[00:00:00] Kelsey: Welcome back to Planet Spoonie, the podcast for lymies and spoonies healing themselves and the world. I'm your host, Kelsey, clinical herbalist, holistic nutritionist, student of chronic Lyme, and lover of all things outdoors. In this collective virtual space, we explore the core foundations of holistic nutrition, herbal medicine, and nature connection.
[00:00:21] With open minds and hearts, we take an inquisitive look at how all chronic illness is intimately linked to the climate crisis. This is the third episode, and I am, again, beyond excited and so, so grateful that you are here with me, collaborating on this journey to find healing for both ourselves and our communities.
[00:00:41] I know that when we work together, we can make big magic happen. So without further ado, let's dig in. In this episode, we're going to explore herbal medicine. And the title of it is Herbalism is for Everyone. Because the truth is, it is. It belongs to everyone. No matter who you are, where you're from, and where you're living now.
[00:01:03] There is a rich history there of working with traditional medicines and working with plants to prevent illness, build strength, vitality, and immunity, as well as to ward off illness to help heal more quickly, more effectively, and efficiently. More than 80% of the world still relies on traditional herbal medicine as a primary, primary form of healthcare.
[00:01:32] This is according to the World Health Organization and the National Institute of Health here in the United States. Herbal medicine is something that has been around for as long as humans have been around. And this is because we evolved in a world of plants. From the time that we were single-celled organisms way, way back in the day and evolved into more complex multicellular organisms and eventually animals, by the time we became animals and evolved into human beings, we existed in a world that was already populated by a richly diverse amount of plant life.
[00:02:15] Plants have been here long before us. Plants are our ancestors. And when I say plants, if you are a science geek, please know that I am including fungi, lichen, mosses, and all those other fun forms of life. as well. In herbalism, we're including those and talking about those, but it would be too much to say that every single time.
[00:02:38] So it's easier to just say plants and herbs, but know that I am including those when I say that. So we evolved in a world surrounded by plants, by fungi. They were already here. So our bodies, as we evolved into modern-day human beings, we did so in the presence of plants. We did so in the presence of the complex phytochemistry, that these beings offer up.
[00:03:07] Phytochemistry, phyto means plant, chemistry, chemistry, right? Because plants are filled with hundreds or thousands, depending on the species, of compounds that are extraordinarily bioactive. They interact with our bodies in really complex ways there are even theories that certain plant compounds like steroid compounds potentially triggered the development of those pathways within our own bodies.
[00:03:39] And there is this concept, basically, that I'm kind of touching on called xenohormesis. And xenohormesis is a theory that essentially we evolved in this world of plants and plant medicines in the presence of all of these pre-existing organisms. And over time, as we consumed these plants as food and as medicine, we exposed our bodies to these myriad compounds.
[00:04:08] Within these plants. And as we did that, it caused a certain amount of stress. This is where the hormesis comes in. It caused a certain amount of stress that essentially increased our resiliency, increased our energy. It had that positive effect. It's kind of like the idea of hormesis would be exercise, right?
[00:04:31] Exercise kind of breaks your muscles down, but then they build back stronger. It's that, it's that same thing. And the idea of xenohormesis is that that's what plants did and, and do. And so we evolved in this world where if you eat just the right amount of a certain plant, you and your body receive certain health benefits.
[00:04:51] And at the same time, the plant receives certain benefits because if you're a gardener, You know that cutting back a plant enables it to grow back stronger. You deadhead your flowers, right? That's the nickname. Because if you do so, they will grow back stronger and you will actually get more flowers.
[00:05:10] That's the point of pruning and trimming trees, right? Or shrubs or whatever it is you grow. So, xenohormesis is this really beautiful idea because it's a concept of reciprocity that this little bit of stress we cause the plant, and the little bit of stress that the plant compounds cause our body, actually have a beneficial effect on both parties.
[00:05:31] The plant grows back stronger, and we grow back stronger. And there's a very delicate balance to this. It's very dose-dependent. If we eat too much of the plant, we might make ourselves sick. It might end up being toxic. and we're also damaging the plant. If we don't eat enough, we don't get the benefits and the plant doesn't get the benefits.
[00:05:51] So xenohormesis is a really cool idea. It sounds intimidating because it's a big word, but it's actually a pretty simple concept. And the point of all this is essentially that we've never existed without them. We've never existed in a world without plants. It is something that is just inherent in our biology, but none of us grow up knowing this.
