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Happy Herbal Sunday!

Did you know?

I have been teaching people for around 45 years now. That's a LONG time!

I began when I was 15 years old, and I worked in a preschool after I finished classes at my high school. I worked there for several years, then I ended up working in a large preschool, then opened my own preschool in my home in my early twenties so I could stay at home with my babies.

As my children grew older, and I began sending my oldest children off to school, I became very motivated to finally finish my teaching degree so that I could bring them with me to the school where I taught, as I started out as a fifth grade teacher in a wonderful elementary school. This worked out great!

As my career path morphed and changed over the years, I found myself teaching adults in a professional development capacity for mathematics; then special needs children from emotional disturbance and autism to severe learning disabilities. I loved it all.

For the past six years, I've been teaching at SOBAS (School of Botanical Arts & Sciences), the school I founded in 2019. We teach older teens through 80-year-olds from all over the world how to make herbal and aromatic medicine and to work with the plants God gifted to us so we can provide the best health possible for our families, friends, and anyone interested.

It's our mission to help get an herbalist/aromatherapist into every extended family so all have access to natural medicine from Our Father.

Thus, I've learned a few things about how people learn herbalism over the years....

Most people approach learning both herbalism and aromatherapy ineffectively, and it leads to repeating (and possibly dangerous) problems.

Here's how to 10x your learning and do your herbalism learning best....

1) Don't rely on the internet, artificial intelligence, YouTube, etc. for your herbal information. Please. If you do, verify, verify, verify...with multiple (reputable) sources. It makes me so sad to see some of the terrible (and sometimes very dangerous) information out there.....

2) Choose two to three favorite teachers. Stick with them. Learn their philosophies and then develop your own as your own herbalism practice grows.

3) Never believe you're done. You will never, ever be finished learning herbalism. And this is a wonderful and exciting thing! There's just too much to experience and know.

4) You will make mistakes, and this is good (unless you accidentally hurt someone). But you learn from these errors. To avoid hurting someone, it's important to find a solid community that is OFF Facebook or any other social media. Join an active, vibrant paid community that is monitored for safe language, inputs, and information.

A community where others actually show up to help you when you need it.

A community like our Confident Herbalist Tribe! Doing this will help you NOT experience terrible mistakes.

5) Commit to learning daily. Now, I know many of us are extremely time challenged. I am one of these. But I have found that when we commit to even small increments of time, every single day, with consistency, that knowledge builds! Just five minutes a day is nearly 40 minutes a week. And that's a lot!

6) Keep a journal. When you take notes, draw pictures, write down your formulations and thoughts, keep track of what works and what doesn't, you will have, at your fingertips, your BEST resource. And you own it. This is also your legacy to others in your life.

7) Share and be in community with others who share your love of herbalism. I promise. I have seen SO many students of herbalism trying to go it alone with friends and family who make fun, put down, or try to minimize your knowledge. BUT when you have your herbal village, you have people to lift you up when your endeavors feel hard. The Confident Herbalist Tribe is that vibrant, active place for hundreds of learning herbalists.

Herbalism and aromatherapy are worthy, life-changing topics to learn and to learn well. They are too important to trust your education to random folks on the interwebs, most of whom have not even taken one single course.

Choose legitimate herbal teachers who you resonate with. And enjoy the community you find yourself in well. THAT's how you learn herbalism best!

With all that said, I'm inviting you to ENROLL FREE in our Sage Masterclass for a short time. This is a SUPER valuable, yet teeny-tiny example of what is included inside the Confident Herbalist Tribe.

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It's not a trick, either. You're not going to enroll then find yourself with a payment or subscription unless you choose that.

​The Sage Masterclass is 100% FREE; a gift from me to you at this Thanksgiving Time, 2025.

This was one of the first courses I put together for the Confident Herbalist Tribe back in 2019! It's a vintage course that we have added to here and there over the years. There are many remedies and recipes to enjoy, multiple videos to watch, and a 56 page text with research to back up the benefits and uses of sage!

AND.... I'll be going LIVE on a zoom call especially for you tomorrow at 10:00 am Pacific time; 11 am Mountain; noon Central; and 1:00 Eastern. This is my first time doing a live talk in a webinar style on zoom...so I am crossing fingers all the tech works.

But if all goes well, there will be a replay, and up to 500 people can attend. We already have nearly 2,000 people enrolled in the Sage course, and our live plant chats are so fun! It's another example of how we help people learn about the plants.

You'll find the Zoom link to the live chat inside the FREE Sage Masterclass!

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Encouragement and Inspiration

The sands of time seem like they're sifting so quickly through my fingers, and I can't hang onto them. I wish I could just DO so much more, and even though I do a lot now, I feel time is becoming shorter and shorter.

Do you feel like this too?

I've been practicing my best to try to slow time down. Here are a few of the things I've been doing:

1) Acknowledging that I can't do it all. And also that it's ok.

2) Enjoying my time. Instead of rushing through my life, I'm building in time to do some things that are just so wonderful. Simple things. Things like getting sunshine in my face first thing...or at least natural light if it's cloudy. Like making sure I get my scripture time and prayer time in every day, even if just for a few moments. And...a bit of exercise.

3) Being present. We always hear this, and it's harder than it seems. But I'm trying to really focus on the here and now. If I'm washing the dishes...I focus on feeling and seeing the water flowing over my hands...and enjoying it.

4) Gratitude in the moments.... As I'm washing the dishes (see above), I actively acknowledge how grateful I am that we have running, clean, hot water. And I'll often say another prayer of thanks as I do this.

5) I like to remember that life is a puff of smoke. A whisp on the wind. We're all going to be gone someday. What will I leave behind? I'm working on not leaving behind a memory of a stressed out, hangry, frustrated woman. I want my footprint to be of peace, joy in the small things, and gratitude. Even if it doesn't really matter.

"That which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one might say, "See this, it is new?" Already it has existed for ages Which were before us. There is no remembrance of earlier things; And also of the later things which will occur...."

---Ecclesiastes 1:9-11

Our struggles and achievements are transient. But I know that our efforts are meaningful now, to others in our lives. It's about those we love and care for.....

So, we do our best. Let's enjoy our lives, within God's boundaries, while we're here.....

Hugs, health, and herbs,

Heidi

​P.S. The Confident Herbalist Tribe is on an early Black Friday sale for 20% off, all plans. (And, it is rarely on sale.) Use coupon code: BFCM20 at checkout. And I'll have more surprises for you coming up later this week!