My journey into natural healing began as a teenager when my chiropractor miraculously cured all my problems with probiotics. Her intuition and ability to see exactly what would help me heal was nothing short of amazing. That opened my eyes to a completely different way of thinking, and I explored all sorts of herbs and teas with varying results. What I found was, when something worked, it REALLY worked. This created a desire in me to dive deeper and take some formal training in naturopathy. At the time I was struggling with some minor health concerns so I figured I could be my own case study. One of the first things I learned on this journey was that all ailments, internal or external, are a reflection of what's going on inside. Therefore, in order to heal you have to work internally rather than externally. This was a dispiriting thought because I had some things going on externally that I wanted a quick fix for. Now I'm being told it isn't that simple; I was going to have to find the root cause. That's a lot of work! As I've grown in my understanding of natural healing, I've decided that this was just a partial truth. Just because the problem started on the inside, external solutions are not without their merit.
My dreams as a young woman learning about naturopathy involved having clients and
teaching them how to live healthy lifestyles. As time went on that changed a bit for me. I found a love of making things like tinctures, teas and salves, body care products that had natural ingredients, and infusing my favorite herbs into oils. It was about this time that I realized that all of these things were, in fact, beneficial to healing the whole body. There are certain times when changing your diet or taking a supplement are not going to benefit you, like when you burn your hand in the kitchen or scrape yourself while hiking through the woods. Times like these it's precisely what you put on those injuries that are going to make the difference. Still, there will always be those things that present on the outside but began on the inside. So what is the answer here?
Well, the answer is both simple and complicated. I'm going to give you the simple answer because the complicated one is individual to you and the health problems you face. So here it is: if you have a problem that you can feel or see on the outside (think eczema, yeast infection, arthritis, etc.), it can and should be “treated” both internally and externally. For example, we make a fungus oil that is designed to be used on finger or toe nails that have a fungal infection. On its own, this oil can dramatically reduce the discoloration and thickening of the nail caused by the fungus. However, this treatment alone is not always enough to eradicate the fungus. In this case, the best course of action is to find the underlying cause of the symptom and work on that. Typically for nail fungus the underlying cause is candida albicans, a type of yeast that likes to take up residence in the body and wreak havoc in a variety of ways. If you do not get rid of the overgrowth of candida in your body, your nails will almost never clear up with only an external remedy. With that being said, attacking the fungus from both sides (inside and out), you are making very unstable living conditions for the fungus, which is precisely how you fight it.
The same can be said for any chronic condition that is presenting externally. Even things like acne or dark undereye circles that we think of as beauty problems can start on the inside. This is where finding a healer comes in. Whether it's an MD, OD, naturopath, herbalist, or any number of other options, it's great to have someone who has the knowledge and ability to run the right tests to get to the bottom of your health issues. Finding the right person can take a bit of work, but when you find them they will be worth their weight in gold. You'll want to seek out someone who is willing to listen to you and work with you the way you choose to heal, and that can be different for each of us.
So, while I've given in to the idea of working on myself from the inside, I'm happy to report that all those external remedies were not for naught. This is great news for someone like me who loves mixing and making them for all of you! Here's hoping your healing journey is a successful one, and as always, hit us up with all your questions; we truly love hearing from you and helping in any way we can!