Vital Ways: Portland Herbal School

12/22/2021

Happiest returning of the light Everyone.

We're so thankful for our earth's revolving, and tilted axis, and the gift of seasonal natural cycles that it offers us.

And today we're celebrating this day, as so many throughout history and around the globe have, with lights lit, and hearts warmed by remembering all the positivity we experienced.

At Vital Ways, we're so thankful and appreciative for the amazing community of students, graduates, faculty, staff, clinic clients, store patrons, and all the online connections,

Below are images from this year's classes and are emblematic of all the incredible dedication and commitment to herbalism, healing and evolving perspectives and consciousness that our community showcased.

WIth gratitude to you all on the path.

Wishing you all a light filled year,

Yours in healing
Christopher
Vital Ways Director
[email protected]
PortlandHerbalschool.com

03/03/2021

Ancient Herbal Remedy for the Mind, Gets a Modern Update-Check out the Simple Combination that Can Boost Your Cognitive Health

https://youtu.be/CJkWyBs1F3g

And if you want to find out more about herbs and the mind, take an upcoming class at Vital Ways-enrolling now for Spring Term that starts this May!

Vital Ways Institute wants you to get to know Gotu Kola, an herb beloved by ancient and modern Yogis alike, here gets a modern twist with the addition of MCT...

03/02/2021

𝙎𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙨 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 which means the plants are awakening from their winter slumber and sharing their food and medicine.

And 𝑩𝒊𝒈 𝑳𝒆𝒂𝒇 𝑴𝒂𝒑𝒍𝒆, one of our favorite trees, is just starting to bud which means Maple Fritters are on the menu!

Do you know how tasty Big Leaf Maple Buds are?
Big Leaf Maple, 𝘼𝙘𝙚𝙧 𝙢𝙖𝙘𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙝𝙮𝙡𝙡𝙪𝙢, is a wonderful example of food as medicine, provides tasty flowers in great abundance. Without too much effort, you can gather enough to make a delicious wild food treat.

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙈𝙖𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙁𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙍𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙥𝙚, plus a lot more about spring edibles, can be found on our blog, written by Wild Food Expert, and Vital Ways faculty, Elise Krohn

Elise shared, that the People of the Klallam Nation traditionally infuse the bark for sore throats. As the buds age to be too large to eat, they’ll become astringent and bitter and you can use them similar to the bark.

𝗞𝗲𝘆𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗜𝗗 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗲:

𝗛𝗮𝗯𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁: Wet, forested areas.

𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗲: Usually the typical lollypop shape of a maple.
Leaves: Huge, as in Cover Your Whole Head, sized maple shaped, 5 lobed leaves over a foot in diameter.

𝗕𝗮𝗿𝗸: The older bark is ridged and grey-brown.
Often Covered in Moss. So much so in fact that it almost seems as if the forest floor and tree are just one large green, glowing, mossy forest creature.

𝗙𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝘀: greenish-yellow and hang in clusters on short stalks, bloom in March-April before the leaves come out.

𝗦𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 spiral on their descent to the earth in the typical maple whirligigs, that you played with as a kid.

Have you seen this tree near you? Look for them in wet forested areas.

At V̲i̲t̲a̲l̲ ̲W̲a̲y̲s̲ ̲S̲c̲h̲o̲o̲l̲ ̲f̲o̲r̲ ̲H̲o̲l̲i̲s̲t̲i̲c̲ ̲H̲e̲r̲b̲a̲l̲i̲s̲m̲ we want you to be empowered to harvest the gifts of the forest, so check out our blog for recipes and lots of other tips and edibles

And if you want to truly learn this and a whole lot more, about wild foods, medicines, and holistic herbalism strategies for healing.

𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀, 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗠𝗮𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀-𝗼𝗻.

𝗣𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗯𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Post inspired by Elise Krohn, Vital Ways Faculty.
See it on our blog here:
https://www.portlandherbalschool.com/herbal-medicine/4153/

02/28/2021

𝑨𝒕 𝑽𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝑾𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒘𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒕𝒉 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 a 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕, 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒂 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒍𝒍.

That’s from our 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐜 page on our website.

Don't you think that the state of healthcare quality and access in this country is unacceptable?

So, we established 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗰 12 years ago, to offer Free Holistic Consultations to our Community.

Our Clinic is overseen by ourfaculty, including Christopher Smaka, with Paul Bergner, Hanna Jordan, and others helping assess and guide our cases.

Our 3rd and 4th year students are the lead practitioners.

We focus on Chronic Health Imbalances which for a free clinic is rare.

All of our Student-Clinician Practitioners offer health intake, evaluation, protocol, and guidance, support, empowerment and education aimed towards empowering our clients to reach their health care goals.

