055: Shamanic Activation in the Modern Age With My Teacher Malaika of InMyElements

Namaste, it's Sahara Rose. And welcome back to the Highest Self podcast, a place where we discuss what makes you your soul's highest evolvement. I am jumping with joy to share today's episode with you because it is seriously a full circle in my life. Today I am interviewing myself, my teacher, my shamanic teacher, Malaika, all about five elements, shamanic dance activation, the work that she does, the body healing, the balance of the divine, feminine, masculine energies, all of the juicy things that really transformed my life. And I got to interview her and I'm so excited to share it with you. I talk a lot about my experience studying under Malaika when I was living in Bali in the episode, about how I left everything and moved to Bali and all of the traumas I was facing before and how I really learned how to connect with my body and the shamanic shaking and moving and just releasing traumas that I was holding onto in my body that I was not even aware of at that time, through my own life and my ancestral lineage and all of the things that affect us on a psychosomatic level that may not be in our normal perspective. So in today's episode, we talk about all about what it means really to be in the body, what the elements are about, how do you dance the elements? What is shamanism? How do we honor the womb, how do we connect with our ancestors? She shares with us her journey, about how she became a shaman, about how she moved to Africa and the dancing she would do all night in African tribes and calling forth the ancestors that would come about. I don't want to give it all away, but so much juicy stuff in this episode. So I'm really excited to share this truly sacred and ceremonial woman with you who has definitely ecstatically changed my life. Before we get started, I want to give a little shout out to the sponsor of this podcast, four Sigmatic. Four Sigmatic is a mushroom elixir company. They take medicinal mushrooms and make them into really easy to take in beverages. They're all in individual served packets. They have so many different varieties from Reishi, which is one that I take every day. It's really good for healing your adrenals and calming your system down and helping your body deal with stress more easily, which is something that I think we all could use a little bit more of. They have cordyceps, which allow your body to take in more oxygen. So it's really good if you work out a lot. If you are a runner or an athlete, it's scientifically proven to really bring up your endurance. And it's a really good replacement for coffee too. They even have a coffee cordyceps, which gives you that energy of coffee. But using the mushroom so that high doesn't crash down after they have chaga, which is considered the queen of mushrooms, and reishi, which is also very. I've talked about Reishi, Very, very calming. They have lion's mane, which is another very energizing one. So I did an interview with the founder, Tarot, so check that out. It's I think episode 47 and we talked all about the healing mushrooms and what they do for our body. So if you want to try it yourself. Four Sigmatic has offered high self podcast listeners a 15% off discount if you just go on. Four Sigmatic F O U R S I G M a t I c.com Sahara S a h a r a you will get 15% off your mushrooms. I also love the hot chocolate one that is so good. It has the Reishi in it. It's called Chill Out Vibes. So you're like drinking hot chocolate and with the extra chilling benefits of the reishi mushroom. So check that out. Enjoy your mushroom elixir while listening to this podcast. It's going to be the full experience without further ado. Malaika. Malaika, welcome to the Highest Self podcast. It's so great to have you here.

Thank you so much. Sahara is like absolutely so fantastic to hear your voice again after all those years. I'm honored to be on your podcast.

Oh my God, what a dream. And we were just chatting about how much has happened in four years. All thanks to really the seeds of growth that you implanted in me during our time together. So thank you.

Yeah, well, thank you. And thank you for bearing such sweet fruit.

So the first question that I want to ask you is, what makes you your highest self?

What makes me my highest self? My highest self is me. Showing up for me in all my authenticity is me tuning into my feelings and being a witness of my thoughts. And when my thoughts spiral into something that I'm not, to remind myself that I truly am a divine spark of the universe, like all of us, and to do some sort of practice to bring myself back to that awareness.

I love that. So beautiful. So you really do so much. From shamanic arts to Tantra and the African dance and everything in between. So can you share a little bit about your journey and how you got to where you are?

