Is it not true that most of us think or say that we will believe something when we see it. Remember doubting Thomas? The truth is, the Universe, and Faith works the opposite. We are actually suppose to believe BEFORE seeing the proof! 

What?? That is impossible you say. I know it feels that way. It most definitely does, especially when you look at your bank account, or your love life, or your current health condition. You tell yourself, you will believe when you see the numbers go up, or your spouse acting better, or even when the energy returns. 

If you wait until you see everything you desire, you may be waiting a LOONNNGG time. It also may never come. The Universe was created by a God who gave us the ability to imagine what we want to see into being. All of the people in the Bible who were healed by Jesus believed before seeing. 

Can you apply the same faith? I know I have to every single day. All day long in fact. If we look at current events, or dwell on any fears, we will only manifest that which becomes an emotion in our mind. What I mean is this....

Let us say you look at your body where it is right now. Perhaps you are overly tired. Perhaps you need to get in shape. Perhaps you have just met with a big health challenge. If you look with your eyes, then turn what you see into a negative emotion, such as fear, frustration, worry, or anger, then you will imprint your situation into your subconscious mind. Once that happens, the subconscious has no choice but to keep manifesting that back to you.

Instead of the above scenario playing out. This time, if you take a look at your body, or any current situation that you want to see changed, you approach it this way. I will write out what I would say instead.

"I am so happy and grateful that my body is my best friend. I love my body. It works so well! I enjoy food and my digestion works optimally. I absorb and digest all my food and it nourishes my body completely. I have energy all day long. I can perform at my best. My goals are being realized because I feel so good. I am affecting so many people with my positive attitude, my exuberance, and my amazing health. Life is truly a joy. My spouse is my best friend. He supports me and loves me and encourages me. We trust each other and have really good friends and support for our big goals. Life always smiles on me."

WOW! RIGHT! That sounds amazing. Well, I want you to do this. I want you to reword and say out loud that which you may not see or feel right now. It's ok. It really won't hurt you to give this a try. Have fun. Be outrageous, as long as you do it. Then repeat it and read it every single day, twice a day and step forward in faith. 

My husband and I decide each year to make the next year, the best year of our lives. To be honest, even though I had personal loss, even the loss of a beloved family member, not to mention the trials of 2020, it really was our best year in our entire marriage. 

It was my best health year- even though I shed many tears over the loss of my dad. It was our best earning year, even though there were many reasons and shutdowns everywhere. It was a year of transformation, but more than that it was a year of pinpointing. I felt that I became laser focused last year. I was able to see what I really wanted from myself, my family and my life. I felt like a Phoenix rising from the ashes. 

I am deciding though, that 2021 is going to be my best year. I am going to rock it with my finances. I am going to rock it with my marriage, and other relationships. My health is going to be amazing. It is going to be a year of growth and accomplishment, and I am saying this- despite what is happening around me and beyond my control. 

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To most of us, these statements sound crazy. You may even be thinking, "she is crazy." 'How can she say that?  Or maybe if this happens, then yes, or if that does not happen, or if things go back to normal- I can see that happening.' Part of me wants to lean into those safety statements, but I also know that the world is created by imagination. My imagination and your imagination is very powerful. It is a creative force, and if I am going to create something with my mind, I am going to create something amazing, and not something to be feared. 

You know you might say, "if I don't hope, then I won't be disappointed." You may be right. There is bound to be some disappointment. There always is, but I am going to hope, and imagine and shoot for the stars, and I will settle for landing on the moon, rather than step out trepidatiously, afraid to be disappointed. 

How am I starting 2021? First of all, I have decided to go off of social media. I am bucking the trend. You will not find me on Facebook, or Instagram, or Twitter, or whatever is the hot media channel. This may be a risky thing for someone is business, but I am dedicated to being a healer. As a healer, I need to be in a state of healing, and flow, and good energy. Social media has become such an emotional roller coaster or exaggerated emotions and feelings. I know that there is good, there is. As a healer, I want to keep my space free. I see it like I keep my home free of clutter, I need to keep my mind free of clutter too.

What else am I doing? Today, Jan. 1st I am doing a juice fast. I decided to start the year with juice, and healing. When you pause from heavy eating, your body has time to cleanse, heal and repair. My fast will last only a day or two, but it will give my mind time to clarify. Besides the benefits of fasting, and juicing, which I will not go into here, fasting from food groups can be spiritual enlightening. (If you want to learn more about fasting/ juicing one of my favorite books on the subject is Prescription for Nutritional Healing by Avery). For that matter fasting from all kinds of things is enlightening; you will see how much you turn to X, Y, Z thing for comfort and when you are attempting to remove that "thing" you will find some emotions rising to the surface.

