The Pattern Is the Message

Talking Stick Podcast with Jan Engels-Smith & Micah Schwader
Episode Title: “The Pattern Is the Message”

What if the struggles that repeat in your life aren’t accidents—but invitations?

In this powerful episode of the Talking Stick Podcast, Jan Engels-Smith and Micah Schwader explore the sacred and sometimes painful reality of patterns—those recurrences in life, thought, behavior, and circumstance that Spirit uses to get our attention. Through personal stories, shamanic insight, and spiritual inquiry, they illuminate how patterns are not just habits—but are often messages in disguise.

Micah shares a striking experience: a face-first fall during an allergic reaction that eerily mirrored a nearly identical accident two decades ago—at the same kind of life crossroads. Was it coincidence? Or a spiritual “board to the face,” as Jan lovingly puts it? From this moment arises the episode’s central question: What do our repeating patterns reveal about the choices we’ve made—and the ones we’re being called to make now?

Together, they unpack:

·       How emotional, physical, and spiritual patterns act as mirrors of unprocessed truths

·       The role of resistance in keeping us stuck—and how awareness begins to free us

·       Nature’s uncanny ability to speak through omens, animals, numbers, and synchronicities

·       The illusion of having to choose between paths (career or calling, logic or intuition)

·       How embracing our full spectrum—spiritual and practical—creates wholeness

Whether it’s hawks circling overhead, 11:11 on a clock, or repeated emotional loops in your journal, this conversation reminds us patterns point the way. They show us where we’ve been—and where we have the power to grow. The episode closes with a gentle invitation: surrender doesn’t mean giving up; it means opening up to something greater.

Listen in—and ask yourself: What patterns are asking for your attention?

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