[00:06:18] And I most definitely didn't know this, right? I kind of alluded to this story in the first episode, but I didn't want to spoil it because I knew we were going to talk about it today. But I want to share with you How I learned about herbal medicine because I definitely did not grow up as part of that 80% of the world population that relies on this.
[00:06:41] I did not grow up knowing that plants could be used as medicine. I loved nature. I loved bugs. I loved letting the ants crawl all over me when I was little. I called them my friends, I loved chewing on sour grass and learning the names of trees from my grandparents and my Uncle Mark because this is just something that has always called to me.
[00:07:05] I think the plants are always calling to all of us. It's just a matter of listening and noticing. So, I shared a little bit in previous episodes about how I moved to the Redwoods when I was 20. I was having a hard time deciding what I wanted to study in college, I was really struggling with my health, and I just felt lost.
[00:07:29] But one day I was at a local coffee shop and I saw this little lavender flyer, I think while I was waiting in line for the bathroom, and it was just this beautifully, you know, really simple, hand-drawn, purple flyer pinned to this bulletin board, and it was advertising for, I believe it was an eight-week course called Beginning with Herbs, and this course was taught at the Dandelion Herb Center with Jane Bothwell, who I was so unbelievably lucky to have as And I one of my first teachers.
[00:08:05] So beyond blessed, so grateful to Jane. And I, I essentially saw this flyer and, you know, thought to myself like, plants is medicine. What? That can't be real. That sounds way too good to be true. Because here I was with constant stomach aches and so much pain all the time, but I had no idea or any, no way of describing it as such.
[00:08:33] I was struggling with fatigue, with brain fog, with anxiety, with all of these things, but I had no language for what I was experiencing and I certainly had no tools for learning how to cope with them. At this point, I was a couple of years into really digging deep with holistic nutrition, but I still had really just scratched the surface.
[00:08:55] So I just remember looking at this is
[00:08:58] This is too good to be true. This can't be real, but something about it just spoke to me, and I signed up, I took the class, it was this awesome in-person class at a local apothecary, and each week we focused on a different form of herbal medicine, so one week we focused on teas, another week oils and salves, another week tinctures and this is kind of the format a lot of beginner herb courses take, but it was so hands-on. Jane was such a brilliant teacher, and here we were in this beautiful apothecary surrounded by these jars of colorful dried plants, and it just opened a whole new world to me, because previously this was like something that I had maybe read about in a fantasy novel, right?
[00:09:53] I didn't think this was real. I didn't know this was real, because so many of us are completely disconnected from our heritage, from the traditions of our culture and of our ancestors. Something that our ancestors would have once done out of necessity. We no longer do if we don't have to. And even if we really still do need these things, we no longer know about them.
[00:10:17] We no longer know how to use them. And there's a reason for this. We're gonna dive into the Flexner Report on another episode because I'm very passionate about this, and there are some brilliant people who have broken down the problematic elements of the Flexner Report, but ultimately, the reason why herbal medicine is no longer popular or common knowledge is rooted in white supremacy and the patriarchy.
[00:10:47] Because anyone who didn't conform to the kind of dogma that surrounded the evolution of modern medicine, especially in the early 1900s was ousted. Women healers were punished. People of color, especially indigenous peoples here in the States were punished. Their voices were silenced.
[00:11:16] Their languages were banned. We still see the effects of this happening today. And so herbal medicine is intertwined with both social justice and climate justice because these two things are completely linked and we cannot separate them. The reason why we don't know about herbal medicine is for all of these reasons.
[00:11:41] We've all been kind of really, in a way, gaslit. Invalidated and dismissed when it comes to this kind of knowledge. We, say things like, “oh, that's woo woo”, or, “oh, that's alternative”, right? This isn't alternative medicine. This is the original medicine. This is traditional medicine. This is where all medicine comes from.
[00:12:05] This is where around 40% of pharmaceuticals are derived from. And when pharmaceutical companies want to create a novel medication, where do they look? They often look to Materia Medica's which are old, old medicine books compiling lists of plants and how they're used. They look to these plants to figure out what the active constituent is in this plant that makes it have the desired effect.
[00:12:32] And it never is just one compound, but we live in a very reductionistic culture, and that's how we like to learn. We like to divide things into parts, but you really can't do that with plants. That's kind of the magic of them. So one of the most popular examples, and you may have heard this before, is with aspirin.
