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The Age Old Practice of Herbal Energetics

Herbal Energetics, Bev McLeish Chartered Herbalist Herbal North Aurora York Region Out of the Woods Wellness in Aurora

The practice of energetics is almost as old as herbal medicine. It has been practiced for thousands of years around the globe, but what exactly is it?

The general idea behind energetics is body balance or homeostasis.  This idea is connected to the herbalist belief that the body can heal itself. That it will do whatever it can to even out its internal processes to come back to its original state of health/balance. Energetics is a method we use to view what’s going on inside the body to help it return to its normal state using herbs.

How the Ancients Viewed Disease

Long ago, disease was seen as a sign that the body was experiencing internal disharmony or imbalance. Symptoms weren’t seen as the problem, but pointed to how the body had to contort itself to continue to function. It was believed that disease, or dis-ease, occurs when one organ isn’t functioning properly. Another organ or function in the body starts to overwork or stops working altogether to compensate instead. Once this happens we start to see or experience symptoms that create pain or discomfort for us.

The symptoms themselves weren’t necessarily seen as the problem but as a sign post or a red flag that communicated what might be going on in the body so that the source of the symptoms could be addressed. The body and disease are seen holistically when using energetics.

The Six Tissue States

Traditional medicines use various ways to understand the body’s language and help the body make the internal adjustment back to health. In those days, we all trusted the plants and our bodies to be on our side. We believed that our body and plant remedies could be trusted and worked together to help us regain a healthy state. We saw these entities as sources of great intelligence.

To continue reading this blog please click here…

 

Bev McLeish

Chartered Herbalist

Herbal North

 

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An Herbalist’s Perspective on the Legalization of Marijuana

Legalizition of Marijuana, Bev McLeish, Herbal North, Out of the Woods Wellness Aurora

Just like everything else, the legalization of cannabis and its various product derivatives brings both positives and negatives. My perspective as an Herbalist is unique. I work with natural plants every day to help people with their physical concerns. So it probably goes without saying that my opinion will differ from the majority.

Here’s my take on this development and my advice to any who may wish to experiment with these new products.

On the Positive Side…

With this new change in legislation, society is starting to reflect a more open mindset. The idea that the natural world can’t be trusted is eroding away. Ten short years ago, cannabis was seen as an enemy to civilized society, something only the young or rebellious would use. Two decades ago, the idea that we would legalize marijuana was laughable.

Since then we’ve done a lot of changing and we are now starting to recognize that there are viable natural alternatives to address our health concerns. This shift is small but mighty and I believe it’s just a matter of time before other plants finally see their day in the sun.

Once the majority agrees that one plant can support our well-being and quality of life without the scary side effects of man-made drugs, it’s just a matter of time before other plants receive their much due recognition. This is the reason why we’ve used plants for health for thousands of years.

It’s Not All Rosy Though

Being an herbalist, you’d think I would praise CBD, cannabis and marijuana from the rooftops as the next best thing. I won’t. In fact, I have to admit I get a little angry when I see people who don’t know anything about plants selling CBD oil and saying everyone should be taking it.

To continue reading the rest of this article please click here…

 

Bev McLeish

Chartered Herbalist

Herbal North

 

 

 

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Worrying is Mental Rehearsal for Failure

Worry, Mental Rehearsal, It Can Be Different, Karen Spencer NLP Aurora York Region

Worrying about an upcoming event, appointment, job interview, presentation, exam or really just about anything is normal. We all do it.  And the more important the event, the more worried we become.

We imagine we will forget things, get lost, mess up our words, look silly, get embarrassed, perform poorly, not get the results we are hoping for…….

As the days to the event gets closer and closer, the worrying becomes more and more intense and vivid. It begins to impede on our daily activities and on our ability to rest and relax.

What we are actually doing is mentally rehearsing failure over and over again.  We are unintentionally programming ourselves for the one thing we don’t want which is to fail.

So What is Mental Rehearsal?

Mental rehearsal is a powerful technique that has been used by sports psychologists and trainers for over 50 years.  It is the process by which you imagine yourself in the future performing or being in a situation.

High performers in sports, performing arts, and business use this technique to up their game and to prepare themselves to ace whatever they are doing.  They mentally rehearse over and over again, refining and perfecting their performance each time.  They are teaching their mind and body what to do when the real-life situation is in front of them.

Worriers use the same technique of mental rehearsal except for the opposite result.  Worriers imagine their performance as not being the best ever, but the worst ever.  Not as getting them closer to their goals and dreams, but to pull themselves down the slope of failure and disaster.

