Herbalism for Beginners: Everyday “Weeds” for Natural Wellness & Self-Care (with Michelle McAninch)

What if the “weeds” in your backyard are actually part of your wellness toolkit?

In this inspiring episode of Thursday Tea with Sami: Your Sip of Wellness and Mental Health, Dr. Samia Estrada, Psy.D., DipABLM sits down with Michelle McAninch, founder of Tamarac Garden, to explore the heart of herbalism and how everyday plants can support natural wellness and self-care.

Michelle shares the personal story that sparked her journey—after her son’s serious illness was initially misidentified, she began researching Northwest medicinal plants, learning to forage, and discovering how herbs and “weeds” can help support the body’s natural healing processes. Together, Michelle and Dr. Sami talk about listening to your body, building confidence in your own intuition, and starting small with practical herbal tools that feel approachable—even if you’re brand new to herbalism.

You’ll also hear beginner-friendly tips on starter herbs like oregano, peppermint, basil, and garlic, plus everyday wellness go-tos like activated charcoal and cayenne—and how these may be used as part of a broader lifestyle approach alongside nutrition, sleep, stress management, movement, and community connection.

As always, this conversation is for educational purposes and encourages listeners to make informed decisions and seek professional care when needed.

✅ In this episode, we cover:

• What herbalism is (and what it isn’t)
• “Weeds as medicine” and how to see plants differently
• Beginner-friendly starter herbs for everyday wellness
• Simple self-care tools that support the body naturally
• Mindset, intuition, and why you know your body best
• How herbalism can complement lifestyle medicine

🌿 Learn more about Michelle’s work at TamaracGarden.com

Transcript

Michelle McAninch (00:00)
You know your body. Man, no one else is gonna know what you're feeling. No doctor, no matter how many years of school they've gone to, just like your situation, they're never gonna know what you're feeling. And so if you go, man, really, every time I walk by this plant, I just kind of feel happy. Like it's just so beautiful.

Samia (00:08)
Yeah.

Yes.

Michelle McAninch (00:16)
bet your body is telling you, hello, I'd like that inside of me because it will really help. So just listening, just being willing to just be curious is really the best thing you can do.

Samia (00:19)
Yes.

Samia (00:39)
Welcome to Thursday Tea with Sami, your sip of wellness and mental health. I'm your host, Dr. Sami Estrada, every week we gather here for thoughtful conversations about mental health, wellbeing, and what it really means to live well in everyday life. Before we begin, a quick note.

This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only, and is not a substitute for medical or psychological care. Listening does not create a therapeutic relationship, and the views shared by my guests are their own, and everyone's experience is different. Please seek personalized care from a qualified professional. Now grab your favorite cup of tea or whatever brings you comfort.

And let's get into today's conversation.

Samia (01:42)
Hi everyone and welcome back to Thursday Tea with Sami, your sip of wellness and mental health. Here on the podcast, we talk about the many ways that people can support their well-being in real accessible and empowering ways. Today's episode is one that I've really been looking forward to. We are talking about herbalism, not as something intimidating or out of reach, but as grounded everyday form of self-care.

that helps people to reconnect with their bodies, their confidence, and the natural world around them. Today I'm joined by Michelle McAninch, founder of Tamarac, whose journey into herbalism began with a deeply personal experience and soon grew into a mission to help others take ownership of their health using natural remedies, education, and what she often calls her weeds, the plants we usually overlook.

Michelle, thank you so much for being here. Welcome to Thursday Tea with Sami.

Michelle McAninch (02:42)
thank you so much for having me. It's an absolute honor to be here. I love empowering people to take care of themselves. So I am really looking forward to this.

Samia (02:50)
I am so looking forward to our conversation. This is going to be so interesting. And I love your story of transformation. Can you share with the listeners how your journey into herbalism began and how it led to the creation of Tamarac?

Michelle McAninch (03:05)
Absolutely. So I grew up very much in the pharmaceutical world and believed that our doctor, our pediatrician was second to God. Like if something was going on, we went to the pediatrician and that's the way I raised my kids. And I honestly did not know any different.

And then in 2020, when all of our lives changed, our, family's life was really affected. My 10 year old at the time got extremely sick and he had 107 fever for an entire week. And we went, took him to the doctor and the ER three times. And every time they said, it's COVID, just go home. It'll be fine. And I knew, I knew, I knew, well, I knew it was strep because I know my kids and they did not believe me and they would do a test

Samia (03:48)
Yes.

Michelle McAninch (03:51)
every time and said, it came back negative, it's not that. I was like, I my kids, this is definitely strep.

