Oh, you guys!!! Not only do you write good QUESTIONS, you write fabulous answers. To enter for the second week, please find the original post here - YOU MUST drop your link under that post or this one or I will likely lose it!
We've learnt so much about each other during this challenge, and it's fabulous to see you being so inspired by the prompts to tell us about your personal stories. The more we learn about each other, the better we are together, having more empathy and understanding about each other's lives.
Everybody has a story. When we don't take the time to know someone's story, or worse, create our own version of it, we lose the chance to understand what they need, which is the first step to empathy - Jon Acuff.
I started Natural Medicine for the stories. Of course, I wanted to help share financial abundance, but that was secondary to me - it was stories that I wanted to hear. So in many ways, this is the challenge I've been waiting for. I've much preferred these posts to some of the more dry, scientific ones - but that's just me. I know others prefer the facts and data - it takes all of us to make this community great!
The Stories
If you didn't catch all the posts, you might like to read this re-cap.
In order for us to heal fully, we need to explore every aspect of who we are and how we live! Taking into account all aspects of our life. That way we get a holistic view and can provide holistic treatment. Just as we are complex beings, so too are the plants that we use to heal ourselves. They work on so many different levels, which is exactly what we need when we wish to heal.
She talks a lot about the natural world and how it provides us with all that we need. It might take time, she adds, but:
With true healing, we develop a greater understanding about ourselves. Just as we travel deep to connect with the root of our illness , we travel deep and connect also with ourselves. When you choose to treat yourself naturally, you are choosing to take responsibility for your own well being. The natural path, is one that encompasses all aspects of your life, as time and time again it proves how everything is connected!.
I first got interested in natural medicine when i was growing up, because my mother was very spiritually involved in practices like yoga and meditation, and she would talk to us kids about it at home. It started with talking about auras and energetic forces, learning about the nature of being, our interconnectivity with the planet. I developed an interest in nature the more I grew up, and my interest in philosophy, the nature of being and geography grew to the point that I majored in earth sciences at university.
But like Aishlynn, one of the most important lessons has been our 'connectivity to our environment.' Concern about our undermining of the natural world caused him to reflect that:
Therefore, our of faith in the natural world and the intelligence that underlines it, we should definitely do everything in our power not to perturb the natural hierarchy. Because if we do, we are breaking a chain that is much more valuable than we think, even if we believe we are not a part of that chain, when actually we are. A chain is linked together, and the strength of the chain is only as strong as its weakest link. So, if we will continue to cure illness with medicines that are too extreme for the situation like antibiotics, without taking into consideration the position of bacteria in the bigger picture, not only in our bodies but also as a central part of life on earth, we may be taking evolution for a ride where it wasn’t necessarily meant to go. In any case, i have seen many documentaries about natural medicine on Youtube, and it goes without saying that the indiginous people living as close to nature as possible have very low levels of illness. This may be because they are more active, have stronger immune systems, or use natural medicines derived from their knowledge of the plant kingdom, or maybe all of the above. There are pros and cons to any way of life, that is for sure, but why must we sacrifice one for the other? Wouldn't it be best to identify the best of each world, and find a way to make it available for all? Who knows, but even in an age of the internet, I still feel that there is so much disconnection. Between people, between nature and humans, between culture and practice. I hope we will find a way to connect on a more meaningful level.
Meditation makes me fly, it makes me travel and find peace with my inner Self. It is a practice that everyone can do and I have always recommended it when someone is under those negative emotions that we all once went through. To meditate is to meet your inner self, with that stripping of the ego and that natural vibration of the soul. Meditating helps you reach that control in the mind and reach a state of peace that cannot be compared with anything, you reach that state of full consciousness that your mind needs.
I was induced into bleeding through hormonal injections and then put on a contraceptive pill. During that time I gained a lot of weight, I was very moody and experienced severe emotional ups and downs, but was always explained away as teenage years. What followed was a number of years of changing and playing with contraceptives by several doctors, changing the dosage, the type and so on. My weight got somehow in check. My mood maybe as well. But I was never really feeling well, always experiencing side-effects and not able to be in touch fully with my womanhood.
Seeing a very talented homepath enabled her to see pain differently: 'When I experience pain, I don't take a pain killer - I dance with the pain, I converse with it, I move the energy differently.', shifting away from pharmaceuticals into a more natural healing journey.
I first became aware of the erroneous nature of many mainstream health / medical practices when I suffered severe back pain while playing baseball growing up. I would bounce from doctor to doctor and they could not (or would not) help me. They would tell me to ice and rest and it would continue to persist. One day my parents got me into a chiropractor who fixed the issue permanently in ten minutes without an adjustment. All he did was show me some simple stretches! I did what he told me to and the back pain went away, never to return even though I am now 35. At that point I realized that there were so many different ways to fix human problems and I made it a point to get to the heart of how the body works. That led me to a four year degree in exercise science and sports nutrition.
I definitely loved this message about what he learnt on the way:
100% it is to always be open minded, resist boundaries, question everything including your deepest held beliefs and question all authority.So much of what we are "taught" (programmed to think) come from people that we've never even heard of (Edward Bernays). We get programmed very early on. We think we are thinking our own thoughts but mostly we are just regurgitating what other people told us to think. We become mental robots.Breaking this trend is taking the red pill and creating our own reality. Breaking mental chains empowers us. Just like when I was younger and doctors told me I'd just have to deal with back pain for life, and then the chiropractor fixed me in minutes...my how things can change in a hurry!Learning that we have nearly limitless possibility and potential is definitely the most important thing that I have learned.
In this post 
Phytopharmacology and agroecology go beyond a one-dimensional view of the systems or niches of functioning, since from my point of view they encompass a more spiritual and humanistic vision that can provide a harmonious understanding to educate a society with roles that respect our natural mother, I think this goes beyond these superficial hypotheses, because I believe in the real balance of the crops, with the soil, the sunlight, and with the rest of the existing organisms in their environment, and this conception is very deep-rooted in my being, because it prevails in my day-to-day life, to the point of practicing it at home by means of the organic cultivation of species of medicinal interest.
I loved his 'scientific' approach to his personal story, even with this photograph and caption of him and his daughter!
It was really funny when 
It's been a gradual adjustment but by now, I have such a different lifestyle compared to how I used to live. Before I started to practice yoga I wasn't really taking care of myself. And in my defense, I was still young and my body could take more. I was really a party girl, drinking a lot and also smoking. For sure, I was having fun, at least sometimes, but the older I got the more I also used alcohol as a means to numb myself. After some time practicing yoga, my lifestyle changed. For some years, after I quit my job and left Sweden, my spiritual practice was my number one priority. I was so hungry, it felt like this was all I wanted to do. I was fortunate to have had this opportunity to immerse myself so much. I also had a great teacher here in Berlin that really inspired me. My weekly tantra class was the highlight of the week and I practiced daily for 2-3 hours.
If I missed your post, by the time of writing it wasn't posted under the Week 1 Challenge post. Please make sure you do that for next week. Don't worry, you will still be included if you share your link by next weekend.
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