[00:12:51] So aspirin, the name comes from Spirea. That used to be the botanical genus name for Meadowsweet, which now the name has changed. Meadowsweet, like Willow and a few other plants, contains salicylate groups. Salicylates are a group of a specific type of chemical compound. Salicylic acid [as aspirin or in NSAIDS] is the refined, singular, synthetic copy or version of that same compound that you can derive from Willow or from Meadowsweet.
[00:13:25] Originally it was found, I even have to catch my language there, meaning originally it was discovered in a modern science container, of discovering this one singular compound or this compound group where they could distill it down and then make it into aspirin.
[00:13:48] But originally, many peoples and cultures, like, indigenous peoples and people all over the globe, because willow grows everywhere, used this. For pain, for arthritic pain, for inflammation, interestingly for like stomach ulcers, ulcers in the GI, which if you know, that's one of the common side effects with NSAIDs, like aspirin or ibuprofen, is it can cause stomach ulcers, especially if taken on an empty stomach.
[00:14:19] But that's salicylic acid when it's isolated. When you have salicylate groups in Willow bark or in Meadowsweet, it behaves completely differently. And while it still can be used for the same kinds of issues like aches and pains, it also is used for ulcers and can be really helpful for those. And so this is, the point of this is we can't ever distill a singular compound down from a plant and say, this is the compound that makes this plant medicinal, or this is what makes the plant do what it does.
[00:14:52] It plays a part, but it's not the whole picture. And we kind of do this with everything, right? So aspirin is one example. Cannabis is another example, right? So we think, “Oh, THC, that's the psychoactive component. That's the one we care about.” But then a couple of years later, we say, “Well, actually, CBD, that's the one we care about.”
[00:15:11] And then now we're saying, “Oh, well, wait, it's CBG.” You get the picture here. It's never about one. We do the same thing with food, right? For several decades, fat was the bad guy. Then the next thing is carbs are the bad guys. That's just silly. It's oversimplifying things.
[00:15:34] The truth is, we're chemically complex. We're biochemical, bioelectrical organisms, and plants are chemically complex. That's just how it works. We live in a world where we're interacting with the living environment at all times, and we have gotten to a point in our society and in our culture where we have become so separate.
[00:16:02] We have completely disconnected from our heritage, and we have lost sight of these things that really make us who we are, that put us within the context and the frame of how we got here, and how we play a role in our ecosystems. As you know, if you have been following me for any amount of time on instagram or have listened to the other episodes of the show, this is something I'm really passionate about because we're a direct reflection of the ecosystems we have inhabit in so many different ways.
[00:16:38] And I am just so excited to talk about this more. Ultimately, plant medicine is one area we can really see how this plays out and interestingly, this has herbal medicine becoming more and more popular here in the States and becoming more accepted and widely acknowledged in modern medicine.
[00:17:02] There are some problematic elements to what's happening because we live in a culture where white voices in particular are heard the most above all. Male voices are heard the most above all. You see this reflected in a lot of the literature and the research. I've had the privilege of studying herbal medicine both in herb school as well as in my career working in an apothecary and on a farm and teaching at a preschool and in other fun settings.
[00:17:35] In graduate school, it has become, more apparent than ever, how when we look at medical research, when we look through databases, when we look to reference books and, and look at the research, we see a lot of these problematic elements coming into play. I remember a while back reading a monograph on Kava.
[00:18:01] And Kava is a plant that there's all kinds of controversy around, but the line in the introduction, you know, the little snippet in the book basically said something along the lines of, “Kava is indigenous to the Pacific Islands and was traditionally used in medicine by Pacific Islanders in ceremony and in these different ways.”
[00:18:31] And then the next sentence went something like, “it was first discovered by, insert this white guy, in 1816”, or whatever the year was. That's the kind of languaging that is so problematic. That person did not discover it, they were just the first person to bring it into the awareness of other white people, but they didn't discover it by any means.
[00:18:56] And I think when we recognize these kinds of narratives and we see how these narratives are internalized in our own minds, we see how this plays out in working with herbal medicine today. I want to share a little story of a way that this played out for me personally. You may have heard of a plant called Echinacea.
[00:19:19] Echinacea is this gorgeous pink-purple coneflower that is indigenous here in North America. And it is very commonly used as an immune tonic. It has immune stimulating properties and can boost the production of different white blood cells and improve immune activity, it can help your body fight off infection, and it also has antimicrobial properties.
