The Importance of Finding Your Plant People
The Importance of Finding Your Plant People
No matter how you consume “alternative” plant therapies, it helps to have a community along the way.
No matter how you consume “alternative” plant therapies, it helps to have a community along the way.
Anyone daring to challenge the mainstream narrative about wellness needs support. Stephanie Kerns, a plant medicine consultant and psychedelic artist, joined me in the latest episode of Getting Personal with Plant Medicine to talk about the importance of finding a community.
“We all find our tribe by having the courage to question the narrative. Or maybe a better way to say that is we all find our tribe, when we start questioning the status quo,” said Kerns.
A big part of finding your plant community is unlearning misinformation. Anything that challenges the pharmaceutical industry is labeled as some type of snake oil from opponents of natural alternatives. It’s especially challenging when medical experts who proport to heal refuse to consider anything outside of what they learned in medical school as a valid treatment option.
“Another non truth is that only doctors can heal you holistically — somebody who might spend a 15-minute appointment with you. I mean, how can they really know a lot about you?” Kerns asked.
While Kerns makes it clear that she isn’t against doctors, she has the experience of having her pain ignored by many practitioners. It wasn’t until she began exploring alternative methods that she saw relief. Furthermore, she found solidarity in the cannabis community that she didn’t have before.
Some tips for finding your community:
Social media platforms like Reddit and Twitter have a ton of groups for holistic/herbal/plant medicine support. Just be mindful that certain platforms censor this type of content heavily, and many users lose their account access after having people report them for content violations.
Associations like the American Kratom Association and Project CBD provide resources for safe consumer access. They also offer educational content and ways for people to become involved politically.
Podcasts like Getting Personal with Plant Medicine give you the feeling as if you’re talking to friends about your plant medicine journey.
Getting Personal with Plant Medicine is a partnership between Mitragaia.com and Your Highness Media.