This is ok, and in fact can be very healing. 

 I started this post early today, and now it is almost time for bed. I found myself looking to eat numerous times today, and instead had to redirect my thinking. I focused on breathing and relaxing. These two activities are exceptionally healing and will help you to reach your goals much more than frenetic activity. I also found that I had a number of emotions creep up which I will take to prayer. In my 2 decade long journey as an herbalist, I have found a slight or more than slight discomfort just before a time of revelation. I look forward to more revelation and a deeper spiritual connection.

I will leave you by saying. Life is a choice. We have choices, although it feels like we do not at times. If you are use to being a "victim" of life, you will really balk at this statement. I know because I played the victim role for many years. I know that a God who created us with free will, also gives us that free will to decide what kind of life we will live. He, or Spirit of Divine Creator- works ALL things to the GOOD for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. 

Faith- faith is what I am exercising. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. Faith is the seed, the moment of conception, where you conceive our dream in its invisible state. It is a matter of holding that faith until the dream or goal or belief has time to grow and manifest to the visible. Start this year with a renewed belief and faith that you are here for a darn good reason and have a real purpose for your life. Make this your best year ever!

​I have been doing a series of videos and blog posts (100 tips!) on all the little things that I learned from being an Herbalist the past 2 decades. Not only have I studied herbal medicine but endless books on healing. I know that healing comes from  a Spiritual, Emotional and Physical wholeness. The world we live in tends to focus so much on the physical. In fact this should be another topic, because it sickens, saddens, and upsets me to no end to see women changing their bodies with plastic surgery. It is a beautiful thing to learn to love yourself, and to teach your young girls to love themselves. It is truly a crime to be a mother emulating dissatisfaction in front of her daughters and "teaching" without words that to be pretty or good or loved you need to inject your face, body, and cut and paste, and stuff and trim to be a beautiful woman. 

​How does this tie into Emotions? 

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 I've lived both ways. I have stuffed my emotions under a mound of food, addiction, and distraction and I also have lived where I spewed my emotions out on to people in what would be described as an offensive, and inappropriate way. I have learned from myself, and clients I have worked with that if you were going to choose the lesser of two evils, spewing your emotions is better (at least for you)..... than stuffing them down inside. 

I can't think of anything worse for your mental and physical well-being than to bury your feelings under addictive behaviors. As I am not a therapist, but an Herbalist, I will describe to you what I suggest and have done with myself and clients to help uncover and deal with emotions. 

Many times I hear that you should have a "safe" person or close friend to share your feelings with, your deepest darkest thoughts and also your frustrations. "Get it out with someone." I think that if you are going to do this, a therapist is the best person for this. I think sharing how you feel with friends is a great way to build connection and empathize with one another, but to put that much pressure on a friendship is not healthy. Plus, you can become really dependent on that person to "lift you up" every time you fall down. 

I have found the best tool for me- and this is me, is to write down how I feel about something in particular. Sometimes I write out some pretty nasty feelings. I then take what I wrote and burn it, or throw it, tear it up into little pieces and get rid of it. I do not want to stay or dwell on those thoughts. I want to open up and let them out, but then look for solutions, or the next healing step.

Sitting there with the anger, frustration, or repeating it to another or yourself, over and over again, will only reinforce it into your mind. I found it is best to write it out- then invite God to help find an answer. Sometimes I will see my part in the situation. Sometimes I am led to a book, or teaching that helps me. Sometimes I wind up making a list of things to be grateful for, and then I no longer hold on to the anger. At other times I am prompted to really evaluate and make some hard boundary decisions about what is upsetting me. 

I am not saying to isolate yourself and never share with others. It is important to share. I just don't like to over share with one friend. It is too burdensome. Perhaps you have a friend who has gone through something similar and they would be perfect to talk to about your situation. Sometimes groups have been a great way for me to gather strength and release some negative feeling. 

However- I feel that I grow THE MOST when I work things out one on one with God. If I can share, open my heart and wait for Him to answer, the answers come. I have to be honest this takes practice and when I first started doing this, my reception was off a lot of times. Again having a close friend to bounce things off of is good, but I am trying to say do not turn it into a complaint session because that can become the only thing you do. We are looking to reach solutions. 

These are the things you can start to do to un-stuff your emotions.

1. Get a journal. I recommend a lined journal for writing out long-hand, and also an art journal with blank pages so you can draw, and apply stickers, or pictures. 

