![]() It has become a destination for people seeking greater meaning, purpose and clarity in their lives, Teague says, noting that visitors have come from as far away as Texas and Florida. Private sessions are $15 to $40 multi-day retreats start at $200 and six-month programs can cost up to $2,500. Wishing Star offers a range of group and individual wellness workshops led by local practitioners. They say they are drawn to how spiritual the land feels.” “Sometimes people just show up and knock on the door of my house. “People are drawn to this place,” Teague says with an unironic air of mysticism. They started staging wellness demonstrations and handing out literature that explained sound immersion, reiki and sound healing at roadside produce sales with local growers and farmers during quarantine-Teague calls it “divine timing”-and like-minded people interested in wellness started showing up and asking about classes. Photo courtesy of Wishing star farmĪt first, it seemed like the pandemic might derail their fledgling wellness venture, but the opposite happened. Janet Baird with a client in a sound healing session. Teague, a certified life coach and corporate trainer who works in commercial real estate, opened Wishing Star Farm in 2019 with her husband, Don, a car painter and handyman. She assures me that my post-reiki sobbing episode the night before was totally normal-it happens all the time. When I meet up with the farm’s co-owner, Missy Teague, on Day Two of my visit, she’s wearing jeans, cowboy boots and a standard work shirt. I just didn’t think it would be as hard as it was. The combination is supposed to result in a realignment of physical, mental and spiritual health. In addition to dirty wellness, Wishing Star Farm offers other holistic practices designed to help visitors unwind, from yoga and reflexology to acupuncture and herbal remedies. (The Earth Microbiome Project, a collaboration of researchers at University of California San Diego, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory, is one group at the forefront of this research.) Studies suggest that playing in the dirt may help to improve our gut health and immune response, with the added benefit of a serotonin mood boost. The idea is to show up at a farm and engage in some light physical activity in nature-like gardening or, yes, creek sitting-that puts you in direct contact with the soil microbiome. When I first heard about “dirty wellness,” a philosophy that espouses leaving our sanitized, hermetically sealed existence behind and reconnecting with good old-fashioned bacteria-laden dirt, I wanted to try it without really knowing what it entailed. Photo courtesy of Wishing Star Farm by Meredith Publication My cathartic tears, it seems, were a manifestation of negative energy that had finally been dislodged. “ stuck energy-wherever energy is not flowing-that’s disease, so the whole purpose of energy work in general is to get energy to move properly and flow easily.” “The beauty of reiki is that it helps a person get to a deep state of relaxation and allows them to heal themselves from the inside out,” she says, whether the pain is physical, emotional or both. I’m skeptical going into it, but when it’s over, I am suddenly overcome with emotion. The private hourlong session also includes sound immersion therapy with an assortment of instruments-drums, bone rattles, rain sticks, bells, a Native American flute and intermittent chanting. I feel a rush of blood to my cheeks and the sensation of prickly heat. To get me grounded, Janet Baird, a master reiki practitioner and certified “sound healer,” starts by placing her hands on my ankles, then my shoulders and then pausing above my face. This explains how I found myself, the night before, lying on a table in Wishing Star’s carriage house barn trying reiki-a Japanese energy healing technique that aims to promote relaxation and reduce stress through gentle touch. The mindfulness saunter is part of a weekend getaway during which I’ve resolved to keep an open mind and try some holistic therapies that I once might have derided as New Age bunk. Like so many of us in pandemic times, I’ve been knotted with anxiety and a general sense of malaise. Hosmer splashes the water on his face, so I follow suit. I ask if he wants me to actually sit in the water, and he tells me that, yes, he actually does.ĭitching the galoshes, I get on my knees in the creek and kind of splash around a bit because I have no idea what else to do. Next, he proposes “creek sitting,” which is exactly what it sounds like.
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