[00:19:43] It has really interesting chemistry that varies a little bit depending on the species, as well as depending on the part of the plant that you're using. For example, the flowers of echinacea tend to be a bit more immune-modulating or regulating as kind of a long-term tonic, while the roots tend to be slightly more stimulating.
[00:20:06] But as a whole, overall, it can be used as an immune tonic or worked with as such. And there is some theoretical concern, theoretical mind you, in modern scientific literature, that there was a case report of someone with MS that went into a flare because Echinacea was too stimulating to this person's immune system and it caused a flare of their MS.
[00:20:33] As someone who didn't yet have a diagnosis, I avoided using Echinacea throughout my 20s. I guess at that point I did have the celiac diagnosis, but I wasn't really sure if my issues were autoimmune. I had been gluten-free for years and years at that point, but I was still having so many issues, so I was not going to use Echinacea because I wanted to be safe.
[00:20:56] Despite my teachers, like Jane and Rosemary and so many other brilliant women I knew, who were herbalists saying “this is really safe, we've never seen a case of this actually happen where someone had an autoimmune flare triggered by using Echinacea, this is safe to use for everyone on a daily basis as an immune tonic…”
[00:21:20] And I'm generalizing here, of course, because there are people with allergies to the Aster or Ragweed family. But as a general rule, no one had ever seen a case of someone having this kind of over immune stimulation happen as a result of taking Echinacea. And, as you've probably seen, if you shop at any kind of natural health food store, that there are cough lozenges with Echinacea in them, there's tinctures with Echinacea, there's all kinds of echinacea products, especially post-pandemic.
[00:21:48] So I was just trying to be safe and I avoided it because I wanted to be a good little scientist and follow this theoretical concern. So even though my teachers and the indigenous traditions said this plant was actually perfectly safe and indicated for me, I was too scared to take it.
[00:22:14] Finally, after years and years and years, when I was really ill with lyme, I finally gave in and started taking a tincture of Echinacea every day. Specifically Echinacea angustifolia, which is significant for a reason I'll share in just a moment. So I started working with Echinacea and taking it every day, and I am not exaggerating, within about two days…
[00:22:42] My joint pain went down so drastically I was able to go horseback ride for the first time in months. Not pain-free, but the pain reduced in my joints so much that I was able to go horseback ride for the first time in months. It was amazing. And it just was such a good lesson for me that indigenous wisdom always comes first.
[00:23:07] That was my takeaway from this. Indigenous wisdom, the people who worked with this plant for thousands, thousands of years, know best. Truly. The herbalists who have worked with this plant for decades, with their family, with their friends, and in a clinical setting, know best. Not the theoretical concern, not the researchers who aren't actually practicing.
[00:23:37] I'm not saying that I don't value research. Research is important. A really, really important part of the picture. I do not subscribe to the belief that we have to pick and choose. I think traditional and conventional medicine, traditional, meaning holistic herbal medicines, traditions that have been around for thousands of years…
[00:23:59] We deserve that just as much as we deserve modern pharmaceuticals and modern interventions that are deeply, deeply needed. They're both deeply needed, they're both important, they're both valid, and we deserve both. But the lesson from this for me was not to get swept away by the science or the scientific research, because the scientific research is changing all the time, right?
[00:24:22] And there is actually way, way more research into plant medicines than I think people realize. This is something that people have been looking at for quite a long time, and you would be surprised by the amount of literature that already exists, but it can't supersede, in my mind, the thousands of years of experience that people had working with these plants firsthand.
[00:24:46] They knew what they were doing. They knew. And this was such an important lesson for me to recognize my own internalized bias that modern research, modern researchers, modern people, and the predominantly white narrative is more powerful or more important or more knowledgeable, because it's not, that's not true.
[00:25:18] And this was a really important moment for me to recognize that. And furthermore, with Echinacea, there's actually a little bit more fun and interesting information behind this. I hope I'm not getting way too deep into the science in this episode. If I am and this isn't your jam, I apologize.
[00:25:42] I promise you herbal medicine can actually be quite simple, so this will be my last science piece, and then we'll talk a little bit more simply about herbal medicine before wrapping up. The other piece that I thought was really interesting with this was, when I very first discovered what Echinacea was, I was really excited to talk to my grandparents about it, because it is native to the lands where my grandparents lived.
