EP 39: WTH ?!? Seasonal Health and Wellness, The re-wilding journey back with Dr. Sarita Cox

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Welcome to what the health dependent approach to your health span. Have you noticed how our healthcare system may not have your best interest in mind? Join Dr. Eckel in this fun and sometimes disturbing exploration of the state of healthcare and what it means for you. Now, here's your host, Dr. Eckel.

Welcome back everybody. I'm Dr. Greg Eckel and this is what the health Today we have a special treat and I think every week it's a special treat, but this one is extra special. We have Dr. Sarita Cox and she is a colleague and classmate of mine from back in medical school. She comes at us from this lovely state of Alabama and I want to read a little bit about her bio and then we're going to talk about the topic first. First off, Dr. Cox, welcome on board.

Thank you Dr. Eckel. It's great to see your face today.

Lovely. So utilizing Dr. Cox's practice, she utilizes vitalistic and nature cure principles which is near and dear to my heart. She provides diet, nutrition, lifestyle prescriptions, achieving optimal wellness and breaking cycles of dis ease through traditional medicines, elemental and seasonal wellness practices. Her primary clinic is situated in a developing food forest on rehabilitated tornado land. Really giving back to Gaia here. She also serves the Mississippi band of the Choctaw Indians and works to Advance Integrative Health. Dr. Cox is currently adapting to the changing times by providing continued support to her patients through telemedicine platform as we all evolve and pivot and do all of that stuff. I am so excited Dr. Cox for our talk today. It is seasonal health and wellness, the rewilding journey back to source self care, mindfulness practices and their applications in daily life. And I can't think of a better topic these days to really kick us off. So first off, welcome. I got a little gift in the mail today that will break these cards out. I really love tying your Basically you stayed true to the message and the roots of our medicine and to launch us off here. Maybe if you wanted to, if I didn't do you justice with that intro, let me know if there's anything else that you would like to add and then we'll kind of launch right on into our interview.

You did great with the intro. I think you covered a lot of stuff. It wasn't quite as disturbing as I might hope so maybe we can rally them up here with some disturbance in the field.

All right, well, so here, you know, we talk about there is this reductionist view, dominant viewpoint that is happening over the airways right now. So here's your riling of the field. Right. So we've got really, we're kind of focusing on the wrong things, but there's so much focus on them, it's hard to think otherwise. Right. And so just kind of opening it up into a broader discussion of what I really want to do here. I love this discussion of rewilding journey back to source and you know, how do the seasons affect health and wellness and what exactly does it mean to rewild back to the source?

So couple of questions there and these are really fun answers to kind of work through together. Just the moment we're having right now in the Chinese medicine calendar, this is the dampest of a 60 year cycle. So they do a calendar system using earthly branches and heavenly stars and they have a 60 year cycle. And what's so interesting is from the COVID pandemic moment we're having in Chinese medicine, it's a damp heat syndrome. And if you look at what's happened to our season, we're super wet season and we didn't have much of a winter. And this is a perfect pandemic situation that we've seen through ages and ages in Chinese medicine where we have these seasonal and these weather influences that actually affect our physical well being, our mental well being. So we're in a moment where there's so much talk and so much panic that there's only one answer out there. And what disturbs me is that we are discounting the incredible vitality that we are. Spring is this amazing season where like a sapling, we bend and we are flexible and we change with the times and we restructure and adapt and we have. So as we know as vitality practitioners, when we really start getting closer to to who we are and we take away all this stimulation, all the answers are there for us, we start paying attention to the sensations in our body. We know things are going out before they get bad. We have these inklings that we should correct or we have dreams that guide us. And so over the last decade in my practice, one of the things I've helped my patients do is grow that awareness that is the source within us, that is our guidance. It's not from the messaging that we get out here. These terrifying scenarios honestly dis ease imbalances can be terrifying. But what I've also Seen in my practice is when we have a crisis, we are absolutely primed and ready to do this. Returning to focusing on our wellness, focusing on prevention, focusing on vitality. We have to come into some relationship with this viral moment so that we can respond to it appropriately. We have this amazing innate capacity, innate immunity, and we can bring that forth. And these times are ripe for seeing how vital we are, seeing how strong we are.

