Modern Day Shaman Interview BBC Radio Sussex And Surrey

Sarah BBC:

Well, let’s talk now to a shaman from Bletchingley who’s got her first book published tomorrow. Sarah Negus works with business leaders and entrepreneurs. She says her book, the Modern Day Shaman will show people how to find a deeper connection with life. And Sarah joins us on the program now. Lovely to have you with us, Sarah. Let’s just start with, where did this all start? How did you become a modern day shaman?

Sarah Negus:

Oh my gosh, Sarah, how long have you got? I’ve always been a little bit strange. And when I was a kid, I could see things and look into the trees and see all sorts of fairies, et cetera, et cetera. It sounds fantastical, but I didn’t understand that not everyone could do that. And obviously my mother told me that people couldn’t, so I didn’t ever tell anyone. And as I got older, I was living my life as you do through your teenage years and your twenties and when I was in my thirties and thinking, well, there’s got to be something more to life than this. And I randomly met a spiritual teacher who was a shaman herself. And in our first meeting, she told me pretty much about me without knowing me. She told me all the things that I was holding within me and … my interest so much so that I asked her to teach me.

Sarah BBC:

I’m just quite intrigued by this meeting. So what does she know about you that you were quite surprised that she knew about you?

Sarah Negus:

She knew what I was thinking inside my mind that I’d never told anyone else. She was able to tell me the things that I was searching for, that I was missing, that I felt void of and literally I’d walked in off the street and she didn’t even know my name.

Sarah BBC:

So you kind of felt this connection that she knew who you were and of course, actually, most of us looking at you at that time with this stressful, highly paid job, that a lot of people aspire to, would have possibly seen a very different person.

Sarah Negus:

Yes. I was in a, what would be perceived as a successful marriage at the time, we were wealthy, we had a wonderful house. My son was in grad school, we traveled, had holidays, had a lovely social life and businesses that were high-end successful. So people looking at me would have said, “Gosh, you’ve got it all.” Except inside I didn’t feel like I did have. I was desperately lost and unhappy without really realizing it until this lady mirrored it back to me and told me what was going on inside that I was too scared to admit.

Sarah BBC:

It’s funny, isn’t it? Because I suppose your story sort of highlights that somebody can look like they’ve got it all, and it look like they’ve got the lifestyle that everybody else would envy, but the reality is, it’s how you’re feeling and what you’re feeling inside that really counts.

Sarah Negus:

Absolutely. We attach success to material and external achievements, whereas success for me and what I teach my clients is something that is ownership of your own life and choices. It’s being free within yourself. It’s quite different.

Sarah BBC:

So how do you get then from a lovely house, successful marriage, amazing career to walking away from that to a very different kind of life? That’s the key, isn’t it? It’s quite hard to give things like that up or is it?

Sarah Negus:

Yes, it is hard to give things like that up. It took me seven years before I actually did walk away. And ultimately it got to the place where I didn’t feel like I had a choice. I had to be brave in order to move into something other than what I was feeling. In the end what happened was that my situation became so uncomfortable that the idea of the unknown was better than staying. So it became inevitable.

Sarah BBC:

So during those seven years there were probably loads of moments where you wanted to make that change, but something just stopped because it’s scary. Isn’t it? Change is scary. Even if the reality is quite uncomfortable and you’re not happy, sometimes we just don’t want to change what we know.

Sarah Negus:

Exactly. And it becomes habit forming. It’s much easier to stay in something that is all right and is socially acceptable than to really own that you’re kind of unhappy and need something more or want to change and become something else because life is about that. Isn’t it? It’s about change, as you said, it’s inevitable and it’s something that we grow into as we get older and older.

Sarah BBC:

So how do you then make that journey? How do you become a shaman? For me, you were a property developer, you were doing something hugely different. So how do you go from property developer to shaman? That sounds quite an unlikely journey to take.

Sarah Negus:

Well, I had to reinvent myself fully. When I left my marriage, I walked out with my suitcase and my son and thought, “Oh my gosh. Okay, so that life has got to go. What am I going to do?” And I went through different stages of, okay, well, I’m going to do interior design. I’m going to see if I can do that. No, that didn’t work. Okay, well, I’m going to go back to my roots. I used to do photographic modelling when I was in my teenage years. So I went and did a little bit of that. That didn’t work. And I kept just coming back to the spirituality that was in me. This belief that the philosophy of shamanism is that we’re connected to everything on our planet, to each other, and to this wider consciousness, this universal consciousness that is bigger than us.

Sarah Negus:

And I kept coming back and around to it. I have had a number of different illnesses and car crashes and different things happen to me in my life. So I was also rehabilitating my body. I was learning how to use my hands in healing and I was learning how to be a pilates teacher and help people come out of acute and chronic pain. And what I found was that there’s an emotional content to any sort of pain, any sort of stress. So I went off and studied psychology and at the same time was learning more and more and more from my spiritual teacher. I was with her for 12 years. She took me to Peru. She used to be a [inaudible 00:07:15] for Peru. And I was struck by the indigenous cultures way of being, which was that basically, if you were ill, there was something missing within you, an emotional void, a spiritual void. And it changed me. That experience in 2005 really changed me.