Over and over again they rehearse the event with the results being more and more disastrous.  And each time they do this their body gets into the negative emotions that are related to the imagined poor outcome – sadness, disappointment, anger, embarrassment.

The body isn’t sure if the event is imagined or real, so it responds with all of the stress hormones associated with these negative emotions. It pulls the body into an unhealthy state.

To continue reading the rest of this blog please click here…

 

Karen Spencer

Master Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) Practitioner and Coach, Master Time Line Therapy® Practitioner, Master Hypnotherapist

It Can Be Different

 

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Herbalism –A Holistic Approach

Herbalism Aurora - Herbal North Bev McLeish Herbalist Newmarket - Holistic Health

Most modern Western herbalists would say they practice holistically. We hear the term all the time but what does it really mean? First of all, holistic medicine recognizes that it takes more than a pill or cream to improve a person’s sense of wellness.

Traditional Medicine Models

Holistic approaches to wellness look at the entire person and sees physical health as only one aspect of what creates meaningful health. Traditional medicine models are similar in that they take the entire person and their experiences into consideration. They review a person’s mental, emotional, physical, social and spiritual state (which includes morality and ethics) in order to determine what the person needs to come back into balance. A main goal is to get a person to a point where they function productively in all of areas of life so they can reach their full potential.

Native American Medicine is a Prime Example

Native American traditional medicine uses what’s called a medicine wheel representing the four aspects of self and of the life cycle. Their definition of medicine encompasses so much more than what makes the body feel better. They believe medicine can include an idea that gives someone a new, more constructive and compassionate perspective on a problem. Medicine is anything that gives you courage, calms you or teaches you something you didn’t know before. Anything that feeds your mind, body and spirit to bring you back into balance is considered medicine.

How Herbalism Fits

Herbalism, as a form of holistic practice, attempts to empower the individual by treating them as an equal and fully participating partner in the work it takes to get results. A thorough intake (or evaluation) is done usually lasting an hour or more. Personal questions are asked about the person’s past; emotional state; body functions and their regularity; a detailed description of current illnesses and what they feel like; past or present traumatic events; diet; family and family medical history; sleeping patterns and their historical medical conditions.

Everything a person does or experiences contributes to or contaminates the whole. Therefore, separating a person’s illness from everything else disregards a crucial part of the puzzle to help a person regain and maintain wellness.

Click here to read the whole blog post over on HerbalNorth.ca…

 

Bev McLeish
Chartered Herbalist
Herbal North

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What Does Anxiety Look Like?

what does anxiety feel like, Karen Spencer NLP, Out of the Woods Wellness Aurora

In this blog, we are going to explore what anxiety looks like, what it feels like, and how it shows up in our lives.  I am talking about anxiety that is not productive.  You know, the kind that keeps you up at night, that stops you in your tracks, that makes you and everyone around you crazy.

This unhealthy anxiety can strike at any moment and usually does.  It sometimes creeps into your life bit by bit, tapping you on the shoulder like a person trying to get your attention.  Or it can barge into your life like a house invader that just broke down the front door.  Throwing things around without regard for your feelings.  Totally unwanted and frightening.

What Does Anxiety Feel Like?

When someone asks me what anxiety feels like, I generally talk about these symptoms.  You can feel panicky, unsure, irritable, jittery, numb.  Sometimes you become hypervigilant.  You can experience headaches, migraines, vomiting, nausea, clammy hands, clenched jaw, panting, trembling, racing heart, inability to speak or think clearly, breathlessness, tight chest or insomnia.  You can start performing repeated patterns such as scratching or picking at yourself and you can develop a sensitivity to light or sound.

Thoughts You Can’t Turn Off

You may also have repetitive thoughts that you cannot turn off, no matter how hard you try.  Random, flittering thoughts that are most likely negative and predict a worse-case scenario.  These thoughts tend to lead from one disaster to another such as “this will happen and then that will happen and then that will cause this to happen.”

These stories that we tell ourselves are vivid and melodramatic with everything that could possibly go wrong occurring all at once.  These stories are always in the future and have nothing to do with the exact moment that we are living in.  Convoluted and detailed, they become ingrained in our current consciousness as if they were actually happening.

All of this thinking and imagining is so easily triggered and yet so very difficult to stop.

To continue reading the rest of this blog, click here …

 

Karen Spencer

Master Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) Practitioner and Coach, Master Time Line Therapy® Practitioner, Master Hypnotherapist

It Can Be Different

 

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