Episode 203-Unlocking the Transformative Power of Lunar Cycles and Healing Modalities with Donna Conley

Discover the transformative power of lunar cycles and various healing modalities in our conversation with Donna Conley, author of "Wild Moon Healing." Donna's journey of self-healing through embracing lunar cycles, EFT tapping, journaling, and her Sisterhood of Wild Moon Healers has led her to a profound understanding of the impact these practices can have on personal growth and goal achievement.

Together, we explore the importance of setting intentions at the new moon and the role of the lunar cycles in illuminating our path and shadows. Donna shares the fascinating concept of lunar scheduling and its potential for enhancing productivity and sleep patterns, especially in the lives of neurodiverse individuals. I also open up about my personal experience with this process and its positive effects on my autistic children and husband.

Don't miss this enlightening episode as we delve into the world of lunar cycles, learning to be open to growth, and embracing the healing power of words. Join us in uncovering the secrets of harnessing the moon's energy for personal growth, better relationships, and a more fulfilling life. Let's embark on a journey of self-discovery and transformation with Donna Conley!

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Wild Moon Healing and Autism Awareness

SJ Childs 0:01

Welcome to the SJ Childs Show , where a little bit of knowledge can turn fear into understanding . Enjoy the show . Welcome to Season 8 . Wanted to give our shoutouts Shoutout to Jennifer Henczel , event planning for podcasters . Check her out at womeninpodcastingnet . Another really special shoutout to Julia Pierce . She's the author of The Boy Who Became More Than We Could Imagine . Go check that out today . And Martin Slyngstad , founder of Spire Autism and author of Chatterbox My Life with Autism . Thanks for joining us today . Enjoy the show . And thanks for joining the SJ Childs Show Today . I have a guest , Donna Conley , and I'm so interested to jump into this conversation and to really get to know more about her and to see how which , as always happens what I can learn from her And you know what we'll take away from today's conversation . So thank you so much for being here today , Donna . Well , thank you so much for having me . Yeah , it's a pleasure to meet you And I guess , just to start off , tell us a little bit about yourself and what kind of brings you here .

Donna Conley 1:32

Yeah , i I've been on quite a journey . I I became very sick and I was looking for physical help , but then I realized I needed more mental , emotional help and you know the road , you know , is diagnosed with depression and all these things , and I couldn't really find the help that I needed . So I went to the internet and you know , what can I ? what can I figure out ? how can I change my life and heal myself from within ? And you know , so that led me to .

Donna Conley 2:08

I didn't know I was writing a book at the time , but I , i was journaling and I was doing all of these things . The very first healing modality I discovered on the internet was EFT tapping , and so I started doing that And after about a year I was like , is this really working ? But then I reflected back and looked at all my journaling And I was like , wow , i'm a different person . You know , my life is the same . I have the same job , live in the same house . You know everything's the same .

Donna Conley 2:36

But I was so different which made my life different , and my friends were like , what are you doing ? Because you know , we noticed what's happening with you and it's awesome . So I started this little group . We thought ourselves the sisterhood of wild moon healers and everything that I was learning myself . You know , at some point in time I started following lunar cycles to create things . You know it was . There was a certain point in time where I was like another full moon and I still have not even started working towards this one goal that I had And I so that's my left leg .

SJ Childs 3:13

Sorry about that . I think I was going to fall off the desk . Oh my heavens .

Donna Conley 3:21

I was following these lunar cycles to see what I can do in a month I was realizing in some aspects I was taking on too much and some aspects I wasn't doing enough . And you know , trying to find that balance , and my friends were like , okay , we want to know what you're doing . So I started writing these new reports and you know , and teaching them what I was learning and my interpretation of these things And what I didn't know at the time was those reports became a rough draft for my book , wild Moon Healing . So it's a whole program . It's like a foundation . There's a lot of stuff in there that people know about . You know , meditation , i talked about EFT , yoga , kigong , anything and everything . But it's and it's heavy on journaling , but it focuses on certain perspectives as you go through a lunar cycle . Yeah , so it's like you're saying you the same situation but you look at things differently .

Donna Conley 4:19

Yeah , to help you , you know , learn more about yourself , and actually a lot of people are like help yourself and actually achieve your goals .

SJ Childs 4:25

Oh my gosh , and it's so exciting that it's so funny when we align with people that we would have had no idea that we could have had this conversation with . I have autistic children and husband and I was about probably the year and a half into my son and his therapist . He had in-home therapist and they would come and every two weeks I would be like he's asleep . I'm sorry , i know that you're here , i know that it's a long time , but like I can only manipulate his sleep so much with melatonin , with whatever you want me to do , like I can only do it so much . At one point I started doing the same thing tracking and tracking , and tracking and I was like , wait a second , i'm here on a complete lunar cycle here . Every two weeks we are sleeping in the day , every two weeks we're sleeping at the night , every two weeks , you know . And so I started and we've never met .