Samia (03:56)
Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (03:56)
⁓

And so on day seven, something really switched in him and he got, he was so ill, he was actually screaming and he couldn't walk anymore. And so we carried him into the ER and the nurse actually that was helping us, he made this comment and he goes, man, you know would be the worst thing ever? Strep and mono in a little kid like this. And I was like, yeah, that sounds pretty awful. Okay. And so then the ER doctor comes in and he was exactly

Samia (04:18)
Yes.

Michelle McAninch (04:22)
who we were supposed to have. He looked like he had just rolled off his Harley. This huge dude covered in tats, massive beard. I mean, we couldn't see his face because he had a mask on, but he was just like the roughest doctor I have ever seen. And he picked up my son and he actually shook him. And he was like, what the heck is wrong with these people? This kid doesn't have COVID. my gosh, I'm gonna run some tests. Just give me a minute. And he was just like ticked for us.

Samia (04:26)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes.

Michelle McAninch (04:47)
And he ran tests and the nurse came back in and he goes, I am so sorry. Your son has strep and mono together. The worst thing that your child could have. And I was like, OK. Now everything makes sense. I knew it was strep. And so I felt, I mean, it didn't feel good. But at the same time, I was like, ⁓ I am mom. I did know. ⁓ And that kind of, I think just that one comment there kind of made me go, ⁓ I should listen to my gut more.

Samia (04:54)
⁓ huh.

Yes.

Michelle McAninch (05:12)
And so he healed and coming home from the hospital, I looked out at my yard. We live on three acres in North Idaho. It's beautiful, but truly it's nothing special. We live in between the highway and the train tracks. And there are a lot of people that have more property than us or more beautiful properties than us. We have worked really hard on ours and it feels like a paradise. But I looked out at my yard.

And I just said, there's got to be something better here than what those yahoos just did to my kid.

and I realized that no one would ever care about my kids as much as I do. So I better learn how to take care of him And so I had a complete switch from being pro doctor, doctors know everything, I give my kids to you and you will take care of them have lost my trust and you have lost my respect and...

I have not been doing what I meant to do as a God-given mother. And so I bought every book I could find on Northwest plants. And I literally started eating the weeds in my yard and learning about the weeds and the wildflowers that were in my own backyard. And I very quickly found things that could support healing from COVID. I found things for my husband, for thyroid. I found all different weeds and wildflowers that I was

Samia (06:13)
Okay.

Michelle McAninch (06:32)
literally walking over or pulling up and throwing away every year. And very quickly, people started to find out what I was doing, because they were seeing a difference in me and in my kids.

So we looked like podunk drug dealers for a while because I would pick the weeds out of my yard and it was during the shutdown so you know we weren't supposed to like see anybody and so I would meet my sweet little soccer mom friends in their minivans in the Costco parking lot after hours and would chuck a bag of weeds into their car and go give this to your grandma or give this to your baby and it was so cool because people started to get better and people's lungs started to

Samia (06:54)
Alright.

Great.

Yes.

Michelle McAninch (07:13)
clear up people that were bound to go to the hospital didn't have to go to the hospital because their bodies were supported and they were given the right conditions to heal. so from just learning about what was in my own yard to then going out to the woods and the mountains nearby me and actually starting to harvest on a bigger scale and learning about

the trees and the shrubs and all different things. And it very quickly spiraled from just giving little Ziploc bags of weeds to friends who had a sick kid to, hey, can you teach us a class? Because we'd really like to learn this too. And my first response was, no, you don't. I'm literally picking weeds and putting them in a bag. this, it's kind of ridiculous. Like it's, I shouldn't even be charging you for this. This is so silly.

Samia (07:53)
Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (07:56)
But I taught a class and I scheduled one and that one filled up in like 10 minutes. And so I scheduled 15 more that first summer and it just kept growing and the need was obviously very much there. And now ⁓ we have been able to help.

Samia (08:02)
you

Michelle McAninch (08:12)
countless people, I mean in the thousands at this point over the last five, now I guess six, well it's been about five years. And it has been so cool to see, people like I was bound to take tranquilizers my whole life to sleep and now I don't have to because I can use herbs and I can use things that actually like support my body and my hormones and.

And then hearing people that say, I used to go to the hospital every summer because of the wildfires. And every summer I would get admitted because my lungs would be inflamed. But now I use the weeds and wildflowers that you put into tinctures. And I haven't gone to the hospital in two years. And so it's just been so cool. And it's all just the stuff that God gave us that we literally walk over every day. they I consider I consider what grows wild around us, God's mercy to us, because they could be toxic.

Samia (08:50)
Yes.

Michelle McAninch (09:01)
And some of them are, but there are such a small amount that are, most of them are beneficial to us. And so I just, love showing people that you can literally look out your backyard and find a remedy for your kids. You don't have to run to the drug store.

