In 2012, I stepped onto the path that would leave me to where I am today. The most important lesson I learned during that time with the lesson of gratitude. Gratitude truly makes the world go round. Sometimes, the tennis balls come flying at you, and though you’re trying to hit them back or avoid them as fast as you can, you lose your strength, become exhausted, and a tiny little part of you asks why. Why am I doing this? I should just give up.
This is when gratitude comes in.
In my childhood home, we had a room called the Blue Room. The walls were not blue, but the bedspread was. I still don't understand why it was called the Blue Room. All of that notwithstanding, I don’t reminisce over the Blue Room because of the color of the walls or bedspread. Instead, I always think of all the ferns my mother filled it with.
She had quite an affection for fern plants.
One day, when I was in a Facebook live, the issue of mental health came up. Without thinking, I jumped into the conversation by saying that there is no stigma about going to the drugstore to pick up an ibuprofen, cough, cold, or flu medication.
But why is this different when related to mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression and even insomnia?
Since the last time I wrote, our whole world changed. Life is “not normal”, it will never go back to “normal”.
Health has now become a political topic instead standing on its own. People are arguing over screens about things that are out of our control. Our happy hours are now Zoom meetings and people can decide if they want to wear pajama bottoms when they go to work meetings.
On the last day of class, we finished up the custom blends we had created for our clients that week, and were tasked with using Blossoming Heart blending tools from Robbie Zeck to create a special blend for our partners.
Recently, one of my best friends told me that music was my love language. That was a very profound statement to me when I realized the truth of it. I learned that week that a big part of my self-care, the world of the week for us, was sitting in my music room listening to my records.
I can’t believe I haven’t written to you since February. I had big plans - plans about happiness, growth and love. Now it's about survival, and for me, trying to find the silver lining in this cloud we find ourselves in. See, the second week in March was huge for me, and I couldn’t wait to tell you all about it.
If one of your new year goals revolves around health, then building an herbal pharmacy is a great way to empower it! The three most common ailments we get asked about are: Sleep, Digestion, and Immunity. I choose these 12 teas because, not only are they a good foundation for the start of your apothecary, but they can also can be blended to address all three ailments, making them very multi-functional.