I come from a family. I was born in Toronto. My mother is a Jamaican and my father is from England. And When I was about 12 years old in Canada, somebody asked me once, you know, well, what was I? And I was like, well, I just thought I was Canadian. And they were like, yeah, yeah, but there's something there. And then I asked my mother, and, you know, she just said, if anyone ever asks you that, tell them you're Spanish. And I knew that was just an absolute outright lie. You know, it was like, why on earth would you be lying about that? And it kind of set me on this path of, like, wanting to know about my ancestry, you know, that that caused a lot of problems in my family, you know, because it was kind of. They had swept everything under the carpet and just wanted to be white and Canadian, and I just knew there was something else there. So spirit really guided the whole journey and took me all over the world, which I'm super, super grateful for, to my ancestors took me back to the Caribbean. I lived in the Caribbean for four years. I've always done what I loved. So I wanted to be a scuba instructor. So I became a scuba instructor, and I taught in the Caribbean for five years, then in Australia, and shortly after that, I left after two years, and I conceived my son, who, his father was also Jamaican. And that took me on a whole journey of, like, doing this deep ancestral healing and seeing that there was something in it which then took me to Africa. And I spent a year living there in Africa with two small children. And while I was in Africa, I learned how to do African dance, just because they dance for everything. Like, every time a baby's born, there's a ceremony. Every time there's initiation or child coming of age, there's dance in the ceremony, a funeral, there's dance and a ceremony. And I just really learned a lot about this connection to music, dance, celebration, ceremony, and everyday life. And when I came back to Australia, I really felt that was missing. And so started teaching African dance and started my kind of love affair with Africa, going back and forth, you know, learning more. And I was also always drawn to the more spiritual side of the dance practice. And then after kind of a very long time of teaching African dance, you know, I got. I got really tired of sort of trying to teach white people how to move like black people when they didn't know how to move like themselves. You know, it was like. And the ecstasy that I had experienced in Africa, they weren't quite getting there because they were getting stuck in their heads again with, you know, choreographies. Because African dance is actually quite complicated, you know, like, the. The timing and it's, you know, it's not natural for a Westerner's body to move like that. But for me, I guess it came very natural because of my Jamaican back my heritage, you know, So I really realized that people were actually not even in their bodies. So, you know, it didn't matter, like getting it from that place of like deep in the roots of their bodies and their bones. And so I started bringing in the ancestral work and realizing, like, especially in Australia, there was so much shame around their ancestors and where they came from, which I found, like, just crazy, you know, they would rather say they were from the moon and Mars than say they were from England. And so this kind of like triggered me onto like a whole thing of, you know, if you don't love where you come from, you know, and own that part of you because it's part of your DNA and your body, your physical body, then there's also this self loathing towards your physical body. And then I started like really diving into looking at how many people actually were completely in disassociation from their body and complete disassociation from the earth. And I had a real love affair. I've always had like an incredible love affair with the earth. When I was really young, I used to take food out and leave it under the trees in my backyard in Toronto, you know, and, and my mother would get upset with me and what are you doing, child? You're doing voodoo or something, you know, and, and, and you know, unbeknownst to me, it's not, you know, now I live in Bali where they feed the spirits all the time. And that's what I was doing. You know, it was just like a very natural thing for me to be in touch with the unseen realms. And, you know, so spirit kind of guided me on that journey. And you know, I've been very, very sad with the path that our capitalistic dominant culture has taken us in, which has so little regard for the earth. And you know, when I was in America and working with so many people that were on so many different medications for everything from depression, anxiety, you know, overwhelms, stress, just whatever it was, you know, on Ritalin for Addh and all these boxes and things they were putting people into, and for me, the core cause of all of it was just an absolute disconnection from community, from themselves, from their own body and from the earth. And if you're disconnected from the earth, then you're not going to be nice to it. You're going to just think that throwing your Pollution is an okay thing to do, or chopping down the trees is like, there's no consequences with that. Whereas if you, if you rebuild this awareness that we are, we are part of the web, we are not the full web, you know, we are part of this incredible web of life. And it's such an incredible gift to have a body and to have a consciousness that's residing inside flesh that animates, you know, the consciousness, animates the flesh. And we're creators create trixes if we're feminine and, you know, so bringing that awareness through dance and movement to get people back into their bodies has been just my life's work. You know, I guess I've just been doing ceremonies and rituals and everything is involved, like movement and community and circle and just, you know, to bring people back together again. And, you know, a lot of people, they have that experience when they come and do something with me of like, wow, I didn't even realize that that was the piece that was missing, you know, because it's not a. You know, everybody's kind of looking and searching for something, but they don't even know until they have a sensation of it. You know, this sensation of circle and community and connection and it's like opening the cage and setting your heart free, you know, and that Mother Earth really needs each one of us right now to ignite that spark that is unique to you in what you came here to do. And, you know, our corporate world and our, you know, capitalistic world that we've set up has sort of goes against all of that, you know, in fact, it promotes self loathing, it promotes that unworthiness because basically when you're feeling like that, you know, then the, the marketing agenda can market anything to you. Buy this and you'll be happy. Buy that and you'll find your happiness. Buy this and then you'll feel free, you know, and it's like, well, it's all bullshit, really. So, you know, because the only. There is no such thing as financial freedom. I know plenty, plenty of millionaires and they can be the most unhappy people in the world, you know, so. But the freedom comes when you're, when you're living your life on purpose, when you're doing what you came here to do. So, you know, I love to dance. I've always loved to dance. You know, with my Jamaican ancestry, that was just like a natural to me. I love connecting people and so I connect people to themselves and to each other. And I love, you know, bringing people into nature and, you know, letting Them have that big aha moment that, wow, I'm actually part of all of this. Like, something so much bigger than just, you know, my little life and my little story, you know, we are part of something great, and that's something to be celebrated. And, you know, and a lot of people just have a lot of blockages and limitations, and that's stopping them from living their life on purpose, you know, like you did when you first came to see me. And I'm, like, so incredibly proud of you that, you know, wow, look at. Look at where your life has soared to, you know, just from that permission to go and say, you know, I'm not going to seek anyone else's approval. I'm just going to live my life. And every time I hear another testimonial of someone who's following that, I feel like, okay, I'll keep going. I'll keep going.

