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Share Guide: Can you discuss the
differences and similarities between retreats and vacations?
Shakti Gawain: Vacations generally involve
taking a break from one's work and life, going to a different place and
just being able to relax and have some fun. This is a great thing and
they are needed. A retreat implies taking a break from one's life and
work and going to a different place and relaxing and having some fun,
but it also has an extra implication of going inside oneself, perhaps
looking for the deeper meaning or purpose of life or how we can improve
our life--or just ways that we can grow and develop.
Share Guide: Why do you think some people
choose to go on retreat rather than just on a vacation?
Shakti Gawain: I think these are people who
are longing for more self-knowledge--looking towards making some change
in their life, and perhaps how to get clarity on what direction or how
to do that. Some may be people who are having to mull over specific
isssues and problems.
Share Guide: I'm sure all of us feel the
increased pace of our modern life, and I'm curious if more than half of
the people who come to your retreats actually plan ahead for preventive
health maintenance to go on retreats, or what percentage actually wait
until they are "breaking down"?
Shakti Gawain: I would say that there's
definitely a sizable minority of people who make a regular practice of
going to retreats and workshops and that kind of thing. And then there
are others who do it more spontaneously, with no feeling of needing to
do it at a particular time.
Share Guide: Do you think that minority
has been growing over the years?
Shakti Gawain: I definitely do. I think that
this is something that people are finding out really helps them in
their life. A lot of times you don't even know exactly what but there's
a feeling that "I need to do this and I need to be there." I would say
that that's how a majority of people make the decision.
Share Guide: An inner calling?
Shakti Gawain: Yes.
Share Guide: Well it's good to think that
after 25 years of New Age Journal and Yoga Journal that
more of us are starting to stay tuned up.
Shakti Gawain: I work a lot with polarity,
opposite energies, and how important it is in life to balance the
opposites that we have within ourselves. One of those polarities I work
with a lot is what I call "Doing Energy and Being Energy". Our culture
is absolutely devoted to and worshipful of the Doing Energy--we're all
encouraged to do as much as possible and accomplish things and to work
toward our goals and to produce. Many of us actually feel like we have
to be accomplishing and producing something almost all the time. We
don't have in our culture a healthy understanding and respect for the
value of Being, which is simply being present in the moment, not trying
to go somewhere, not trying to accomplish anything but, just present.
We have so little of that in our busy lives. In some ways life is so
wonderful, we have so many opportunities now to do so many things, and
study and learn things and go places, but we're trying to do it all.
Most people I know are pretty stressed out by just having too much to
do. So we really really need to cultivate the ancient art of Being.
We need to take some time to relax, get quiet and get present with
ourselves in the moment and get present with Nature, and with other
people. It's a way of replenishing ourselves. The goal of replenishing
the energy is that we can go out and accomplish things and it's also a
way of connecting to the deeper emotional and spiritual realms in us.
Share Guide: I think that's a very good
point, the Being and the Doing.
Shakti Gawain: It's going to become more and
more important and necessary for people to give retreats to cultivate
some of that "Being" time that's so difficult to find in our busy lives.
Share Guide: Because it's only going to
get busier, you're saying it's going to be more important to pay
attention.
Shakti Gawain: I think there's going to
continue to be a lot of opportunities and attractions and temptations
to be doing things all the time.
Share Guide: That makes sense.This is why
many people in the West have a little trouble with meditation at first.
Shakti Gawain: Oh yes. Meditation is the art
of learning how to be present with your Self. If you're not used to
doing that, if you're used to focusing outwardly and acccomplishing
tasks, then it's difficult to just sit there and learn how to Be. I
find that the best way in our fast paced world for most people to learn
Being is to just go out in Nature, because Nature vibrates on that
level. Getting out and walking or sitting in a natural environment can
really help us shift into a more Being energy.
Share Guide: Shakti, tell me a little bit
about your own retreat work. How did you get started, what are some of
the highlights in your path, and what are you currently doing?
