Latest / Vox Novus with Victor Fuhrman / Elizabeth Guthrie, PhD – Somatic Herbalism

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Elizabeth Guthrie, PhD – Somatic Herbalism · Vox Novus with Victor Fuhrman

0:05
Speaker 1: Vox Novus, the New Voice, Vox Novus, the New Dimension,
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Speaker 1: Vox Novus thought and movement leaders who will share from
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Speaker 1: their experience and offer tools to help us navigate our
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Speaker 1: rapidly changing world. My name is Victor Furman. Welcome to
0:28
Speaker 1: Vox Novus, the New Voice. How may plant medicine, polyvagal
0:39
Speaker 1: theory and somatic therapy heal trauma? My guest this week
0:44
Speaker 1: on Vox Novis, Doctor Elizabeth Guthrie combines these for profound
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Speaker 1: healing and post traumatic growth. Doctor Elizabeth gently leaves you
0:54
Speaker 1: along your own wellness journey, revealing which plant allies will
0:59
Speaker 1: calm your vague nerve and usher your nervous system toward
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Speaker 1: a more restorative state. These botanicals, paired with therapeutic exercises,
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Speaker 1: create a customized support system for coping with stress and
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Speaker 1: processing negative experiences. Doctor Elizabeth is a clinical herbalist and
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Speaker 1: certified professional aromatherapist. She holds a doctorate in nature Medicine
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Speaker 1: with specializations in naturopathic psychology and herbal medicine, and a
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Speaker 1: Master of Public Health degree in functional nutrition. Elizabeth has
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Speaker 1: also been published in the peer reviewed Journal of the
1:37
Speaker 1: American Herbalist Guild and has authored Essential Oils for Trauma
1:42
Speaker 1: and the Trauma Informed Herbalist. Her website is Trauma Informed
1:46
Speaker 1: Erbalist dot com and she joins me this week to
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Speaker 1: share her path and new book, Somatic Erbalism Healing Trauma
1:54
Speaker 1: through Plant Medicine and polyvagal Theory. Please join me in
1:59
Speaker 1: will welcoming to Box Novus doctor Elizabeth Guthrie.
2:03
Speaker 2: Welcome, Elizabeth, Hi, thank you for having me today.
2:07
Speaker 1: Elizabeth, your biography shares that your personal experiences led you
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Speaker 1: to begin studying trauma and its effect on the body
2:15
Speaker 1: and mind. Please share with our listeners your path and
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Speaker 1: how this unfolded.
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Speaker 2: Well. I was a nine to one to one dispatcher
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Speaker 2: while I was in school, and that work was rewarding
2:30
Speaker 2: in a lot of ways, but there was also a
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Speaker 2: lot of secondary trauma that I experienced there. And while
2:36
Speaker 2: I was a nine to one one dispatcher, I ended
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Speaker 2: up in a relationship that was abusive, and so there
2:44
Speaker 2: would be days where if I had seen him before
2:47
Speaker 2: going into work, I was literally picking myself up and
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Speaker 2: then going into work to deal with other people's trauma.
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Speaker 2: During that time, I started to notice that the herbs
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Speaker 2: that I was using, the plants that I was working with.
3:04
Speaker 2: My body began to respond differently to those plants, and
3:08
Speaker 2: so at that time I felt like something was wrong
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Speaker 2: with me, that I had somehow the other rejected the
3:14
Speaker 2: natural world that I was so in love with, and
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Speaker 2: that somehow or the other I had failed. And slowly,
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Speaker 2: but surely, I began to realize that it was my
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Speaker 2: nervous system, and that it had changed because of the trauma,
3:30
Speaker 2: and that my response was different now because of the trauma,
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Speaker 2: and that I just needed to shift and use other
3:37
Speaker 2: plants and different plants to help me to find my
3:42
Speaker 2: way back to that more grounded, centered place that really
3:47
Speaker 2: just allows anybody who's been through trauma knows like there's
3:51
Speaker 2: the sense that you're almost scattered. You may feel a
3:55
Speaker 2: little dissociated, or you may feel too hypervigilant, and you
3:58
Speaker 2: cannot come back to that place where you can truly
4:00
Speaker 2: savor life. And so I started to study the plants
4:05
Speaker 2: and how from that angle. You know, I was already
4:08
Speaker 2: an erbalist, but I started to study the plants from
4:10
Speaker 2: that angle and how the plants can help us to
4:13
Speaker 2: find our way back to that place where we can
4:16
Speaker 2: enjoy life and not feel overwhelmed when we have different
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Speaker 2: nervous system responses occurring.
4:24
Speaker 1: Prior to that experience. Tell us about how you got
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Speaker 1: involved in erbalism.
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Speaker 2: I grew up around erbalism. My grandmother and my mother
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Speaker 2: both taught me a lot about herbs and a lot
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Speaker 2: about their benefits. My grandfather had a lot of things
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Speaker 2: from when he grew up in Tennessee and coming into
4:44
Speaker 2: Alabama that his mother would use, and so I just
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Speaker 2: grew up surrounded by it. I didn't realize that it
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Speaker 2: could be a career, however, until I was in my
4:56
Speaker 2: mid twenties. I was actually searching for nutrition degree information
5:02
Speaker 2: when I accidentally. Don't ask me how I typed in
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Speaker 2: AT instead of in UT, because you and A are
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Speaker 2: on totally different sides of the keyboard, But I did.
5:12
Speaker 2: I typed in in AT on accident, and that's when
5:15
Speaker 2: a degree for naturopathic doctor came up, and I began
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Speaker 2: to understand that there were other options out there and
5:24
Speaker 2: that there were ways to have careers in this. So
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Speaker 2: I pivoted and I began to study herbs professionally as
5:32
Speaker 2: well as from a traditional standpoint. So I kind of
5:35
Speaker 2: straddle that space between the research and the benefits of
5:41
Speaker 2: degreed conversations and using you know, rigid scientific research protocols
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Speaker 2: to try to learn more about the different plants, as
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Speaker 2: well as that more traditional space of of bringing yourself
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Speaker 2: to the plants and building that relationship with them and
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Speaker 2: really kind of creating that friendship between you and the
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Speaker 2: plants that you're working with.
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Speaker 1: I don't know if you'd agree with this, but in
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Speaker 1: my experience, when it comes to things of this nature,
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Speaker 1: there are no accidents. Things happen for a reason of
6:17
Speaker 1: our process.
6:18
Speaker 2: Exactly exactly.
6:20
Speaker 1: Before we discuss your new book, Somatic Herbalism, please tell
6:24
Speaker 1: us about your previous best selling book, The Trauma Informed Herbalist.
6:29
Speaker 1: What inspired that book and what do you share with readers.