It is, you know, when the dominant paradigm is just saying you're helpless, you're hopeless and wait for a vaccine because that's the only saving grace of the whole thing. It's a brainwashing that is so prevalent and pervasive that it's hard to frame this discussion in. Well, we do have our innate intelligence and we are strong and powerful. And one of the things that I keep stressing here on what the health and in my messaging is, now more than ever, it's so important for these foundational pieces to be in. If this doesn't wake you up. If you have fear out there around a viral illness and you think, well, this one looks like a killer, well, you know, look at who is the most susceptible. It's folks that have these imbalances that are happening. Right? So if that's not motivating enough, if you're out there listening and you have fear, please take action on your health. Take what Dr. Cox is saying as a starting spot and maybe contact her, contact a functional medicine practitioner and get working on your stuff now. You know, it's, it's the, it's time that we wake up to this. That. Oh, actually those that have an immune system don't. They actually are asymptomatic, symptomatic. They don't. It barely phases them. Right?

That's exactly right.

So I love how you couched it in this. So where are we in a 60 year cycle right now? On a Chinese calendar clock. And that seems, I mean, that's a pretty complex system to that I think you're. Well, probably you're way more versed in it. And then I. Because I don't even know where we are in this 60 year cycle.

Well, one of the ways I've been managing all the stress around the media stimulation is I have really listened to the experts in our field. A lot of the stuff that's coming out of China that our teacher Heiner Fruehof has been translating, a lot of frontline stuff for us, a lot of historic and traditional stuff for us. I've also been listening to practitioners that are in the functional Medicine and vitalistic traditions that have been practicing this wisdom since the get go. And I've been looking at ayurvedic medicine and they have something not too dissimilar in the way that we have these rhythms of seasons and time. And almost all of them are asking us simply to turn back to work on our own health and chronic disease. We know, for example, people with diabetes and heart disease are much more vulnerable. People on immunosuppressive drugs are much more vulnerable. So how do we look? And we've had so many, I know you have too had so many cases in our practice where they come to us and we're the last resort for them and then they start turning around one symptom after another because they're investing in their health and they're willing to change their lifestyles because they come to a crisis point, it's us or it's bigger intervention, so they're trying us. And then they start year after year, season after season, seeing improvement after improvement in their vitality, their energy levels and chronic disease takes a while to unwind, but it's completely unwindable for most people that haven't gone too far. Basic principles of gentle detoxing, eating better, drinking better filtered water, moving in routines, having a beautiful routine, having self care practices and stress management practices, making sure we're living our passions and loving our work, that we're in good relationship with our families and our communities. So there's so much that all these wisdom traditions speak to us and it's not new news.

So I want to get into those. But first I want to make sure we answer what does it mean to rewild back to source.

Thanks for asking that again. So I think it's just the truth is that we come from oneness and we have through overstimulation and time and becoming more sensorial related to the external world, we have moved pretty far from our original natures. For example, in the Chinese medicine system, we just very recently found technology that allowed us the CTs to be able to see an acupuncture point. So how did the practitioners 3,4000 years ago easily know that there was a point there? The way they knew is they were much more in touch with their source, their way of a relating, because they were not overstimulated, they were living more. They were getting their cues from in here, in what was happening in their bodies. How did the Chinese medicine practitioners know that Bai Xiao, which is an herb, goes to the liver and it softens it? How did they know that A blueberry is astringent in nature and though it is sweet, it is very well tolerated by people that may have candida or yeast or it may be very well tolerated at a certain time of the day when people have diabetes. But it is a fruit. So this wisdom is within all of us. And the rewilding journey is wherever we are in this moment, how do we take one step back toward source? One really easy way to do it is to start harmonizing with the seasons. How do we act differently? How do we live differently? What do we eat differently? What self practices do we do differently every season than we do another season? What do we do more in transitional times between the solstice and the equinoxes, when things are a little bit going from one season to the other, how do we stabilize and ground? I have found my patients very, very willing to follow these leads of. We're always reminded we don't have to use a playbook. Nature is our playbook. We just have to create more relationship with the, the earth we're living on and the climate inside. So that's a long answer. But rewilding itself is a big process, right?

