The Green Inside Philosophy

I came up with the idea of Green Inside Herbals shortly after my daughter was born this past year. I had recently ended my job in an industry which I could not see myself continuing in. It did not immediately occur to me to start my herbal business, having put it on the back burner for three years. However, many sleepless nights had me thinking deep into the wee hours of the morning, and each evening I would hear messages loud and clear, no matter how much I tried to turn them off "Do your herbal work".

These messages began at first, saying to just have fun with my herbal knowledge and start a website to sell a few products. Of course, when I fully explored that idea I found myself thinking that the fun could be turned into a viable business. Reading over the pages of the books I knew so well, I found that I could easily concoct various herbal recipes and knew I could market them to individuals and businesses using my experience as a business owner and entrepreneur. The more I thought about it, the more my intuition opened up allowing all manner of creative ideas to flow. Each night that I would lay down to sleep my mind would race until my thoughts were completely explored. I came up with recipes, a catalog, product lines, marketing ideas, a logo, and a mission; to focus on herbalism for pregnant and nursing mothers and infants and children.

Over the days proceeding days, Green Inside became a mantra of sorts. Whenever I would have doubts about my path, I would look to my herbal studies to guide me. Doors seemed to be opening up to me and it felt like the right thing to be doing for both myself and my family as well as for the community I live in. Now, four months into my work, and building my focus in Pediatric Herbalism and Women Care, I have my product for sale at Nini Bambini, a fabulous Childbirth Education Center, I am conducting a workshop at a Metaphysical Faire in Cambridge, MA, I will be selling my products at Misty Meadow's Wellness Fair in August and I am beginning to study with Aviva Romm on March 25th and have commenced my studies in Aromatherapy just this week.

All of this got me thinking about myself and the way I live my life and the message that I seek to portray through Green Inside Herbals. I recently came to terms with a very bad sugar addiction that I have, realizing that if I am going to live in a healthful way and promote healing to others, I need to practice what I preach. So just this week, I am on a light detoxification diet (nothing too drastic because I'm still nursing), and I am very focused on increasing my exercise and personal wellness initiatives.

Green Inside has come to mean many things to me. From the grassroots level, it is the way we are when we are first inside our mothers bodies from embryo to fetus and then as newborns after we are born. Our bodies begin in a pure state, unadulterated, blank slates for the start of a healthful life. If we are lucky, our parents were vigilant in keeping good health while we were in utero and our mothers ate well balanced, chemical free diets and exercised regularly and passed this way of being on to us as we grew.

Unfortunately, many Americans today have not had the opportunity to grow up with picture perfect health, many children suffer from asthma, diabetes, obesity, eczema, chronic ear infections, ADD and other behavioral issues, often associated with diet and environment. It is not to say that if we, or our children, are plagued with these health issues that we cannot work to relieve or even reverse the effects by moving toward healthier lifestyles. Given all of the opportunity we have in this country to indulge in all our fancies, we also have the opportunity to indulge in the bounty that the natural world has to offer. By looking deep within, to the core of our being, we can remember and embrace the natural state we were born into.

Green Inside is a philosophy of not simply being, but of becoming, becoming our best selves, our most empowered selves, our wisest selves. Green Inside is also a philosophy of living in harmony with nature and the earth, of giving back to what is slowly being depleted. You can begin at any time, even if you have spent years doing things differently, you can take small initiatives to recycle, to decrease your use of toxic chemicals, to support organic farming and local agriculture. Each of us has the power to significantly decrease our carbon footprint on the planet, it is true that it only takes one person to make a difference and small steps are better than non-action. It is my belief that because we are inextricably entwined with the universe and planet we live on, we can effect great changes by beginning to heal ourselves first. When each of us lives our life to the fullest, valuing the kind of philosophy which I am speaking of, we build our own inner strength, becoming more self aware, at peace, focused and positive about how we approach our world, this in turn will rub off on our children and help them to become more empowered people who approach life in a similar way.

Sometimes all it takes is a little redirection to get to a place where we feel confident in our bodies again and in our own ability to create and sustain lasting health and well being. In my practice at Green Inside Herbals, I see my role as a facilitator of wellness, as a guide toward opening hearts and minds to the power to both receive health and to give health in return, my philosophy of Green Inside is for everyone. I think it is a good time for each of us to take stock of our current health philosophies and discover if you too are Green Inside.