Can Herbs "Heal"?

What does it mean to heal? When are we “healed”? Are there some wounds that can’t be healed? If we can’t heal – in the sense of achieving “perfect health” – are we failures, as people or as herbalists? In this episode, Katja shares her thoughts on the words and ideas “healing” carries in our culture, offering a critique of their common (and commercialized!) semantic and emotional baggage.

Transcript

Lately, in conversations with several different people from different realms of my life, the word “heal” – healing, healer – has come up a lot, and specifically, what we mean when we talk about “healing”.

I have some strong feelings about this word that might resonate with you. I think that it’s an important discussion about how we understand health and care, how we understand our bodies, and how we understand the journey of being a human.

​

Lots of people call herbalists “healers” – but we’re not doing any healing, you, the people we help, are! I don’t like to call myself a healer because it means that i’m taking credit for work that the people i help are doing; it’s disempowering. Sure, i motivate, i educate, i use my education to build a plan together with my clients – but in the end, they’re the ones that are doing the real work!

And what even is healing? If we’re talking about a topical wound, i suppose it means “the process of the skin growing back” – but what about scars? Is there such a thing as “healed”, even in the simple sense of a wound?

What does it mean to “heal” internally – let’s say, cardiovascular damage? Maybe you do a lot of work on your cardiovascular health and get your blood pressure down – that’s really good! Herbs and holistic strategies are really good at this kind of work.

But is that healing? The problem can always come back, if you have to deal with a lot of stress over a period of time, for example. If it comes back, is that a failure on your part? Did you “do a bad job at healing”?

I don’t think so.

I think that if you improve your health by working on it, that’s awesome, and if life gets stressful and you have a flareup, that’s just the reality of being a creature of fluctuation. We’re not permanent, we’re not static – we’re always reacting to our environment, and compensating for factors that are out of our control.

What about things that can’t be healed? ...

To read the rest of the transcript, click here!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):


Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hi, I'm Katya here at Commonwealth Holistic
Herbalism in Boston,Massachusetts, and I have like
a little mini episode for youtoday. Just some thoughts that
I wanted to share lately inconversations with several
different people from differentrealms in my life, the word
heal or healing or healer hascome up a lot. And specifically

(00:39):
what we mean when we talk abouthealing. And I have some strong
feelings about this word thatmight resonate with you. I
think it's an importantdiscussion about how we
understand health and care, howwe understand our bodies , how
we understand the journey ofbeing human. So I wanted to

(01:00):
share that Lots of people callherbalists healers, but we are
not actually doing any healing.
You, the people that we helpare doing the healing. I don't
like to call myself a healerbecause it means that I'm
taking credit for work that thepeople I help are doing. It's

(01:23):
disempowering. I mean, okay, Imotivate, I educate, I use my
education to build a plantogether with my clients, but
in the end, they're the oneswho are doing the real work.
Whatever that plan is, they'rethe ones who are enacting it. I
don't wanna take that creditthat belongs to them. But then,

(01:47):
so , okay, so I don't, I don'tsay I'm a healer, but then what
even is healing like, likereally to think about what we
mean when we say healing. Ifwe're talking about a topical
wound, I suppose that means theprocess of the skin growing
back. But then what aboutscars? Like is, is is something

(02:10):
that is scarred, healed? It'snot the same as it was before.
So like even in the simplesense of just a wound, is there
such a thing as healed? Likewhat does it what ? What does
healed mean? Even in this mostsimple term, it certainly

(02:30):
doesn't mean exactly how it wasbefore, as if nothing had
happened. And then what does itmean to say heal when we're
thinking internally in thebody? So let's say that there's
cardiovascular damage. Um,maybe you do a lot of work on
your cardiovascular health andyou get your, your blood

(02:51):
pressure down. Your bloodpressure was really high and
you got it down. That'sfantastic. Herbs and holistic
strategies are really good atthis kind of work. But is that
healing? Did you heal your highblood pressure? The problem can
always come back and if youhave to deal with a lot of
stress over a period of time,it's likely to come back. If it

(03:16):
comes back. Is that a failureon your part? Like did you do a
bad job at healing? I don'tthink so. I think that if you
improve your health by workingon it, that's awesome. And if
life gets stressful and thenyou have a flare up of whatever
that issue, that health issueis, that's just the reality of

(03:39):
being a creature offluctuation. We are not
permanent, we are not static.
We humans, we are alwaysreacting to our environment and
compensating for factors thatoften are out of our control. I
think it's really importantthat we remember that when we
think about what we mean whenwe say heal, we can also think

(04:07):
about things that can't behealed. So as an example, I've
had varicose veins literallysince high school, honestly I
say since high school. It'spossible that I've had them
since junior high, but I didn'tbecome concerned enough with my
appearance until high school tonotice like that's entirely
possible. At any rate, what I'msaying is that I have had these

