Ancient Healing for Modern Grief: A Shamanic Reiki Journey

Tina Clarke, a shamanic Reiki master teacher, joins us to share her fascinating journey into the world of metaphysical healing and spiritual exploration. Together, we navigate through the often unspoken realms of trauma, self-care, and spirituality, offering insights into how these areas intertwine in our everyday lives. Tina opens up about her path since 2011 into shamanism and Reiki, shedding light on spirit shamanism and the healing potential of the universal life force. This conversation promises to challenge your perceptions of time, past lives, and ancestral trauma, inviting you to consider new perspectives on spiritual practices.

Reflecting on the painful yet transformative journey of grief, we discuss the cultural aversion to discussing feelings and death, especially in the aftermath of losing loved ones. My personal experiences of losing my father and the recent passing of my friend Natalie serve as poignant reminders of the importance of allowing ourselves to fully feel and process emotions. We explore movement as a powerful tool for emotional release, emphasizing the necessity of creating space for grief without judgment. Our conversation encourages embracing the connections with loved ones that transcend physical existence, and how such bonds can offer comfort and healing over time.

As we conclude this enlightening episode, the power of community and connection becomes a central theme. Sharing this conversation could provide valuable insights to those navigating similar experiences, reinforcing the notion that none of us are alone on this journey. With a gentle reminder to be kind to ourselves, we encourage listeners to explore further, whether through our website, social media, or a discovery call. Together, let's foster a supportive network where spiritual growth and emotional healing are at the forefront, and where every individual's journey is recognized and honored.

Find Tina Clarke here
www.tinakinneyclarke.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Exploring Trauma and Self-Care Practices
• 5:29 Journey Into Shamanism and Reiki
• 17:29 Navigating Grief and Emotional Healing
• 25:45 Spirituality and Connection With Loved Ones
• 36:50 Sharing Self-Care Wisdom and Connection

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Lift One Self podcast, where we break mental health stigmas through conversations. I'm your host, nat Nat, and we dive into topics about trauma and how it impacts the nervous system. Yet we don't just leave you there. We share insights and tools of self-care, meditation and growth that help you be curious about your own biology. Your presence matters. Please like and subscribe to our podcast. Help our community grow. Let's get into this. Oh, and please remember to be kind to yourself.

Speaker 2: 0:36

Welcome to the Lift One Self podcast. I am your host, Nat Nat, and I am here with a wonderful guest. Her name is Tina. I was on her podcast just recently and I have been able to bring her on to my podcast to share her with you, the listeners. So this is going to be a very juicy, delightful conversation. So, Tina, would you be gracious enough to introduce yourself to the listeners?

Speaker 3: 1:07

Sure, thank you for having me on your show. I'm excited to be here. My name is Tina Clark. I am a shamanic Reiki master teacher and I'm in the Charleston, south Carolina area, so I combine Reiki energy healing with shamanic healing and I also do terror readings, and sometimes I do mediumship readings too, and I've been doing this for 10 years. I've written a book on shamanism called Into the Tree, and I'm also co-author of a book called Holistic Mental Health, volume 2.

Speaker 2: 1:46

So you know, listeners, we're going to be right in my jam and it's really engaging when we're with open-minded people and we can go into more depth, and I'm looking forward to learning new things in this conversation. As many of you know from seeing my social media, my friend Natalie transitioned on November 27th and today is December 5th, so this is all new and fresh. So I want to engage in the dialogue about the other side of love and how we can develop healthy conversations surrounding this topic, where you know, many people feel like it's taboo or it's a bad omen, or they just want to be in complete denial of it. Yet I think it's very healthy to have these dialogues so that you can build the tools to be able to navigate in these experiences of life. Yet before we go in there, tina, would you join me in a two-minute mindful meditation so that we can ground ourselves and open our hearts to allow intuition to guide this conversation?

Speaker 3: 2:58

Yes, I would love to.

Speaker 2: 3:00

And for the listeners, as you always hear, if you are driving or using your visual, please do not close your eyes. Safety first, yet the other prompts you're able to follow through. So, tina, I'll ask you to get comfortable in your seat and, if it's safe to do so, you're going to gently close your eyes and you're going to begin breathing in and out through your nose and you're going to bring your awareness to watching your breath go in and out through your nose. You're not going to try and control your breath.

