A few days of digital detoxing and time in the backcountry is such potent medicine for recentering the nervous system, heart and soul. This backpacking trip with my dad, me at 33 and he at 66 will be a precious memory. . I’m grateful to have found HOME in trekking through wild nature as a young girl; my first trip I believe I was 8 or 9, and it so deeply shaped who I am, what I value most, and even the feeling and brilliance I would seek and find in my soulmate one day, that romance, wisdom, depth of heart and grounding. Though I find it often takes atleast 10days to really begin resetting my mind and nerves, even short escapes are so worthwhile. It’s incredible how stepping onto the trail, no cell or WiFi pull, no endless email lists and things we ‘should/need’ to do, no distractions but observing nature or catching up on that delicious book you’ve been wanting to read, all the busyness just melts away and clarifies what’s really most important and nourishing. The body responds with healing, the breath deepens, the heart beat slows and steadies, your nerves settle and say ahhh. . Ahhh it’s so good. I’m thirsty for more but content with these few crystal glacial sips. There’s some kind of great empowering, healing and soothing soul juice that comes from simplicity, nature immersion, carrying everything you truly need to survive and Be you without the excess. I think it’s found in the getting dirty, in carrying heavy weight, climbing mountains, surrendering to icy waters, warmth in the cold, making do and simple gratitudes, looking disheveled and beings so f’ing happy and alive, sleeping on hard earth and waking to the stars, sore hips and aching shoulders, the blissful quiet moments and the orchestra of night, the feeling a part of the ecosystem and making offerings with your quiet presence, reverence, love, and even treasured ashes. Ah breathe, that’s how I can call it back and find home again and again, until next time.
I’ll be unplugged for the next 6 days while backpacking with my dad and dags. See you on the other side of silence.🌲👩‍🌾🐕🐕👨🏻‍🌾🌲 Thanks for the sweet pic of Blue @roseroisum
In this growing trend of legalized cannabis and CBD everything, know that it is not all created equal despite coming from this potent medicinal plant. Cannabis/hemp is a bioaccumulator and thus pulls pesticides and other contaminants out of the environment and into its body, if we then concentrate that, and process it in ways that involve chemicals and/or don’t remove all chemicals, mold, etc. and then it’s manufactured with other non-organic ingredients, and not to mention put in plastic containers, let’s just say it’s not a recipe for healing support. Look for brands where education is primary, where they’re proud to say where their ingredients and plants come from, super bonus if it’s a regenerative farm, all ingredients are organic and plant based, no chemicals ever, ideally broad or full spectrum, manufactured in a GMP certified facility with third party testing, they make their current Certificate Of Analysis easily accessible and you can see they’ve tested for and are clear of contaminants, and bonus if they’re sustainably minded in their packaging. I guarantee there are less than a handful amidst the thousands out there that meet even some of these parameters.
Beyond organic, beyond sustainable, can we become REGENERATIVE to the soil beneath our feet and the ecosystems that sustain life, including our own? Through Big Ag and mono cropping, we’ve lost so much of our vital topsoil, which captures water (instead of evaporating or sliding off) and slowly filters it down to the roots, resisting droughts, restoring nutrients and life, and even capturing carbon from the atmosphere to sequester it back into the earth. Building soil with compost teas and doing companion planting for instance, further enriches soil and builds a thriving ecosystem of diversity, discarding the needs for chemicals, attracting and feeding pollinators and other life, enriching nutrient and terpene diversity and thus enhancing its medicinal profile and life giving capacity from soil, to roots, to leaf to flower to those that consume these parts. It’s a cycle of regeneration, of inviting in diversity as diversity is life, and honoring death as death is compost for life. . In this growing trend of legalized cannabis and CBD everything, know that it is not all created equal despite coming from this potent medicinal plant. Cannabis/hemp is a bioaccumulator and thus pulls pesticides and other contaminants out of the environment and into its body, if we then concentrate that, and process it in ways that involve chemicals and/or don’t remove all chemicals, mold, etc. and then it’s manufactured with other non-organic ingredients, and not to mention put in plastic containers, let’s just say it’s not a recipe for healing support. Look for brands where education is primary, where they’re proud to say where their ingredients and plants come from, super bonus if it’s a regenerative farm, all ingredients are organic and plant based, no chemicals ever, ideally broad or full spectrum, manufactured in a GMP certified facility with third party testing, they make their current Certificate Of Analysis easily accessible and you can see they’ve tested for and are clear of contaminants, and bonus if they’re sustainably minded in their packaging. I guarantee there are less than a handful amidst the thousands out there that meet even some of these parameters.
WEllness::: Coming back from our time up north with our favorite regenerative farmers, listening to indigenous and earth conscious thought leaders, and in leu of climate week and miss @gretathunberg , what keeps reverberating through me is that the conversation of WELLNESS must move BEYOND OUR sole SELVES to the greater ecosystem. Our culture, social media, advertisements, and yes even the diet and ‘wellness’ industry can feed ON our ego and vulnerabilities, and lead us to continuously serve the system of consumerism, green washed luxury items, and ‘never enoughness’, leading us to feel ever hungry. I hear it often with my clients, this disconnect with our body, intuition, nature. I find that the only way out is truly IN, in dropping in to feel and breathe in what’s there, without judgement and with loving reflection, more space, more living foods, less stuff, even the latest CBD infused bottled water. Indigenous shamans work to heal individuals by healing the relationship between the individual and the community and between the community and the more than human beings and earth. How can we look to our relationship with ourself, and our relationship with the natural world, as our medicine? I say this all just to hopefully light a spark, to ignite a conversation and confidence within, to tune into your heart and your agency, your beauty, the vast wisdom and strength of your body always working FOR you..despite what it may feel like sometimes. The conversation is beyond what diet you ‘should’ be on to lose weight, or what superfood powders will make your skin glow, and more about coming back to yourself, your simple needs for presence and nourishment, your quality of life in deeper terms, what do you need to die and compost back into food for your soil and soul, how can and will you boldly reunite with your wild within and without, and how will you be smarter than the marketing and tune into what works for you and the ecosystem of the living.