Episode 32: Opening The Mail Bag

On today's show, I open the digital mail bag and answer your questions. Topics include tips on regulating your frazzled nervous system, navigating how to heal when you are known as “the capable one,” is eighty-two years old too old to dive into alchemical healing, and so much more.

HERBS AND SUPPLEMENTS FEATURED ON TODAY'S SHOW:

Magnesium Glycinate

Magnesium Threonate

Lithium Orotate

Reishi Mushroom: HYPERION HERBS: https://www.hyperionherbs.com/discount/LAUREL10
USE CODE: LAUREL10 for 10% off your order

CBD/CBG

Kanna: Use this link for 10% off: https://kannaextract.com/?aff=20 
OR COUPON CODE: LAUREL10 for 10% off your purchase 

Bupleurum & Dragon Bone formula [Jing Herbs or Dragon Herbs]

Parasympathetic Blend: VIBRANT BLUE ESSENTIAL OILS:
Parasympathetic – https://dv216.isrefer.come/go/para/LaurelDewey/
USE: CODE: LAUREL10 for $10.00 off your order

Join me on "X": https://twitter.com/LaurelDewey
Join me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thealchemyofnaturalhealing/
Email: laurel@thealchemyofnaturalhealing.com

HERBS, SUPPLEMENTS AND MORE THAT I STRONGLY ENDORSE!

VIBRANT BLUE ESSENTIAL OILS:
Parasympathetic – https://dv216.isrefer.come/go/para/LaurelDewey/
Limbic Reset Blend - https://dv216.isrefer.com/go/limbic/LaurelDewey/
Fascia – https://dv216.isrefer.com/go/fascia/LaurelDewey/
USE: CODE: LAUREL10 for $10.00 off your order.

HYPERION HERBS: https://www.hyperionherbs.com/discount/LAUREL10
USE CODE: LAUREL10 for 10% off your order

ANCESTRAL SUPPLEMENTS: https://glnk.io/2oy4j/laurel
USE CODE: LAUREL10 FOR 10% OFF ORDER

KANNA EXTRACT COMPANY:
Use this link for 10% off: https://kannaextract.com/?aff=20 OR COUPON CODE: LAUREL10 for 10% off your purchase

...

Transcript

Welcome to Episode 32. Today’s I am opening the mailbag and answering your questions.

I’ve really been looking forward to this episode because all of you have sent me some really great questions and while I can’t read all of them today, I’ve pulled as many as I can and will most likely do another question and answer show or maybe more in the future. 

Some episodes generated a lot of questions and some of them were very similar so in cases like that, I chose the email that I felt was the most representational of what everyone was asking for that particular episode. 

The first question comes from Mary and she writes: 

Dear Laurel, 

Thank you for your podcast. It has given me the impetus to finally do whatever it’s going to take for me to heal an illness that is clearly due to a lifetime of stress where I have been taking care of others since my early teens. I just turned fifty-nine and I am not taking care of anyone now due to my illness. But I’m learning quickly that not everybody I live with or have close personal contact with is on board with what I’m now engaging in and aren’t willing to accommodate my needs to serve their requests. Nearly every day is a constant battle in trying to negotiate what I’m willing to do and what I can’t or won’t do anymore. Can you offer any insight or perspective for me. 