It's a biggie. It's a. Well, that's why I asked it again because it is, you know, you don't hear this conversation so much with bodies and medicine and I think it is so important especially and in. Because of the, our current situation on planet in our connection. It's, you know, it's almost like a reevaluation of relationship. Right. I mean we're all kind of, you know, it's stay at home and shelter in place and so you're really faced with your stuff and, and what is essential and what isn't essential. And really getting into, you know, we see a lot of folks, you know, bringing out memories of their past and you know, old pictures and things like that. It really gives a pause of, you know, instead of our busyness and next meeting and go, go, go. It's like, oh, let me breathe and just relax here a moment and see what's going on out there. So on that the connection to source or rewilding of self, you have. Have you found certain techniques to be more beneficial or more easily accessible or you know, what, what's kind of the. I call it the biggest lever to push on for folks.

So I think one of the easiest things that can get my patients started is helping them learn in the spring and in the fall how to do gentle detoxifications. And as naturopathic Principals, this is something we use. We were really taught and we really have been taught again and again. We used a lot of that two season model. Utilize the spring and the fall to do twice yearly cleanses. And it depends on how many times you've been on the cleansing pathway, about where, what's appropriate for you. It also depends, of course, on your constitution. But in general, my patients that are, the more, the more they suffer, the more self care and more home care stuff they will do. So for example, castor oil packs, they are a tried and true nature cure therapy that was gifted from Edgar Cayce. And even though it's kind of this messy and laborious process, I can't tell you how many of my patients are absolutely willing to do this. They may be doing it for hormonal balance, they may be doing it for fertility, they may be doing it for digestion or liver health. But when we remind them every spring that they need to get back into their castor oil packs, they're like, oh, yeah, those always make me feel so good. Thank you for reminding me. Like, yeah, we're going to remind you every spring because this is a very gentle way to start detoxing. And then in the fall, I often encourage people to do a gentle colon cleanse and a lymphatic cleanse. So we might use something like saunas and dry brushing and maybe some foods that bulk and fiber and really do a good clean out of our large intestine. And so that has been one of the easiest introductions is these very gentle twice a year and then they're in a twice a year. The other things are symptomatic problems. So for example, spring, we have a lot of allergies and so now I don't even have to train my patients. They're like, I'm back on my nettles, tea and raw honey, Dr. Cox. And I don't even have to tell them because last spring it helped them so much and they know that and they remember that. And so those are two examples. Just gentle detoxing twice a year has been incredibly well received with my patient base.

I love that. And I also, I like your emphasis on you have it seasonally appropriate. So you do the liver cleanse in the spring and then you're doing the colon cleanse in the fall, which are energetically proper for those seasons. So maybe for folks that aren't so tuned into the seasonal approach to health, maybe give us an overview there.

Sure. So I and actually that is a tradition the naturopaths have used for A long time too, as we do liver cleansing in the fall. This is, you know, because they're truthful, right. So what we do, when we see a lot of wisdom traditions practicing the same thing, that really piques my interest. I'm like, oh, yeah, that's perennial medicine. That happens across all cultures. And it just pops up because it's the truth. So what was your question?

Well, so an overview of seasonal of the seasons and how they do relate to our health, kind of that. You are the universe. The universe is you.

Yes. So every tradition has a slight variation. And so if we look at the Greek systems, they may have an element of air in it. The system that I'm most comfortable using, because I'm most trained in and I really resonate with it, is Chinese medicine. And there are a couple of approaches. There's a five element system where we work in a generative way. So the beginning of things is wood. That happens in the spring when the energy is starting to break through the cold of the winter. And then we have the fire season, where things are rising like a fire flame rises and things start to come into full blossom. Some traditions would say that Earth is the next season, which is a late summer. I like the approach of Earth being the grounding season between the equinoxes and the solstice. It's an older model, which is really four elements in a certain way, with Earth being the grounding feature each time. I like that because it never hurts. Four times a year to work on our Earth element, which is our spleen, our stomach and our pancreas, and to bring that home four times a year to connect with the Earth, to do some gut health protocols or individuated plans to stabilize our blood sugar levels after those transitional periods or the late summer. Then things start winding down. The fall happens. That's the large intestine and the lung season. That's, of course, when we see a lot of pneumonias and upper respiratory issues, especially if that's your weak organ. We do have constitutions as well as elemental cycles that generate. Then winter, which is the water season, is a time for resting and restoring. This might be a time that we work on our adrenals and our kidney system and our bladder system. In that system, Chinese medicine has 12 organs that relate to these seasons. Each season has elemental and meridian energy highway correlates, and those also have expressions in the body. For example, in spring, we're also working not just with the gallbladder and the liver, but we're also working with the tendons and the eyes. And so these are also. People have health issues in those times. These are also really excellent times to work on them. So the overview is really in this system. It generates and it cycles year after year, same thing. We get the, you know, we get the kidneys a little bit better the first year, they're a lot better the next year. And then onward and onward. And then we can work more mental and emotional issues. If we can get the organs a little bit healthy, we have more capacity for the more subtle healings that we're doing. And sometimes it's the other way. Sometimes we have to work our emotional, psychological, like fear. Right now that's a big thing. It's hard to be in our bodies if we're elevated in fear. So the pause that you talked about is so essential right now because the fear and the close down has given us opportunity to pause, evaluate, figure out what's important. It's just that we can't have amnesia moving forward.

