Do you have a longing to carry less weight but feel hopeless because everything you’ve tried has failed or had such miserable impact that it wasn’t worth it?
Shamanic Weight Loss offers a new approach that is designed to be elegant and kind, resulting in both weight loss and well-being.
In this article, I’m interested in helping people who want to lose weight to do so gracefully and holistically and then to keep it off without struggle. I want people to feel good in the meantime, not defer their happiness until they’ve reached their goal. I hope to lend you some of my engineering geekiness to shift from pain and helplessness into creative problem-solving. Weight loss is complicated, so we want to figure out all the elegant hacks and creative solutions that pave a graceful and sustainable path to success. Plus, I’d love to offer wisdom from my 24 years as a professional shamanic practitioner. As you can imagine, I’m often asked by my clients to take counsel with my spirit guides on their behalf for how to address the challenge of unwanted pounds. I’d like to share some of what I’ve learned!
Also, this issue is very much alive for me as I enter perimenopause and find that the lifestyle that previously created stability in my weight now results in weight gain. So, I’m called to increase my creativity and resourcefulness to work with my body’s natural changes.
In addition to this article, I created an entire course and two free podcast episodes on shamanic weight loss. Plus, I offer shamanic weight loss healing work in my practice. Please reach out if you’re interested in working with me directly!
To be clear, I support the experience many people have of healthy at every size and I believe that you can be emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually healthy, and still carry extra weight. In many ways, it is simply a default outcome of the modern world, not a personal reflection. That being said, there are often opportunities for energetic healing and transformation that can make a tremendous difference in the outcomes of our weight loss goals. There’s where my shamanic weight loss approach comes in.
What is Shamanic Weight Loss?
I began using this term after being inspired to create a program to support people in losing weight in a healthy way, using energetic tools and the help of spirit guides. Most programs address only the physical and mental aspects of weight loss, completely omitting any work around soul patterns, energetic sensitivity, or past life healing.
I worked with my guides and used my experience from over 20 years working with clients regarding these issues to come up with the key aspects that I feel are most powerful. You can see the full list of eight modules and learn a bit about each in the write up for my Shamanic Weight Loss Course.
I know a course or something to purchase isn’t the right thing for everyone, so in addition to this article, I also provide a general overview of Shamanic Weight Loss in my free Practical Shamanism Podcast in Episodes 14 and 72. I also discuss some of the best wisdom from my guides in my Shamanic Wisdom for Holistic Weight Loss article.
Acknowledging the Complexity- The Challenge of Weight Loss in Modern Society
Weight loss doesn’t have to be hard, but you should expect that your brain will have to work to find your personal, aligned path forward.
Let’s start by acknowledging that humans work really hard at losing weight and are still mostly bad at it.
In the US, we spend huge amounts of money, time and effort and 73.6 percent of us are still overweight or obese according to the CDC. And that’s with around 49% of Americans actively trying to lose weight in the last 12 months.
Now, I would argue that the CDC has some fairly narrow standards for healthy weight, but it’s still a noteworthy number. In addition, 67% of women in the US wear size 14 and above, which isn’t to say size 14 or above can’t be a healthy weight. Just that this reality might be surprising to you as the movies and shows we watch that have the vast majority of characters, even random extras, at a body size that is found only in a very small percent of the population. This can badly distort our perspective on what the average American weighs and looks like as well as how complicated most people who want to lose weight find it to be.
This difficulty is largely due to the environment we live in. Modern life presents challenges our ancestors never faced, including the abundance of high-calorie, processed foods and the increasingly sedentary nature of daily life. Our bodies are still wired for survival in times of scarcity, driving us to crave foods high in sugar, fat, and salt, which were once essential for our ancestors but now contribute to weight gain in the context of today’s food environment. Coupled with the stress of modern living, this leads to an uphill battle against biology, convenience, and stress-based eating habits.
Weight loss is not about willpower or personal discipline; it’s about navigating a system that, in many ways, sets us up for failure. The high percentage of people struggling with their weight reflects how difficult it can be to achieve and maintain a healthy weight in a world that doesn’t support it. Shamanic weight loss offers a way to overcome these challenges by addressing the deeper spiritual, emotional, and energetic factors that contribute to weight gain, making the journey more compassionate and aligned with personal well-being.
