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 experience of going through a major round of decluttering and space clearing, including the parts that felt inspiring, the parts that felt like a slog, and the surprising amount of energy that opened up on the other side.

This is not a minimalist manifesto. It is an invitation to get curious about what actually works for you.

In this episode, I explore:

• Why decluttering can feel especially heavy for energetically sensitive people
• The difference between aligned belongings and accumulated inertia
• How sunk cost bias can keep us holding on to things we are already complete with
• Why your home may start to feel energetically crowded before it looks objectively "bad"
• The importance of letting your space reflect who you are now
• How old belongings can hold dormant emotional and psychic energy
• Why physical decluttering and energetic space clearing work so well together
• Simple energetic hygiene supports for moving through the process
• Giving yourself permission to release things imperfectly
• Why the payoff can be especially powerful for sensitive people

When we clear out what no longer belongs, we are not just making space on shelves or in closets. We are often freeing life force, creativity, motivation, and a more current relationship with ourselves.

May this episode support you in creating a home and energetic field that feel clear, nourishing, and truly aligned with the person you are becoming.

Want to support my work and be supported by my team of guides? Check out my membership offer: https://www.patreon.com/practicalshamanism

Want more audio content from me? Check out my online academy at https://academy.handsoverheart.com/

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

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, spontaneous and focused, deeply relational and endlessly productive, magical and practical, strong and never difficult.

But human beings tend to have internal congruence. Our gifts live in relationship with our limits. The same sensitivity that allows you to read energy may make chaotic environments harder on your nervous system. The same problem-solving ability that helps people create real change may not always translate into pure emotional witnessing. The same depth that makes you wonderful in meaningful conversation may not make you the person holding court at every party.

This episode is an invitation to soften the pressure to be all things, all at once. Instead of seeing every difficult edge as a flaw, we can begin to ask: What gift lives near this shadow? What strength is connected to this limitation? What would it feel like to honor the actual shape of who I am?

We can still build skills where they support our lives. But we do not have to treat ourselves as defective because we are not an impossible collection of every admirable quality.

Want to support my work and be supported by my team of guides? Check out my membership offer: https://www.patreon.com/practicalshamanism

Want more audio content from me? Check out my online academy at https://academy.handsoverheart.com/

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

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 lives in you.

This episode is an invitation to breathe into the strength of your ancestral inheritance without dismissing the real challenges of modern life. Yes, being human is complicated. Yes, our instincts can sometimes pull us toward choices that are not especially kind to future us. And yes, modern life brings its own forms of stress, decision fatigue, disconnection, and overwhelm.

But beneath that, there is also something steady: the deep biological and spiritual truth that you come from people who found a way.

We'll explore how to connect with that legacy as a source of grounded encouragement, how to give your brain the "essay assignment" of showing you where you have already been resilient and resourceful, and how to let your ancestors stand behind you as allies in moving forward with more steadiness, discernment, and grace.

Want to support my work and be supported by my team of guides? Check out my membership offer: https://www.patreon.com/practicalshamanism

Want more audio content from me? Check out my online academy at https://academy.handsoverheart.com/

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

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 self-trust, discernment, and nervous system support can help you move forward without pretending something was okay when it was not. I also touch on practices that can help loosen old patterns, including fire ceremony, transmutation breath, and bringing your attention back to what is alive and meaningful in the present.

In this episode, I discuss:

• why forgiveness is not always necessary for healing
• the difference between feeling your emotions and getting stuck in rumination
• how grudges and old hurt can become reinforced in the brain
• why neutrality can be a healthier goal than sending "love and light"
• the role of self-trust, discernment, and emotional processing in real recovery
• practical ways to begin shifting old emotional charge

Want to support my work and be supported by my team of guides? Check out my membership offer: https://www.patreon.com/practicalshamanism

Want more audio content from me? Check out my online academy at https://academy.handsoverheart.com/

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

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 instincts, stretch beyond our comfort zone, and still maintain self-trust. This approach allows for meaningful expansion without creating the backlash that often comes from pushing too far.

• A stargazing experience that sparked reflections on fear • Why unfamiliar environments activate our survival instincts • The difference between healthy expansion and overwhelm • Why pushing through fear isn't always the best strategy • How to grow while maintaining self-trust and inner balance

Want to support my work and be supported by my team of guides? Check out my membership offer: https://www.patreon.com/practicalshamanism

Want more audio content from me? Check out my online academy at https://academy.handsoverheart.com/

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

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 why so many people are walking around with low-level activation that quietly impacts health, emotions, and decision-making.

I also share a shamanic lens on energetic hygiene for the modern era—less about "hostile forces" and more about protecting yourself from ambient overstimulation and other people's untrained, messy energy. If you're sensitive, empathic, or simply tired of feeling amped up by the world, this episode offers a grounded map for coming back to center.

