woo-woo Archives - The Land of Woo

Loving Kindness and My Grandmother’s Sunshine

April 18, 2020April 18, 2020by Nicole2 Comments

My grandmother came to visit me today, and it was the most comforting feeling I’ve had in a long time.

My grandmother passed away when I was in college. Her death was sudden and unexpected. For me, it was profoundly painful and sad. She died well before her time, just as I was getting to know her as an adult.

There is so much I loved about my grandmother. She was a meticulous dresser. Her dining room table was always set with the best china, even if we were eating cold cuts on rolls. I credit her for my love of Marie Calendar salad dressing, bread and butter pickles, and using a vegetable peeler to shave pieces of carrots into a salad. She lovingly made clothes for my Cabbage Patch kids, bedding for my doll house furniture, and barrettes in my favorite colors – pink and mauve.

My grandmother had her quirks. She hated air conditioning. She’d always bring a sweater into the grocery store because she despised getting stuck chatting with someone in the freezer aisle. She also had an unexpected sense of humor. When I’d complain, she’d mimic playing a tiny violin.

In her own way, she believed in the #Woo. She read tea leaves, and she would often have nightmares the night before something bad happened.

And today, she came to visit me while my meditation teacher was guiding us through a loving-kindness meditation.

“Picture someone you know, who you love, and who loves you back, and the love between the two of you is uncomplicated,” my teacher instructed us.

Immediately my grandmother appeared.

“No,” I thought. “I can’t picture Grandma. She’s not here anymore.”

But she was very clearly right there.

As we proceeded with the loving-kindness meditation, my grandmother’s presence grew stronger. She was radiant, dressed in the bright yellow belted dress that she wore to my high school graduation. I could feel warmth emanating from her, with a ray of light glinting off her belt buckle.

Suddenly, I could smell her scent, the one that was always so recognizable when she was around. A mix of perfume and makeup and, well, my Grandma. Then, I could feel the smoothness of her skin, the softness of her cheeks. And I drank in her bright, joyful smile.

She didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to. My grandmother knew I needed her and there she was — a reminder that in this vast and wild universe, we are all connected, love knows no bounds, and we have support even from those who we think may have “left” us many years ago.

Uncategorized

#WooWoo Wednesdays: Daydreaming

April 15, 2020by NicoleLeave a Comment

The other day I was scrolling on my phone when an alert popped up, reminding me to daydream. My husband saw it and was so excited.

“You schedule time to daydream? He asked. “That’s great!”

“Yes,” I said. “The only problem is that I suck at it.”

Photo by **Asad Photo Maldives** from **Pexels**

My husband is an fantastic daydreamer. If daydreaming were a job, he’d be the CEO of Day Dreamers, Inc. He is constantly daydreaming, no matter how grand or big or outlandish the dream is.

These are adventures we’ve enjoyed because of my husband’s unrelenting daydreaming: Chased the northern lights in Norway. Spent our 10th anniversary in the Maldives. Skied from Switzerland into Italy to enjoy a leisurely Italian lunch. Sipped champagne in Champagne. Watched the 2017 total eclipse in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

It’s all because he dreamed of these adventures, believed they could happen, and he made it so.

Daydreaming has never come naturally to me. I grew up with parents who were firmly rooted in reality, and my default mode is always, we can’t. My husband’s default is always, how can we?

This rooted-in-reality mindset can make the #Woo challenging. So many teaches of the #Woo preach the virtues of daydreaming. It raises your vibe! It makes your dreams feel like reality! It helps you stay on the path to achieving your goals!

So, why do I shrug it off? Why do I ignore my 4 pm reminder day in and day out?

Because I tell myself I’m too busy, I’m in the middle of something, or I’ll do it later. Because I have trouble translating my goals into a vivid, uplifting, lifelike daydream. And because I’m worried that at the end of the day I’ll fail and I’ll never reach my dreams.

Then I remember my husband. If it weren’t for him, I would have never seen the power of real daydreaming, or understood how switching my mindset from “we can’t” to “how can we?” absolutely changes everything.

Perhaps he is my reminder from the #Woo that there really is power in daydreaming and that it’s time to get serious and stop swiping left on my daily daydreaming alert.

