Shamanic Breathwork & Brave Soul Exploration W/ Jen Pearson

You're listening to Women's Dream Enlightenment.

Dream decoding,

Deep discussions,

And spiritual stories of self-discovery to inspire your personal enlightened journey.

I'm your host,

Megan Mary,

Founder of Women's Dream Analysis.

Let's bring in the light.

Welcome.

Today,

I have Jen Pearson.

She is a certified spiritual life coach with a vast array of tools to help you access your inner wisdom,

Align with your soul,

And manifest more joy in your life.

Her work is intended to open a deeper understanding of the soul self and support new levels of personal evolution.

She empowers brave soul explorers to integrate the woo-woo with their normal lives and become the best version of their truest selves.

Welcome Jen.

Thanks for having me.

You really kind of need the quotations in that,

The woo-woo and the normal.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Everybody's definition is a little different.

Yeah.

The quote unquote is the important part.

So my first question,

Which I ask everyone is,

What does enlightenment mean to you?

So to me,

Enlightenment is a process.

It's not like a thing that you just reach or a goal that you have that is really ever fully attainable.

I think it's something we sort of awaken to.

We are ever evolving.

We are really kind of changing and growing.

And I think it's more of an awareness than an end point.

So starting to really be aware of who we are in our soul,

Who we are in our essence,

What's happening around us,

The energies and things like that.

I feel like all of that can be part of enlightenment.

Yes,

I agree.

It's that tuning in.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So tell us a little bit about your enlightenment journey and if there was a pivotal moment for you and how you came to be a spiritual life coach.

I love that title.

I think it was kind of a long journey.

A lot of it started when I was I was married.

I was things weren't going well in the marriage.

I wasn't really happy in my job.

I knew I needed to make changes.

And I had grown up in a fairly conservative household.

Everything went kind of by the rules as expected.

Here were the career paths you could take.

Here's where you could go to school.

You were expected to go down all of those normal conventional kind of things.

And so I had done that and I just wasn't really happy.

And at the time I was living in Asheville,

North Carolina,

Which was more of a say where the woo woo comes in that woo woo town where there were more opportunities for things like energy work and alternative healing and different kinds of methods like that that I started to explore just to see for my own healing how that would work.

And I did pretty much everything I could find and get my hands on.

And some things were really effective and I continued with some things I didn't resonate with at the time and some things I went forward with and decided to learn.

So first thing I did was learn Reiki energy work.

And then that led me into some other things.

And I learned how to read Tarot and I learned coaching and I learned,

You know,

All these different skills that I sort of amassed because I saw how valuable they were in my life and how much I wanted to be able to share them with other people.

Yes,

I love that reflexiveness.

And that's the whole reason that I started this podcast,

Because I feel that all of us,

We go on our own journeys many times to solve our own problems and our own struggles.

And we dabble in a whole bunch of different things.

And we find certain things that resonate with us and find gifts or abilities that we have.

And then,

Of course,

We want to share them with everyone else that has gone through that situation to then lift them up and help them out and say,

Look,

I've been through this and I've found this to be helpful and really sharing that wisdom as well as that experience,

That journey.

Absolutely.

And everyone's journey is different.

And like I said,

You know,

Some of the things I explored were there and I'm sure they're very helpful for some people.

They just didn't sit with me.

And there's things that I do that I'm sure there's people that doesn't sit with them.

And so it's just nice to have that.

And for me,

Especially,

I enjoy sharing it with people who wouldn't have had that exposure or haven't yet had that exposure.

You know,

People who are new to that woo woo world of energy and sort of that soul inner work exploration stuff,

That deeper,

Deeper things.

And it really is,

You know,

I say in my bio,

I look for brave soul explorers because I think there is a level of bravery to look at that deep stuff hidden within you and to uncover it and to see what kind of gold you can mine from it,

Because I think that it's something a lot of people don't take the time to do.

But if you do and you're ready and willing to look at that,

I think you can really gain a lot of insight,

A lot of clarity,

A lot of confidence.

And to me,

That's really the path to joy in life is having that inner awareness and honoring it.

Yes,

I agree completely on several points there,

And especially the one about the courage to do the deep dive,

Because it's very much the same with dream work.

Your subconscious holds all of your experiences and emotions and perspectives.

In order to really dive into that,

You have to be willing to be that courageous seeker and want to have that transformation,

Be willing to step into that doorway of self-discovery and go down that sometimes unilluminated path to get to that enlightenment.

