The Earthly Delights Podcast

• #115: Dr. Susannah Crockford - Conspirituality and Economy

  Susannah Crockford is a lecturer in anthropology, specialising in environmental and medical anthropology and the anthropology of religion. Her first book, Ripples of the Universe: Spirituality in Sedona, Arizona, explored New Age Spirituality of the Mecca of all things New Agey in the States. I came across her work as I was trying to get a stronger grounding of the harmful overlap between neoliberal individualism and health, wellness and spirituality. It’s a dangerous combination, and Susannah has put in a lot of good work exploring this from an anthropological perspective. One of the results of economic individualism dancing with health and wellness is a growing feeling among many that I can’t trust anyone but myself and the products I purchase. This collective paranoia is infecting big sections of our population. This isn’t the ‘let’s bash those crazy new agers who believe wild theories about the nature of the world’ – it’s a look beneath what’s going on at the surface. This is often a demographic who have been let down by the medical sector, who are disillusioned with modern politics and who have been directed down the slip road of simple explanations of why things are the way they are. I think this will prove helpful for anyone who wants to learn more about the forces behind the growing divisiveness and the lack of agreement on the truth. Also, if you have been exposed to conspiratorial media or a friend of yours has, this might give you an important perspective with which to view what is going on. As always, thanks, Susannah, for your time, thanks to you for listening and if you’d like to learn more about Susannah’s work and the topics explored in this podcast, check out the links below:https://experts.exeter.ac.uk/38354-susannah-crockford/abouthttps://open.spotify.com/show/0U49MjvxOCZ87frBk7R1vA

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• #114: Dr. Sula Windgassen - Tending to Chronic Illness

  Our guest this time is Dr. Sula Windgassen. Having experienced recurring UTIs and chronic pain in her early twenties, she felt a strong urge to learn more about human health and, in particular, women’s health, which is significantly under-researched. Since she made this conscious decision, she has become a health psychologist, cognitive behavioural therapist, EMDR therapist, and mindfulness teacher with over 10 years of experience working with people who have chronic illness in the NHS, academia, and private practice. She is one of the wisest voices on the internet when it comes to mental and physical health and is a much-needed figure in a world filled with health misinformation, oversimplifications, and massive extrapolations from the truth. I invited Sula to the podcast to talk about a range of topics related to mental health, physical health, and wellness. She knows all too well what many chronic sufferers are going through. The big motive behind her work is to prevent people with health issues from feeling as isolated and unheard as she did, and a key aspect of her success (in my opinion) is that she doesn’t necessarily push the practices and tools that helped her recover from her health issues onto her patients. She knows that just because things worked for her, it doesn't mean that they will work for you, and this is rare in the world of health and wellness. In this podcast, we cover a lot. We hear about the profound role EMDR has played in influencing Sula’s understanding of recovery, and we break down the common myth that certain physical health symptoms are all in your head, or that it’s all trauma, or that it’s all your nervous system. We unpack how the market and targeted online marketing are taking advantage of the eroding trust people have in public healthcare and the dangers attached to this. We talk about the healing power of being with our difficult emotions. We also discuss the role of connection and feeling heard on the road to recovery as well as the nuances around the benefits of mental imagery (see show notes for the referenced studies). If you want more from Sula, please see the links below. https://www.healthpsychologist.co.uk/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4974856/ https://www.instagram.com/the_health_psychologist_/?hl=en

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• #113: Ciara Sherlock - Bodywork and Doula Work