Uncategorized

#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

#WooWoo Wednesdays: The Wisdom of Kegels

February 20, 2020March 23, 2020by Nicole2 Comments

This week’s #WooWooWednesdays is brought to you by Kegels. Yes! Kegels!

I started to develop lower back pain in December — specifically on December 21 when my husband and I were trying to fly back East for Christmas. Instead of a smooth ride and one easy connection, we were hit with 10 hours of disastrous flight delays.

At some point during the day, as we were standing at yet another customer service desk, my lower back spasmed. It had never done that before, but I was suddenly super uncomfortable and had to bend over to get it to stop. The tightness of that spasm feels like it has never fully disappeared. For the past two months, I’ve had on-and-off lower back pain that seems to be triggered by sitting, standing, driving, and exercising. Pretty much, any type of movement can trigger it 🙂

Yesterday, I was scrolling through Elephant Journal and saw this article: Why we should all do Kegels, according to Science. I’m not sure why I clicked on it. I know what Kegels are. I do them on very rare occasions. But once I started reading the post Dr. John Douillard, the blog author, made me see Kegels in an entirely new light.

To begin with, he explains that historically, humans ran long distances and carried heavy objects on their heads or backs. The only way this was sustainable was if humans had strong pelvic floor stability.

He goes on to explain:

While sitting at work, driving, watching TV, or eating at the kitchen table, pelvic muscles are required to do absolutely nothing. Over time, without use, they atrophy, resulting in pelvic and low back instability.
Pelvic floor strength is the foundation for the spine. If the foundation is weak, the spine above will not be stable and low back, mid-back, or neck pain may result. … Unless you regularly perform pelvic floor exercises or Kegels, you most likely have a weak and possibly unstable pelvic floor.
(bold emphasis is my own)

Basically, he’s saying my pelvic muscles have atrophied and could be a cause of my lower back pain.

But what I love about this article (beyond a potential solution for my back pain) is the connection he makes between Kegels and Ayurvedic pelvic floor exercises. He writes:

For both men and women, not only is the science behind pelvic floor exercises amazing, but Ayurveda actually described these techniques thousands of years ago. Two ancient techniques restore strength, health, and integrity to the pelvic floor: ashwini mudra and mula bandha.
(Bold emphasis is my own)

This is the description of ashwini mudra: rhythmic contraction of the anus in an effort to direct prana and kundalini energy up the spine into subtle energy channels called nadis. And this is the description of mula bandha: The practice is performed seated. After a full nasal inhalation, the breath is held while the anus is contracted for 1-2 seconds, performing 4-5 contractions before exhaling to complete one round.

This reminds me of a very intense breathing meditation I did, led by Dr. Joe Dispenza, that is designed to pull the mind out of the body and elicit brain strong positive emotions. During the meditation, Dr. Joe plays energetic music and instructs you to:

Contract your intrinsic muscles, your perineum, your lower abdomen, your upper abdomen, and as you contract those intrinsic muscles, I want you to inhale through your nose in one, slow, steady breath and pull your energy your perineum, your lower abdomen, your upper abdomen, through your chest, through your throat, through your head, all the way to the top and hold it at the top and let your energy move to your awareness and hold it there for a second. Hold it … and as you exhale now, relax.

And this is what I love about The Woo.

The deeper I go into The Woo, the more I find that it’s all connected. Different teachers use different words, but so many of these ideas are linked and interconnected. Today, we are using alternative methods that are thousands of years old to heal ourselves mentally and physically. Yes, modern medicine is amazing, but so is The Woo.

Uncategorized

Challenge Accepted: Lissa Rankin’s 40 Day Health Challenge

February 15, 2020March 24, 2020by Nicole2 Comments

2020 is my year of non-striving: doing less, being more. But I am still very easily pulled into my default striving mode, especially when I get excited about a topic, I read about some successful woman and feel like that’s who I “should” be … or it’s really late at night, and I somehow find myself on the 40daywholehealthchallenge.com webpage and then bam! I’ve suddenly signed myself up for Lissa Rankin’s 40 Day Whole Health Challenge.

