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.

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 

​

Chamomile has a quite personality, and it's the quiet ones you need to watch out for.

​She's gentle but inexorable, quieting our inner whine, easing tension you didn't know you had and some you did- she's particularly helpful with the lower abdomen, and I've used Chamomile tea to great effect when I had pelvic floor area cramping twice (NOT a pain I'd wish on most people!)

Chamomile people have a frozenness to them. Emotionally this can look like petulance- I don't KNOW what I want but it's NOT THIS😤 or physically it can be really stuck muscles that don't give and won't let anyone in to help.

Chamomile also changes her ways when you give her time- a sweet, fragrant tea becomes deep and bitter, encouraging movement in the digestive system. Plants, like people, aren't just one thing.

Chamomile remedies made gently, like a short-steeped tea, preserve the aromatics and work with more surface-level complaints like muscle tension or mental blocks (particularly around transitions.)

Deeper remedies like a long-steeped tea work deeper, easing transitions in that lower abdomen. You'll need to get to know your plants to know when and how to capture their moods!

​I think many of us are regularly having “Near Living Experiences,” nearly living as fully as we can but not quite. We're ignoring these experiences in the face of our busy lives, letting them pass us by, and instead accepting Just Getting By (JGB) as good enough.
 
Near Living Experiences are the chances, opportunities, and openings for us to make the big and the small changes that would wildly improve our quality and appreciation of our lives- but the steps involved usually prove too much:

1. Look up from the crazy-busy of our life
2. Recognize the moment in front of us
3. Accept that whatever the venture is, you can both accomplish it AND benefit from it
4. Take on some amount of extra work to learn some kind of new skill
5. Practice this new skill while it’s still different and separate from your normal reality
6. Absorb this new skill into your very being’s fibers, making it automatic and ordinary SOP for you

 
The route from step 1 to Step 6 is, actually, huge. These are legitimately HARD steps.
 
It’s no wonder we can’t take advantage of our Near Living Experiences, what with all the rest of Life™ going on, and that JGB is the habitual order of things.
 
And it’s also no wonder that a LOT of people come to the realization that they MUST make some kind of change at a crisis point in their life, when JGB has stopped being a viable option.
 
At that point, you realize that any amount of work required between step 1 and step 6 is reasonable, since you simply must get to step 6 to ever feel better.
 
But this JGB habit, it’s not really a comfortable one, is it? It’s like the frog in the pot metaphor- if you put a frog in hot water, it’ll jump out. But if you put a frog in a pot of cold water then put it on low heat, the frog will sit there with its world getting gradually hotter, until it IS the soup.
 
(I have no idea if this story is true. But it illustrates the point!)

​We tend to accept small injuries, small adaptations, small shifts in our patterns as just one more thing that we’re too overwhelmed to deal with.  In the buffet of dumpster fires before us, what’s a sore ankle?
 
Over time, though, that sore ankle causes a limp, that changes your gait and your hip function. This impacts your psoas, which tightens up and tilts your pelvis, impinging circulation in your abdomen. Slow, heavy, uncomfortable periods become the norm, and digestion stagnates too, leading to bloating and pain since lymph can’t drain away. Now your energy is low, because you’re not digesting well to support it, nor are you eating well because you feel like crap and that’s a hard place to make healthy choices from.
 
While you’ve been focusing on the dumpster fires, your own building is burning.

In the Foot to Forehead Fix, we use a 3-pronged approach:

1. Turn down the flames and repair the damage, with inner herbal healing
2. Rebuild the structure, with alignment and movement practices
3. Encourage your re-learning, and taking control and ownership of your health, with multi-media support and reinforcements

 
Those that attended my Aches and Pains workshop got a free Stick Figures of Demonstration fun sheet, to help them learn and practice aligning their pelvis. (You can too, it’s inside my free Resources Hub www.paulasherbals.com/login)
 
These fun sheets are one kind of learning medium we use. There’s also the private and the group learning sessions that are held weekly. And we have a private online community, where I share the replays of our group classes and hold discussions. There’s all kinds of good stuff, really.

I invite you to take a look inside the Foot to Forehead Fix today, because this IS A NEAR LIVING EXPERIENCE. You're nearly living to the fullest extent you can- let's get you there.

Have you been suffering a lack of movement during the shutdown? Are you stiff, achey, and sore? 

I know, me too. No matter how much things have changed for you, chances are almost 100% that your regular routines have been upended and you're not moving as much or as well as you were just last month. Ugh.

Let's not beat around the bush.

• I want to teach you a simple, fundamental move that will relieve most of your aches and pains, and I want to share a common herbal remedy that will help the relief stick
• You want to feel better, move better, and even rest better

Sounds like we need to hang out!👍

What are you doing next Wednesday, May 6, at noon EST? Not much? Great, you should join me then for a FREE webinar!

What kind of webinar? Well, in classic Paula style, it will include some interesting facts, some movement practice, and a bit of plant medicine. I'm going to show you a super easy, sitting-in-a-chair position that has the potential to to remove the strains and stresses on your body from poor posture and improve everything from low back pain to reflux (if you practice). (We're also going to share a spot ☕ of tea.)

It's a tiny shift, a subtle habit to form, that can rock your world. And it can be yours, in less than an hour, on a Wednesday afternoon. Not bad, hmm?

And like I said, this is FREE. Zero dollars. Gratis. All you need to do is register HERE, and you'll get the link to the webinar, as well as the details you'll need to know beforehand, in your email. 

Oh, and why not invite a couple friends too? This'll be fun!