Samia (09:13)
This is an incredible story of how your perception of health and healing changed based on this one experience that you had with your son, which I can't even imagine, you know, having your son having those high fevers for as long as he did and not knowing what was wrong with him and feeling like there was nothing you could do to help and really depending on

people that are supposed to be there to help you and they're not really helping you and they're not really doing anything. And I can imagine that most of us have a story like that, you maybe not to that degree, but you were talking about strep throat and it reminded me of a time, and this goes back to knowing your own body, right? It reminded me of a time when I went to the doctor and I told the doctor, I think I have strep throat and the doctor looked in my throat and said, no, I don't see any.

Michelle McAninch (09:41)
Yeah.

Samia (10:05)
you know what I'm supposed to see in there. So, so you don't, right? And I said, you know what, I'm pretty sure I do. Um, you know, I can't drink, I can't swallow. can't, this feels very different than just a sore throat. And he said, well, I'm going to do a swab, but you know, I really don't think that you have it. This is kind of a waste of time. And I said, okay. And he did a swab and I did have strep throat. And it's like, who's going to know their body better than us, right? We know our body better than anybody. So.

Michelle McAninch (10:06)
The telltale

Samia (10:33)
I really can appreciate you bringing that to light and how that really changed your perspective on health and healing and how you wanted to handle things differently. But I also know that many people have heard of herbalism before, myself included, and don't fully understand what it means. So how would you describe herbalism to someone who's brand new to the concept?

Michelle McAninch (10:59)
Sure, that's a great question. So herbalism is really the concept of using plants in place of...

traditional pharmaceuticals, at least how I do it. that with herbalism, you're looking at the different plants that are available to you, whether they're in your yard or you can order them online or get them from a friend. But it's a way of looking at plants before you look at something else to heal your body.

and then learning how to identify them so that you can use what's around you to help your family. You can literally just be in your yard and use plants. So that would be the main way that I would describe it is just looking at plants first and then going elsewhere if you must. I can say we have not had to go elsewhere much since we've really started to dig into it, my family and me.

Samia (11:38)
Yeah.

Thank

And this is what's been done for thousands of years because before, yeah, before Big Pharma, this is what people always did.

Michelle McAninch (11:50)
yeah, it's the original medicine. Mm hmm. Yeah, yeah. mean,

big pharma has only been around for 100 years. It's only since the Industrial Revolution.

You look at all the illnesses that were not even in existence necessarily a hundred years ago, all the different autoimmune conditions and multiple turbo cancers and all of that, they weren't

They weren't around and it wasn't that people weren't testing for them. It was that they literally were not there because we didn't have the pharmaceuticals that would cause them that were made from plastic basically and rubber and putting things in our bodies that we were never ever ever meant to hold in our bodies. And it's causing things that we were never meant to deal with because our bodies are amazing and they can handle toxins. But when you have overloaded them every day of your life, eventually

they're gonna say uncle and it's an unfortunate thing.

Samia (12:43)
Yeah.

And even if we think about, anytime that you take medication, you have to worry about what those side effects are going to be, and that's more immediate. That's when we're talking about toxins in our bodies, sometimes we wait for the buildup, but sometimes you take a pill on that very same day, you have those side effects. okay.

Michelle McAninch (13:00)
yeah. So I have a story about that actually.

I was diagnosed, actually, I actually did go to a doctor because I have a history of pretty bad bladder infections my whole life since I was a little girl. And I had one that got really bad as a teenager and I actually went septic. And so I'm pretty aware of my body now. And when I do have a bladder infection, I try to deal with it quickly because I don't want it to get into my kidneys. But I had one that I just couldn't kick.

Samia (13:14)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Michelle McAninch (13:25)
on my own. At least I didn't think I could. And so I went to urgent care and I got a test and confirmed, yeah, you do have a bladder infection. And they gave me MacroBid. And I was like, okay, I'm an herbalist. This is so against everything in my gut, but I really don't want this to get further. And so I took one pill.

and I was driving somewhere and it was maybe an hour after I had taken the pill and I had a panic attack while I was driving. And I had no reason to have a panic attack. I had nothing to be upset about. Nothing was really going wrong.

And so I did some, I just did some reading on macrobid and what women use for bladder infections and found that panic attacks and depression are the number one side effect of specifically macrobid. And I went, my gosh, I'm done. And I literally threw the box away and I went, okay, I can't do that. I'm not gonna do that to my body. I will figure out a different way. And so I did. I took really, really high doses

of raw garlic and lemon. My husband, I don't think he talked to me for a week, because I was like wafting. So I took those two, and then I also took a supplement with like dandelion and a lot of herbs that really helped to stimulate the kidneys. ⁓ But I took like, I think I ate 10 cloves of garlic a day, and like along with some raw lemon.

Samia (14:30)
Lovely.

Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (14:44)
And I kicked it. So the bladder infection had actually indeed gotten into my kidneys and it was very serious. And it took me about a week, but within a week my body healed because I gave it the right conditions and my body knew how to heal and I did not need macrobid. And had I taken it, I probably would have extended it out further because my body would have then been fighting the panic attacks and the nervous system and the bladder infection. So there is always another way.

Samia (14:50)
you

Michelle McAninch (15:11)
so right. The side effects are, some of them are so fast and we don't realize they're side effects because they seem like, I had a panic attack. I must be nervous about something. No, it's not you. It's the drug. yeah.

Samia (15:20)
It's the drug.

Yeah. Yeah. And I love that you're sharing the story of the UTI for you and helping other people using simple natural tools like the herbs in our yard. How do these experiences or what do these experiences teach you about empowerment and self trust?

Michelle McAninch (15:33)
Yeah.

⁓ that

we're made to heal. Like we are, I truly believe, I know in my gut that we are made in the image of God and we are not made to fall apart. And so this has really encouraged me that, wow, like we truly are made to heal. We truly are self-healing beings.

that can heal. And the more that I have helped people and listened to other people's stories and worked with other herbalists or holistic practitioners or what may be.

hear story after story after story of people with cancer that is advanced that are able to turn it around and not with any kind of a pharmaceutical, not with anything that you would get from a doctor's office, but with their lifestyle, with their food, with their mindset, with herbs. I made a family member.

Samia (16:23)
Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (16:30)
a couple of tinctures a few years ago when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. And I was able to help her beat breast cancer quite literally with the weeds in my yard. I mean, she did the work herself. She took on an alkaline diet. She totally cleaned up her food, mindset. Like she did a lot of work too. And her body healed because she gave it the right conditions. ⁓ So I just see that we are totally made to take care of ourselves. We were never, ever

Samia (16:49)
Yes.

Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (17:00)
made to give our health and our longevity or anything over to someone else because at the end of the day it's us. Like it's our body. It doesn't belong to anyone else. And there are plenty of resources around. All we have to do is look or be willing to just be a little humble and look down and go, I wonder what that little dandy lion does. it actually could help my heart. Interesting. I actually have a heart condition. So I don't personally, but. ⁓

Samia (17:18)
Yes.

Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (17:26)
There is an idea with herbalism, it's not an idea, it's a theory that the plant that you need for your specific condition is almost always right out your back door. And I don't entirely know how that works, but it has a lot to do with what's going on around you in your environment, the toxins that are around you, what's in the soil, what's in the air. So like,

Samia (17:46)
Is it cool?

Michelle McAninch (17:48)
I've noticed a lot of folks that are near me, when there's a really bad cough going on, there's mullenleaf everywhere.

and there's mullein leaf always available and mullein leaf is the ultimate plant for your lungs. And ⁓ out here in North Idaho, everyone has mullein growing in their yards and it is obnoxious because there's so much of it and there very few people that don't need it. And ⁓ it's really wild. So if you find that you are struggling with something, you might just get a little bit curious and go, I have all these weeds in my yard and I've never known what they are. And then just, you know, use an app on your phone.

Samia (18:06)
Okay.

Yes.

Michelle McAninch (18:25)
really like the iNaturalist app. It's lowercase iNaturalist. It's a free app and you can use it to identify plants and then just do a little research on it. And I bet folks will find that the weeds that have been a total nuisance to them actually are something they or one of their children need to heal. And they can just pick them and dry them or make them in a tea just straight out of the garden or save them for a rainy day. And probably.

Samia (18:30)
Okay.

Right.

Michelle McAninch (18:52)
notice like, ⁓ I feel better.

Samia (18:52)
Yeah,

we probably have a pharmacy right in our own backyard and don't even know it. Yes, yes, I did read something a while back ago, so I might be misquoting it, but that a lot of times, even where you find toxins, you can find the antidote to it. So for example, they were talking about in the article that if you come across poison oak or poison ivy that generally

Michelle McAninch (18:57)
We 100 % do. Yeah.

Samia (19:18)
the antidote for that is also growing very nearby. So that a lot of times that happens in nature.

Michelle McAninch (19:22)
Mm-hmm.

Absolutely, that's 100 % accurate. You'll find that companions grow together because they work together. So even

not necessarily antidotes, but I find that a lot of times, so there's elderberries, elderberries grow all over the place where we're at. And then usually elderberries and roses are growing close together, wild roses. And elderberries and roses are the ultimate combo for supporting your immune system. And then usually you'll find like ⁓ yarrow and then yarrow and plantain.

will be growing near each other and those two help with drawing out toxins out of your body and helping your body to process through things. And so you'll usually find, like even like in gardening, like when you plant your garden, a lot of folks will look into, what plants work together? Which ones are friends and which ones are not? And then you think about like in the wild, things that don't work together, they will not grow together because they just won't survive. And so as you pay attention to what's growing wild going, ⁓

Samia (20:21)
Makes sense.