SJ Childs 5:30

So this is so exciting . They were like , yeah , we could have a conversation with someone to understand . And they were like look at me , like I'm crazy , because that's what the therapist did , you know , when I was like , look , this has to do with the moon , this has to do with this . And they were just like what , whatever you know , like make your kid go to sleep and wake up at the right time . That's what it has to do with right and that's not the case in any way . And so I really started to look into the chemicals that stimulate our mind and our bodies during those time periods And the same thing , looking at where the serotonin versus the dopamine fall in the charts and think , okay , well , we're not going to get stuff done this week .

SJ Childs 6:15

We're definitely . Let's start new things this week and let's not like beat ourselves up or fight about it or have hard times . And it took a while for the regular therapist that was there all the time to start listening to me and realizing that , look , i'm not like a crazy , like I've done my research , i know what I'm talking about , i can beat . Like I'm scientific enough , you know like I know what I'm talking about And it was real .

Donna Conley 6:47

Yeah , her affirmation of that probably really helped you . But even before that , just embracing that you know what we're going to just let things go , because this is what's happening right now with the lunar cycle , and why fight it right ? It's made your life probably so much better .

SJ Childs 7:03

Oh my gosh , I can't even tell you , And not only with myself , but within , with my son , but with my husband , because I realized , wait a second . then this was I . he was diagnosed maybe eight years after our son , And so I was looking at them going . oh my gosh , they're both on the spectrum , They both have these same biological urges , these needs to sleep on these patterns where they have , like , download for six hours a week for 16 , or you know . however , the cycle goes And it changes every . it's like it literally is maybe like adding a day or , I'm sorry , adding an hour to a day , And so for somebody , nobody would understand looking at it and not under , you know , not knowing what they're looking at .

Donna Conley 7:53

Yeah .

SJ Childs 7:54

Yeah , oh my gosh . So yeah , it's made a big difference .

Donna Conley 7:57

That's amazing .

SJ Childs 7:58

I love that . Yeah , and now , right now , you can share that with with your friends and people too that it not only helps your own productivity , but when you can recognize how it can help your kids and how you can help them to feel confident , to listen to their bodies because we tell them right . We're like listen to your bodies , listen to you , but manipulate yourself to do this when I say you should . Yeah , isn't that interesting . So so tell us more about , like what , what you do with the group and the things like that .

Donna Conley 8:36

Well , right now I just have a lot of free content out on social media I'm creating . I've written my book . It's on Amazon and stuff That was released last September . I'm working on creating some Udemy courses . Oh great , you go along with the book . So that way you hear me talking .

Donna Conley 8:54

But there's going to be a lot of added content , a lot of the meditations . I'm going to try some sound healing and see how I can record that And you know . So the course is going to be really great And I'm working on also I've kind of put it aside , my brain just doesn't want to do it right now but an Oracle deck that matches my book to help you read your own energy . I love that And I am hopefully this summer going to be in this fall going to be working on some pop-up meditation , sound healing classes . So those things you know will be in my local area And I do do some craft fairs and stuff And when I'm there I have my book . But I do energy healing . I use tuning forks and help people , try to help them balance their energy .

SJ Childs 9:47

That's wonderful . And you are in Washington DC area , is that correct ? So any of my listeners on that side of the I'm over in Utah , so have to send them your way for that fun stuff If you guys are in the area or if you live in that area definitely something to check out . So let's talk a more about your book and how that you know what process that was for you to put all of those ideas and you know intentions onto paper .

Donna Conley 10:25

Writing a book is way harder than I ever thought . Well , actually writing the book I thought was going to be hard , but it was the whole editing process , yes , and I was , just like you know , overwhelmed . At times I didn't know what I was getting myself into . I don't think , you know , but it's like the right people came to me , all the editors and stuff , the ones that were spiritually aligned , they you know the one of my main editors , she's . Her education was in religion and spirituality and all these things . So when I was trying to write something , she was like I see , what you're saying here you should write about , add this content and , you know , reference this book and you know things that I would have never , you know , known to do . But she's like this is what you're saying . You just didn't know you were saying it , that's great .

Donna Conley 11:19

Yeah just really helped completely align the whole process with people that I needed at the right time . It was just amazing how everything fell together And I'm so happy with my finished

Lunar Cycles and Personal Growth

Donna Conley 11:29

product . Actually , i have a Please do yes , i have it here . So Wild Moon here Wonderful .

