Survival Essentials - Water Questing - Introduction

In this episode of Conversations with a Shaman. 
We get into episode twenty-six of Survival Essentials. 
Section five - Water Questing. Always stay hydrated and aware.
Introduction.

This and so much more in this episode of Inside The Ravens Eye. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Welcome to Inside the Raven's Eye. I'm your host, Alan Mitchell. My medicine name is Raven's Spirit. This podcast is partnered with Earth and Spirit Medicine, owned and operated by Winfield Ivers. His medicine name is Coyote Thunderhawk. He is a shaman here in the state of Utah, so make sure to visit Earth and Spirit Medicine.com. In this episode of Conversations with a Shaman, we get into episode 26 of Survival Essentials, Water Questing. Always stay hydrated and aware. This and so much more in this episode of Inside the Raven's Eye. Thanks for listening and enjoy. Alright, so here we are, episode 26. And this one is getting into water questing. And yeah, water questing. It's funny when I go hiking in the wilderness, I uh nowadays, for sure, I'm always wanting to make sure I have enough water with me. And then we get busy in the maybe it's just such easy access to it here in the city that turn on a faucet and here's the water that we forget to drink it. And I know you've mentioned that multiple occasions on the podcast, the importance of not just giving gratitude in general, but water. It's like, wow, because I I I'm not like you, like where you've been way out there for long periods of time, but I have been out there and experienced just um, I'll say a small fraction of that. And there's a great respect. I remember it kind of takes me back when I, not just on my spirit quest with you, but on my solo, where I said, you know what? Yeah, I I talk a lot about this, but I want to go out and and truly experience this fasting, no food, no water. And the no water factor is a biggie. It was a biggie for me because I immediately I had water with me. I'm not gonna play stupid and just not have it because I I did a good hike to where I wanted to be. You've been on that hike, so it was a good hike. So I wanted to make sure I had the water, but and I'm glad I had the water because it was like temptation for me, like it's right there. But how serious are you gonna take this? But I remember on that one, I really it gave a lot of gratitude for water. I remember I was like, oh my, the soreness of my throat, the the questing of wanting water, and the the way the determination to want to say, no, I'm okay. I'm okay. Stop. Think, observe, and plan. You're fine, your water is here. But yeah, with saying all of that and kind of thinking about maybe it's just such easy access here that we forget about water, we forget about giving gratitude, and I'm guilty of that. Like every day, I forget sometimes to be like, well, thank you, fresh water for being present and giving me health every time I drink it. And making when I drink enough water each day and I know that I am, I feel a million times better than when I'm not, and I'm drinking, let's say, soda pop or too much coffee or something like that. It really does have a big effect on your overall health. But yeah, water questing is well, I'm just intrigued to hear what you gotta say about it. So I'll hand it over to you.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Okay. Well, yeah, this is the fifth section here, and survival essentials, remember, was what the reason I designed this was just it was the best that I could come up with with as much time as I spend in wilderness survival and in teaching and scouts and marriages and different things where it was good to give factual, beneficial information to help people in real time training, so that if indeed they did get themselves into a bind, most of the information I found was not sound. At least not sound enough for me. So I went to work designing this survival essentials list and in an order that sometimes I look at it and I think, wow, I didn't really have a conscious thought to really place this this way in some of the new learnings that I have as I keep learning about survival essentials in my modern-day living. So, in other words, creating this list to keep people alive for 72 hours until they get found, if they ever get lost or stranded in the wilderness, was the bottom line reason for this. Again, the bottom line reason for this list, to have people have the knowledge or wisdom or at least somewhere with them, the things to do or be prepared and trained in them, to keep themselves safe and alive, to get themselves found or out of the situation, to be located, to do whatever it takes, in other words, to get through that so-called 72-hour window of time that most search and rescue parties really uh get busy and into in the initial stage. After that 72 hours, oftentimes there's not as big of a search and things start to trickle down. So when you have the proper skills, when you have the proper knowledge, and you can understand that you are working towards empowering yourself in the self-reliance area of life, but this