Calling All Walkers!
(Hey that’s funny because my friend’s last name is Walker and that’s not what I meant but Hi!!)

By Walkers, I’m really referring to allllll the people who have discovered or doubled down on walking outside as their movement of choice during our Covid shutdowns. 

Hi everyone! Thanks for inviting me here today. How’s the walking going?

At this stage of the meeting we’d share highlights of our favorite routes- seeing trees flower and leaf out all spring, making friends with squirrels and cardinals and in one case a neighborhood llama, discovering magical hidden forest paths and evil poison ivy. (I know it’s not the poison ivy’s fault, it’s just trying to not get eaten, but it does SUCH a good job…shudder)

And now we get to the heart of this discussion. How’s the actual walking going? How are your feet, your ankles, your shins, your hamstrings, your hips? How about the low back, shoulders, and neck? Any soreness, tension, unevenness, inflammation, or pain?

Mmm, yes, I thought there might be. And yes, I have some ideas for you. But my first one, the baseline suggestion if you will, isn’t going to be as sexy as you might like. Here it is:

Now, I know you already are paying attention. To your podcasts, to your step count, to your mileage tracker, to your max heart rate percentage number thingy.

​​I’m asking you to pay attention to something even more important- you.

• How do your feet feel on your path? Can they even feel? 
• Are you walking by tipping forward, or by pushing from your back leg? Can you tell?
• Do your hips lift your legs, or swing them around to get them in front?
• How deep do your ankles bend on an incline? 
• Can your feel your spine muscles on the opposite side of a step helping keep you up?
• Do you lead with your chin, your chest, your pelvis, or your foot?

I know- we’re so used to the outside stimulation of our earbuds and our trackers and even our walking partners, and what I’m describing here is essentially a walking meditation.

Getting quiet and paying attention to the internal outputs, instead of the external inputs. This is challenging. But try it. Pick a section of your regular route to pause your phone. Spend a few minutes in quiet between songs or episodes. Investigate one new sensation or observation each time you go out. 

Or. And. Here’s a bigger shift you can try- wear thinner shoes, and see how that feels. Get your individual foot structures moving more. Explore texture, changing surfaces, temperatures, angles and slopes, starting with the pads of your toes. 

​It’s tough to balance how much exercise we’re supposed to be doing to stay healthy, and much we want to or can do. And one of the best ways to make sure we’re on track is with a fitness tracker, right?

So I have a confession to make- I gave up my FitBit. 

I know, it seems counterproductive. Controversy!

But here’s the argument I’d like you to consider: I had gotten so attached to the metrics on my FitBit that I stopped paying attention to my own measures of wellness and comfort, and it was doing me more harm than good.

The big example I have, the one thing that made me realize just how confused my priorities had become, is my home office situation. If you follow me on Instagram you may remember my video from several weeks back that showed my new set-up- I had rearranged my office so that I now had a floor desk. 

Ugh, how inconvenient! Sitting on the floor sounds awful, doesn’t it?

That’s the idea. If I sit on the floor, not only do I have the opportunity to move my lower body in a variety of ways, I also simply can’t stay in them very long. Floor sitting guarantees me more movement in my day as I shift and stretch and get up more often. 

I have a small rug, a heavy cushion, and a pair of yoga blocks to give me some texture and elevation options, but it’s mostly about changing what my hips were doing so they didn’t spend hours and hours at a 90 degree angle in a chair all day anymore. 

Sure enough, my daily mileage went up. I was getting up more, going up and down my stairs more, and generally getting more movement in. I was syncing that little FitBit several times a day, watching with delight as the little circle filled up and feeling virtuous.

Here I’d like to mention that since the beginning of this year I’ve also been taking walks at the local park, with hills and a variety of path surfaces and lots of trees. Vitamin Nature, yum.

So what’s the problem? Well, the problem was that since I achieved my goal of moving more by changing my office around, I never checked in to assess if “more” made things “better”. I was starting to feel irritated by my setup, and not just because I was on the floor. 

Then, my FitBit battery ran low, and I realized I had misplaced the charger. OK, no problem, I’ll be fine. I know how many loops at the park make up my walks, I know what my normal office days are like, just keep it up and… who am I kidding.

I quit my 6 months of several-times-a-day dopamine hit of validation that I was doing good things habit cold turkey, and that was HARD.

But. However. And then. Within just a couple days I had figured it out. Yes I was floor sitting, good girl, but my left side was right up against my old desk and there was nowhere for my legs to stretch out. I had allocated myself this little space and never looked at whether it was a good fit for me. 