For sure. So you spoke to doing the seasonal cleanses. Spring, fall, and there's some other ones there. How about for mindfulness practices? What do you find most effective?

Mindfulness? If we want to put in a season, I really like to highlight that one during the winter because what happens is, you know, our days are shorter and so most of us can really benefit from going to bed earlier and hibernating a little bit longer than we might in the summer. Right. Because we have less light to work with. I think those periods are super poignant and super valuable to refresh our meditative practices. So, Greg, for me, I started seriously looking, as in mindfulness practices in meditation routes. And for me, it's my medicine. It is literally as powerful for me as an antidepressant was for me in my 20s, which didn't really work because it wasn't addressing the source, it was just changing a symptom. And I still had all the unrest and the depression or whatever it is that I had my seeking. You know, I wasn't, I wasn't imbalanced, I wasn't harmonious. But for me, meditating ideally twice a day. And the beauty of all this downtime is it's given me the opportunity to strengthen those practices. I do a virtual sitting in the morning at 6 o' clock with about 500 other meditators. There are many styles of meditation out there, but it may be centering prayer for some people it may be transcendental meditation for other people it may be walking qigong meditations, it may be Tai Chi practices. We all have to find our way. But for me, the most powerful technique that I've used is a style of meditation called vipassana meditation. I think partly the reason is because the first time you do a sit, you have to commit to a 10 day sit. You're separated, you're fed, you're given a basic place, but you can go very deep. When I did my first 10 day sit, I had revolutionary health changes with my allergies because I had a lot of reactivity. Now I definitely went through a storm on about day five. But because I stayed with my sensations and I didn't blame them on anything that's happening out there, I knew they were mine and I sat through them and we, we all express in different ways. And for me there was a lot of heat that came out and so that heat literally started leaving the. It's like a defilement had been dug up. Right. And I didn't pull it back in and I didn't push it out there saying it was somebody else's problem. I sat with it and it dissipated incredibly. And my allergies have never, my lifelong allergies have never returned to the level that they were, which was extreme. I had extreme allergies. So I'm a huge believer because of my own personal experiences. Now if I get off my path and I stop meditating and I move further and further away from source, I get those allergies back. So to me they're inherently tied together. So for me it's been meditation on a regular basis, every day, twice a day. Keeps me sane.

That's awesome. And it does really help get you quiet enough so that you can hear your inner guidance because you have those answers within you. That is awesome. And so that, I mean, for folks especially right now in the Northwest, the allergy season is on full overload. As you can imagine. We got pollen through the roof right now out here, and I think around the United States right now as well, but particularly in the valley of death here. How about other real examples of how living closer to the rhythms of the seasons benefit the health and the wellness? So you're speaking to some meditative practices or mindfulness and how that kind of really quieted things down, especially on reactivity and an allergic response for yourself. How about in examples of patients that you've helped with that living a little bit better balanced life seasonally?