self-reliance goes deep. It's one thing to know how to survive in the wilderness, as you say, when you go out hiking and things like that. There's just even going hiking on a day hike, there's so many things that you hear about that people experience that are interesting as to oh, I just went out for a day hike, and then they find themselves in some horrific event. And most of the time it's just that they didn't know, they just didn't know. Uh, there was no previous preparing or training or uh knowledge or understanding or wisdom that says I ought to have water anyway, just in case, I ought to have this, that, or the other, a little kit, perhaps. Well, in this modern wilderness, you know, this kit is kind of inside of us, it's our mentality. And, you know, it's uh it's a kind of a an ongoing go-to kit. So as I kept teaching and learning about these survival essentials that I designed, I kept understanding how powerfully it applied to my everyday life so profoundly, so deeply. And this is why we're doing the podcast now. Now, that was one heck of a mouthy introduction, kind of a ramble in a way. However, I hope the points that I made can help preface where we're at right now on this fifth section, because the first four sections are about what it takes to work on the inside, if you will, doing the inner work. So the preparing and training, always being in a state of readiness, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. That's about self. That's really self-focus, you know, uh being able to stop when you feel lost or stranded, you know, finding a safe place to sit and relax, get your bearings straight, you know, being able to think and observe and plan and getting the mental clarity and focus in the third section, remaining fact-based and solution-oriented. So all of this is about self and then the navigation and signaling. Always know where you're going. Again, it's about self. So all this, whether you're looking at, hey, I got lost in the wilderness when I went hiking, or hey, I have no idea where I'm at in life, and you live in the depths of the city. You know, it's a lost or stranded feeling. It's a it's a mentality that is in need, and it's usually not available because most people haven't learned how to tap into that mentality to help him in those situations. Again, this is why we're really going into this much detail about this with these podcasts, because survival essentials to me now pertains to this modern wilderness where there are so many people from uh young to old who are lost not just in life as to, you know, am I accomplishing anything? How are my relationships, my finances, oh, I'm so stressed out, my health, oh, I'm an oxygen tank, and I'm only 50 years old, what happened? You know, I used to be a wrestler or whatever it was, you know, uh whatever it is. And so whenever we are finding ourselves in, as I say all the time, right here, right now, so again, here we are, right here, right now. And now we're gonna get into this second half, and we're starting on the fifth section today about water questing. And I'm just kind of gonna go into the introduction about what water questing really is under the umbrella of raw wilderness and modern wilderness. And we can see that the second half is more about resources, finding things on the outside of us in a way, going to our environment, if you will, going to the the earth, going to the outside to gather things, to get the water, to get the the resources to create a shelter, you know, to be able to gather firewood and and knowing even how to spot the firewood when it seems scarce. And what that has to do with a scarcity or lack mindset when we are not able to see through illusions in life and see that there is much more than what is uh somewhat being presented. We have to look through to find that firewood sometimes. Sometimes we trip on it and we didn't know it was underneath all that grass, so to speak. Okay, so then we also go out with our food gathering, learning about plants, uh foods, you know, uh mammals, birds, things that eggs, whatever we can, snakes, whatever we can find. I know I keep listing things, but there is a list of resources out there to keep us sustained. And here we are in my home. And yes, the water's running out of my tap. In fact, it's funny you brought that up about the gratitude part because yeah, you know, when something goes away with the water in our home, it's it's interesting. So, for example, here a few weeks back, even with all this flooding going on from natural means, there was a water line break, accident from a contractor on a main pipe here in Spanish Fork. Caused some severe flooding, and people had to be evacuated out of their homes. And it was right in the midst of all the other flooding going on, but it had nothing to do with these people's flooding. This was our man-made pipes into our home, and that main line broke and it buckled the road. It sent water rushing down and flooded homes and field basements completely full in just a few hours. So completely destroying and disrupting. Water has power and it has a way to just do whatever it needs