125 | Reconnecting with Herbs with Kimberly Gallagher

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Hi there, welcome to In the Clinic with Camille. My name is Camille Freeman,

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and this podcast is for herbalists and nutritionists who are in clinical practice.

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Today, I am delighted to bring to you an interview with Kimberly Gallagher.

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If you don't already know Kimberly, she's the co-founder of LearningHerbs.com.

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Learning Herbs is a platform where you can subscribe, they have a membership

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program, and it's for anybody who's learning about herbs, whether you're brand

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new to the field or you've been doing it for quite a while, they have something for everyone there.

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There's just a wealth of courses and information and monographs,

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so it's a resource that I often recommend. If you've been around me for a while,

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you probably have heard me say, go check out Learning Herbs.

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It's so affordable. It's a great resource.

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Kimberly is also the author of the book Aphrodisiac, The Herbal Path to Healthy

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Sexual Fulfillment and Vital Living.

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She created the Wildcraft board game. She wrote the Herb Theory's children's

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book series and online learning system and so forth.

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Kimberly writes that she loves to teach through experience and play and is the

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proud mother of two grown children.

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So the reason I invited Kimberly on to talk to us today is because she is getting

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ready to launch a course that she's co-teaching.

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I'll put info about the course in the show notes.

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But I thought, you know, this course is all about...

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Getting to know herbs in a very grounded way.

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And I think especially those of us in clinical practice, sometimes it's easy

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to get drawn into the academic side of things and to lose the plot a little

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bit on what it's like to just be with herbs in the role of a learner.

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And of course, for those of you who are nutritionists and are still in the earlier

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phases of learning about herbs, I thought this class could be something that

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you might be interested in as well.

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So I wanted to talk to her about how the idea came to be, what the course is

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all about, and just the general idea of some of the different ways that we can

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know and learn from and with and about plants.

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So I hope you enjoyed this interview. If you would like to learn more about

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the course, you can check out the show notes. We'll put the link in there.

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It should be open for enrollment at the time that this episode is released.

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Otherwise, enjoy this conversation. I will be back next week with another episode.

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And thank you, as always, for being here and doing what you do.

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All right, Kimberly, I am so happy we were able to make this work.

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I invited you here to come talk about a program that you're doing,

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because I think there's actually a lot as practitioners we can learn from the program.

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So do you want to just tell us a little bit about the program?

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Give us the sort of bird's eye view of what it is and what's happening in this

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new program you're creating?

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Oh, I would so love to. Yeah, thanks so much for inviting me on.

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It's really great to be here. And yeah, my friend Lauren Morgan and I co-created

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this course, and it is called Rhythms and Relationships, A Feminine Way into Herbalism.

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And we're really centering the less book learning parts of herbalism and sort of this.

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Deep ancestral piece, you know, where we learned about the plants through being

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in relationship with them.

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So sitting with plants and dreaming with the plants and following our intuition.

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You know, I think oftentimes as herbalists, we can get into this place where

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we need to make sure there's a scientific study behind everything that we're doing.

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And all of that, you know, is really valid information.

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But I think there's this piece that can get lost that's really about kind of

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being in love with the plants.

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And just like, wow, you know, I'm so grateful to be able to bring rose in and

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make a body oil for myself and just being in the sensual nature of herbalism and.

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The relationship part of herbalism.

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So we're lifting that up and bringing it into the light as equally valid ways of being an herbalist.

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Oh, I love this. And I think right now, especially with all of the time people

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are spending on devices and screens, it seems like,

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being embodied with the plants is a particularly lovely way to go about things,

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maybe to counterbalance some of

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our academic head screen time that's happening for many of us right now.

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Yes. Yeah, I think that's one of my focuses in life in general is to be embodied

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and to be actually connecting with the world around us.

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I think modern life is going more and more onto screens and into research and

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books. And, you know, we...

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Started out as a species living in caves and, like, going out and harvesting

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the plants for food and for medicine.

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And, you know, we didn't have access to this overload of information that comes

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at us, and yet we were able to.

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Survive and even thrive enough to create future generations and generations.

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So, this embodied kind of knowledge is so much a part of who we are as humans.

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And so, to just remember that and honor that piece feels really important.

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And especially in these times as the infrastructure around us is really changing right now.

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It feels like we're We're moving from one way that we've been on this planet

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to a new way. You know, we don't know what that's going to look like yet as

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things start to shift and change.

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And this course was kind of a response to these times.

