Survival Essentials - Water Questing - Conservation

In this episode of Conversations with a Shaman. 
We get into episode thirty of Survival Essentials. 
Section five - Water Questing. Always stay hydrated and aware. 
Conservation - In your belly or your canteen?

In my opinion, remember not to become consumed in the thought process of thinking there isn’t enough for everyone. There is more enough. When concentrating on ourselves in self-healing we become more conscious of conservation. Conserving not just our water but every area of our lives.  

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

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Welcome to Inside the Raven's Eye. I'm your host, Alan Mitchell. My medicine name is Raven Spirit. This podcast is partnered with Earth and Spirit Medicine, owned and operated by Winfield Ivers. His medicine name is Coyote Thunderhawk. He's 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 30 of Survival Essentials Water Questing. Always stay hydrated and aware. Conservation. In your belly or your canteen. This and so much more in this episode of Inside the Raven's Eye. Thanks for listening and enjoy. Okay, here we are on another episode, episode 30, section five, to survival essentials, water questing, and today's episode is conservation. And yeah, to conservation. I was thinking about water. I was kind of thinking about sometimes when when I think about that, I think about sometimes I know I'm guilty of it in the past, and the more I've learned about really self-mastery and trying to just learn as much as I can and grow from it, it's because I would think, okay, con conservation, the society, we have to save on water, we have to save, and kind of the more you think about that, the more panic or like stressed out you become, and it defeats the purpose. To where when you I've heard you say many times, there's more than enough. But I think when you kind of get into the area of self-mastery, of course you don't want to be wasteful. It's kind of common sense at that level, for me, anyways. I'm all like, well, it's just who I want to be. So it kind of starts with everyone as an individual just want to better your life, and there's gonna be always more than enough for of everything. So that's what I was really thinking a lot about about this water questing and conservation is you better yourself, and then there's gonna be more than enough for every everybody. So comes comes down to the individual, I think, when it comes up to conservation. Like you say, is it better in your belly or the canteen? Uh for me, I drink it up, you know. So with saying that, I'll hand it over to you.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Thanks. I it's interesting how we view water, and yeah, when we're kind of going down a path of uh turn the water off, you know, or we're using too much, or only water your lungs this much, and and then it becomes almost a fear or a scarcity, a panic, like you were saying. But yet when one comes to a place of understanding about water, about life, about themselves, like I say, no Mother Earth, no father spirit, no yourself. When one comes to that, or in that arena where one can begin from that kind of a foundation to even learn more, because it seems like a never-ending book of knowledge and wisdom out there, always feeling like an infant in this, yet in whatever we're deeming as self-mastery, and the idea that says, hey, I've come to a place where I understand there is more than enough. More than enough of all of these resources, the water, shelter, fire, food for everyone. And when we understand that, then, and we come to this place of mastery, we're not greedy at that point. That's where the difference is. We're not in a place of fear, in a place of I better hold on to it, a canteen, if you will. Okay, we're not, we're not trying to store. We're knowing that we only need so much. And it's not like we're afraid to use it, but yeah, we just want to we want to appreciate it. We want to know how and when to use it effectively in a way that comes from an umbrella of stewardship. So this last little point in this section five of water questing, I just kind of want to point out before we get into that, this this water questing, searching for water, you know, and so let's imagine out in the wilderness and you don't have anything, you know, you just the clothes on your back, not a nothing in your pockets, nothing. Just you got some shoes and socks on, some pants, a shirt, no hat, it's hot and crap, you don't really see shade, and you don't really see pretty much any hope or signs of water. And it's very hot. So we if we're imagining this scenario, we're we're looking for water, but it's different because it's really important now. We we're we're feeling it. I've explained this in the last few episodes, this part where we get sensations about what it is we need. So whether we're in the raw wilderness or at home or at the mall, real quick, let's just go back to uh our modern wilderness, and you think about being at the mall or somewhere, an event, and you're sitting there perhaps and you're thirsty, so you go on a water quest. You begin searching for a what?

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Water fountain.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

Yes, a place to retrieve water, a place to get a drink. And when you get there, what might you find?