Where Shamanic Weight Loss Comes In
What people often don’t understand is that sometimes aspects of ourselves have a misguided idea they are helping us, or even working to save our life, with behaviors that cause us to gain weight rather than release it. We can be thwarted by hidden factors that make our efforts like hitting the breaks and gas at the same time while trying to drive a car up a hill.
If we’re at war with ourselves to move the needle on the scale downward, no wonder it can be an exhausting, uphill journey in which we lose ground the minute our attention shifts to something else in life. Shamanic Weight Loss helps you understand the main gremlins that work against weight loss. The approach is to call in healing and gain the skills that will allow you to wrangle each of them gracefully, so they no longer have the power to run things in the background and sabotage your weight loss results.
It hurts my heart to see people who contribute so much good to the world suffer from reduced self-value or shame around this issue. In addition to helping you release weight, I hope to give you a massive boost in shaking off all that icky cultural nonsense that ties your value to your size. You may have plenty of peaceful, life-affirming reasons for wanting to drop some physical pounds, but let’s ditch any shame or self-judgment around this aspect.
In short, shamanic weight loss offers a revolutionary, integrative approach to weight management by addressing the emotional, spiritual, and energetic dimensions of our bodies. Unlike traditional methods that often rely on restrictive diets and intense exercise routines, shamanic weight loss invites individuals to explore the deeper reasons behind their relationship with weight. The aim is to create a joyful, compassionate, and sustainable journey toward a healthy body, free from struggle and self-recrimination. Get the full course here.
Shamanic Journey for Weight Loss
Shamanic journeying can be a powerful tool to support your weight loss by addressing the emotional, spiritual, and energetic factors influencing your body. Through journeying, you can connect with your spirit guides to uncover hidden patterns, past traumas, or energetic imbalances that may be contributing to weight retention. Your guides may offer insights and energetic interventions to help release these blocks, allowing your body to move toward a healthier state.
Your guides might show you how weight serves as protection or highlight emotional wounds that need healing. By receiving energetic interventions—such as clearing blocked energy or balancing your energy field—you can align with shifting to a weight that’s supportive for your body.
If you’re not comfortable journeying on your own, I can journey on your behalf. I will connect with your guides, bringing back healing messages and work with the guides to perform healing interventions that address the root causes of your weight challenges. Whether you journey yourself or I assist, this process offers profound support for both physical and energetic transformation. Please contact me via email if you’d like to talk about becoming a client. Or you can go right to booking a soul retrieval session.
Body Positivity and Self-Compassion
At the heart of shamanic weight loss is the principle of body positivity. The focus is on self-love and appreciating the beauty of all body sizes. Society bombards us with harsh and unrealistic ideals about how our bodies should look, often making people feel ashamed or less worthy due to their size. However, shamanic weight loss doesn’t impose a specific standard of beauty or health on anyone. Instead, it invites each person to honor their body as perfect in the present moment.
It is essential to reclaim your worth and reject societal pressures. Weight loss should not be something you feel compelled to do to meet external expectations. Rather, it is one of many possible personal choices made to improve your well-being, driven by self-compassion. You should lose weight only if it’s something you authentically desire, not because of societal standards or judgments. And again, you haven’t personally failed because you carry extra weight, you’re just having the normal, average human experience in the modern, technologically developed world.
Exploring the Energetic and Spiritual Causes of Weight Gain
Shamanism invites us to look at weight gain through a spiritual and energetic lens. Sometimes, extra weight is the result of hidden emotional and energetic factors. For many, weight gain serves as a protective mechanism, shielding them from emotional pain or societal objectification. For instance, women who have experienced sexual trauma may unconsciously hold onto extra weight as a form of protection against being objectified. Similarly, those who are energetically sensitive may carry extra weight as a buffer against the overwhelming energy of the outside world.
By working through these hidden issues and meeting these important needs in more elegant ways, shamanic weight loss offers a pathway to release this physical “armor.” Shamanic healing can be used to connect with spirit guides and uncover any deeper reasons behind weight retention. These journeys help heal past traumas, resolve energetic blockages, and offer insights that make it easier to release excess weight.
More on the Instincts and Internal Conflict
Much of the focus in shamanic weight loss is on understanding and healing the internal conflict we often experience when trying to lose weight. Our primal instincts, which evolved to help our ancestors survive famine, are still very much active today. These instincts drive us to overeat, particularly foods high in calories, fat, and sugar, because our biology still believes we need to store fat for survival. This can create a feedback loop where the more we worry about weight (our instincts also want us to have the highest possible status and conformity to what’s valued society) the more intense the pressure becomes to engage in things that have the opposite outcome.