(04:28):
varicose veins for most of mylife and like big ones for most
of my life. Um, everyone in myfamily who is older than me,
I'm 51 right now. Every personin my family older than me has
had their veins stripped. Okay,well, I'm a really good
herbalist if I do say somyself, but I still have

(04:51):
varicose veins. There's a limitto how much improvement I can
make to a problem that's beenwith me for not only my entire
life or like almost my entirelife , but also for generations
before me. Like I'm not justdealing with my varicose veins,
I'm dealing with on both sidesof my family, like a genetic

(05:12):
history of varicose veins. Soif I don't manage to heal my
varicose veins, am I a failure?
Like did do I need to feel badbecause I didn't succeed at
healing? And then, okay, wellif I think about it that way,
how would I even define thatsuccess? Like what is

(05:35):
successfully healing varicoseveins? Is it to have totally
smooth legs and totallyinvisible blood vessels? Like
that's a completelyunreasonable and unattainable
goal. I did not even have thatwhen I was 16 years old. How
can I expect to have that at51? But the wellness industry

(05:57):
so often has us chasing afterexactly that some unrealistic
form of healed that isn't evenactually attainable. But just
like those beauty magazines,they tell you that you should
be able to achieve theirimpossible ideas of beauty or
health so that you will keepbuying the next issue of the

(06:19):
magazine and so that you willkeep buying the products that
are advertised in it. My veinsare not pretty, but they are
much more stable than mymother's were when she was my
age, and I haven't had to seekmedical intervention. So to me
that seems like a way bettermetric than some kind of

(06:40):
cosmetic beauty contestdefinition of healed, even
though the veins are stillthere and still visible and
still kind of big and ugly, andI mean they're stable. So I
don't love the word heal I, Idon't think that it is

(07:03):
accurate. I don't think that itis precise enough to encompass
the complexity of human health.
Health is not a switch that wecan turn on or off. It's not a
yes, no question in an exam. Itis not a binary state that you
either are or you aren't.

(07:25):
Health is a constant adjustmentin relation to our lives and
all of the factors that we dealwith every day . There is no
such thing as perfect health.
It does not exist, and healthis not even always in our
control. Some things are, butmany health issues that we deal

(07:47):
with as adults started inchildhood and many of those
were even before we had anykind of autonomy to change the
situation that we were in. Someof the health issues that we
have today as adults startedbefore we were even born. Some
are the result of generationalmalnutrition, generational

(08:08):
damage, health damage ofvarying kinds, environmental or
stress or different factors.
Some are the result ofgenerational trauma, some are
the result of environmentalfactors from the places that we
live, and sometimes we aren'teven notified that those
factors exist. So the problemhere is that pervasive in our

(08:32):
culture is this idea that if weare unhealthy, we did something
wrong. If we are unhealthy, weare personally a failure. And
then right beside that idea isthe idea that if we are doing
everything right, we will behealthy. That's a trap because

(08:55):
sometimes you can't be incontrol of, like you can't be
in control if you live next toa paper mill that is spewing
out like gross chemicals everyday and your asthma flares up
all the time, that that's notsomething that you can
necessarily be in control of.
And even of the things that youcan be in control of, sometimes

(09:19):
the best you can do isstabilize. And I think that's
okay. Sometimes you can do allthe right things and you'll
still be a little extrasensitive to whatever triggers
your particular flareups, yourparticular allergies or
inflammation or whatever else.

(09:39):
Sometimes you get 75%improvement and that's it. But
I don't think that's bad. Ithink that being able to
reliably stabilize andrestabilize your situation is
great. Even if you're stillprone to some flareups, if you
can say, oh, I'm having a flareup . This is not awesome, but I

(10:02):
know what to do to get myselfback to a stable place and then
reliably do that, that'sfantastic. You aren't healed
because you never have a flareup Again, you are empowered
because you can reliablystabilize yourself when you
flare up because ofenvironmental conditions,
because of stress in your life,because of whatever. Because

(10:23):
you don't have total controlover every single factor. I
think that a 75% improvement inwhatever health problem it is,
I think that's fantastic.
Honestly, I think even a 50%improvement is really great.
And I think that our culturetells us a lot. Like don't
settle for anything less than ahundred percent, 110%, right?

