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I teach, a lot. Life as a teacher essentially means being on stage, most of the time. My students and my clients have images of me in their minds, and I’m quite certain that those images are better than what I really am, or that they are taking their image of my Best Self and imagining that it is my Everyday Self.

I am not, by nature, a graceful person. I have a loud, big personality. I think faster than my second thoughts (those thoughts that say, “you probably shouldn’t say that out loud”) can keep up with. I am long and gangly, and a little clumsy. All of my life, even as a very young child, I have known that to be graceful in every situation was The Right Answer, and I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of energy trying to learn to appear to be graceful, with varying degrees of success. I can remember saying that I would know I was grown up when I became graceful. It turns out, “grace” doesn’t quite work like that.

. . . continue reading The Beauty of Imperfection and a Tea for Gracelessness »

Eliminating food allergens from the diet can bring substantial relief from inflammatory gastrointestinal disorders such as IBS, Crohn’s disease, and celiac. These ill-tolerated foods – the gluten in wheat and other grains, the casein and lactose in dairy, and others – can initiate destructive processes that irritate the stomach lining, compromise the intestinal wall, and disrupt the balance of the microorganism ecology in the colon. Removing them is an essential step in recovering healthy digestion.

Sometimes, though, the elimination of these foods isn’t enough to completely resolve serious health problems. Leaky gut syndrome, for instance, can persist long after all known food allergens have been removed from the diet, and prevent the sufferer from returning to full vitality. Fortunately, there are a number of readily available herbs that can speed the process of recovery. These plants can help to soothe inflammation, repair damaged tissues, and improve digestive function. 

We are a culture of More.
We like words like SuperSize, Maximize, and Fullest Potential.
We like, whether we admit it or not, concepts like Planned Obsolescence, because it allows for words like New, Shiny, Improved, and of course, Shopping.
We believe things like “You can never be too rich, or too thin”.
We, as a culture, have turned “for a rainy day” into the fine art of Stockpiling. Extra of our Extra, for a just in case several steps after just in case.

We are not enamored of the word Enough. It reminds us of words like Sacrifice, as well as Old and Used, none of which are terribly popular. Enough implies concepts like Making Do, and Less, which are in direct conflict with More. Enough makes us think we’re Settling, and of course we all were taught in school that you Never Settle for Second Best.

Words are pretty amazing things. We can use them to make people feel good about themselves, or awful. We can use them to bring people together, or to divide. The way we speak when we’re working with people – regardless of profession – says a lot about not only what we think of our position but also what we think about the people we’re working with.

There is a lot of debate in the herbal community right now about “professionalism”, and one of the things being talked about is how to “sound” professional. A lot is being made about using the same vocabulary that doctors use, because that would be more “professional”. In my practice, I avoid medical jargon as much as possible – even when I’m teaching for the pharmacy schools.