Recently I ran a workshop on 18th century healers and started working with an herbalist to better understand some of their practices. During the Q & A period of my first talk, the topic of Knotweed was brought up. Hated by gardeners and naturalists a like, I was fascinated to learn about its healing properties, particularly for Lime Disease.
If you aren’t inundated with Knotweed, it was imported from Japan in the 19th century and it’s taken hold with a vengeance. Basically It’s at home on the volcanic slopes of Mt. Fuji as it is in New York parking lots and can easily survive Vermont’s minus 0 temps. It is a super spreader plant.
While listening to the On Being Podcast with Janine Benyus, a biomimicry pioneer, I was instantly struck by the healing power of Knotweed to its native environment-it’s one of the first things to grow on Mt. Fuji after irruptions. The more I listened, I started realizing how much nature has to teach us about healing ourselves and our planet.
According to Benyus, this is how nature heals: So say a landslide has come through or there’s been a clear cut or whatever. So there’s this beautiful succession that happens where at first, the first ones coming, come in the type one species, and we call them weed species. They’re annual plants and they come in and what they’re doing is basically spreading out as quickly as they can — cover that ground. Because healing, the first thing is, don’t let the good stuff go. And that’s why you scar over so quickly. There’s that little, don’t let the good stuff leak out, all those nutrients that are there. So that’s their job. They come in and then they put all of their energy into creating pretty small bodies and seeds, not a lot of roots. And those seeds then blow off to the next opening that needs healing.
And what they’ve done though, is started to soften up the soil, started to put nutrients in, and the next group is the shrubs and the berries. And they start to put down roots. They’re going to stay for a while, and then they start what’s called facilitating. They start shading little seedlings, keeping wind away, creating. There’s a windward and a leeward, so some species that are a little more tender can get started. There’s this whole chaperoning and facilitation that happens. And then in the shade and the windshields of these trees, of these shrubs, little seedlings start and then those seedlings become the overstory that we know about. So literally it is a progression of making way, making things more and more fertile for the next cohort to come. So there’s this incredible generosity and everybody’s got their place….
She describes how the human body does the same thing. One of the patterns I find interesting is that when you cut yourself literally —some of your immune cells flock and they come to the site of the cut like a flock of birds. And they get on either side of the cut and they pull the skin together as it’s being, as the fibroids are being formed. There’s a first thing, and that’s similar to what happens in an ecosystem. The first group comes out — the first group of seeds that get there — and they start holding it down. Now, they may not be the only ones there for a while — I mean, they may not be the ultimate ones there, but that’s their job, is the healing quickly.
Same thing with you get a little mini scar and then that mini scar gets completely broken down to finish it off with the end, for the end. And what that means is that your final thing that’s done slowly, if it’s a big cut, it can take a year.
The ”seeds” of healing that reside within each of us is resiliency. We’re basically wired to recover from adverse and horrific events. That isn’t to say it’s easy but it’s helpful to realize the seeds reside in all of us. In today’s world, where everything is labeled “trauma,” we forget the one important thing, we’re descendants of survivors not victims. We’re capable.
I’ve written about the research of George Bonnano, who has studied grief, loss and trauma for four decades. I’ll include links below to some of my former posts. He talks about the importance of flexibility-the ability to adjust to change. We can figure out what’s the best thing to do right in the moment. Again, we see examples of this all the time in nature.
Even just observing it from the window, you quickly see how the animals, trees and plants continually adapt to place. If the summer is lush with warmth and rain, you’ll have a bumper crop of tomatoes. Animals constantly check to make sure predators aren’t around. I had a dog that would sniff carefully before going outside at night. If she smelled a fisher cat, she’d pass on an evening game of stick tossing. Nature is constantly changing and adapting. Bottom line, fitness is more about our ability to change with the circumstances, verses trying to continually control the circumstances to fit how you want it to be.
We have a lot of deep seated fear about change. However, by being willing to adapt to it, by being flexible and taping into the resource of resiliency, we continue to remain fit for the place we find ourselves in. When you need reminders, observe nature.
Resource Links
• Adaptation & Flexibility are Key
• We are wired for Resiliency
• You are not a victim: Includes the TED talk of Dr. Lucy Horne
• Dr. Lucy Horne’sThree invaluable tools to boost your resilience
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