School of Shamanism

S1 EP8: Fear on the threshold

• School of Shamanism • Season 1 • Episode 8

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 8:48

In this episode of School of Shamanism – Walking Between Worlds, Giada turns toward something many avoid: fear.

What happens when your soul pulls you in one direction, but your mind clings to safety? When you feel split between the visible world and the invisible one, between security and calling?

Giada speaks about resistance, imposter syndrome, procrastination disguised as “not yet,” and the quiet ways we shrink ourselves to stay acceptable. The fear of being judged. The fear of failing. The fear of succeeding. The fear of being fully seen.

She shares how waiting to feel “ready” can become a lifelong postponement, and why courage rarely arrives before action, it grows because of it.

This episode is a reminder that fear is not a sign to stop. It’s often a sign you’re standing at the edge of expansion.

You don’t need to be perfect. You don’t need to be finished. You simply need to begin.

Connect with Giada Gaslini:

About the Host

Originally hailing from the vibrant city of Milan, I’ve spent the past two decades traversing the globe in a quest for spiritual and personal growth and combined with 25 years of international corporate work experience. From navigating the vast landscapes of Australia in a campervan to finding tranquility living in a Buddhist monastery in Nepal, my journey is nothing short of extraordinary. Along the way, I’ve delved deep into Buddhist teachings, yoga, and shamanism, becoming Shamanic Teacher,  Forest Therapy Guide, Esoteric Numerologist, Shamanic and Integral Yoga Teacher and Ikigai Coach. In 2013 I settled in Edinburgh, where  I founded the Art and Spirituality Centre, a social enterprise and the School of Shamanism, where I passionately help others on their own transformative journeys.

Listen and Subscribe:

Apple Podcasts: Subscribe & Review
Spotify: Follow & Rate

Leave a review to help other spiritual explorers to enjoy the show

Turn on notifications for the new episodes.

Giada

Because lots of people think okay when I am 70, when I have enough wisdom, I'll start teaching and sharing and then maybe you never arrive to the to the 70. In the session Walking Between the Worlds. And I'm Giada, and so far we've covered a lot of ground. So I shared my story of holding a corporate life and a spiritual life in the last two decades. We talked about the practical side, energy rituals, boundaries. And last time we spoke about relationships, who stays, who leaves, and also how to take care of the process, how to face the process. Today I want to go somewhere a little bit uncomfortable. The topic is fear, resistance. So the stuff that keeps us stuck, basically. Because most people who feel called to live in between two situations in life sometimes feel that their soul is pulling too much in one direction or the other one. And sometimes they feel split in these two situations, and they have the sensation that they're not going anywhere, that they have to choose, to make a choice in between two things. Which is, of course, fear is a real element, despite the fact that it's produced by the mind and the reality that is around us is not real. So why would fear be real? It's not, it's just part of the product of the mind. But it's not something that we have to be ashamed of. Having fear means that we are on planet Earth, that we are human, that we are here facing the journey. And so when you start taking your soul uh seriously, when you start stepping into the invisible world or into the second world in which you are following the mission of your soul, um, of course, you are going against the mainstream of the world, the visible one, what the matrix would tell you to stay on, and also what your mind is saying to you to stay on. So you are placing everything at risk, the relationships around you, your own identity, and this is terrifying because there is the fear of being judged. What will the other things think about my decision? What about if I fail? What about if people don't agree with what I'm doing? And people will always tell you how is it going with your project? How is it going with your hobby, with your activity, like that minor things that you're doing right now? And I still have people actually asking to me, how is it good, uh, how is it going with my project? And I also, as I also say, which one of the many, because they are still uh don't know exactly what I do, they still don't know about my businesses, probably because sometimes they don't want to see, they don't want to understand, not necessarily because they are not on social media, they are not on social media, they are over there and they see when I post something every day, but they don't want to, there is an unconscious part of them that doesn't want to make the choice of trying to understand. Because their west means that they also need to take into consideration their life, not because mine is a mirror of their life, but that would put that into the question. Am I really happy with what I'm doing? My day job, just being in the visible world. And there is also, of course, this element of uh resistance, feeling that I can't deal with two worlds. One is enough, I am not ready, I need more training first, I need more time, I need more money. So I'll start when the kids are older, when I'm when when I feel that I have enough uh time to dedicate. They're all excuses. And they're all coming from this element of fear, of fear of being seen, fear of being judged, fear of succeeding, fear of who you might become if you actually stepped into your power in doing um work that is about helping other people, so far away from the traditional ones. And so you just stay where you are, you just stay safe, you stay small, comfortable enough, and there is where we have about the imposter, the imposter syndrome coming in. That voice that says, Who do you think you are? You don't have the qualification, and then maybe you have much more experience that people that have the piece of paper and qualification around you, and there is that little voice in which you feel that something is lacking, something is missing, which is, for example, also one of the processes of the Kintsugi uh ritual that we work on in shamanism, when basically the two pieces of the pottery, pottery just get broken and you can't find the piece anymore. And so, in that case, you would need to take uh the piece of another ceramic, of another pottery to compensate that missing part. And from an emotional and symbolical point of view, that missing part corresponds exactly to those moments, like when here I feel that I um I'm a self-taught artist. I didn't study uh at a college or the university, so I can't be an artist because something is missing, that piece is missing. And so I start doubting myself. I start doubting that I'm probably on the right track. Um, and of course, if if it is something uh for which you are saying, I don't have enough time, I don't have enough energy because I need to listen to my own body, but it's again, they are all excuses. Sometimes, yeah, it's it's true that you have overwhelmed yourself too much, so you have to listen to your own body, but sometimes you can already perceive when it's an excuse and it's just a procrastination choice. And of course, choosing yourself isn't a selfish act. You just need to understand that giving that time to yourself in order to embrace a decision that is brave because it requires courage, but it's always a decision in which the universe will support you because maybe you are making that decision in order to help others, in order to feel that you can dedicate all your skills or your gifts to uh supporting others on the journey. And so uh, if I look backwards and I think I didn't have the right opportunity, the right time, I would have never started anything. That's why I started when I was in the visible world, when I still was in the corporate. At some point I felt that something was missing. And so I had to start going on courses, uh, doing my personal spiritual practice, and then start, of course, starting small, sharing workshops that were more about uh meditation, creativity, shamanism came a little bit later on because I felt that I didn't have enough knowledge of preparation of that, not that now I have it, but I'm still a little bit further down in the journey in order to have something to share. Because at some point you need to share what you learn. You can't keep everything for yourself. Because lots of people think, okay, when I am 70, when I have enough wisdom, I'll start teaching and sharing. And then maybe you never arrive to the 70. And so you just need to find that little courage in order to start sharing what you have, in order to start to stop waiting to be ready. You start um living without that fear, without that element of waiting for that moment that never comes, waiting for the perfection that never comes, because life is not perfect, and so just simply offering yourself in the exact way as you are. And also, probably people will resonate even more with you because they will see that you are not uh the version of yourself, it's not the polished version, it's the human version in which you are sharing yourself, your worms, your uh knowledge in the best way you can do.