Shakti Gawain: I've been leading workshops
and retreats of various kinds for about 25 years now. I love working
with people, and many of the events I do are evening talks, along with
workshops in a more urban environment where there are often several
hundred people. This is fine, and I enjoy that, but what I love most is
working with a smaller number of people, like just a dozen or 15-20
people in a more long-term way--from several days to a week or
more--and in a beautiful, natural rural type of setting. In other
words, a Retreat. It's an opportunity for me to work in depth with
people in an intimate way.
Over the years I've done many kinds of retreats in many different
places. Most recently I've done a lot of them on the island of Kauai,
where I actually have a home, which I find to be one of the most
powerful, healing, nurturing and just generally supportive environments
that I've ever been. It's very beautiful as well. I also do retreats in
California and in other places.
Share Guide: Isn't your home base in Marin?
Shakti Gawain: Yes. I do 3&endash;4 day
retreats and sometimes weekend retreats in California and other places.
But my absolute favorite place to work is on Kauai. What I've been
doing in recent years is weekend retreats. I call them Intensives, but
they're basically retreats. We do a variety of different things. We do
meditation and visualization and developing intuition practices, and we
do movement, dance, yoga, various physical things, massage . . .we do
excursions on the island, rituals and wonderful things like that. We do
a lot of work with the Psychology of Self and Voice Dialogue work,
which has come to be a real centerpiece of my work. It's work that was
created by Dr. Hal Stone and his wife Dr. Sidra Stone.
We do one-on-one individual sessions with people as part of the retreat
in which we use this Voice Dialogue Work. It's very powerful. Each
person gets two or three individual sessions, and they also watch each
other's individual sessions, so it's very powerful and very life
changing.
Share Guide: Can you explain more about
this Voice Dialogue work?
Shakti Gawain: The Psychology of Self is the
exploration of the fact that we have within us many different energies,
or many different Selves, or you can call them Voices. It's as if we
have a lot of different people living inside us. They each have their
own path and their own function and their own purpose, but they
sometimes are in conflict with each other. That's why we feel conflict
in our lives. For example, I have a super responsible Self in
me--that's one of my most developed aspects, and that part of me is
always taking on responsibility and then shouldering the burden of it.
I'm very conscientious about making sure that I do everything that I'm
committed to and so forth, which is a very positive quality, but I tend
to be too much in that direction. I'm overly responsible.
Share Guide: Does that mean you take on
too many things?
Shakti Gawain: Sometimes too many things,
and sometimes I take them too seriously. If I let it go a little,
somebody else will handle it or it can get handled tomorrow. I drive
myself pretty hard to make sure everything gets done perfectly, and
exactly when it's supposed to. Sometimes I'm just too driven in that
respect. It's too much of a burden. So what I have been working on (and
am working on still) is cultivating the opposite energy, the opposite
Self in me, the one who is a little more light-hearted and carefree and
can play and enjoy and have fun. My job is to balance those so that I
am responsible, but can also let go and enjoy myself. That's just one
example of the many different kinds of polarities we have within us.
Voice Dialogue work helps us become conscious of and get in touch with
the different Selves within us. Some of the Selves within us are very
highly developed. Those are called Primary Selves. The ones we deny and
try to hide or haven't developed are called Disowned Selves.
Share Guide: Disowned . . .the ones that
take the back seat?
Shakti Gawain: Yes, the ones that don't have
much say in our lives. Oftentimes they are parts of us that we are
afraid of or uncomfortable with, or that we think are bad. For example,
if we're very identified with the strength and self-assertion that
would be a Primary Self. That's what we show the world. Deep down
inside of us, there's a part of us that might feel vulnerable, that has
emotional needs, but we're embarassed about that. If we really identify
with being strong, then we may have disowned all vulnerability. So
vulnerability becomes a Disowned Self, when in fact we really need that
vulnerability to be able to balance our strength, our power. We're all
human and we all have needs, and we all have vulnerable feelings and
energies. We have to acknowledge them or they just go underground and
become a problem. So the work is really bringing out all parts of our
Self…learning to appreciate and acknowledge all aspects of who we are,
and bring a greater harmony and balance into our lives.
