Moving into my own practice has allowed me the freedom to take time to do some learning this summer about topics that are deeply meaningful to me. Being able to fill up my cup and explore my curiosity in this way allows me to continue growing on my personal path and as a therapist. This is a blessing that I am so grateful for and appreciative of my clients, who are always so lovely when I inform them I will be out of the office. Thank you for your encouragement!
I started the summer by taking a course diving deeper into the healing work of sobada traditional and most recently attended an herb confluence in Colorado. These teachings are ones that I am naturally called to, and as everything is connected, I find that there are always some nuggets that I come across or experience I have that I think about in my work that involves the human experience.
I wanted to take a minute to reflect on some things that I noticed...
The words we use matter.
At the herb confluence, I noticed that herbalists call the plants the most loving (and sometimes humorous) names. For instance, Tulsi, a type of basil, is sometimes referred to as “the incomparable one.” My immediate thought was, "What a reverential name!" This caused me to wonder—what would it look like if we viewed all of nature in this way and were “impeccable with our word” (shout out Don Miguel Ruiz) about how we talked to her? What if we carried this over to the way we talked about our bodies—women, mothers, men, our partners? How might this shift the way we treat them?
Herbalist Kyle Denton, another teacher at our confluence, spoke on the podcast Herb Rally about practicing saying "I work with this herb" for XYZ rather than "I use this herb." What a small yet powerful shift semantics can make.
What does it mean to be in the “right relationship”?
In many of the classes I took, the herbalists talked about how building a relationship with the plants is step #1. When diving deeper into the work of Ash Ritter, who was also a teacher at our confluence, I came across a podcast where she spoke about her practice of wild harvesting. She stated that she advises her students prior to harvesting to observe the plants for a year to notice things such as what kinds of animals rely on them, if they have the ability to give to a harvest based on how much they produce, and notice how they respond to human interaction.
I wonder what it would look like if we applied this same patience and respect to all of the things we interact with, including ourselves. Imagine if we took several months to just notice how our body responds to another person, a certain food, or being in a certain environment.
There are so many learnings that I'm still integrating, and I am sure I will continue to in different ways in the years to come. These are just a few that stood out to me. I wonder what your relationship with something has taught you about your relationship with other things or people in your own life.
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