Speaker 4: 3:35

You're just going to be aware of its rhythm, allowing it to guide you in your body.

Speaker 2: 3:42

There may be some sensations or feelings coming up, and that's okay, you're safe to feel.

Speaker 4: 3:51

You're safe to let go.

Speaker 2: 3:55

Surrender the need to control, release the need to resist and just be to resist and just be. Be with your breath, drop deeper into your body. Now there may be some thoughts or memories that have popped up in your mind, and that's okay, gently bring your awareness back to your breath, creating space between the awareness and the thoughts and dropping deeper into your body allowing yourself to just be Again.

Speaker 4: 4:41

more thoughts may have popped up.

Speaker 2: 4:44

Bring your awareness to your breath.

Speaker 4: 4:49

Beginning again, creating even more space between the awareness and the thoughts and dropping even deeper into the body, allowing yourself to just be, be in the breath Now, at your own time and at your own pace you're going to gently open your eyes while still staying with your breath.

Speaker 3: 5:24

How's your heart doing? Feels good, feels peaceful.

Speaker 2: 5:29

What brought you into the work of shamanism and the work that you're doing right now?

Speaker 3: 5:37

Well, it was around 2011 when I started looking at a lot of metaphysical, esoteric topics. I was reading a lot of books, I started practicing meditation and I realized that I was clairvoyant because I could actually see things in my meditations. And 10 years ago, 2014, I took a tarot class and that was my Reiki teacher, and I loved the class so much that I decided to do all of my Reiki training with her, which took about 13 months and it was four different levels. And when I was done with that, she offered shamanism classes, so I took those as well. So I learned how to shamanic journey, I learned how to do soul retrievals and I kind of fell into psychopomp, or guiding spirits into the light, and I've been practicing ever since for some of the listeners that shamanism is like.

Speaker 2: 6:45

What does that mean? Could you give an explanation to that so they can better understand?

Speaker 3: 6:52

Yeah, so there's different types of shamanism. I mean there's herbal shamanism, where a shaman specializes in herbs for healing. There's spirit shamanism, which is what I practice. Every shaman has a very close connection to the spirit world and their spirit helpers and guides, but that's mainly what I operate in. I actually can journey to the spirit world to get guidance or answers to questions that my client has or I may have, and sometimes I end up going into other lifetimes. A lot of times that happens. So I also I'm going to start calling it time travel, because that's what it is, because you're going into different events on the timeline that are affecting you or whoever you're journeying for.

Speaker 3: 7:49

And a soul retrieval is just a special kind of journey where the focus is to go retrieve lost pieces of yourself. What does that mean? What does that mean? You could have a piece of your energy left in a really negative event or a really happy event actually. And how do you know you need a soul retrieval? Most of us do, since we're multidimensional beings that have had many, many lives. I'm pretty sure we left our energies out there, you know, many times. So you'll feel like you're missing something. Usually if clients say, hey, I feel like I'm missing something. I don't know what it is. I'll propose doing a shamanic soul retrieval for them, and what I'll do is I'll do the journey and I go, collect those pieces of energies that are from them and bring them back to them now and integrate it and, as a result, they would feel more energetic and more whole so some of the listeners are probably like what are you talking about?

Speaker 2: 9:05

lifetimes and energy and dimensions? Because a lot of people are very, you know, one dimensional or they're listening to the construct that man has created in beliefs. Yet I'm sure that in this conversation, if they are open, there's certain little tingling of the vagus nerve that's allowing an opening, that you know what. Some of this sounds familiar, some of this sounds validating to me and for any of the listeners that may be intrigued about. I want to hear a little bit more about this.

Speaker 2: 9:40

So when you say the lifetimes, would people understand this as karma? Would this be like past life regressions that people talk about? For me, how I see it, is nervous systems replicating other nervous systems that imprint energy and imprint expressions that, if the charge wasn't released, it gets passed on and passed on, and so all of a sudden, you're remembering certain lifetimes that you're like this wasn't part of mine, yet it feels very familiar. Or there could be certain dense emotions that you're having that don't really match up with your experience right now, yet you're carrying past lifetimes of ancestors' experiences or whatnot. Does that sound accurate in how you define it?