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We were really inspired to take some time and really listen to the earth.

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And the course is a prayer from ourselves and the earth.

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And it's like the way that we taught the course was to open a ceremony and to.

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Listen and trust that what came through us was what the earth and the plants

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wanted to be delivered to the humans at this time.

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So, you know, we, of course, made our outlines and, you know,

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made sure that we're delivering value to all of you.

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And, yeah, it's kind of a course where you step outside of time a little bit

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and into this realm of deep connection with the earth and the plants. Hmm.

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You know, and the people who listen to this podcast are largely herbalists and

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nutritionists. And I'm wondering, you know, we can take these groups one by

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one, but let's start with the herbal folks.

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You know, a lot of us as herbalists do have intensive training,

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and many folks started from that place of connection with plants.

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And then once you get into clinical practice, sometimes you're spending so much

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time, way more time than you ever thought it would be, behind a computer screen,

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you know, doing admin and websites and charting and all this stuff.

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And I think it's very easy as a practitioner to kind of lose that connection

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with the plants in a visceral, hands-on way.

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Do you think this class would be appropriate for somebody who actually does

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have a lot of herbal training, but that's maybe kind of veered away from that

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just guided experience nature? Or do you think this would be better for somebody

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who's truly more of a beginner?

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You know, a lot of the information is geared to people who are beginning,

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and yet I do think it's very appropriate for people who are in that space of just,

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practicing and having kind of lost track of that part where they're wanting,

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to be an experience with the plants.

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Because we're going to be, you know, offering these home plays where you can

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do a plant sit and really dream, learn to dream with the plants and bring them

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in and ask for information through your dreams.

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And there's a lot of experiences that we're creating with this course.

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So it will give you a chance to be with other people who are just playing in these realms again.

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And to, I think there's something about that, like the community aspect of it.

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Of course, you can go do a plant sit on your own and you can,

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you know, play around with your dreams, but this would give you a group of people

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who are all doing that at the same time so we can, you know,

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lift it up and really just learn from each other.

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And I think there's something about that, that group energy that's going to

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bring more vibrancy to that exploration for you.

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So if it's, you know, if it's something that you're wanting to reinvigorate,

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I think it would be a fun experience to come through the class with us.

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Oh, I love that. And yes, I do love that.

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It just seems like sometimes when you do something for work,

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you lose that beginner's mind of play and joy and exploration,

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and you're sort of coming at it from a different mind angle.

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So I like the idea of, you know, either reconnecting, like you said,

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and doing it on your own and getting back to that thing. But if a lot of people

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might be better served to have some guidance.

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Yeah, you know, we have that intention to go and do a plant set,

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but do we actually take the time for that?

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But if you're, like, in a class where everybody's going to do that and you're

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going to come back together on a live and share about what you did,

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you know, it's going to give you some motivation to actually be out and doing it.

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Yeah, and it's a chance to really connect with the seasons again and with, you know, the moon.

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And there's kind of a ceremonial aspect to the course too where we go into a

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moon lodge or a moon temple and we have this vision of doing our live that week

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with everybody kind of creating their own red tent and coming into it

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and so we'll be meeting on Zoom,

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from our womb space where we're really held and nurtured.

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So it will also just give that boost to the feminine parts of your life and really.

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Hold you in this beautiful, nourishing way. So, I love that.

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And just a small sidetrack before we get to our nutrition folks.

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I know you said a couple times it's a feminine guide in, or is it open to people

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who identify with all sorts of, you know, genders and expressions?

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Or are you really hoping to kind of limit it to people who identify in that

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feminine way? Or is it more like, well, everybody has a feminine side,

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so come on in no matter what. Yes.

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Yeah. No, it really is open to people of all genders, you know,

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however you identify gender-wise.

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And just to know that we're really focusing on the feminine in this particular course.

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And I think that, yeah, like you said, everybody has that feminine and masculine within themselves.

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So whatever gender we are identifying as, I think we can benefit from just,

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coming into this feminine way, which is very nurturing, and it's interconnected, and it's intuitive.

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So it's some of those ways that the current culture, you know,

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the patriarchal culture kind of pushes down and.

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And so it's an opportunity for any of us to just reconnect with that feminine

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part of our knowing and lift it back up and bring it into the way that we're

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practicing our herbalism.

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So, you know, there's these modules where we invite you into the Moon Temple

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and we talk about the phases of a woman's life.

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And at the same time, it's information that, you know, people of all genders

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are going to get something out of.