Well, first off, Mary, I’m thrilled that my podcast gave you the drive to start healing. So that means that you are in the driver’s seat of whatever stress-related illness you are working to resolve. That said, the type of pushback you are describing is absolutely normal or pretty much expected when the dynamic of the relationship you have agreed upon for years or decades (sounds like decades) has been built on expectations of your willingness to step to the plate and make things happen or be there for someone else who is in need or sick. You suddenly choosing to switch the script, so to speak, throws a big wrench into the rhythm of their lives and probably also requires them to take on additional responsibilities that they have either given you the title on or feel they are not capable of doing in an effective way. Essentially, they may feel or tell you that you are the only person who can do what has to get done. First off, I understand how this feels because I also had to take care of my parents and many others and I know what that burden feels like after doing it for, in my case, decades. So I hear you! Now because my show is about the one who is choosing their healing to take the reins of that healing as best they can, part of that encompasses understanding reality, limitations and that “b” word, boundaries and more. The reality part is that your family who you live with may modify their needs for a while, but they will soon tire of it and begin to resent that you are not available to them in the way you were before. And pushback will happen. Mainly because people hate change as much as they hate having to either learn or adapt to situations in their environment that put them at what they see as a disadvantage. If you’ve been doing all the cooking or cleaning or whatever and now you either can’t or you are limited, there are going to be issues. And through all this and more, you still have to heal. It’s not easy. And it requires gargantuan strength on your part, no matter how fatigued or tired you are. For a period of time, depending on what illness you are dealing with, you will have to put yourself first and it sounds like that’s creating negotiations daily which in and of themselves are completely exhausting to go through. 

But there is something fundamental you MUST do. And that is, you have to be willing to see and agree that your unhealed self agreed to this emotionally driven dynamic where you were always there for everyone and because you continued to agree to it because maybe it made you feel seen or appreciated or loved and these desires and internal directives were all baked into your cake as a child. But now that you are consciouslyseeking health, you must realize that everyone around you is still experiencing you as the way you’ve always been. They are communicating with the unhealed but conscious part of you that is on the path to her own transformation. And she is in a very precarious place because at any moment, she might agree to say yes when she should have said ‘no’ and then paid for it in regard to a further decline in her health. She has to want that desire of perfect health more than anything. So when I say you have to become your greatest advocate, it’s not a joke. And you cannot apologize for becoming your greatest advocate. Because everyone around you, even the ones who are genuine and care about you, are going to eventually stop showing up. I went through this and I know many people who also dealt with the same situation. So if you are not your greatest advocate, you’re going to constantly engaging in negotiations and emotional blackmail and you cannot heal in that environment. Maybe you need to get away for a short period of time. Maybe you need some space. Maybe you need a break in more ways than one. So cultivate inner strength and resourcefulness on a daily basis. Pour all of that attention and energy and love that you put into all those people and turn it around and flood yourself with that same level of attention. And watch your life totally shift. When you start to feed yourself the manna or food you have been providing for everyone else forever and you dig your fork into that beautiful nourishing food and feed it to yourself. Oh my God. You will feel full emotionally, mentally, spiritually and eventually physically. And you will wonder “Why didn’t I agree to do that sooner?” And when you do heal and you inhabit a different vibe and everything, don’t think that all of them are going to interact with the healed self in the same way they operated with your old self. They may still talk to you or respond to you as if they are still dealing with your unhealed self. That’s down the line, so I won’t go further with that part. But right now, you haven’t healed your illness but part of that healing needs to be healing the part of you that felt that unless you exhausted yourself for another person, that you were not worthy of love. Because now you are most likely feeling the resentment that the wake up call of “wow, nobody’s giving me what I gave them when they were in need.” And even with that stark and often shocking revelation, you have to keep moving forward with your healing. You have to cultivate major strength. Don’t allow yourself to fall into victim mode because that will sap any strength you had left. You have to put yourself first and only first for a period of time that will give you the ability to get your legs under you, physically and emotionally, and build the foundational strength that you have got to feel and inhabit if you are going to be resurrected by this illness you are dealing you. 

