According to Larkin, one key thread in these indigenous cultures is a close relationship with the natural world. “Native peoples view the animal and plant kingdoms as relatives and equals,” she says. “They treat them with respect and honor the earth.” Larkin is trained in spiritual healing techniques and is a Level III Reiki Master/Teacher. She often gives presentations of linear time versus natural time, to help people slow down their hectic pace. “Tribal and indigenous societies have always measured time by the cycles of the moon,” she notes. “They view time and life as a circle that is constantly returning and renewing. The Gregorian calendar focuses on starting the year on January 1st and ending it on December 31st. Within that linear time frame, we always feel like we’re rushing and don’t have enough time. How we view time is how we view the world. Following the cyclical time of the moons, you realize that everything returns and there’s less stress. In the calendar culture, many people are afraid of death because they see it as a true ending. Indigenous people view it as a natural part of the cycle of life, knowing that they will return in some form.”

Such spiritual nourishment goes hand in hand with taking care of your mental and physical states. “Many indigenous tribes also have a practice of meditation that does not involve closing your eyes and ears to focus inside you,” Larkin explains. “Instead, they open their eyes and ears, sit in stillness, watching and listening to develop their powers of observation. If you practice doing this, you become more sensitive to the world around you, which helps develop your intuition.” As you increase your sensitivity, Larkin says you can take cues from the way your body reacts to the energy around you in different situations. One of the ways to incorporate natural rhythms into your life is to set aside some time each day to sit quietly and just “be.” “People think that they should use that time to do something else, when the fact of the matter is that they’ll be more efficient,” she states.

Larkin learned much about tribal traditions while studying with Native American elders, including Sun Bear, Wallace Black Elk and Marcellus “Bear Heart” Williams. With Bear Heart, she is the co-author of The Wind Is My Mother - The Life and Teachings of a Native American Shaman. (http://www.mollylarkin.com/) Being grateful is another ingrained native way of life. “Expressing gratitude, giving gifts or simply a compliment to another is a big part of maintaining your mental and spiritual health,” Larkin says. “Bear Heart teaches that ‘it’s hard for us to say thank you without something in our hands.’ Feeling gratitude is an important part of living a balanced life.”

Punkin Shananaquet is a representative of the Gun Lake Tribe of Pottawatomi, where she is a Health and Human Services specialist. Her heritage is also from the Lac Corte Orielle, the Lake Superior Band of Ojibwe. “We believe that all four aspects of humankind - physical, mental, emotional and spiritual - are part of holistic healing,” she notes. “When any one of these aspects becomes unbalanced, it creates a domino effect for disease processes, particularly if the spiritual and mental focus is affected.” Shananaquet uses the term, “bimaadiziwin” to describe this balance as “my good life walk.”

“We carry this energy with us wherever we walk,” she explains. “It is birthed with us into the east, where the sun rises. We carry a sacred gift bundle with us throughout life in this Earth realm until we exit to the west to be birthed into the spiritual realm.” Shananaquet says the “bundle” includes the “seven Grandfather gifts” of love, respect, bravery, honesty, humility, truth and wisdom. “As we walk through this life, we tend to grow bark like a tree,” she says. “If we add too many tough layers of thick bark, we lose our human capabilities, including compassion, trust and love. We must constantly peel away the bark, the hard outer shell, to allow our spirit to grow and thrive.” Punkin stresses the need for introspection and ritual cleansings, such as native sweat lodge ceremonies, to help shed those accumulated life layers.

Learning to trust your own intuition is another important aspect of the native holistic approach to life. “Along with our innate sacred gifts come physical gifts of our senses, our ability to speak, see, hear, touch and taste,” Shananaquet states. “We need to rely more on our natural senses and be in tune with the world around us. We should always listen to that little inner voice – our intuition – when it tells us what to do. Be attentive to your own spirit.” Punkin Shananaquet stresses that her use of the term “spirit” is not tied to a Western theological world view. Instead, she says, “We are all very spiritual beings. It’s not a religious aspect or a ceremony that lasts an hour; it’s defined as a life way for us – an unconditional part of our life, or bimaadiziwin.”