Donna Conley 11:36

Here it is , yeah , my friend Charlene Perkey . she we went to high school together and she's so artistic and so amazingly talented . So I reached out to her and I told her you know a little bit about the book and I was like do you wanna do artwork for my cover ? So that's where my cover came from .

SJ Childs 11:52

Oh great .

Donna Conley 11:53

And it's so special and meaningful to me .

SJ Childs 11:55

Yeah , i love that . That makes it so much more And then . but you also feel so vulnerable when you're putting it out into the world . I can't completely appreciate . I wrote a couple of children's books about my kids and our experience and the same thing . Like , the writing of the book is easy . Then you get to that editing part and you're like what the heck ? How many times do I reformat this thing ? Right , and all of the things .

Donna Conley 12:22

but There's a lot of intimate stories . You know I tell people about my struggles and some of them I really had a hard time writing . You know like even my editors were like you're telling a story without telling the story here , either take it out or just write the story . And I was like , okay , you know I was like I need to do this . you know , and you know , i'm really happy with the way it turned out .

SJ Childs 12:43

So That's a lot of personal growth to have to go through . I've , in the sense , done that in podcasting and have , you know , gone on to other podcasts and told my story and you're just like , oh my gosh , i never intended to talk about that in any form And here I am on a video screen , you know , publicly discussing this , and but the also the catharticism that you get from that and that you can able , you could be able to see kind of okay , you know , i've been through these hard things , like I'm telling the story because I'm here and I've made it , and now my intention is for somebody else to learn , maybe , hopefully , or to just even I mean I would hope that they would have a takeaway or to know that there's somebody that's been through a hard thing that , if they're going through , Yeah , you know , my dream for the world is to eliminate obesity , type two diabetes , depression , suicide , 23 a day .

Donna Conley 13:48

I want it to be zero a day , you know , And all these things . You know I don't , I'm not gonna realize that dream in my lifetime , but I'm gonna leave an energetic footprint that will help help grow , you know , Even long before I'm , long after I'm gone . So , Yeah , absolutely .

SJ Childs 14:08

What are some tips that you might give somebody new that's learning about lunar cycles , or maybe even just how to understand what we're talking about ?

Donna Conley 14:21

We'll start with just the foundation . Everyone you know they wanna know . Well , how do you get astrology into this ?

Donna Conley 14:27

Don't make it complicated at first you know , Just the basic is at a new moon , you set your intention or create your goal . You know , whatever words you use that make you feel comfortable , you know , and as the moon starts to grow , that's called the waxing cycle . So you want to create a plan , you know ? Well , i guess actually I should start over . The first thing you should do is create this big dream for the vision of your life And I get people into a visualization when I'm working with them to put on a movie . You know , you actually put a reel on there , you hit play and you're watching this movie because it's already happened , right , and it puts your mind in a certain state to be watching this . And then you start to feel the feelings And that's the part you have to hang on to . You have to let the picture go because , however you want to feel , that can come to you and look in so many ways that you can't even imagine . So once you have this big dream , and then you kind of let it go , but you hang on to that feeling then you create okay , for this month , what's my intention and my goal , what do I think I can do during this lunar cycle ? And then you know as the moon starts to grow . First you start , you create an inspired plan . You know it has to be inspiring or you're not gonna do it right And then you start taking these meaningful actions and working towards your goal . But things are going to , life happens right . So if you get triggered , if you find yourself oh my God , i was doing so good for like eight days and then , boom , here I am binging on the couch watching a movie . What happened to my plan ? Well , you know my journaling prompts in the book , kind of help . You look at these things like what triggered you , what you know , because these all these things is created from all your life experiences . So why did you revert to that old habit of sitting on the couch ? and you have to explore it And you know , and then you just give it your all .

Donna Conley 16:36

But once the moon is full , metaphorically it illuminates your path and illuminates your shadows . You know that in second grade , when someone made fun of you , so you stopped acting a certain way . That's a shadow and it stays in your body And it's like but that's part of your true self . You got to let that shine and but you have to find it . Some things are repressed memories . You know it's like you really have to dig for things to get answers And then , as the moon wanes , that's the time where you need to let something go . It can be a frame of mind you know I'm not worthy , i'm not lovable . It could be something in emotion . You know something heavy grief . You know how do you let that go And they have to . Sometimes you have to forgive yourself . You know letting go can look like so many different things . Maybe you just need to be kind to yourself and honor your body . You know that's the time that you , you know you just get nice with yourself .