SPEAKER_01 5:54

A line of people.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Yes, because everyone needs water. Okay, so back to this scenario about this raw wilderness, this place where we're out there, we're looking for water, it's important, it's hot. We want to find it. All of a sudden we see some birds fly, okay, and they're just making this noise, and we see them, and there's a few of them, and they're going, and that catches our attention. Not because we're thinking about water then, it's because we got distracted by a sound. And we look at that, but as we're looking and we see where they're going, because we're just kind of taken by that moment, all of a sudden we see a little bit of green that we didn't see before. That's a hope. That's like saying, Oh man, the birds might be going to something I don't know about, like, you know, okay, I'll follow them. You know, and so we might find a trail pretty soon. And you might see some tracks on it. And they're probably not human tracks, especially in this scenario. But you see this trail. So it seems to be going the same way. It makes it a little easier to take a path to get to the water. So all the life forces come out of the seats in the soccer game, all the people, and there's many water fountains, or there's these uh concession stands where one can buy drink of some sort. So we go about quenching this thirst kind of unknowingly, not from a real place of importance, like uh where we were talking about the gratitude, because see, in this scenario where we're out in the wilderness and we're trying to find that water, that distance is a lot longer than we thought. So all of a sudden, you know, night's coming and we're starting to get chilled. We got a little bit sunburned that day, and we're still not near the water. And so what would one do then? You know, what's more important than water when you start to get cold? Warmth. I want to get warm. I don't like being thirsty, I don't like being hungry, I don't like being cold. But the one that is the most receiving the most sensation due to the environment or on our inside and the geographic environment on the outside, our sensations become prioritized. So when it comes to water, shelter, fire, food, one must be paying attention to their own sensations. We lose that in our life. We we lose that, we get lost in this other method of navigating to our resources of water, shelter, fire, and food without a real gratitude. But I'm sure if we talk to anybody about it, I'm sure they're thankful for their water, of course. I'm sure they're thankful for their heater, their furnace in their home, or a fire, or whatever. So it's just not a thoughtful, it's not what I want to talk about in this section five, and what I'm saying is water questing. What are we looking for? Water. Well, what I say by that is always stay hydrated and aware. This is what I'm talking about and giving this example is the awareness factor here. Because when we're in the raw wilderness, our awareness is peaked because we are not able to shelter ourselves perhaps within a home with air conditioning and water and receive those quick, gratifying, needed benefits that are so easily accessed, and then we just pay for them. But we can just go in our house and get them. But when we're out there and it's real like that, it it really does become different. Working with the youth in the past over those years was fascinating to me as to how they would come to this gratitude. Most of those young people coming into a 63-day wilderness experience, they were in shock initially. Completely different world for them. Completely. Never, in most cases, even come close to experiencing anything like that. All their needs changed, but they didn't quite understand the water, shelter, fire, food effect yet. Over the next few days, over the next week, over the next week and a half, two weeks, and every personality's different. Some may fight and resist and yell and cause problems, and some may just kind of wither and cower in the corner and try to not be seen. And then all in between. So the geographic region, the Mother Earth, the nature has its effect. The other people have their effect. The guides out in these programs had their effect. And then whatever the kids had experienced up to that point before they got there had an effect. And here they were trying to not even knowing all these effects, trying to figure out what they were experiencing. But all of a sudden, they would start coming to a few things. I missed my home. I missed food. Food was one of the most commonly spoken topics. Interesting. But it's one that gratifies so many things for us. So when we really consider what food does for us at home, there's so many other aspects to it on emotional, on social, and other ways that are around food. When we're out in the wilderness like that and we're cooking something for ourselves, we're just thinking about us. We're not needing very much. We can partake and feel satisfied, but that gratification is different because when we're so thankful for every single bite, when we're so thankful for every single little sip of that water, when we're so thankful for it. And we just go ahead and partake when we come upon it to that level of satisfaction, not to some sort of gluttonous manner, if you will. Not to some sort of, I better get all I can while I have it because I might not have it again. This is a powerful mindset that robs people of freedom when there is more than enough, even if they're lacking the mindset of scarcity in a way, because that's still a scarcity mindset. So we might not be thinking that we need to conserve when we're running our washing machines and our dishwashers and our showers, etc., in our homes. About conserving water. See, I'm having a sensation right now. You could hear it in the microphone. I always have my water right here for these reasons. I don't want to save it for later. I want to consume it. So when it comes to this water questing, always stay hydrated and aware. Just be aware in your homes and in your lives that we are very blessed. Be aware of how much others have worked so diligently before us as to a sort of a paving to a lifestyle of such convenience. And something I want to point out though is I know it seems we've been stripped from our connection with Earth, but I promise you can live your lifestyle of convenience in your tepee, your modern tepee, your homes, and you can still have all of that gratitude. Such gratitude. You can still touch the earth and get out and connect. You can grow your foods and medicines. We can have the best of both worlds in