Healing from traumatic events comes in many forms. First you acknowledge that you need to heal, then you begin the process. The good news is that it's not all sorrow and pain and grief. While that is a huge part, what comes after is the joy of beginning again, experiencing life with new meaning, learning who you really are, what you love and what lights you up. This is what this video is all about.
2019 and 2020 were two of the hardest yet most transformative of my life. It helped me create the life I have today, a life I truly I love. 💛💜
#traumarecovery #mysereneearth #freedom #traumahealing #traumainformed #peacebeginswithme #justbreatheletitgo
How nature became my greatest teacher
I escaped the madness of civilization to learn from nature, our greatest teacher
“Whenever the light of civilization falls upon you with a blighting power…go to the wilderness. The dull business routine, the fierce passions of the market place, the perils of envious cities become but a memory. The wilderness will take hold of you. It will give you good red blood. You will soon behold all with a peaceful soul.”
—George S. Evans, 1904
I posted this poem on my Facebook in 2015 and it came up as a memory today. Little did I know that six years later I would literally follow those words when I packed up my car and drove around the country for six months, staying as far away from civilization and as close to the wilderness as possible. George was right. That trip brought me peace, forever changed my view and understanding of the world and made me realize that as much as we may think we’re all different, as much divisiveness in the world, we are all connected. We are leaves from branches of the same tree, and at the end of the day, we all want the same thing. To be loved and seen.
I ran to the wilderness to escape civilization and find who I truly am. There I found not only myself, but the importance of nature as a great teacher.
Nature taught me the importance of connection. Connection taught me the importance of community, and community taught me the importance of civilization.
So back to civilization I went.
If you haven’t seen my Adventure Travel series on YouTube (40 episodes!!), click on the link in my bio and watch it! The Adventure series is now done but there are many more travel videos ahead!
An Ultrasound on myself
Got an ultrasound on myself for a physical. Here’s what happened after
I had a physical exam today and at first I walked in definitely not looking forward to it. As someone who prefers to trust my body to its own healing and not resort immediately to modern medicine, I came in with all these preconceived ideas of what my experience would be.
Instead, it ended up being nothing like what I had anticipated.
When I laid down having an ultrasound on myself, I listened to my own heartbeat. I watched on the gray screen my organs teeming with life inside my body, my blood pulse on the screen, and my arteries working perfectly, all communicating this information to my brain waves.
Watching this, in live time, something I take for granted every single day, I was immediately overcome with emotion and gratitude for this incredible body I was given.
While yes, I experienced minor health issues that hampered my travel plans, I’m so grateful for the treatment I’m getting and the way my body is healing. What a gift to be able to walk without worrying about breathing, to use my legs for transportation, my back for bending, lifting, turning, my arms for holding and to be able to sleep well, trusting my heart will keep pumping away while I’m not even conscious.
I found myself so grateful to be a woman and experience everything that it means. For my monthly cycle that lets me know my body is healthy and able to bring life into this world if I wanted. For the health I did have and the clear signals my body gives me when something is not right.
Rather than being annoyed, treating my body like a terrible inconvenience as I did in my 20s and early 30s, now every month I’m so thankful to see that my body is cycling as it should. What a blessing to bleed and not die. What an incredible gift of life and power. And what a blessing to be so in tune with my body that I can wake up, and know right away something isn’t right because one of my functions is not working in the way I’m used to.
This small experience today allowed me to connect deeper with my body in so much gratitude for her existence. I reminded me to treat her with so much more care and respect than before. To honor it, feed it good foods, make sure it’s getting proper movement and exercise, that my brain is functioning and being challenged.
It also reminded me how much more I should celebrate my body, rather than wait for something terrible to happen, then celebrate when my body crawls itself out of its predicament.
Rather than celebrating a new baby’s heartbeat, I’m going to celebrate my own, each and every day from now on.
Why do we have an aversion to nature?
Some of the first reactions I got to this to this photo was "whoa, dirt in your butt! In your hair!" "What if you get tics?" "That looks uncomfortable!"
News flash, I did get dirt in my butt and hair, and bit by dozens of tics. But I took those suckers out by their heads, and done. (Shoutout to growing up in Brazil where we lived with them on the daily)
Then I wondered, why do we have such an aversion to nature?Why do we immediately revert to the negative for different situations? Why do we shun nature, the very thing this earth was created for and what we were meant to live with, in favor of disinfected everything, bleached this, protected that. We are so far from nature that we created a whole other world of modern diseases and medicine for that world 💊💉
I recently fell into that trap, taking medicine for side effects of other medicines until I decided, no more. What I need for this time, my body can provide. Modern medicine has its place, yes, but it's not the end all be all, nor the only option. To me it's a last resort. I'm a faerie, and that shit does not feel good at all. What does feel good is letting that go, and using nature to heal.