(10:45):
But think about this. If todayright now you could magically
be 50% healthier, what wouldthat mean for you? I would take
it, I think that would beawesome if I had 50% more
energy boom right off the bat.
Yeah, I'd love that. If I had50% more capacity to pick up

(11:06):
heavy things or go for a run orgo , you know, all those stuff,
automatic overnight, 50%improvement. Awesome. I'm not
saying that herbs orconventional strategies can do
a 50% or any percentimprovement overnight.
Automatic like, okay, I, I'mexaggerating to make a point
here, but the point stillstands that improvement is

(11:31):
improvement and improvementdoes not have to be entire, it
doesn't have to be a hundredpercent improved to be
valuable. So I'd like tonormalize that. I'd like for
people who work in the care ofhealth, whether that's
conventional healthcare orholistic healthcare , I would
like, especially for people inthe wellness industry to

(11:54):
acknowledge that health is adaily journey. It is impossible
to be forever 21. Aging is apart of life and making it
through the day in reasonablephysical comfort is awesome,
right? We don't have to beperfect. We shouldn't expect to

(12:15):
be constantly pushing ourselveswithout any maintenance days.
Bodies just don't work likethat. I think it's okay if you
have a few extra pounds. Ithink it's okay if you could
use a few extra pounds. Who'sthe judge of that? Anyway,
throughout history, our conceptof the ideal weight has changed

(12:35):
drastically based on fashion.
So who's to judge how manypounds you should really have?
I think it's okay if yourweight's not perfect, whatever
that is. I think it's okay ifyou need a little extra rest.
Sometimes if you go through astressful time and then you

(12:56):
have a down period where you'renot super productive and you're
just getting some rest, I thinkthat's fine. I don't think
there's anything wrong withthat. I think it's not actually
bad if you're bum knee that youhurt back in whenever, when you
were playing whatever sportacts up on you once in a while.
I don't think that you need tobe healed to a point where you

(13:20):
never experience any knee painagain, I think a little bit of
pain now and then residual fromsome old injury might just be
an indication that you need torest today. I don't necessarily
think that's bad. I think allof these things are part of
life and making peace with themmeans accepting ourselves,

(13:41):
accepting our bodies, acceptingthat life is not perfect.
Obviously that doesn't meanthat we don't try to make
things better. And obviously werespond to acute situations and
infections, and of course wecontinue to work to help people
recover and build and grow andlive vibrantly. But maybe these

(14:08):
thoughts can change ourdefinitions of what those
things are. Exactly. What is itto recover? What is it to live
vibrantly? Maybe we change ourdefinitions of that a little
bit. Maybe we change our ideasabout who can have those things
and how we get them. And toanswer the original question,

(14:31):
just because I don't like theword heal, doesn't mean that
herbs aren't amazing. They are.
They can do amazing things.
Herbs and holistic strategiesare exactly what has allowed me
to stabilize the varicose veinsituation. They are what allows
me to keep MS symptoms more orless under control. They're
what have allowed me to live mylife this far without medical

(14:53):
intervention for those issues.
And that's amazing. As I age,that might not always remain
true. I may need to add moretools to my toolkit beyond what
herbs and holisticinterventions can do. And if
that happens, it won't meanthat I am a failure at health
or a failure as an herbalist.

(15:14):
It just means that every day weare all making adjustments and
getting through this life inour imperfect bodies. So if
you're an herbalist who workswith your community or with
clients, I really think this isan essential message to be
sending you. Don't lose naturepoints if you have to, or if

(15:35):
you choose to blendconventional medicine with
herbal and holistic strategies.
Nobody's gonna come and takeaway your herbalism Club card
just because you combinedvarious tools to find your best
health right now, your besthealth right now, you might not
get there the same way that youdid a year ago or that you

(15:58):
might a year from now. That'sokay. Use the tools that work
for you in this moment, andthere's no problem with that.
It's okay if the health issuesthat you're working on are a
life work. It's not wrong tohave to take care of the health

(16:19):
of your body every day. Or inother words, you are not broken
because you can't do it all.
Nobody actually can. You mightsee people and be like, oh, but
that person is so healthy andbut that person is so whatever.
Yeah, there's probably thingsthey're not telling you, right?
They might be constipated allthe time. They're not telling

(16:40):
you that, right? Just likethere's stuff about your health
that you're not telling peoplewhat we look like on the
outside. It's not always thewhole story anyway, okay? I
know these are pretty nitpickythoughts about a fairly simple
word, but human health isn'tactually that simple. So I

(17:02):
think it's worth thinking aboutthat complexity. I think it's
worth thinking about how weapproach it. Now, if you like
the word heal or healing orhealer, there's nothing wrong
with that. Of course. Obviouslythere's nothing wrong with
that. But I do think that it'suseful to redefine the word to

(17:22):
include fluctuation and allowthat to be normal and redefine
it to include the reality thatthings are not one and done .
Humans go through cycles andthere's nothing wrong with
that. And above all, I thinkit's important to allow
ourselves to let go of thepressure of expectations that

(17:44):
are on us to be healed, and toallow ourselves to just be on
the journey of being human andliving in a body that can't be
perfect because it's human. SoI hope that that was helpful. I
hope that it inspires you tothink about yourself and your
own health with morecompassion. I hope that if you

(18:07):
work in your community or ifyou work with clients as an
herbalist, that it inspires youabout how you work with your
clients and how you help themsee their own health journeys.
That's it for now. Uh, we'll beback later with more of the
Holistic Urbanism Podcast. Bye.