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Speaker 2: Yes, so The Trauma Informed Herbalist was my first book,
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Speaker 2: and I wrote that book because I saw a lot
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Speaker 2: of need in the erbalism space, but in natural medicine
6:44
Speaker 2: in general, to talk about how trauma changes our response
6:49
Speaker 2: to these natural medicines that we have available. So, you know,
6:54
Speaker 2: sometimes you'll go to a meditation class and the teacher
6:57
Speaker 2: will say, you're perfectly safe here and allow yourself to
7:01
Speaker 2: relax into this sense of safety, and that's not necessarily
7:06
Speaker 2: true for everyone. You know. You may be in this
7:08
Speaker 2: moment safe enough to be able to relax, but that
7:11
Speaker 2: doesn't necessarily mean that you are perfectly safe, especially if
7:16
Speaker 2: you have a chronic illness and you feel like your
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Speaker 2: body has betrayed you. You may not feel safe in
7:21
Speaker 2: your body, or if you have a home environment that
7:24
Speaker 2: you know you have to go back to that that
7:26
Speaker 2: does not feel safe. You know, there's all kinds of
7:28
Speaker 2: different situations in which people may encounter, you know, discrimination
7:35
Speaker 2: and bigotry that will make them not feel safe on
7:38
Speaker 2: a day to day basis. And so I saw the
7:41
Speaker 2: need to write a book about trauma informed care in
7:45
Speaker 2: natural medicine. It's mostly written for practitioners, but it's written
7:49
Speaker 2: in a way that a lot of people who are
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Speaker 2: just general lay persons who are dealing with trauma and
7:55
Speaker 2: trying to understand how to navigate natural medicine as part
7:59
Speaker 2: of their their healing journey. I wrote it so that
8:03
Speaker 2: they could say, oh, I see now that instead of
8:06
Speaker 2: doing you know, meditation for two hours trying to get
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Speaker 2: myself into that state, maybe I just meditate for five
8:13
Speaker 2: minutes at a time. Maybe I find places where I
8:16
Speaker 2: feel safe enough in this moment to relax, not trying
8:20
Speaker 2: to force myself to feel completely safe. So a lot
8:23
Speaker 2: of those little conversations make up that book, and it
8:27
Speaker 2: was really well received because there wasn't as much of
8:31
Speaker 2: that conversation. We have a lot more of the conversation now.
8:33
Speaker 2: I'm very proud of. You know, I have students who
8:36
Speaker 2: have gone on to do more in the aromatherapy space
8:40
Speaker 2: or in yoga, and of course there are a lot
8:43
Speaker 2: of other trauma informed yoga teachers out there, but you know,
8:46
Speaker 2: we finally have a lot more of that conversation happening.
8:50
Speaker 1: Congratulations on your just published book, Somatic Herbalism. What inspired
8:56
Speaker 1: this book?
8:58
Speaker 3: Thank you.
8:58
Speaker 2: I I wrote this book because one of the things
9:03
Speaker 2: that I find in my practice is that when you
9:07
Speaker 2: have been through a really rough patch, or you know,
9:11
Speaker 2: even more and more as the economy feels a little unstable,
9:14
Speaker 2: or as things tend to feel like well, I don't
9:18
Speaker 2: have a lot of extra money to go spending on
9:21
Speaker 2: fancy treatments, you know, we need to return to things
9:26
Speaker 2: that feel like they are accessible. And so one of
9:31
Speaker 2: the purposes of writing this book was to create a
9:36
Speaker 2: resource for people so that they could see that you
9:39
Speaker 2: don't have to have one thousand dollars in a fancy
9:43
Speaker 2: spa weekend to find those connections again, to really begin
9:48
Speaker 2: to bring yourself back to the natural world, and not
9:51
Speaker 2: just going on a nature walk, which by itself can
9:54
Speaker 2: be beautiful, but actually finding plants that you can connect
9:58
Speaker 2: with and finding those connections that will help you to
10:04
Speaker 2: heal on your journey. Now somatics where it goes well
10:07
Speaker 2: beyond trauma, but this book is specifically focused on if
10:11
Speaker 2: you've been through trauma, or you've been through a lot
10:14
Speaker 2: of stress over a long period of time, chronic stress,
10:18
Speaker 2: things like that, where you have been through a lot
10:21
Speaker 2: of difficult experiences and now you're trying to find a
10:25
Speaker 2: way to recenter yourself. The steps in this book and
10:28
Speaker 2: the plant allies that you find in this book can
10:31
Speaker 2: be helpful for that.
10:33
Speaker 1: Let's discuss some of these concepts that may be new
10:37
Speaker 1: to our listeners. First of all, what is polyvagel theory.
10:42
Speaker 2: Polyvagel theory is the theory that was created by doctor
10:49
Speaker 2: Stephen Porgos. He saw he was working in a neonatal
10:53
Speaker 2: unit and saw that there were certain times where the
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Speaker 2: vagus nerve being activated meant that a baby was going
11:01
Speaker 2: to have resilience and was going to thrive. There were
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Speaker 2: other times where the vegas nerve being activated meant that
11:09
Speaker 2: the baby was sick or possibly even like in danger
11:13
Speaker 2: of dying. And so this is a paradox, right, How
11:17
Speaker 2: could the same nerve when activated, create these two completely
11:21
Speaker 2: different sides of the spectrum. And so when he began
11:26
Speaker 2: to explore that vaguel paradox and began to understand more
11:29
Speaker 2: about the myelinated and unmilinated parts of the vegas nerve,
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Speaker 2: he realized that the vegas nerve really has two functions
11:38
Speaker 2: depending on the part of the vegas nerve, the ventral
11:41
Speaker 2: vagel versus the dorsal vagel, and so thus was born
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Speaker 2: the polyvagel theory. The vegas nerve is extremely important because
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Speaker 2: it runs from your brain the whole way down you know,
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Speaker 2: your heart, your lungs, and to the enteric nervous system,
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Speaker 2: which is part of the digestion that we have. And
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Speaker 2: that vegas nerve sends signals from the brain into the
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Speaker 2: different parts of our body. But it also sends signals
12:11
Speaker 2: from the body up to the brain, so it's a
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Speaker 2: two way street and it's creating this communication. And what
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Speaker 2: doctor Porge just found was that when we start applying
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Speaker 2: polyvego theory and we start looking at what happens when
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Speaker 2: our body is in a dorsal vagel state versus a
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Speaker 2: ventral vagel state versus a sympathetic fight or flight state,
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Speaker 2: and we start to pay more attention to those different
12:37
Speaker 2: states and what our body is telling us in those moments.
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Speaker 2: We can slowly but surely find ways to settle our
12:44
Speaker 2: nervous system and not feel as overwhelmed when we are
12:47
Speaker 2: having a stress response.
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Speaker 1: For our listeners, we're not familiar with the vegus nerve,
12:54
Speaker 1: discuss those two formats of the vegas nerve, the dorsal
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Speaker 1: and the ventral.
12:58
Speaker 4: Yes.
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Speaker 2: Yes, At the times when you've talked about nervous system,
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Speaker 2: you're used to hearing the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system,
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Speaker 2: and they'll say that the sympathetic nervous system is the
13:10
Speaker 2: gas pedal. It gets you to go, go, go, go go.
