Summary
As a super quiet, observing kid, Carolyn often had her head in a book or went adventuring on her own. As an adult this lead to naturally hermitty behaviour before she actively decided to show others that shy characters can do bold & hard things too - especially if they take tea wherever they go. Now, woven into a well connected community she is more or less living her daydream of tea caravans, herbal gardens, her very own herbal medicine book & a throng of good folks around her.
She reveals that growing herbs was her gateway to herbalism & that we can all know their potency by incorporating them into every day life & not just turning to them when we're sick. But to do this we must get to know them. The best way to become intimate is to grow them, dry them, taste them, smell them, feel how they moves through your body.
Join us on a magical herbal love-affair!

Links You'll Love
The Medicine Garden - Carolyn Parker
The Cottage Herbalist

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We talked about:
Her seasonal daily rhythm
“It was a daydream of mine not to wake up to an alarm but to wake up with the sunshine”
Being a poly-jobist: business woman, gardener, herbalist
"I’m an evolved that-way sort of person - I straddle between being a list maker & a meanderer".
Being the kid who wasn’t ultra conversational & actively moving through the discomfort of it & learning to have conversations & a little false bravado
I want to show other reserved/shy people that you can o scary things
“I think we are hard wired for comfort but this doesn't allow us to reach our potential”
Taking herself off to a boxing gym to learn how to be assertive & confident
Drawing daydream gardens
Discovering you can be a herbalist later in life
Being a naturopath is so much more than a job - enabling the patient to undertake holistic change is really where the opportunity to change is.
Viewing it more as a lifestyle is part of the solution
Teaching her patients skills rather than selling them potions
Leading patients to veggie gardens, kimchi pots, community & settled adrenals
Wearing fun clothes & sporting dirty fingernails at the same time
Picking outfits like her dinner, according to colour
Award winning tea blends - making tea since big enough to be trusted with a kettle
Starting her tea caravan
Not being nostalgic
The importance of being connected to people
Stop moving the goal posts without appreciating what you've achieved

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