SJ Childs 17:35

Yeah , definitely . Oh , and you know , it's so important that people , in going through processes like this , give themselves a lot of flexibility in how they want to do it . The same way , in that journaling can be done in so many ways You can draw , you can write , you can sing , whatever . Oh , i love that . Cook it oh my gosh , i love that . That's so great .

SJ Childs 18:03

I was just looking at Mediterranean meals today because it's something that is supposed to be a good for my body and like I get whatever my you know genealogy or whatnot , but and it's so interesting and I was looking through that thinking and it was so enjoyable to just look at it Yeah , and sometimes we , without knowing and subconsciously , deny ourselves these pleasurable items or pleasurable times . I know , for me , and maybe it's because I'm a mom and I want to sacrifice my time for my kids which I gotta unpack , i know , but you know it's like We all struggle with that Exactly , and so I think the caretaker , the general caretaker , goes through that probably . But you know , giving ourselves grace and time and like allowing ourselves to enjoy putting the music on and listening to your favorite genre of music , or you know , just whatever , whatever you , however , you let go or just embrace , being happy .

Donna Conley 19:13

Yeah , yeah , but I always everyone's like well , where do I start ? I don't even know . Just get quiet and listen to your body . Your body's gonna tell you . You know it could be something big , like your body is like . You know you drink till you black out . Can you please stop doing that ? You know you Yeah , you eat way too many sweets . You know you watch too much TV . You know that's why your joints are getting stiff . You need to get up and move more . You know your body can give you your goal for the month if you listen to it .

SJ Childs 19:43

Yeah , and you definitely , just like you said , can find a quiet time to kind of go within and really set the intention . Maybe wait till it's a new moon so that you can set that right intention at the right time . And those things are easy to find . You can Google , you know . If you have the Apple phone , you know you have that app on there that shows the stars and when the moon's out Exactly Easier to track these days than in the , you know when they were tracking it by sand circles or whatever .

Donna Conley 20:16

Yeah , it's funny . My dad was like we have a full moon every month . I said , yeah , dad , it actually happens . Yeah , he knows this is the full moon , but he didn't realize that . To a calendar , you know .

SJ Childs 20:28

Yeah , and maybe for us women we're a little bit more understanding of that , aren't we ? Yeah , that is so interesting , well , and I find that it just really knowing , and I it's like having that information and knowing what you know Sometimes you don't always live that You got to be reminded sometimes , like these conversations where I have to maybe plot my next little calendar out to be , you know , oh , these days might be days that might be slower and I might want to just take a little bit more time to be kinder to myself . Or on these days I know I'm going to want to hit it really hard , so maybe I should plan some really fun things that I want to get done and not wait to the days that are the slower ones , that I'm going to put things off or deny myself those kind of things .

Donna Conley 21:23

Yeah , yeah , definitely . It's just honoring yourself , giving yourself grace , you know , that's just , it's just such a big part of it .

SJ Childs 21:31

Definitely We have to first off yeah , that's it , give yourself grace . You have to be able to say that I deserve this . you know , i'm going to put this in place for myself and then start practicing it right . And yeah , my husband's always like goal and accountability and timelines goal , accountability , timelines . It's like okay okay , okay , right , i'll start the next thing , and I don't always listen and it's always like , oh , you should have set a goal and accountability .

Embracing Growth and Learning

Donna Conley 22:09

I have some of my what I consider bad words Try , because in my mind , when you try something , you're already giving yourself an out for failure . You know I'm going to try this , but if it doesn't work out , you know . So don't try something , just do it .

Donna Conley 22:25

Yeah do it and then see what happens . you know , if you don't like it , you don't like it , but don't try , because then you're kind of really setting yourself up for failure . I'm not a big fan of the word willpower , because people who are not honoring themselves , people who have all these energetic leaks my term energetic leak is anything that drains you , you know , and you try to go after something When you're drained you're not going to be successful .

Donna Conley 22:53

You know , when people use willpower and it really some people really hit some in the gut , like I really did try , you know it's like well , you weren't in the right place to go after that goal , you know and you know . So some words like that it's it kind of hits people in a way that it makes them feel like a failure . Yeah , yeah so .

SJ Childs 23:17

I posted something today . some days I love to do like daily quotes and I was really good for a couple of years and it feels like I've fizzled off to a day and a half now , maybe or so , but anyway . but today's I it was something to the effect of you know , not everyone's ready for an idea that you might have , but don't ever take granted planting a seed , and I think that that's so important to keep in mind is that when we want to have these types of discussions , be it spiritual or , you know , religious , whatever with with anyone , with our spouse , their friends , with just always keeping in mind that when we meet people that we're at , we say that and do it with children , but we need to do it with our relationships in general a lot of the times , because we can't always force or , you know , expect other people to understand the processes that we've been through .

