The Real Healer

When I was in herbalism school, one of the key tenets in training us as healthcare practitioners in cahoots with nature, was for us to really get that it is NOT we, the herbalist and nutritionist who is doing the healing, but that in our role, we merely set the conditions for healing to take place and then, the vital life force that the body and nature hold does the actual healing.

In essence, we are not the healer. The body is the healer. Nature is the healer- whether she comes in the form of the sun, the plants, the solitude she offers. We set or support ideal conditions and the body and nature do the actual work.

It's a key distinction for us to really root into and let infuse the way we walk around in the world in all aspects of our lives, not not just when it comes to bodily healing. We've been ingrained to believe that the answers and solutions exist outside of us. We believe we should exercise dominion, that we know better than our bodies, know better than nature (which we are merely an extension of) and we FOR SURE believe this about other humans-preachers, gurus, politicians, life coaches, spiritual guides. We hand over too much authority and influence to other and believe that they know better than we do. That they will fix us and tell us what is right, how to live, how to scrub us clean of all that is wrong about us.

(𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙩, 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙞𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢-𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙪𝙡𝙖𝙧 𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙤 𝙖𝙣𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜)

We become convinced that something THEY did transformed us. Forgetting that, it was our ground of being, our opening to change, our desire to grow, our offering of willingness that allowed what they offered to be received and accepted so that things could shift and change inside of us. Whatever inputs the other person provided were just that- INPUTS- into a system that took them and did the natural work of integration, healing and change.

Think about it- if you were opposed, unwilling, closed and disagreeable all day long, those same inputs couldn't do anything to move you. So let me say it again: people merely set conditions. The vital lifeforce does the transformation and healing- and if your lifeforce is open and ready, then the desire you have for change happens.

A cornerstone of the Botanical Soul membership will be to untangle this patriarchal belief that something outside of us is needed to fix, change and heal us OR nature.

𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒂 𝒅𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒍𝒚 𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒂𝒄𝒉 𝒘𝒆'𝒗𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒖𝒏𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒕, 𝒂 𝒍𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒆𝒓 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒎 𝒔𝒆𝒕𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒛𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒔𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒎𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖.

So the next time you assign all your transformation to your guru, your doctor, your life coach, consider that it would be very flawed design and evolution for nature/god/the universe, to have created something that isn't whole and complete on its own. Interdependent? Better together? Synergistically compatible? Absolutely. But capable of healing, growth, change and transformation because of their own innate lifeforce, nothing else.

but, but, but- what if those inputs hadn't come along, you say? That vital lifeforce is like a magnet, it will always draw to it, what it is needed. (That lifeforce is an expression of the divine, but that's another post!)

Again, what a flaw it would be to evolve or be created in such a way that we don't have what we need inside and have to be rescued- we don't.