Green Care with Herbal Underground
SR: The Earth is healing, spring is blooming across the northern hemisphere & it’s getting warmer. There is an urgency to be outside and a dissonance associated with the current lock down. What are some basic ways folks can practice green care and ecotherapy?
HU: One genuinely lovely thing about restricted movement is that we have the opportunity to focus more intently on the close details at hand, the often overlooked intricacies of our common, everyday surroundings, and our own neighborhoods. We often encourage others (and ourselves) to pay attention. There is beauty in a weed emerging through a crack in the sidewalk. Familiarize yourself with the plant life that simply exists on your daily walk. Pay attention to the trees that line your block/the beds that surround them. Observe the evolution of a street tree outside your window as it transforms from sparse winter twigs, to burst of flowers, and eventually a wash of bright green. If you have houseplants, pay attention to how they grow and move throughout the week, day, or even hour. Plants are always moving/engaging with the world, just doing it a bit slower than we are. This quiet, soft intention builds not only a reverence for the simple things but also is a lesson in resilience.
Much of the energy on earth exists because of radiation emanating from the sun’s starlight. This solar energy is vital to all forms of life. Even from your fire escape, practicing some form of sun appreciation for ten to thirty minutes up to three times a week during peak sun hours can deeply improve well being. You want to give your body a chance to absorb the cosmic nutrients, so skip the sunscreen, wear as little clothing as possible, and try not to bathe until the next day. Caveat: never engage in prolonged sun exposure (especially during peak hours) and if you must, make sure you are well covered (we recommend large, ridiculous hats) or are in the shade. Even too much water has the potential to harm you, the difference between poison and medicine is the dose.
SR: What does reclaiming a connection to the Earth look like for you?
HU: So much of the work we do as a collective seeks to remind others how much plant life is an integral part of our everyday. We found, as herbalists, there is often a deep disconnect here. People are often eager to engage with herbal medicine in the form of plants purchased from an herb store, while at the same time disregard and/or are completely unaware of the plants that surround them. For example, mugwort is an incredibly popular herb in this city, to the point where it is often sold out of the local herb shop. Yet, it is likely NYC’s most common street weed. Mugwort overtakes window boxes and tree beds, there are huge stands of it throughout Prospect and Central Park. Gardeners are often desperate to get rid of it because if left to its own devices, it will drown out the plants they’ve chosen to put in the ground. It is in no way difficult to grow and all of NYC could be provided with all of the mugwort of their dreams with just one small stand in a local community garden. Yet, due to the global market, the mugwort found in herb shops is often shipped in from Croatia. Reclaiming our connection to nature means recognizing how these things grow, where they grow, why they grow there, and how we’re all playing a role in this large, intricate web.
In order to fully reclaim a connection to the earth it almost becomes necessary to separate ourselves from the human ego (Ha! No short order!). When growing up, many of us are often taught that we’re separate from nature, that it is the outside and the space we inhabit is predominately on the inside. But that’s simply not the case. Without trees we would have no air to breathe, we as a species would cease to exist. We’re not only interconnected, we’re completely interdependent upon each other.
We only experience emotion and are moved to action if we feel a connection to what is being destroyed. In the case of the earth, we are often taught to look away and proceed with blinders. Additionally, it is integral to acknowledge the land that we occupy, and the history of violence we engaged in to occupy it. As the story has gone (and will forever be), no one can escape this connection to Earth, which is the same as saying we can not escape our connection to each other. Reclaiming this relationship with the interconnectedness of all beings opens up a myriad of possibilities for beauty and joy (it makes house parties much better, as well).
SR: How does fostering your connection to the Earth allow for a greater awareness of the Self?
HU: Fostering a connection to the earth in a certain way requires tossing away the ideas we are instilled with before we become “plant people”. It means shedding away the things that we thought we needed to be happy, these singularly human-driven accomplishments and standards. Shedding away this humanness allows for a greater realization of what is out there and how it is surviving. By learning the intricacies of how something grows and what it needs for survival (amount of sunlight, water, soil balance); and where it grows (woodlands, edges, prolific in patches, or dazzling singles with vast internetworks of underground mycelium), we can become more generous with our own selves. Instead of holding ourselves to some growth projection/five-year plan/BMI chart detailing where we should be or shouldn’t be in relationship to others, it can become easier to clearly see that each little being holds its own space in this world, none more important than another. It allows us to separate from the ideas of: what can this plant do for me? or what is it good for? or what can it heal?, and really just simply value existence for existence-sake. It’s engaging in loving kindness with the grass under your feet as much as the houseplant you’re tending, as much as the arugula you purchased from the farmer’s market for dinner.
It’s an understanding driven by observation and genuine care vs. judgement. Observation fueled by relentless curiosity and wonderment has the potential to lead to exciting discoveries and ultimately more questions. When we learn to be innately curious about the non-human creatures that surround us, it only helps to translate this to self, and to hopefully meet ourselves with the same loving-kindness.
An herbalist collective, Herbal Underground works with growers, educators, and makers to protect the tradition, plants, integrity, and economic accessibility of nature's original medicine.
You can reach them at www.herbalundergroundnyc.com, [email protected], and @herbalundergroundnyc