FIREWALKING AND REWIRING MY BRAIN

[Jerrymooney]

I’ve always been a little bit of a thrill seeker. I’ve skydived, kayaked class V whitewater, skied double black diamond slopes and all of these activities have profoundly awakened me to life. None of them, however, had as dramatic of an effect on me as walking on fire.

Unlike the other activities, I didn’t expect I would ever walk on fire. It sounded stupid, pointless and like a freak show. However, that all changed when I met a shaman named Wytomi at a sweat lodge and he planted a seed in my mind.

It started when I was exploring a path of self care and gratitude to improve my life balance, when I met Wytomi. He put us all through various rituals and it was mystical and interesting, but not cathartic. That day I was talking to the shaman and he brought up the power of fire walking. Just his mention of the activity made my spine crawl. It scared me. Merely talking about fire walking caused a panic inside of me that was so unfamiliar that I was baffled.

After that day I reflected on the shaman’s recommendation that I fire walk and how profoundly it upset me. Because simply talking about it created such deep anxiety, I decided I had to examine why. One conclusion I came to was where I put my faith. When I kayaked or skied, I put faith in my skills. When I skydived, I put faith in the equipment, i.e. the parachute and the harness. But I had no idea where I would put faith in walking on burning coals. My faith said, this will hurt and may injure me badly. Ultimately I determined that if something scared me this badly, it was something I simply had to do. I didn’t want to become a prisoner to my fears.

http://www.zenruption.com/zenlife/3/19/firewalkl