Speaker 3: 10:32

Yeah, I think there is an ancestral component to this where we could inherit maybe trauma or unresolved emotions coming from our ancestors. And it doesn't mean that every child is gonna inherit that, but sometimes it's one of the children or the grandchildren will really tap into it or be attuned to that and then they'll be feeling what your grandpa felt, you know and speaking, and usually the vocabulary is indicative that this is inherited, because you'll have a child saying things that doesn't make any sense, so it's something that they inherited from them. But then also, we are a soul and we're having multiple lifetimes right now, because there's no actually past present or there's no past or future. Everything's happening right now, like, if you think of time, as in a circle instead of a line align. So I'm having a lifetime now in 2024 in Charleston, south Carolina, but I'm also an Egyptian priestess and the great pyramid in 3000 BC at the same time.

Speaker 3: 11:56

So this concept, I know, is tough for people to understand, but I think it's comforting because it means that you can actually change the past if you want to, and I believe that there are beings from the future that have come back to this timeline too. So everything is flexible, it's changeable, it's not written in stone, yeah, and so some of us have been around the block a lot. I know I've had a lot of lives, and when I dived into this rabbit hole I was keeping track of them, and when I got to number 50, I said, okay, I've had a lot of lives and I don't need to track them anymore. I get it, you know so. And then there might be some newer being. You know newer beings here that haven't had a lot of lives on earth, or had lives and other planets and not necessarily earth. So we have the whole gamut here here Now.

Speaker 2: 13:04

some of the listeners have probably heard about Reiki, yet some might be like what is this word? Now, Could you explain it to them and what it is, so that they have a better understanding? Also?

Speaker 3: 13:18

Sure. So Reiki means universal life force. It's also the same as the words chi or the force in Star Wars. It's all the same thing, and it's this energy that we are connected to that makes us alive, and when we're done with this earth suit or this physical body, we're still our essence, our energy still lives on. So Reiki is a hands-on, gentle practice. It was called Reiki 100 years ago in Japan by Makau Yasui. He was a monk that studied many different modalities, and in meditation he received healing symbols, and those are the Reiki symbols that we use when we're practicing Reiki. So it's very simple. We just practitioners, connect to universal life force and we pull that energy into our crown, top of our head chakra, and through our throat, and into our heart and out our hands, and we just send that energy either to ourselves or to a recipient as I said, uh, my uh friend just recently transitioned and on the other side of love and it was very.

Speaker 2: 14:47

You know, there's a knowing that you have and then, when it's met with the life experience, that you can match it, because it's easy to say certain things or give theory, yet when you have to walk in the lived experience, it's a very profound experience. And I saw her cremation on Monday and when I saw the body I thanked it, I thanked the vessel. Yet I knew, because I already felt her presence when she transitioned. It filled me that evening and it's very present here. I don't feel that void or loss. It's like, no, you're just here, but it's just in a different form and it's very much bigger that I can feel that presence and tap into it. Yet for those that don't understand that, what would be a language to help adjust people with grief and with death?

Speaker 3: 15:55

Well, as someone who's communicated with people who have passed on, they are very much alive, they're full of life, they're not gone, they're only have transitioned and transformed back into an energy state, and so when I communicate with spirit, spirit, they feel alive to me and, um, it's hard to be sad about that, you know, because I know there is life after death and I know that this is just a temporary experience in a, in a physical suit on earth. So, that being said, you know you're still going to miss that person. It's not going to be the same, obviously that she's not in the physical, but you can feel her around you. Yeah, so she, they, usually when someone transitions, they, they stick around for a little while because all of your emotions and thoughts she can feel and hear now, and so that pulls her towards you like a magnet, you know. And and that doesn't change like if you thought about her 10 years from now, it would still be like a magnet and it would bring her to you.

Speaker 2: 17:20

Yeah, and I'm um, it's very um, you know the human part of me. I allowed the processing, the tears um, the, the feeling of sadness, and also allowing the experience to be released from my body. So I was very still for a lot of days, even though my body wanted to be impulsive and be busy and keep going, it was like no, no, no. Let yourself feel, let yourself open up, let the clearing happen. Feel, let yourself open up, let the clearing happen so that there is an openness. Because I do understand.