that way under an umbrella of stewardship that doesn't have any place on this planet acting as if, or a population acting as if, or a demographic region acting as if there isn't enough. We have piped water hundreds of miles from one location to another and built communities from that. We have done so much around water. But sometimes we still, under the umbrella of monetizing, we get greedy. So it's not a greedy of I want more water, I want the money that I can get by having a say over what this water does, where it goes, who gets it. And so when we have conglomerates that are managing and mismanaging our water usage, our water purification, our water conservation, we have to be aware. We have to be aware of what's really going on. This is why I go through all this so much about really understanding what's going on within you, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Go back to number one, always prepare and train, always be in a state of readiness, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Number two, you've got to stop. You just gotta stop so many times in a day. It's okay, it doesn't take long. Just take that second and and and remember, just remember, oh yeah, oh yeah, I'm right here right now. And this is a fresh moment, and everything is beautiful, and from this moment forth I shall continue. And then when another moment comes that you forget that you did that, then you do it again, see? Oh yeah, right here, right now, because life has a way of having an influence that pulls us away from that awareness. So this is why we stop. And this is why we administer necessary first aid. So when we just got off a conversation uh with a spouse and we're getting divorced, and we have the kids in the car, and they're listening to this conversation of one spouse to the other, and it's negative and hurtful, we're rippling affecting our children. And when we're doing that, we're we're kind of being that same uh selfish, uh, let's get greedy kind of a way. We're forgetting about where water needs to go. We're forgetting about where our emotions need to go. We need to prioritize, reprioritize. That's first aid. That's an emotional need. That's a state or a place where people need to really understand why and how they're going about every day and what they're thinking when they're going about it, and why they end up doing what they do throughout the day, not being aware. So if we start off every day considering these survival essentials, how am I doing preparing and training physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually? How am I doing and always being in a state of readiness? How am I doing in my stopping and thinking and observing and planning and then administering first state? Because when I get off that phone call and I hurt, I don't want others to hurt with it. I don't want to send that out. I want to rapidly say, I'm right here, right now. And yeah, that hurt. But my hurt turns into anger, my anger turns into, you know, other unnecessary thoughts, words, feelings, and actions that go out and do other things that are harder to come back from. And then I have to end up saying to myself, you know, again, okay, Winfield, you kind of blew it there. Yeah, no, you did blow it there. Okay. And then to be able to say, okay, oh, I blew it. No, don't go victim, don't go pity. But I do that sometimes. So we have these human tendencies. So we have to learn how to make these survival essentials work around our human tendencies so that our human tendencies become more effective through utilizing the survival essentials. Okay. So you stop, you think, you observe, and you plan. And then you get your mental clarity. And this is number three now. And this is where you're like saying, okay, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna be fact-based and solution-oriented. Why? Because it works. So when you're stopping and thinking and observing and planning, you're being very fact-based and solution-oriented. Why? Because it removes that emotional content to such a degree that we can't have anxiety and panic, we can't have victimization. We're just dealing with certain aspects of life that do have solutions, and we're able to focus on that without being consumed by that. And so then, as we're working in our mental clarity and we're working on fact based and solution oriented, we learn that there's a formula that works relentlessly, successfully, very. Verbatim, no matter what. Thoughts plus words plus feelings plus actions equals results. Whatever you're thinking, feeling, speaking, whatever you're excuse me, whatever you're thinking, speaking, feeling, and acting is the result you're experiencing in your life. When you learn to think a specific way, a certain way, a deliberate way, then you begin to speak that way. It's also important to get accountable with oneself. So sometimes in life we allow ourselves to fall short of our so-called standards of what we want for ourselves. We fall short of what we really want ourselves to be. We kind of lower our standards, if you will. I do this sometimes. It's not that I like it, it's not that I want to do that. I don't know why I do it. I get disappointed when I do it. But yeah, you know, it's another growth spurt because I do what I can as quickly as I can to shift that into this sprouting of a new experience, taking all the golden nuggets. And so when I go from the mental clarity and I'm learning that I can think myself, speak myself, feel myself, act myself into the very results that I want. And then what I can do is I can actually get rid of any and all negativity, any and all interruptions, any and all situations that seem to take away, I can still focus. I can still be aware, no matter what's going on around me. And so, and and you're witnessing this right now in this very podcast, aren't you, Alan? There's things that have been going on around us, correct? Yeah. Okay. And am I staying on target and focused in this? Yes. And yet, is it hard to not get swayed by what's going on around us? Okay. So then we're moving into that fourth part because when we're having the mental clarity, you know, well, we've got to end up learning how to navigate. We've got to work ever our every moment-to-moment disciplining into this. We've got to navigate effectively now. We've got to be able to look at our terrain. We've got to be able to look at the landmarks. We've got to be able to understand certain things about uh uh not just our our terrain and our landmarks, but uh the uh the other one and then the codes. Uh help me here, Alan. Yeah landmark terrain and codes. But what's the fourth?

