In this episode I’m lucky enough to chat again with the ever enthusiastic and entertaining Cat Green. We have lots of laughs as always!

Cat’s a folk herbalist and grassroots community herbal organiser and educator. She's passionate about making it easy -and normal - for people to make simple, effective herbal remedies at home. Through Everyday Empowered, she offers a wide range of practical ways for people to learn about herbs.

During this wide reaching conversation, we explore how we can deepen our understanding of self care to encompass both community care and earth care.  Because we know that health doesn’t happen in a vacuum, it’s a product of our interactions and interconnections with the world around us.

But, when we’re already overloaded and busy and distracted, it can quickly feel overwhelming to think about becoming activists to change the bigger structures around workplaces and the environment. 

Conceptually we might understand what’s required, but on a practical level, what do we do about that?

Cat and I agree, the first step is having conversations like these- in our community’s our families and our workplaces. Without these conversations as a starting point, it’s impossible to change the cultural expectations in our workplaces to begin creating new social norms.

Moving away from the idea of self worth being tied to productivity which can be a fast track to burn out.

We agree that feeling a part of and connected to the natural world encourages a sense of awe and a desire to protect and conserve and helps us understand how taking action can be a form self care.

Cat makes a really lovely point that we’re so quick to believe that the smallest thing can hurt us, one drink or one cigarette, but we're so quick to dismiss that small positive, consistent positive actions will have a cumulative benefit. 

We definitely don’t have all the answers, but together, we offer some gentle, practical suggestions for building community connection and to care for and build connection with the earth to begin to deepen our practice of self care.

So grab a cup of your favourite herbal cuppa, find a comfy nook in the sun and settle in to this inspiring episode…

*SHOW NOTES*

You can learn more about Cat, her upcoming offerings, check out her blog posts and blearn more about her upcoming Herbal Tea course here.

Or follow Cat on Instagram and Facebook to keep up to date with all of her offerings.

Cat refers to Slow Productivity by Cal Newport which you can access here.

If you’d like to hear more from Cat on the Elder Tree Podcast, you can listen in here:

Episode 81: Subtropical Herbalism and Herb Fest: Cat Green on Herbal Education

Episode 48: Self Care as a Dynamic, Seasonal, Everyday Practice: Cat Green on Self Care with Herbs

You can connect with Jess via instagram and facebook here and here,  and join her newsletter community here.

To find out more about The Elder Tree visit the website at www.theeldertree.org and donate to the crowdfunding campaign here.

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Find out more about this podcast and the presenters here. Get in touch with The Elder Tree at:  [email protected]

The intro and outro song is "Sing for the Earth" and was kindly donated by Chad Wilkins.  You can find Chad's music here and here.