Another year and counting without visiting a Western medical doctor.

Despite the multiple times my family and I have had fever and vomiting, we are all alive and our immune systems are stronger. My son started preschool about 3 months ago. It’s a-mom-azing to have 6-8 hours straight in the daylight to do things. The downside is that we stayed home about half of the days, as he acquired hand-foot-mouth, multiple colds, and a few stomach bugs…

He also is extremely attractive to insects. He’s regularly covered in chigger and mosquito bites. He also likes to run naked in the tall grass, so what else should we expect.  At our house, we’ve learned to let nature take its course. We support when needed and do nothing most of the time.

Because of that, I’ve only been to a medical doctor once in the last 15 years.

My daughter has been once in 13 years.

The toddler has been once in 3 years. He fell and had a pretty significant bump on his head, no other symptoms, but I thought he might of had a hematoma or something. I’m still not sure what I expected them to do. They recommended an x-ray. I didn’t think exposure to radiation was the best solution, so we just waited for it to resolve, which it did, without incident.

What am I getting at?  I’ve spent the last 13 years learning about alternatives to the medical model. I’ve learned countless ways to understand my body, mind and health. I’m always learning, questioning and following my inner guidance. I trust that my body wants to be well.

I make it a daily and hourly practice to check in with my body, my thoughts and my feelings. I use them as my guide. I’ve discovered ways to understand them, support them and heal myself with the simplest possible remedies.  

Most involve my favorite plant allies (Agarita, Plantain, Calendula, Passionflower). I have listened to what my body wants to eat and when it wants to sleep. I’ve purposefully crafted my lifestyle to allow for these things as much as possible.  

Over the years of working with people on their health, I’ve come to understand more about stress and the feelings and thoughts that come along with stress. Because health can easily exist when you’re happy, I tend to focus on things that make me happy and help people discover their own happy place.

Most people hate to go to work every day, or have a relationship that causes constant worry or angst. It’s not that your body is working the same minutes but during that time, you aren’t focused on doing the things for you that are best. So think about it like this: You aren’t attending to your toddler at all moments. You know that he likes to get out the markers, and you maybe for-see that happening so you think to yourself, “Oh! I know what happens after this. I better put the cap back on and hide them.” But something distracts you, some stressor pulls you away and then the next time you check on your toddler, the wall is covered with marker or your favorite new outfit is completely scribbled.

Many of the patterns we see don’t always have a physical causes. But most of us can admit that we have too many things distracting us from taking preventative measures and caring for ourselves.

This is a mindset shift that took a lot of patience and reprogramming. We are taught that we don’t know what our bodies need. Also many of use in US don’t have access to the actual things that can help us heal quickly, like whole, fresh vegetables and fruits, clean water, herbal medicine and supplements.

Many of us don’t have access, but most of us don’t have knowledge and understanding of how these “ingredients” support our health. We believe that we all get sick and our bodies naturally have aches and pains. We believe that it’s a “part of life”. Sure, aches and pains are going to happen, but instead of assuming that they just get worse, we can find out what they don’t want us to know. What are we doing in our lives that’s creating this pain?

It’s not always an easy question. But after we ask it a few times, we start catching it earlier and before you know it, this discovery process has a life of its own.

We can use our herbal allies to help us get back to balance. We can use our own bodies to naturally guide us there. It just take a little practice. I’ve created a simple 21 Day Immersion that you can follow to get you started on  your own path to empowerment, health and happiness.

We can all dive deeper into what is holding us back and begin to shift. These steps help you shine a light on your health. I take this process further in the Mind-Body Connection Course.