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Slide 1For thousands of years, people all over the world have used plants to tend their wounds, address their fevers, relieve un-comfortable digestion, and soothe their aches and pains.

Slide 2But in the western world, this long line-age was broken in the early 20th century. Instead of looking to the natural world for healing, we became infatuated with “bet-ter living through chemistry”.

Slide 3-4Instead of using whole plant medicine, we began to use isolated chemical constitu-ents to suppress our symptoms. Because of this dramatic shift, we lost not only WHAT plants were used as medicine, but also HOW they were used as medicine.

Slide 5In the 1960s, we saw a resurgence in herb-alism as many people made a cultural shift back to the natural world. As a result, a new type of herbalism evolved to replace what we lost.

Slide 6Now, herbs are commonly used to match the western named disease. An example of this disease-based approach is found in the question, “What herb is good for ec-zema?”

Slide 7Of course, it’s natural we want to make this easy mix and match system.

Slide 8And admittedly, sometimes, this can actu-ally work. But is this more recent approach better?

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Slide 9To answer that question, let’s imagine two people, each of them have a rash, so they go to see a doctor.

Slide 10Both people are diagnosed with eczema and given topical steroids to control the rash.

Slide 11However, both of these people are inter-ested in how herbs could help them, so they also go to see an herbalist as well.

Instead of diagnosing them with a western disease such as eczema, the herbalist looks at their symptoms closely.

Slide 12Let’s look at Joe first. Joe has a dry scaly rash around his elbows, and he’s had recurring dandruff all his life. He has trouble digesting fats. He often has fluid retention around his ankles.

The herbalist decides that Joe needs a mois-tening herb to address the dryness of his rash, something to help him better digest fats and something to help remove the fluid retention around his ankles.

Slide 13Taking all of these into consideration, Joe may find burdock helpful since it supports healthy se-baceous glands which can promote healthy oily

skin (as opposed to dry), it can help someone digest and absorb fats, and it slightly promotes diuresis which can improve fluid retention.

Slide 14All right. Let’s look at our second person, Joan. Joan has a red, weepy rash that covers her upper back, hands and wrists. She is quick to anger and has many PMS symptoms includ-ing cramps and headaches at the beginning of her cycle.

In this case, the herbalist will probably want an herb that is drying (since Joan has a weepy or moist rash), as well as something that’s cooling since she has many signs of heat.

Slide 15Therefore, Joan may find Oregon grape root to be helpful. It’s both cooling and drying and acts strongly on the liver, reducing her symp-toms of heat and stagnation.

Slide 16Admittedly, this is a simplified look at these two cases. As an herbalist, I place equal and oftentimes, more attention on lifestyle chang-es such as diet, etc.

Slide 17However, these hypothetical examples show you how two people with the same diagnosed disease may be assessed differently by an herbalist.

Through these examples, you can see there is an Art of Herbalism. Meaning it’s not a simple

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mix and match solution between herbs and the diagnosed diseases.

Slide 18Or, as the school of Hippocrates said, “It is bet-ter to know WHO has the disease rather than WHAT disease a person has.”

And that is the broader context of this mini-course on Herbal Energetics.

Slide 19In this Part I Video, we are exploring: Who are you? And figuring out Your Constitution.

Slide 20In the second part, we’ll explore: Plant Ener-getics and the Art of Herbalism such as, How to match herbs to you as an individual (not just matching herbs to the disease).

Slide 21All of the major herbal traditions being taught today have a general framework for under-standing a person’s constitution.

In Western Herbalism, it’s the Four Humours system or the Four Temperaments.

Slide 22In Ayurveda, it’s the Tridosha System.

Slide 23And in Chinese Medicine, they have the Yin/Yang duality as well as the Five Elements. I

am highlighting some popular examples here, and this is by no means an exhaustive list.

Slide 24I do need to note that it takes years of careful study to fully understand these complex sys-tems within their broader context.

Slide 25What I’ve done in this video is I’ve broken down the core common aspects so that after watch-ing this short video, you’ll have the founda-tional knowledge you need to understand the basic concepts of constitutional theory.

So let us dive in.

Slide 26The basic system of Energetics is based on the concepts of the four qualities: Hot/Cold and Damp/Dry

Slide 27When I talk about temperature, such as hot and cold, I’m not referring to the number on a thermometer.

Slide 28Instead, I am referring to how you feel. You’ve probably noticed that it can be the same tem-perature in a room or outside, but people feel differently.

One person may only be comfortable in a cool room if they are wearing a thick sweater while

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someone else may be more comfortable in a lighter shirt.

Slide 29The qualities of damp and dry are similarly re-flective of how a person feels, and this can be observed in various ways.