[00:26:08] My grandparents live in Northeastern Oklahoma in the foothills of the Ozarks, and the foothills are what we would call in permaculture, an edge. It's where the Ozark mountains meet the plains. And so they live in this really unique edge, and specifically in the plains, you will see an abundance of Echinacea.
[00:26:33] An abundance. I have never seen Echinacea grow so thick and prolific as I have seen it grow there in the grasslands. And when I first asked them about it, they didn't know it by the name of Echinacea. This is why scientific names are so important, but they did know it by the name of Snakeroot or Purple Coneflower.
[00:26:54] And I thought for years that this name Snakeroot just came from the fact that Echinacea grew a taproot. A taproot that takes three years to grow before it's harvestable for making medicine, on a commercial scale, which is interesting and tells you why plants are valued the way they're valued, because it takes time to grow them.
[00:27:15] So my granddad always called it Snakeroot. I can hear him saying it now. One of the really interesting properties of Echinacea, again, that indigenous peoples across the United States utilized Echinacea for, was snake bites. And you might think, well, that's not useful to me, I would never use Echinacea on a snake bite.
[00:27:41] I would just call 911, go to the hospital, and get treatment, right? I would do the same thing, but I still think this is really interesting. Maybe if you were out in the backcountry, having something like this in your first aid kit could save your life until you could get prompt conventional medical care.
[00:27:59] I don't know because I've never done it. But here's the interesting thing. Echinacea roots, specifically the roots of Echinacea angustifolia, have what's called hyaluronidase-inhibiting properties. Hyaluronidase is an enzyme that basically breaks down connective tissues. It breaks down the intracellular spaces, the spaces between our cells, and allows bacteria, like the bacteria that cause lyme disease, as well as snake venom, to penetrate between cells into tissues and to make it into the bloodstream where they can then circulate throughout the body.
[00:28:40] The roots of Echinacea inhibit this enzyme. So while indigenous peoples knew how to use it in this way and did use it in this way, modern research showed there were these hyaluronidase-inhibiting properties and we got this whole picture understanding of why they worked with it in that way and why it was effective in that way.
[00:29:05] How effective it is, the extent of that, I don't know. But I think it’s really fascinating. And there are so many other instances of this. If there's anything I've learned practicing and being a lifelong student of herbal medicine, it's that wherever the plant is native to, the people who are native to that place know best about how to work with the plant.
[00:29:28] And in my opinion, at its best, research corroborates and elucidates on those original uses and, brings them to light. Why they were worked with in that way and what they might be doing. I'm sure it can do more than this, but this is the beautiful thing when we merge ancient wisdom and indigenous science with modern science. So I will leave that there.
[00:29:53] I'll try not to talk too much more about the scientific aspect because I know that was kind of a lot and if you don't have a chemistry background you might have found some of that a little bit confusing, but ultimately just know we're all chemical beings, and, everything, every feeling, every experience, every moment of our day is represented on some level in our bodies chemically.
[00:30:19] And plants are full of phytochemicals. And that’s just on one level. Plants are actually so much more than that. We are so much more than that, but that's, I think, the easiest way for most people in our culture to understand how and why these plants work and are so effective. Again, this is greatly simplifying it.
[00:30:42] There is definitely a lot more to plants than just their chemistry. I think it's really beautiful when we can actually see this, because in the same way our bodies are a reflection of the ecosystems we inhabit, I think plants often do the same things in the landscape as they do in our bodies.
[00:31:02] An example of that is Yerba Mansa, which is native here in the southwest, specifically to riparian or wetland habitats. It grows along creeks and under Cottonwoods which are actually, highly endangered habitats here in the southwest due to desertification and urban spread and urban crawl.
[00:31:25] Yerba Mansa, interestingly, works with the movement of water and lives along these waterways in its natural habitat. And in the same way, Yerba Mansa works with the water in our bodies. Yerba Mansa is traditionally used to help promote lymphatic flow, movement of lymph fluid, as well as to promote movement of mucus within the respiratory system and to really help with excess congestion and stuffiness, especially when there is an infection present.
[00:31:56] So, all this to say, there is a beautiful reciprocity, a mirroring of the way that we interact with plants and the way that plants interact with the environment. We're all in this together, and we always have been. We never existed without plants. I know in this episode I went a little bit deep into the science.
[00:32:27] Again, I'm sorry if that was over your head at all. But hopefully, you learned something from this and you were able to draw a little bit of wisdom about how plants work, why herbal medicine is a completely valid form of medicine, and why it's been around for such a long time. We've never existed without it.