I mean, it's your dharma. We need you. So I would love to know, you know, you work a lot with sexuality and connecting with the womb space, and I think that's such an important issue for especially young women to. So what practices do you recommend to just connect back into that sacral chakra, that womb, and having a healthy relationship with your sensuality and your sexuality?

Yes. Well, you know, I've been. I've been on the tantric path for a very long time. I was married for 21 years, and early on in the piece, we did an advanced tantra training course, and it was. It was kind of the only thing that we did. And we just took everything that we learned in that tantra training course, and we lived it. So we actually were living a tantric existence without kind of calling it that or naming it that. And back in those days, you know, tantra had very little to do with sexuality. It had everything to do with worship of the Goddess. For me, tantra, that's the path. It's the worship of the Goddess. It's the practice of yoga. So the practice of, you know, doing your yoga practice to bring balance to mind, body, and spirit. It's your Ayurveda. So your diet and knowing what your dosha is and keeping yourself balanced so that you are a balanced human being and living your life on purpose. And, you know, I was doing the women's work for a very, very long time. In Australia, I started the bless ceremony, which is a ceremony to bless the way for a newborn baby coming into the world. Because this is something that, you know, all indigenous people have done. And by losing these sacred rituals, we've lost connection to what it means to be a human being. And by reinventing them in a modern day society and bringing people back, it's like something that's in our DNA that we just all go, ah, I remember this. It's not anything new, it's just that we've forgotten and we've been like on a rat wheel, on the rat race, going round and round and round in circles and missing these things. So for and for, you know, in our culture, like I was in Egypt just a few years ago and it was kind of fascinating being there, doing womb work in the place where the womb was first repressed, you know, because if we go back and back and back, you know, all of the Egyptian temples, there's always the God and the goddess. Like in India, the God and goddess, you know, always pitch side by side holding hands, you know, the bare breasted, you know, the feminine form being celebrated. And then when the great religions were created, Christianity, Islam and Judaism, they all became male dominated with, you know, I mean, what comes to mind when we say God? Immediately we think of a male in the sky, you know, and the stories that we've told ourselves through these stories of, you know, God being this angry man that's gonna, you know, strike you down with lightning if you do something wrong. And just by being born a woman, you're already like dirty and, you know, and your sexuality is a sin and, you know, all this stuff, it's like, look what's happened, you know, if we. Our sexual energy is the most powerful and potent energy that we have on the planet and it's so incredibly misused right now and you can't, you know, Einstein said you cannot destroy energy, you just transform it and change its form. So the shadow of our sexuality is what we see with pornography being on the rise, with Internet pornography, with child sexual slave trade. You know, it's just rife in our culture because we have this energy that we cannot deny. And we've been in such denial of it because of the stories that we've told ourselves about it and because of the lack of equality that women have felt that they don't have their place anymore. So we've been sort of laying, you know, hiding underneath the covers, you know, being ashamed about who we are as women and what the womb actually is. And the womb should be like the utmost worshiped thing on the planet. And it used to be in all the ancient cultures that worshiped the goddess, you know, the womb was just seen as like so incredibly sacred because without it, hey, there's no life. Yeah, they're never going to come up with a human being that, you know, is so perfected, like the human being that is birthed through a woman's vagina. And so all of it is incredibly sacred and needs to return to that sacredness again. Needs to return to that honoring again. Needs. Women need to, you know, reclaim their blood and reclaim the sacredness of their blood and their offering to the earth. I mean, do you know that, you know, before in ancient ceremonies, the blood of the feminine was offered to the crops of the field because it's full of minerals and everything that we eat that's good goes through us and comes out in our blood. You give that to the crops, the crops are going to grow really well. And when that was taken away and women then became shamed and dirty, you know, with the blood rights, and the religions took that away. Then came war, you know, because the earth needing this blood, and it became more blood, still blood, but coming in the way of death. And so life is the womb, the womb is life, war. And, you know, when we disconnect from that feminine, and I'm not saying feminine being, just in the woman, you know, the feminine that has been repressed in the masculine as well in men, they've suffered even more almost as well, you know, from this whole repression. When we see the rebirth of tantra coming back into society again, it's because this energy, this shakti energy on the planet, which is life force energy. So it's like these are universal principles that in the Hindu religion, they understood these principles of the universe, the balance of the universe, and they were personified into gods and goddesses, but they're actually principles that move through each human being. And the stories, like the stories in the Bhagavad Gita and in the tantric stories and