’… really arriving… using some breathing and grounding…. We do the first part of the process sitting up and then when we go into the journey we lie down and pop our blankets over us… When we get started I ask you to close your eyes and keep them closed while we go on the journey… this will majorly reduce the amount of information entering your mind and it helps direct your focus inward so you can go deeper… of course if you need to, you can open your eyes but it will affect your experience and you may feel a bit disoriented… When we go on a Journey we are shifting our awareness or consciousness so we can access a truer form of ourselves.
We lie down with our eyes closed and we tune into the slow repetitive rhythm of Shamanic drums to shift our consciousness. This rhythm helps to shift our individual rhythm so we can connect to a deeper sense of knowing. Just the way a soothing song can help someone achieve a calmer state; the rhythm of the drum puts you in the right state to Journey. The journey is then achieved by a person’s intent, which we set before starting. The person intends to connect to this deeper part of themselves and so they do. How you do this is tricky to describe. It’s like trying to describe walking. It’s difficult to put into words how you get your legs to move and start walking. The same is true with journeying.
During the process you will follow my voice and be guided along the Journey. It will be as if you’re being guided through a dream. The way each person experiences the places they visit in the Journey will be different. One person may see really well on a journey or another may not see but instead hear or sense. You will often experience both the room that you’re in, and the place you visit in the journey. It is as if you are in two places at once. The degree to which people will experience what is happening in the room depends on the person. Some people will experience a sensation of leaving their body, and the places they go and visit will be in full-blown technicolor with sounds, smells and the sense of touch. Some people will not experience a journey with all their senses. In cases where people experience nothing visual they may have more of a knowing of where they are and the people and the animals they encounter on the way. This type of sense can be compared to how it feels when you know someone has entered the room behind you, before you turn to look at them. If touch is the predominant sense people may feel the grass on their feet, the wind on their cheek, etc. And for others, it is as if nothing has happened and they haven’t seen anything but the Journey has landed at an energetic level that is hard to put into words. This is like the experience of having a dream that you can feel but can’t access to talk about.
We have the most trouble journeying when we can’t shut off our ordinary, critical mind. This is because Journey Work grounds you in your body and your critical mind makes it difficult to let go. The ordinary mind commentates and judges and tries to pull you out of the Journey. We have to let these thoughts float by and keep following the Journey. It is usually most effective to suspend the critical voice while you’re on the Journey. Wait and let your mind analyse after returning from the Journey. When the Journey is over we come back into our bodies and back into the room. We spend some time writing down what has come to us, and any thoughts we have about it. We then make sure we are in our bodies in preparation to finish up and go home.
Can Everyone Journey?
When we go on a journey we go very deeply into ourselves… It's important to be prepared that there is a part of you that can resist this connection to yourself…
As we begin to let go… our ordinary mind can go into resistance and you might notice a bit of restlessness in your thoughts and in your body…sometimes our head will say things to us like ‘everyone else can do this but I’m not good at it… I don’t think this is for me… I’m no good at breathing or letting go… how long is she going to make us do this breathing… this is too hard… oh no I forgot to listen’… I ask you to stay with your breathing, remind yourself it’s safe to be you and life will be better if you can connect… and remind yourself it’s only resistance and you can easily let it flow passed… Journey Work is connecting into a part of you that is deeper than these thoughts…and even with the commentary the energy of the Journey will still be holding you and connecting in… So yes if you are open and can work with the resistance of your ordinary mind you can Journey!
Are There Things To Know For After A Journey?
Please be sure to hydrate as much as possible after the Journey… this will help things to flow and help your body to process the experience you’ve had…
The first few days after a Journey take note of your dreams…if you can do some writing in the mornings before you hop out of bed that can be helpful as your mind may offer you some guidance…and it’s best to do this when you just wake up before you are into your conscious busy mind…
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Journey Work connects us into a very deep part of us and this can have different affects for different people… What’s most important is to know you are safe…and to stay as grounded as possible…
One of the things that can be disconcerting when we journey is that whatever is not for us, or is not in line with ‘light’ will be brought to the surface…. So after a journey we can feel some yucky stuff surface… if this happens put it on paper… we want to externalise it because this is what we have to get rid of… for example we might really be hit with fear or doubt or an old pattern of thinking like feeling hopeless or disempowered… each time those thoughts pop up see if you can name them e.g. say to yourself ‘doubt thoughts’ and make a commitment to let them go… ‘I now let go thoughts of doubt’ then follow with a positive ‘I am’ statement like ‘I am powerful’ 'I am abundant’ or whatever comes into your mind…
Each time your head(your thoughts) tries to bring you back to this old pattern or habit repeat to yourself ‘I now let go of fear and doubt! I am powerful!’ or something similar that brings you into a more positive vibration.
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During the journey you will have been given tools to guide you on your way… in the days and weeks following this journey the Universe will try to support you with how to achieve your desired intention… your job will be to read the signs and act on them…
Start talking to your people about your intentions for yourself …about what you are going to achieve...talk about them as if they’re fact…fill them with belief… energetically this begins to build a scaffold for our intentions to be built upon…
You will be pushed to move beyond what is comfortable and safe… fear will try to stop you but you are stronger than your fears!!! Notice them…name them…and let them go!
The more we tune into what is for us the stronger this energy will be… fill your dreams with light!
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People have talked about many different things they have experienced after a Journey. Below is a list of some of them:
Feel like laughing…and smiling…
Very hungry or thirsty…
Have unusual feelings in your body…heat…cool…mild nausea…sleepy…
A bit spacey…vague…scattered… (If this happens keep breathing and grounding and being ‘here’…use your senses…what can I see? what can I smell? etc. this will help you stay grounded)
A bit shaky (sometimes our nervous system is recalibrating to incorporate the new experience…stay warm and it will pass)
Tearful… (if it’s there let it out…crying helps release things from our body…just know you are ok)
Very quiet…introspective…
You might have vivid dreams…
Feel not quite yourself…
Feel energised…
Feel moved to make changes…do something you’ve meant to do for a while…
Have old habits and patterns come up (If this happens it’s time for movement. If you can’t do this alone seek some support)
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I would like to give my friend a gift voucher what do I do?
Just send me an email with a subject 'Gift Voucher' using the contact on the Journey Work page , with your request and we can get it organised. I can send it to you or to your friend.
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I would love to have you along for a Journey sometime!