I was only concerned with what the FitBit told me, not with what I was telling me. This week I rearranged my floor office space and gave myself much more space to sit in, and now I love it. 

And now I love my walks again, too. Instead of feeling the wristband getting sweaty and wondering if it’s counting this as active exercise or am I going too slow and should I do another lap because I didn’t do all my flows this morning… I’m listening to my earbuds and practicing breathing more deeply through my nose and feeling the mulch and the rocks under my feet and smelling the cedar grove I love to visit and watching the creek fall over the old dam. 

And I feel good. 

So I’m not arguing that you shouldn’t track your metrics. Go ahead, join the 100 miles a month club! But I am sharing my lesson with you that the metrics aren’t all that, if you’re not actually feeling it and you’re shutting those messages down in favor of the external numbers.

Solstice has come and gone. Here in the northeastern US, summer is setting in and it’s traditionally about time for humidity, sandy toes, sunburn, mosquitos, and garden-fresh tomatoes. This year, of course, there’s extra concerns about avoiding people, breathing through a mask, and doing more to stay well on our own. 

Walking has become MANY people's activity of choice since our shutdowns, and now that it's summer here the weather can really get in the way. My coach Racheal Cook described her "Thrive List" this week- it's a list of the the things you need in your life to really thrive, and in looking at mine I realized I really do feel better when I move.

At the same time, though, I wilt like a piece of spring mix in the heat, so I also made a list of workarounds to stop my objections before they start!

These are my goals for daily walking in a Philly summer:

​Obvs, this is a given. I have 2 solutions, one expected and one maybe not. 

First, go really early. Like, dawn. I’ve taken to sleeping with my curtains open so I wake up then anyway, and it really is a magical time. It’s cool and quiet, except for the birds- SO many birds! And then later, after I’ve gotten my day pretty much accomplished, and it’s the hot part of the afternoon and I start wilting (yes I have AC, doesn’t matter!) I can take a lovely nap, maybe even in the hammock. Perfect. .

Second, get off the path. My local park has lovely trails in the woods, and for whatever reason people just don’t use them as much. But there’s shade and it’s cool and I love trees, so the whole thing is a win for me. 

Again, early. Again, wooded paths. But also, cool herbal teas… so good! Lots of herbs are packed with minerals and other nutrients and they act like electrolyte drinks without the weird dyes and overpowering flavors and ridiculous sweetness. I like things like Nettle and Red Raspberry Leaf mixed with Hibiscus and Lemon Balm and Tulsi (aka Holy Basil). It’s like that old “zingy” tea by that big company that everyone’s had, but so much better.

I have a few gallon glass jars (ask at a deli or restaurant if they have an empty glass pickle jar you can rescue) so I drop in 10-12 tea bags total, or 1-2 handfuls of loose herbs each. I fill it with hot water after dinner and put it in my back porch overnight (no sense heating my kitchen more!) Next 2-4 days, depending, I have a fabulous, tart, mineral-rich iced tea ready to sip all day long. 

Now it’s your turn. What are your fair-weather goals? What are your tips to meet them?

Here we have Nettle, flowered and going to seed, and if you look closely👀 you can also see the little spikes that sting you! I might not have gotten the focus quite right, but there's quite a bit going on in this pic.

We talk about exotic superfoods like they must come from far flung regions to be useful, when we ignore, poison, cut down, and don't even recognize the ones that are right under our noses!

As a food medicine, the all-around amazingness of Nettle is hard to match, let alone beat.

Nettle draws out the superhero in all of us too, by nourishing us to our max.

​Who's a Nettle person? We could all be Nettle people. Do you have a Nettle patch?

​Meet all the Herbs I've covered so far in my free Resources Hub

It's awkward to talk about selling my services. On the one hand, I want to keep reading and learning and digging into this anti-racism work since I'm late to the party. On the other hand, if I do make sales I have income that I can use for donation-based and purchasing-education support as well. 

So I decided I'm not selling the Chronic Stress Recovery program, instead I'm donating it to those who need it most, and I will be selling the Foot to Forehead Fix again soon. More on that later. 

First though, one thing I hear consistently from anti-racism educators is how exhausting it is to simply live in this system. This might be something I can help with.

From my Chronic Stress Recovery page: 

Hopefully this service helps ease some of the physical consequences and complications that come from chronically trying to survive in high stress environments. If you are BIPOC or LGBTQ+ and are interested in this free coaching program, read more and schedule a clarity call with me here.