Michelle McAninch (20:25)
I bet those two together would do something good and they usually do because they work well together in the soil. yeah, just using your common sense like the media and Big Pharma has tried to make caring for yourself seem like a conspiracy theory or like, it's just too hard. You don't know Latin. You can't do that. No, you have a brain.

Samia (20:32)
I see. that's so interesting.

Michelle McAninch (20:48)
and you've got common sense, you can figure it out. And really, I love, I read a statistic a couple years ago that worldwide, I can't remember if it was 95 or 98, but up to 98 % of the plants that grow worldwide are beneficial and edible and medicinal to us.

Samia (20:51)
Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (21:07)
There are so few plants that are actually toxic. And even the ones that are toxic, typically they are toxic to things that we don't want in our body like cancer. So like mistletoe, for instance, mistletoe is known as a toxic plant. Mistletoe is used in cancer medications. There's another pine tree, it's called a eupine, and it is also known as a toxin, but it's also used in...

Samia (21:21)
Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (21:32)
cancer medications. And so it's really wild when you actually start to dig into it. Most plants that we're told are toxic are actually toxic to the things that we would like to get out of our bodies. And so there truly is nothing to fear. I mean, obviously, you got to know what you're putting in your body. You need to know 110 % what the plant is and how you use it. But you don't have to be afraid. So many people are afraid that they're going to make their family sick. You're not. I can just tell you, you're not.

Samia (21:42)
Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (21:57)
As a parent, you know your kids, your gut, listen to it. If you go, oh, I don't know what this is, I think we better not use it, listen to that. Mushrooms are a whole nother story. You gotta have someone with you that knows mushrooms, but as far as plants go, do it.

Samia (22:09)
Okay.

Okay, great. And you had your own story. You didn't really know very much about this when your son got sick and then you needed to learn about it. What were some of the things that that you turned to to learn more about herbalism and what were some of the things that were most helpful to you?

Michelle McAninch (22:15)
you

awesome. Great question. So really it was books. I read every book I could find on inland Northwest plants, because that's where I'm living. ⁓ So I asked around. I originally got a book and it was called, I think it was called the Encyclopedia of Homesteading. And it was written by this badass woman in North Idaho who like learned how to literally do everything from giving birth to burying her dead.

Samia (22:32)
Okay.

Okay.

Michelle McAninch (22:55)
on her property. And she wrote this gigantic book about how to survive off the land in your property. And so I read that, I devoured that. And then I just started asking people, like, what do you read? Or looking for recommendations. And so...

Samia (22:55)
Wow.

Michelle McAninch (23:09)
I would find books by herbalists that were local to me or wrote about herbs that were local to me and then just started reading them and then started practicing. So the reading and the learning is extremely important. But what is equally important is the experience of actually going outside and be in communing with the plants and actually paying attention to them because we're made with vibration. Plants are made with vibration. We are made to work together. And so I would notice that there were certain plants

Samia (23:36)
Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (23:38)
that

I was really attracted to, like yarrow was one. It's this weed, wildflower, you could call it all different things. It grows all over the place and it is very invasive. Once it starts, it doesn't stop. But I've always thought that it was really beautiful, even though it's everywhere. And ⁓ came to realize that it helps with nosebleeds. And my son that got really sick has also struggled with nosebleeds his whole life. And so when I learned about it, I went,

I can make this into a tea and he can drink this plant and it will stop his nosebleeds. And it did. And it's worked for all sorts of other things too that my family specifically has needed. And so just paying attention to what I'm attracted to, to what's growing around me and then using the book along with that, along with my own intuition to go, I could use this. My family needs this.

Samia (24:20)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (24:27)
And so I've talked to some herbalists or some budding herbalists over the years that have gone, my gosh, like I've passed all my tests, which I've honestly never taken like an official class. I am very much a self-taught herbalist. But talking to different ladies or gentlemen that have taken actual courses, they've gone to school for it and they've gone, I know everything about it, but I am so scared to go out and forage and actually like make something for someone, because I'm afraid I'm going to screw up.

Samia (24:39)
Okay.

Michelle McAninch (24:53)
Well, you're never gonna be an herbalist then, girl. ⁓

Samia (24:56)
Right.

Michelle McAninch (24:57)
You gotta get out there. You have

to actually touch them because there's something about using all of your senses. I've had a lot of people ask me, how do you remember all these things? And I tell them, I really think it's because I use all my senses. And so my whole body is involved with it. I'm touching it. I'm smelling it. I'm tasting it. I'm looking at it. I'm thinking about it. I'm talking to it. I'm saying, my gosh, you're such a lovely plant. Thank you for helping my family. And my kids sometimes think I'm a little crazy, but at the same time,

Samia (25:15)
you

Yes.