13:13
Speaker 2: That's the fight or flight response. And then the parasympathetic
13:17
Speaker 2: is the break. It's where it slows things down, and
13:20
Speaker 2: we talk about it in the form of rest and
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Speaker 2: digest but there are also other things that happen if
13:26
Speaker 2: we slow down even more where we get into the
13:30
Speaker 2: more meditative states, and then we get into shut down
13:33
Speaker 2: and dissociation. So all of that comes into the parasympathetic
13:37
Speaker 2: So when we're talking about the vegus nerve, in the
13:39
Speaker 2: two parts of the vegus nerve, that's all part of
13:42
Speaker 2: that parasympathetic response. Now, the ventral vagel is your rest
13:48
Speaker 2: or digest. So ventral vagel is rest and digest. It's
13:53
Speaker 2: where we feel connected, it's where a lot of the
13:55
Speaker 2: physical healing occurs. It's where we socialize best. And then
14:01
Speaker 2: we have dorsal vagel, and dorsal vagel is where we
14:05
Speaker 2: get the meditative states, the day dreaming, those slowing down
14:10
Speaker 2: of the nervous system. But then if it gets too
14:13
Speaker 2: far and gets a little overwhelmed, that's when you get
14:16
Speaker 2: your numbness. You're shut down in your dissociation.
14:19
Speaker 1: And what are some of the applications of polyvagel theory.
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Speaker 2: With polyvagel theory, there are there are many applications, but
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Speaker 2: the first one that is really most helpful to most
14:33
Speaker 2: people is that you can begin noticing when you are
14:36
Speaker 2: in these different states. So when you're in a sympathetic
14:39
Speaker 2: nervous system state, your fight or flight is up, you
14:42
Speaker 2: may feel a little jittery, You may feel a little
14:45
Speaker 2: hyper vigilant, a little more aware. If you've ever been
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Speaker 2: in a room and a loud noise occurs and you
14:51
Speaker 2: jump and not a loud boom, but maybe somebody shuts
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Speaker 2: the door a little too loud and then you have
14:57
Speaker 2: a disproportionate response where you jump out of your skin.
15:01
Speaker 2: That is a sympathetic nervous system state. When you are
15:05
Speaker 2: in a sympathetic nervous system state, you may need different
15:08
Speaker 2: types of support than if you are in a ventral
15:11
Speaker 2: vagel or a dorsal vagel state. So when you're in
15:15
Speaker 2: a sympathetic state, you may need things that help you
15:17
Speaker 2: to soothe and relax and slow down and kind of
15:22
Speaker 2: settle your system. When you're in a dorsal vagel state,
15:26
Speaker 2: which is kind of your opposite state, that is dorsal
15:30
Speaker 2: vagel dissociation shut down, those things can happen there. So
15:33
Speaker 2: if you're overwhelmed and in a dorsal vagel state, you
15:37
Speaker 2: may actually need things that help you to feel a
15:39
Speaker 2: little more energized or help you to feel a little
15:41
Speaker 2: more supported so that you can get back to a
15:45
Speaker 2: place where you're able to respond and savor your day
15:50
Speaker 2: and not feel as overwhelmed by the dissociation when you're
15:54
Speaker 2: in ventral vagel. That these two extremes make ventral vagel
15:57
Speaker 2: sound like it's exactly where you want to be all
15:59
Speaker 2: the time, right Like it sounds like this is where
16:02
Speaker 2: we want to live. But when you're in ventral vagel,
16:05
Speaker 2: you want things that help you to balance and keep
16:08
Speaker 2: grounded in ventral vagel but also experiencing a little bit
16:12
Speaker 2: of the sympathetic and the dorsal vagel. And the reason
16:16
Speaker 2: for this is you and I would not be on
16:19
Speaker 2: this podcast talking if we were shutting our sympathetic system
16:22
Speaker 2: down completely, because there's a certain amount of exchange of ideas,
16:27
Speaker 2: there's a certain amount of figuring out how to best
16:32
Speaker 2: communicate ideas and best communicate this conversation that occurs as
16:38
Speaker 2: part of that sympathetic and ventral vagel combined response. So
16:43
Speaker 2: it's not about never being in one of the nervous
16:47
Speaker 2: system states. It's about being comfortable in the different nervous
16:50
Speaker 2: system states, and the breathing exercises and the herbs and
16:55
Speaker 2: the yoga and all the different things that can help
16:58
Speaker 2: you feel a little bit more comfortable and simple pathetic,
17:01
Speaker 2: maybe different for you than when you're in ventral vaguel,
17:04
Speaker 2: which is that rest or digest or in the dorsal
17:07
Speaker 2: vagel dissociation shut down those like really low energy moments.
17:14
Speaker 2: And so once you begin to learn these different pieces,
17:17
Speaker 2: then you are able to start determining what works best
17:21
Speaker 2: for you depending on how you're feeling in that moment,
17:23
Speaker 2: which leads us to the somatics discussion.
17:26
Speaker 1: And then what is somatic work and what are its applications?
17:31
Speaker 2: So sematic work is when you are listening to your
17:34
Speaker 2: body and when you're paying attention to what's happening inside
17:37
Speaker 2: your body. And this sounds so simple and tell you
17:40
Speaker 2: think about how much time we spend in our heads.
17:44
Speaker 2: Our society glorifies the intellectual thought process, even though there
17:51
Speaker 2: are people who maybe aren't as big into it now.
17:54
Speaker 2: There's still a lot of focus on thinking and having
17:58
Speaker 2: a logical thought process, and that is a very important
18:03
Speaker 2: piece of our existence. But at the end of the day,
18:07
Speaker 2: we are not thinking machines with feelings. We are feeling
18:12
Speaker 2: machines who think, And so when we disconnect ourselves from
18:17
Speaker 2: those emotions and that sensory experience of our body, and
18:22
Speaker 2: we rely on the logic and ignore that more primal intuition,
18:29
Speaker 2: then we are depriving ourselves of At best, we are
18:32
Speaker 2: depriving ourselves of the full experience of life, and at worst,
18:37
Speaker 2: we can begin to experience symptoms and things where our
18:40
Speaker 2: body is crying out to us. So somatic work helps
18:44
Speaker 2: us to reintegrate where we are noticing and listening to
18:49
Speaker 2: our body and listening to those the somatic language of
18:53
Speaker 2: our body. Maybe it's you feel hot, or you feel cold,
18:58
Speaker 2: or you feel strange, tingling and in your kneecap one
19:02
Speaker 2: day that doesn't have any obvious reason for it. And
19:07
Speaker 2: when we start paying attention to these, these symptoms and
19:11
Speaker 2: these moments of sensation, that can lead us to begin
19:15
Speaker 2: to realize, oh, hey, I'm actually entering an overwhelming sympathetic
19:21
Speaker 2: fight or flight state, and I need to do a
19:23
Speaker 2: few things to help me to settle. And some of
19:25
Speaker 2: those things may be reaching for herbs and may be
19:28
Speaker 2: reaching for different breath exercises. You know, those are the
19:31
Speaker 2: kinds of ways that that all begins to meld together.
19:36
Speaker 1: So artificial intelligence doesn't get involved with.
19:39
Speaker 2: This, Yeah, nope.
19:42
Speaker 1: That's funny. That's funny. So now how does polyvagel theory
19:46
Speaker 1: connect to somatics.