Yeah,

I personally,

I love that stuff.

That lights me up.

A friend of mine said she calls herself a self-help junkie.

And I was like,

It's kind of like that,

I guess.

I love that.

What else can I find?

What else can I learn?

How much more awareness can I bring?

But there's plenty of people that are like,

Oh,

God,

Keep that as far away from me as you can.

And so it really is something that you have to be willing and want to do,

And even when it's hard,

Because there's times where it's been messy and ugly and really rough times in my life,

But I wouldn't trade that.

And I wouldn't not go through it to get to,

You have to go through it to get to the other side.

Like there's no getting around it.

You can try for a while,

It's going to pop back up at you.

I'm sure you find that a lot in dream work,

Because at least for me,

That's where it'll pop back up.

If I'm starting to avoid it,

The dreams will start to creep in and tell me that I'm not actually avoiding it.

Yeah,

Correct.

Especially with nightmares or recurring dreams,

But also just normal dreams that don't follow those themes.

But anything that we are not paying attention to that we need to be addressing,

That we need to be,

And it doesn't have to be a bad thing.

It could be a talent,

It could be a path,

It could be a direction,

It could be a project,

It could be anything that we're just not aware of,

Or we're not embracing.

And then it's just going to keep coming back in those themes until we acknowledge that.

Yes,

Yes.

And in my work,

There's some of that that I will see.

And then also,

Not just in our dreams,

But in our bodies,

Like our bodies hold that stuff as well.

And so there may be certain responses we have to certain triggers that seem unrealistic,

That seem illogical,

That don't,

You know,

It seems like we're overreacting.

But it's that stored information in our body that's telling us either you got to go for it,

Or you got to hang back,

Or this isn't safe,

Or we've been through this in some way,

Shape or form.

And so there's a lot of that tuning in and having that awareness too.

So it's that mental awareness.

It's also that physical awareness that can really bring about more,

More enlightenment,

More awareness,

More consciousness,

Really.

I agree with that completely,

Too.

I think that obviously,

The mind,

Body and spirit are integrated,

And you can't unearth one and not deal with the other because not only are you just storing everything in the back of your mind and your subconscious,

But you're also storing it in your body.

And when you don't address things,

Then it leads to what they call appropriately,

Dis-ease.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So,

What role have dreams played in your life?

Have you had any really influential dreams or in these moments when you were going through your journey?

I've always been an active dreamer.

And I always have been just fascinated by dreams and how weird they can be and how cool they can be and the experiences that you can have that you would never have when you're awake.

And sometimes I would have dreams that were just super weird and crazy and funny.

And sometimes I would have dreams that were really heavy with emotion.

And so for me,

I know that when I've gone through really hard times in my life,

My dreams tend to not mirror the actual events of my life,

But they'll mirror the emotions that I'm processing in that life.

So if I'm dealing with some intense fear,

I might start to have really scary dreams that they don't make sense.

They're crazy looking dreams,

But it's that same fear that I feel in it.

Or if there's an anxiety,

Then the dream will have some kind of anxiety attached to it or sadness or whatever the emotion is that shows up more for me in dreams.

But I've also had dreams that were like spirit visit dreams.

And I've had dreams that were just different kinds of dreams.

I have a really close friend and we share our dreams every time that we have an interesting one.

And so I'll get a text in the morning,

Hey,

I had this dream that such and such was happening and this thing.

And we kind of help each other work through it.

And sometimes we'll share it like,

Oh,

Isn't this dream funny?

And the other one's like,

Hey,

That's that thing you were talking about that you've been avoiding showing up for you.

And we kind of call each other out on it.

So it's fun to have that community of that dream sharing too.

We really enjoy that.

My dad does that too.

He's a big dreamer.

But yeah,

It's kind of cool to be able to see those threads in ourselves and other people.

And so I feel like it's cool to share the dreams.

I think that that's something that's really fun.

Yes.

Dream sharing is part of so many ancient cultures and should be part of our culture because in that sharing of it,

We bring it from that dark place where it doesn't make sense into our waking life.

And sometimes just by verbalizing it,

Just by starting to talk about it,

All of a sudden we go,

Oh,

And sometimes there's even wordplay in the symbolism and in the things that happen.

It's very clever the way our brain delivers messages.

My mom had a dream.

You just reminded me one time we were kids and she was a teacher and she had a dream about being in the backyard with like a jackhammer and there was a fire or something like that.

