Everyone's body and everyone's experience is valid and unique.

If somebody drinks an infusion and says, you know, I feel this way and I'm feeling this place in my body,

how could that possibly be wrong? Let It Out.

Let It Out.

This week, I have a conversation with Vanessa Shakur.

She's an herbalist and an educator teaching others in her field and most recently an author.

You'll hear me explain in a moment, but I'd never met Vanessa before this conversation.

A student of hers and a friend of mine, Maria, connected us. And I'm really glad she did

because I really liked this one. Vanessa's so wise and grounded and has lived this really fascinating

life. What she really does in her work is she helps people connect to nature

and their environments and her work is really rooted in the natural world and what she calls

our own inner wild, which is really our intuitive connection to ourselves. We had a really

wide-ranging conversation talking about everything from the connection between

nature and eating disorder recovery, consent and anger and how that relates to weeds like dandelion.

We talk about the creative process, writing for emotional wellness, navigating highs like new

relationships and career successes.

She's in one of those highs right now. We talk about how to manage the nervous system during highs

like that and also lows. We talk about her new book, Awakening Artemis. And we start off this

conversation. You'll hear her answer to the question that I wasn't

recording yet, but I was asking what she was drinking because she was drinking an herbal infusion.

And if you've listened to this podcast for any bit of time, I've had a few herbalists on this

podcast. Rochelle, when I was still in New York, my really close friends, Aaron and Noah, have been on

...