19:50
Speaker 2: So polyvagel theory is really really strongly connected with sematics
19:56
Speaker 2: because of what we were just talking about, where the
20:00
Speaker 2: the moment that you start feeling things, you have those
20:02
Speaker 2: somatic responses. Then you can start noticing which nervous system
20:09
Speaker 2: state you are in. And this gets a little tricky
20:12
Speaker 2: because your body can be in different nervous system states.
20:15
Speaker 2: So you can have maybe your arms are feeling more
20:18
Speaker 2: of that activation energy, more of that movement, more of
20:22
Speaker 2: the sympathetic fight or flight response, that movement and that
20:25
Speaker 2: energy that's there, while your legs might feel a little
20:29
Speaker 2: bit more numb and a little bit more shut down
20:32
Speaker 2: in dorsal vagel. So when you're spending time and you're
20:37
Speaker 2: listening to this sensory language that's occurring in your body,
20:42
Speaker 2: you become more aware of where your nervous system is
20:46
Speaker 2: and what it needs in that moment. And once you
20:49
Speaker 2: start becoming more aware of your nervous system, you can say, Okay,
20:52
Speaker 2: I know now that this is a sympathetic response, or
20:56
Speaker 2: this is a ventral vagel response, or I know when
20:58
Speaker 2: I'm feeling this, I'm starting to shut down in dorsalveagel
21:01
Speaker 2: and then that's when you reach for the tools that
21:04
Speaker 2: can help you. And some of those tools are the
21:07
Speaker 2: plant allies that we talk about in the book, along
21:10
Speaker 2: with the different yoga exercises and breathwork and whatnot.
21:14
Speaker 1: My guest is doctor Elizabeth Guthrie her brand new book
21:18
Speaker 1: Somatic Herbalism Healing Trauma through Plant Medicine and polybagel Theory. Elizabeth,
21:24
Speaker 1: please share with our listeners where they can get your
21:26
Speaker 1: wonderful books and find out more about you and your
21:28
Speaker 1: amazing work.
21:29
Speaker 2: Thank you. So you can go to Trauma Informed Erbalist
21:32
Speaker 2: dot com to find out more about my work. The
21:36
Speaker 2: book Somatic Erbalism is available wherever books are sold.
21:40
Speaker 1: Wonderful, and your prior book, also, the Trauma Informed Journalist
21:44
Speaker 1: is available wherever books are sold. Is that correct?
21:46
Speaker 2: Yes, Yes, that's correct.
21:47
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Speaker 1: Back on Novus, My guest this week, doctor Elizabeth Guthrie
24:03
Speaker 1: her new book Somatic Herbalism, Healing Trauma through Plant Medicine
24:09
Speaker 1: and Polyvagal Theory. So how does all of what you
24:13
Speaker 1: just shared before relate to erbalism and plant medicine.
24:18
Speaker 2: So the beauty of erbalism and plant medicine is that
24:21
Speaker 2: we have all of these different, specific natural options that
24:27
Speaker 2: can become a beneficial I don't want to I want
24:34
Speaker 2: to call it therapy, but it's almost like a complementary therapy.
24:38
Speaker 2: We don't want it to be the only thing that
24:39
Speaker 2: we're doing. We always want to be you know, listening
24:42
Speaker 2: to our doctors and paying attention to that as well.
24:44
Speaker 2: But a lot of the erbalism and plant medicine can
24:47
Speaker 2: be used as a complimentary therapy to help to soothe
24:53
Speaker 2: our nervous system, help to bring us into a state
24:56
Speaker 2: where we feel safe enough in the moment to be
24:59
Speaker 2: able to to have those revelations around what our body
25:03
Speaker 2: is telling us. So, you know, a lot of the
25:05
Speaker 2: times we talk about nature and we talk about the
25:09
Speaker 2: beauty of being out in nature, the benefits of forest bathing.
25:14
Speaker 2: There's a lot of people who do forest bathing or
25:16
Speaker 2: just meditative walks in nature. Now, when you look at
25:20
Speaker 2: some of the work that deb Dana has done on
25:22
Speaker 2: the polyvagel theory, she talks about repeating patterns in nature
25:26
Speaker 2: and the fractal patterns in nature, and how there is
25:28
Speaker 2: research that now shows that that is very beneficial to
25:32
Speaker 2: soothing the nervous system and to helping us to shift
25:36
Speaker 2: out of those states of overwhelm and back into a
25:40
Speaker 2: place where we can experience the full range of our
25:43
Speaker 2: nervous system without feeling overwhelmed. And so one of the
25:48
Speaker 2: things that I focused on as I started getting into
25:51
Speaker 2: this is what does that look like from the specific
25:56
Speaker 2: plant medicine side of things. And we have a lot
25:58
Speaker 2: of different herbs that are nervinges and adaptogens that can
26:02
Speaker 2: be very helpful from an internal standpoint. So there are
26:06
Speaker 2: certain herbs that you can drink teas, or you can
26:10
Speaker 2: take supplements, or you can make your own tinctures and
26:14
Speaker 2: things like that, and you can take them internally, and
26:18
Speaker 2: they can have physiological effects on the nervous system that
26:21
Speaker 2: help to either energize it if you're feeling like you're
26:25
Speaker 2: a little bit too numb, or you're feeling overwhelmed by
26:28
Speaker 2: a sense of dissociation, or on the other end of
26:31
Speaker 2: the spectrum, in the sympathetic state, the fight or flight state,
26:35
Speaker 2: they can help to soothe and relax and bring that
26:38
Speaker 2: energy down just enough to where you're not feeling overwhelmed
26:41
Speaker 2: in the sympathetic nervous system state. The other thing that
26:44
Speaker 2: I'll mention is that a lot of the times, if
26:47
Speaker 2: you've been in if you've had significant trauma, you may
26:51
Speaker 2: find that the ventral vagel connected rest and digest state
26:55
Speaker 2: does not feel safe anymore. So you can actually be
26:59
Speaker 2: overwhelmed in the ventral vagel state as well. And when
27:03
Speaker 2: you experience this, it may come in the sense of
27:07
Speaker 2: if I relax enough that I can I truly feel relaxed,
27:13
Speaker 2: then I am going to find myself back on edge
27:16
Speaker 2: because I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. I
27:19
Speaker 2: can't settle, I can't let go of this hypervigilance. And
27:22
Speaker 2: when you're feeling those moments, sometimes shifting down into the
27:26
Speaker 2: ventral vagel state maybe causes a little dizziness or it
27:29
Speaker 2: causes a little sense of panic if you find that
27:32
Speaker 2: that's happening and you're not having a doctor telling you, hey,
27:36
Speaker 2: like this is your heart, Like obviously you want these
27:38
Speaker 2: other things checked out. But if you're finding that this
27:40
Speaker 2: is happening and there's no clear explanation for it, it
27:44
Speaker 2: may be that you need support getting into the ventral
27:47
Speaker 2: vagel rest and digest state. And that's where things like
27:49
Speaker 2: Holy Basil can come in handy because it can help
27:52
Speaker 2: your body to let go of that sense that it
27:55
Speaker 2: has to always be vigilant and allow you to settle
27:59
Speaker 2: and feel safe enough in the moment to allow your
28:03
Speaker 2: nervous system to experience a little of that rest and digest. So,
28:07
Speaker 2: of course we have all these physiological benefits. But back
28:10
Speaker 2: to the conversation that deb Dana is having on nature
28:14
Speaker 2: and its benefits in the fractal patterns and so on
28:16
Speaker 2: and so forth, there are times where just being around
28:20
Speaker 2: the plants and just connecting to the plants can be beneficial.