Well,

There was going to be a fire drill at school that day.

And she was supposed to have told the teachers to prepare them and she had forgotten.

And so it was like that very literal of like drilling and a fire.

Your brain is like trying to get the message out.

Don't forget to do this thing.

So yeah,

Sometimes it is super literal and sometimes it feels like it's so far into the ether that it's like,

Good luck figuring it out.

So you're right.

Yeah.

There's definitely been times where once you put it into words,

It just seems to fall into place and make more sense.

The connections come to light.

And I think that for the most part,

A lot of times people think they are literal and that's part of the reason they dismiss them.

They say,

Oh,

Well,

I just watched that movie last night.

Or I know why I'm dreaming about that because that's happening here.

But there's lots of things that you did the day before and there's lots of things that are happening in your life.

And your dream is picking all these little pieces from everything that's happened and putting it together into a story.

And it's not just a repetition in my opinion.

It's specifically tailored to tell a story.

Yeah.

And to me,

It's like if your brain is just repeating what your day was,

You've got to get a little more interesting.

It does reflect your life.

Yes.

Yeah.

I mean,

We talked before I do something called shamanic breathwork and shamanic breathwork is something that I feel like is similar to accessing the dream state.

It's like an altered state of consciousness.

And you get there through a breath pattern and through music.

And that altered state of consciousness takes you on a journey that you are awake and conscious for.

But it's kind of like being in a dream or being on a psychedelic trip.

It's a weird experience that you're in control of it.

It's not like you took something,

But it can really help you get to,

We call it your inner shaman,

Like that piece of you that needs healing and whatever it is that you need in that moment,

Which I think our subconscious does in dreams.

And it feels like with the shamanic breathwork,

It's not just our subconscious mind.

It's also pieces of our soul.

It's all of this integration that's coming through.

And the first time that I experienced something like it,

I had this huge,

Crazy,

Wild experience.

And I knew there was value to it,

But I had no idea what to do with it,

How to process it,

What was going on.

And so I went through a big,

Long journey to find specifically this shamanic breathwork kind because it has processing and integration as part of it.

And to me,

That's so important.

Just like you're talking about,

Like sharing our dreams can take it to a whole other level of understanding,

Of growth,

Of healing.

And that's why the processing was so important to me in the breathwork,

Because without that processing and that integration,

There's pieces that you just,

They don't make sense or they're hanging out there and unfinished and your energy feels disconnected in some way.

And so I find it really important to be able to do that together with my clients.

Yes.

And thank you for segwaying into the shamanic breathwork because I really want our listeners to hear about that work that you do and kind of unpack,

You know,

The misconceptions about it and explain it a bit.

But I think that what you said about the integration is key as well.

And that's why as part of my dream work,

I have a whole host of modalities that come in after you've then unearthed whatever it is that you've discovered.

Okay,

Now what do we do with this so that it doesn't come back so that we can take advantage of it so that we can harness it.

And I'm welcoming in all different modalities so that I can have them all at my fingertips to then help all of my clients.

And so talk a little bit more about shamanic breathwork and how,

How is it different from other modalities that you're aware of and what are some common misconceptions about it?

So shamanic breathwork came out of,

It's very similar to holotropic breathwork.

It came out of that and rebirthing breathwork and integrative breathwork,

And then also Seneca Wolf Clan teachings.

And so there's a lot that goes into it.

Basically what it is,

Is we start you out,

You kind of do a little bit of a meditation,

Set the intention for your journey.

We set an intention,

But it's going to be whatever it needs to be in the moment.

So there's no controlling,

Every journey is going to be different than the last one.

And we teach you the breath pattern to do,

And then you do that.

And the official instruction is breathe until you're surprised,

Because there's really no way to say what's going to happen,

How you're going to feel,

What you're going to experience in that journey.

And so you breathe and there's music that activates the chakras to kind of bring you on a complete journey.

So through your energy system and the way that music is going,

That can help keep you in an altered state as well.

So you may kind of come in and out of it.

The breath pattern is kind of intense,

You don't do that the entire time.

But the whole process goes for typically about an hour,

But different journeys can be different lengths,

But usually about an hour.

There may be body work or energy work in it to help you process what you're doing,

Especially if there is a rebirthing process happening.

It all feels really super weird and wild and woo-woo.

The more that you can just be kind of open and curious and along for the ride,

The more you're not going to be resisting the process and the deeper the kind of work that you're going to be able to do is.

