Coming Home to our Bodies

We are pressured on a daily basis to disconnect from our bodies.

Sedentary work environments, social media siphoning our attention away from physical reality, the need to feel constantly productive–we are slowly losing touch with our bodies and the earth.

In our culture, no one is immune from these pressures, and our bodies respond in different ways: lack of sleep, chronic pain, digestive issues, anxiety, depression, infections that seem to linger for months, fatigue – in short, we are feeling unwell, and our dis-ease has become the new normal.

For some, conventional approaches to healing have only made things worse. Conventional medicine overly relies on medicating reasonable human responses to a world falling apart. This approach overlooks simple foundational aspects of health and wellness like nutrition, rest, movement, and environment (not to mention the social and cultural factors that influence one’s health and well-being).

The alternative or 'holistic' wellness industry isn’t offering much support either, and often only adds to the confusion. This industry has the tendency to emphasize bodily aesthetics though the quest to find the perfect diet, endless personal optimization, and fear-mongering around the 'toxicity' of every last food or household item.

Instead of seeking solutions on the outside, we need to rediscover the wisdom our bodies carry within, wisdom that our bodies have carried throughout our evolutionary history here on earth. This wisdom reaches far beyond the porous boundary of our skin to encompass the ancient wisdom the plants and mushrooms have cultivated through hundreds of millions of years of healing themselves and thriving in their ecosystems.

But embodiment does not come easy for everyone. Beyond the barriers outlined above, the body is also where our trauma is held, so even fleeting moments of embodiment may not feel safe for everyone.

Working with plants and mushrooms through herbalism, we are afforded a host of allies that can help us come home to our body in a way that feels safe. Once we're there, our deep sense of embodiment becomes the foundation to show up fully in our lives, relationships, communities, and efforts for social and ecological change.

It is our birthright to feel embodied and fully alive in our own skin. It is our birthright to connect deeply with our bodily self.

While this looks different for every person, it is clear that conventional approaches to health and well-being alone are not capable of offering depth of care in this historical moment. So where do we start?

We start where we're at. We allow ourselves a moment to settle down with ourselves and check in. We step down from that tiny perch a few inches behind our eyes where our culture tells us the 'self' lives so we may explore both the wider and wild unknown that is our sensuous body. We may discover pain there, but there is also joy to be found. Wherever we're invited in is where we begin.

Fortunately, we already have an extensive community to support us in coming home to our bodies. Our human community of course, but also our plant and fungal community, who are more than happy to show us the way home.