Book excerpt from “Look Great Naturally without Ditching the Lipstick”
By bestselling author, BBC Radio 2 presenter, and “Queen of Green” Janey Lee Grace,
Published by Hay House, in June 2010

Shamanic Healing

I had no real expectations when I first went for shamanic healing. My healer, Dawn Paul, seemed really quite – well, ‘normal.’ I suppose I was expecting someone from an Inca tribe using smoke and feathers rather than a tall glamourous woman living in a modest house in Hertfordshire. I’d heard that shamanic healing was incredibly successful for all manner of ills, and works on both an emotional and physical level. Indeed, without making false claims of miracle cures, it seems that Dawn has indeed affected the ‘cure’ of many people from babies to the elderly from all around the world with conditions as diverse as post-traumatic stress disorder through to cancer and clinical depression.

I went to see her primarily because of hormonal issues, but in addition to talking to me about physical symptoms, much of what she did on that first session was to try to tap into where I was mentally. She uses biofeedback techniques and some ‘shamanic cards’ to determine which priorities to address. She calls it an energetic assessment.

Shamanic healing is very gentle, yet it works very deeply. We all exist on many levels – physical, emotional, energetic, mental and spiritual – and we need to be healed on all of those levels. Shamanism can sometimes be misunderstood as dark or spooky, but this is not the case at all. Basically shamanism is about 40,000 years old, and was the medicine of the first peoples of the Earth.

Is it akin to therapy? Well sort of; I’ve had counselling and indeed I’ve had friends who’ve seen counsellors for 20 years and, despite gruelling sessions of dragging up old memories, have achieved little or not positive result. For me, shamanism seemed to work pretty quickly on the core issues.

Soul Retrieval

Dawn explained to me the concept of soul retrieval. She believes soul loss can occur sometimes as a form of protective mechanism after severe emotional, mental, or physical shock. She uses an excellent analogy to explain this. She asked me to imagine a Terry’s Chocolate Orange, all those segments connected to each other in the foil wrapper. Imagine that the foil wrapper is the body and the segments are the soul. The effects of soul loss on the person will range from depression and low energy to problems with the immune system, poor energy protection and problems finding their place and purpose in the world. In short they will feel that something is missing, because something is missing; those aspects of the soul. Often, when people go on a ‘big search’ – perhaps for the perfect job/partner/purpose in life/spiritual path etc, what they are actually looking for is those soul parts, those aspects of themselves.

The experience as a whole was profound. During the first session she asked me to lie down while she took me on a guided visualisation to connect with my ‘inner child.’  Yes, she does use smoke and feathers, but trust me, this is no hippy charlatan at work. I genuinely feel like I have uncovered deep layers, but better still she has helped me to heal them, and all in two sessions. I can honestly say that in the style of that chocolate orange, I feel that my segments are intact!

Here’s Dawn’s personal take on looking great naturally:

I am constantly amazed by the changes in clients after a healing session, in fact I have often thought about taking “before” and “after” photos! Holding on to emotional baggage, old wounds, anger, resentment, guilt or pain clogs up our energy field, literally weighing us down and reducing our level of vitality. This affects our immune system and each cell of our body, and rapidly accelerates the ageing process.

When I work with clients and enable them to drop a lifetime of emotional baggage, they often look 10 years younger. I can see the changes occurring in their faces as I am working with them! They look fresher, lighter and more energized – and the good news is they feel it too!

Getting out in nature has to be the next most important step. We spend more time inside than we should A scientist named Schumann has discovered that the Earth “hums” at a very low frequency of 7.83 Hz (known as a Schumann Resonance) and this hum is very healing and balancing for the body. So it is not only the fresh air and the exercise that does us good when we are outside, but also the vibration of the Earth herself.  Walking on the Earth is good, but lying on it is even better. Just remember to take a blanket with you!

To ease away those worry lines, nothing can beat meditation! I practised Transcendental Meditation for years and found it highly beneficial in many ways, although any simple meditation will help you. Interestingly, after about 10 minutes I could feel all the tensions draining away from my face and all of the muscles releasing, particularly between my eyebrows. These muscle tensions cause wrinkles and no amount of face cream can get rid of them. Meditation is better than Botox! And everyone can do it! Just sit upright, relaxed, and concentrate on breathing into your tummy. As soon as you realise your attention has wandered off somewhere, bring your attention back to your breathing. Do this for at least 10 minutes and try to build up to 20. You will soon start to feel the tensions in your face and body start to disappear!

Next on the list is loving yourself. So many people are horrible to themselves and this can cause a lot of stressing the body and can show on the face. Treat yourself as if you are your dearest lover! You’re worth it! And when we love ourselves on the inside, that love goes out into the world and we attract love back to us. Can’t be bad! Try it!”