Sure. I'll give you a great example. And I. We've had, again, we've had a very damp, damp season and I have one patient that's one of my really exceptional patients. Because he wanted to change. He came to me. He had psoriatic arthritis. He was. He's a surgeon, and he was told he was going to have to retire because he couldn't use his hands anymore because it was having such bad psoriatic arthritis. He had plaques on his body, on his leg. He had plaques for, like, 10 years. And the biologics basically stopped working. So he had done gone through all the biologics, and he came to me and he said, you know, I'm gonna have to. I'm gonna have to retire. I'm gonna. I'm not gonna be able to do surgeries anymore. And I said, well, let's see what we can do. And I have been working with him for about five years, and his commitment to his health and being willing to follow the guidance that I've been as the expert showing him with acupuncture and herbs has actually, he's been very frequent. Now, not everyone can do this, but he was in a position that he could. And so he saw me regularly at least every two weeks. And we kept him on Chinese herbs. Over time, we've been able to modify his diet. He was very resistant. A lot of Southerners, they love their sweet tea. They love their morning biscuits. And it has been. But he has grown that awareness inside. So he just. We just did a reconnect today, and one of the things I told him, he said, you know, this. This swelling is coming back slightly in my knee, and the herbs have helped it a lot. I mean, like, a lot, but it's still there. And I said, okay, are you still walking around with your barefoot? And he said, all the time. I can't stand. And I said. And he said, it's just so hard for me not to. And I said, well, right now. And this is how I deal with patients. Right now, it's particularly damp. And so right now, when we're in this, like, we had flash floodings and we got, you know, so much rain the last. Last couple of weeks, I said, right now we need to get you to put those shoes on and not walk barefooted outside because the dampness is coming up and it's inflaming your knee. And he just looked at me, said, you're right. And he may do it, but it may be next year before he's willing to do that. So I plant seeds with people, and they learn over time that, oh, yeah, my joints are worse when I eat, you know, Mexican food with a bunch of tortilla. Chips or they start learning because they're learning it from inside. And I'm helping them that grow that awareness. It's not me. It's turning them back toward their self. He was actually so fascinated that he did a Chinese medicine master's in veterinarian medicine, and now he practices integrated pet health. And he's able to do all his practice. You know, they squat down all the time. He still does all his surgeries. And he's such a big advocate for our practice because he's embodied it.

Wow.

Yep.

That's cool. You know, that connection. I think a lot of folks aren't making the connection of, well, what happens in the environment actually has an influence in our bodies. Right. Which is so crucial and fundamental to our practices in both the naturopathic and the Chinese medicine fashion. I wanted to talk about just kind of reversing back to two loops ago. You were talking about that having the earth element in each season. And I'm curious on how, because that totally resonates with me, especially for the naturopathic component in Chinese medicine, where they come together. And I'm definitely of the spleen and stomach campus. And as you can see by my wall here, I put yellow up as one aspect of that's what I want to live in. February in Portland, Oregon. But also it is the spleen and stomach camp as well. So I'm curious on how you use. And that's actually the deck of cards. So I wanted to bring these into our discussion, too.

Absolutely. Yay. And the patient that I was just talking about, actually, we work all the time with it. So when our earth gets out of balance, we tend to get damp. Our spleen gets a little damaged, and then we're not able to move the fluids and distribute them appropriately, so we start gaining dampness. Interestingly, as we worked over the years, the blood glucose regulation issue that was underlying the psoriatic arthritis has started improving and improving and improving because this particular patient is working his earth element a lot. So. Yes. And we love the golden color. Every season has a sound and a color and a direction. It's so beautifully sophisticated and simple at the same time. Very simple to get our minds around because it's broken down into these really basic elements. Did you get a card?

I did.

What is it?

So I picked it, and it is. Separation is the untruth. That's what I picked for today.

Yes. It's so interesting in this particular time when we've been ordered to be separate.

Yeah.

But what it's really doing for many People is helping us understand and be flexible in ways we can connect with others. So there's so much virtual stuff happening. All our meetings have gone virtual. We had a virtual mastermind this weekend. And that is, we're being creative and that is the element of the spring right now. So we're actually being very harmonious. We've gotten a big order that said, let's separate. And what's happening for people is they're like, oh, my gosh, I love spending time with my family. These are my BFFs. I like connecting with these people. And it gives us opportunity to, with the separation dictation to understand that it's not. Separation is not the truth. Collaboration and unification is the truth.

I'm gonna let that sit there for a second. Yeah, that is, I mean, that is as fundamental. I mean, we are all one and the component. So tell me, tell us a little bit about these. You sent me this lovely deck of cards, and it's the Earth season. It's called Transition. And I'm guessing you've made this as a tool that you are sharing as one of these components to like, dig into what we're talking about here. Because a lot of times, you know, I think people kind of can get into, well, that's so complicated. And I'm just going to tune it out. So I love that, you know, you, you sent me this lovely deck. I took a quiz, I posted your, your website on here for folks to find their element kind of constitution. And you've got some great questions associated with. Okay, what is your constitution? You asked me before we got on the air. Does that resonate with you? Mine came up as wood, which is the seasonal season that we're in the liver. You know, I have a very wiry pulse and I feel better with motion and I love physicality, things like this. So how do these, how do these little gems tie in here? What's. What's going on with this deck?

