the land of woo Archives - The Land of Woo

#WooWoo Wednesdays: Finding a Soul Sister

March 12, 2020March 23, 2020by NicoleLeave a Comment

What a #Woo week it’s been!

Photo by **Moose Photos** from **Pexels**

This week did not start off on a high note. I’ve been having trouble writing. This Coronavirus situation is only getting worse (as I write this, it has just reached pandemic status). And even though I am doing my Kegels, my backache hasn’t disappeared. So I turned to Louise Hay’s Heal Your Body guide to see what she had to say about lower back pain:

Fear of Money. Lack of financial support.

Well, damn. Why does Louise have to be spot on?

Money is ALWAYS a trigger for me. It’s even more of a trigger now because I’m in a state of transition. I’ve cut back on my work so I can figure out my next step professionally, but I still judge myself by how much money I make. I know I will make less this year. My husband knows I will make less. But accepting that — instead of being extraordinarily grateful to the Universe that I can do that — has been super hard for me.

To top it off, I am failing at my attempts to practice non-striving. I cannot stop pushing myself to come up with a clear cut strategy for living my best life. Do I want to pursue writing? Do I want to get a meditation degree or certification? Do I want to look into yoga teacher training? I’ve been so distracted by this tug-of-war that I can’t write.

But this week, the Universe showed me it had my back.

Ever since I read Sheri Salata’s book, The Beautiful No, I’ve been listening to the Sheri + Nancy Show podcast. I feel like Sheri and Nancy have become my friends and a valuable source of support. (Ok, yes. That sounds a little creepy.)

But this week’s podcast blew me away. Sheri and Nancy interviewed author Jen Pastiloff. Before yesterday, I’d never heard of Jen. But as of today, she has changed my life.

As I learned about Jen’s life, it sounded amazing. She leads retreats for women all across the globe! She’s a yoga instructor! She’s written a best selling book!

And. She’s. Deaf.

BOOM!

My heart stopped when I heard that. My eyes filled with tears. I had to place a hand on my heart. I’ve been dealing with hearing loss for a decade, and I have let it stop me from living my dreams. In the past few years, I have slowly started to beat back my depression and regain a sense of self through therapy, meditation, the teachings of Abraham Hicks, the work of Dr. Joe Dispenza, and the support of my husband.

But hearing that Jen — this fabulous, accomplished, inspirational woman — was deaf felt life-changing. There are so many people I look up to in The Land of Woo. But I have yet to meet one who is deaf. You cannot be what you cannot see, and hearing Jen’s story allowed me to finally see myself living a dream life.

My path forward has become a bit more clear. I feel as if I have a soul sister supporting me in this Universe. Perhaps a whole tribe. Listening to that podcast, I felt genuinely complete — and that is something I haven’t felt in a very long time.

Uncategorized

#WooWoo Wednesdays: One Tiny Beautiful Thing

February 27, 2020March 23, 2020by NicoleLeave a Comment

I woke up on Monday morning in a panic. My mind raced. My heart pounded. I felt as if the weight of the world had descended on my shoulders.

Photo by **Isabelle Taylor** from **Pexels**

See, for the past four years, I’ve tried to minimize my exposure to the news to keep myself sane and my depression in check. What is happening politically in our country is distressing, and what is happening globally to our climate is devastating. Sometimes, it’s too much for my heart to hold.

But over the weekend, I broke this minimal-news pact. Knowing I needed to cast my ballot in my state’s presidential primary, I read one distressing political story after another distressing political story.

One of my coping techniques when I’m faced with overwhelm, as I was over the weekend, is mindfulness and meditation. But Monday morning, my mind was having none of it. Instead of sitting quietly and mindfully breathing in and out, panic over casting my ballot coursed through my body.

While delusion and not true, I felt the fate of the world rested on my vote.

To distract myself, I turned to Facebook. Yes, I know it’s a very poor coping mechanism, and often, it only leads to more despair. But on Monday morning, I found some very unexpected guidance. One of my friends shared a link to this thoughtful article by Margaret Renkl in The New York Times: One Tiny Beautiful Thing: When the big picture keeps getting darker, it helps to zoom in.