At Vital Ways, we see a person as being much larger than just a diagnosis, or symptoms, so we guide, our clients holistically, for whole person healing.

𝙄𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙘𝙪𝙧𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙡𝙮 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙖 𝙘𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙞𝙘 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙩𝙝 𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙪𝙚, or know someone who is, and would like to consider working with our team, for guidance and support including herbalism, nutrition, mind-body healing, then we welcome you to reach out now.
Link in bio.

If you want to learn how you can become a clinician with us, to really make a difference in the lives of others, then we welcome you to join our growing number of healers and herbalists in our 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗯𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗖𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝘀 registering now for classes that begin in May. Or Call 10AM-7PM. 503-914-7908

02/23/2021

𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝘾𝙖𝙣 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙡 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛 𝙉𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮.

And it shouldn't cost a lot of money.

This is a guiding principle at Vital Ways. We envision a time when people are empowered to take back control of their health by learning straightforward, simple natural strategies that may include herbalism.

This hearkens back to a better time when people were knowledgeable about healing remedies and their own health doesn't it?

As the mainstream disempowering dependency model gets the most coverage, there is a growing movement of people who are rising up to rewrite their own narrative by learning healing for themselves.

It can start by trying one herb, feeling it in your body, and learning that way how you can use it to help yourself heal.

And Chamomile is a great for all empowered healers to really get to know. It taste good, is easy to access and grow, and is much more medicinal than most people think.

Its constituents are powerfully anti-inflammatory, and relaxes tense muscles in the gut, calms the mind, and targets the 𝗚𝘂𝘁-𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗱 axis. And its a decent anti-microbial for those gut bugs that are causing lots of issues these days. It can't do it all as an anti-microbial, but its a good remedy as support.

And its gentle enough to be used by those with most health conditions.

Its one downside if there was one, is that everyone already is aware of it as common tea, so its often disregarded as real medicine. This couldn't be further from the truth.

Chamomile can be used as an integral part of a larger formula to heal the gut from chronic inflammatory conditions like IBD!

If you're inspired to be guided to becoming your own healer, and want to be a confident effective herbal healer, guided by a passionate group of nationally renowned educators who take an active role in your learning, then we welcome you to join one of our 𝙃𝙚𝙧𝙗𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝘾𝙚𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝘾𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙨 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙨𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜!

02/19/2021

𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳!

Herbs are an easy to use and absolutely life changing tool for all would be healers.. And they're fairly accessible, mostly affordable, and often able to be cultivated or wild harvested.

With their gentle yet powerful actions, , you can make your journey on this orb more connected to nature, and more aligned with the healing essence that they represent.

Nature provides us with such an amazing array of free or very affordable solutions just like this gorgeous plant, Passionflower.

Health is now being sold to us by the capitalistic networks that define our reality, but you definitely don’t need to spend exorbitant amounts to take the first initial steps on your own self-empowered healing journey. You can become a transformative healer, yourself and herbs can be an important part of that journey.

𝙄𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙖 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙨, and be empowered along your own health journey to take steps that will give you back control of your health sovereignty, you can.

And then, if or when you need to seek the guidance of others, you can do so from an empowered place, that ensures that you are always at the center of your care.

It starts with adding just one new healing idea per day. Today Passionflower.

𝙄𝙩’𝙨 𝙖 𝙩𝙤𝙥 20 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙙𝙮 𝙞𝙣 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝘼𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙮, 𝙎𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙤𝙡, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙁𝙧𝙚𝙚 𝘾𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙘.

Easy to grow, and some of the most beautiful flowers with edible fruit.

Its easy to use, doesn’t have a lot of contraindications, and tastes pretty nice.

It’s a classic, calming, even sedating, nervine. This means that it’ll help calm and center your mind, and is a core remedy for bringing down excited anxious states.

Its also a mild pain remedy, and skeletal muscle relaxant for that all too common tension mixed with anxiety.

Its wonderful as part of a sleep formula for that constellation of anxiety, pain, tension, and stress.

Its an essential home medicine kit herb- safe for kids, dogs, and most humans.

Have you grown and/or used this amazing plant for you healing?

You can become a healer.

If you want to become a healer, and join an amazing group of like-minded people, online and in person, then join us at Vital Ways School for Holistic Herbalism.

02/08/2021

One thing, I really miss about seeing clients live, is doing pulse analysis.

Pulse, is a traditional evaluation technique, from Chinese Medicine and ancient Greece now integrated with Modern Physiology.

It gives us valuable insights in our 1-2 hour holistic consults.

1) 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔 into a variety of functions, organs, and mindset and unlocks a person’s experience.