Part of this whole thing of having all these selves is that they get
reflected back to us by the people we are in a relationship with. If we
really identify with one polarity, often we'll attract into our life
somebody whose character is an opposite energy. We're either very
attracted to that person or we're very uncomfortable and judgmental
towards that person. Sometimes first attracted, then uncomfortable and
judgmental.
Share Guide: Yes, opposites attract.
Shakti Gawain: If you're a very active kind
of person, you may attract someone into your life who is more laid back
and relaxed. And you may even initially be very attracted to that
person because they carry that opposite quality that you need more of
yourself. But then if you're in an ongoing relationship with them, very
often you get really annoyed and frustrated with them for the exact
thing that you were initially attracted to.
Share Guide: So what do you do about that?
Shakti Gawain: You have to remember to
recognize that this person is there as your mirror or your teacher.
You've brought them into your life to show you a part of yourself that
you need to develop, so that you can be more balanced. The people that
are the most annoying and difficult to deal with can actually be
mirrors to show us the exact piece of our Disowned side that we need to
bring into our lives. it's a whole art form, and it's one of the things
I teach in my retreat. It's how to use your relationships as mirrors so
you can see what they're showing you about the work that you need to do.
Share Guide: Haven't you just finished a
new book?
Shakti Gawain: Yes. I just finished a
revision of my book The Path of Transformation which was
published a few years ago. Now I've revised it for the new Millennium,
and that's coming out any minute now. Also, I just completed another
book, Developing Intuition, which is coming out in the Fall of
2000. It's a very simple, practical guide to how to develop your
ability to trust and follow your intuition in a real practical way in
your daily life.
Share Guide: Do you have any upcoming
events in Northern California or in Hawaii that you'd like to mention?
Shakti Gawain: We have a four-day retreat
intensive in July at Westerbecke's Ranch in Sonoma, California and it's
particulary focused on the topic of Awakening your Creativity.
Also, I'm doing a week long intensive on Kauai in August, 2000.
Share Guide: I talked to the folks at New
Age Journal this morning, and they said they were doing something
in Hawaii with you.
Shakti Gawain: Oh yes. They did a special
event on Kauai for the Millennium and I was a featured speaker for
that, and this year they're going to do a New Year's retreat. It should
be wonderful, and I again will be a real active part of that.
Share Guide: The last question I have for
you is maybe a little off the topic, maybe not. it comes from my
current reading The Legacy of Luna by Julia Butterfly Hill, the
environmentalist. I'm wondering if you talk with people about
volunteering time in the community and on environmental projects as a
step in individual healing?
Shakti Gawain: Absolutely. I think that is
very important. What I say to people about that is follow your heart
and your passion. If there's a particular issue that really has a lot
of emotion or feeling for you, by all means do that. And also know that
by simply discovering your purpose in life, and your creativity, and
expressing it in your life, you are making a contribution towards
changing and healing the world.
The most important thing of all is working on living more consciously,
moment to moment and day to day. A big part of living more consciously
is being more aware of how we consume and what we consume and trying to
simplify our lives and consume less, not from a place of deprivation
but from a place of really caring for the origins of things and
bringing our lives into balance. One of the things I'm especially
concerned about is the proliferation of plastic. Even in health food
stores, half the food is being sold in plastic containers now instead
of cardboard or glass. Try to choose things that are packed within
other more biodegradable forms like glass and paper and cardboard and
so on.
Share Guide: I certainly believe in this
balancing mind, body and spirit, but as we fill up the planet I feel
like the awakened individuals need to go further and work in their
communities and on a global awareness. It's not good enough to just
take your vitamins and eat your tofu.
Shakti Gawain: Right.
Share Guide: I feel like we're moving in a
direction where that kind of awareness is going to come in the New Age
and Holistic Marketplace and consciousness is going to merge more with
the environmentalism.
Shakti Gawain: I agree. That's what my book The
Path of Transformation is all about actually.
For more information on Shakti Gawain and her books, workshops and
retreats, visit www.shaktigawain.com
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