So for a period of time – four, six months? Longer? I don’t know. You’d have to make that assessment and always add a few months or more than you anticipate because whatever time frame you may think this is going to take, it will always take longer. But for a period of time, you are going to be dedicated to your recovery. Now that doesn’t mean you are totally out of commission for months or longer. It means you are spending the time you need to rest, regenerate and rejuvenate all parts of your being, body, mind and spirit.  Part of generating that strength is setting huge boundaries and that takes energy when you have always said yes or been coerced or manipulated into saying yes. One of the most manipulative things you can have done to you when you are “the capable one” is having someone beg for your help and when you say no, they say that if you don’t help them, someone else who you love or some other event will not happen because you will not agree to do what they are in fact passively aggressively demanding of you because they refuse to do whatever needs to be done and do it with the highest of integrity. It’s emotional blackmail and it’s really damned if you do and damned if you don’t. And these emotional manipulations often happen when there is no time to spare. When the shit’s hitting the fan and things have to happen right now or something bad is going to happen. And if YOU don’t get involved and wear yourself out in the name of enabling others to be weak and lacking in the motivation to change their skill sets, all hell will break loose. Oh I know that one up close and personal. Too many times in my life I’ve had to fall on a lot of swords so that other people were not hurt or affected negatively by me not participating or giving my input in any situation I was forced back into. Even when I could barely get out of bed. In order to finally heal, I had to walk away from every person who used that emotional blackmail on me. And then I had to address the satellite few who may not have used the emotional blackmail on me but endorsed it strongly. Oh, yes. You have to get very strong and be willing to see the nature of so many of your closest relationships and how they were possible centered on you showing up in some way that became impossible to agree to anymore and what potentially triggered your illness. And if over the years of your healing you just can’t square that relationship any longer in your mind’s eye, you will most likely pull away from that relationship or it will be transformed into another aspect of its potential. And the relationships in your life that can be transformed into a different level of friendship or romantic love or both, will begin to engage with you on an entirely different level and perspective. It will be as if they have you again for the first time. And if their personality allows that, you can have a unique second relationship with the same person because you are no longer the person they used to know. 

The next two questions came from the Slow Your Roll which was Episode nine where I talked about how vital it is to heal and regulate your nervous system. First one is from Janice and she writes:

Hi, Laurel,

I’m on a fixed budget and wondered if you could tell me the three to five of the top supplements you would endorse for healing the nervous system. 

This one I had to really think about because the nervous system requires different tonics and targeted healing from a lot of different nourishing foods and herbs and supplements. It was difficult to come up with five so I wanted each one to be inexpensive because of Janice’s criteria as well as effective and might even build in her system. So I would absolutely say Magnesium Glycinate along with Magnesium Threonate and those can be found in the same supplement. Second, I love Lithium Orotate as I’ve mentioned on an least three other shows. I love it because it slows aging while it’s a neuroprotective of your brain. And after you’ve fried your brain due to lifelong stress, you need something that is going to calm that system and protect. And that’s Lithium Orotate for me. Third one is Reishi mushroom which I’ve also mentioned on many shows. Reishi is a tonic herb so it takes a few months of daily use for you to really feel the anchoring qualities of it but you’ll feel it on gentler levels prior to the first 100 days and it’s just a profound Chinese Shen Tonic. Fourth, I love the combination of CBD and CBG. Thankfully, some companies have finally recognized the incredible benefits of CBG which is Cannabigerol and this cannabinoid is non-psychoactive just like CBD and is known to quell anxiety while increasing focus. And when you combine CBG with CBD, it potentiates, meaning it makes it greater, the CBD. I depended on this combination for many years and I still incorporate it occasionally when I need more focus and less anxious energy erupting here and there. It creates a very nice flow energy within your body that is not getting you high one bit. So the last one would be a tie between Kanna extract from the Kanna Extract Company I mentioned a couple weeks ago and there’s a link in the show notes to them with a coupon code, and a formula I mentioned in an early episode called Bupleurum and Dragon Bone. It’s a classic Chinese formula for extreme stress and regulating it through the liver energy. The companies I’ve purchased from are Jing Herbs and Dragon Herbs and their Bupleurum and Dragon Bone formulas are both excellent for me. The Kanna extract powder I’d look at from Kanna Extract Company would be the Bliss powder or the Rest powder. Everything I’ve mentioned here has to be taken daily or at least five times per week and the Reishi really does need daily dosing to build up in the system. For the Reishi powder there’s a code on the show notes from Hyperion Herbs. 

