Tulsi + Determination

April 04, 2023

I know what you’re afraid of…

That you won’t be consistent… 

That you won’t see results…

That you’ll waste more money…

That you won’t have the support of your family or community…

I think that these are all natural and understandable fears when it comes to embarking on something new. We don’t know what’s on the other side and we have no guarantees that this will be different than what we’ve already experienced. 

If you’re someone who has a history of losing motivation, being unsuccessful at making lasting change, throwing your money into one thing after the next, and prioritizing the opinions of others over your own, then yes, joining Herbal Medicine for the Soul to transform your health or embrace your calling is likely bringing up all those old records. I overstand.

While experiencing violent, childhood trauma was horrible, one of the gifts instilled in me during that time was determination. In my child mind, I knew there was something wrong with my environment, not me. In my child mind, I knew if I made it to 18, then I’d make it. In my child mind, I knew that I could always figure something out. When you have to navigate an environment in which you’re forced to rapidly think about your safety all the times, you develop a knack for self-preservation. 

I’m grateful for all my experiences because I am proud of who I am today. And honestly, without that bad, my life wouldn’t be this good. With a father who drunkenly terrorized me, there was no rational reason for me as a child to believe that I would grow up to be ok, much less thrive. But the God/Source/Love in me that’s the same in you whispered louder in my spirit than the yells and assaults that pierced my ears. If I didn’t believe the whisper, I would have taken my own life. Since I lived through and endured that, I know I can do anything. 

You are here. You’re breathing. You’re alive. You’ve already survived hard. Seriously, take that in... You may not be able to relate to the specifics of my story, but you have struggles of your own that you’ve already endured. The pandemic alone has been traumatizing. But with the trauma, are the gifts. Since you’re here, you’ve already proven your consistency, your success, and your adaptability.

Fears have a sneaky way only getting bigger the more we give them our attention. But as soon as we walk through those doors that once terrified us, we find renewed strength. I’m not here to play down your fears; I simply acknowledge them and invite you to choose. Invite you to rise to the person you are and the power that you were born with. Invite you to tie your belief to possibility, instead of tethering it to the past. 

Every day we can choose to listen to the whispers, to practice faith, to decide to believe that things can get better. We can choose to be determined and persistent until we succeed. And every step toward progress you feel more fulfilled, stronger, and more confident.

The final herbal pairing with Determination is Tulsi (aka Holy Basil) and I’ve got a lot to share about it! Tulsi is gentle physiologically, but a mighty force in our spirits.  If we want more peace, clarity, laughter, happiness, wellbeing, fulfillment, safety, whatever it is you want, you always have to think about what are the current barriers to you reaching that state. 

And it’s never other people, it’s you. It’s always you! It’s your decisions, it’s the people you choose to interact with and the ways in which you engage with them. It’s your habits, your emotional reactions, and your behavior.

Tulsi is well known for providing clarity because it shines a spotlight on our obstacles and then invites us to make different decisions, so that we can get what we’re asking for.

Some people have a difficult time looking at the obstacles that are their beliefs and behaviors. But receiving clarity means that we’re clearing away the murkiness in our lives and we can’t do that, if we don’t first look at it, admit that it’s there, and decide to take different action.  

Tulsi essentially asks you, are you willing to move this mountain in your life? When we believe our fears, doubts, and insecurities, and what we perceive to be our faults and deficiencies, we so easily become paralyzed in those emotional traps and we cut ourselves off from the love, support, the health, the abundance that is always flowing to us. These are our spirit-sustaining nutrients. We can’t live fully, bravely without them. 

Tulsi is a lifeline. No matter how much you’ve cut yourself off from the love and support you deserve, there’s always that piece of you that knows better and Tulsi touches that part of you and reminds you of your resilience and your wisdom. The physical clearing that Tulsi gives us in our digestive system, in our lungs and sinus cavities, even in our wombs (it helps with period pain) and in our minds by bringing fresh blood to the brain mirrors how it supports us emotionally and spiritually. 

You have all this spaciousness in your body and in your mind and heart, so what will you do with it? Will you fill yourself with more distractions, more fear, more doubt, more excuses, or will you choose the wisdom of simplicity? This doesn’t mean easy, but we all know that any dissatisfaction we experience in our lives has a simple, not easy, solution. If you eat a food that you know you have a bad reaction to the simplest solution is to remove it from your diet. Simple solution, harder execution. We make things way more complicated than they need to be. And the teachings from Tulsi are that clarity is understanding when you’re making things more complicated than they need to be and then making a different choice.

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