Speaker 2: 18:03

Some of my coping before was get busy so I don't have to feel. Yet now I know the profoundness. If I feel, then I'm an open vessel. I'm not storing or stuffing inside this kind of transmitter I call it so that there's not static, there's just a clear channel of opening and receiving that presence. What do you think has people, you know? Is it the narrative that you think that people get stuck in that sadness or that loss, that they are in the form aspect, that if they don't have that physical form, this person they cannot connect to? Or what is it that you think has people really stuck in that sadness, that depression, that low energy state?

Speaker 3: 18:55

Yeah, I think that as a culture, we don't really talk about death and dying very much, or and we don't process our feelings at all. There's a lot of denial and numbing down of feelings. So you know it's a reality of life, we're all going to die. You know that's eventually die. You know that's eventually, we don't know when, um, but I think it's missing that person, not being able to touch that person anymore or to talk with that person anymore. It's a different kind of communication. So I feel blessed that I can actually communicate with all my ancestors any of my ancestors if I wanted to. In fact, I have probably better access to them now than I did when they were alive, ironically, but I think that being still is good. And. But I also think you can in grief.

Speaker 3: 19:58

I know that when my father passed away, I danced a lot. I started college and I love to dance and I went out dancing three nights a week in New York City for two years straight and not only did I drop a lot of weight, which was great, but I think that was my way of dealing with the grief and you've got to move it out of your body. You got to move your body, um and, and that's the way I was able to deal with the grief is movement, lots of movement.

Speaker 2: 20:42

That's one of the things that I use with my clients anyways is movement and dancing. Dancing and music can elevate and change your state very quickly and the dancing gives expression that the body needs so that you're not judgmental or analytical of it. You know the next. You know my friend transitioned on the Wednesday. The next day I went to a spa that did hot and cold so that I would get myself in my body and I would be able to release and feel and everything else and do the resting also and feel and everything else and do the resting also. Yet have that type of movement and that different types of shock, yet bringing me more into the body. Because you know, when there are dense emotions, it's very easy to disassociate, to want to escape out of the body because it just feels too overwhelming. Yet when you can find the practices of bringing you back into the body so that it can be released, I think it's very important and I don't think there's enough language around that of what that looks like For me. Right now I'm able to be still because of the tools that I have developed.

Speaker 2: 21:53

If this was back in my 20s it wouldn't be the same thing. In my twenties it wouldn't be the same thing. Um, so I'm, I know how to engage with some of it and then be honest and and do the other things and everything else. But I understand the profoundness of feeling that like feel and you don't have like, just feel. Yet, like I said, my other coping mechanisms would have been to get busy, so some avoiding of feeling, where it was like no, no, we have to feel, and I think the biggest one is helplessness. When there's change, when there's grief, when there's a sense of loss, there is a sense of helplessness. Yet I think in our language we don't even know how to identify that we're feeling helpless and also let it have space, not try to get rid of it or control it or push it away. It's like okay, let there be space for it, yet recognize that you're still safe in that helplessness.

Speaker 3: 22:59

Yet recognize that you're still safe in that helplessness. Does that sound familiar to you at all? Yeah, and I know when I reflect back. I mean I was 18 when my father passed away. I was very unapologetic about my feelings at the time and it made a lot of people uncomfortable, including family members, and I remember family members telling me to get over it. Why are you still sad? You know we're going to your uncle's wedding. You need to change your attitude. You know that kind of stuff and I was just like, well, okay, well, I can't change how I feel, no matter, and I think what's really important if someone's grieving, allow them to grieve. You know, give them. There's no time limit to grieving. Yeah, it's a. It's a process and a long process and depending on who passed away, you know my dad was my person, so that was probably the toughest person for me to lose in that time of my life or in this lifetime.

Speaker 3: 24:12

Yeah, and very young too, yeah, so I wish that my family had just given me some space. But I understand they were uncomfortable with my unhappiness. But there's a reason why I was unhappy I was missing my dad and he had suddenly passed away from a heart attack at the age of 46. So no one was expecting this.