So what's going on with the deck? And I really appreciate that you've kind of watched me through this process. We've been collaborating outside on sharing ideas and you kind of watch the whole evolution. What's so special about this to me is it's funny because I wanted to write a book about clinical pearls and I wanted it to be in this format of 365 Days of Self care. But what actually happened, I think is this really different and beautiful. Somehow it's reduced. And this is how we learn Chinese medicine. We use very simplistic terminology, but it has such depth that we learn it by kind of spiraling and coming back around. So the earth deck I sent you because we use it most frequently and I already printed it, this project for me is so organic and so wholesome because I'm doing it during the season. And so we actually just sent the spring wood deck, which I wrote when spring started, I started dreaming about it and I started bringing in my inspirations and they started. The cards started coming to me and I captured those and then we sent them to a local printer in Mississippi. So we're keeping everything local. Our bags are from Georgia. I hand stamp them myself. So I stamped some girl love there and yes, yes, lovely, thank you. For example, if I had known your constitution, I might have tried to get you an earth deck, but I mean, a wood deck. But I didn't know and we didn't have it printed anyway. So it was just absolutely perfect that you got the earth because look at you, you love this golden thing. And naturopaths do love to come back to gut health. We have said in our profession for such a long time there are two gateways to health. Your liver health and your gut health. And so those traditions and all traditions do really marry. I mean, we've learned so much as, you know, with brain degeneration and brain rehabilitation that if we work on our gut, it changes our brain. So the earth is the center of everything for us. And so it's so useful. Basically, I just took the tools, the quips, the suggestions that I talk to my patients during season. So every season my speak is different with my patients. Some crossovers, of course, but like the self care tips, for years I've been using them seasonally and basically I just kind of put those pearls into flashcards. So people could use one each day for the 73 days of the season. But the earth is broken into 18 days times four. And so you could use, you know, you could pull 14 or 18 for that season or you could pull them for a weekend. I have a ways to play on the website, which is a way to use it by yourself or use it with others. So especially in this time of separation, for example, I'm encouraging people to pull one, give one or pull one, give one. So maybe you take a picture of the one you got and send it to somebody else, like intentional acts of connection. So if that resonates in your mind, like, oh, I want, I want my other practitioner in my office to see this. And so I'm going to take a snap and send it on text so that you know yours with the separation, it might invite a next action that causes a ripple effect of not of being connected versus disconnected. Mmm.

Love it. Yeah, these are great. I mean, you know, so I've got the Earth deck. I can't wait to get the rest of them, so.

Yes, absolutely. Hey, just pull one more. Sometimes they're about food. Sometimes there's something I'm asking you to do. Sometimes they're a little bit more technical. So if you don't understand it, we're using social media and we're using a blog to try to take people deeper. So you may get one that's a little bit more Chinese medicine, or you don't understand what it means, but These are pointers, Dr. Eckel. What I love about these is nobody dictates the source to us. All these are little sign markers that help us get closer so we discover it for ourself. So what does that mean for you when you meditate on it? Yeah, and we can give you some other wisdom about where we're coming from, but what does it mean to you?

I love it. Well, I got change directions without losing balance. And these are. This is the element wisdom card. So I'm going to post that on my social media today. And that is pretty. Pretty apropos given the scenarios that are out there. Right. You know, I've had a destination clinic for people flying in from around the globe for brain regeneration. Well, they're not flying in right now. So what do you do? You change directions without losing balance. So that's awesome. Word. You know, great. I'll just say word to that.

And also, what I love that you're doing is you're using the Earth deck. But every card you picked is completely perfect for right now because the Earth is where it's at. I mean, it's. It's our center. And for example, this is such a great time in spring, we use the color green, a vibrant green. And the idea is wood and bamboo is often one of the woods that we look at. And if you look in high winds, who survives? They are the saplings that bend.

Yeah.

So this season is about creativity, finding new ways of doing things. But we can always take some instruction from our center. Where are we coming from? Where are we making decisions from? We want those to be grounded and centered choices.