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And we really, in the Moon Temple episode, we, like, welcome everybody in.

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Like, come on, this is your chance to come into the Moon Temple,

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you know, and find out what we do in this space, you know, in this feminine space.

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So you can lift up your feminine, regardless of what gender you're identifying with.

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I love it. Love it. Yeah, it seems like whether people menstruate or not,

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there's still that, you know, there's that yin and yang component that does

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seem quite out of balance at a larger level worldwide.

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Yeah, I think the world is really calling for the feminine right now.

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So, yeah, we wanted to kind of respond to that call and say,

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okay, we're going to, you know, do this course to really bring that in right now.

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Yeah. And just, okay, so to go back to our nutrition practitioners,

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we have a number of nutrition practitioners who know a lot about herbs, maybe are co-trained.

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Then we have some folks who are more dipping their toes into the practice of

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herbalism and bring herbs into their clinical practices.

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Do you think this might be a reasonable place to dive in as a nutritionist?

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Oh, you know, want to speak to that a little bit, perhaps?

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Yeah, there's a section of the course where I bring people into my kitchen.

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Like, I am more of a kitchen herbalist. So I just wanted to share with people,

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like, the ways that I bring the herbs into my diet for nutrition.

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So I talk about nourishing herbal infusions and making herbal vinegars.

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And, you know, these might be all things that we know. But also just like

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looking at the kitchen and realizing that, you know, if we're actually going

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to bring these things in, we need to make them accessible in our kitchens and

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we need to have, you know, strategies for not only gathering the plants.

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And making things with them, but how do we actually get those into our diet?

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So there's all these different components to that, right? Like when to gather

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the herbs and how to preserve them. What are the different ways that we can do that?

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And then how do we actually prepare them so that they get into our food?

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And so we talk about, you know, making pestos or once you've got the vinegar

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infused, you know, you can make a salad dressing or you can make a shrub or

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here are some different ways to actually get it into your body and into your family's body.

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And so I think for nutritionists, that kind of information is important,

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not only for themselves, but for people that they're working with.

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Because, you know, you can recommend an herb to a person, but if they don't

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actually get it into their body, then it's not going to actually help them, right?

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So, like, just thinking about the different parts and how to bring that in in

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a way that's actually going to work can be a part of this course.

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And you might get some new ideas along the way and get a sense of,

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you know, how I've done it.

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And then from the community, we can also learn from each other,

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you know, so much, which is one of the things I love about having the live component

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is that we can all be learning from each other.

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Yes, I love it. I love it. Amazing.

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Well, is there anything else you wanted to share to our herbal and nutrition

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folks who are listening just in terms of.

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The course or just the overall kind of, I hear in your words,

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almost like a call to lean into this component of your life and your practice,

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whether the course is relevant or not, but just this acknowledgement that,

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in order to balance, we need to think about academics and studies and books

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and computers and things like that sometimes.

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But to balance it out with also the more embodied, feminine,

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intuitive approach to understanding people and plants and life in general as well.

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So anything else on your heart or your mind to say at this moment in time before we wrap up?

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Just that I would really love to, you know, welcome any of you into this course.

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I think it's going to be an experience that we are going to be in together and,

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we're really going to be stepping into this shared kind of ceremony together,

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as a course and moving through something that is really unique and is really

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going to bring us to places that we don't even know yet.

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It will really be informed by who joins us and we can do so much more with each

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person bringing their gifts to what we're creating here.

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So I would just, I would really love to welcome any of you in.

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Yeah, my friend Lauren, her passion is really about dreaming with the plants.

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And so she brings a wealth of information about connecting with the plants through our dreams.

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And if that's something that entices you, like she's become quite an expert

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on this aspect of herbal learning.

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And so I think that will be something that might also spark the interest of,

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different folks. So, yeah, we'd love to have you join us for this journey.

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I love it. Well, I will put, I will absolutely put the registration info in the show notes.

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So if anyone wants to find out more about the course and sign up,

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I will make sure that that's possible. And then, of course, I'll put in the

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Learning Herbs links as well and more information about Kimberly.

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So, amazing, Kimberly. Thank you so much for coming on to talk to us.

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I just love hearing about the different programs that people envision and bring into the world.

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And this one in particular seems really special and really different than what's

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out there. And I'm so glad that you have taken the time and put in all the love

00:18:17.326 --> 00:18:20.076
and effort that I know goes into this like this.

00:18:21.776 --> 00:18:27.677
So much. Yes. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me.