Speaker 2: 24:37

It was a shock to everybody, especially me, especially me yeah, the world felt very unsafe, I'm sure, at that age. And then trying to make sense of everything and make sense of this deep, profound, um depth of of anguish and unsafety and everything else, and then not having the safety to explore those emotions, explore those questions, being told you have to be something different, because your energy is too dense for the environment. And then it's like yet I need to feel my stuff. Why do I need to cover up? Because you guys don't know how to hold space for that. Why do I need to cover up? Because you guys don't know how to hold space for that? So I'm thankful that you were unapologetic and that you honored what you had to feel, rather than conform and the gift that came out of that.

Speaker 3: 25:30

I experienced a little awakening from that Because up until that point I had grown up Catholic and I kind of rejected the Catholic God at about age 14. And I said, oh, this God just doesn't sound kind or compassionate and I don't know what this God is, but maybe I don't know if there is a God, you know. So I rejected that, objected that, and then when my father passed away, I remember being in the apartment afterwards and literally he had left a pot on the stove and his clothes just hanging in the closet and the things that he had just touched, you know, like 36 hours before, and his energy. I could feel him so strongly I could not ignore it. There is no way, you know, and I really felt like he was there with me and I thought, well, if he's still with me and I know he's here and I can feel the aliveness of his energy is with me, then there must be a God. And so I started believing in the higher power again after he passed away.

Speaker 2: 26:48

Yeah, I know exactly what that feeling is, because when I walked back into her home as soon as I, you know, re and just, and it was like I told her son I was like, oh my gosh, like I feel her and it's like she's just gone on vacation and it's like real. And then when I entered her room, um, going back through the memories, because you know, I had bathed her and showered her the night before she went. She was supposed to go for treatment the next day but she ended up in the ER and then just stayed in the hospital. So, going back into that room, remembering the memories of bathing her and everything else, yet really feeling the presence of her and the energy of that and not pushing it away and not feeling debilitated, actually feeling comforted with it, where I know, sometimes that can feel very painful for many because they don't know how to accept the new reality.

Speaker 2: 28:06

I think that's the biggest part of spirituality, and navigating in this life with death and life is accepting reality, the as is of it, and not the storyline or the expectations you want to create, because that creates such suffering.

Speaker 2: 28:23

And then you're not in the proper dimension, and then you're not in the proper dimension You're not in your life force also of what is needed and hearing the proper messages and feeling your authentic emotions, which helps you to navigate this. And I'm speaking clearly right now. Tomorrow there may be a flood of emotions that come up and I'm gonna to honor them. This isn't about toxic positivity and that I'm just stoicism and I have no emotions. It's just I've developed a lot of tools that I was given my time to take few days of just processing, yet now I'm able to be really in the joy and know that everything is okay. Yet hold space for her children that are having challenges of processing and going through. Yet I'm not going to tell anybody that they should be experiencing something different than they're experiencing. I think there needs to be validation and everybody grieves in a different way.

Speaker 3: 29:33

Yeah, and I think, if grief is a process and it's going to take some time and it and it hits you at different times, memories will come flooding in, thoughts will come flooding in, something will remind you of that loved one and then all those feelings will come back. Yeah, but oh, you know, over time it really does get better. I mean I've heard people say, oh you're, it doesn't ever get better. It does. I mean, it's been a long time and I used to cry over my dad a lot, you know, and now I can talk about him and think about him without crying.

Speaker 3: 30:13

So, yes, it does get better. And know that they're still alive on the other side and they still continue their lives and their hobbies and their personalities. And you know they'll send you signs that they think of you. You know, like my dad was really into music and so there's certain songs that will make me think of him, and then I will be in the car, that song will come on and I'll say, daddy, are you trying to send me a message? You're thinking of me.

Speaker 2: 30:45

Yeah, I think that's very profound too, listening to the messages and not just saying that it's a coincidence or that that's weird, and that you doubt yourself, that, oh, this can't be something, it's just.

