One of the things I love about being a herbalist is the variety of my work. My day may be spent with clients, taking histories and assessing issues. It may be spent in a deep dive into academic literature, as there is always more to learn and new research to keep up with. And it is often, especially in the growing season, spent outside, planting and tending to my herb gardens, or foraging for wild herbs in woods and meadows. Then there is the slow process of drying herbs for teas, making tinctures, salves, and other plant-based medicines.

In honour of International Pi/Mathematics day, I would like to do an experiment with you where we imagine two different scenarios. 

First, imagine somebody has made you a pie. You appreciate the gesture and set the pie on your counter. You’re on a diet and not allowed to eat pie. Maybe you’re not on a specific diet, but you don’t think pie is good for you or you’re concerned about the amount of sugar and carbs in it. Throughout the day, you walk past the pie and are tempted to eat a piece, but restrain yourself and don’t. By the end of the day, you say what the heck and decide to quickly shovel a piece in your mouth. Quick and dirty, you get it over with so you can stop thinking about it. Do you feel guilty that you ate a piece? Do you beat yourself up for not having more willpower? Did you even really taste the pie? Did you end up eating another piece or 2 so you could actually taste the pie? Maybe you ate it and moved on with your day, not giving it much more thought.

For anyone who’s ever taken a flight, you’ve all heard the safety demonstration telling you to put your own oxygen mask on first, before you help others to do the same. This doesn’t just apply to flights, emergencies and cabin pressure changes.

The reality is, that as women, we need to learn to put our own oxygen masks on everyday.

Recently, I’ve heard from several women that they’re putting themselves last.  Some want to make a change and put themselves first and others have said that they “don’t exist” until a certain point because they’re so overwhelmed by life, the demands on their time and energy, as well as everything else that’s happening on a daily basis. This also includes caring for their loved one.

It’s that time of year when Christmas and New Year’s celebrations are over, and we’re settling in for a few months of cold, snowy weather. And with Winter come seasonal colds, sore throats, and runny noses. 

Being a backyard herbalist is so much easier in the summer when there is an abundance of medicinal weeds and wildflowers, but even in the depths of winter, there are herbal remedies to be found. This one is a great remedy for runny noses and mucousy coughs, and has the added benefit of being right in your living room – it’s your Christmas tree! 

“I’m so bad”, she states as she reaches for a cookie. “No I can’t, I’m trying to be good” as she declines an offer of a homemade muffin. We’ve all heard these phrases, and have probably said them, or something similar, ourselves. When we pause to reflect on these phrases, we can discern how we’re assigning moral value to food choices. Letting what we eat determine whether we’re “good” or “bad”. Our worth is not based on which foods we choose to eat or choose not to eat. 

As Canadians, our mental health can dive during the winter months.“About 15% of people in Canada experience the winter blues, while only about 2-3% of people in Canada experience SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)” (Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 2000).

If that doesn’t sound like a lot, that’s about 5,737,500 Canadians experiencing the winter blues yearly! So, how can counselling or therapy help with that?

I grew up in England, so I may be biased, but I believe there is nothing quite as soothing to the soul as a good cup of tea.

Just taking the time to sit down for a few minutes, to be still, to feel the comforting warmth of a cup in your hands, is a balm for busy days. And if your hands happen to be wrapped around a cup of herbal tea, you may also benefit from the healing properties of those herbs. You may be surprised to know that there is an art to making a good herbal tea. It’s not hard to do, but it can greatly improve the quality of your tea.

Have you been struggling with chronic illness for years or even decades? Are you looking for answers and haven’t found any? Are you feeling like no one is listening when you try to explain what’s happening to you or that they don’t understand?

Rebecca provides a calm environment for you to be heard, understood and believed. She truly listens to what you’re saying and asks relevant questions to gain a deeper understanding of what you’re experiencing.