Michelle McAninch (25:27)
the stuff that grows in our yard has helped them feel better on multiple occasions. And I actually have one really cool story about ⁓ just touching plants. So I had a gal come to one of my classes, one of my very first classes I ever taught, and she was from Northern California, and she lived near a plant where they made essential oils. And so on this plant, they had all these different

Samia (25:34)
Okay.

Michelle McAninch (25:50)
like barns or shops where they would store specific herbs. And then they had people that would come in and they would turn the herbs every night so they would dry at the same rate. And so there were two women that were put on the mullen leaf barn. And every night they would go in and they would flip them. And they didn't wear gloves, they didn't wear masks, they just went in and flipped them. All they did was touch them and breathe.

One of them had asthma and one of them had arthritis and they were both very, very severe. And the whole, it was a very small town. The whole town knew about it. The whole town knew that these gals were in pain all the time. And so it had been three months of them doing their job of just flipping them every night. And within three months, almost all of their symptoms were gone. And they did nothing different than touch plants and breathe them in. But there is something so powerful about just

Samia (26:23)
Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (26:39)
touching a plant because it gets into you. I'm just breathing it. So just being around them. My other, the other thing that really helped me was walking the same path every season of the year so that I could see the plants when they were dormant. I could see them when they were blooming. I could see them when they were in full bloom and then I could see them as they were dying off. And I got to know the plants that were growing around me either in the mountains or in my own yard or at a local park.

And so I really got to figure out like, ⁓ I didn't know that was that, but I'd only seen it dormant before, but that's actually this really cool plant that I've been looking for. And so that's always my very best advice for anyone that's interested in learning about the plants that grow around them is walk the same path every single season, even in the snow. Walk the same path because you will start to notice things of, ⁓

Samia (27:12)
you

Michelle McAninch (27:32)
hadn't seen that before. that's a new plant. I've never seen that one before. And you'll get to know things, and you'll get more comfortable, and you'll grow your courage, and you'll grow your strength to be able to go, I think I can do this. And so that's been the most helpful for me. YouTube's been really helpful as well, just finding really solid herbalists that...

Samia (27:35)
Yes.

Yes.

Michelle McAninch (27:51)
A lot of them that I really like learning from are the ones that are third or fourth generation herbalists where they've learned from their grandparents and their grandparents learn from their grandparents. So it's not just book learning, but it's actually like life experience learning. I love learning from those ladies. I have three or four ladies and gentlemen that I really

Samia (27:54)
Good

Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (28:11)
⁓ that I go to. I've never met them personally, but I absolutely, I use what they've done and I have seen tangible differences in my family or in my customers or whoever I'm helping with what I do with them. And a lot of them use like Native American plants or different tactics and it's awesome. Some of it is very unconventional, but dang it works.

Samia (28:30)
Yes, it's been information that's been passed down through generations and things that we might not even find in books or in YouTube, but that's just it was probably intuitive to them. And then they passed it along to the next generation and the next. That's amazing. I love that story. You know, for listeners who want to start exploring herbal remedies, what would you say are a few starter herbs or a few household items that you would recommend for

Michelle McAninch (28:34)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

no, we probably won't.

Yep, absolutely.

Samia (28:59)
everybody to keep on hand.

Michelle McAninch (29:00)
oregano, number one oregano. So oregano is so easy to grow. You can grow it in your kitchen. You can grow it in your garden. I think it pretty much grows everywhere or you can even just buy it. But oregano is the ultimate antibiotic. I have used that for my kids with really nasty flus. We have used it for COVID. We have used it for all sorts of things that

Samia (29:02)
⁓

Michelle McAninch (29:22)
would normally scare, well that would have scared me off a few years ago. I've even used it for nasty, nasty infections where I thought I may need to actually take my kid to the ER because they got a really dirty cut. Oregano came to the rescue. So oregano would be my number one. And then peppermint.

Samia (29:34)
Yes.

Okay

Michelle McAninch (29:41)
would be my number two, specifically peppermint over the other mints. Peppermint has a really amazing ability to do two different things at the same time. If your body is cold, it can help you heat up. And if your body is hot, it can help you cool down. It has different mechanisms and when it connects with your body,

Your body knows how to use the peppermint and the peppermint knows how to work with your body. And so it seems so simple. mean, everybody has peppermint all the time. We've got essential oils and candies and all this. The peppermint really is a powerhouse when it comes to healing our bodies. And for headaches, for stomach aches, all sorts of things, even just keeping peppermint tea on hand is a huge help. ⁓ And then another one that we use a lot is basil.

Samia (30:15)
Okay.

Okay.