In the way of The Woo, Renkl’s description of the despair she was feeling read as if she was reading my mind:

Paying attention to what is happening in Washington is a form of self-torment so reality altering that it should be regulated as a Schedule IV drug. I pay attention because that’s what responsible people do, but I sometimes wonder how much longer I can continue to follow the national news and not descend into a kind of despair that might as well be called madness. Already there are days when I’m one click away from becoming Lear on the heath, raging into the storm. There are days when it feels like the apocalypse is already here.

“Yes,” I wanted to shout as I read this passage, “So much yes to all of this!”

But Renkl didn’t wallow in despair. She offered the advice that my racing mind and jittery heart needed to hear:

Instead of giving up something for Lent, I’m planning to make a heartfelt offering. In times like these, it makes more sense to seek out daily causes for praise than daily reminders of lack. So here is my resolution: to find as many ordinary miracles as a waterlogged winter can put forth, as many resurrections as an eerily early springtime will allow. Tiny beautiful things are bursting forth in the darkest places, in the smallest nooks and deepest cracks of the hidden world, and I am going to keep looking every single day until I find one.

As I finished her article, I noticed my heart rate slowing, my panic subsiding. Instead of feeling frozen by overwhelm, I now have an action item that fits perfectly in The Land of Woo. I am dedicating myself to finding and acknowledging the ordinary miracles I experience every day — like the miracle of Renkl’s article landing in my Facebook feed at the exact moment I needed it.

Uncategorized

5 Reasons Why I Started The Land of Woo

December 10, 2019by NicoleLeave a Comment

I am no expert in Woo-Woo. In fact, the more I learn, the more overwhelmed I feel.

There’s so much that can be considered Woo — energy work, chakras, crystals, manifesting, mysticism, craniosacral therapy, EMDR, magnet therapy, prayer, traditional Chinese medicine, Rolfing, mediation…..

The list goes on and on, and it varies based on who you talk to and what they believe.

So, why did I start this blog?

The Woo fascinates me: Ever since I was young, I was intrigued by the idea of the mystical, the spiritual, the unexplained — like people who say they’ve had past lives, or experienced spontaneous remissions, or survived near-death experiences. I find these stories fascinating (although sometimes I also find them super freaky and unsettling and I have to stop reading).
The Woo is helping to keep me sane: I have always had problems with depression and managing stress. I’m a bit of a Type A personality, and I hold on to my emotions deeply. I see a therapist regularly and take anti-depressants. But it wasn’t until I started meditating that I could begin to really calm my mind and manage some of my stress.
The Woo gives me a different perspective: As an adult in my 30s, I developed unexplained hearing loss. That triggered an increase in my depression and the never-ending question of why did this happen? Western doctors say the hearing loss is permanent, they don’t know why it occurred, and there is nothing they can do to help me. Reading books and watching videos by Dr. Joe Dispenza or listening to the teachings of Abraham Hicks is giving me a new perspective on my hearing loss and helping to lighten my load and my depression.
The Woo offers insight: Why are we here, on this earth, in these physical bodies? That question has plagued me since I was 11, and I started learning more about life and death. The Woo gives me new ideas and concepts to ponder that are helping me form my own answers to this very unanswerable question.
I want to learn more about the Woo: I am a journalist by background. I love reading, researching, and writing. I’ve realized that over the years, I’ve actually been exploring a lot about the Woo without even realizing it. I’ve tried energy healing, Alexander Technique, acupuncture, hypnotherapy, essential oils, manifesting, meditation, and talk therapy. So why not chronicle my journeys here?

I see this blog as a safe place to question, explore, and experiment with “alternative” treatments and ideas. What I make of these ideas may be totally different than what you do, and what I end up believing may be different than what you believe.

But that is part of the journey into the Woo.

Please note: I want to emphasize that The Land of Woo does not give out medical advice, and I’m not advocating that you give up your Western doctor. You need to do you, and what is right for your body and your health.