Staying with the same theme of the nervous system, is a question from Nate who is thirty-eight and he writes:

Laurel,

You speak a lot about nervous system regulation and how important it is to be able to heal. Could you briefly give me some tips for how you fully regulated your nervous system and how long it took?

Well, Nate, first off, I do not want to give you or anyone listening the impression that I have perfected my nervous system or fully regulated it for that matter. I do not have that dialed in to the point where I am a totally chill person. I think the most important part is that you have to be willing to really SEE how you have allowed our nervous system to run your life and affect your life to the point that maybe you’ve lost friends, partners, or jobs or been not taken part in experiences that could have improved your life. All because you let your nervous system direct the internal dialogue. So every decision and step forward was impressed with nervous energy, no matter what you were doing. And after a while, that really starts to energetically chew you up and it exhausts you. I’ve seen twenty-year-old guys who look eight to ten years older because of this vibrating nervous energy that becomes like a spark to a flame. 

And if that energy is embedded in one’s nature, like mine is, and that nature meets your childhood environment which, in my case, was stressed from birth due to being small and living the first three weeks of my life in an isolette and not getting that vital tactile connection with my mother or really anyone for a long period of time. That absolutely affected me on a deep level as I moved through life and maintaining that mental programming of being isolated and feeling somewhat contained in that reality. But that same comfort that I found in the isolation often got my nervous system jacked up for any number of things. I dealt with hypervigilance, for example, from a very young age. And that energy permeated my entire being and way of moving and talking and establishing relationships or repelling others from me because they just couldn’t be around my often-nervous energy. Anyone who had the ability to observe me and who understood that I was releasing stored trauma could potentially have talked to me and calm me but they’d only be temporarily calming the reaction and not the source of my nervous system over reactivity.  I had a lot of triggers that I discovered later in life that instantly jacked up my nervous system response.  Everything from lack of sleep, feeling under pressure because of a looming deadline, an insatiable need to please and never disappoint back then, a feeling of overwhelm and overload that created a loss of perspective and reason, and also a feeling that everything had to be rushed and imbued with intense feeling and emotion and meaning. Those all took time to heal but they were just the reaction to a core element within me that I had to recognize, acknowledge and then consciously teach myself to modulate and that a lot of time for me to unwind. We’re talking six or seven years and still there remains a simmering vibration I guess you could say that I put off occasionally but don’t necessarily feel in any way that would get my attention. I’m not shaking. I’m focused. I’m present. But I’m probably not relaxed and that’s what is buzzing off me. So I’m working on that aspect as we speak. Because this occasional vibe was picked up by my animals and when I started to recognize that, that was a benchmark moment when I stepped back and said, “Holy shit, I have to get help and learn how to stop reacting in the same way I’ve been doing it on various levels for my entire life.” Because I’m not operating in a hyper state for most of my day. It’s only when specific stressors enter into my awareness. So as I stated, I’m still a work in progress and will most likely be for the rest of my life because I didn’t consciously dive into this work with any real intentions until I was fifty-five and so I have a lot of decades to unwind and come to peace with. And it’s getting easier for sure. But it still took me seven months to get my digestive and elimination pathways back working like they should after almost four solid years of non-stop stress. You won’t realize how screwed up you really are until you get away from the stress and can slowly unwind your nervous system. It’s a process and the longer you’ve been getting nailed by daily unrelenting stress, the longer it will take. And you can have a 6-month break and then go right back into it and watch how everything unravels again. That’s what I did many times. And as soon as I noticed it, there was my digestive tract totally annihilated again. That’s where it always affected me since I was a very young child. We all have our weak spots that are ‘tells’ for where our nervous system drives the hit to the body.