to do. It's gonna go somewhere. So you can channel water, if you will, and get these pipes in here. We can make canals and run water from up in the mountains down into a town as we're creating settlements so that we can begin to, you know, grow and kind of manipulate the resources, if you will. But when we forget the part about stewardship, and this is what is to me the most fascinating part in the duality of the first half, it's kind of like a self-stewardship, you know. Uh, and the the the second half is kind of like a stewardship of our of our mother earth. And so when we forget the gratitude in how we're getting the resources into our home and we get our power shut off, or we have a flood with the water, or somebody uses all the hot water, and somebody complains, or you know, there's not enough water pressure, or we could go on and on, you know, about water, and even you know, if you go back to uh what has pretty much ran societies all along is the need for water and people seeking to find ways in order to have a say or a dictatorship, even as to I will disperse the water accordingly. And now that's just a common way. The water gets dispersed accordingly, we pay for the water, and all along it's just because people know that we need water to live. So whoever could get it, whether it was the McCoys or the Hatfields, you know, people were shooting each other for water rights. See, people have uh been killing each other over this water thing. And so it's very interesting, and it's the first one on the list, and doesn't mean it's always my priority. I might be quite hydrated, and so I might make a fire first in the wilderness. So my water needs might be uh less in that moment, but they're always changing, just like the first side, where I say all day long I'm doing preparing and training, stopping and doing the necessary first aids to whether it's mental first aid or physical or emotional or whatever, spiritual, there's that application, there's the mental clarity and focus, and the navigation and signaling, and it's going on all the time. Imagine right now, whether you're thinking about your workplace or your home or your places of worship or places of education or entertainment places, places of gatherings, and as we are maneuvering through our life each day, living, even though we might get little breaks and say, Oh, I want to go kayaking, oh, I want to go hike, oh, I want to go over to Spain, I want to go to another country, or I want to go do this. The day-to-day mentality, no matter whether you're a nine to five person, whether you're a family person, whether you're an adventurer, whatever it is, that 24-7 mentality, the 24-7 input and output, what's going on all day long, every second of the day. So when you're in these places of gatherings and you're watching people in most situations, we're using our devices often, and we are reliant. I was talking about self-reliance, empowering ourselves with the skills and knowledge that bring about self-reliance, and so we have these devices, our phones, and we are in this world to a certain degree reliant upon them in order to function at the capacity and speed at which the world is saying you need to be at. But one can withdraw themselves from that, one can set aside all their technology and wander into the wilderness with nothing. Nothing. No water, no food, just clothes on their back, and let's say they're even barefoot. And let's say it's a pretty good day, and you just go wandering, and you just go wandering, you'll find out what your needs are as you go. Things will be able to give you signals as you're going. Depending upon the terrain, depending upon the time of day, depending upon your conditioning, depending upon your mentality, depending upon many things, you will begin to understand your needs. This is something that we do not get to do during the day when we are distracted often, often, often, distracted so often by our devices, by the mentalities that are fragmented, that are not conducive towards a wholeness or completeness of mankind. They are not even in the place or position in which one can function in a way that gets effectiveness on a day-to-day basis in most cases. So you go to work, go to school, go somewhere, seeing people, all those places, mentality fragmented, back to the scenario, gonna go for a little walk about, leave everything behind, going up there all of a sudden, and like I said, let's say we're barefoot, and all we have with the clothes on our back, no phone, no nothing, no car keys, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, just the clothes and barefoot like that, and going, well, depending upon your feet, you may begin to find that that will signal first and foremost. You may start to feel the earth in a way that you don't want to, or that you're not used to, because it might poke your skin, you might say ow, and step on maybe a rock or pull a little thorn out of your foot or something signals, okay? So the preparing and training, well, you might want to think about shoes and socks, but hey, barefoot's real good. Barefoot's when you start to sense things