Aloha!
My name is Sarah and I am the Yogi Herbalist.
My path to yoga…
The small town in Virginia where I grew up in did not have a yoga studio (thankfully there are now several studios). I had never even heard of yoga! One day, when I was around 20 years old, I was waiting in line to buy a book, when I noticed a beginners yoga DVD pack . It was just a simple 30 minute DVD and a little booklet on beginner yoga. A friend I was with suggested I buy it, that he had heard it helped relax people, and I could benefit from it. At that point in my life I was severely depressed, and suffering from a lot of different symptoms because of it. So I thought, why not?
I never really committed myself to the video. Occasionally when I had a particularly bad day the thought would occur to me to pop the dvd in, and I did enjoy the momentary reprieve that it provided. Over the next few years I would randomly play it, and eventually upgraded to a different yoga dvd when I set out to change unhealthy habits in my life. At this point I had only viewed yoga as a workout.
It wasn’t until my yoga teacher training when yoga truly became a part of my life. Up until that moment I had merely practiced to be more physically fit. Halfway through the month intensive teacher training, after back to back classes, I was in savasana when I felt my whole heart center open. In that moment, not only was I connected to God/universe/higher-power, but I felt myself heal. I forgave myself for all the harm I caused physically and mentally to myself. I forgave myself for not believing that I was worth anything beautiful.
My path to herbalism…
I had been teaching yoga for two years when I came upon a book that would change the direction my path was taking me. At the time I was suffering from severe cystic acne and was on the search for a natural, holistic approach to healing. The book was Rosemary Gladstar’s book Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health. I took one of her recipes, went to my local herb shop, and blended my first tea. It was a joyful moment. The act of blending, steeping and then sipping was therapeutic all on its own. I tried a few more recipes from the book, and began researching more online. What I began to learn was inspiring. In the next year I healed a lot of internal damage and began to heal the scars the severe acne left on my face. This led me to enroll in Rosemary Gladstar’s online Home Herbal study program the Science and Art of Herbalism.
The yogi herbalist is created
I never considered myself to be a healer. I just knew that I wanted to share the knowledge in hopes that it would help another person heal. When I was a young teenager I wanted to be famous and somehow change the world. For years I always thought that to create change it had to be on a massive scale. When I shared this thought to my husband, he reminded me that many small acts of love and kindness creates change on a larger scale. The ripple effect.
I have embraced my path as a healer. I find passion in what I do, and this path that I pursue. A person can have more than one dream. In fact, I think a person should have many different dreams, and find a way to pursue them all. Throughout the years I find myself still dreaming about being a writer. What better way to combine all my passions into one beautiful package, then blogging?
Above all else, I am a dreamer. It is my imagination that carried me through the pain as a pre-teen and teenager. It is my dream to create beauty, and to shine my inner light on the world in the hope that I can inspire.
Sarah lives in Maui teaching yoga and studying herbalism.
A reminder that all descriptions and information in blog posts are for informational purposes only, and are not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease or illness.