2. Spend quiet time alone every single day with your thoughts and prayers. Try to find your center on a daily basis. This may be very difficult at first if you do not even know your center. 

In fact many people that grow up in dysfunctional homes are so enmeshed with the people from that home of origin that they are not even remotely aware of who they are. They have taken on the toxic emotions of the parents and the children often are so entwined that their own unique personalities have never developed. If you are at this place, you will really need a good anchor of support and multiple anchors to peel back the layers. I would really recommend reputable counselors or therapists to help you on this journey, or a trusted pastor. 

When I began my journey I needed a lot of help, but sometimes the help was only for a short season. Maybe only a visit would be enough to help me see some truth. 

3. I think the BEST thing you can do to figure out who you are and release some emotion, is to make a long list of all the things you LOVE to do. This is so fun, but it may be difficult if you have repressed your emotions for a long time. I want to encourage you to write down 20 or more items. Also, these are simple pleasures in life. 
For example... "A walk on the beach," "A hike in the woods," "A hot bath," you get the idea.

4. The fourth and last thing I am going to suggest here is to start doing these things that you made on your list number 3. I should have given a premise. You can only have 2 digital/ electronic activities on the list. (Like listening to music, or watching a good movie). The list is meant to get you to enjoy the natural and simple beauties of life. That is where we all preside.

I hope this post is touching someone who needs healing. A lot of my posts on this page have to do with healing and not so much about herbs. I have found that these other aspects are so important and the herbals are of course a key aspect, but I can not ignore the emotional and spiritual aspects of mine and your souls. If you want to see more on herbs- go over to my YouTube Channel, Sheep Hill Herbs. 

HERE: 

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This blog post is going to be followed by one that may seem to contradict this one, but really does not. It will be called "You Are What You Eat." In that post I will explain that what you eat matters. However, I am leading with this one, because I want to dispel the myth that you need to be a PERFECT eater, because there is no such thing!

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, ,;Before I began my health journey, I paid not a wit to what I ate. I was one of those people, who had been active, and never gained weight. I did have a weird spike in my weight before I found the way of natural healing, and than a dramatic drop in my weight; both things got my attention. The spike was from a bloated, grain and gluten packed diet, and the drop was from a graduated intolerance for those foods, causing my body to develop some sort or Irritable Bowel/Chron's. I'm not sure, because I never got diagnosed. I do know this- I was not well, had no energy, weighed below 100 lbs., and had a slew of other issues. 

This got my attention for sure! Before that, I ate kind of what I was craving, (and I am speaking of my college years). I went to a Chiropractor after a number of regular practitioners were unable to give me any help, besides drugs and prescriptions. I think I was a lucky one. I have heard stories where people in similar situations encountering years of tests and intrusive treatments, surgeries, and more until they gave up allopathic and went a more nature based route. I only gave a few months of my time, and I remember one of my doctors saying to me, in regards to recurring yeast infections. "Some women just have to live with them." 

I remember thinking. THIS is your answer. This is your solution. I have to live with them. I couldn't live with them; they were HORRIBLE. If you have ever had one, you know! Incredibly debilitating. God must have already been leading me to my path in life, because I was working at an herb shop, and met a Chiropractor who gave Nutritional counseling. One session with her, changed my entire life. 

1. She sat and talked to me like a human being. 2. She gave me two herbs which I will be forever grateful and worked immediately to fix my problem (Goldenseal and Echinacea), and 3. She told me to watch my sugar. 

At that point, I was a sugar addict, and didn't know it. I began to cut out sugar everywhere I could, and I was diligent because I did not want another infection. These efforts paid off, as far as the yeast infections were concerned, but I had A LOT to learn about nutrition and health before I really balanced myself. 

What I am going to say next is very serious and if you have a serious health issue, I must express you do not try to fix your problem alone. I think anyone who has something "big deal" going on, will have many facets that need to be addressed. I had help from a lot of spiritual guides, and natural health persons along my journey the past 20 years. I went to a Nutritionist for 3 years straight until I really sorted out my grain addiction/ gluten addiction. During that time, I did eat very strictly. So, if you have a serious problem and you go at it naturally, you may need to be strict with your diet and attempt perfection (FOR A TIME), but this is not sustainable long term. 

I am going to tell you why you don't need to eat PERFECTLY indefinitely and maybe I should say what Perfect might even be. When I refer to Perfect. I mean Organic. Organic food, Grass fed meats, (assuming you are eating meats), Local, Best soils, Best Farm Practices). EVERY SINGLE THING in your house says Organic. You only shop in the expensive aisle at the grocery store, or buy the most expensive everything! 
I know people who have attempted this, and tried this. They also got very sick and they were eating "Perfectly." The reason, in my opinion is that this is ridiculously hard, and stresses you out so much, that it negates all the benefits from eating well. 