This creates an internal struggle: on one hand, we consciously want to lose weight; on the other hand, our body’s instincts push us to consume more food and avoid wasting energy we might need for survival with exercise. Shamanic practices (as well as many other modalities) can help resolve this internal battle by soothing and calming the instincts. As we move out of fight or flight response, there is much more space to choose. In fact, I would argue that it can be mean to go on a diet before doing the work to learn to consistently move out of the fight or flight response. I’m offering a special discount (see the resources section below) for my Shamanic Weight Loss Course combined with my Instinct Course.
Soul Retrieval as Support for Weight Loss
Soul retrieval, a foundational practice in shamanic healing, can play a powerful role in supporting weight loss. At its core, soul retrieval is about reclaiming lost parts of yourself—pieces of your essence that may have fragmented due to trauma, stress, or difficult life experiences. These lost soul parts often leave behind emotional wounds that can manifest as disconnection, numbness, or a sense of incompleteness. For many, these emotional gaps can contribute to unhealthy behaviors around food, body image, and self-care. Learn more about my soul retrieval sessions here.
When parts of the soul are missing, it’s common to seek external sources of comfort or fulfillment—like overeating or using food to numb emotional pain. Weight gain can sometimes be a reflection of these unresolved traumas, as the body holds onto physical weight as a form of protection or as a way to manage unprocessed emotions. By receiving a soul retrieval, you can bring these lost pieces back into alignment, healing the underlying wounds that may be contributing to the struggle with weight.
In addition to emotional healing, soul retrieval also supports weight loss by helping you reconnect with your innate power and self-worth. When you are fully aligned with your soul, you are more likely to make choices that honor your body’s needs and foster long-term health. You may find yourself naturally drawn to nourishing foods, joyful movement, and self-care practices that feel good rather than relying on restrictive diets or self-punishing behaviors.
Soul retrieval supports not only the physical aspect of weight loss but also the deeper spiritual and emotional layers that often go unaddressed in traditional approaches. By healing from within, you create the foundation for lasting change, allowing you to shed not only physical weight but also the emotional burdens that may have contributed to it in the first place. In this way, soul retrieval offers a profound and holistic pathway to wellness, empowering you to more fully embody your healthiest, most vibrant self in a single session.
Finding Happiness and Fulfillment in the Meantime
In shamanic healing for weight loss, happiness and fulfillment are not deferred until you reach your weight goal. Instead, the process is about embracing joy and well-being in the present moment. Focusing on small, daily actions like mindful eating, gentle movement, and spiritual practices can make the weight loss journey uplifting and nourishing, rather than a struggle.
Celebrate the small victories, and recognize that your worth is not tied to a number on the scale. This approach makes the journey itself more fulfilling and sustainable, allowing you to enjoy life now while moving toward your goals.
Conclusion: Shamanic Weight Loss as a Path to Holistic Wellness
Shamanic weight loss is not just about shedding pounds; it’s about healing the whole self. By addressing the spiritual, emotional, and energetic causes of weight gain, this approach offers a deeper, more holistic path to wellness. It invites individuals to embrace self-love, compassion, and joy throughout the journey, transforming weight loss from a struggle into a process of personal empowerment.
Through shamanic practices such as spiritual journeys, energy healing, and mindfulness, as well as education about the unseen aspects that impact our experience, shamanic weight loss provides a compassionate and balanced way to achieve a healthier body.
It’s not about meeting society’s expectations or feeling pressured to change. It’s about connecting with your body, honoring your authentic desires, and living in harmony with your personal power.
Additional Resources
Practical Shamanism Podcast- I offer episodes on weight loss and lifestyle changes as well as other topics like dealing with energetic sensitivity.
Shamanic Weight Loss Course- Get lifetime access to this course in my academy.
Instinct Intervention Course- Calming the fight or flight response is one of our best ways to improve our weight loss outcomes. Contact me for a 25% discount if you want to get both the Shamanic Weight Loss Course and the Instinct Intervention.
Soul Retrieval- Check out this healing or book a session now.
Group Programs- I offer shamanic weight loss programs a few times a year with personal healing work in a group setting. To find out when the next one is offered, please join my mailing list.
Tiny Habits- Standford researchers wisdom on behavior change.