Witches are dirty, nasty, playful, fun, unpredictable, and connected to the earth. They don't rely on modern medicine cause they know everything they need for healing nature has already provided for us. Faeries are literally nature. The bridge between the seen and unseen world. The sprites who only show themselves to those who they respect and recognize as their own kind.
I'm bringing nature back to humans in a way they haven't seen before. I'm helping others heal their trauma and connect to themselves using only what's provided in nature. I'm forging a new path that allows you to be who you are, with all dirtiness, discomfort and primal nature you were born with, but lost along the way. You don't have to be afraid of yourself, nature, or disease anymore. You can just be. Isn't that a relief.
Come be a Faerie Witch with me!
The healing power of water
Delving into the enriching experience of nature’s medicine
During my 6 month drive around the USA, I swam in lakes, rivers and waterfalls nearly every day, and every time I did, I felt that a part of me healed, both physically and spiritually.
When I realized how much my body craved water, and how much of a tolerance I built to swimming in icy cold 50 degree glacier water, I knew the hype was true about cold plunges and the healing powers of water.
A study by the University of Oregon found that brief 15 minute hot water baths benefit arthritis, lowers blood pressure, relieves muscle spasms, cramps, internal congestion and relaxes the body.
Brief cold water baths, about 3 minutes or less have positive effects like lowering extreme fever from disease or heart attack, and increasing energy level. A cold water bath also stimulates the body, promotes resistance to disease and increases vitality.
Water has a unique ability to lift our spirits by restoring and refreshing the mind and body, but it goes deeper. Surfers and sailors are say there is something spiritual about being out on the water. The tranquil sounds of moving water and the beauty and serenity of bodies of water are compelling reasons to leave your other thoughts and worries behind.
Flowing water has a calming effect on people because of the soothing sound of rushing water which can be meditative and calming.
Water’s healing capacity as a medical treatment is well-documented historically. Hippocrates, known as the father of modern medicine, stated that "nature should be used to heal the body”. He was a strong advocate of baths as medical treatment nearly 2500 years ago. Spas and bathhouse were initially created as places of healing and cleansing, then later became the social gatherings they are today.
Bath houses or spas offered a variety of healing options like hot or cold water baths, sea or mineral water treatments, showers, steam and sauna rooms, or exercise and therapy in the waters. Many of the illnesses and injuries from ancient times were cured or assuaged with ‘the waters.’
Water cures have fallen out of favor in recent centuries, but there is a reason people feel so connected to water. It's still there, it hasn't lost its healing powers, and it's available to us whenever we want.
Everything we need to heal ours, nature has already given us. We just gotta get out and see for ourselves ✨🧚🌿🌊💧💦
Stop prioritizing others over yourself
100% this is something I have to keep reminding myself of for the rest of my life. I used to wear it as a badge of honor that I always prioritized others over myself, until I realized I was drowning in sacrificial behavior, living for everyone else except myself.
The only thing we know about what will happen this year is that we don’t know. So why not make it a year for healing? A way to use this time of uncertainty to our best advantage. For growth, healing, taking care of our mental health, and accepting that things may never be as they were “before”.
As a trauma specialist, I know how important it is to use time like this to focus on healing child wounds. @tanaamen explains this wonderfully, addressing a common strategy of hiding or minimizing past traumatic experiences:
“The concept of hiding—or minimizing—a traumatic past is a common survival strategy for many people. It’s as though we’d like to take all those frightening, chaotic, humiliating, or abusive memories and put them in a box that others can’t access. This way no one can see the secret pain hidden inside—or so we think.”
These things only work to come to the surface later in life, when similar traumatic experiences trigger the initial trauma, leaving you more traumatized and unable to cope in the future. A bit like what’s happening in our world today. We’re seeing A LOT of unhealed trauma coming to the surface, triggered by the events around us.
Healing from past trauma is the greatest gift we can give ourselves, and the greatest way to prioritize ourselves over others.
Let’s use this year of uncertainty to take care of our mental health first. Let’s use this time to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
If you’re feeling anxious, frustrated, fearful, ask yourself where this is coming from and when you first experienced this feeling. Once you trace it back to the root and heal it, you can move forward in life with a new outlook, new perspective and new love for yourself.
I know because I did it 🙌✨💜