a little bit different. Because when your attention can go to that delicacy of your feet, and when you understand how many healing places. There are in our feet this reflexology. It's a study of all the places in the body through the feet. Right now I'm wearing shoes and socks, and I've been wearing them a lot lately in my home and out because I've been putting in these uh orthopedic lifts in one of my shoes to help balance out the height in my legs due to the hip replacements that I've had. And so I'm working on equalizing my sacral area. But I deliberately go out and I am barefoot and wear shorts and I work in the garden, I play on the grass, I deliberately make sure I ground myself as well. So when we are going about each and every day, and most of us wearing those shoes, driving our cars, going places, doing things, we're not understanding what our needs are. We might be like, oh my gosh, I'm starving. And yeah, you know, to eat is a need. But is it right then a need, or do you have greater needs, perhaps? Are there things in your life that are out of balance? And if you decided to go without food, perhaps you would begin to understand that you can have thoughts about other things. But then, see, just like walking barefoot, you keep getting those little pokes and prods, but it's awakening things in your feet, see, it's sending signals different in your feet because it can touch your feet, the skin, rather than the shoe. And so when I'm getting those signals that are to my feet, and it's hitting all of those places, it's sending those signals to all the places in my body that I'm not used to because I wear shoes, see, and they're healing signals. They might be so painful in a way immediately, like when you think you're hungry and you say, Oh, oh, my stomach hurts, I'm so hungry. We call them hunger pangs, P-A-N-G. We should call them hunger pain P-L-N. But when one subjects the body to the mind, see, because the mind is stronger if we let it be than the body. But in our modern wilderness, most of the time we don't need to do that. We're just kind of on autopilot, and our subconscious is somewhat rampant, and we go around complaining, and in most cases, years will go by without resolve in our physical, mental, emotional, spiritual arenas. So when one goes on that walk about and they don't have anything with them in that wilderness, and they're finding out the first place of their needs are, oh god, maybe I want some shoes. I want something to protect my feet. Well, maybe they'll sit down. And when they sit down to rub their feet, you know, they might see a pretty flower or they might see a bird. Something might capture their attention because they're they're present-minded now, they're they're focused. See, this person is focused upon something, and there's not a lot of distractive things around that say, I can't attend to this right now. So we're attending to that signal to our feet. We're just kind of rubbing them, but it gives us a chance to kind of hear the water running, the birds chirping, our breathing. Things maybe we don't take note of. And so then we go farther, we might find out that we're getting thirsty, and there's water coming down in the creek, and yet, you know, we have an understanding usually that says don't drink that water in the streams because you might get sick. But water has a significant, compelling methodology of humility, bringing a person to their very knees, possibly even down to their belly, laying on the ground, trying to crawl without energy, so dehydrated to get to something, to get to water. So sometimes when we feel dehydrated in life, when we're not getting all of our valuable essentials, and water hydration is essential, and so we don't go without water enough, we don't go without satisfying that signal that says you're thirsty, your body needs water, because we'll substitute, like you mentioned, coffee or things, so soda pops, coffee, you know, other things, and then people might say, Well, there's water in there. Well, you know, that might be true, you know. I I put water in when I make my coffee, and yet there's just something that I have come to understand about just drinking water and drinking a good amount of it, and each time as I'm just consuming the water, drinking it, giving thanks, because I remember all the times I didn't have it. Now I would intentionally place myself myself. How many are there of you, Winfield? Myself in these situations to test my mentality, my physical strength, my emotional strength, my spiritual strength. I was preparing and training all these times. So I'd subject my body to my mind, because my mind is stronger. I'd say, I will not eat, I will not drink, I will fast, I will not put those things in my body that my body says it needs. See, we need them, yes, and if we go too far in the push of going without, see, our mentality can screw us too. And so we want to make certain that we are deliberate with our thinking as to why we may choose to fast, why we may choose to subject our body to our minds. But then, see, once we're fasting and our mind starts to play tricks, see, when