5 reasons why this is the worst time to buy an online course

Oh hey there. It's me, Amanda your friendly neighborhood herbalist-and-plant-witch.

Things feel pretty shitty right now. Pretty heavy, pretty dismal, pretty on-edge. It's been a difficult stretch of life.

This ickiness has only doubled-down in the past few weeks as we approach the election. Everyone is tense. Preoccupied. Despairing. For the most part, I am too.

And yet, for all this ickiness, I've also been super excited about this course I've renovated and re-mystified, the one you've heard me blathering on about for the past few days.

My excitement feels at-odds with the ickiness. The timing does not feel great (also, why am I launching this course during Mercury Retrograde? poor planning on my part.)

And so, in my deep empathy with you, the person who is receiving all my enthusiastic emails & posts about Ritual & Smoke, I'm offering you a list of 5 reasons why this is the worst time to buy an online course.

(In my enthusiasm, I'm also offering reasons that it might actually be a great time to buy an online course.)

1. You're overwhelmed and overloaded.

From your news consumption to your nervous system, you're completely overwhelmed. There's the news cycle to keep up with, the daily tragedies to learn about and process, and the future travesties to prevent. It's a lot to take in. How could you possibly keep up with all the information, assignments, and videos to be found in an online course? It's all too much.

Something that's helped me with the overwhelm is to seriously narrow my consumption -- I've become intensely discerning about what I consume. I get quickly overwhelmed by options, and we have so many options these days. There is so much information available. So I opt for longer, more in-depth education/reading/info rather than consuming lots of shorter, more shallow bits.

In practice, this looks like:

> Reading & listening to 2-4 books per week rather than dozens of podcast episodes and internet articles

> Reading one (ok, two) daily news digests instead of scattered, limitless news sources on social media

> I don't do free trainings/webinars/masterclasses anymore. I either commit to a program and pay, or I don't do it.

This helps me to focus my efforts, learn more deeply, and give better attention to what I'm doing.

Participating in an online course gives you a carefully-selected flow of information that is curated to efficiently guide you through a transformation. In magic we call this a container: a safe structure in which to melt into a puddle and emerge all new and evolved.

It also gives you t i m e a n d s p a c e to actually integrate the material and the insights you gain. The time-and-space-to-integrate-information is super lacking in our current culture of information consumption.

A course is a container that gives you just enough to absorb and work through each week. It's like the antidote to overwhelm ;)

2. You're tired of online classes.

For 8 months, your social gatherings have been Zoom calls, your work/school/appointments have been Zoom calls, your once-treasured Y.A. fantasy book club or improv class or guinea pig agility shows have all been Zoom calls. Your eyes hurt. You're done.

The thing is... online classes remain super convenient. You can take them on your own schedule. You've always got access. You can meet people who actually share your interests, even if you don't live near anyone who drinks mugwort tea, let alone makes magic with it.

If we're going to live with the weird and often difficult changes that the internet has brought to our society, we may as well enjoy the benefits. And, for the moment, we don't exactly have another option.

3. It costs money.

Yeah, the money thing. It can be hard to decide to spend money (if you've got it to spend), can't it?

This is the way I've come to think about spending money on education and experiences for myself: 

spending money is giving myself the gift of knowing that I'll actually do the thing.

When I sign up for free experiences, I often don't do them, or give them quality attention. In any course that is meant to help you grow & thrive, you've got to do the exercises (in this case, that means rituals, journeys, making herby stuff, and journalling). If you don't do the exercises, consuming the course material becomes no different from thumbing through a magazine (remember those? I miss magazines.) You don't get the luscious transformation that you desire.

I've also noticed that when I've gifted my courses to folks, those folks don't participate -- at all. They just don't do the course. It's happened every time. So, while it might feel like a nice thing to do in the moment, it actually isn't helping the person at all.

This all leads me to believe that investing our money into something is an important way of investing ourself into -- because we've given of ourselves in some way to earn the money.

So yeah, it can be hard to decide to spend a chunk of money, even if you do have money that you can spend.

 But if you're truly interested in something, whether it's plant magic or training your twin dachsunds to hunt badgers, I'd encourage you to think about the ways that paying for something actually gets you more than just the "thing" you paid for.

4. You generally feel shitty.

If you're the sweet-and-spiritual type you might use words like "ungrounded" "low-vibe" or "I've had trouble connecting with my guides." But the point is, you don't feel great.

I get it. I haven't been feeling great either, like more than half of the time. It's completely reasonable to not be feeling great right now.

If you're feeling shitty and low-energy, you might not think it's a good time to start a whole new course. How much can you really bring to the experience?

But maybe a course is exactly the thing that will help you feel uplifted during your days.

Maybe a course can bring you a smile, some glitter, some fragrance or connection or hope or belonging. Maybe it can be exactly the balm that your weary soul needs right now.

5. There's a lot of uncertainty and chaos right now.

Your response to the uncertainty might sound something like this "This is a time of great transformation. We're all going through a major shift and evolution, and it'll be interesting to see what life is like on the other side."

I'm right there with you -- chaos brings transformation. It's a miracle. These times are miraculous.

And I ask you: what are you doing to support yourself through this massive transformation?

 Have you committed to a spiritual program, found a teacher or a community? Do you have someone to challenge you, nudge you along, and lovingly push you out of your comfort zone?

If you want to ensure that the heaping pile of shit that is the current moment has transformed into luscious, nourishing compost by springtime, I highly recommend you find yourself some sort of guide or program (aka container) to usher you through this moment.

We all need someone external-of-ourselves to gently push us, encourage us, and offer us new nuggets to nibble. Or teas to taste. Or blends to burn.

You can't do it all on your own. And you don't have to.

So there you have it. It's the worst time ever to buy an online course. Or is it?

With actual love and a comforting cup of tea,

Amanda

P.S. This post was inspired by a chat with my friend Paula, whom I met in an online course last year. We now talk every week on Zoom and exchange business advice and magical/herbal literature suggestions. She even gave me a spare Kindle to support my herbal-mystery-novel-reading. So you see, it's actually possible to form real, Kindle-and-advice-giving friendships in an online course. If you're feeling lonely, perhaps take an online course and find yourself a friend like Paula.

P.P.S. If this highly encouraging email has piqued your interest in Ritual and Smoke, the 7-week course that will guide you into the realms of the Otherworld upon wafts of fragrant smoke, then by all means, light the match.