Shifting Mindsets and Inspiring Healing in Chiang Mai, Thailand
As a spiritual activist and warrior of positive vibrations, I moved to Chiang Mai, Thailand to help remote workers actively achieve happiness and health. I specifically work with travelers who are wanting to overcome chronic physical and emotional conditions. Although my lifestyle was previously working one-on-one with clients, my impact is ready for a transformation much like the ones I inspire.
Previously, before taking the leap to move to Thailand I founded a nonprofit art center in Chicago, IL and was a lifelong learner. I studied five different fine-art modalities, bodywork (Thai, Shiatsu, massage therapy), then more medicinal practices (yoga, Ayurveda, Chinese nutrition), then, I just kept learning! I read most religious texts and was raised Bah’ai, which focuses on the unity of all humankind.
Eventually, I realized my skills were so vast that when I started working one-on–one with new clients, I witnessed amazing transformations. They were expanding not just in their bodies, but their minds, and hearts.
Now, for lack of a better word, I am an empowerment coach and mentor.
There is this new gold rush of “digital nomads” who were told the “get rich and travel the world” story in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Where this place used to just be the hub of learning massage modalities and Eastern medicine practices for me, it now became a new way of examining the change in our current corporate world. This new advancement in Chiang Mai has changed the flow of its energy. You can feel and see the change on every block and wifi hotspot. I had been visiting this city for years, but the modification was clear this year.
Forbes Magazine wrote, “Chiang Mai became a go-to destination for online entrepreneurs, freelancers, and remote workers—otherwise known as digital nomads. A rising number of expats are choosing to call Chiang Mai home as they bootstrap digital businesses or scale up their already-successful enterprises.”
Some newbie nomads were not even previously working on the computer but wanted to have a remote life so desperately they were willing to take the risk. Timothy Ferris’s embedded the vision into many people’s ambitions when he wrote The 4-Hour Work Week. They took the plunge, no different than me in many ways, to shift their lifestyle and the means in which they work. People desired a lifestyle change, but the focus so far has been a financial one and not of a personal spiritual journey.
They’ve gotten consumed at co-working spaces, found new ideas of leveraging funds, and an entirely new way of life is being presented before them. All their friends, culture, daily routine has significantly changed and there is nothing that feels like home anymore. There is a lack of consistency, focus on wellness, and people are getting lost searching for themselves in a career choice.
I have, in my short time being here, already met so many that fit into this category of the strung-out nomad.
All things that are worth it have some challenges. The part that is different than other challenges that we face in our life is that these challenges make our dreams come true.
There are two common varieties of the overwhelmed nomad:
The person that did, in fact, get rich quick. They are now living an entirely different lifestyle full of people asking them for things and advice while making different investment choices and living amongst an entirely new set of different opportunities.
Or, the latter, the one that is still trying to figure it out and pushing themselves in ways they have not before. They are questioning their choices they made to leave everything behind and doubting their dreams. This version of the nomad has very little knowledge of which career path to choose panicking and going to every mastermind meetup group searching for answers from people that seem to have the answers.
In either case, their lives are very different from the life that they left behind.
ENROLL IN OUR FREE CLARIFYING YOUR PURPOSE BOOT-CAMP!
I empathize because I was there once.
It can be quite overwhelming without preparedness for the journey they are about to embark. As a seasoned traveler and formerly living in Chiang Mai, I empathize with their story, and that is where I can compassionately understand. I understand that at the beginning of a travel life you can get lost in the travel itself.
Unseasoned nomads tell themselves:
I am afraid to try something new and fail.
I am scared to do things I am not good at.
I don’t know how to meet people.
Building an online business is really hard and a lot of work and my body cannot handle all of this.
I can't have the same adventures as others because of my limitations. (financial, emotional, physical)
I don’t know how to be happy and I thought traveling would change that.
My routine is so different and I can’t understand what is happening.
I met a “digital nomad’ the other day that literally said to me “ I don’t know how to stop working, and I don’t know how to walk away from trying to change everything”.
They are drained doing a bunch of work that they don’t want to do and feel that they are stuck in a situation that they put themselves in, in the first place. They ask themselves “ What is different about this remote work than working at home?”
Wherever you go, there you are. It is true, whatever complications you left behind still come with you. If you had been in a crappy 9-5 for years it definitely created some real baggage that will come with you until you face it head on. If you were unhappy, you will continue being unhappy. If you had physical ailments, you will continue having them. All doesn't get resolved from quitting your job and traveling the world.
But, it can.
I am here to empower this transition to make it more digestible. (Sometimes literally- traveling with digestive disorders can be really debilitating.)
I want to delve into the PURPOSE and HEALTH of the traveler instead of focusing on money. The money doesn’t come without clarity. The purpose is seemingly secondary to most of these “get rich quick” online strategies and, because of this, people deteriorate quickly.
Without feeling like you are making a difference in this world- leaving it a better place- the void will always be there.
Some fresh travelers begin thinking they deserve the mess that they gave themselves. Others believe that they have been in pain so long that it isn’t possible to change. They are stuck feeling so tired and done with feeling pain every day physically, mentally, and emotionally that they believe any message that tells them they can get out of it.
Most of them just saw the words “tired of your 9-5?” and immediately jumped on a plane. They dreamed of abundance and were instead given back their own complications.
When there is a great shift, confusion isn’t far behind. Currently, we have reached the precipice of the dawning of the Age of Aquarius. When a transformation is happening in a grandiose way people need guides to trust themselves and continue on a positive vibrational frequency.
Even I get scared when a revolution is happening- it is natural and human. If you aren't scared you probably aren't going for that thing in life that you really want. If you are scared you are doing it right! It is totally fitting to be scared when you are on the path of your dream. Your life is about to change and in all the ways that you always wanted. If you fail at this, it really means something versus failing at something you didn't care that much about. All you have to know is that it is okay to be afraid and then the fear becomes another strength.
So, to all my fellow nomads out there just getting started on your beautiful journey.
Some tips:
PURPOSE AND CLARITY: Change starts with a vision. Knowing your vision deeply and with full clarity.
MINDFULNESS AND LEARNING: Then, exercising your mind and body daily and being okay with the failures that are inevitable during large growth. It is not failure if you learn something.
GIVE BACK AND SHARE: Give back somewhere so you don’t feel so alone and share as much as you can. Don’t stop learning- it’s what got you to make the big leap of faith in the first place. You are an adventure seeker, a game-changer, and a humble servant of the earth. You are an innovator.
Let your nomad shine!
Yours infinitely with love and gratitude,
The Snarky Spiritualist
Brook Woolf
If you are starting your nomad journey or you are already on your journey and are suffering from a chronic physical/emotional ailment join our private Facebook group Emotional Body Mapping for the Mindful Modern Nomad. We have weekly live videos on different ways in which to heal the body. If you are done being tossed around from one doctor to another, taking too many pills and nothing seems to be working, this free supportive commUNITY is for you. There are many like-minded travelers here to share their journey and are committed to making this year the year of transformation.
Come join and travel pain-free.
Click the link below and ask to join the group!
EMOTIONAL BODY MAPPING FOR THE MINDFUL MODERN NOMAD