by Neelam Nanwani | Nov 27, 2025 | Soul Words
Ahmedabad has recently been declared the centre for hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2030.
For many, this announcement is a symbol of progress, opportunity and global recognition.
But for me, it has stirred a very different set of thoughts.
We call it development. But is it really development if a city cannot even provide fresh air to breathe?
I call it durgati, collapse.
Because with every so-called milestone of progress, I see:
- More and more trees being cut
- More heat rising from the expanding concrete jungle
- Less fresh air, more respiratory and lung issues
- Increasing allergies and stress
- More illness, more noise, more smoke
- More traffic and more chaos
If this is the price of progress, then what exactly are we progressing towards?
A city struggling to offer clean air is not progressing. It is silently suffocating.
And like always, if the imbalance becomes too much, nature will find its own way of restoring equilibrium. We saw it during Covid: a forced pause that allowed the earth to breathe again. But once life resumed, we found ourselves rushing back to the same destructive patterns. How long can this cycle continue?
The Earth has its own intelligence. It has lived for billions of years – died, reborn, evolved, transformed. It will continue to do so.
It is not the Earth that is at risk of extinction. It is us, the human race, that is walking steadily toward its own downfall.
We often believe that more money, more construction, and more capitalism equals progress. But in reality, this blind race for “growth” is creating deeper imbalance and paving the way for our own destruction.
Shamanism: A Forgotten Way of Relating to the Earth
Shamanism, on the other hand, teaches us an entirely different way of living – a relationship of reciprocity with the Earth.
It reminds us that the Earth is not a commodity to be used and exploited, but a sentient being that is alive, conscious and responsive. A mother who nurtures us, and whom we must also nourish. A partner with whom we must maintain a healthy, respectful exchange.
Shamanic teachings compel us to pause and ask:
- What am I doing to my own home?
- What am I doing to my own mother?
- How am I contributing to the Earth’s wellbeing and therefore my own survival?
Instead of indulging in mindless growth and capitalist pursuits, Shamanism invites us to walk a path of awareness, balance, and responsibility.
In Shamanism, we explore these deeper issues – our role, our responsibility, and our sacred relationship with the Earth. It becomes a journey of introspection, healing, and reconnection – not just with nature, but with ourselves.
Maybe it’s time to redefine what development truly means. Maybe it’s time to choose sustainability over spectacle, reciprocity over exploitation, and conscious living over endless consumption.
Because without clean air, clean water, shade, silence, and sanity a city is not progressing. It is simply accelerating its own suffering.
And only when we return to a respectful partnership with the Earth can we truly thrive.
Basic Shamanism Workshop returns in January 2026, stay tuned for more details.
Header Image by freepik
by Neelam Nanwani | Jun 28, 2024 | Soul Words
When we embark on the journey of our spiritual healing, we often ask, “What is within me that has brought this to my doorstep?” This doesn’t mean that if someone abuses me, its because something is wrong within me and hence I have attracted this situation or challenge.
The premise simply is that we take full responsibility of and for our lives.
When we view life from this perspective, we stop being a victim of our situations. We introspect, what within me (thoughts, beliefs, emotions, imprints – karmic/ancestral, womb, birthing, society, religion, upbringing or any other) is bringing this to my doorstep.
What can I do to shed these imprints or beliefs or fears within myself?
More often than not, we desire that the outward situation (be it relationship, finance, health) changes. But the outward situation merely reflects our own hidden buried subconscious unconscious state/psyche.
We often (if not always) attract on the outside what we ARE on the inside. The contribution of our subconscious mind is 90% in what happens in our lives and the conscious mind just plays a 10% role. Our subconscious mind and what we store in our unconscious psyche is a sum total of our past lives, ancestral stories, stories we pick up inside the womb of the mother, our birth scenario and our upbringing.
All of this is formed through the journey of our soul in its evolutionary process from one life time to another.
The lessons and karmic imprints accumulate over a period of time and the challenges (if lessons not learnt) become harder.
We also tend to get influenced by the thought process and emotional makeover of our primary care givers. Whether we have had a functional relationship with them or a dysfunctional relationship with them, we tend to become like them out of our innate unconscious sense of loyalty towards them.
As lifetimes go by, we move farther from our own innate truth and Essence and we become someone who we are Not.
Lifetimes could go by until we realise what we have done to our own self. This immense loss of self, in a given life time stares at us, screaming for owning who we ARE.
We often do not know, how. But the soul is now ready to reclaim its innate power and truth.
And with this begins the journey of self realisation of the soul – realising who it truly IS and its innate Divinity and essence. However, for a soul to know itself, it has to first shed what it has become or the imprints and masks it has acquired through thousands of years during its evolutionary journey.
This descent of the soul begins the process of deconstruction. This is often known as the journey of the underworld or at times a dark night of the soul. It feels like every thing is breaking down and coming to an end.
The human experience feels full of misery because breaking down of what felt safe and familiar once, is all going away. We cling (at times unconsciously) and feel that the misery is not ending. We feel patterns are looping and we push harder and harder for things to improve.
What is perhaps needed is to not push but to pause and allow the process of deconstruction. Yes, it takes courage and this “Unbecoming” is an art. An art that we have not been trained into.
We have been trained to “Become Something.” What we need to perhaps learn and be in allowance of is this Process of Unbecoming.
Nature dies and nature is reborn. We are nature personified and should we desire to rebirth our Being, we have to allow this deconstruction, shedding and UNBECOMING – just like nature does.
Neelam Nanwani is a midwife to the soul and conducts talks, lectures, workshops, mentorships and retreats in this Sacred Art of Unbecoming. Join the WhatsApp Group for staying updated on free talks, circles and events.
Header Photo by Pixabay