Love it. Can I put that on a bumper sticker? The Earth is where it's at. I love that. Yeah, that's awesome. And, you know, with Earth Day coming right up here as well, this is really great. Timing for me. I'm gonna have some fun with it this week. You know, what else, what else do you have? You know, you have some other influences going on with your practice with permaculture and other wisdom traditions. And I'm wondering, you know, we're coming down the last quarter of the show again, everybody. This is what the health. Dr. Greg Eckel, Dr. Sarita Cox, we're talking about elemental wisdom and knowing rewilding to your source. This is what the health. So if you like what you're hearing and seeing, please share this, leave us a comment on the, on the comment board or rate our show, please, and help us get this information out because it is, this is the truth. This is deep wisdom stuff coming out and I so appreciate you, Dr. Cox, for coming on. So last quarter of the show here, other, you know, your interest in permaculture and other wisdom traditions and how those inform what you're doing.

Absolutely. And great segue from that. Tomorrow is Earth Day. Yes.

Yeah.

So what we do every year here is we take cuttings from our figs and then the fig in the south is such an easy fruit tree to get started with. And so what we do is actually our pruning and then we'll do it tomorrow. We'll have a, a bowl of figs outside our office and people can come by and pick those up. And then that particular tree, for example, doesn't require any grafting. You can literally take a cutting, put it in the ground or a pot and grow a fig tree. So one of the things that's really inspired me is resiliency when disasters strike. In 2011, we had a F4.5 tornado through Tuscaloosa, Alabama and we had 150 year uncut old growth property. It was very special, very dear to us. Then the response to that, it took me some time, but what healed me through that response is I would sit in my loft and I would look out over and I saw one persimmon sapling that survived and it's a native tree here. And I had lived in other. I had lived in a California ashram for several years and they had a really beautiful orchard. And as we know the stories of the Buddha, it's very valuable in those times. The, the groups would be often given an orchard because the Garden of Eden, I mean, there is so much, there's so much wholesomeness in how much the earth gives to us. And when we're good stewards of that, it's just this really amazing place to be. So the wisdom There with the Earth day in the trees. I saw that persimmon sapling and I planted an astringent Japanese persimmon tree which I'd fallen in love with in California. They're just these striking trees with these gorgeous. I've never seen them around here in Alabama. And I planted it nearby the sapling. I planted a lot of other trees and some failed. And the apples didn't do well. It doesn't get cold enough. I don't have the right climate. But what I started noticing is that the land wants a certain tree on it, it wants a certain vine on it. And if you just look nearby, we, for example, have wild strawberries near spring level on our property. But it took me planting four times because I wanted the strawberry where I wanted the strawberry. I want the hugelmound. Well, no, that's not right. It's got too much sun, it doesn't get enough water. And then last year when I was working a section of my property, I built a tiny house. It's all solar. That has really helped me. It's over a creek, so it's really allowed. I don't have any technology down there. I do all my technology at my office, which is on the property as well. And then I retire at sunset to get away from technology most of the time. And that has been a rewilding process for me. So the land in permaculture teaches me because it's observation. So by the fourth year that I was working on strawberries, I noticed there were native strawberries. So of course I put my strawberries at that level and what do I have as amazing strawberry crop? And the truth is, if we actually look toward Native American wisdom, this is a very common, respectful relationship in general that we have with the indigenous people on this land utilizing plants in a sustainable way. Generally speaking. I mean, sometimes there's been over harvesting and sometimes the harvesting is exactly what's needed to make the. To keep the health of the herbs. Sometimes they need to be cut and divided. So the Native American traditions have inspired me. I worked. I'm currently working at the Choctaw Nation. And that's been very interesting to watch how these people, they are so resilient. They're not backwards looking, they don't hold resentments. They're like, this is the way it is. They're very much in the present. What I learned within was to walk slower and to smile more frequently. They've got a very easy going way of being in the world. So when I would go to the hospital I'm like, oh, yeah, let me do my thing. Let me come for my practice in Tuscaloosa. I'm moving and shaking, and it doesn't work there. I'm out of sync. So it took me years, but they retrained me to a different rhythm of life that's so much more wholesome because I'm present. And if I wanted something done, like, something done to the clinic, well, you don't ask for it six weeks in advance. You ask for it when you need it. And so they have really taught me a lot about being present. And their value systems is really cool to me. If you go to the pawn shops nearby, they value beading, traditional beading, basket weaving. They value black skillets. They value stickballs. And it's so refreshing because they are like a step back. They're closer to family, to community. And that really, really resonates with me. That's why I seek community.

