My love for herbalism began over 17 years ago. It was birthed from my desire to become a vegetarian at 16 years old. When I realized the profound impact that food had on my life, I never looked back. While it started as a change of diet, it shifted my perspective on what I chose to put in my body in more ways than just food. At the beginning of my journey, I had very little understanding of topics such as endocrine disrupting chemicals, or the importance of eating real food from a farm. I simply made one decision that day. That decision then led me to another decision, and the chain reaction has been going ever since. As the years went on, I saw incredible changes in my life as I removed the toxins, pharmaceuticals, and the junk from my life. When I started to incorporate the healing foods, alternative medicines, and of course the plants, I knew I could never look back. As a very young adult I was on my way to becoming truly “crunchy.”
In 2013, I was in a car accident that injured my back and neck. This began my journey into both Yoga (in a far more serious way), and alternative medicine. I dug deeper, I peeled away more of the onion. No one showed me the way to wholistic health and herbalism. I was hurting, so I blazed a trail for myself. I wanted to heal, and no one was going to stop me.
A handful of years later, I became a teacher of Yoga, the healing modality that I fell so in love with. That’s where I began to learn about life through an Ayurvedic lens. With my injury flare-ups always lurking around the corner, I started trying every herb I could get my hands on. I started studying, hard.
Between then and now, I’ve dedicated a significant amount of time studying herbs and formulating herbal medicines. I’ve also put myself through formal herbalism education. The older I get the less plastic I have, the more linen I wear, the fewer sicknesses I get, the less toxins I allow in – including emotional/mental/spiritual toxins. I’m a completely different person than I was at 16, and 23, and even 30.
As far as my relationship with plants, herbs, and herbal medicine goes, I have too much to write down here. But I will say this –
At every point of desperation in my life, be it a back spasm, UTI, adrenal fatigue, or ADD burnout – herbs have always been there for me, offering their lives for my wellness. From Kratom, to Valerian, to Slippery Elm, to D-mannose – I have experienced first hand how powerfully healing plants truly are.
Not only do I have a love for herbs, I also have a healthy reverence. Sometimes I stand in awe that some herbs, if subjected to them, have the utmost authority to end my life. Some have the authority to blister my skin, or to shut down my liver, or to stop my lungs from breathing – all while showing off their beautiful flowers, delicate leaves, or lush berries.
Today, my husband Andy and I run Grateful Roots Gardens. He grows the food, and I grow the medicine (with his help)! I run our Apothecary on premise, make our herbal remedies, and teach classes. We find it to be an absolute privilege to raise our son without toxins, eating whole, raw, fermented, and straight from the ground foods. We strive to do better every day, and allow ourselves and others grace for unfortunate circumstances and lack of knowledge.
I owe everything in my life to my Creator, I wouldn’t have anything without Him.