28:25
Speaker 2: So having those relationships maybe you tend to a plant,
28:29
Speaker 2: or maybe you like the smell of a certain tea,
28:32
Speaker 2: or maybe you just like pictures of certain plants that
28:34
Speaker 2: connect you in that way. Those things can help us
28:38
Speaker 2: to orient to that external source of support, and that
28:45
Speaker 2: can allow our nervous system to settle and help us
28:49
Speaker 2: to find our way into that place that is not
28:53
Speaker 2: as overwhelmed.
28:55
Speaker 1: I've been a tree hugger and a pre communicator society
28:59
Speaker 1: kids that was a young man. Is that something that
29:02
Speaker 1: people do that that that psychic connection with the with
29:04
Speaker 1: the plants in the trees.
29:06
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly, I mean that is that's a big part
29:08
Speaker 2: of this, especially if you are in a situation where
29:11
Speaker 2: maybe you're on medication that does not allow you to
29:14
Speaker 2: ingest herbs, or maybe you cannot financially afford to buy
29:19
Speaker 2: a bunch of supplements every month, and you know, if
29:22
Speaker 2: you can't afford the the extra turmerk every month, or
29:25
Speaker 2: you can't afford that is the time where a lot
29:28
Speaker 2: of people, a lot of people that I work with,
29:30
Speaker 2: are finding the benefit of just going out and being
29:33
Speaker 2: around the plant, sitting with the plant, allowing yourself to
29:38
Speaker 2: notice how those somatic sensations, that sensation language we talked
29:42
Speaker 2: about earlier, how does that change when you're setting next
29:46
Speaker 2: sitting next to a big bush of lemon balm, for instance,
29:50
Speaker 2: What shifts in your body as you sit there and
29:53
Speaker 2: you smell that scent and you just allow yourself to
29:56
Speaker 2: be near that thriving plant.
29:59
Speaker 1: When I hear you say rest and digest, I think
30:03
Speaker 1: about people who have agitation and end up with good reflux.
30:08
Speaker 2: Yes, there are several things like that that are connected
30:12
Speaker 2: to emotion. And of course, again, like I know, I
30:16
Speaker 2: keep caveating this, but we always want to be checking
30:19
Speaker 2: with physicians and making sure that there's not a there's
30:22
Speaker 2: not something else going on that needs to be addressed.
30:24
Speaker 2: But in the meantime, you know, the traditional Chinese medicine
30:30
Speaker 2: has different organs associated with the different energetic states, the
30:36
Speaker 2: different elements if you will, that they use, and so
30:39
Speaker 2: there are in many traditional systems. There is a suggestion
30:45
Speaker 2: that different temperaments, different nervous system states, different emotions that
30:50
Speaker 2: we linger on. When we get stuck we or we
30:54
Speaker 2: ruminate on certain emotions, it can lead to different things
30:58
Speaker 2: that occur. So and that's that's you know, the body
31:02
Speaker 2: getting getting stuck on a certain thing and then trying
31:05
Speaker 2: to reset itself on a physical level to make up
31:10
Speaker 2: for whatever's happening emotionally. And so the obviously we cannot
31:15
Speaker 2: stop everything that the you know what is the only
31:19
Speaker 2: two things that are guaranteed or death and taxes, right like,
31:23
Speaker 2: we will eventually all come to that point. But while
31:28
Speaker 2: we are here and while we are on this earth
31:30
Speaker 2: and experiencing this physical three D form, the important thing
31:35
Speaker 2: is is to try to give us the chance to
31:38
Speaker 2: have that fulfilling life where we do have the full
31:42
Speaker 2: range of experiences. And the way to do that is
31:45
Speaker 2: to find ways to move through emotions and find ways
31:48
Speaker 2: to integrate experiences that we have. And some of that is,
31:54
Speaker 2: you know, finding ways to integrate trauma so that instead
31:57
Speaker 2: of our bodies feeling like that trauma is still a
31:59
Speaker 2: current in this moment. It integrates into our memory system
32:04
Speaker 2: so that the body knows that okay, that is over,
32:07
Speaker 2: and now we can move forward. And so plants can
32:10
Speaker 2: be really beneficial in that process.
32:13
Speaker 1: How may the nature connection and polyvagel theory build those
32:19
Speaker 1: relationships with plants for more specific connection and support.
32:24
Speaker 2: Yes, So when you are when you are noticing the
32:30
Speaker 2: responses that you're having, especially when you get out in nature,
32:33
Speaker 2: maybe you have a little garden, or maybe you live
32:35
Speaker 2: near the botanical gardens, or maybe you drink a tea
32:38
Speaker 2: every day that has certain plants in it, you can
32:41
Speaker 2: start to notice how your body is shifting. You can
32:45
Speaker 2: use the polyvagel theory to name the different nervous system
32:49
Speaker 2: states that you're in and how your body is responding
32:52
Speaker 2: to those states, and then how it changes, either when
32:56
Speaker 2: you're generally out in nature or of course more specifically
32:59
Speaker 2: when you start interacting with a plant, and that can
33:02
Speaker 2: start to give you clues as to which plants your
33:05
Speaker 2: body needs right now, which connections do you need at
33:09
Speaker 2: this moment, and then you can begin cultivating those relationships
33:13
Speaker 2: with those plants, whether it be through physically ingesting them,
33:17
Speaker 2: if it's a safe orb for you to ingest or
33:20
Speaker 2: spending time. Maybe you grow the plant, or maybe you
33:23
Speaker 2: tend to a friend's plant that is the plant that
33:27
Speaker 2: you're interested in connecting with. But there's all these different
33:30
Speaker 2: ways that you can start to connect more deeply and
33:33
Speaker 2: build that relationship. And as that relationship grows, it's just
33:37
Speaker 2: like any friendship, you begin to learn things about yourself
33:41
Speaker 2: as you interact with the plant, and a lot of
33:44
Speaker 2: that comes through knowing a little bit about poly veago theory,
33:48
Speaker 2: and at least when you first start, that helps to
33:51
Speaker 2: kind of give you that chance to listen and to
33:53
Speaker 2: figure out what your body's asking for in that moment.
33:57
Speaker 1: Let's look at some of the steps towards most healing
34:00
Speaker 1: you offer in the book. For those who've had an
34:03
Speaker 1: experience that made them feel unsafe, what steps may they take?
34:08
Speaker 2: Yes, So, when you are dealing with a sense of
34:14
Speaker 2: you don't feel like you have been safe, maybe you've
34:17
Speaker 2: been through trauma, Perhaps you have experienced something that is
34:23
Speaker 2: chronic stress or just a It doesn't even necessarily have
34:26
Speaker 2: to be labeled. Trauma can just be a very bad experience.