Not only does this allow your digestive organs to practice contracting down to their smallest size, the emptiness allows time for any needed repair and construction work to happen. 

​Give your digestive organs a break, and a chance to change sizes. Give the lymph fluid and connective tissue around your organs some space, and some fresh blood flow. And give all the tissues a chance to heal: the GI tract really has a lot of constant damage to repair, so a pause gives all this a chance to happen.

Practice these 3 exercises for your Digestive System, and let me know how you're feeling! And Learn more about exercising your insides and outsides, for structural and systemic health, in my Foot to Forehead Fix program.

Inequality is rampant, and I'm finally doing my part to help. 

Anyone who has benefited from this system (spoiler alert, that’s everyone who’s not a person of color) needs to be doing the work to dismantle internal and systemic bias, not just overt and blatant racism.

This is truly a “for us or against us” issue. Retreating into a familiar position of life as usual, relying on your very ability to not deal with anything uncomfortable to shield you from the daily reality of others lives, is rubbing a “too bad for you” attitude in the faces of those who can’t turn away, who live on the receiving end of racism.

This is systemic. This is serious. And it takes listening to and learning from the very people who have been oppressed, whose voices have been suppressed, to learn to do better. Being actively anti-racist means acknowledging my own complicity and places I’ve benefited, at the expense of others. 

Don’t come to me to learn how to do this. I'll always be a student of anti-racism, because I can never speak or teach from the position of someone who has always known injustice from racism. But you can come to me to find out where I'm learning, and to learn alongside me. The rest of this post is a list of what I'm learning and working on right now. You can work on these too.

Don’t come here for a performance, either. I’m not going to tell you stories about what a good job I'm doing or wave my receipts around to show what a good person I am. I’m doing public anti-racism work on my platform and I’m doing private anti-racism work to change my inherent biases and habits, and I’m sharing some of that here so that you, if you’ve also benefited from this system, have a lead to follow to help take it apart. 

Here is some of what I'm doing, and what you fellow white people can do to:

Set up regular monthly donations to support this work, and set aside extra cash for extra donations

Here’s how I do it, since my income is inconsistent:

• ​I use an envelope-based budgeting app. Every time I get paid, I take a percentage off the top and set it aside for donations. (Taxes get set aside right away too- this made a HUGE change in managing my cash flow and having regular donation money available) That percentage is up to you, but the financial experts I’ve read usually say 5%.
• I have regular donations set up through large non-profits like the ACLU, SPLC, Black Lives Matter, and Planned Parenthood. I also have regular donations to several Patreon accounts set up (direct to educators, and some artists).
• Then, at the end of the month, I might have more money in my Donations envelope than the regular donation amounts that come out automatically. This extra I donate to other causes I can’t always give to, like National Bail Out or the Philadelphia Bail Fund. 
• As my income increases, I can either bring more of these causes into my automatic giving or increase the automatic amounts I already give. They’re pretty small right now, but I have big dreams.

Educate yourself

Read. Watch speakers on their own sites, on YouTube, on TedTalks, on streaming sites in documentaries. Listen to podcasts, follow educators on social media.

And pay educators for their work. Maybe that’s a regular donation, or a quick Venmo when you’ve taken in something they shared. Maybe you pay for a training, or a coach. Buy their books, definitely don’t pirate them. 

Actively change the social media algorithm that follows you around by seeking out others in your professional communities that you didn’t know about, since those algorithms reinforce our biases. Reach out, and develop new relationships in your industry.

There are SO. MANY. resources and lists of resources out there. Here is just one of those, by Waste Free Marie.

I've invested in books and group learning experiences in anti-racism practices for both personal and professional development. I've found new social justice, herbal, and movement accounts online, and I'm making a commitment to not simply follow them but to reach out, interact, and learn from more of these teachers. 

Elevate Black voices

How can you share your platform (the people who see you online, at work, at home, anywhere really) with the voices, experience, teaching and wisdom that have been ignored, excluded, and suppressed in your communities?

Here's one specific example shared by my business coach:

Are you asked to speak or participate in events because you’re an expert at something? Ask who else is invited, and if all the experts look like you, turn them down and specifically suggest Black or other POC experts who would also be good fits, but weren't invited. 

I am committed to learning from and sharing the words of new teachers who are not only not white, but are not working in the traditional Western/European Herbalism model I am already familiar with. I'm doing this on my social media and in my in person classes.