As far as tips to help regulate your nervous system, don’t go back to what broke you. Not if your intention is to heal. You can’t heal your nervous system in the same environment that continues to attack it. All you’re doing is putting band-aids on it and searching out places to retreat that offer some temporary protection from what is knocking hard at your nervous system. How many of us, including myself, search out the most remote, not used bathroom in someone’s house as a temporary sanctuary from all that incoming drama and static? It gives you a break but really all you’re doing in a case such as that is creating a very slight buffer between you and whatever or whoever is creating the attack. When you can’t relax and unwind a system that has been assaulted for years and decades on end, there’s no way to effectively heal it. And I know this from a lifetime of trying to heal and regulate an overactive nervous system within the confines of chaos that is bound and determined and committed to undermine any progress I was attempting to make. Take my word for it, you can take all the supplements and do the therapies that help to unwind your body and they don’t work because you come home or go to work or wherever the nervous system attacks are generated from, and all the stuff that you’re doing to heal and regulate are being cancelled or neutralized by the source of the attack. And I used to think to myself, “Oh, Laurel, you’ve gotten stronger than this! You can override it. You can center yourself and put up your boundaries and not let it affect you.” Well, yes and no. After a while, that mindset tends to create a battle mentality that generates tension and resistance and often hypervigilance and none of those contribute to nourishing an overactive or over reactive nervous system response.  

The biggest mistake you can make and that I absolutely made was agreeing to take part in work and personal relationships that had proven to be built in nervous system drainers and even were capable of creating a total nervous system dysregulation again. The three aspects are your nature, how you are nurtured, and your present environment. So if all three of those are compromised due to any number of reasons or life events, there’s going to be some very hardwired behaviors that are going to require a lot of awareness and then the ability to override what has become an often unconscious response or vibration that animals can pick up on and become either scared by or reactive with. You work on this not by avoiding the triggers or the people who generate this energy toward you, but by putting yourself into the situations that require calmness even when you are uneasy for whatever reason. And you consciously work through it and ascertain how you potentially had a better reaction or less reaction or eventually no reaction and that takes time to work through that. But you pick and choose those situations, and you don’t stack your entire day with these scenarios because you need to experience the sweet, calm, space in between that does not require anything of you but just being. Because if you keep stacking it, you just become hypervigilant and that jacks up your nervous system a lot. I don’t avoid responsibility or life in general if there’s something I really want to attain or learn about. But I’m very conscious of not setting myself up so that I sabotage any progress I’ve made. 

Another tip would be by downregulating your nervous system response, you can finally be able to both listen and hear which is vital. Because I know from my own experience that when your nervous system is running your top programming, you can’t hear or listen to people who are genuinely trying to help you. That skillset gets shut off because you’re shut down and you are possibly in freeze response, and you can’t take in or remember information when you’re in freeze response. And that’s a trauma response. And it comes across as memory loss to the unaware observer of the behavior. But it’s usually sparked by a trauma programming that hijacks your central nervous system. They may have a strong trauma response that overrides their ability to be present and therefore able to listen and hear the conversation, take in the environment they are standing in and really respond in a way that creates a connection and not a floaty detachment. 

I would absolutely address your parasympathetic nervous system and I love that formula from Vibrant Blue Oils which is the Parasympathetic Blend and they have a roll on you can rub behind your ears and on the lobe. I have a link in the show notes to that blend and others if you’re interested in the show notes. 

Next up is a question from Carol who is eighty-two years and Carol wrote:

Dear Laurel,

I have a lot of emotional healing I feel I need to do and I want to pursue it. In your opinion, is alchemical healing of body, mind and spirit worth doing at my age? I’m in good personal health and have no physical issues. I work out daily and weight train. I took up meditation last year and find it very helpful to slow my mind. 

Well, Carol. 

