Do you Trust Your Body?
What if your body is your best friend and your compass?
Every body is different, and each person is the only expert on their own body.
Listening to your body is a powerful tool!
I believe this tool is essential in working with herbs.
Bodies have energetics. These energetics change with the seasons, throughout the month and even throughout the day.
The categories of energetics that I am referring to may be familiar to you. They are Hot / Cold, Dry / Damp and Tense / Lax.
Defining and teaching how to identify energetics in your body is a class in itself. In fact, there are some fabulous books and classes on this topic already available. I will share some links for you below.
After you have studied energetics, and are familiar with how they are defined, you will still find yourself, sitting with your body, asking your body to reveal to you what your energetics are.
This may feel like a very strange thing to do. In this reality, we are not often taught to listen to our body. The idea that my body is my friend, and I can trust my body may sound really odd to you.
What if that is not a problem? What if listening to your body is just a choice.
Let’s acknowledge the beauty in sitting with your body and asking it to be your compass.
What a wonderful friend your body is, to sit with you, and share the clues that guide you to an awareness of where it is thriving and where it is struggling.
What a wonderful relationship you are creating with your body when you learn to identify hot / cold, dry / damp, tense / lax feel in your body, then choose to support your body in finding balance.
Now, let’s check in with where you are today. There is no right or wrong answer here, so no stress.
Are you aware of your own body’s energetics? If yes, wonderful! Stay tuned in and acknowledge the changes that you feel as you work with herbs. Be willing to receive the clues that your body offers you and ask your body to be your compass.
Or, are you feeling hopelessly confused about your own body’s energetics? What if that’s ok? What if working with herbs is a chance to tune in with all your senses, listen to your body, notice your energetics, and let your body be your guide?
What if your body can help you choose the herbs that are the greatest contribution to you?
What if your body is aware of how much and how often it would like you to work with an herb?
What about your brain you say? By no means, am I telling you not to use your brain. The brain is wonderful at certain tasks. However, giving the brain full control over decision making for your body can exclude your body’s awareness.
What if you can choose to include your body when you make a choice? What possibilities for balance and healing might that create in your life?
If this conversation intrigues you, and you would like more tools to Trust Your Body, stay connected with me here on my Herbal Joy Substack. I will share some pragmatic and energetic tools that helped me learn to trust my body’s awareness.
My body is now my compass in my herbal practice. In fact, I am leaning into my body’s awareness more often and allowing my body to guide me in my life choices as well. My body’s joy in being in nature has guided me to my new home at the base of the mountains in the Cherokee forest. My body’s delight at the aroma and potency of herbs has inspired me to be here today as an invitation to Herbal Joy and share my love of herbs with you!
__________________________________________________________
Here are links to some of my favorite resources that I have used for studying energetics:
Rosalee De La Foret has a free online course named Herbal Jumpstart to help you discern your energetics and how to choose an herb for you.
Commonwealth Holistic Herbalism has a course named Energetics & Holistic Practice that goes more in depth and discusses the energetics of herbs, the energetics of illness and the energetics of the person.
Kat Maier is the author of a book titled Energetic Herbalism: A Guide to Sacred Plant Traditions Integrating Elements of Vitalism, Ayurveda, and Chinese Medicine