Original Video: Injoy the Process Talk 2
This conversation was originally hosted and published by Injoy the Process with Sky, Kanyon and Bloom. The video is shared here alongside an original summary and viewing guide to help readers explore the themes discussed.
Description
In this wide-ranging conversation hosted by Enjoy the Process, Phillip Scott joins Skye, Canyon and Robin “Bloom” to explore grief, fear, loss and transformation through the lens of Indigenous wisdom and ceremonial ways of life.
Phillip shares teachings on fear as a gateway rather than something simply to be avoided, and reflects on grief as a profound teacher capable of deepening our compassion, presence and relationship with life. Drawing from his own experience of losing his wife, he discusses why grief isn’t necessarily something we “get over,” but something we learn to carry and relate to differently over time.
The conversation expands into the role of ceremony and sacred practice in healing; the relationship between individual and intergenerational wounds; and Phillip’s teaching of the “burden bundle” and “blessing bundle”—the wounds, patterns, gifts and medicine passed through our family lineages. Phillip also offers a practical four-step approach for meeting fear: stop, breathe, assess and act.
Later, the discussion turns toward interdependence, decolonization, relationship with the Earth, cultural appropriation, ancestral traditions and the responsibility involved in learning from Indigenous medicine ways. Phillip emphasizes the importance of approaching Indigenous traditions with humility, understanding their cultural and historical context, and learning from experienced, properly trained medicine people rather than separating practices from the lineages that hold them.
The conversation concludes with audience questions about ancestral connection, shame, childhood trauma, ceremony and the responsible practice of Indigenous medicine.
In This Conversation
00:00 — Opening: Grief, Fear & Loss
Skye introduces the conversation and its central inquiry: how we can understand fear, grief and suffering—and discover tools for navigating them during periods of uncertainty and change.
02:00 — Phillip Scott Introduces Himself
Phillip shares his background as a ceremonial leader in the Lakota tradition and Native American Church and a practitioner of traditional Indigenous medicine.
08:05 — Opening Meditation & Prayer Song
Phillip guides the group into a meditation before offering a prayer song to honor the ancestors, the Earth and the elders.
14:42 — Understanding the Nature of Fear
The conversation begins with personal reflections on abandonment, inadequacy, suffering and the different ways people experience fear. Phillip describes fear as one of the first gateways encountered on a sacred path.
20:03 — Moving From Fear Toward Courage
Phillip distinguishes between legitimate dangers and fears rooted in projection or conditioning. He discusses identifying the fears that constrain us, confronting them and cultivating courage rather than allowing fear to create paralysis or avoidance.
25:04 — Grief, Impermanence & Loss as Teachers
Phillip explores grief as a powerful teacher and reflects on impermanence, mortality and the many forms of loss we encounter—from death to relationships, jobs and dreams.
29:24 — Phillip’s Personal Journey Through Grief
Phillip shares the loss of his wife more than 20 years earlier and how Indigenous ceremony and community supported his grieving process. He explains why he doesn’t believe we necessarily “get over” profound grief; instead, our relationship to the loss changes as healing unfolds.
33:18 — Finding Joy Alongside Suffering
The conversation turns toward the preciousness of life and the possibility of experiencing joy even in the midst of grief.
35:55 — The Difference Between Suffering & Sacrifice
Drawing from the Sundance tradition, Phillip distinguishes involuntary suffering from sacrifice chosen in service to others. He describes sacrifice as an expression of love.
40:56 — The Burden Bundle & the Blessing Bundle
Phillip shares a teaching received during a traditional vision quest: that we inherit both a blessing bundle containing the gifts and talents of our lineages and a burden bundle containing wounds, fears and intergenerational trauma. Healing becomes part of what we pass forward to future generations.
47:23 — Healing Through Relationship & Interdependence
Phillip challenges the Western ideal of complete independence and speaks instead about interdependence, community, elders, ancestors and Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ—“all my relations.”
53:55 — Ancestral Voice & Remembering Indigenous Ways of Life
Phillip speaks about Ancestral Voice and the importance he places on remembering how Indigenous ancestors lived in relationship and balance with the Earth.
55:37 — A Practical Tool for Navigating Fear
Using an emergency protocol from scuba diving, Phillip offers four steps that can also be applied when fear arises: stop, breathe, assess and act. Rather than reacting from familiar patterns, we can interrupt the pattern, return to center and respond with greater clarity.
58:13 — What Grief Taught Phillip
Phillip returns to his experience of losing his wife and shares how grief softened his heart, deepened his compassion and transformed his understanding of suffering, faith and connection with the ancestors.
1:05:13 — Grieving Song & Honoring Those Who Have Died
Following a moment of silence, Phillip offers a Sundance grieving song honoring loved ones who have made their journey to the other side.
1:12:45 — Courage, Change & the Search for Freedom
Phillip discusses the momentum that can develop as we confront fear and cultivate courage. The conversation explores willingness to change, selflessness and a deeper conception of freedom.
1:16:29 — Interdependence, Decolonization & Relationship With Earth
The discussion expands into Western individualism, interdependence, decolonization and humanity’s relationship with the natural world. Phillip reflects on the need to remember our responsibilities to the Earth and to one another.
1:28:56 — Integrating the Teachings Into Daily Life
Asked how these ideas can become lived practice, Phillip discusses ceremony, prayer, meditation, awareness and devotion to one’s sacred path. He emphasizes that time alone doesn’t necessarily heal wounds—what we do with that time matters.
1:35:37 — Canyon on History, Accountability & Decolonization
Canyon reflects on honoring Indigenous knowledge while also acknowledging histories of colonization, the importance of accountability, and approaching difficult conversations with humility, reciprocity and awareness of our relationships with one another.
1:48:43 — Audience Question: Connecting With Your Ancestral Lineage
An audience member asks how someone whose ancestral Indigenous traditions have been disrupted can connect with their own “blessing bundle” while learning respectfully from other Indigenous traditions.
1:50:50 — Exploring Your Family’s Blessings & Burdens
Phillip recommends studying one’s own family lineage and taking an inventory of favorable and unfavorable qualities passed through parents, grandparents and earlier generations. He also discusses respectful learning across cultural traditions and the importance of understanding history.
2:01:22 — Audience Question: Shame, Mistakes & Childhood Trauma
The conversation explores fear of making mistakes, shame and the lasting effects of childhood trauma. Phillip reframes mistakes as opportunities for learning and discusses the relational understanding of actions within Indigenous community life.
2:07:20 — Ceremony, Trauma & Choosing Medicine People Carefully
Phillip discusses Indigenous ceremony in relation to healing trauma and emphasizes the importance of carefully vetting ceremonial leaders—their training, lineage, experience and qualifications—before entrusting oneself to their care.
2:13:36 — Cultural Appropriation & the Word “Shaman”
Phillip discusses what he sees as the problematic universalization of the term “shaman,” emphasizing that Indigenous medicine traditions have their own languages, cultural contexts, protocols and names for their practitioners.
2:18:07 — Indigenous Wisdom as a Lived Practice
The conversation closes with a distinction between intellectually studying Indigenous traditions and experiencing a way of life through direct relationship, ceremony and practice.
2:22:45 — Closing Reflections
Phillip offers a final prayer for the group and encourages listeners to use periods of difficulty as opportunities to go inward, transform patterns, liberate themselves from fear and allow grief and suffering to become catalysts for change.