You were not the only person over the age of seventy-five who wrote me a similar question. And I have actually worked years ago with an eighty-four year old woman who asked me the same question. I think you have to get very clear on your intentions and expectations of not just what it will take to heal whatever emotional issues you’re looking to heal or resolve but what it may exhaust out of you. You never know what this work is going to uncover. And if you dive into the real alternative type therapies, including psychedelics, that can heal and it can also open a Pandora’s Box if it’s not done in a safe environment with a great personal facilitator right there with you. Nothing is impossible. But I would ask yourself some questions, not to dissuade you but to get a better understanding and perspective on what you are potentially jumping into. If you live with a partner or a roommate, how will your healing journey affect those people? Are they on board with this idea? Lot of times, they are not on board because they don’t want to either be around you if you become too emotionally entangled in your healing work or they just don’t get it and desire a more relaxed lifestyle rather than the high potential for their life also being upended. How willing are you to put in the work and do what needs to be done. How far and how deep are you willing to dive? Since I don’t know what type of emotional healing you are looking for, in order to really heal it, it might require of you doing things and therapies are extremely emotionally uncomfortable and often times make you feel very vulnerable. Be aware of that. I’m not trying to talk you out of it. More like here’s some things to really look at hard. If you are fully engaged and on board with this, there’s no reason you can’t start the process. My suggestion is that if it becomes too intense and creates too many issues for you or those who you love, step back and take a break and get centered and see if you want to continue at that point. Ask yourself what your motivation is and also what is your endgame? What do you want to achieve? Diving into a lot of family darkness to uncover trauma at the age of eighty-two, may or may not be what you need to experience when you still want to take part in family gatherings or spending time with your children or your grandchildren without the shadow lurking of the trauma that could get dug up. I’m not suggesting that ‘what has always been buried shall stay buried.’ I’m more concerned, I guess, about how this type of healing work has the high potential to isolate you at times and be aware of that. Others may not understand why you are doing this or putting yourself through it. So you’ll have to have a ready reply for when people say “Why are you doing this at this time?” My only other advice is that it tends to pull you in and it can drive your life and if you live alone or are someone who has always been self-motivated, you might become so myopic and unable to look around at those in your life who still care about you but feel like you’ve disappeared. And everything I’ve mentioned here is taken from real-life examples of other people I’ve personally worked with or known about through someone else. Like I said, just be really clear with your motivation and make sure that whatever expectations you have are realistic and doable.  

The next question comes from Leyla in Tennessee. Leyla writes: 

Hi, Laurel, 

Are you a life coach and if so, will you work with me?

I get this question emailed to me on a weekly basis. And the answer is “No”. I’m not a life coach or any coach whatsoever. I did nutritional counseling for many years and quit that completely in 2019 because I stopped being a good babysitter once I understood more about my true nature after I spent three solid years firmly entrenched in deep healing work on myself.  I don’t have the temperament it takes to be a life coach or any coach. I’ll be anybody’s cheerleader, but I’m not built for the commitment that I would think it took to be an efficient and reliable coach. But just like with the nutritional counseling, I was tired of hearing the same problems and telling people they were both their problem and their solution. And that was not what they wanted to hear. It's what they needed to hear but they weren’t having it. And I just stopped having the unending dedication to people who self-sabotaged and had no interest in doing the work that would make real changes. So five years ago I stopped all of that and I’ve essentially funneled that energy into this podcast. 

                  Next question is from Lenore who is sixty-years-old and has been doing deep trauma work for the last seven months. And Lenore writes:

                  Laurel,

                  Often I begin to cry and sob deeply during therapy and also when I’m by myself and it comes out of nowhere. Is it important for me to make connections when this happens as to the original source where I got shut down and was not allowed to cry back then or even express myself?

                  Lenore, I know that a lot of people who do trauma work who lean more left brain, more analytical, often want to connect dots to this release of trapped emotion and the event or the person who possibly instigated it. And the answer is you do not need to spend any time whatsoever making correlations and using the energy of that moment or the time that follows to connect dots. All that is important is that you release whatever has been trapped. If you get into making connections and correlations, you miss the full release which is your body finally being able to off-gas pain and grief and whatever else is trapped that needs to come out and be felt and then released to make space for the next release and the next and so on. All that is important is that you bring whatever pain was buried or suppressed and living in the darkness and you carry it into the light so it is felt and seen and heard. And then you thank it and you move on and rinse and repeat that pattern hundreds maybe thousands of times depending on how deep and how buried a lot of your trauma is. 