Speaker 2: 31:04

You know, it's just something, it's like no there's, we're all energy, we're all frequency and we all can communicate in different ways. Why is it all of a sudden that you can have a thought of somebody and all of a sudden they're ringing your phone or that you thinking of something, and then somebody else says I was doing the same exact thing at the same time? Like our wavelengths, our frequencies, they're much more deeply connected than we're led to believe. We're really led to believe in the world aspect and not in the profound oneness of energy and frequency and our deep life force that is multidimensional. Like there's a reason why certain movies show you about multidimensional timelines and things that go on, Like Spider-Man just recently showed you about the Spider-Verse, and that there's like so many different versions of Spider-Man in different dimensions.

Speaker 2: 31:58

Yet people would be like no, no, that's just sci-fi and it's like that came from somewhere, from somewhere. Yeah, you know the things that are so simple. We tend to want to complicate. Where it's like no, it's complex, but it's not complicated and it's very simple If you're willing to open yourself up to be curious to see those things.

Speaker 3: 32:20

Yeah, I never used the word coincidence, because there's no such thing. There's no coincidences, there's no randomness, it's synchronicity and there is a pattern, there is a meaning. You just have to figure out what it is. If you really want to figure it out, you'll put some energy and focus into it.

Speaker 1: 32:43

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 32:45

So I want to bring you into a reflective question. I want to ask you to bring this awareness right now and to go back to your 18 year old self, and you have three words to tell your 18 year old self to carry you to the present moment. What would those three words be? Just three words.

Speaker 3: 33:20

Or a sentence, whatever feels. Yeah, I would say do what you love. Because I think I went down the path of of going to school and getting the degree and you know, and something that I probably was good at but didn't find very fulfilling, and I wish someone had advised me. You know, find out what you love to do and do that.

Speaker 2: 33:44

Now I know many listeners now are like where I find Tina. So can you let the listeners know where they can find you and what you have to offer, and where they can find your books also?

Speaker 3: 33:56

yeah, so my website's tinakinnyclarkcom. I also am a podcast host of it's called voices of healing and that's available everywhere spotify, google, amazon music and also on youtube. Um, I have two books the. Both of those books are available on amazon in print and kindle format, and and upcoming events I have. If you're in Charleston, I'm doing a half a day wellness event on January 19th at a local yoga studio, so we're going to do hypnotherapy and Reiki and journaling exercises. So if you need a break or of self-care, be wonderful to attend. And also later on next year, in September 2025, I'm co-hosting a spiritual tour to Egypt and it's going to be nine days and we're visiting at least 12 ancient sites, including my favorite essential oil place, which you cannot order these online. You have to go in and buy them and they're amazing.

Speaker 2: 35:13

So for the listeners, all of those her web link will be all in the show notes so that it's easily accessible and at any time. If there was an opening, a tingling, or it felt like an aha, that is your vagus nerve letting you know that Tina has something that will connect you to more profoundness. So reach out to her and there isn't any question that isn't able to be answered. So ask. As you see, she's very approachable, she's very knowledgeable, so make sure to reach out and connect with her. I want to ask you, tina, in this conversation is there anything in your heart that you want to leave with the listeners?

Speaker 3: 35:57

Yeah, since we talked so much about transitioning to the other side, I want everybody to know that your loved ones live on and they're with you, and whenever you think of them, they are with you.

Speaker 2: 36:13

I want to thank you, tina, for giving me and the listeners the most valuable thing you have in life, which is your time, and sharing your experiences and being, you know, so gracious with the open dialogue and who you are. So I want to thank you for being here on the podcast and sharing your light with myself and the listeners.

Speaker 3: 36:39

Thank you so much, NatNet.

Speaker 2: 36:41

Please remember to be kind to yourself.

Speaker 4: 36:44

Hey, you made it all the way here. I appreciate you and your time. If you found value in this conversation, please share it out. If there was somebody that popped into your mind, take action and share it out with them. It possibly may not be them that will benefit. It's that they know somebody that will benefit from listening to this conversation. It's that they know somebody that will benefit from listening to this conversation. So please take action and share out the podcast. You can find us on social media on Facebook, instagram and TikTok under Lift One Self, and if you want to inquire about the work that I do and the services that I provide to people, come over on my website, come into a discovery call liftoneselfcom. Until next time, please remember to be kind and gentle with yourself. You matter.