And it really is all coming from you.

It's your work.

It's not the facilitator that's making anything happen.

It's not the facilitator that's going to get you to go deeper or whatever,

But it's really whatever needs to come up for you.

So there may be a journey where things are really visual and you're flying on the back of an eagle and you see your ancestors or whatever.

There may be a journey where you just feel like you're in darkness and you fell asleep.

There may be a journey where everything's very physical and you feel like you need to move and push things out of your body.

I've heard all kinds of things.

And so once that journey's done and we start to ground you and get you back into waking reality,

Then we do an art process and have you draw whatever it is that came through.

What is it that you want to remember?

By looking at certain markers in the drawing and hearing your story,

I'm able to put into that shamanic perspective of where are you in a state of transition right now?

What is this journey reflecting for you?

What maybe do we need to want to look deeper into?

Is there bodywork or somatic practices that we want to work through?

Is there something that's ready to be let go?

Is there something that's coming in?

Where are you in that process?

It can be really,

Really intense.

And so it's not for everyone.

It's not for anyone who is,

You know,

If your mental health is precarious in the moment or there's a diagnosis of schizophrenia,

Those kinds of things,

It's not recommended for.

But a lot of people can get a lot of really deep healing out of it.

And I know it sounds a little scary at first because it can be so intense,

But it really is.

I think it's really cool.

I think it's really just,

You know,

If you could walk through a dream in the middle of the day,

I think it's really kind of just wild what our brains and our bodies are capable of.

And the fact that you can do this with just breath and music is just really fascinating to me.

It is fascinating.

And I love the integration of the music and the art because I think that I fully embrace the frequencies and the ability for different musical frequencies to vibrate in our bodies and the journeys that music can take you on and the effect that sound waves have on our body and all of that.

So I love that that's integrated in it.

I love that art is integrated in it because I feel like that is so important as an expression modality.

It's such a heal.

It can be such a healing activity.

And I also like what you said about,

And we touched on this a little in our talk,

But I want to touch on it today about the misconceptions of that it's not coming from your facilitator,

That it's coming from you and that some people,

One of the roadblocks that they have to this type of work is that they feel like they might be circumventing some sort of pre-doctrined connection with the source that they're not supposed to have.

Whether it's certain organized religions,

Dogma or doctrines,

Or just societal expectations in general,

There seems to be a line of thinking that says,

You need someone else to get you there.

You can't get there yourself,

Or you're not supposed to get there yourself.

Yeah.

I think that some people are afraid.

They feel like that it's not going to be,

They don't think they have the skill.

They don't have the knowledge.

They don't have the keys to get there.

Right.

And I don't think that that's true.

I think that if you think you don't have the skills or the keys,

There's someone who can just give it to you and you can do it.

You don't have to pay.

You don't have to spend years practicing.

You don't have to do these whatever rituals to get there.

It's all there.

It's all inside you.

And if you find a way to unlock it,

Why wouldn't you unlock that?

Why would you give that power to somebody else?

It's your power.

It's your knowledge.

It's your wisdom.

It's all within you.

So it's yours.

That's your right.

You're entitled to that.

And you should be empowered to access that and to gain all the benefits that are in there.

There's so much that we have locked up in our subconscious,

In our bodies,

In our own like innate wisdom that we just don't know how to unlock or we're not used to unlocking or we've been told like now's not the time to unlock it or that's not the way to do it or it's not polite to do that.

Or,

You know,

If we do it,

Maybe we realize that the things that we've been going through when we were going through the motions don't work and don't make us happy.

And then our whole life has to change.

And that's too big to look at.

And so there can be,

You know,

Chaos and destruction by doing that kind of work because we can start to realize that we weren't being true to ourselves.

And so if we weren't being true to ourselves before,

And now we decide that we're going to be,

That's going to take a lot.

There's a lot that needs to break down and there's a lot that needs to be rebuilt.

And that's where that rebirth thing comes in.

And so,

Yeah,

I think that's why a lot of people are afraid of that work.

And a lot of people avoid that work because there's so much that may need to change and fall away.

And that's really hard.

Yes,

Complacency is always easier.

Ignorance is bliss is always seemingly easier.

Not that your life is going the way you want it to or that you have this great sense of peace or fulfillment,

But that it's safer.

Yeah,

It's a different kind of struggle,

In my opinion.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So what's next for you on your journey?

I don't know that I ever really know what's next.

I just kind of try and stay open to it.