  Welcome back friends! You might remember Ciara Sherlock from an episode that I recorded with her in back in 2022. In that episode, we discussed the significance of psychedelic integration along with the growing popularity of women’s circles. In this episode, we cover other aspects of Ciara’s work; namely Bodywork and Doula work. In the current climate, where more and more people are accepting of the body’s capacity to store our deeper psychological and emotional weight – we chat about how massage therapy can help many who are looking to deepen their connection to their body and the variety of symptoms that this process can assist with. We then move onto discuss Doula work- which could be summarised as holistic support for women throughout their entire pregnancy journey- which can begin when a couple are considering the possibility of having a child, and can move up until postpartum, with guidance and emotional support around feeding along with naming ceremony facilitations. Doula work has played an integral role in our culture over hundreds of years and we unpack this as well as how Doulas can work alongside as well as outside the mainstream maternity services. Unfortunately, there are women who feel rushed, unherd, isolated and unsupported during their pregnancy and after birth and for women who desire deep support for the incredibly challenging and enriching process of bringing a child into this world, Doula work is an additional option. Doulas also work with women who have experienced pregnancy loss. If you would like to learn more about the topics covered in this podcast and/or contact Ciara please see the link to her website below. Happy New Year! https://ciarasherlock.com/

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• #112: Erick Godsey - The Subtleties of Spirituality Online

  Welcome back to the Earthly Delights Podcast!Our guest this time around is writer, coach and podcaster, Erick Godsey. I have been following his work since 2020 and found him to be an inspiring, insightful voice in a wellbeing and spirituality media landscape that often promotes dangerous, wild content. His weekly newsletter is regular thought-provoker for me and I would highly recommend subscribing to it if this conversation moves you.After exchanging pleasantries, we start the podcast by unpacking his fascinating project called The Shimmer which aims to help people understand the degree to which modern life has left us deeply distracted and provides a helpful roadmap of practices to assist individuals to get their attention back. This has helped me a lot and I have a feeling that many listeners will appreciate this project so I wanted to share it with those who might not have come across Erick and his work.We then move into chatting about the impact meditation can have on emotional sensitivity, the individualistic rhetoric of influencers in the spirituality space and the significance of delving into a relationship with our shadow.I tried something new with this podcast and guest, precisely because I trusted Erick’s capacity to hear a differing perspective without feeling attacked as I wanted to be able to have a respectful discussion about our differing perspectives without falling into common argumentative traps. I feel that there is a deep need for people to respectfully disagree with each other and I’m grateful for getting to try this with him.https://www.erickgodsey.com

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• #111: Lucy O’Hagan - Wilderness Fasts, Ethno-Nationalism & Queerness of Nature

  Lucy O’ Hagan is a very inspirational person. She has been on a fascinating journey, a journey that we couldn’t do justice to in one hour. However, we did cover a lot. I primarily asked Lucy onto the podcast to talk about her work with WildAwake – a fantastic organisation designed to help people connect to themselves, their communities and the non-human life on earth in a deeper way. Wildawake through Ancestral Skills, Ethnobotany, Wildlife Tracking and Trailing as well as Rites of Passage Training invite people to relate to the natural world in a way we have forgotten. Part of this Rites of Passage training with Wildawake includes a process which is often described as a Wildness Fast or Vision Quest which is an ancient ceremony involving several days of fasting in the natural world with little to no human company nor modern distraction. This conversation attempts to delve deeper into this rich process, why Lucy felt the call to Wilderness fasting and how it deepened her relationship with the land and inspired her work in Donegal with Wildawake. We also talk about the rise of ethno-nationalism in Ireland and consider how combined with economic precarity and misinformation online, this racism might be seen as a symptom of the significant disconnection many Irish people feel to their language, to their tradition, to their stories, to their land. Lucy also shares some of her observations facilitating ceremonies and from her extended time on the land, including the ‘inherent queerness of the natural world’. This was a beautiful chat which I think might serve as necessary nutrition for many given the disconnection, polarisation and violence going on close to home at the moment. Lucy’s story reminds me of our collective need to listen to the natural world, to learn about the ways of our ancestors and to pay homage to these practices and worldviews. You can find more information about Wildawake and Lucy through the link below. As always, thanks for making the time to listen and thanks to Lucy for getting up early for our call https://www.wildawake.ie/

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