Sarah BBC:

I’m sure lots of people are listening to you, Sarah and thinking, right, okay, you’ve changed your life and I know because all of us go through phases where we’re not happy and then we end up in a rut and we don’t do anything. And for most of us that doesn’t involve quite such a dramatic change as you made. Not many of us turn our backs on our career and become a shaman. But obviously the book that you’ve written, I suppose it’s all about harnessing those skills that you’ve learned as a result of this and applying those to some of our more ordinary lives.

Sarah Negus:

Absolutely. Shamanism in indigenous cultures doesn’t translate to our modern world. Hence, Modern Day Shaman. I do use these ancient arts. They’re 50,000 years old. They can be tracked back archeologically and ethnologically that far back together with psychology and mindset. And the book takes you through 10 very personal poignant moments in my life that gave me pause and then took me to an aha moment and I marry that together with clients studies so that it’s relatable today because my story isn’t that interesting to lots of other people unless you kind of know me already, but how it relates and how it can help people in their own search for more in their lives is relevant. And that’s what I’ve tried to do there.

Sarah BBC:

Do you ever get to the point where you’re not searching for more? Because of course this has now become a huge success. You are featured in a lot for media, very sought after as a speaker. So you’ve kind of exchanged one form of success for another. Do you feel like you’ve achieved what you want to achieve or is this a kind of ever evolving process?

Sarah Negus:

Well, I believe it is an ever evolving process. Until we are no longer here, until we die, my understanding of human expression is to keep living and experiencing. And every time we live something new and experience something new, parts of us change and our understanding of the world and who we are changes. And that, for me, isn’t a destination. That for me, is this, as you say, continual urge for more, but not more stuff, more of me.

Sarah BBC:

So what are your plans then..

Sarah Negus:

More understanding.

Sarah BBC:

A lot of people are looking at 2021 after a really, really difficult 2020. What does 2021 look like for you?

Sarah Negus:

Well, 2021 is full of hope for me. You are right. 2020 was a doozy of a year and lots of people have experienced extreme hardship. 2021, I feel has a momentum that is going to take us out of this place. And for me, I am launching my book tomorrow, which is very exciting. It’s been a two year process for me. I’m also looking at teaching more people how to use energy, because a lot of shamanic work is energetic. It’s altered state of consciousness, different perspective on things. I’m wanting to teach people how to use that in their life so that they can become emotionally aware and emotionally resilient so that years like 2020 don’t knock them over so hard.

Sarah BBC:

It’s so difficult, isn’t it? Because for a lot of people listening, they may be dealing with some really difficult circumstances, the loss of jobs, forced change, change because they’ve had to, because of what we’ve just been through and I think sometimes so many of us just get caught up in surviving and doing the day-to-day things that we have to do that you kind of forget about anything else.

Sarah Negus:

Yes. Survival through 2020 was what we had to do most of the time, but these external things that come towards us that are in our culture and in our world, we can’t change, but we can change our response to them. And that is my hope is that as people learn that inside themselves they have a place of comfort and shelter and innovation that they can experience really difficult things and become-

Sarah BBC:

Become sort of … yeah, I suppose a better version of themselves. In terms of this … It took you seven years, as you said to get going and to make your new journey, what would you advise to anyone else who’s teetering on the brink, but not quite sure at the moment whether they can make that change.

Sarah Negus:

Don’t wait. If you’re teetering on the brink, then you’re on the edge of your own fear. Now fear is the one emotion that will stop you in your tracks. Be brave and whatever decision you make, if you’re on that edge, it might be that you decide to stay where you are but change how you are within it. That takes courage to be brave in your decision. And this is a bit of a soundbite, but it’s true is that if you want a different result in your life, you’ve got to do things differently. And as I said, 2021 for me is about hope and when you have hope, you can manage anything I believe.

Sarah BBC:

And the book out tomorrow, how do people get the book, find out more and read about your journey and how you did it?

Sarah Negus:

The book is on Amazon. It’s actually listed, I’m quite excited, as a number one Amazon new release, which is a big thing for me. You’ll find it on Amazon UK and just put in Modern Day Shaman and it will come up. If you want to find out more about me, I have a website which is sarahnegus.com, or you’ll find me on Facebook or YouTube under the same name.

Sarah BBC:

Well, really good to talk to you, Sarah. I’m sure the book will be a huge success. And thank you so much for joining us on the program. So it’s called the Modern Day Shaman out there already doing great things, listed as a success on Amazon. The Modern Day Shaman. That was Sarah Negus there who has really changed her life and had an astonishing success as a result of it.