you're out there in the wilderness and you're on day three, and you haven't had any food or water, and you've been sitting in one spot for those last 72 hours because you're doing a spirit quest, and your mind is playing these tricks. And one of the greatest ways to do a spirit quest is to have food and water with you. Because there's something very beautiful about knowing you could partake of that food right there. It's right there. I could eat it. I'm so hungry. I have water right here, I could drink it. See, this is now like in our homes. But to what degree of discipline do we allow ourselves to condition our mentality and our spiritual under an emotional fortitude that comes about when we are fasting and when we place ourselves in that situation and we go without food and water, and it is before us. And like I say about day three, when your mind's playing tricks, and you're like, hmm, that water seems good. That food seems good. And I've done it both ways without having anything with me, because there's something very unique about knowing you don't have anything and wanting to bail from your sight and go get something. There's always something about us that wants to bail, we want to cave, we want to not subject our body to our mind. Oh, my body says I need this. Well, the mind is stronger if you allow it to be. And then when you subject the mind to the spirit, wow. When you get to that point when you're like, oh, hey God, I don't have any water. So, like when I've been hiking and I've been out by myself and I'm out of water and I'm trapsing through a desert wilderness and I know not, because I've never been to this location, which was often, and I would just be out there not knowing where the next place, and I'd have to look for indicators. So when it comes to water questing in the survival essentials, it's about staying hydrated and aware. But think about what I was talking about. Hydrated how and aware how in our real lives. We have to keep ourselves well lubed, okay, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. This water helps us to do this. So when I'm out there and I subject my mind to spirit, and I'm like, oh God, you know, I don't know where there's water. See, that's called location. What indicators or signs do I look for? Well, man, I don't see any. I don't see anything that's green. I don't see any valleys that look like there may be water. So then I'm like, hey, I'm really thirsty. I, you know, uh, I know I can go without, but I, you know, yeah, this is I'm I'm getting pretty thirsty. And if I have other people with me, then I'm concerned about them because maybe they don't know about subjecting their body to their mind and their mind to their spirit as well. So when you rely on the unseen force and you say, Hey, I need water, and you can look, it's like, oh wow, there's some looks like some green cottonwoods over there. So there's an indicator, there's something that says I can have hope again. So we need little indicators that that give us hope in this water questing. You know, where do we locate? How do we filter it? How do we purify it? How do we conserve it? And when I'm praying like that and I'm saying, hey God, can you help me find some water? Or like sometimes at home, I'm like, hey God, can you help me remember how important water is? No, it's not like I need to go without it, but I have so much of it so abundantly that sometimes I forget how important it is if I didn't have it. I'd like to review my memories. I'd like to go back through. So I'm filtering through, see my thoughts, my memories, my times to help me to locate myself right now and my placement where I say, thank you, thank you, because we forget. We get so used to when things are going good that all of a sudden we forget that it was bad. And then when it's bad again, or when that storm comes again, or when you're cold again, or when you're hungry again, then one might begin to start to curse those situations rather than to embrace them. And one gets when one gets in a habit of cursing situations that take place on a daily basis that are just absolutely a part of life. For example, you can you can walk outside of your house and you can be walking uh to the car, and maybe you're barefoot like I was the other day, and I stub my toe in the oddest way. And my daughter says, What was that? Because it popped when it stubbed, it it cracked, it said this loud crack, that's what she heard, and I looked down at my toe, and I just kind of was it's okay, you know, but it's one of those things that happen. I could be like, oh my gosh, oh, oh, you know, but no, what I do is I'm I'm hydrated, I'm aware, so I say he's now. So even though things happen that we could curse, see, what we want to do is be able to give gratitude for it. So we're not, and the way I can give gratitude for it, it's not like I'm thankful that I stubbed my toe and it hurt. It's got a scrape on the end. But when I say he'll now, and then I just act as if it's fine, I did not think about it again until right now when I'm telling this story. I seriously did not even think about that toe again. And that's