SPEAKER_01 22:27

Fourth one.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

Navigation and signaling.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

Navigation signaling.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

Starts off with terrain. Terrain. Landmarks, codes.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

I am totally spaced on that fourth one.

SPEAKER_00 22:48

So when it comes to the articulation of keeping the understanding within ourselves, this navigation and signaling is obviously really important because it's our terrain. Know where you're at and where you're going. Landmarks, know how to navigate without map and compass. Instincts, know how to trust your internal compass. Because what we're talking about is going without map and compass. We have to go to instincts next so that we can trust ourselves, and then we've got to be able to understand the basic codes, these sensations, these signals. So when I'm talking about, before we got into water questing, and we're talking about the sensations, and I was giving an example about walking and you're getting barefoot and you feel the stones on your feet underneath, it begins to become a higher priority because that is sending more impulse than the dang heat. So we want to take care of that first. So when we're thirsty, are we thirstier than we are hungry? Are we hungrier than we are, you know, needy for love? Are we, you know, what is it? What's going on in our lives, and how do we get to this place through navigating without map and compass? Put away the books, put away the schooling, put away the mentors for just a minute. Put away anything and everything on the outside, including your phones, your devices, no more Hey Google, no more Hey Siri. And just imagine, where are you going to go for an answer? Who are you going to talk to when you're alone? Who are you going to seek guidance from?

SPEAKER_01 24:35

I go to God. Spirit.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Did you always?

SPEAKER_01 24:39

No.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

Why do you? I'm wondering. Why do you?

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Why do I?

SPEAKER_00 24:51

Why do you go to God? Like instead of going through a list of ten people trying to find the right one that's gonna give you the answer or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

I don't think uh when I was, depending on the external influence of people, it always I always found myself getting more lost. And then when I s when he taught me to say more prayers, I started to get answers, even though sometimes I was like, wait, what? Do what? And then I did it, and then I started to get the answers within myself. I started to maybe step away from ego, because I'll never forget the time he told me the acronym to ego is easing God out. I took that very seriously because I remember that day I said, I'm never, I'm gonna do my absolute best to never ease God out of my life ever again, because whenever I felt down and lost and out, the more I started to pray, the better I felt and the better guidance I I received. And so that's why I've always wanted to continue to pray and talk to Spirit and God and ask for advice because it's the best advice I've ever got.

SPEAKER_00 26:02

And then you put it into action.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

You start you you're you start looking for the resources and prioritize them to set up your camp, so to speak, once you get the answers, you know where to go from there, kind of a thing. So know where you're going, know where you're at. And so when we're seeking these answers, and when and so when I'm speaking about spirituality also, uh, and I'm speaking about water questing, you know, I kind of look at this water questing. I've always thought about, you know, it's like trying to get the most purest of the most beautiful of the life force. When when seriously, when I've been out of the wilderness and all these places, and and and and so many times I've been so I'm glad I've been as thirsty as I was when I found these, accidentally found these natural springs where it's like this lifeblood running out of Mother Earth that I can just put my lips on and just be so thankful for to partake and to be replenished. So staying hydrated spiritually, so questing spirit, questing the life force, questing truth. You know, we're we're questing answers, we're questing, questioning. We're questing to find the truth. We're trying to find the answers of truth to help us navigate effectively. This whole thing, this phenomena that has, you know, struck mankind, you know, interestingly, of who am I, where did I come from, where am I going? You know, well, no Mother Earth, no father spirit, no yourself. That's how I would answer that. And then you have to go about getting busy and building the relationships and understanding how to navigate with those relationships. Because when we go back to the personal medicine will and we're talking about relationships, what are those four areas of relationships? Do you remember relationships?

