Latest / The Holistic Herbalism Podcast / Take Care of Each Other

Transcript

Take Care of Each Other · The Holistic Herbalism Podcast

• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, I'm Katya, and I'm here at Commonwealth Holistic Herbalism in Boston, Massachusetts.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, I have a quick note for you today because a couple of weeks ago on the podcast when we were talking about how to know if you can trust an herbalist on the internet, and we were talking about those laws that say that we can't use the word treat, like we can't say that we treat a disease.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I was saying about how those laws are actually really aligned with our work as herbalists.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so when people are talking about treating disease on the internet, then that's like a way that you that's like a red flag to know maybe don't trust that person.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh, you know, that people complain about the laws, and the thing is that that, you know, breaking them or whatever doesn't make you a cool rebel bucking the system and blah blah blah, right?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: So okay, it was this whole if you didn't hear it yet, it's about red flags and green flags so that you understand who you can trust on the internet.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's just the setup though, because the thing is that when I said all that, I meant to go back and say, what do you do if you do want to be a cool rebel bucking the system, right?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm all for that.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um the system, the system is not awesome.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Our current system relies on everyone being too busy to help one another.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, that way we buy more stuff, right?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, items of convenience, items of comfort instead of communities of support.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And if we're all too busy to help each other, then we're also all too busy to really effect much change.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: So all of that means the people who are making lots of money in the system as it is keep making lots of money, right?
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so that's our system.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're like, but I want to be the cool rebel bucking that system, that is something that you can absolutely do as an herbalist.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: I highly recommend it.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what I want to talk to you about today.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and really what this is gonna come down to is taking care of each other.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's how to be a cool rebel bucking the system.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Let's take care of each other.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so let's see, we'll just do like a super quick version of the reclaimer.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a doctor, I'm an herbalist, and so this isn't medical advice, um, but maybe it'll give you something cool to think about and uh also be responsible.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's good enough, right?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so if you want to be a cool herbal rebel bucking the system by taking care of your community, we have some tools to help you do that.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't have to do it alone.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like if the whole point here is that we're gonna be cool rebels by taking care of each other, then you can do this taking care of with other people.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I want to go through some resources that we have available to you that you can get, but then also that you can share in your community, or like start a club and everybody work on it together.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it doesn't have to be like a super formal club.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: It can it could be you could like schedule the community room at your local library and actually have a like a community group really working on this.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's so legit.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Or you could just get together with your neighbor and like work on it, like get together with your friend group or or whatever.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but the key here is get together and let's get together on purpose for the purpose of taking care of each other, like intentionally build groups that hang out.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're gonna have fun, but also we're preparing support structures so that when we need them, they will be there for us.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let me go through some of these resources for you.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: So let me start off with free resources that you can just go and download right now.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, maybe the very first one is the uh emergency preparedness course.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: That is a free mini course.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: It has all your first aid stuff, it has basic wound care, it has everything that you'll need for like a kit to evacuate, but also a kit to not evacuate, like to stay in place.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that you have all the stuff you need to take care of your household and to take care of members of your community.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um also has lists of the kinds of paperwork and other sorts of things that you would need to have with you, especially if there was some kind of disaster that's like a hurricane or a tornado, something that would have like destructive power.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, wildfires, floods, okay, there's lots of things with destructive power.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, okay, and also has like how to make um plans with your friends or with your family or with your community for if you have to do evacuations so that your group can stay together, um, all different stuff like that.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's really easy, it's all laid out simple.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: You can work through it with friends and make sure that everybody's prepared.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, you know, you don't have to be a prepper to be a person who's prepared for situations that are likely, right?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like some kind of emergency situation is gonna happen at some point in your life.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's just very, very likely.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: So it's good to be prepared.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so then there is the herbal community care toolkit.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is a course that's available by donation or free.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: You can choose.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a course that we build kind of intentionally so that you could start a support club like this.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Even if the people who you are hooking up with don't really know much about health at all, this course is set up to get you started from absolute zero.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: It includes the most important health concerns, like 13 of the most important health concerns, and the the safest, most accessible, least expensive, uh, most effective herbs that are unlikely to have allergic reaction or drug interaction.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like a really safe place to start if you're a beginner, or maybe you're not a beginner, but the community that you're gonna work with is made up of beginners.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a safe and supportive place to start.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: So that is the herbal community care toolkit.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: All these links I'll put in the show notes, don't worry.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that one is either by donation or free, you decide.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and then there is the accessible herbalism course, which is available on a sliding scale.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a course for um people who either have some experience as an herbalist or are beginning to build experience as an herbalist, but you know for sure that you want to do work around accessibility.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: So that might be affordability, that might be accessibility for people who have um like chronic illness or disabilities or limited mobility.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um you might be wanting to target accessibility for people just who are super, super busy, and so they're like always maxed out on energy and never getting enough rest.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so you want to be providing things that are accessible to people in that boat.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: So there's lots of different kinds, and there are more different kinds of accessibility as well.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: But we go through how to build a practice, whether that practice is your own clinical practice as a clinical herbalist, or whether it is a community apothecary or like a community mutual aid group that is including herbal support.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: It can be anywhere on that spectrum.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but this just has a lot of resources about how do you get help, how do you get funding so that you're not burning yourself out either because you're trying to do all the work by yourself or because you're trying to fund it by yourself.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: It has information about different models that you can set up so that you're able to work in your community for the largest number of people and across multiple kinds of accessibility issues.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Also, included in there is ways to like substitute herbs so that the herbs that you're working with are effective but lower cost, and how to figure out how to do that effectively so that you're not sacrificing on potency, but you are able to do work less expensively.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: All right, and lots of other really great stuff in there too.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: All of these courses include the mutual aid toolkit, and that is a guide for starting up a mutual aid group in your community.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, again, it doesn't have to be formal or like official or whatever.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: There's lots of different ways to start up a group, but basically, mutual aid just means I'm here for you and you're here for me, and we know we can depend on each other.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Intentionally, we are taking care of one another.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so it's about just being prepared for the things that are necessary in your community, whether that is you live in a place with a lot of wildfires, or whether it is that your own personal community has lots of kids who are really young, and so the kind of support that you need is how do we all juggle raising children and also doing all the other things that we need to do?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's another kind of support, right?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: There are so many different kinds of support.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I really want everybody to have like a broad picture of the ways that we can be taking care of each other because there are so many ways.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: There are so many ways to be a cool herbal rebel.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so those are places where you can start and they will keep you busy for a long time.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: There's so much information in these resources.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then also today is July 29th, which means there are still uh two and a half, three days left in our 20% off sale for July.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this is a semi-annual sale.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: We do this every year so that students can depend on this 20% off discount.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: It means that you don't have to prove that you are disabled.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to prove that you have a financial need, you don't have to prove anything.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: You can just depend that every six months there's going to be 20% off for you.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to have any kind of documentation about it.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: You can just get the discount, budget your studies, and get the stuff that you need so that you have the skills and develop yourself as an herbalist so that you can take care of the folks in your community.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this is the place, this is the part of the podcast where Rin would say, take care of yourselves and take care of each other.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that this whole episode was about that.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I think I'm just gonna leave it with let's get out there and be cool herbal rebels bucking the system by taking care of one another.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Bye-bye, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, and I'm gonna be.