usually how I go about resolving the situations that take place, the daily stubbing our toes. We'll say that now as a metaphor. How often during the day, you know, can it be like, oh, you you just spilt something, and then you turn around to get something and you slip, and then you know, one thing on another, oh, I'm such a clutch, you know, blah, blah, blah. No, water questing is about a very, very calm, a very grateful, very spiritual focus. Water questing, when you're questing water, when you're seeking water, when you're seeking purity, when you're seeking to put within you this life-giving substance, when you're seeking that, knowing you need it, and you can't walk over to your faucet and get it. There's a real beautiful thought process that takes place. It's not fear. I've never had fear around any of these, ever. Never. I don't know why. Never been afraid like that. I always knew that I would be taken care of. I always knew Mother Earth would help me. I always knew Father Spirit would help me. And I could ask. Water is pure, water is life-giving substance. We need it. All life needs this water. We we would all shrivel up and die if water ceased to be a part of our existence. And it wouldn't take long for everyone to start shriveling and watching all the life force begin to shrivel, everything began to lose its essence of life, and within no time at all there would be no life. And then if water came again, and maybe there were some seeds, you know, that were left, and maybe there was something that was still there, and that water comes and gives hope. And that seed, that seed of greatness says, Oh, I remember this. I must sprout forth, I must come forth and become something. So, see, when we're talking about the significance and the importance of water, next time you even get close to taking a drink of water, I challenge you, please, to pause. To just stop, don't drink it yet. Just think. Wow, I need this. I would die without it. I act as if there is more than enough around, and yet I I not you know, we we talk about conserving water all the time in our communities. We talk about water in the strangest of ways as to what it pertains to. We have water parks where we can go and immerse ourselves in swimming pools and go down slippery slides that are wet, etc., and we can enjoy the water. But it's different when you're out there and you're praying to God and you're saying, Hey, can you help me find some water? And when you come over that next little sandstone little ridge, and there's a small little indentation in the ground. There's a little bit of water in it from the last rainstorm. And that little place, there's water for a lot of things, a lot of life. You see it on the National Geographic Channel sometimes, where when the water comes and when it goes, man, that's the life. You see the animals gather around, and they when those rains come and it floods out in Africa, and you see what takes place, it brings, it gathers everything needs water. So wherever the water is, you'll find the things that need it. But if you don't have gratitude, water won't stay. We have to give thanks for the water. So when you're holding that water, like I was saying, I challenge you to just stop. Thank you for this water, thank you for this life-giving substance that I'm about to drink. Thank you, Mother Earth, thank you, Father Spirit. You say that prayer for that water, see, and you and you say, Thank you for purifying this water, making this life giving substance whole for me and for all those who partake and. Drink like that, then that water has more life, more understanding about what you want it to do. See, there's a relationship, there's a communication, like I was saying at the very beginning about walking, and you get those signals. When you give thanks for that water and acknowledge it, it activates. Just like all those little things on your feet are activating, all those different meridians in your body and all these places to go, hey, we're alive. When you get all that going on in your body with your food, we'll talk about all these things, you know, all that gratitude for our resources. So say that prayer for that water. Always pray for water, always give thanks for water. Sometimes it's not palatable, but that's okay. Sometimes we can make it palatable, but the key is to give thanks regardless. Thank you for water. Thank you for water. Thank you for water.

SPEAKER_00 41:24

Thank you for water. There we have episode twenty six to survival essentials, water questing. Always stay hydrated and aware. Remember the importance of giving gratitude. Not only for the water, but for every moment in our lives. It's not just important, it's just downright crucial. Review the episode and hear what Hawk is talking about in regards to gratitude. When practiced and used throughout the day, it will create the calmness and peace you are seeking. If you enjoy this podcast, please remember to share this with your loved ones, family, and friends. Give us a rating and follow us so you don't miss any upcoming episodes. Thanks again for listening and much love and God bless.