SPEAKER_01 28:06

I needed to cooperation, honor, respect, and trust. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

So when I think about how I would approach the plants, because I was always wanting to avoid people, because I was it was hard for me, you know. But I would and nature was so respectful going to the plants and partaking of them. I didn't want to hurt them, bother them. I was trying to be respectful, saying thank you, you know, I wanted to go to the water, thank you. So, you know, just that going to in that way, and then applying that every time I'd come back to modern wilderness, and then getting married, and then having kids and applying it there, and then getting divorced and applying it even there, and then trying to co-parent and navigate and move forward and applying it there, coming to other relationships and having more kids, and you know, and working with the former spouse and her husband, and still co-parenting with even more kids and larger clan, you know. Uh, you know, so these are kind of the the ways in which I learned to work through and navigate effectively through my life because wilderness was something I could bring back home and practice because I really did want people in my life. I I really do want to have companionship. I do enjoy silence, yes, but I've been out there so much for such long times alone that I long for the people that are closest to me. Just as much and more than I've ever longed for a drink of water. And I've been pretty thirsty sometimes. When you go four days and four nights without food and water, it can have a place where you uh know you're thirsty, but also in that knowing of thirst, you know you can go longer and it no longer becomes a need in a psychological manner. Because when one learns to subject their body to their mind, their mind to their spirit, and their spirit to God, they are free. No Mother Earth, no father spirit, no yourself, you are free. And so, in learning how to prioritize through all the different experiences and keep coming back to this modern wilderness and applying techniques and skills and learning more and more and more and more and more, and learning what a what a unique, uh, interesting, dynamic in so many different ways, according to who you speak to, person that I am, and doing my best to build relationships with those that mean the very most to me, and to live in the same house with them, and to share that energy field. It's kind of like having a few streams coming into one pond, and you get those springs that are filtering in that little stream, you get another spring filtering that stream. So these are like my wife and my kids and my clan, you know, and comes into this pond, but we don't want that pond to ever be stagnant. We don't want, because stagnation creates this uh buildup of unresolve. And sometimes when we're not personally resolved, the group becomes unresolved as well. And sometimes when the group becomes unresolved, uh we start to put our energies that somebody else ought to be resolving rather than us. And it's this easing God out. It doesn't happen like that. It's a slow little trickling process, like how water builds, you know. It's slow. We don't do it immediately. We're not like one day, you know, screw God, or we're not like one day, oh, there you are. There's been a process before coming up to. We've been thoughtful about it, through anger or through love, and whichever way we're seeking or denying. And so when we come to this place of truth, and this is why water is so important to me. This is why I call it the life-giving substance, and I'm sure that's probably why so many others before me have done the same. When I can really get real with myself and understand that I want to, I really do want to flow like that water. I do want to be pure because sometimes others come and partake of your pond, your family, you know, and and and how does that affect them when they come and drink from that pond scum water versus this pure water that is coming in from these springs and is built up and has overflowed in abundance and has gone down to gently nourish and give the life force to others? This is why fire is so important. This is why when people say, Hey, Hawk, how do you build your fire metaphorically? How do you do your life and then keep your fire going and maintaining it and keep all your firewood and still go out and help others not just learn how to begin to understand what fire is or how to find firewood or all the process to that, but when you once create it, how to do it again and how good that feels, and how you begin to feel certainty. And so when I think about that, and then you think about water needs to be purified through fire. And so, you know, sometimes what does the water go through in the earth to come out in the purities? We don't know, we don't think that far sometimes. But somehow everything is processing and going through things, and we want to have our integrity so that we can become pure. The more we stay intact, no matter how much stretching there is in our lives, the greater we become. So stay true to yourself. Stay true to those around you. Keep your integrity intact. Don't allow loose ends to keep you from resolving your personal issues in life. And no longer allow yourself to rob anybody else of their freedoms because you are so afraid to be accountable with your own life. You're blaming everything and everyone around you, which robs the entire life force of that freedom you're very you're you're so very seeking for. Quest the best and highest. Because when you find crappy water out in the wilderness, you don't want that. You want to go ahead and try and find a little bit better. So you kind of go upstream from that place. Try to go up a little higher and see if it's better. So go a little higher in your life, elevate yourself, take your place up in your thoughts, your words, your feelings, and actions. Stop more during the day and give yourself that freedom and that attention you need. Because I'm telling you, nobody else will do it for you. And don't wait around and think somebody's gonna save your butt. And don't think come somebody's gonna come and make everything alright. You need to do it yourself. Bottom line. Go get your own water and make it good.

SPEAKER_01 35:14

There we have episode 30 to survival essentials, water questing. Always stay hydrated and aware of conservation in your belly or your canteen. In my opinion, remember not to become consumed in the thought process of thinking there isn't enough for everyone. There is more than enough. When concentrating on ourselves in self-healing, we become more conscious of conservation, conserving not just our water, but every area of our lives. 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.