Oh, and, by the way, the challenge starts the next day cause it’s an online class, and I didn’t read all the details before I jumped right in. I guess there’s no time like the present! So, here I am! I am six days into the 40 Day Whole Health Challenge!

But signing up for this class didn’t come entirely out of nowhere.

Last year, I read Lissa Rankin’s book, Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof That You Can Heal Yourself. Having already read Dr. Joe Dispenza’s books, You Are the Placebo and Becoming Supernatural, a lot of the ideas that Lissa presents in her book were familiar to me. Both Dr. Joe and Lissa talk about the idea that the body can often heal itself and how we can use the power of our minds to heal ourselves.

I’m excited, nervous, and curious for this class. I am super happy to be exploring The Woo in a structured environment.

I like having teachers, and steps to follow, and a path laid clear for me – helping me understand how I’ll get from point A to point B.
I like that during the class, Lissa will walk us through her 6 steps of healing.
And since I paid for the course, I know I’ll take it seriously and dedicate time to understanding and exploring the content.

The thing is that, as I explore The Woo, I oscillate between believing 100% that I can cure myself … to believing this is all crazy and I’m being taken for a ride. Is my mind really that powerful? Can I really believe my way to better health? Can my mind heal what western medicine cannot?

I honestly don’t know. But what I like about Dr. Joe and Lissa Rankin is that they come at these questions from a scientific research and medical background. They are using that knowledge to explore how the mind can make the body sick — and how the mind can make the body well.

I have no idea what I’ll get out of this 40-day challenge. Right now, the biggest goal I have is pursuing Step 1 of this 6 step journey: Believing that healing is possible.

Uncategorized

#WooWoo Wednesdays: It’s Not All Fireworks and Lightening Bolts

February 12, 2020March 24, 2020by NicoleLeave a Comment

I knew when I started #WooWooWednesdays that I was committing myself to writing once a week about how The Woo is showing up in my life. I expected these events to be HUGE and AMAZING and LIFE CHANGING. After all, this is The Woo we’re talking about.

What I’ve realized is that the way The Woo shows up in my life isn’t always going to be huge, incredible, and life changing. It can’t be. That would be insane.

Rather, The Woo is also going to make its presence known in subtle ways throughout the day. This week, The Woo showed up:

In my decision to walk back into my bedroom before heading out the door — and seeing the headset that I needed lying on my nightstand, just waiting to be thrown into my work bag.
In my spur-of-the-moment decision to walk into a store and then immediately seeing a dress that I loved. The dress was my size, in my price range, fit perfectly and was exactly what I’d been looking for to wear to an upcoming event.
During a long drive home. I was expecting rain and windshield wipers, but instead, I was greeted by blue skies peaking out from behind the clouds. I got on the road just as the rain showers ended.

And The Woo showed up today, in a post by a friend on Instagram who shared a quote she heard on a podcast. She’s not sure if this is a quote by Ross Gay or he was quoting someone else, but either way, she said the words stopped her in her tracks.

“It is negligence not to acknowledge the things that delight you.”

And with that, I am acknowledging The Woo — in its big and small ways — because it continues to delight me.

Uncategorized

#WooWoo Wednesdays: Basking in the Law of Attraction

February 6, 2020March 23, 2020by Nicole1 Comment

This weekend I did something very Woo-y. I went to an Abraham-Hicks Law of Attraction workshop! For some, Abraham-Hicks and their teachings can seem really out there. For others, Abraham-Hicks seems totally normal.

It all depends on your view of the Woo.

In short, Esther Hicks channels a collective consciousness known as Abraham, and the teachings of Abraham help us to understand how to use the Law of Attraction to manifest our desires. During workshops, Abraham invites audience members who raise their hands to come to the stage, sit in the “hot seat,” and ask Abraham questions, like — how do I deal with an overprotective Mom? How do I manifest lots of money? How do I heal myself?

While seeing Abraham in person can be very Woo-y, the entire experience surrounding this workshop was Woo-y for me.

To begin with, going to this workshop happened on a whim. At the end of January, I wondered if there would be any Abraham workshops in SF in 2020. So I logged onto the Abraham Hicks website and BOOM! There was going to be a workshop in San Francisco! In eight days! On a Saturday morning when I had NO PLANS!

