Sami: Harmony with the Universe 

The turning over of our world—the Pachacuti—is making us all feel imbalanced in our spiritual and energy bodies. Not to mention our pocketbooks…our habits…our friendships…our lives as we knew them. 

Turning to the essential  Andean wisdom that’s been guiding my path for 30 years, I continually focus on returning to sami, energy that comes from being in harmony with the universe.  

For the Q’ero people, sami resides in the highest mountains, the stars, the cosmos: sacred, living places of light, powerful cleansing energy, and harmony. 

Sacred Mt. Ausangate, Peru Sacred Mt. Ausangate, Peru 
 

 
For the rest of us, connection with sami could come from meditation, when your being opens into the vastness of the universe, outside space-time, and there is only presence and breath.  

Or a moment of pounding rain—drowning our all other sound, cleansing leaves and our souls of dust, density, and distraction—might lead you into the harmony of sami.  

Or time in the desert—with its vast open spaces, wind, ancient stones, secret canyons filled with maidenhair fern, vast starry skies, and mysterious healing powers—might provide the emptiness that clears your brain. 

Or quiet time spent with a single, beloved tree, a place you love, or a transfiguring moment: any of these may take you to an open-hearted place. 

Sami is high-frequency energy, the animating essence that feeds your luminous and physical body. It flows from reciprocity: to receive it, you must give to other humans, places, and beings.  

But how can you give or receive any good energy when you are depleted, fearful, and off center? How can you be grateful when you’re full of despair and grief? How can you be generous when you feel like your world has blown apart? 

Not easy, in these times. Not even possible some days. 

As the Q’ero tell us, worry causes heavy energy. Focusing on what’s wrong only makes you more anxious and upset. Yet, culturally, we’re habituated to feed fear and anxiety. How can you personally halt that pattern and shift gears? 

Reaching for Sami  

Reaching for sami—the highest vibrations of love, light, and compassion we can embody—is what enables us to give from our hearts.  

Sami helps us be present for the transformation of life as we have known it. 

Each time we step into harmony with the universe, with the animating essence, we empower ourselves. 

Sami is a gift, not a goal. I'd like to share with you some of the time-tested ways to explore sami. 

The Key: Take Small Steps, One at a Time 

Everything arises, and passes away. Whether it’s our power or our joy, our passion or our grief, our fear or our despair, all these emotions ebb and flow, minute to minute. 

So finding small steps, little and frequent interventions, and soul-feeding moments will help you regain your equanimity, courage, and harmony.  

Here are five of the best steps I know to return to harmony and live in reciprocity: 

1.  Move your physical body 

If you take even 5 minutes to move your body, your breath and energy will flow differently. This is one small step! If you can take an hour, even better!  

Do what you like to do, what relaxes you—and move your body and breath with the intent of letting go whatever weighs you down. 

Not sure how? Try yoga, qi gong, a good run, a walk around the block or your garden, circling your house counterclockwise to release frustration and reconnect with the earth, or lying down in shivasana (a yogic relaxation pose) and consciously breathing long, slow breaths in and out.  

Notice how just those five minutes of moving with your breath opens your heart just a bit! 

2. Expand the time you spend in ceremony, meditation, journey, and visioning 

All these practices feed the energy of sami flowing in you. The more you engage with them, the more expansive, open-hearted, and numinous you will feel. You might experience sami as presence, potential, luminosity, or all of them. 
The paradox is that when you have moments of peace, it's a challenge is to stay present—to experience, but not hold onto—those moments or get attached. 
Let the sami flow from you and through you. As you integrate each small glimpse into your consciousness, it will slowly expand until you connect with the whole universe. 

3. Get yourself outside 

When you allow yourself to lie belly on the earth, sit with your back to a tree, or connect in any way with water or air, fire or earth and the nature around you, you will notice an immediate expansion. Just being in nature lets you get out of your “small self” and feel connected. The more connected you feel, the less importance your worries will have and the more harmonious you will feel. 
I discovered this by accident many years ago when I was feeling despair about the failure of a relationship. Every day when I got home from teaching I’d go hang out with an ancient oak. That oak kept showing me the long view—that in the scheme of things, my life would go on and I’d have other good relationships.  

While it was hard to believe in the moment, communing with the oak—an older, wiser being than I was—reminded me to look beyond my small view and imagine different possibilities. I kept listening, and the oak was right! 

4.  Consciously move and shift your energy into your heart 

If you have spent time with a shaman, a healer, a spiritual teacher, or a ceremonialist, you have probably felt that person’s radiance, joy, and equanimity. Those qualities come from long practice of being fluid and able to step easily between worlds, mastering energy movement, and shifting from one state to another with ease. 

The appeal of that kind of radiance 30 years ago drew me back to the Andes over and over to learn from the cosmovision and ancient wisdom. All the 80 or so practices in Weave the Heart of the Universe into Your Life show how to use those tools and perceptions. Opening your heart and living in your radiance, joy, and equanimity changes your world! My in-person and online workshop, Leading with Heart, takes you deep into the path of radiance.

5.  Work with sensory imagery and visualization 

Visualize a place or person you love, or play in the sensory realm of filling your body with light to calm yourself, focus your mind, and feed your intent. These practices are key to moving and shifting your energy from heavy to light. 

Combining visualization with movement and breath works best to bring your feelings, senses, ideas, and spirit closer together.  

 
More Resources and Links to Guide Your Explorations of Sami and Harmony! 

• A free guided Visualization to Clear, Calm, and Connect with the Elements:  Earth Caretakers Wisdom School 
• Videos explaining simple meditations for exploring sami: Energy Alchemy YouTube channel 
• Inspiring video and voice interviews on connecting with star beings, cosmic healing, finding your lightness of being… 
• Other blogs and articles of mine to help you to dive deeper inElephant Journal, Earth Caretakers blog, Healers Magazine, Shaman Portal Quarterly 

“Remember, world work, healing, and shamanic work all flow from sami” says my Q’ero teacher.  

Exploring sami as we shelter in place, survive the pandemic, make meaning, and dream a new dream: all are enhanced when we live in harmony. 

*For how to release personal heaviness, seehttps://megbeeler.com/compost-your-heavy-energy. For how to work with community heaviness, see https://megbeeler.com/clearing-the-field-around-you-eating-the-heavy-energy-of-others. 

Meg Beeleris aShamanic Guide, Mentor, and Author.Drawing on her lifelong passion for soul healing, heart opening, and reweaving the connections between all beings, she helps clients heal energy, soul, and spirit. Meg is author of Weave the Heart of the Universe into Your Life: Aligning with Cosmic Energy.She is founder of Earth Caretakers Wisdom School, creator of Energy Alchemy™ and a channel for compassionate ancient wisdom. 

Meg is a lifelong explorer of shamanic, animist, and meditative consciousness who practices Earth-centered, nature-based, Andean mysticism. She brings a lifetime of teaching and experience in land-based community ceremony to her work. She was a Silicon Valley consultant and author of many technical books. Meg is a master gardener and chairs the non-profit Sonoma Mountain Preservation Group in the North San Francisco Bay Area.