mythologies, they are stories to tell us how to regain that balance. So even the. Even the Karma Sutra temples in India, they weren't necessarily positions for you to have sexual pleasure. They were metaphors of what ways you needed to bring the ida and pingala nadis that are inside of each person, this polarity of the masculine and the feminine to bring it into balance within your own heart. And so the sacred union is actually the union that's happening in your own heart. And when you are a whole being and there's not this need of the other, and you come to this place of worship and the magna is coming to the feminine in worship of her body as an emanation of the goddess and the Sacred union that's happening. It's an offering back to the goddess. It's an offering back to that shakti moving principle of the universe. And you're bringing in the presence of the Shiva, you know, pure presence in honoring all that wants to move through the female form. So you know, what I've been seeing just all over the world is this rise in all the full on sexuality. I guess the pendulum swings so far one way, it's got to swing so far the other way. And people are like, yeah, okay, we're coming out of the closet from all our guilt and shame and we want to reclaim this. But there's been a lot of trauma, not tantra. People are going, going because they want to discover something about them and then finding themselves, you know, getting re traumatized sexually because there's been a lot of misuse of the word tantra and a lot of misuse of the practices. And you know, it's, it's kind of like yoga. You know, yoga is this huge, incredible path of life. It's a path, it's, it's a, it's a pathway of life. And when we just take asana practice, like just doing the physical body practice of yoga, that is like one little piece of yoga and it leads to imbalance because we're not taking the whole pie. We're not, we're not looking at the doshas. We're not, you know, Ayurveda, tantra and yoga used to be, you know, all synonymous. They were one thing and they were, you know, you went to practitioners who were in, you know, masters of this to learn what your dosha was. And then you got a practice that was suitable for your dosha to maintain balance, to bring about balance. And then your tantra practices were rituals that you did within your marriage to sanctify your sacred union. So it takes it out of this, you know, animalistic going into like being locked down in our root chakra, which leads to sexual addiction. And we know, you know, from all the great teachings in Buddhism that all desire just leads to suffering. And you know, all our addictions are stuck in our root chakra. So if we're going to be stuck in third dimensional reality, that's where it's going to happen. So there's a lot of powers and I've come to realize, like through my shamanic practices and you know, different journeys with medicine and everything else that I had a very strong download when I was in Thailand a few years ago, you know, quite a few years ago, like six years ago. That the powers that be that do not want feed off a human's ignorance and feed off of us staying in the darkness of our. Our own power and our own. And they don't want us to awaken, you know, because if we awaken, hey, we're not going to support the machine that's been running for a very long time. You know, we're not going to need to buy anything because we're going to realize it's all inside. And, you know, we're going to be empowered. We're not going to go to jobs that we hate and suffer doing what we don't like, because we're going to realize that we are the creator of our own life and we're going to start creating what we want and we're going to be sovereign beings. And that doesn't serve the corporate machine. So there's a large influence out there that's trying to keep us in the darkness, you know, and so that's when we have to become even more vigilant with our practices, even more vigilant with where our thoughts are, where our intentions are, and not only just intention, but attention. So, you know, the powers that be know that if you're addicted to something, it's very easy to control. You just pull you by the nose and drag you here, drag you there, and drag you there, here. Addiction is just the easiest way to control human beings. And, you know, they've used the best of human minds not to better humanity, but to control and manipulate humanity for their own agendas. So that's where we still have our sovereignty to be in control and control your addictions, including sexual addictions, to see what this sexual energy really is. And what it really is is this life force moving through you. You know, it's. And when you allow that Shakti energy to rip through you, she burns all the illusions and all the false ego and all of the things that you think you are. You come a state of deep allowing and surrendering to this energy that's like, you know, just flowing through this planet. You know, when you watch a river, the river is flowing downstream. When you try and push something upstream, it's struggle. So when you turn that boat around and you go with the flow, it's like you just said about, you know, when you. When you got home and one thing led to another and you were guided, you were divinely guided to, you know, who was going to help you with the book and who was going to publish it. And, you know, then Deepak Chopra signing on with you I mean, all these things, it's just when you finally surrendered to your divine purpose and you allowed that Shakti energy, that was like bursting at the seams, you know, with you saying, this is what I want to do, this is what I want to do. But I have this repression of, you know, my parents not allowing me to do it. But when you finally surrender to that place of going, this is why I'm just here, this. And I take all risks, and it's scary as hell because you're stepping outside of the paradigm