For example, someone might have damp qualities if they sweat easily, whereas some-one may have more dry qualities if they are complaining that they have skin like an alliga-tor.

Slide 30But before I get too ahead of myself, let’s take a closer look at these opposing qualities. Let’s start with Hot.

Slide 31People who tend to have a Warmer Constitu-tion tend to feel warmer than others. Maybe, they wear less clothing as a result or need few-er bedding (blankets).

They tend to have a loud voice and loud opin-ions. They easily have a red face or perhaps they get fully flushed in their face.

Looking at their tongue, it may be bright red. And they often prefer cold weather.

Slide 32Whereas people with Colder Constitutions tend to feel colder than others.

They may have a quieter voice. They may tend to have a pale face, lips, or tongue. They often tend to have lower energy levels, and they of-ten prefer warm weather.

Slide 33Let’s look at Dry and Damp.

Slide 34People with Damp Constitutions tend to sweat more easily or have moist skin. They might have a runny nose more often or even a stuffy nose a lot of the time.

Their arms and legs might feel heavy. They might have a thick coating on their tongue. Their skin and hair might be oily, and they of-ten prefer dry climates to humid climates.

Slide 35People with Dry Constitutions may have rough, dry skin. They may have a lot of thirst or dry throat, nose, mouth, or dry eyes.

Their hair and skin may feel dry. They may not have any coating on their tongue. Their skin and scalp might feel itchy a lot of the time, and they often prefer humid climates. Or may-be, they’re bothered when the air gets too dry.

Slide 36-37So if you haven’t already done so, download the PDFs on this page and take the Quiz to help you determine your basic constitution.

Slide 38Go ahead and hit pause and fill out that quiz now.

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Slide 39I’ve created this next section of the video to help you better understand the quiz and the relevance of your results.

In doing so, I have created some principles.

Slide 40 Principle number 1. We all contain every qual-ity of hot, cold, dry, and damp. We simply have tendencies towards being one of these.

Slide 41 For example, sometimes people might think of their Constitution as just being cold and dry. But this would be overly simplistic be-cause we contain all of the qualities.

Slide 42So instead, we might think of it visually like this, you have a lot of coldness, a lot of dry-ness, but you still have some hot and damp qualities (they’re just less so).

Slide 43So you might have noticed when you filled out the quiz, that you had some results in the warmer section and some results in the colder section.

Often times (as you see in this quiz) people have more in one than the other. (And that’s again) referring to this idea that we all have all qualities.

Slide 44Principle number 2. We have a unique blend of these qualities which determine our ten-dencies.

Slide 45-46So for example, this is somebody who has more heat than coldness. And as you can see, they have a lot of heat as compared to the coldness.

Of course, that could be reversed. The person could have a lot of coldness and a little bit of heat. But again, we all have varying amounts.

Slide 47-48Sometimes, people have pretty even amounts of hot and cold (so that’s certainly possible), and sometimes, people have a really extreme example of this person being or having so much coldness and just a bit of heat.

Slide 49-50And of course, this is relevant as well for the Damp and Dry. People can have any sort of mixture within those qualities.

Slide 52Here is another way of visually looking at this. In this graph, what I have done is shown those four basic qualities, and then that yellow circle there is somebody (just showing them on this graph) like where they may be. So this person is Hot and Damp.

And as you can see, this person has a lot more heat than they have dampness. Even still, we refer to this as being Hot and damp.

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Slide 53Whereas someone else might be Hot and Damp, (but as you can see with that yellow dot there changing), this person doesn’t have nearly as much heat, but they have a lot more dampness.

Slide 54Then, of course, this is relevant no matter what end of the graph you’re in. So, this per-son has equal parts of being Cold and Dry, and we would call them Cold and Dry.

Slide 55But somebody else could tend to be Cold and Dry, but they’re just a lot close more to neu-tral.

Slide 56Again, we’re calling both of these people Cold and Dry, but they’re just on different ends of the spectrum even within the Cold and Dry scale.

Slide 57I want to make this point that we’re using sim-ple labels like Cold and Dry, or Hot and Damp to discuss a really complex and variable sys-tem.

Slide 58And certainly, while having a clear label like Hot and Dry can be helpful, I recommend fo-cusing more on observing the concepts and how these qualities show up in your life.

For example, you might have tendencies to-wards being Dry, but you may notice some smaller aspects being Damp.

So for example, maybe you tend to have dry skin, but you have oily hair, that’s okay. Ob-serve that rather than label it.

Slide 59Principle number 3. If you have extreme ten-dencies such as being very Hot or very Dry, you’re going to have an easier time figuring out your Constitution.

