Firewalking and the 4 lessons I learned
Why am I sharing this with you?
Because it taught me that ANYTHING is possible, as long as you believe it.
Firewalking confirmed for me that just because someone tells you it can't be done, it doesn't mean that YOU can't do it. It merely means THEY don't believe it.
I hope that my story of firewalking and the 4 lessons learned might inspire you to keep going even when it's hard, to follow your own path, to listen to your heart and never stop believing in yourself.
You see my ex-husband had a stroke when he was 39 and from being a very strong man became very weak physically. I was doing a lot of work with him on the emotional reasons he had had his stroke however he saw an ad for fire walking and immediately said:"if I can walk on fire I know I will recover." He booked us in straight away . Meanwhile although I wanted to support him I was secretly thinking that if I didn't like the look of it I could stand by and watch. I was also terrified that as he wasn't walking well that he might get onto the coals and not be able to continue walking well enough to get off them.
When we arrived at the grounds (I think it was at Engadine, Sydney) there was a huge stack of hardwood which we lit. During the afternoon we were asked to write down our fears on individual pieces of paper and throw them into the fire watching as they burned up (and giving our subconscious mind a clear message that that fear was now released).
Throughout the afternoon the song 'You can do magic" was playing in the background. It is now deeply embedded in my mind and if I ever need a push to do something I only have to think of that song to be inspired.
Finally after several hours the fire had levelled to about 2-3 inch flames and it was now time to walk the fire! Now the nervousness (fear!) really kicked in but after seeing the facilitator walk the flames I was determined to do it. It looked pretty simple really - take your shoes off, roll up the jeans so they don't catch fire, focus and walk over 15 ft of fire and hot ( really, really hot) coals. Simple, really!!
The trick to walking on fire is to 'focus' so I picked a point past the fire and focussed on that then with much encouragement from the others there, I walked. Several times during the night we walked that fire and each time I felt more elated, powerful, fantastic.
You only get burnt if an organ in your body is not functioning well and then you will get a nasty burn on the part of the foot that is associated with the organ. Later we passed lots of cars leaving the grounds with the passenger's foot out the window trying to cool the part that was burnt!
The third time we fire walked I had had some tummy issues but felt well enough to go along. However a friend came along this time who had beaten cancer, ran marathons and was extremely fit man but he could not walk the fire no matter how many times he tried to psyche himself up. He stood at the end, took deep breaths and ... walked away from it. He was devastated that he could not do it.
After seeing him falter I found that I was hesitating too - getting the courage to walk the fire was so much harder this time and I took some time to really get focussed. I got a deep burn on on the exact spot on my foot that is associated with the intestines, it hurt like crazy and when we were leaving I was now the one with my foot outside the window trying to cool it down! Whilst I had a red spot on my foot it was only after a few days that the blister came out from inside my foot.
Friends and family had thought we were mad especially as before we went fire walking Bill was so ill - they spent quite some time telling us that we were crazy or that we would get 3rd degree burns. (One guy did get badly burnt on both the soles and tops of his feet when he walked with his girlfriend so she could do it but forgot to focus, himself). People were questioning us all the time on why we would want to do such a crazy thing especially when we went back a second and third time.
It was then that I recognised that this questioning was just their own fears surfacing and because they were too afraid to do the firewalk themselves they had to question us to deflect themselves from their fears.
And although beforehand I was nervous (ok, truthfully I was scared stiff) once I saw someone else do it first, I believed that I could do it myself.
My ex-husband was a different man from the first moment he walked on fire, he came alive again. He changed so much that when we went back the second time people did not recognise him as he was now standing tall and strong. By the third time we walked he was almost back to who he was before his stroke. He fully recovered over the next few months.
Firewalking and the 4 lessons learned
1) I just love the power of the mind - and know that ANYTHING is possible, as long as you believe it. I always knew that our thinking determines our actions and our actions determine our outcome. My ex husband proved that the right mindset can move us towards everything we desire.
2) That you can't let other people stop you doing something that you feel is right for you. My husband recovered well and I know it was because of the firewalking and the sense of control and power over his own body that gave him the belief in his recovery.
3) Listen to your heart - I would never have gone fire walking if i had listened to my conscious rational mind - and I would have missed one of the greatest and most powerful experiences of my life.
4) Don't listen to others or let their fears stop you - if we had listened to others we would have missed out on a wonderful healing opportunity for Bill.
I hope that my story inspires you to step outside your comfort zone and chase your own dreams, whatever they may be. As a 10 year old David Lee Schneidler of Done Digital lived for a year training with the Shaolin Monks. He says: " Live life on your terms. Live with passion."
Have you experienced something that forever changed your life?
If so, leave me a comment at the end of the blog post. I'd really love to hear about it!