that, you know, everybody's being held in so tightly that stepping off the edge is literally being the fool in the fool card. You know, it's stepping off the edge going, oh my God, I don't know what's going to happen. But it's better than being in a cage. And you know, it's funny because you know me, I combined all the shamanism and everything with all the work that I do. And so, you know, the releasing of birds is just like, you know, gives me. There's nothing that gives me more, greater pleasure than buying birds. You know, I'm here in Bali and there's a lot of birds in cages. And you know, I live in a beautiful jungle, amazing place in nature, and I look at the sky and I just go, wow. If that was your playground and you were limited to this, you know, tiny little one foot cage, you know, that's the metaphor of that I use for people who are living their lives stuck in a, in a really tiny box. You know, only you have that key to open the door. And, you know, one person in Bali, you know, because I was setting birds free and I had a video of it posted on, on YouTube or something. And she saw it, she said, oh, you've just killed those birds and da, da, da, da. And I thought, maybe they will die, maybe they will survive, maybe they will die. But I know for a fact, because I go to the place where I, you know, I always go to a different place. So it's not like they're buying birds to supply me, they're buying them anyways. And I, you know, find ones that are healthy and that have been captured and, you know, no freedom. And I set them free. And if they die in the cage, like when they die in the cages, they get fed to these little worms that are then fed to the other birds that eat worms. That's their life cycle. You know, you're gonna sit in that cage, you're gonna die in that cage, and then when you die, your body is going to be fed to worms to be fed to the other birds that are in cages. So, you know, that's a metaphor of life, you know, and how people are living like that. And so the risk of, like, opening that door and setting them free into this, like, huge expanse, this huge jungle, this huge playground, you know, and I set them free and going, yeah, maybe. Maybe they'll only live today. But wouldn't that one day of freedom be worth a life in a cage? Wouldn't that one, you know, wouldn't that one. One day of freedom be worth it? And this morning I was doing my yoga practice, and two of the birds who I set free because I keep them with me for a while and I talk to them and I, you know, I let them know what's coming, you know, that they're going to be set free. And I play music to them and, you know, so. So they kind of. I have a rapport with these birds, and they. They come back to this coconut tree. So this morning when I was doing my. My yoga and dance practice upstairs, and they came into the coconut tree, and first there was one, and it was just like, sitting there and started making some sounds and singing to me and, you know, letting me see him there. And. And then, you know, over comes the other one, the meat, because I get a. And a lacky, lackey, you know, one boy, one girl, and. And, you know, when I set them free and. And hope that they mate and, you know, warn them, stay away from the humans, because we're not, you know, we're putting them in cages. And that's. That's another metaphor of, like, you know, we came up with the construction of, you know, because we love the sound of birds. To put a bird in the cage. And so we come up with all of everything that we have in this world. We created it all, you know, and we can recreate it all again. It's not fixed, you know, the law of impermanence. All structures are impermanent, and that's what we need to remember. And dancing for me, is a way that when you dance, you find your wings. You start dissolving the cage that's around your own heart. By getting in touch with the Shakti life force that flows through every single person. As long as you're breathing, Shakti is flowing through you. And it doesn't matter whether you're a woman or a man, when a man is lost just in the flow, or when he's playing his guitar and he's just in the flow, that Shakti that's moving through him. You know, when you're making love through both people, through the masculine and the feminine, that's Shakti, who's flowing through both of you. And Shiva is the pure presence. That's the eye contact. You know, when you have eye contact with someone and you're making love and you're not lost in some fantasy or something else, and you're actually really present with another soul, and you're making this, you know, your sexual energy and offering back to source and back to the goddess, that's when it takes it to the next level. And that's heart expanding. That's, you know, like what I'm seeing in this tantric world at the moment. Is there a lot focus on the heart, you know, and a lot of focus on genitals and, you know what they do. And it's like they just. They just do what they're gonna do. You know what I mean? It's like, as long as everything's healthy and when you're healthy and happy and whole, you know, all that stuff just comes natural. You know what I mean? It's like natural women to have orgasm. It's natural for us to produce Amrita, you know, the female ejaculation. You don't need to learn these things. What we do need to learn is how to stay present and how to keep our hearts wide open and to face our fears and to be with our pain and our shadows and to be courageous enough to dance through them. So, you know, that's the most important thing, really, in my eyes, anyway. And, you know, I'm a work in progress. I'm dealing with stuff all the time. You know, it's like, one day life is amazing, and I'm on top of the world, and the next day I'm facing my shadow or something else. And, you know, I have my own processes to try and keep myself on track. And that's all we can do, really. So. Yeah, of course.

