Planning the Magical Wellness Journey - working with The Witch's Guide to Wellness by Krystle L. Jordan (Part 2)
Photo by Kateryna Hliznitsova on Unsplash
Like I said in the last post, I really appreciate the thoroughness of Krystle's approach - right from the start of the book, the reader is joining in, not just reading or recapping knowledge, but engaging with it - if the journalling and/or spell exercises are also done. I'm as guilty as the next person of being an armchair reading witch. But I'm going to do this book properly - interactively, even if it slows me right down. Better to be slow and thorough and actually see what works, than cramming in information and then it having nothing to really hook into in my mind because I didn't back it up with actions and considered thought. So, here are the next set of answers about the introductory section, where the reader is planning their magical wellness journey: mixing magical spirituality with nutrition, movement based practices, meditation and journalling. Ok, here we go - my answers...
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What do you consider to be the strongest parts of yourself based on how you feel each day?
That's a hard question...some days I feel I have a quality of tenaciousness and never-giving-upness about mental health and physical fitness that's always there. Others I feel that my sense that human beings are a blank slate when they pop out and therefore inherently full of possibilities to be good and kind, developed or not by nurture during upbringing is a quality that's helpful. My curiosity is a good quality. Elements of myself that are childlike and silly are grounding and humourous, that's good. My strong sense of beauty and finding it in so many places. (Almost the worst thing about seeing war zones on the news is how everything has been made so grey, rubbled and nothing-y - people having to exist in these zones of violent unmaking on top of the trauma they are already experiencing must be hellish: where do you look for peace when there is no beauty before your eyes, deliberately taken by others? All you see is the violence of humans, not the cooperation of making. You have to be able to find beauty somewhere, however you define it or life is null.)
Are there any mental blocks you succumb to that you would like to break through?
Depression can be a habit. I often catch myself falling into that void almost as if its a safe place to be - though it isn't. However, while I'm there I don't expect much of myself (though of course I'll mentally lacerate myself about that!), so its a place of hiding and not attending to things. When I DO start to get things done, in quieter moods, I have a quite nifty kick in of self sabotage. Dealing with that would be good.
I think I also have issues around money. Who has it, why I can't hold onto it, why debt is a habit. I think I need to look to more people who have money who are sorting their own lives but also trying to do good things in the world with it. Not every rich person will contrarily mess up Twitter when he could be doing something about world hunger, or climate change with his millions, like you know who. I need to stop thinking money is dangerous; when I also think it's choice and I could choose to do good with it if I had an excess.
How would you rate your daily energy level? And how does your energy level affect your ability to practice magic?
My daily energy level is very inconsistent. Many days are very low energy days - I feel physically heavy and mentally brain-fogged, finding concentration difficult. This means I don't practice my magic often. I can't concentrate during the day (I should be working or I have only 10 minutes, when I need to get into a calm visualis-ey state and who has time for that mental space!), or I wait till late at night when my youngest is asleep (no interruptions) by which time I too am very tired because I had to get up so early for the day. So my energy levels have a profound effect on my magic.
Do you have any undesirable habits you would like to banish?
Ehem. Smoking. Overeating, binge eating. Inertia. Negative self talk. Procrastination in the face of important tasks.
Do you already have wellness rituals that make you happy?
No, not really. I know about loads, and seem to have many reasons for implementing none...
If you've tried new healthy routines in the past and failed, what do you think went wrong?
Healthy eating and diet - I did well for a day or three, then slipped up in a moment (of tiredness usually) and ate a litre of Hagen Dazs, and then felt it was all for nothing and I should just give up and start again tomorrow (cue a binge). So: perfectionism and all or nothing thinking. The next day I get to catastrophising and decide I have no self discipline at all and I have genuinely failed as a person etc etc. With exercise I am often careful to start slow, but if I miss a day I then seem to just ...stop. And not start again. Perfectionism again. Self sabotage.
What's your favourite part of your magical practice?
I'm not sure. I'm good at reading tarot cards for myself and others, it's always nice to be good at something. Casting a circle then doing a small spell and talking to deity or elements is good - it all feels very...fine and right, hard to explain. I don't do these things often enough. I like working with crystals. I like being an animist and a pantheist - I like thinking everything is alive and everything has a soul/a divine element (I include manmade and hybridised things, because we are all part of deity I think, so our creations would also be ensouled intentionally or not). I like feeling I am honouring nature, our home on Earth, I like to feel connected to that.
What are your favourite magical tools to work with?
Crystals. Herbs. Candles. Essential oils, incense. My hands. My mind. Earth - as in, the ground inside or out.
What do you think has been holding you back from reaching your wellness goals?
Not being clear on what I want, not being consistent with any plan I make. Self sabotage as part of a larger issue I have. Fear of playing big; making myself smaller to blend or fly under the radar of ...anyone. Some days - laziness! Not beleiving I can make magic happen because I am too depressed and anxious too often.
Or make most of my life happen for those reasons, come to that. I usually rail inside against people who say 'I don't let my depression define me', because its also like saying 'I ignore it' which is very hard on a bad day - and counter productive. Depression and anxiety have a big effect on my life and some days I do have to rest and be smaller, to not expect too much. But I need to feel that I can always do SOMETHING on a bad day, even if its just to choose to listen to a calm song, not a mood-twinned sad one, or to have some restorative herb tea instead of the mighty calories of chocolate.
Hope, optimism, joy - if I can encourage those feelings more, those emotions would aid my ability both to do more and to feel its possible to do more.
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And that's the close of the introductory questions and my answers. I'm looking forward to working through this book and seeing where it takes me.
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