Hmm.

I've also been fortunate to be an apprentice in Five Element acupuncture. We got a lot of theory and a lot of herbs in our practice, but basically, I needed to school up on acupuncture when I left our program. And I was so fortunate to fall into an apprenticeship with Five element tradition. So that's been really inspiring. Kind of, you know, more of our European vitalistic roots, just more modern. And then I was also Ayurvedic. I learned Ayurvedic bodywork through apprentice in Mount Madonna community right. In Watsonville, above Santa Cruz. So I. And what I see more than anything is there's more likeness and differences and traditional wisdoms. So that's been very beautiful for me, and I think it has just brought me closer and closer to these perennial philosophies of what's true.

Indeed. Number one, when is strawberry season down there?

We started it now.

Ah, cool. So I'm just gonna file that away for future years. And then, because I love strawberries. What about any suggestions for folks right now? Kind of spring wood wellness tips?

Absolutely.

Suggestions.

Let's just talk about a few things. Food, because we're all eating every day. This is a great time of the year to do quick stir fries and light steams, because we're trying to have our food still warm and digestible, but with that crispness, with that, a little bit more life in it. So those are great ways to prepare your foods. Sprouting is a really, really good thing to do right now. In the spring, that sprout, the flower, the plants, they're breaking through that cold winter Ground and it's that upward energy and that sprouting. When we reflect that seasonal influence, it's a really good time to come back. Maybe we sprouted. Other times we forgot how good it was. And that's why I love this rhythm is you look around you and things are sprouting. Get your sprouting stuff back out. It's not rote. It's not a playbook, it's not a protocol. It's being observant. Those are two things I love to do. Gentle liver cleansing. I'll say it again. I'm a huge castor oil pack fan. I love twist in yoga to help the center to release some of those toxins. I love a basic detox tea. This is a great time of the year to add a nice burdock or a blended. I love yogi tea, the peach detox. I'm not usually a fruit fan, but that's a wonderful detox tea. Very easily available on the shelves. So, you know, add a little bit of. A little bit of these. These herbs that help us detox our liver. Another thing is allowing ourselves some eating less and intermittent fasting because naturally, through the hibernation of winter, we've naturally put on a little bit of extra weight. And maybe we are because we've been secluding and not being very active. But every spring, it's a really good time to kind of get those accumulations of winter off a little bit and start slimming down just by reducing our portions. Always chewing well, but reducing our portions. And maybe even try some intermittent fasting, if that's right for your body. So in terms of food, that's a great thing to do. This is a time of creativity. When the life force of spring is directed properly. We are very creative. Now when we're. When it's halted, we might get angry or irritable or enraged about things. And that's a clue that maybe we need to pick up an old creative, you know, source. Like maybe we used to collage or do photography or let's find that thing that liberates the life force for us again in a creative way. I'm also fond of watching the sunrise because in Chinese medicine, the direction of rebirth is the east. And watching getting up early enough rise earlier and get out and see the sunrise is really a great, simple way to harmonize ourselves again into spring.

I love that time of day as well as the birds kind of come alive as well. It is very, very uplifting and energetic. Thank you for those tips. Any last parting words? We're in the last minute of the show. Any final inspiration for our listeners?

I just want to I just want to speak really deep gratitude for everything that you're doing out here in the world for us, Greg. Getting this information, I know this is close to your heart and you're excited through life is really teaching people how to start being healthier and regenerating their brains and their nervous systems. We're just such an overstimulated culture. And I know you've had great successes in your clinic. I love that you're doing this podcast. You know, I'm really, really just grateful for you getting yourself out there and speaking words we need to be hearing right now.

Well, thank you so much. And for our listeners and viewers out there, if you this is what The Health I'm Dr. Greg Eckel. This is Dr. Saretta Cox. We are here Tuesdays, 2 to 3pm Pacific Coast Time. Please share this with your loved ones, your communities. This is I want to bring you the Word and we are all going together. So thank you for tuning in. Please share us with your loved ones. Please give me some feedback and some reviews on the podcast out there. Again, what the Health Tuesdays 2 to 3pm Pacific Coast Time.