Well, you're doing an amazing job. To me, you're perfect. You got it. You got it all. So I would love for you to explain for listeners what is five elements Shamanic dance activation?

So, as I said, I started with the African dance and realized that, you know, got tired of teaching white people how to move like black people, and they didn't know how to move like themselves and, you know, wanted people to get more connected. I loved my yoga practice, but I was finding yoga was, like, too yang in some ways. You know, like, it was very, you know, structured. Yes. Yeah. And just not flowing, you know, I was like, man, I never seen a dog do downward dog like that. Like they come into it with a flow, you know, they stretch their body. So. So I created this. Oh, and then I did. Ayurveda was a part of my, of my yoga teacher training, tantra and Ayurveda and it was like a light bulb going off through all my rules and ceremonies. I'd been doing like fire walks and sweat lodges and, you know, just everything to do with the four elements. But I hadn't like just dropped into the fifth element. And the fifth element is space ether, you know, and there's more ether than there is anything else. And literally it was like a light bulb going off inside. And the whole dance practice as it is was, was like literally downloaded. So it's basically a way, it's a practice, it's a deep meditation to support people to get out of their heads, get back in their bodies, reconnect to the earth, reconnect to each other, come back into flow, reconnect to their breath so that their mind can like give their mind a task. Because our minds never stop. The thoughts never stop and go away. You know, the illusion of, you know, deep meditation. And I'm going to, you know, have a quiet mind. It's like that doesn't really, you know, as illusionary as financial freedom. It's, you know, you're, the thoughts are just there, but you're not taking the bait, you know, so you have to give this monkey mind a task. So that's why we breathe throughout the practice. And as you know, the breath is like super, super powerful because it takes us into altered states of consciousness which is, you know, where many of us have gone through medicine journeys. And through my medicine journeys, I've realized like, I don't want to have to rely on anything to have this experience because I know that it's all inside of me. So this is really an empowerment practice to take people into that state of deep self love connection, grounding to the earth, shaking to move, the fear that gets lodged in the nervous system. If we see, you know, if we witness animals, like if you witness on the savannah, a little, a little gazelle that's being chased by a lion. And if the lion doesn't it then it's had like a huge adrenaline boost to run and get away and escape. And once it's escaped and once it's found safety, it will go and shake its body for like 15 minutes, releasing that fear out of its system. So now we as Human beings, we have fear, like, happen, you know, scary things happen right from the day we're born, you know, come out into the world, you're smacked on the bum. Your umbilical cord has got your life supply. For some men, they're, they're, they're foreskin, their most sensitive part of their body, their genitals is cut, you know, like circumcising veil, you know, at birth. It's barbaric. You know what I mean? There's a lot of trauma going on on this planet and a lot of fear. And, and so we need to dive deeply into the felt sense of the body because this body is like ancient, it's so old. And by shaking we release the traumas and the fears that are held in the actual tissues of the body. And then we bring the mind into focus and balance, meditation and connection. After we've like exhausted that physical trauma, then we can like deeply rest and, and have a sensation and a taste of what it feels like to be connected to that place that's always content, that's always happy, that's calm, that loves you so unconditionally, you know, and is connected to, you know, you feel that deep connection to the one, you know, whatever you want to call that, God, goddess, consciousness, source, but you feel that deep, deep, deep connection that you're connected to that.