Even better — tickets were still available.

Even better — rooms were available at the hotel where the workshop was taking place for LESS than the rate Abraham-Hicks had negotiated.

The weekend kept unfolding like that — easily, pleasantly, full of good surprises. The hotel turned out to be really nice, with waterfront access where you could sit peacefully, watching the ducks swim in the calm San Francisco bay while planes took off in the distance from SFO. (I captured this view in the photo above).

On the morning of the conference, I sat there for 15 minutes, taking in this view and centering myself. When I headed inside to drop by the hotel Starbucks, there was NO LINE. It only took 1 minute for my chai latte to come out, complete with my name printed correctly in big, bold, capital letters on the cup!

Then, I had no problem getting a seat with a decent view, and I sat between two very nice women. One was celebrating her birthday and gave herself a ticket to the workshop as a gift. Another had just moved to SF. When she found out there was an Abraham-Hicks workshop close by, she knew she had to attend.

When the workshop got underway, most of the audience’s questions were intriguing and mirrored many of my own.

And then, when it was all over, and all of us streamed outside, it only took 5 minutes for the valet to bring my car around, and I zoomed on home to Napa with no traffic.

It was a weekend of seeing the Woo in action, and I chose to end it by floating for an hour in a sensory deprivation pod to meditate and relax.

I think I fulfilled my Woo for the weekend (and perhaps the rest of the week).

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.

Uncategorized

I’m Now That Woo Girl

November 22, 2019November 22, 2019by NicoleLeave a Comment

I read the first paragraph of this Glamour article on Reiki energy healing, and instantly fell in love:

Reiki Helped Me Heal From the Trauma of Sexual Assault

I’ve recently become one of those people who are into Reiki—aka “energy healing,” a form of alternative medicine. This is a complete shock to me. I generally raise my eyebrows at mentions of “chakras” and “attuning”—but I’m now that girl. Whenever it comes up in conversation that I’ve not only tried Reiki but find it really powerful, I tend to get one of two responses (both of which involve raised eyebrows). Version one goes, “Oh, I’ve always been interested in trying that!” Version two goes, “Oh, wow,” accompanied by a studious sip of a drink.
–By Krystin Arneson

Why did I fall in love with this article?

Because author Krystin Arneson captures what drew me to The Woo and what kept me from exploring it for so long.

In all honesty, I didn’t want to be that girl. I was a girl who wanted to get good grades, have a good career, and live a life filled with close friends, family, and my husband.

But this narrow path that I’d put myself on began to unravel in my 30s. In fact, I actually tried energy healing in my late 20s/early 30s when my job as a journalist, which required stressful hours in front of a computer and very few breaks, was causing chronic pain in my shoulder and neck.

After nerve block injections didn’t alleviate the pain, my doctor sent me to a woman who specialized in The Alexander Technique movement therapy … and energy healing.

While the Alexander Technique was helpful, I was more intrigued by the energy healing. I’d lay on a massage table, with my eyes closed. I’d inhale various essential oils while my therapist would hold her hands over me. It sounds similar to the Reiki treatments Krystin received. I don’t fully know what transpired while my eyes were closed, but I always felt better, more relaxed, and calm after a session.

Eventually, I stopped seeing this therapist, and I slowly stopped giving this energy work much thought. I moved on with my life even though my physical pain persisted, as did my struggles with mild depression and negative thinking.

But you know what they say in The Land of Woo — what you ignore only gets stronger. It took much more serious health issues to bring me back to The Woo, to make it an integral part of my life, and to start gaining the confidence to talk about it.

So, Does the Woo Work?

What I love about this article is that it doesn’t hide the fact that doctors have yet to fully grasp why Reiki may work. But that hasn’t stopped mainstream hospitals like Johns Hopkins, Yale New Haven Health, Cleveland Clinic, and UCLA Health from offering the treatment.

Maybe, some doctors speculate, Reiki works because it relaxes people. Perhaps, some doctors guess, Reiki works because it quiets the fight-or-flight response.

Or maybe Reiki works on some level we have yet to understand, cannot grasp, or will never be able to pinpoint.

The important thing is that Reiki does bring relief and healing to some people. And that is why I am becoming that girl.