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12/31/2025

Happy New Year's Eve! Are you excited?

I haven't decided how I feel about this new year, yet....but it behooves all of us to be hopeful, right? And grateful.....

We're in the dead of winter, and although this is the warmest winter I remember since we moved off grid to the mountains of S. Nevada and here to Idaho combined (about 15 years), we're still enjoying green pastures up here!

To be honest.....

It's a concern. Without the snowpack, summers can be harder than usual. In fact, our cherry trees are already budding out early, and we've not even reached January officially.

So, I'll continue to pray for lots of beautiful snow. I hope things are more "normal" where you are!

The Immunity and Nervous System Link

Do you know?

I used to get totally stressed out about the weather, and pretty much most things outside of my control. This is TERRIBLE for your immune system. Just terrible.

This is because stress is the biggest factor affecting the health of our nervous system (and really, our entire body and mind). It's a really big deal, and most people don't realize how much of a big deal it is.

In addition to this, most “immune support” advice ignores the nervous system entirely.

This is one of the biggest gaps I see in modern wellness—natural or otherwise.

We’ve been taught to think about immunity almost exclusively in terms of germs: what to kill, what to block, what to boost. So we chase immune stimulants, load up on supplements, and stack various protocols on top of already overloaded lives.

And then we’re confused when we still feel run down, reactive, or like our bodies just can’t keep up.

Here’s the truth that doesn’t get said often enough, perhaps never by some:

Immunity does not function well in a stressed body.

Stress is not just an emotional issue. It is a physiological state.

When the body perceives ongoing stress—mental, emotional, or physical—it reallocates resources away from digestion, repair, and immune function and toward short-term survival.

That’s not a flaw. That’s actually intelligent design and God meant this to help keep us safe with our fight/flight/freeze responses, which are states of acute (hopefully) stress, although many people find themselves in one or more of these states chronically (no bueno).

But it also means that no amount of “immune support” works as intended if the nervous system is constantly braced and ready.

This is why I’m always less interested in what a client or student is taking and more interested in how their body/mind is living.

Are they sleeping peacefully and well?
Are they practicing deep breathwork throughout the day?
Are they eating in a state of calm?
Do they ever truly come out of fight-or-flight?

This is because chronic stress is suppresses the immune system. Full stop suppression.

Calm, on the other hand, is a biological advantage, and it supports our immune system health. It's also something we can control.....

When the nervous system is regulated—when the body feels safe enough to rest—immune cells communicate better, digestion improves, inflammation resolves more efficiently, and recovery actually happens. This isn’t “woo.” This is basic physiology.

And this is where herbs and essential oils shine when they’re used wisely.

Not as quick fixes, but as supportive signals for our body to do what it is meant to do.

Nervine herbs like lemon balm, skullcap, chamomile, and milky oats don’t force the body to do anything. Instead, they invite it back into balance.

Aromatic plants—lavender, frankincense, certain woods, and uplifting citrus oils—reach the nervous system quickly and help shift the body out of constant alert. When used consistently, they create the internal conditions where immune function can do what it was designed to do.

This is stewardship.

Stewardship says, “I’m going to work with my body, not bully it.

Stewardship understands that healing isn’t about control—it’s about cooperation.

And stewardship recognizes that peace, rhythm, and consistency are not luxuries. They are foundational to our overall wellbeing and health.

If your immune strategy ignores your stress levels, your sleep, and your nervous system, it’s incomplete—no matter how natural it sounds. What this means is that you can take all the elderberry syrup or tincture, echinacea, astragalus, and others all you want....but it's not going to help in the long-term.

Here’s me saying it plainly:

If you are serious about supporting your health and your family’s health, you cannot skip nervous system support and expect long-term resilience. You just can’t.

This is exactly one of the things I teach inside Healing Harvest Homestead and the School of Botanical Arts & Sciences—how to use herbs and essential oils with discernment, how to build calm into daily life, and how to steward health in a way that actually holds up over time.

If you’re ready to stop chasing fixes and start building real resilience, you know where to find me. 🥰

We're starting a brand new group of students in January in our Ditch the Drugstore and Family Herbalist Certification programs. Stay tuned for more information!

(If you're already a student in one of these programs, you can just join on in with the new group! You own the courses for life.)

Have questions? Contact: support@healingharvesthomestead.com

**And if you're homeschooling older children? You may qualify for credit from our courses. Many others have received science and health credits.

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Here are some videos you may enjoy that can help with your immune and/or nervous system:

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Here's my latest video on YouTube, in case you haven't seen it yet---And especially if you or someone you know suffers from hot flashes or other symptoms women experience during natural life hormone changes. Please excuse the thumbnail... Mr. V. thought it was funny... 😳

**I would love it if you would like, subscribe to my channel, and share! It means the world to me....

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Encouragement and Inspiration

You may know that I've fallen in love with making bread with fresh-milled flour. This has led me into a whole rabbit-trail of bread baking behaviors. One of the books I recently purchased is the inspiration for the following thoughts. It's Bread of Life (afflink) by Abigail Dodds.

The following is a paraphrase from one of the chapter endings (and her bread recipes are GREAT too)...

Isaiah wrote that even when the Lord gives us the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, our Teacher will not hide Himself. Our eyes will see Him, and our ears will hear a voice behind us saying, “This is the way—walk in it,” whether we turn to the right or to the left. --Isa. 30:20

That truth matters more than we often realize—especially in hard seasons.

We are not without a Teacher. We are not abandoned or left to figure things out on our own. Our eyes have seen Him, and our ears have heard Him through His Word. And He is still leading.

Whether you are walking through a dark night of the soul: living with chronic pain or long-term illness, facing financial pressure, or persecution from authorities, enduring a painfully hard marriage, or an unwanted divorce, a miscarriage or death in the family, disability, or the sting of being misunderstood or pushed aside—His Word is still speaking to you.

All the time.

This is the way. Walk in it.

The wilderness, as strange as it sounds, is often a safer place than we think. Not because it guarantees the outcomes we want—because it doesn’t—but because it guarantees something far more important: dependence.

We tend to think danger lives only in obvious hardship. But scripture and experience tell a different story.

I believe that danger hides in worldly comfort, in the pursuit of ease, security, status, independence, and control. Those things promise safety, but they pull our hearts and minds away from our Savior.

The wilderness removes those illusions of the so-called benefits of worldly things.

It doesn’t offer certainty or comfort. It doesn’t give us control. What it gives us—whether we want it or not—is clarity. It strips life down to what actually matters. It exposes where we’ve been relying on ourselves, and it invites us back into reliance on God.

Yes, the wilderness gives us something we don’t want: the bread of adversity. No one asks for that. No one signs up for suffering.

But it also gives us something we desperately need—eyes that can see our Teacher clearly, ears that can hear His voice without all the noise, and hearts that learn to receive His Word as real sustenance. As our daily bread.

If you listen, you can hear Him speak:

This is the way. Walk in it.

Not because it’s easy.
Definitely not because it’s comfortable.
But because He is with us there, and that's all that matters.

I hope you have the BEST New Year's Eve and Day tomorrow. I hope you find peace, joy, and blessings as we dive headfirst (whether we're ready or not) into this New Year of 2026...

Hugs, Health, and Herbs,

Heidi

P.S. If you don't have my How to Relax Using Herbs and Oils FREE Guide yet, you can get that in this link. (Just use the same email you're receiving this note at so you don't get doubles.) Enjoy!

P.P.S. If you enjoyed this note and know someone who will or who needs it, please feel free to hit "forward" and send it along! Sharing is caring.....

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