I love it.

And, and to great world music because I love music the best music, good music, you know, I like good music that makes you want to move. Because of, you know, my experience of living in Africa and going to ceremonies there. I mean, the drums would just go, like, go. I really miss that, you know, that energy at a ceremony that just on human energy alone, we would get so incredibly high and dance until the sun came up with no, no drugs and no intoxicants and you would be higher than a kite. And it was always like at about 4 o' clock in the morning when the portal would open from that human vibration of vibrating energy at a really fast pace with the drums and everything, that suddenly the ancestors would come through and people would start getting possessed and then they would go into some sort of possession ceremony where you could commune with the ancestors and they'd actually be there in the ceremony. And I really miss that, you know, and I can see how in our culture, you know, we're all longing for it. Like, I go to a lot of festivals and do this work at a lot of festivals as well. And, you know, it's always fascinating to me to see, you know, the younger generation Is, you know, they're waking up, they're getting it. Yeah. So, you know, there's this whole thing is happening, but it's really. It's really mixed in with the drugs, you know, it's really mixed in with the drug culture. So unfortunately, that Shiva presence with what you're doing at the festival and, you know, it's unfortunately is really mixed in with the drug culture. So we're missing that opportunity of having that community gathering without all the drugs and everything else, you know, and that's really sad. So, you know, because we can't get there without. Without that.

Absolutely. So where can people connect with you? And when are your upcoming retreats?