Donna Conley 24:22

Yeah , yeah , everybody is going through something And , whatever it is , somebody wants to change in their life And if they're thinking about using you lunar cycles to help create this change , it wasn't one thing that got you where you are and it's not going to be one thing that changes it . You know I'm a lot of people are like , like I told a cousin of mine today . I said start listing everything you're thankful for . It might sound silly . A lot of people like whatever I'm like , if you focus on what you're thankful for , it elevate your energy . You know you feel a little bit better .

SJ Childs 24:57

So Oh , that really is true too , and there was a time when we were kind of my husband and I've been together . it'll be almost 20 years , 19 years , this year .

Donna Conley 25:09

So forever , thank you .

SJ Childs 25:11

And when we were really , you know , young , in our relationship and working things out , we really , like , held ourselves accountable for our , our honesty , because that was a problem that we had both suffered within our lifetimes And , as embarrassing and , you know , unfortunate as it may have been , the healing process out of that And they're realizing , like , like you said , there was in kind of trying to coach other people and help other people in relationships , or something we've often told them is write down every white lie that you think , that you say each day , it you realize as soon enough that , oh my gosh , like am I holding myself enough accountable to really be there And it's , it's made such a difference in our relationship and being able to be on the same page and being able to share spirituality kind of in the same space and in the same timeline , because I think that you know , we all go through our different things at different levels sometimes , but it's been so nice to know that , like we've been through so many hard times and it's been so long that there's just but there's always so so much growth to .

SJ Childs 26:26

It always surprises me when we learn something new .

Donna Conley 26:30

Yeah , one of my favorite comments that someone wrote in a review about my book is that I've learned there's much to learn . You know there's always new things to learn , there's always new avenues of growth , and you know that's what helps fulfill a life is , just , you know , going after things . Investigating , you know , just , you know , if you were always interested in the solar system but since fifth grade you've not really thought of , you've kind of thought about it . It's like go study it , go , you know , go after it . That's what interests you . Buy a telescope , you know . Do you know it doesn't , adventure doesn't stop when you grow up .

SJ Childs 27:08

Yeah , we forget that too , I think , and sometimes people just get in these mundane lifestyles and schedules that they keep And it's just never ending , never changing , and in that they lose that sense of adventure and curiosity and that want , that wonder , you know , to try new things and everything . And I just recently visited my 96 year old grandpa , had his birthday with him And , yeah , and one of the things that you unfortunately he is in some stages of Alzheimer's , but 95 , like he was up till 93 , still taking college courses , still learning , you know , until he couldn't literally anymore . And it just I do too And it just is so refreshing and so like what a great role model and a great way to show the everyone like never stop learning . You're never old to stop learning . And I believe and he knows that it kept him as young as it did . Yeah , you know , so bless his heart .

SJ Childs 28:25

Oh , it's been so nice to get to know you and I'm excited to check the book out . Let's talk more about that real quick so that we can make sure everybody knows where to find it . So tell us that , show us the cover again and tell us where to find it and the website and everything . Oh , okay , if you have a website as well .

Donna Conley 28:45

I do Wild Moon Healers . You can get it on Amazon . It's Kindle , audio book and print . You get on Barnes and Noble most places that sell books . You can buy it . My website is Wild Moon Healers . A lot of people get it confused . The book is healing , but my website and all my social media is Wild Moon Healers WildMoonHealerscom . I have icons I can get you to my social media pages , but I'm Wild Moon Healers on Facebook , instagram .

SJ Childs 29:15

Great , We'll have all that in the show notes so that we can , like you said , link directly to it and go and check it out and support

Lunar Scheduling for Productivity

SJ Childs 29:23

her . And if you haven't given the lunar scheduling and you know that type of healing and support a chance , then hey , here's your time to get out of those regular schedules and try something new and really put some thought into this . I just recently , like , posted a Facebook article about it . So people that know me on Facebook and everything , go check that out . Find out more about the chemicals that are , you know , acting or reacting and however you want to call it , in your body at the time of these moon cycles that are happening , So you can plan for better productivity , better ease with your children's sleep schedules , for those of you who have those crazy neurodiverse sleep sleepers on your hands and you know , better support for them as well . So thank you so much for being here today .

Donna Conley 30:20

Thank you so much for having me . I've really enjoyed it .

SJ Childs 30:23

Yeah , it's been a great time . I appreciate it And I look forward to staying in touch . Yes , thank you .