I began the study of yoga in 1981. I had two small children and appreciated finding a way to relax and cope beyond exercise and healthy eating. I found a yoga and meditation class taught by a young Swami in a local town in a storefront. This store was a small outpost of a larger yoga community in India and the US, the Himalayan Institute. I realize the amazing gift of this now. This was many years before anyone taught yoga in Morristown, NJ.
The deep wisdom and knowledge shared along with yoga asanas and meditation was the beginning of my study of this important tradition. This center was only there for only one year, maybe two. I related to the Guru Swami Rama’s teachings. They were easy to receive from his clear, down to earth perspective and his lifetime of inner work.
I bought the books and followed the physical, mental, and spiritual teachings. It was a breath of fresh air in a very challenging and tense life. I loved the spiritual focus in physical practice and deep guidance at every step.
When it came to meditation, this teacher said this was the way to quiet the mind. Having a life of trauma, I wanted to learn more. Meditation alone felt like it would take lifetimes to get there. My search to clear my mind and live mastery began and still lives there.
I studied with masters of many traditions in years after that and kept seeking mind, body, emotional, and spiritual freedom to be who we truly are. I was aware that I did not want to buy into a new tradition or belief system. I was learning how it is all Universal and wanted deeper answers to a spiritual seeker’s questions.
Each teacher, book, or tradition had tremendous answers, and yet I always felt that more truths were missing that were simple and easy that I was destined to find. Reading thousands of books from traditions around the world gave me more perspective.
I would feel something missing and be led to the next book or teacher. When I added more deep Shamanic teachings and refined them with Universal wisdom, it all finally came together.
My purpose in this life is to be a pioneer of a new simple, direct paradigm of living a whole and happy life. Yoga means union and wholeness. The Ancient Teachings of the Masters of the East have always been a core part of my inner wisdom and studies.
I could have stopped at any point and created a financially successful school and program, which I did have. I was drawn to continue my journey and follow a higher purpose that transcended what was done before to make spiritual wisdom and healing usable to everyday people.
Fifteen years ago, I took a sabbatical, which allowed me to integrate and refine the teachings to share with others. Just as I was to bring the work out a few years later, my daughter Lisa died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism, which took me to my core. Having a life-purpose gave me a reason to keep going.
I worked to reclaim my shattered self, heal, to rebuild myself and my work. I refined Be The Medicine as I experienced this tremendous loss. I lovingly healed myself with the awareness through my many levels of this experience using all the tools I had learned and taught.
All of this has been an incredible journey. My Shamanic experiences have added so much as I share my life in many dimensions with my father and daughter and mother and more on the other side. Helping people through life and death, illness, relationships, work, and life purpose with solid experiences make it easy to understand, have compassion, and guide solutions.
WE ARE ALL BRILLIANT
I work with intelligent people, and they are always amazed at how simple it can be to be clear, focused, and empowered in every moment. They learn to be awake, aware, peaceful, and free to be. Their lives make sense, and they can change to what they want easily.
Our life’s focus is clear, simple, and easy while exploring higher truth and laws. I also explored and studied and continued to refine what blocks us from getting there all along. Be The Medicine offers how to live our true nature here now.
Clients experience the higher wisdom they know inside and learn to love and trust what they know and break free from the illusions of the reality they have been living. Illusions are confusing, challenging, and do not help, heal, or work. We have to let go of what is not true at the levels we move into to find the higher truth that moves us into peace, clarity, and love.
We build on our innate intelligence to bring into our everyday life. I teach people to live right side up in our upside-down world. Our lives are in constant confusion of truth and lies, which keeps people compromised. There is a truth that sets us free that I guide people to access easily.
Unlearning what we have learned so well before takes practice as it is patterned in us personally, in many generations of our ancestry and the world. To be wrong is to discover how to correct and find truth, peace, healing, and love.
Living in the world and not of it is refined to understand what that really means. It takes tenacity and practice to overcome the hypnotism of the world and our individual lives. This is why I have taken so much time to make it simple.
As we walk this walk, we become clear, peaceful, empowered, and confident to know who we are and what we can choose, and what we can see and discern and be.
My Toltec Shamanic studies helped me see how much inner clearing and disciple it takes to be free. I also studied with Shamans from Tibet, Celtic, African, Siberian, Native American lineages, Sufi Masters, a Guru, Zen Masters, and more Shamans. Each brought unique perspectives and ways to heal and be.
I asked a question or knew a truth and was shown how it works and discovered how to live it. One of my main questions since a child has been, “How are we all one?” Discovering answers around the globe showed me how people and traditions are the same and also unique.
I found that humans make things complicated for two reasons. They do not know all of the pieces and make things up to fill it in and make a certain amount of sense. Two is that they fool themselves to think they know it all instead of being ongoing students who always have much to grow into the wisdom and knowledge available.
To know that we do not know keeps us sharp and on track. As a teacher, I constantly learn more. I will never forget a student of decades ago once coming up to me and saying that she did not learn anything at the end of one of the most profound weekends I experienced when teaching. I told her I learned so much and was grateful for all of the student participation and experiences we all had. I realized how much the ego blocks us when we think we know it all.
My focus has always been Universal Truth that works for all. We all are important in the oneness of life and offer unique perspectives to add to the whole. As I studied, I learned about the illusions I had accepted. I learned about the illusions in each practice and tradition as well.
I am aware that there are levels of awareness in everyone. People do not see or hear the same things. As I continue to purify my thoughts and emotions and become more love, I see how people made fun of others because of fear when they do not understand because they are in a different reality.
In the many stages of awakening, I do my best to teach and work with people where they are and then gently push them beyond their comfort zone, which was holding them back.
Using humor, unconditional love, and compassion, we move mountains where others can be stuck for a lifetime. To me, the excitement of life is how we can continue to refine ourselves, heal our body, mind, and emotions, and embrace more wisdom in ways that help us live love, peace, health, and life more fully.
These pearls of wisdom with tools and practices to live them are addressed in all classes and sessions as appropriate. In 2021, I begin a series of classes breaking down more specific teachings individually for you to embrace. Zoom is our classroom of choice. I love this as people join from all over the country and eventually the world.
Everyone has their own journey. Our focus at Be The Medicine is neutral and Universal, offering you simple ways to walk your own walk-in confidence, strength, and grace.
Join us on this exciting adventure.
Always in Love,
Janet StraightArrow
Be The Medicine, Live the Power of You!
www.bethemedicine.com 973-647-2500 [email protected]