With tongue analysis, reading the body, and energetics, it forms an entire branch of evaluation that we teach, integrated into modern biomedical perspectives. Together they are most effective.

2) 𝘾𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙧: Starting pulse first thing is preferred. It sets the tone, and reaffirms our sacred contract- them entrusting in us, their most precious possession-their health, and we, fully accepting this responsibility, by being completely present and fully committed to our time.

This space becomes the healing vessel, the yin, the structure, the container for the work of next two hours.

In China it's said, one has to do 5000 tongues, and 10,000 pulses to get competent. Lao Tsu told us, the journey starts with one.

𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙏𝙤:
𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧s.
1-Calm your nervous system
2-Feel the pulse, on the radial artery where your thumb meets your wrist. Press firmly, straight down into the vessel, feel the coursing of the life energy.

Then assess 𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗘: Above 70bbm or so is a sign, below 60 is sign. Could be excess stress, cardiovascular disease, hyperthyroidism…there are lots of possibilities, so we'll explore more.

Second, 𝐑𝐄𝐆𝐔𝐋𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐘. Lots of causes of irregularity too.

Fast, irregular pulse indicates in many cases a nervine, perhaps skullcap, motherwort, or others. We'll answer that based on what else we find.

Its not easy to learn but when properly guided, very achievable and invaluable.

Learn this and much more in our 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐲 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬starting this March. Visit us here:

𝑷𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅𝑯𝒆𝒓𝒃𝒂𝒍𝑺𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝒎 for more or send us a message.

02/02/2021

𝙏𝙝𝙚 #1 consideration about whether you’ll get a chronic disease, chronic pain, emotional imbalances or be significantly impacted by the nasty virus going around is, as proven by research, your metabolic health.

Metabolic health, simply put, is how well your body moderates the energy in your blood. For most folks this means glucose.

Glucose is from food, and some is made in the liver when we send our livers the signals-stress, movement deficiency, sleep debt, inflammation.

A healthy metabolic response is blood sugar levels around 85ng/ml or less when we haven’t eaten. Its an easy test to run at home with a glucose meter at pharmacies for $20-30.

With high stress (incl. sleep loss), excess carbs to energy needs, and insufficient movement, the numbers climb. This lays the basis for all the major causes of death-Cancer, Heart Disease, Autoimmunity, Neurodegeneration, and this gnarly virus.

Not just lifespan is impacted but healthspan too. Fatigue, and pain, are two common symptoms.

Doesn’t matter if you’re large or small bodied. Metabolic health isn’t obvious from body size in many cases.

𝙏𝙤 𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙩 𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙢, 𝙖 𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙘 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙡
Nutrition, Mindset, Movement, and Sleep.

Herbalism works incredibly well as part of a holistic approach. Specifically 2 categories of herbs:
𝘼𝙙𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙤𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙨: Ancient remedies for healthy stress response
𝙉𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨, herbs that transform the mind.

To learn more, see the 𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑺𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝑴𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒔 in 2 weeks.

And

𝙃𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙘 𝙃𝙚𝙧𝙗𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙘𝙝 and May covers this and much more to help you help yourself and others heal a the deepest levels.
Detes in Events

This post is part of the ‘‘𝐆𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐝’, a self-paced holistic herbalist daily insights feed-It starts later this week of social media-Check back.

01/30/2021

The healer’s path is often seemingly solitary and can be lonely and challenging at times.

As a conscious person with dreams of a better world, interested in healing with medicinal herbs, and living more closely aligned with your purpose, do you feel alone?

Or do you feel connected, inspired, and supported by others who share your beliefs, and hold space for your unique way of showing up?

With the increase in divisiveness, isolationism, and separation, we’re hearing from a lot of people that they feel even more alone on their journey.

We want to remind you that you are not alone on this path. There is a global community of people who share these values.

There are many like you out there who appreciate the transformative healing power of nature and healing plants and their importance for our world that is so desperately in need of healing.

At Vital Ways, our community of visionaries, luminaries and changemakers in our Herbalist Certificate Programs, Free Clinic, and Apothecary, is where we are constantly inspired and reminded of this movement towards a better world.

If you’d like a closer connection for support, inspiration, community and connection, then we invite you to join our vibrant community.

We have two classes that are now enrolling for a limited time and start in March.

See the Link in the bio above for more details.

Our personalized, hands-on, live Herbal Healer’s Certificate course, is online, and in person, and recorded for later viewing.

Please don’t forget that you aren’t alone. There is a movement happening, and it needs you. And its growing as more conscious people wake up to what’s important.

Our community is an example-See the link above.

To healing, and community
Chris









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