• Universal human themes vs. modern experiences our ancestors didn't face

• Why root chakra recalibration matters when you've lived in many places (or continents)

• The gift and challenge of "choose-your-own-adventure" modern life

• How information overload + confirmation bias can distort reality

• Echo chambers, polarization, and the energetic cost of contempt and outrage

• "Head-blindness" and the disorienting feeling of not being able to orient psychically

• Parasocial connection, loneliness, and the difference between real nourishment and "receptor hits"

• Why energetic protection today is often about filtering ambient noise, not fighting enemies

• Practical reminders: calm the instincts, soothe the nervous system, and tend your energetic boundaries

Want to support my work and be supported by my team of guides? Check out my membership offer: https://www.patreon.com/practicalshamanism

Want more audio content from me? Check out my online academy at https://academy.handsoverheart.com/

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

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 contact. I'm interested in one thing: helping you relate to your parents inside your own mind in a way that stops the energy leak and returns you to your center.

We'll talk about the cultural storytelling that shaped modern expectations of mothers and fathers, how the nuclear family model intensified pressure on two imperfect humans to be everything, and why rumination can feel like it's helping while quietly keeping you on a hamster wheel. I share pragmatic reframes my guides often suggest. And I'll offer a metaphor that can be surprisingly liberating: if a well doesn't reliably give clean water, you're allowed to stop hauling your bucket there, and build connection with people who can actually meet you now.

Want to support my work and be supported by my team of guides? Check out my membership offer: https://www.patreon.com/practicalshamanism

Want more audio content from me? Check out my online academy at https://academy.handsoverheart.com/

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

In this episode, I explore what it really means to build resilient happiness in a world that constantly overstimulates our nervous system and pulls on our attention.

I talk about the quirky mix of human animal and eternal soul, and how our instincts, brain chemistry, and modern capitalism can team up to keep us stuck in emotional numbing, low level discontent, and addictive chemistry hits. I share how our emotional set point can narrow over time, so we end up stewing in familiar feelings like frustration, helplessness, or mild depression instead of allowing deeper emotions, like grief, to move through.

I look at how a chronically activated fight or flight response, combined with endless opportunities for distraction and quick dopamine, makes it hard to register the quieter, sustainable forms of happiness. I also talk about miswanting and hedonistic adaptation, and why chasing big spikes of chemistry through intense relationships, major purchases, or peak experiences is not a reliable path to feeling well in everyday life.

From a shamanic and practical perspective, I offer ideas for:

• Calming your nervous system and lowering your fight or flight baseline

• Noticing where you are numbing out instead of feeling what is actually present

• Letting emotions move through so your emotional matrix is not gummed up

• Recognizing when you are chasing extreme chemistry instead of true fulfillment

• Diversifying your sources of happiness so your well being is not tied to one thing

• Stacking small, attainable joys into a stable foundation of contentment

My intention is to help you understand your design with more compassion, so you can partner with both your human animal and your soul. When you address emotional numbing and nervous system overload first, it becomes much easier to feel and trust the subtle, authentic happiness that is already available in your life.

Want to support my work and be supported by my team of guides? Check out my membership offer: https://www.patreon.com/practicalshamanism

Want more audio content from me? Check out my online academy at https://academy.handsoverheart.com/

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

In this episode, I explore a question I've been sitting with lately: are we more affected by past life imprints or by ancestral patterns? Drawing on 25 years of shamanic practice, I talk about how past lives, ancestral lineage, family of origin, nervous system trauma, and even biochemistry all weave together to shape our current experience—and why, in my client work, the guides often take me to past life healing first, even when ancestral themes are present. My intent is to give you language and lenses to better understand where your own "stuff" may be anchored and how to choose clear, compassionate next steps on your healing path.

Want to support my work and be supported by my team of guides? Check out my membership offer: https://www.patreon.com/practicalshamanism

Want more audio content from me? Check out my online academy at https://academy.handsoverheart.com/

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

I've launched a new side project I've been dreaming on for years: A Shamanic Experience. It's for those of us who feel the medicine of place — standing stones, hot springs, glaciers, deserts, and rivers — and want grounded guidance for connecting with the spirit of the land.

In this episode, I briefly introduce the new show and then play the complete introductory podcast episode so you can sample it without leaving this feed. I share why sacred travel matters to me, how I attune to different layers of a landscape, and why solo travel helps me listen more deeply. You'll hear stories from places like Ireland, Iceland, Glastonbury, Death Valley, the Yukon, and Rosslyn Chapel, along with practical ideas for letting the land teach you.

Just look for "A Shamanic Experience" or Katie Weatherup whereever you listen to podcasts. Also, check out my new Youtube channel. I have additional content that's only available there. https://www.youtube.com/@AShamanicExperience

If this speaks to you, it would help me so much to:

1. Subscribe to A Shamanic Experience

2. Download an episode

3. Leave a quick five-star review if you enjoy it

👉 Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4hj4qyc 👉 Spotify: https://spotify.link/AacjtpkEEXb 👉 YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/@AShamanicExperience

Learn more about me and my work at https://handsoverheart.com