I don't have a specific what's next going on.

I'm doing more of the coaching work and then I'm integrating the shamanic breath work and energy work and tarot into the coaching because I think that it helps people get to a deeper level.

So the main coaching clients,

I mean,

I can see people for any kind of coaching,

But the main groups that tend to resonate with me have a lot in common with my own journey.

So there's the people who have been,

You know,

Maybe you're an accountant,

Maybe you're a nurse,

But someone who kind of just like became what they became because that was the right choice and that's what everybody else in the family did.

They're starting to get to that point in life where they're like,

How did I get here?

I don't even know who I am.

You know,

Those kinds of people who want to explore and they're drawn into some of that weird woo woo energy work,

Tarot,

Whatever else kind of stuff,

The witchy kind of things.

And I act kind of as a guide to help introduce you.

And so I'm not showing you your path.

I'm just showing you multiple paths that you can choose from and giving you that freedom and that power to tap into your own intuition,

To learn who you are,

To find that self-awareness and then to figure out what's next once you have that self-awareness in you.

And then the other group are people who I call it post-relationship coaching instead of relationship coaching.

You know,

Something big has ended.

Maybe you've gone through divorce,

Maybe you quit your job,

Maybe moved,

But whatever it was that you had before really defined your life.

And then once that's gone,

You have to redefine like,

Who am I outside of this?

And if life doesn't look like I thought it was going to look,

How do I create it?

What do I want it to look like?

And really kind of,

Again,

Building that self-awareness,

But also in a way of like manifesting the best life that you can have,

Bringing more joy.

And it's all about connecting with your soul.

It's all about bringing more joy into your life.

It's all about having a deeper awareness of yourself and your energy and your soul alignment.

Great.

Yes.

I love what you're doing.

I think everybody has a point where they need that.

And that I agree that any kind of loss can lead to a disorienting place where you're standing at the crossroads.

And I think that's part of the reason I created the Crossroads Dream Journey,

Because it's for women that are going through those different transitions,

Whatever they might be,

Whether it's career or relationship or something just like menopause,

Whatever period that is in your life that is creating change and guiding,

Like you said.

So what are three takeaways that you hope listeners learn today?

I think for me,

The biggest takeaways are that you can always bring more joy into your life.

So even if you are in the middle of those really hard,

Tough transitions,

If you are willing to really do the work and explore your inner self and take steps to be more aligned with your soul,

You're going to be inviting more joy,

Even if it doesn't feel like it in the moment,

It's there and you can create that joy if you really want to.

And I would say also stay curious.

I think curiosity is the best way that we can approach any of this,

To not prejudge it,

To not say,

Well,

It didn't work before or whatever,

But just to stay curious of what can open up for you,

What may be there that you never even thought of.

There may be things that are bigger and better than you thought of if you're just staying curious and open to that.

And then I would also say as a takeaway to just remember that there's communities,

That there's people that are there to support,

That are there to guide you and help you when you need it.

So not that you need to go to them as the authority or the leader,

But that if you are feeling lost,

There's somebody that can point the way out of the woods or that can just hold your hand as you walk through and forge a path.

So I think that community is just as important as that self inner soul work.

Yes,

I couldn't agree more.

The support is so important,

And that's part of the reason that I'm creating this platform for all the women who have gone on their journeys or the journey is never ending.

But just so that to create a space where other women that are on their journeys can come and listen to stories about where they might go next and to always seek out,

To continue to seek whatever it is that might resonate with you and find the things that can help you go further down your path and the women that can walk with you on that path.

Yeah,

And I would say as a bonus one that if you take the path and you decide that you don't like it,

You can always change it.

That's been coming up a lot with people that I've been working with lately is like they're afraid to try something.

Like,

I'm really drawn to this thing and I really want to try it,

But I just I don't know.

I don't know.

And I'm like,

You don't have to marry it.

Like if try it,

If you don't like it,

Do something else.

Stop doing it.

It doesn't have to be like your lifelong commitment to try a new job or to try living someplace else or to learn something different.

Take the class.

You know,

You don't have to go any further than that.

You don't have to finish the class.

But if you're drawn to it,

There's a reason.

So check it out and try it.

And so I think just being kinder to ourselves and allowing ourselves a little more freedom.

Yes,

Thank you for that.

That is also very important.

And thank you very much,

Jen Pearson,

For being here today.

I really appreciate it.

Thanks for having me.

I enjoyed the talk.