Virality, Groundedness, & the Foundation of Health (Or, "It's the Immunity, Stupid!")

Life's a tough game, sometimes.

Don't get me wrong, friends. I enjoy it—and I know many of us do our very best to live in the best way we know to do.

I think that at our core, many of us acknowledge the truth that our energy is really important.

To that end, we pursue experiences that lift us up, and we tend to shun the sorts of feelings that get us down.

This is also, I think, a part of our design—and often, it serves us fairly well when applied in the context of our diverse and challenging lives.

Sometimes, we let ourselves do too much of the positive-feeling, energizing stuff—as Busta Rhymes puts it, “we get a little high, an' we getta liddle drunk, an' we getta liddle crunk, come on!”—and maybe we get out of balance and have to sort ourselves out. This is true particularly if we can't really seem to function without these kinds of crunked-up influences, as certain habits can and will begin to have diminishing returns.

Often, you'll hear the 26-year-olds say, “I just can't really party like I used to,” etc. (YMMV depending on the company you keep, but you get my point…)

Sometimes, getting lit is exactly what the doctor ordered. Of course, it's just as possible to rely on beauty, or the arts, or self-expression, or athleticism, or a thousand other things that may or may not involve various substances and their use (and potential abuse—but really, no judgments, because nobody wants to get a lecture, especially if they're hungover, rite?).

Other times, we get a troubling feeling with regard to something we'd rather not focus on. And rather than take the time and energy to have it out then and there, we shy away from it. This can often lead to problems down the line—e.g., emotional trauma that we'd rather not face, self-sabotaging behaviors we choose to let slide, or ignoring a message from our bodies in the form of pain or discomfort—problems that, left unchecked, can often become far larger than they were when we initially noticed them.

The truth is that everything a human being experiences, generally speaking, presents itself to us in the form of a feeling. And put another way, those feelings are simply impulses our brains use to describe frequencies to us—in something of an “E for effort” attempt at self-preservation and the continual maintenance of our delicate status quo (i.e., “not being eaten”, etc.).

Why say all this? Well, simple.

These days, our frequencies are under attack from all sides.

One might perhaps draw a parallel between the hourly energetic bombardment of our age and that of an invading organism disrupting an otherwise happily-regulated system. The idea here is that for the human body to exist in homeostasis, it must have a certain strength of vision—a more-than-decent blueprint to follow, just in case things get hairy down the line.

As I see it, there are essentially two schools of thought: team kill-it-with-fire!, à la the work of Louis Pasteur, and team superjuice-the-system, à la the “microzymian theory” of Pasteur's rival—scientist and chemist Antoine Béchamp.

(For further reading, please see this article: http://www.susandoreydesigns.com/insights/pasteur-recant.html)

On the one hand, we find ourselves in the world of today: that is to say, a social order based upon the profoundly hypochondriac dogma that, for example, 'eggs should always be refrigerated, raw dairy will kill you dead, alcohol-based hand sanitizers are your friend, and washing your hands is literally the difference between life and death'. This approach, rooted in a profound fear and anxiety of falling ill, is essentially the “whack-a-mole”-style belief that literally every discrete pathogen must be treated as the enemy of the free peoples of Middle-Earth and obliterated before it can penetrate the defenses of our not-sick-yet and otherwise hard-pressed bodies.

This belief focuses on not getting sick...which often leads, due to the law of manifestation, to getting sick.

Now this is not to say that washing one's hands is not a very good idea—it is, and I hope you think so, too. But the truth is that if any of us had the slightest of notions as to the trillions-of-trillions of microscopic organisms that we are bathed in at all times, and the tireless work of our bodies to address their influence and mop them all up before they cause us too much suffering, I think we'd be floored.

All this to say, if there's a killer virus on the loose, we must assume it's everywhere already—and if not, that it's coming there soon, and there's really no precautions we can take that will effectively prevent us from absorbing it through our eyes, other membranes, and any place we might suffer the slightest of cuts, scrapes, or weak points in our defenses.

You can't keep the viral hordes out, so what do you do?

Well...I might have an idea on that.

Enter plant medicine. Specifically, the healing frequencies of herbal tonics and adaptogens.

Basically, these things are unbelievably potent virus-hunters (really, heat-seeking pathogen-disruptors of all kinds)—as well as superjuice-bolstering, immune-supporting high-fives for the body.

Herbs are the absolute bomb, and, taken diligently and with a positive intention, have the power to turn the tide of illness on a level that is, frankly, staggering.

Don't believe me? Try them. Yes, it's important to be aware of their proper dosage (typically ½ tsp or equivalent, once or twice per day to start), and there are some, like echinacea and licorice, that shouldn't be taken longterm (about two weeks is considered a solid course). But compared with prescription allopathic medicine, they won't hurt you—and the feeling of strength, solidity, balance, and well-being they often produce may amaze you.

Here then is a very rudimentary list of some personal favs to check out—

Herbs that build and foster your body's superjuice immunity:

Guduchi (tinospora cordifolia)*

Echinacea (echinacea augustifolia)

Astragalus Root (astragalus membranaceus)

Tulsi/holy basil (ocimum tenuiflorum)*

Eleuthero/Siberian ginseng (eleutherococcus senticosus)

Elderberry (sambucus nigra)

Ginger (zingiber offincinale)*

Licorice root (glycyrrhiza glabra)*

Shisandra berry (schisandra chinensis)

Herbs that kick viral ass:

Olive leaf extract (olea europaea)

Oregano (origanum vulgare)

Cat's Claw (uncaria tomentosa)

*I’m something of a Banyan Botanicals fanboy, personally…as if you couldn’t tell ;). Check them out and learn more about Ayurveda here! https://www.banyanbotanicals.com/info/ayurvedic-living/learning-ayurveda/intro-to-ayurveda

In the fight to stay healthy and keep those we care about safe from harm, why not incorporate some herbal secret weapons into the arsenal?

For many who grow and process their own plants, herbs are often perceived as allies, friends, and companions. In truth, each has its own specific energy and vibrational information, and speaks to our bodies in a language of feeling—a language far older than verbal communication.

The miracle is that our bodies innately know how to listen, and put these things to use. One cannot take plant-based medicines internally without something of a profound effect on one's mood, energy, and perceptions.

In future, I will be doing articles on specific herbs and their energies, but for now, this cursory list will suffice.

To everyone reading this, stay safe, feel good, and always, if you can—choose love over fear. Your immune system will thank you for your efforts.

Love you all.

a sol rosen