34:30
Speaker 2: There are several steps that you can take to help
34:33
Speaker 2: to bring yourself back to that place where you are
34:36
Speaker 2: attuned to the kinds of things that you want from
34:39
Speaker 2: your life. And the first few steps are trying to
34:43
Speaker 2: build a sense of safety. And I want to make
34:46
Speaker 2: clear that a lot of the times this isn't feeling
34:49
Speaker 2: perfectly safe all of the time. It's cultivating a sense
34:53
Speaker 2: of safety that brings you to a place where you
34:56
Speaker 2: feel safe enough in certain moments to be able to
35:00
Speaker 2: connect more deeply with yourself, to be able to connect
35:04
Speaker 2: with the plant allies that you're choosing, and to be
35:07
Speaker 2: able to be fully present while you're doing other exercises,
35:10
Speaker 2: whether it be journaling or yoga poses, or even just
35:14
Speaker 2: a walk in nature. So you start with that sense
35:17
Speaker 2: of cultivating safety, that is the ground level, that is
35:23
Speaker 2: your foundation for things, and then you move on to
35:27
Speaker 2: purposely creating sanctuary. So safety comes first, but then sanctuary
35:34
Speaker 2: begins to bloom out of the safety. When you're creating sanctuary,
35:38
Speaker 2: you're creating a little bit more space for you to
35:42
Speaker 2: explore that sense of tranquility, that sense of peace in
35:47
Speaker 2: that moment, so things are calm enough for you to
35:51
Speaker 2: go a little bit deeper and try to reconnect with
35:55
Speaker 2: what your body is telling you through that sensation language
35:59
Speaker 2: and what you need to continue growing, and then we
36:03
Speaker 2: start to shift our paradigm. So once you've gone through
36:07
Speaker 2: cultivating safety and creating sanctuary, you're going to begin shifting
36:12
Speaker 2: your paradigm. And this is almost always a requirement when
36:15
Speaker 2: you've been through something very difficult. Sometimes this is a
36:20
Speaker 2: belief that you have. Maybe it's a misbelief that you've
36:23
Speaker 2: held for a long time in your life that you
36:26
Speaker 2: have to shift in order to in order to get
36:31
Speaker 2: to a new step of healing. Sometimes the paradigm shift
36:37
Speaker 2: is coming from a misbelief that occurred after the trauma
36:41
Speaker 2: or after the extreme emotional event. So sometimes it's something
36:45
Speaker 2: we've held onto for a long time that creates a
36:47
Speaker 2: repeating pattern, and sometimes it's something that almost gets branded
36:52
Speaker 2: into your psyche when you have been through this extreme event.
36:56
Speaker 2: So that moment, the plants that you're using as you
37:00
Speaker 2: begin shifting your paradigm will help you to release those
37:05
Speaker 2: moments and shift towards something that will take you on
37:10
Speaker 2: your path of healing and you know, connecting with your
37:14
Speaker 2: higher self or with God or with the universe however
37:17
Speaker 2: that however you define that and once you begin to
37:20
Speaker 2: shift your paradigm, it becomes important to not just wildly
37:25
Speaker 2: flail about in your paradigm shift. We want to recenter
37:28
Speaker 2: towards something else, and that's when you recenter towards well being.
37:34
Speaker 2: And then the plants that you're using during those moments
37:37
Speaker 2: are usually going to be pretty grounding. They're going to
37:39
Speaker 2: have a lot of emotional support to kind of help
37:42
Speaker 2: buffer as you're trying to find that center, that well
37:46
Speaker 2: being and what that definition is for you. Then once
37:50
Speaker 2: you have kind of reset that, you're able to begin
37:54
Speaker 2: spreading out. So the first the first four steps really
37:58
Speaker 2: are about yourself and that inner world, and you know,
38:02
Speaker 2: maybe there's some shadow work that you're doing during these steps,
38:05
Speaker 2: or maybe there's a lot of journaling and recombobulating as
38:11
Speaker 2: it were, the types of things that you've experienced. Then
38:15
Speaker 2: you begin shifting outward. So once you have this this
38:19
Speaker 2: kind of foundation, then you shift outward and you begin
38:24
Speaker 2: finding belonging again. This is the point at which you
38:27
Speaker 2: begin finding a new you know, a new group, or
38:33
Speaker 2: or maybe you're back in the same community. But a
38:36
Speaker 2: lot of the times people find that when they begin
38:38
Speaker 2: the healing process, it can be a very lonely process
38:40
Speaker 2: at first, because your behavioral patterns shift, the things that
38:44
Speaker 2: you're doing change, and all of a sudden you are
38:47
Speaker 2: in a different community than you were before. And so
38:51
Speaker 2: finding belonging is a very important piece in that step.
38:54
Speaker 2: And then once you have started to build that belonging up,
38:58
Speaker 2: then that final step is to take all of the
39:01
Speaker 2: things that you've learned and take stock of where you
39:05
Speaker 2: are and begin to better attune to your soul's purpose.
39:09
Speaker 2: Not the things that other people think you should do,
39:12
Speaker 2: not the things that doctor Guthrie has told you to
39:15
Speaker 2: do on this podcast to make your life enlightened. No,
39:19
Speaker 2: it is specifically your soul's purpose and the things that
39:23
Speaker 2: work for you to help you to experience the fullness
39:27
Speaker 2: of this life.
39:29
Speaker 1: My guest, doctor Elizabeth Guthrie, her new book Somatic Herbalism,
39:34
Speaker 1: Healing Trauma through Plant Medicine and Polybagel Theory, will be
39:38
Speaker 1: back with more after these words on the Own Times
39:41
Speaker 1: Radio Network.
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Speaker 1: On Box Novus. My guest this week, doctor Elizabeth Guthrie
42:33
Speaker 1: her brand new book Somatic Herbalism, Healing Trauma through Plant
42:38
Speaker 1: Medicine and polybagel Theory. Elizabeth, can you give us examples
42:44
Speaker 1: of a few more of the plants you discuss in
42:46
Speaker 1: Somatic Herbalism and their abilities?
42:50
Speaker 2: Absolutely?
42:51
Speaker 1: So.
42:51
Speaker 2: We have several plants that are discussed throughout this book.
42:55
Speaker 2: And the idea with these plants is not to tell
42:58
Speaker 2: you that you have to use these plants for each
43:01
Speaker 2: of these steps. For instance, I have rose and cultivating safety,
43:06
Speaker 2: but some of you may find that rose really calls
43:09
Speaker 2: to you when you begin a tuning to your soul's purpose. So,
43:13
Speaker 2: as you're reading the book and as you're looking at
43:16
Speaker 2: these plant examples, I want you to recognize that there
43:19
Speaker 2: is a lot of space for exploring things. These are
43:24
Speaker 2: your starting points. This is not the end of the journey.
43:27
Speaker 2: I am not telling you, hey, like this is the
43:29
Speaker 2: only path. So as you started playing with these herbs
43:33
Speaker 2: and start exploring what they might mean to you, just
43:36
Speaker 2: remember that there's a lot more room to grow and
43:40
Speaker 2: to These relationships may change, and I want to start
43:45
Speaker 2: by sharing about rodeola. Rodeola was really the plant for
43:49
Speaker 2: me when I started discovering that the nervous system changing
43:54
Speaker 2: can change how you respond to plants. I was taking
43:57
Speaker 2: rodeola as a supplement after I would work out to
44:02
Speaker 2: help me to recover, and I really enjoyed it. It
44:05
Speaker 2: always made me feel very energized. I love the taste
44:09
Speaker 2: of it. I would do a tincture and for any
44:13
Speaker 2: of you who have have smelled rodeola, the reason that
44:17
Speaker 2: its name is rodeola rosea is because the root has
44:21
Speaker 2: a very distinctive rose smell, and so I was using
44:26
Speaker 2: a tincture that's had this just beautiful smell to it.