Audit your own team- this means everyone you pay money to, including all those monthly subscriptions and fees. As a business owner I have a bunch of these, from my email system and my web hosting to my online meeting software and even that budgeting app I mentioned before. One by one, check out their boards and employees. How many Black, POC, and for that matter women are in major roles? Let this guide where you spend your money.

I have added this step to my weekly CEO Date, and will work my way through all my vendors and subscriptions in the coming weeks.

I will elevate the work of non-white herbalists in my DIY Herbalism course and workshops beyond mere mentions of the fact that much more than the white, European history we’re usually taught exists. 

I will seek out education by Black and POC herbalists and healers, and encourage my community to share in those opportunities.

I will work on a method of providing my personal Foot to Forehead Fix program to Black and POC students at reduced rates- perhaps through sliding scales or scholarships or another means. 

I am also offering my Chronic Stress Recovery online program for free to BIPOC and LGBTQ+ people right now

Taking apart the system I'm part of, that I'm so familiar with, will take a long time, a lot of practice, and many many mistakes. This is just my first draft of a "manifesto to do better" and it will evolve over time as I learn and grow with this work. 

Can Chamomile cure racism? Of course not. Can exercise support people who live in fear of their very existence being taken for a crime and a reason to be murdered? Obviously not.

So what’s an herbalist and exercise person doing wading into this? Shouldn’t I stay in my lane?

Well, here’s another question for you- if humanity isn’t ALL our lanes, what are we even doing on this planet?

This morning Kris and Tammi of Heartstone Center read these words: “To feel keenly is our necessary privilege.” (from The Book of Awakening. Watch their IGTV.) Feeling uncomfortable is necessary. Doing this dismantling work is necessary. Saying "I don't want to, it has nothing to do with me" is toxic privilege.

Learn. Talk. Write. Post. Donate. Read. Share. Help.

Don’t know where to start? Get educated. Put some effort into other humans. Open your heart, and examine what’s really in there.

Things to watch out for:

👉Just because someone has a social media account that calls out and educates on racism isn’t a reason for you to hop on the comments and ask for personal recommendations. I guarantee that’s already been covered, so do a little scrolling. Or better yet, check their links to see how you can PAY them to teach you.

👉Buy books from your local bookstore, or someone else’s local bookstore if you don’t have one. Redistribute your money into communities.

👉“Not being racist” isn’t enough. Active anti-racism is needed. The only people who can change this world are the ones who made it this way.

👉But you’re only here for your business? @marciegoldman put it SO. WELL. “You’re not a Wellness Advocate if you’re defending white supremacy.” Get on board with humanity.

​👉Thinking “But I’ve faced difficulties too” doesn’t excuse you. Others are also living those same challenges- financial, emotional, health, pain, grief, loss, all of them- PLUS fearing for their lives because their very existence makes them a target. Your life and experiences are valid, but they aren’t as hard as they could be

​How would you describe the fundamentals of your health?

✔Like the structure of a house, the load bearing walls and ceiling joists, aka your bones?
✔Like the basement walls that hold everything up, aka your feet?
✔Is it it your ability to take in fresh and get rid of waste, like plumbing, aka lymph and circulation and respiration?
✔Is it the ability for your body to electrically communicate all its needs and responses, aka the nervous system?
✔Or is it ALL of these?

If you’re focused on any one of these systems, I’d say you’re massively missing out. The real key to a strong foundation isn’t specializing and microfocusing on one aspect, it’s being a good General Contractor and overseeing the coordination of all of your foundations.

We are holistic, complex beings. Look at those words-

✔Holistic means all of you, at the same time, intermingled
✔Complex means like the difference between a lean-to and a house
✔Beings, as in NOT machines. Not logically or rationally organized, but organically and naturally

Herbalist Tammi Sweet has shared (I’m paraphrasing here) that a researcher at a conference she attended dismissed plant medicines as “messy and chaotic”. Yep, she teaches, just like us.

Herbalist David Winston put it this way when I heard him speak in June 2019: “Show me a standardized human and I’ll consider giving them a standardized remedy.”

Yes yes Paula, but how?? How do I learn this stuff, to practice it? 

Never fear, dear reader! You can start right now, for free, with the Relieve Your Aches & Pains Online Workshop. You've got 2 ways to access it:

1. When you join my Free Resources hub the first thing you'll see is the video and downloadable workbook. Voila! In addition to the Aches & Pains Workshop, you'll also be able to explore all the  other resources available to you as well
2. Just want the workshop for now? Click here to sign up for it directly 

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