Habits aren’t something that most people think about regularly until you’re trying to make a change. Habits, by nature, are subconscious and exist in response to specific stimuli. This is also called ‘Cue, Routine, Reward’ in Charles Duhigg’s book The Power of Habit.

“Habits are the compound interest of self improvement.” ~ James Clear (Atomic Habits)

By definition, habits are repeated actions or behaviours that you do with such frequency that you may not be aware of them. You might find yourself in the middle of the action or have even completed it before you realize what you are doing.

If you fall, you could break a bone, like thousands of older men and women do each year. For older people, a break can be the start of a more serious problem like a trip to the hospital, a permanent disability, or even a move to a long-term care home.

More than one in three people aged 65 years or older fall each year. The risk of falling and fall-related problems rises with age.

Are you looking for a practitioner who is kind, compassionate, empathetic and understands the health struggles you’re experiencing?

Andrea’s near encyclopaedic wealth of knowledge combines perfectly with her calm and compassionate nature to deliver an outstanding level of care.

At Dancing Willow Wellness, we pride ourselves on patient-centred care, and Andrea exemplifies this principle. She is always ready to meet patients where they’re at, and use her skills, expertise, and warmth to bring them closer to where they want to be.

Patients feel supported and heard throughout their journey and appreciate her kindness as well as the great results they achieve.

Ever wonder why you have a great sleep one night and then a less than stellar sleep another night?

Do you struggle to get even a decent night’s sleep? Have you got your bedroom optimized and your bedtime routine down and you’re still struggling?

What you do during the day has a profound effect on how well you sleep each night!

Have you ever told yourself to remember not to do something, only to do it anyway?

A number of years ago, I took a college course that required a final exam. As my children were still young, I arranged to drop them off with my parents on the day of the exam. I had, coincidently, misplaced my spare car key.

So, driving the children to my parent’s house, anxious about this exam to begin with, and now concerned about losing my remaining car key, I reminded myself over and over, “don’t lock the keys in the car… don’t lock the keys in the car...” And of course, that is exactly what I ended up doing – I walked the children into their grandparent’s house and came back out to find I had locked the car and left the keys in the ignition.

As I tell my clients, “if self-care feels like just another thing you have to do, you're doing it wrong”.

There are many ways of taking care of yourself; getting enough sleep, eating well, exercising, etc. But I think many of us are missing a really important part of self-care.

Sleep is not self-indulgence or self-care. Sleep is a basic human need that’s critical to our health, well-being and self-preservation!

While I know I started the last sleep article with this same quote, it really is that important that we make sleep a priority.

It’s not accidental that we will spend approximately ⅓ of our lives sleeping.

Our bodies are really very busy when we sleep! Our bodies need this time to be able to heal, integrate everything that happened during the day, create new memories, reset our digestive system and so much more.

Hello again. If you’ve read the spring edition you know I’m passionate about wild medicinal plants – or weeds as many people like to call them.

Here are three more common plants that you may find on your lawn during the summer months.

We’ve all had our fair share of stress over the last few years with the pandemic and all that’s come from that. Some of you have felt more stress with the loss of work, while others have felt like they have been working like a dog. Some people have been called heroes by some and spit on by others. We’ve also seen one of the most concerning protests in Canada in recent memory. All these events add stress to our lives!

For many of us, spring means the opportunity to get outside and begin work in our gardens. Whether you are a novice or an expert, a vegetable or a flower gardener, there is one task that we all have to do many times over the growing season - weeding!

We treat sleep like a luxury, but it isn’t. Chronic lack of rest harms focus, mood, immunity—and that’s just the beginning. If you wake up exhausted, unfocused, or hitting snooze on repeat, it’s time to rethink your habits. Small changes can make big differences.

Your brain is brilliant at keeping you safe—but it still reacts to everyday stress as if danger were lurking nearby. Bills, deadlines, worry: the alarm keeps ringing. What happens when your body never gets the signal to stand down? The answer isn’t obvious, but it might surprise you.