Okay, so I'm living in Bali in paradise, and my first retreat is called Soul to Soul, which is a retreat for men and women. We will be doing soft intimacy and tantric exercises as well as each day doing a different dance practice, a different process. And the food as well is all vegan, vegetarian. And it's in the most epic location in the rice fields here in Ubud. And that's coming up in March very soon, March 19th to the 24th. And it's all food, accommodation, everything provided. So all you have to do is just turn up and have this incredible experience. Yeah, it's really pretty amazing. And you can find out more at my website, which is www.inmyelements.com. that's elements with an S and can find me on Facebook as well. And then coming up, I have a facilitators training, which the prerequisite is Elemental Awakening Retreat, which is a retreat that happens from the 16th to the 24th of April and after that you have a couple of days in between. That's again, a deep connection and going through our shadow work to bring you up to par to actually be step into the role of being a facilitator. And the facilitator Training begins on the 24th of May and goes until the 5th of, sorry, 24th of April, until the 5th of May, 2018. And that's held on the beach. It's almost full. There's a few places left because I keep it intimate so that each person gets a really good quality private training. It's really amazing experience. It's much more than just a dance training, it's a life training and it's right on the ocean. It's like epic location. Again, it's all food and accommodation are included. And if you want to find out more, you can find me at my website, www.inmyelements with an S on the end dot com. And I do private sessions from home, private tantra sessions at home, healing shamanic sessions as well, and private initiation ceremonies. I did that just recently and that was pretty epic with groups of just two people. If there's two people that can't come to a retreat but want to do a private initiation ceremony, I'm offering those as well. Here in Bali. It's amazing places to connect to nature and reconnect to yourself. And it really supports the work that I do. And yeah. So I thank you so, so much.

For listening and we're hopefully going to get you to come.

Yeah. Oh, yes, I'm going to come to America. My niece is getting married and my son lives over there at the moment. And. And so I'm going to be coming over to America and if anybody wants to organize something early July, I'm planning to be in the States and I'm going to be heading over to New York and then I'm hoping, going to be heading down to la. And I would, yeah, just love to offer if someone wants to organize, I just really like to turn up and do my thing and not have to do all the organizing. That kind of. Not shaman's forte.

Yes. So this is a call to anyone who's like, I want to do this training. I'm all about it. And wants to get involved in making this also a career path. Contact Malaika. Go on her website. We want to organize a U.S. retreat. I will come too. We'll do it in Arizona, California, anywhere. So contact her. We need to make this happen this July.

Yay. Fantastic. Well, listen, I love you so much, Sahara, and it's been a joy to hear how incredibly fruitful your life has blossomed into. I'm like, so, so happy for that. And I can't wait to give you a big hug and a squeeze and have a dance and a shake with you.

Yes, I can't wait as well. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with all of us and for the huge transformation that you've made in my life as well.

Oh, thank you, darling. You're doing the work.

Thank you.

Keep up the good work.

Namaste. Wow. What a treat it was to be able to share this profound woman with you guys who has so deeply transformed my life. So you heard her say that she wants to do a retreat here in the us you just need someone to help her organize it because shamans are not good at organization. So if anyone wants to do that, reach out to her in my elements.com and I definitely want to come too because her work is amazing. I did her Shiva Shakti cacao ceremony, which was so, so, so healing. She did it here in California a few years ago so she's totally accessible for us. She's down to come teach anywhere, just as long as someone brings it together. And she, she's looking for people to help work with her. She's new to the online world, so if anyone and I mentioned when I was living in Bali I was helping market for her and that's how I got to do her program for a discounted price. So if her work resonates with you, there's definitely ways to work with her. She's super, super easy and nice and kind and she'll definitely make it happen. So, so excited. And if you loved this episode, I would love for you to leave a review in the iTunes store and I will gift you the first half of my unreleased book, Eat right for your mind body Type for free. All you have to do is screenshot the review and send it to me at Sahara. S a h a r aatt e-a dash t feel f dash e dash e dash l fresh f r dash e dash s dash h dot com eat right for your mind body type was the first book I ever wrote about Ayurveda. It's the not released. It's not going to be released. It is the book that I wrote while I was in Bali while I was training with Mike. I was actually writing this book. It infuses ancient Ayurvedic practices with modern nutritional science and it's something that has been sitting on my computer for many years now and I wanted to share it with people. I graphic designed it and edited it all myself so you'll see it has a lot of my personality and a lot of really, really good info. Everyone who's got it has been loving it so so far. So it's totally free. The first half is free for you. All you have to do is screenshot your itunes review of this podcast. You can just go on the itunes store, look up highest self podcast, write a nice review, screenshot it to me, email it to me saharaet feelfresh.com and I will send you over the first half of my unreleased book. Thank you guys so much for listening. I hope this interview expanded your mind, touched your heart, and made you feel more connected to your body. Namaste.