44:29
Speaker 2: You're very fragrant, and I loved the taste and it
44:33
Speaker 2: worked really well for me until I started experiencing the
44:37
Speaker 2: domestic violence. And pretty soon after the domestic violence started,
44:42
Speaker 2: I started noticing that I would take the rodeola and
44:45
Speaker 2: then I would become very nervous and it would, you know,
44:49
Speaker 2: my palms would sweat. I would just be very jittery.
44:51
Speaker 2: It was very uncomfortable, and at first I didn't realize
44:55
Speaker 2: what was happening. And like I said, there was a
44:57
Speaker 2: lot of Oh my goodness, I feel like I am
45:00
Speaker 2: uh failing. My body's failing. I'm not doing something right.
45:04
Speaker 2: But once I started to study and realize that the
45:08
Speaker 2: nervous system changes when you have been through extreme stress
45:12
Speaker 2: and it can take it time to come back to baseline,
45:15
Speaker 2: That's when I realized that what was happening with rodeola
45:18
Speaker 2: wasn't because I am broken or I am not ever
45:24
Speaker 2: going to be able to use it again. It was
45:26
Speaker 2: because I was living in a sympathetic nervous system state
45:30
Speaker 2: that was a response to the trauma that I was experiencing.
45:34
Speaker 2: Rodeola rosea is an energizing adaptogen, and so the energy
45:42
Speaker 2: when what happens if you drink coffee and you're already jettery,
45:46
Speaker 2: You're going to get more jttery. The coffee is going
45:48
Speaker 2: to give you the shakes, like you are going to
45:51
Speaker 2: more caffeine on top of caffeine. It's kind of the
45:54
Speaker 2: same thing here. Now rodeola doesn't have caffeine in it,
45:57
Speaker 2: but it has energizing properties to it. When you are
46:01
Speaker 2: in a sympathetic fight or flight state, rodiola may not
46:04
Speaker 2: be the right herb for you. You may need something
46:06
Speaker 2: that's a lot more calming, but it is great in
46:12
Speaker 2: moments where you are feeling a little bit numb, maybe
46:16
Speaker 2: you don't quite have enough energy, maybe you feel that
46:20
Speaker 2: dissociation or that sense of nothingness. Rodiola may help to
46:26
Speaker 2: support you and give your nervous system a little bit
46:29
Speaker 2: of energy to help bring you back to a place
46:32
Speaker 2: where movement is more possible. So I say that to
46:35
Speaker 2: say that a lot of these plants there are different
46:38
Speaker 2: pieces to them. It does not have to be exactly
46:41
Speaker 2: what I've written in the book, and you could use
46:44
Speaker 2: them at any point. Let's talk about rose for a minute.
46:47
Speaker 2: Rose is a beautiful plant. We think of it as
46:50
Speaker 2: the heart chakra plant. You know, it's very much related
46:53
Speaker 2: to caregivers, people who are taking care of other people.
46:57
Speaker 2: It's also known to be, you know, a an herb
47:01
Speaker 2: of love and things of that nature. I put rose
47:04
Speaker 2: in the Cultivating Safety chapter because it has a lot
47:09
Speaker 2: of capacity to support and to give you a sense
47:15
Speaker 2: of self love. That can be very helpful as you
47:19
Speaker 2: begin cultivating safety. Lavender is another one that I'm using
47:24
Speaker 2: in the Cultivating Safety chapter. And I will say that
47:27
Speaker 2: lavender is another one of these really interesting herbs that
47:31
Speaker 2: most of the time when you hear people talk about lavender,
47:33
Speaker 2: we talk about it is soothing, and you know, it's
47:36
Speaker 2: very encouraging and people love lavender, and for most people
47:41
Speaker 2: that's the case. Lavender has a lot of volatile compounds
47:47
Speaker 2: in it that are very helpful. The linilaic acid that's
47:52
Speaker 2: in it is very soothing, and so the linil law
47:56
Speaker 2: is something that you see in a lot of different plants.
48:00
Speaker 2: Lavender has a very strong concentration of lena law and
48:03
Speaker 2: it is very soothing for that reason. And so a
48:09
Speaker 2: lot of the times you talk about lavender as this
48:12
Speaker 2: kind of cure all for stress. But the reality is
48:16
Speaker 2: is that if you've had a lot of childhood adverse experiences,
48:21
Speaker 2: so a childhood trauma, or maybe you have a memory
48:27
Speaker 2: that is related to the smell of lavender, lavender can
48:32
Speaker 2: make you feel jittery. So for those of you who
48:34
Speaker 2: maybe are sitting here going, oh, I don't like lavender.
48:36
Speaker 2: It makes me feel weird, that's your nervous system speaking
48:39
Speaker 2: to you. You're already practicing polyvagel and somatics by noticing that,
48:44
Speaker 2: and you may shift away from something. Maybe you're not
48:47
Speaker 2: using lavender. Maybe you're looking at bergamot, you know, and
48:50
Speaker 2: using the essential oil of bergamot, which also has Lina
48:53
Speaker 2: law in it, but it has a very citrusy undertone
48:56
Speaker 2: to it. So you have all these different options and
48:58
Speaker 2: experiences that are out there. You know, I'll just real
49:03
Speaker 2: quickly go through a few more of these herbs that
49:05
Speaker 2: are here. Because we have passionflower, which is a beautiful plant.
49:10
Speaker 2: The passion flower that you normally see used in herbal
49:13
Speaker 2: medicine is passiflora in Karnada. But there are other forms
49:16
Speaker 2: of passion flower that have similar support, but some of
49:21
Speaker 2: them maybe have a little bit different. So you know,
49:24
Speaker 2: if you have a native form of passion flower near you,
49:27
Speaker 2: I encourage you to go find one of those vines
49:30
Speaker 2: and just sit with it and see what comes up
49:32
Speaker 2: for you. My granddaddy remembers passion flower the native vine
49:37
Speaker 2: here in Alabama, and he would he and his cousins
49:41
Speaker 2: would and his brothers would go and they would they
49:44
Speaker 2: would be with that plant and it. You know, it
49:47
Speaker 2: was something that was very soothing for them. You know,
49:50
Speaker 2: you have dandelion. We think of dandelion as a weed.
49:53
Speaker 2: Most people think of dandelion and they say, oh, I
49:55
Speaker 2: need that out of my yard. But dandelion has a
49:59
Speaker 2: lot of official properties. I put it in shifting your
50:02
Speaker 2: paradigm specifically, so that you, you know, we think of
50:06
Speaker 2: dandelion as a weed, but you start shifting your paradigm
50:09
Speaker 2: away from that and realizing that dandelion has a lot
50:13
Speaker 2: of valuable healing properties, both physically and emotionally. It also has,
50:18
Speaker 2: you know, the root is very beneficial to the liver
50:22
Speaker 2: and a lot of people, and it has the ability
50:24
Speaker 2: to kind of flush things out. Very much is about movement.
