I have a friend, let’s call him S, who has no time for anything remotely woo woo. He is a fellow journalist and when I’ve suggested he write about some of the things I’ve tried on this spiritual path, he laughs and invariably says: ‘What is that shit??’

I get it. I would have said the same at one point and because working with my spiritual mentor Marion Young has changed my life beyond measure, I am dedicating this blog to all you cynics, naysayers and pragmatists out there. So, let’s get started. Here are 10 good reasons for you to be a bit more woo woo in 2023:

1. Something smarter than you has created all of this, that’s a fact. It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe in God or anything other than what you can see with your own eyes. Look around you. This planet is freaking awesome. Stare at a leaf, watch a bird in full song or tune into a David Attenborough documentary and what you’ll see is pure genius at work. Could all of this have happened by accident? I don’t see random or chaos out there, I see intelligence and order. Something is driving it. Call it the force of nature, the universe or any other word that takes your fancy, it’s out there and it’s what is making you breathe this very second…

2. This shit works and if you don’t believe me read about how some of today’s spiritual teachers saw the light. My favourites include Anita Moorjani, Eckhart Tolle, Neale Donald Walsch, Jen Sincero and despite the fact that he can be a bit shouty at times, Tony Robbins. They have all transformed their lives dramatically by embracing the woo. Eckhart Tolle was broke, homeless and desperate when he opened his eyes to the truth of what he really is, i.e. a spiritual being having a human experience and not the other way round.

3. Life is hard for everybody. Don’t be fooled into thinking that the rich, beautiful or gifted have got it easy, because they haven’t. Everybody struggles, experiences pain and loss and wrestles with their own inner critic every second of the day. It’s supposed to be hard, otherwise, there’d be nothing to learn, no way of improving and moving forwards. Life is a really tough challenge and I don’t know about you, but I need all the help I can get. Either there is some invisible intelligence out there or there isn’t. Are you willing to take a gamble on the latter? You’ll feel like a right chump if you find out you were wrong and if you were right, well you’ll never know. What is there to lose?

4. You know nothing, neither do I. We perceive reality via our extremely limited senses. The world looks as it should to a human. It looks very different to say, a dog. Put a chocolate button on a football pitch and Wooster will sniff it out. He exists in a world of smells and I cannot imagine what that must be like. The human eye can detect less than 1% of the electromagnetic spectrum. It cannot see infrared light, microwaves or radio waves for example. What would the universe look like if we could see the other 99%?

5. You are your own worst enemy because your unconcious mind is running the show. It is an ocean of emotions, thoughts, memories and impulses that are outside your awareness. Hardwired into it is buried trauma. It’s the same for everyone – nobody is immune to it, although levels of past trauma differ from person to person. I decided to embark upon a spiritual path when I realised that my eight-year-old self was in control of some aspects of my life. Spirituality is really a process of getting to know yourself. You can only change your life when you change your mind and to do that, you must shed light on what’s going on in your unconcious. You make the unconcious concious (ie you become aware of it) through introspection. Meditation is a process of getting to know yourself. When you switch everything off, take a breath and close your eyes, you become acutely aware of how you feel – as opposed to masking your emotions with food, alcohol, social media, sex etc.

6. You become your own cheerleader when you go within and get to know yourself. It’s like becoming the parent you wish you’d had, rather than one of the flawed human beings who brought you up (we’re all flawed as parents!). You grow kinder to yourself and less judgemental. You learn to ignore the inner critic or at least recognise when it is at work and choose to ignore its incessant bad mouthing. No sane or decent person would talk to a friend or child the way they do to themselves.

7. Everyone seems nicer because the kinder you are to yourself the more you see elevated qualities in others. If somebody criticises you, know that this is how they treat themselves, if a person is mean to you, recognise that they show themselves the same level of unkindness. As you journey on this path, you see yourself in everyone and realise that when somebody is unreasonable with you, it isn’t about you, it’s all about them.

8. Love is a wonderful side effect of life in the woo woo lane. When I did my first four-day silent retreat, I was hit by a love bomb. I felt it rising and building inside of me. It was as if all the love in the universe was in me and I felt sure I must be walking around with a Ready Brek glow around my body. It was the closest I have ever felt to source – that’s my word for God, life force or whatever you want to call it. I use different words, but at the moment, source is my favourite. I love silence because it always opens my heart and lets the universal love flow in.

9. Miracles happen on a regular basis these days. I’m not talking about walking on water or raising the dead or anything, although I’ve experienced some things that make me think even this might be possible. There is magic afoot all around me. It was probably always there, but when I existed as someone who saw life as a massive struggle, I didn’t see it or invite it in. I’ll give you an example. A few years ago, I did a Vision Day retreat with Marion and wrote down all the things I wanted for the following year. Top of my list was order in my wardrobes. I yearned for someone to come along and sort out the tangle of clothes hidden behind closed doors. 10 days later, I was on The One Show being filmed while a Marie Kondo expert tidied up my wardrobe. How’s that for a bit of manifesting?

10. Life is better when you believe that the universe has got your back, invite magic into your life and make a conscious decision to love yourself and others. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t spend my life floating on a cloud and communing with unicorns on a daily basis, I go unconcious a lot and by that, I mean I slip into bad habits. I rage at an old person chatting to the cashier in the supermarket because it is slowing me down, I snap at my husband when he tries to talk to me while I’m reading and I behave like an eight-year-old a lot of the time. Learning to live a better life takes practice and I fall from grace too many times to count. It doesn’t matter though as I invariably notice that I’ve slipped up, vow to do better and forgive myself immediately.

11. There are no rules, it’s up to you to find the best way forwards. If you do just one thing, be kinder to yourself in 2023. It doesn’t sound like much, but it can change the world. Really. Have a splendid and utterly woo woo 2023!

One last thing…I have some podcasts lined up for 2023, which I will post over on my Patreon page. I’ve had an exciting new rebrand thanks to my talented daughter and Patrons will receive some lovely merch. I’ll be posting up exclusive content, plus offering a plethora of other exciting extras. Let’s go woo woo together! 😊

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