Slide 60For example, let’s say somebody here they have lots of coldness and lots of dryness. It’s going to be really easy for them because they’re going to have a lot of examples of be-ing really Cold or really Dry.

Slides 61Whereas in this example, this person might have a lot more difficult time finding that label right of whether or not they’re Hot or Cold, be-cause while they tend to have a little bit more Cold tendencies, it’s more approaching a bal-anced state.

Whereas this person has a lot of dampness, and they’re probably going to have a much easier time figuring out, they have those Damp qualities.

Slide 62Some people are just really balanced overall, which is great. And I’m bringing this up be-

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cause if you took that quiz and you find, “Oh, I have equal things of Hot and Cold.” And they are pretty much equal Damp and Dry.” That’s okay.

Again, we’re putting more emphasis on ob-serving these qualities rather than labeling them.

Slides 63Principle number 4. Your overall Constitution doesn’t change. However, how your experi-ence of your Constitution can change due to a variety of external as well as internal factors.

What do I mean by that?

Slides 64For example, the weather or the season can af-fect how your Constitution is. So for example, in the wintertime, if you live in a cold climate, you’re pretty going to feel colder than you are (say) in the middle of a hot summer.

Slides 65Even the climate which you live can have an impact on you. If you live in the desert, you’re probably going to (at least eventually) show signs of dryness than if you lived in (say) a temperate rain forest.

Slides 66Foods can also affect how we feel. If someone eats a lot of really hot cayenne peppers all the time, they’re probably going to have more signs of heat than someone who’s (say) eating tons of cucumbers.

Slides 67Even the time of day can affect how we feel. You’ve probably already noticed this, that you feel different in the morning versus the after-noon. Just the diurnal  rhythms also play an energetic role in our lives.

Slides 68Of course, age can affect us. People will shift as they age and (again) have these different aspects of their Constitution show up the many stages of their life.

Slides 69Also, how you’re feeling can certainly change your experience of things. So for example, you might often feel that you are cold, and then you catch an upper respiratory infection, you get a fever, and you feel hot.

That’s just a really obviously example of, you feel one way most of the time, but then you have an internal aspect of something going on such as an illness, or perhaps, taking medica-tions, etc; that change the way you feel.

Slides 70And lastly, we have principle number 5. This principle comes from my friend and Herbalist Jim McDonald. He says, “Herbalists have to learn to think in fuzzy lines.”

This is a really great way of thinking about herbalism in general because there’s no just one truth out there. And the more we such for that one truth, the more disappointed we’re going to be.

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So we have to learn to think of this like it’s not about shoving something into a box. It’s re-ally about observing, understanding new an-swers.

Understanding that nature is a fluid moving thing, and we are a part of that.

Slide 71Right, so we’ve covered a lot already. Let’s re-view.

Using plants as medicine has existed in many forms, all over the world, for time immemo-rial. There are many complex diagnostic sys-tems out there that use plants as medicine.

Substituting plants for pharmaceuticals or using western medicine as the diagnostic sys-tem is not always effective.

Slides 72-73Remember, the mix and match system some-times works, and sometimes it doesn’t. So instead of using herbs based on a traditional Energetic model, or instead when you use herbs based on a traditional Herbal Energetic model, you’re going to get better results.

The first step is understanding who YOU are by knowing your Constitution.

Slide 74So today, we went over a really simplified ver-sion of the Energetic Diagnostic System based on those four qualities of Hot, Cold, Damp, and Dry.

And you got your workbook which had the quiz to help you determine your basic Consti-tution may be.

Slide 75I know that some of you out there may have taken that quiz, and you might still be a little bit confused. “Am I Hot and Cold? Am I Damp or Dry?”

Slides 76I really want to reiterate, don’t sweat it!

Slides 77At this stage, it’s okay if you’re not 100% sure about your Constitution.

Slides 78In some ways, I even think that you’re going to be better served because when you lessen the attachment to labels, and instead really focus on your observations, your experiences, this is going to help you out more in the long term.

Slides 79-75So this is just the beginning. Part II will be an introduction to understanding Plant Energet-ics.

Slide 80By the end of Part II, you will know:

How to determine whether an herb is warm-ing, cooling, moistening, or drying.

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How to choose the herb that works best for YOU instead of choosing an herb for a disease.

And if you’re already curious about Part II, know that I’m going to send you Part II in your inbox in just a couple of days.

Slide 81Whether you are just beginning your herbal path, or you’ve already spent years follow-ing the plant trail, my hope is that this pres-entation illuminated some key foundational knowledge on learning Herbal Energetics.

Thank you for joining me. I will see you soon in Part II where we’ll explore Plant Energetics and the Art of Herbalism.