50:28
Speaker 2: The dandelion flowers are great and bread in the early spring.
50:33
Speaker 2: The small shoots of the dandelion leaves, you have to
50:37
Speaker 2: get them small. They get too big, they get too bitter.
50:39
Speaker 2: But the early shoots of the dandelion leaves are a
50:43
Speaker 2: nice little addition to a salad. And all of its
50:47
Speaker 2: benefits on the physical as well as the emotional level
50:50
Speaker 2: come from that movement, that resilience. So as you begin
50:54
Speaker 2: connecting with these different plants, you will find that different
51:01
Speaker 2: aspects of the plants will speak to you. Each plant
51:04
Speaker 2: is its own gemstone. It's faceted, and one facet one
51:09
Speaker 2: angle may be what speaks to you, and your best
51:12
Speaker 2: friend may find that a different facet, a different angle
51:16
Speaker 2: of that of that relationship speaks to them. You know,
51:20
Speaker 2: we have mullein, colindula, blue vervein, lemon grass. I just
51:23
Speaker 2: speak about a lot of the different plants that are
51:27
Speaker 2: out there and are available, that are relatively common and
51:32
Speaker 2: things that you can connect with very easily, whether it
51:34
Speaker 2: be on a physical level or maybe you know emotionally
51:38
Speaker 2: or or you know even more spiritually on that more universal,
51:42
Speaker 2: higher self plane as well.
51:44
Speaker 1: And also you offer some exercises in your book.
51:47
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, we have a lot of journaling entries. There's
51:52
Speaker 2: a lot of breath work exercises. We have things that
51:55
Speaker 2: are I've put in some different yoga poses, different moves, exercises,
52:01
Speaker 2: and this is for anyone you know, young, old, male, female,
52:06
Speaker 2: and wherever you are in life. You can explore these exercises.
52:10
Speaker 2: You can explore these different prompts to try to go
52:15
Speaker 2: deeper into these connections with these plants. And once you've
52:19
Speaker 2: gone through a few of them, you may even find
52:21
Speaker 2: that you like certain exercises for certain plants. Maybe there's
52:25
Speaker 2: other things that you know. Maybe you take one of
52:28
Speaker 2: the exercises and you apply it to a different plant.
52:31
Speaker 2: You get a different result, and it can be very
52:33
Speaker 2: interesting how that builds for you.
52:37
Speaker 1: In your research and work. Have you found that our
52:40
Speaker 1: ancestors who lived with a deeper connection to nature had
52:44
Speaker 1: less stress and emotional challenges.
52:47
Speaker 2: In some ways yes, and in other ways no, so
52:52
Speaker 2: and a lot. You know, it depends on which part
52:55
Speaker 2: of the ancestry you're talking about. But many people were
52:58
Speaker 2: not as connected and did not necessarily have the same
53:03
Speaker 2: level of understanding of the rhythms. But when you get
53:06
Speaker 2: to the people who did, and you find your ancestors
53:09
Speaker 2: who were connected, who paid attention to the rhythms of
53:13
Speaker 2: the seasons, not just for food, not just from a
53:16
Speaker 2: utilitarian standpoint of like, well, our agriculture has to work
53:20
Speaker 2: this way, but when they really start connecting with the
53:25
Speaker 2: soil and with the spirit of the land around them, Yes, absolutely,
53:32
Speaker 2: and I think that you know, that's what that's what
53:35
Speaker 2: we have to do. You know, the younger generation has
53:38
Speaker 2: started saying go out and touch grass. I say, I
53:41
Speaker 2: hear that sometimes, and and the point that they're making,
53:45
Speaker 2: of course, a lot of the times it's kind of
53:47
Speaker 2: tongue in cheek, right, they're kind of you know, ribbing
53:50
Speaker 2: each other for being on their phones too much. But
53:52
Speaker 2: the reality is is that we are surrounded by concrete.
53:56
Speaker 2: We are surrounded by artificial structures, and a lot of
53:59
Speaker 2: the times that's changed the way that even nature works
54:01
Speaker 2: around us. And think about cities and pop up thunderstorms
54:05
Speaker 2: that occur because of the heat centers of those cities,
54:08
Speaker 2: like it has changed weather and the more that we
54:12
Speaker 2: can get out into nature and not just get out
54:16
Speaker 2: there because oh well, doctor Guthrie said to go out
54:18
Speaker 2: in nature, So I guess I'm gonna go on a walk. No,
54:21
Speaker 2: if that's the case, take yourself a deep breath and
54:23
Speaker 2: find a way to connect with nature that speaks to
54:27
Speaker 2: your soul. Again, we're back to that attuning to the
54:31
Speaker 2: soul's purpose. Find ways to get out and be mindful
54:36
Speaker 2: while you are in nature, and to really start to
54:39
Speaker 2: pay attention to what those smells are that are around you.
54:43
Speaker 2: A lot of the trees will put out beneficial aromatics
54:47
Speaker 2: like alpha pining. There's research that's being done is to like,
54:50
Speaker 2: when you're in the forest and you're breathing in the air,
54:53
Speaker 2: what does that feel like when you do those things
54:55
Speaker 2: and you find ways to get back into nature and
55:01
Speaker 2: to surround yourself with the Schumann resonance of the earth,
55:04
Speaker 2: with the smells and the sights and the sounds. Then
55:08
Speaker 2: you are going to find that that you have a
55:12
Speaker 2: little bit more perspective, and you have that space to
55:15
Speaker 2: take a breath and make a different choice tomorrow and
55:19
Speaker 2: bring yourself to a place where the challenges of today
55:22
Speaker 2: are not nearly the kind of struggle that they are
55:26
Speaker 2: when you're stuck inside four walls all the time.
55:28
Speaker 1: And as the generation that I grew up in back
55:31
Speaker 1: in the sixties and seventies used to sing, we've got
55:33
Speaker 1: to get ourselves back to the garden.
55:36
Speaker 2: Yes, Yes, my.
55:38
Speaker 1: Guest, doctor Elizabeth Guthrie her brand new book Somatic Herbalism
55:42
Speaker 1: Healing Trauma through Plant Medicine and poly Bagel Theory. Elizabeth,
55:46
Speaker 1: one more time, please share with our listeners whether it
55:48
Speaker 1: and get your books and find out more about you
55:50
Speaker 1: and your wonderful work.
55:52
Speaker 2: My books, The Trauma Informed Herbalist and Somatic Herbalism are
55:55
Speaker 2: available wherever books are sold, and you can find out
55:59
Speaker 2: more about my work at Trauma Informederbalist dot com.
56:03
Speaker 1: Doctor Elizabeth Guthrie, thank you so much for joining us
56:05
Speaker 1: today and sharing all of this valuable information.
56:09
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me, and thank you.
56:11
Speaker 1: For joining us on Vox Novus. I'm Victor, the Voice Furman.
56:15
Speaker 1: Have a wonderful week.