                  The last question for today’s show comes from Brent who asked me:

                  Dear Laurel,

                  I enjoyed your “Buzzwords” show (that was Episode 18) and wondered what you think is the most overused word in the transformational movement and why?

                  Well, Brent, I could answer this in a humorous way but after giving your question some thought, I think the word “Wisdom” is not only overused but given meaning in relationship to what is perceived and delivered as wisdom, but what is, in fact, either bullshit or statements that are not what I would call true wisdom. Real wisdom has been dumbed down to satisfy a culture who is just fine with repeating nonsense statements that have no depth. I think unfortunately that there’s been such a dilution of both meaning and depth over the last, I don’t know, thirty-five or so years, that the generations are now endorsing language whether it’s in the personal transformation movement or just daily language, that is a bastardization of what the word actually is intended to mean. Or the interpretation of something that someone says is construed to be “wise” when in fact, it might just be common sense. I remember saying some statement to someone not long ago and they responded with, “That’s so wise.” And I said, “It’s not wise one bit. It’s called common sense.” So when common sense becomes wisdom, I think we’ve crossed the Rubicon of what passes for actual wisdom.

Today’s version of what is called “wisdom” especially within the transformation healing movement, is in my opinion, a caricature of what true wisdom is, with a splash of arrested development tossed in for good measure. Statements such as “Real transformation takes real honesty,” or “Embrace the change you want to be.” Or “Change starts where fear ends.” I mean, these are bumper stickers not words of wisdom. It’s akin to “Visualize world peace.” Okay. Genuine wisdom is centered and grounded and easy to understand if you have maturity and possibly life experience to match. It’s pithy. Five words arranged in the right order can be so profound that it stops you in your tracks. True wisdom makes other people sit in silence and think and reflect. A unique perception is born from nothing and suddenly resonates with the sound of truth. For me, true wisdom has a sobering awe where you find yourself listening far more than talking. True wisdom make sense on all levels. True wisdom is powerful and calming at the same time. True wisdom keeps you pondering it for days if not weeks, deconstructing whatever you’ve learned and applying it to your life and your past in ways that it shines greater light on what was once hidden. 

The reason I chose wisdom as the word that I think is the most overused is because the misuse of it is not just annoying such as other misused words in the transformational movement such a “authentic” or “your authentic self” which grinds my last nerve every time I hear it. Wisdom today versus wisdom fifty or hundred or more years ago is becoming horribly watered down until it will mean nothing or have no true wisdom attached to it. Fifty years from now, someone will say, “Shit happens,” and someone else will say, “What a wise statement.” We’re going to live in the world of the movie, “Idiocracy.” So for me, it’s not just the misuse of it, it’s the potential for culture and society to attach meaning or depth to a statement that carries neither. It can end up driving belief systems or ideas that are empty vessels of nothingness. Where word salads that make no sense are propped up as brilliant wisdom and you’re just too stupid to understand it. I would say within the personal transformation world, never confuse wisdom with someone’s opinion. Never confuse it with knowledge. Or knowledge wrapped in bias. Wisdom is not projection. The words resonate and then they resonate again and again. 

That’s all for this week. Thank you for choosing to listen to this show. If you like this show, help me get the word out. Share this show or any other episode you like with someone right now who you feel needs to hear it. Check out the notes for this episode where you’ll see the links to find me on Instagram and X @laureldewey or thealchemyofnaturalhealing. On the show notes, I’ve included the companies I support and have helped me in my healing process, so check that out and look for the coupon codes. Looking forward to you joining me next week where I will discuss the “Ten Core Beliefs”. New episodes drop every Saturday. Until then, remember that “Awareness is a demanding mistress. Once she wakes you up, she won’t let you go back to sleep.”