Hello everyone and welcome. This is Jennifer Urezzio, Super Power Expert and founder of the Soul Language, and this is SuperPowers for the Soul. I am excited to talk to Nikki Shields today and we’re going to be talking about spiritual support by writing.
Welcome, Nikki.
Thank you. I’m so glad to be here.
Me too, very exciting. Yes, you’re probably going to hear a lot of the background noise today because there’s construction going on. Shocker.
Oh boy.
I always like to start with my fundamental question, which is what do you consider the superpower of your soul?
Well, my soul superpower is holding space. This first came up to me several years ago in a conversation with a friend who said, “You are a space holder.”
And at the time I was feeling a little insecure and I was like, “You mean, like I’m just a placeholder?” And she said, “No, no, no, no, no. You, you really hold space for other people to blossom in what they’re doing.” And I was like, “Oh, okay.”
I worked with that a little bit, and I can see how that’s the case and that’s kind of drawing me towards my newest evolution of my work, which is as a transformational retreat leader.
So often, master healers and profound transformational individuals when I ask that question, they go outside of themselves along with the set the question around the sacred purpose. So I’m going to ask it again in a different way. What do you consider the superpowers of the soul for yourself?
Oh, for myself, it’s holding space. But that’s for my creative work and how that connects me with the divine and the divine feminine in particular.
See, I love that. It’s like all juicy. We can play with that. I think, so often, we’re like, “I’m a master of service. You’re a master of service.”
So you know, here’s how we support others. And I think it’s really important that you know how superman flies. But he flies so he can get to one place quicker than the other for himself. Yes. And then he saves all the people. It’s really Superman’s gig for himself, right?
Yeah.
I think focusing on external allows us to be in a good photo but not a great photo.
I think there’s a more ability to enjoy our own superpower for ourselves because that’s what we’re here for, right? We’re here to experience the bliss of being this individualization of the one. So I love your answer.
Well, absolutely. And I love how you refined it because actually I had to do that for myself first before I can do that for anybody else.
Exactly. Fundamental thing I think most healers don’t understand is that, for most people, that’s when I’m going to talk about your sacred purpose in a moment. Your sacred purpose is first for yourself and then for other people. So often, when we are always focused on the external, we’re missing a lot of bliss and a lot of good and a lot of peace and a lot of amazing stuff for ourselves. I had a photographer teacher and he’d be like, “That’s a great photo, but the brilliant photo is one inch over.” And I think focusing on external allows us to be in a good photo but not a great photo.
Yeah, for sure.
What do you consider your sacred purpose? What are you fundamentally here to experience and then offer that experience to others.
My soul purpose is creating magic with words and in particular the written word. And that’s been something that I’ve been drawn to you ever since I was very, very small little girl. I journeyed in a way that took me away from that for quite some time. But then it always kept coming back.
I think that happens with a lot of highly creative people. I think that they have this, I was a kid with the typewriter module and then you sign up for that block. I think that through the growing up process and the scoring process, if it’s not properly nurtured, we side step it in order to fit in or to create a life that’s harmonious. Like I did, you think you’re one kind of artist because you’re afraid to be the other kind of artist. Right.
Yeah. Absolutely.
Right creative being. How did you get, what kind of journey about getting you back? Not that you were ever off purpose, but getting back on purpose?
It wound up just being this calling. My sidestep was being told in school and by my dad, in particular, that you can’t make a living as a writer, which we know is not true because people do that. And also in today’s day and age with self-publishing and all, it’s much more possible. But anyway, I was sort of led along that path and I followed it and went into broadcasting instead and had this lovely career for quite a few years in public radio and I loved the people. They were awesome. The public radio is such a great ethical place to work for. They’re doing good work in the world, but it just wasn’t satisfying. And I just kept getting called and called back to writing and eventually I had to answer. It was imperative that I answer that call. And so…
So what did that call feel like? How did that take shape? I think it’s really important that people understand what that sacred purpose or some of the ways that you can get called. It is trumpets and sometimes, it is a big gold ticket moment. Sometimes, it is the two by four over the head. Sometimes it’s a lot. That’s everything falling off my desk.
Oh, yikes.
But sometimes, it’s much subtler than that. So what were some of the ways that it called to you?
Well, in my case it was subtle. I had this on paper, great career. I had my two children who I absolutely adore, but it felt like something was missing. I also had, and this is something I hear from a lot of people in my life, I had this voice in the back of my head that I call the muses. That just kept saying, “Well, what about this idea that you had for a book? And what about this idea that you wanted to write about?” It just kept kind of whispering to me.
And in the course of being a busy mom and a career woman, I didn’t have the time or energy for a long time to pursue much of that. Now what I did was I wrote a column for, actually I’m a pagan, I’m a pagan priestess. And so, I wrote a column for a back in the day of the stapled together and mailed around newsletter before the internet was as prevalent as it is now as far as you know, blogs and stuff. I wrote that column every six weeks or so. Just a short thing. But talking about the seasons and how I connected with the earth and nature and things like that and how I lived my life. And that ended up becoming my first book, which was a collection of essays.
Fun. So before we do our break here in a moment, how did your soul support others? You mentioned a couple of them throughout our bit of a conversation already, but what kind of is the ongoing everyday how your soul support others examples of your life?
Well, just over the past couple of years, my business. I’ve had started a business and it has evolved to become, I do what I call a being a book midwife. I don’t necessarily help people who already consider themselves writers. Cause if you say you’re a writer, then you’re writing. But if you’re like I was, and you just have that muse whispering these book ideas in the back of your head and you don’t know how to start. That’s what I help with.
Beautiful. So before we do our break here, how do people get in touch with you? How do they find out more about you and everything that you offer out into the world?
They can come to my website, which is www.nikkistarcatshields.com
Beautiful. Okay. Everyone stay tune. We’re going to be talking about spiritual support by writing.
To listen to the entire show click on the player above or go to the SuperPower Up! podcast on iTunes.
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