During my time of eating "Perfect," For me that meant, not eating any Gluten, or Dairy. I could not tolerate either food when I really started working on my diet. (Or I found out that I could not). Removing these foods from my diet helped soooo much. I was darn near perfect too. I did not cheat at all. If I ate something, it was by accident, or if I had failed to ask the specific details in a dish someone else prepared. Today I eat dairy. Raw products, mainly goat, and some skim based yogurts. I do not over do it! Before I think I only ate dairy and wheat. Now I may have a cup of yogurt a week, or a cup of goat milk during a week with cereal. I may sprinkle a little bit of cheese in a salad, and this really works well for me. 

Going back to PERFECTION and eating. It can really become a disorder of the mind, and an obsession. You can become so worried about every bite you eat, that you are NOT helping yourself at all. I do think there is a term for this. It is called "orthorexia." It was coined in 1998 and is characterized as an obsession to eat healthy. I think I probably had this at one time. You do not want to get that way, and I am trying to warn you right now. You can be healthy and NOT be perfect. 

I have come to a place where I buy Organic produce when I can. We have a few great discount produce stores near where I live. When they have organic, healthy produce- I am thrilled and see it as Providence. I try to buy local as much as possible, and most of my local farms are not classified "Organic" but do not spray. I faithfully stay away from Corn Syrup, Food Dyes, and weird preservatives, but I do not buy 100% Organic by any means. I definitely do not when I go to a regular grocery store, because my bill will be triple what I spend when I shop discount (another whole blog post in and of itself).

One time I really prayed to try to understand God's will about shopping for food. I was driving allll over the county to get all the healthiest versions of everything I needed at good prices. God spoke to me and I heard distinctly that I should stop doing that, and buy local. I picked the 2 stores that I have within about 10 min. driving distance. 1 is 5 min. away, and the other about 10. The store that is 5 minutes is my discount store, and I have bought some amazing foods, on sale, and I put my trust in that God will provide, like He provided Manna for the Israelites in the desert. 

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The amazing thing is that He provides every single week, and what I do not find at the local store, I go get at my chain store. Then there are still some farms, and specialty shops I love, and I refrain from going there, unless I am already in the area. Just doing this took me a while to change my habits, but it saves me a lot of energy, stress, and anxiety over shopping for the "perfect" foods. 

SO HERE IS THE REASON YOU DON"T NEED TO EAT PERFECTLY....................

What I found is that most of my health problems were not wrong food problems. Although a healthy balanced diet is important, my health problems were more THOUGHT problems. I had a lot of bad thoughts, bad programming if you will. Negative thoughts, bad experiences, stress, regret, bitterness, upset, anger, and a slew of other "non-happy" feelings reeking havoc on my health. If I would have understood this sooner, I would have saved myself a lot of time and heartache. I wound up doing a lot of my mind reprogramming by reading spiritual books. This was a slow process of teeny revelations. One revelation at a time, I let go of many fears, and limiting beliefs that kept me trapped in an unhealthy body. 

If you do not have great health, diet will be very helpful, but I urge you to get some help with rewiring the thought processes in your brain. I didn't have a lot of money, in the beginning of my journey, so I did everything I could for free, or inexpensively. I listened to Podcasts, I attended some self help groups, prayer groups, counseling at church, book clubs, and even put together some of my own groups for encouragement and growth. I paid for some counseling, but in my opinion counseling can be very slow, very expensive, and often keeps someone stuck. I really tried to let the Spirit guide me to the next healer and the next healer in my life. Sometimes I had one appointment with someone and had major revelations which carried me through big hurdles. I did buy a few online course kind of programs that were more expensive, ones I could listen to over and over again and they helped enormously. They would also have course work, which became really important for me to grow. I filled art journals for a few years, visualizing a new me.

I also was a part of some private Facebook groups that shared similar problems, and I found support there. These days, I listen to a lot of self hypnosis videos that train the mind to think positively or program the mind rather, for success, health and wellness. My favorite teacher is Jake Ducey on You Tube. There have been many teachers in my life, some I never met, some I have only read their books. 

I guess to sum this up I will say- the reason why you do not need to eat perfectly is because SELF GROWTH is the key to unlock the door to Wellness. Do not get stuck at the food portion. GROW. This is a journey of life and about growing as a human being. I will leave you with this quote. 

"Half of spiritual growth is about learning what we don't know. The other half is about learning what we do know." 
-Mark Batterson