[00:32:48] I think that we can get really technical with herbal medicine. I know it. I do it myself all the time. And there are people who go way, way more into the science than I do. And there are people who go way less into the science than I do. It is all valid. Herbal medicine can be as simple as making a cup of tea with ginger and lemon.
[00:33:12] It can be as simple as sitting beneath a Sycamore tree and speaking to it, or walking through the forest and breathing in all the medicine offered up by the Pine and Spruce and other trees. It can be using a castor oil pack or a Ginger poultice. It can be using Onions over your ears to help ward off an ear infection.
[00:33:41] There are so many folk traditions like making fire cider, herbal bitters, and elderberry syrup, that have been around for such a long time. And these are all valid forms of herbal medicine. We're going to go so much more into this in the podcast because I really want you to walk away feeling like you know how to make these medicines, how to do these things at home in a way that's super easy. How to slap some Yarrow powder directly onto a little cut to stop the bleeding instantly.
[00:34:20] These things are amazing. How to grow Chamomile in a pot on your balcony so that you can harvest the flowers and dry them or drink them fresh in Chamomile tea. Herbal medicine can be so simple and so accessible. Because ultimately it is by everyone, it belongs to everyone, and it is for everyone. And the plants are always speaking to us.
[00:34:46] I have seen this over and over again with my clients, with family, with friends, and with myself. When I was super sick with lyme disease and I didn't know it, I was surrounded by Teasel, which is one of the main antimicrobial plants herbalists use to work with lyme. I had no idea. I just knew that I was super drawn to that plant.
[00:35:06] When another beloved person I know was struggling with a really bad viral infection, they accidentally planted Lemon Balm in their garden instead of Mint. Lemon balm happens to be a potent antiviral, especially for viruses in the Herpesviridae family, like cold sores, chicken pox, and shingles.
[00:35:29] These things don't happen by accident. Another beloved person I know lives with interstitial cystitis, which is an autoimmune condition, and without realizing it they planted Oregon Grape, Hydrangea, and some other plants in their garden that when put together are a classic interstitial cystitis formula.
[00:35:49] These things don't happen by accident. They happen because we live in a living world that is interacting with us and speaking to us all the time. The plants are speaking to you. So, a little bit of homework for you today, or a little takeaway… I want you to ask yourself, to start paying attention, looking at the environment around you, and asking, “what plants are calling to me?”
[00:36:18] What stands out to me? Is it the sunflower? Sunflower bouquet from a local farm sitting at the farmer's market? Is it the chamomile tea sitting in the tea aisle that just looks really appealing for some reason? Maybe it's that fresh mint in the produce section of the market. Whatever it is, lean into it.
[00:36:44] Get curious about it. Maybe if there's not a plant that feels like it's specifically calling to you or you don't feel quite tapped into that yet, instead, you can look into either the native lands that you're inhabiting, look at what plants are native to your area and how you might be able to work with them, or you can explore plants that belong to your heritage, your culture.
[00:37:14] Find out what plants people in your culture traditionally work with as medicine. Did they make a specific type of syrup for illness, or is there something that they included in their breakfast gruel, or in their broth, or in their curry, or in some other [traditional] dish? I promise you wherever you're from, there are plants that your people worked with.
[00:37:40] In fact, there are probably a lot of plants that your people worked with. Lean into that and explore. See if there's a plant calling to you. See if there's a specific dish that's calling to you, or a certain recipe that's calling to you, and try it. And let me know, reach out to me, DM me on instagram, email me, and let me know what you tried, what's calling to you, and how you feel it impacted you.
[00:38:05] Ultimately, this podcast is rooted in the intention to help you feel empowered, embodied, and connected to yourself. to your body, your community, your culture, your heritage, your local ecosystems, and the world at large. When we remember and reconnect, when we begin to work with our bodies and nature, healing becomes inevitable.
[00:38:29] The journey to healing is a mutualistic endeavor, and I am so grateful that you're here again, in episode three, walking the path with me. If you're living with lyme or chronic illness and you feel ready to take your power back, begin healing, reconnect to yourself and nature, and to find your shine again, subscribe to the pod, leave me a review, and head to the show notes to access my website, to get access to a whole bunch more resources, to sign up for my newsletter, and to book a call with me.
[00:39:03] Remember, our bodies are a direct reflection of the ecosystems we inhabit, and just like this earth, our bodies know how to heal.