SHAKTI GAWAIN

You create your opportunities by asking for them

Shakti Gawain is a pioneer in the field of personal growth and consciousness. Her many bestselling books have sold more than six million copies in thirty languages worldwide. For more than twenty years, Shakti has lead workshops internationally, and has facilitated thousands of individuals in developing greater awareness, balance, and wholeness in their lives.

She has appeared on such nationally syndicated shows as Oprah!, Good Morning America, Sonya Live, The Larry King Show, The Leeza Show, America's Talking and New Dimensions Radio, and she has recently been featured in Cosmopolitan, New Woman, New Age Journal, Body Mind & Spirit and Time Magazine.

Shakti was brought up, as the only child, in a highly academic environment. Both parents were atheists. The mother, by way of her own belief system, demonstrated that there are no limits other than those we set ourselves; everything is possible! This created in Shakti an attitude of both openness and scepticism that lead to a great need for testing everything herself. For a while things went perfectly smooth until eventually a love relationship broke up which left Shakti in a deep existential crisis. What is it all about really? she wondered, and thus took the first step on the long path to self-realisation, in search for the true purpose of life.

"I read a lot and filled my head with psychology. And eventually I realised that it is not enough to stimulate only the mind, the intellect. Also the body needs to express itself. That´s how I started dancing."

The next step in Shakti´s journey came about through a trip to India where she became deeply impressed with the culture and the religious beliefs she encountered. All of a sudden she lost interest in all things material. - "I gave away all my possessions and kept only what I could fit into a small canvass bag," she goes on. "I needed nothing more. I realised that, along the way, we will be given all the things we truly need. There is no sense in collecting more that you can use. By the way, the name Shakti is the name of the female aspect of the Hindu God Shiva."

"18 years ago I decided I wanted to write a book about my experiences," Shakti explains. "However, I doubted my capability, and for a long time I did nothing but fret about it. At the time I lived together with a very creative man. It was he who taught me to 'cut the shit and do the thing'. So I did, and that´s how Creative Visualisation came about."

According to herself, Shakti was once a workaholic. "This is what becomes of us when we allow ourselves to be influenced by outer authorities for whom, in order to give us their love and acceptance, we believe we need to perform constantly. Most of us lost touch with our intuition already as children. And now we are faced with the intricate question: how can I trust myself and my intuition? - Make contact with your inner Child, your Mentor within," advises Shakti. "That teacher knows which fork in the road to follow. And you know when you have chosen right, because then you feel alive. Start exercising your intuition by letting it guide you on issues of less importance. For instance, shall I go to that party or not? What feels best? And then act on it, like if you never had a doubt in your mind."

"Nothing is predestined," she continues. "Everything is a creative process. Visualisations and affirmations are only tools to help in the process. Our own healing is the most important process taking place on Earth at the moment, because it influences the collective all or oneness. The greatest harm we inflict on Earth is our separation from nature. When we change, we also change the world around us. The Earth is undergoing a great transformation - and it happens very fast. Old values and patterns can no longer be followed. We must heal ourselves and find out own path. We must make use of our will, become valiant 'knights' on a crusade for positive thinking, positive acting. However, on this crusade we cannot become victorious unless we also recognise our shadow side; our fears, our denials, our negative thought-patterns. This side of ourselves must also be brought into the light in order to manifest wholeness."

"Would you like to manifest a great love relationship? Then visualize and affirm the perfect characteristics of your partner to be! Or maybe you are looking for a new apartment? Visualise your ideal home! Then sleep on it. Then visualize again, etc. Eventually something will happen. Just make sure your intent is very clear. We already are very good at visualizing. Unfortunately we often, unwittingly, use the process in reverse; we visualize things we hope never shall take place. By seemingly innocent thoughts to the effect: 'I hope nothing bad will happen', our programming of negative thought-forms take command over the process of visualization, and without realising, we materialise what we do not want. It is therefore very important to be honest with oneself and courageous enough to look at ones fears. For instance, most of us would like to find the perfect life-partner. However, some people might, deep down, be afraid to engage in a love affair for fear of loosing themselves. Then it becomes very difficult to visualize and manifest, because there is a hidden message from the sub-conscious, and the all important intent gets muddled."

"Reality is objective. Everything is energy. Everything influences everything. We see the mirror of our true self in everyting everywhere. - Through meditation we gain access to the will of the universe and Divine Wisdom. It is not complicated, really. Just visualize something, create a mental picture. It´s fun and simple," motions Shakti. "Sometimes we meet our pain. When we do, we should confront it, allow it, feel it, yet not fussing too much over it. Instead we should look to create balance through giving and through meeting our needs. Sometimes we need help and then it can be very beneficial to turn to a friend or to look for some form of therapy to alleviate sorrow and work on our pain," says Shakti.

Our four body system

"Human life exists in four aspects or on four levels - a spiritual-, a mental-, an emotional- and a physical level. In order to develop and evolve ourselves, we need to cleanse and heal and integrate all of these four bodies."

In her most recent book, The Path of Transformation, Shakti explains how we can best accomplish this process. -"The spiritual body is our base. We are all one," continues Shakti. "We are born with a spiritual connection. As we grow we come to imagine our separation from that connection, and we feel a vast emptiness. Spiritual exercises such as meditating, painting, listening to or creating music, walking in the woods, are all tools to help us find our way back to that connection."

"Many people in the 'New Age' movement are committing the mistake of working exclusively to develop their spiritual body. It´s easy to loose your foothold on reality that way. The mental body is our intellect, our logical, thinking mind. To cleanse and heal our mental body, we need to become conscious of our thoughts and thought patterns. On the emotional level we need to allow all variety of feelings. There are no such thing as negative feelings. Feelings are about communication and acceptance. On the physical plane, the body itself will let you know if you ignore it," concludes Shakti.

Shakti was co-founder of New World Library along with Marc Allen. Shakti and her husband, Jim Burns, also co-founded Nataraj Publishing Company, which New world Library acquired in 1998. Shakti Gawain lives with her husband in Marin County, California and Kauai, Hawaii.