Michelle McAninch (30:26)
Basil also has lot of antibacterial, antiseptic, lots of benefits. And so just having those three herbs right there and giving those to your kids if they are not feeling well would be huge. And I would just add more peppermint than the other two herbs because they're not so delicious in a tea. But for a kiddo,

Samia (30:35)
huh.

Michelle McAninch (30:46)
just do more of what tastes good and you probably will find that they will drink it. Some other ones that I use for medicine that are like my number one go-to ⁓ is garlic. So garlic isn't necessarily the one that you'd grow in your house, but it's really easy to grow outside or to just get access to. But garlic over all other antibiotics is the ultimate and it has it and oregano together are like a powerhouse. I have used it for

Samia (30:48)
Yes.

Michelle McAninch (31:12)
things like, I have actually used it for strep throat. I've used it for multiple respiratory infections, things that were viral that seemed like they just wouldn't go away, things that were bacterial, and they have worked really well. With garlic, it has to be raw though, unfortunately. Once you cook it, it loses its medicine, and so you've gotta eat it raw.

Samia (31:23)
Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Michelle McAninch (31:33)
but I usually just do raw garlic and lemon together and I'll just take it like a shot real quick and we'll do that throughout the day if we're not feeling well. And it's pretty rare that it doesn't work quickly. So those, so what did I say? Oregano, peppermint, basil, and garlic. Those would be like some of my top ones that really, whatever you've got going on, it's going to address it in one way or another.

Samia (31:39)
Okay.

Yes, top of the line.

Okay, and I love that you brought up that garlic has to be raw. Are there any benefits to having these served one way or another like if some of them are cooked or if some of them are in a tea dried and into a tea right versus fresh or just like rubbing the leaves on your skin like you were talking about those ladies that were turning the leaves right

Michelle McAninch (32:16)
Mm-hmm.

Samia (32:18)
Are there any benefits one way or another? also, how would you, I guess you'd have to learn about that, but I was going to say, how would you know what's the best thing to do with each herb?

Michelle McAninch (32:28)
Yeah, that's a great question. really, as close to fresh as possible is the best option. So if you've got oregano growing in your garden, pop those fresh leaves into a tea and drink that. If you've got peppermint, so as close to fresh as you can is going to get you the very best medicine and the most bang for your buck. Otherwise, just, I would want to, I find brands that I really like. Like there is a,

a brand, ⁓ I really like Now Foods. I've used their oregano oil for, even before I really learned about plants, I started using oregano oil for my family and they make, it comes in little capsules so you don't even taste it. So it's very kid friendly. And I like Now Foods because they're still family owned. They're one of the few supplement companies that has not sold out to one of the big conglomerations. And so they actually,

we have, use that pretty much, I pretty much use their essential oils only. Actually, yeah, now I only use their essential oils and all of our skincare that we make because I'm really, I've been so thrilled with what they do. And so

I would find brands that you trust. really like, what is that, Role? There's a few different herbal companies, but if you just look for, ⁓ the main thing you want to look for is organic. And then learning like how to use them, so definitely fresh, but also,

So you could just even do a Google search and figure out. Look up, there's a couple of really great websites. There's one that's called organicfacts.com. And then I also like Dr. Axe's website. His last name is spelled A-X-E. And he runs an herbal, I think he's a holistic practitioner or a naturopath. I'm not sure which one. But he really has very solid information on his website. So if I'm like, I can't remember all that this herb does, I'll pop

Samia (33:57)
Okay.

Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (34:11)
on his website and type it in and nine times out of ten I'll find the information I need. So that is one that parents could go to in a pinch and go hmm I have oregano in my kitchen would it actually help with this and you could find it probably pretty quickly if it'll help or not and I'm nine times out of ten it'll help.

Samia (34:27)
Okay.

Great.

Michelle McAninch (34:29)
All of those

herbs won't hurt, so you could use any of them, because herbs do so many different things at the same time. They're not like a pharmaceutical where they're made for just one illness, because herbs are multifaceted. They're like us. We are multifaceted. We're not just one way. We're not just type A. We've got all different things going on inside of us, and herbs are the same way. And so when you use a whole herb, you get all the different benefits, so the side effects of different herbs. So like with peppermint.

Samia (34:46)
Yeah. ⁓

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (34:57)
You may be using peppermint for a headache, but the side effects of peppermint are it will help soothe your stomach. It will help cool down your body if you have a fever. Like it will help to calm your nervous system and help you sleep. So it...

Samia (35:10)
Thank

Michelle McAninch (35:10)
you may be using it for one thing, but it's gonna give you a host of other benefits. You could call them side effects. ⁓ with a pharmaceutical, if you've got a headache medication, it's only gonna take care of the headache and that's it. So you could really, I mean, use what you've got on hand and you probably will see a difference because herbs do so much. And a lot of it too is a mindset. Like if you think it's going to work, it probably will. And if you think it's not gonna work, it probably won't because

Samia (35:15)
Okay. Yes.

Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (35:38)
I heard a great analogy the other day. A woman was talking about, so think about a lemon and imagine yourself cutting into a lemon and it's juicy and the juices are running out and then take a big bite and imagine yourself eating it. Most people, when they do that, they'll get a physical reaction. I know for me even, my mouth is watering right now. And that's the power of our mind.

Samia (35:57)
Yeah. Yes, mine too

Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (36:03)
Our

mind is so powerful. What we think will happen physically. And so if you go into helping your kids or helping yourself going, this gal said to try this, it's probably not gonna work. I bet I'm gonna need to go to the doctor, but whatever, I'll try it. I bet you it's not gonna work because your mindset is not there and your body will not respond. Your body responds to what your mind says. Actually, your mind responds to what your body does. But...

Samia (36:08)
Yes.

Michelle McAninch (36:27)
But your mindset has to be there. You've got to go in there with positivity and go, you know what? I really don't know if this is going to work, but I think it will. And I know that I don't have to run to the doctor. And so I'm going to try it. And having that mindset will make a huge difference. So maybe even if it's not quite the right herb for that illness, I bet you you're going to feel a difference, because your mind and your body are working together.

Samia (36:51)
Yes, absolutely. I'm 100 % a believer of the mindset, of course, as a psychologist, I know, and I've read enough research and I've noticed it in enough of my own clients that, you know, the way that you think is going to affect everything, even the way that we think about the things that are happening in our everyday life, if we think of it as a stressor, it's going to be a lot harder for us to deal with it. But if we think of it as

Michelle McAninch (36:57)
yeah.

Awesome.

Samia (37:16)
maybe a lesson or an experience or even something that we might not know what the good is gonna come of it, but we know some good is gonna come of it, then all of a sudden that stressor that we thought was a stressor actually becomes something that we look forward to learning from So it can be a very different experience depending on how we think about things.

Michelle McAninch (37:37)
It's so, so, so true. I mean, you hear about people when they talk about going on the same vacation and you ask two different people and one of them goes, it was okay. It was rainy the whole time and whatever. And then you talk to someone else and they're like, it was gorgeous. The rain just glistened off the ocean and we walked in the rain and it was so romantic and it was a little chilly but I got to wear my really cute coat. so one person had an awesome vacation.

Samia (37:44)
Yes.

Yes.

Great.

Michelle McAninch (38:02)
The other person had a crappy vacation, but they were both on the same vacation, experiencing all the same things, and it was all their mindset. And so it's really the same way with plants. You can go into it going, I can do this. I am made to take care of my kids. I know I can do this. Or you can go into it going, I'm so dumb. I would never figure this out. I don't need to go to college. I'm not gonna know this. Who cares?

Samia (38:02)
Yes!

Exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly. Well, and I think mindset is a huge and very important tip that you're sharing with people. Are there any other tips that are like your go-to tips or things that you would recommend to people, especially if they're starting out with herbalism?

Michelle McAninch (38:40)
⁓ yeah. So my main tip would be to just start reading. so look into you can even go on like a local Facebook group, maybe a local gardening group and say, Hey, are there any books that you've read about the local plants that grow around here that I could find out about? Reach out to your community. Find if there's like a local herb group around you and I bet someone will have a recommendation on yeah, I read this book about

Georgia plants or Southern California weeds and wildflowers. Read that one. So just start reaching out to people around you that know a little bit more than you do and ask questions.

Samia (39:08)
Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (39:13)
And then if you want to start gardening, go to the garden groups and go, because I know here in North Idaho, we are in zone. Well, I am particularly in zone four where I'm at. Other parts of North Idaho are in a higher zone. And so if I try to grow a watermelon in my yard, it will never work, but it will work probably 30 miles away from me. And so I need to reach out to my neighbors and the people that are local to me and go, what can I do? What can I use? So I would say using your community is number one, the best

Samia (39:23)
Okay.

Yes.

Michelle McAninch (39:41)
the best bet. You're not going to waste your money, you're not going to waste your time. And then go to YouTube. Man, YouTube is so helpful. Ask someone like, have you learned about weeds or wildflowers from anyone?

I mean, for me personally, I have a few gals that I really enjoy learning from. One of them is Rosemary Gladstar. And she's one of those gals that learned about herbs from her grandmother. And her grandmother was an herbalist. And so she obviously learned about them from someone too. And so it's been passed down to her. So she's someone, she has great YouTube videos. She has awesome books. Every book she has is pure gold. My favorite one of hers is called, I believe it's called Herbalism for Women. she,

Samia (40:07)
Yes.

Michelle McAninch (40:18)
She breaks down all three phases of life for women when we're children, when we're in our childbearing years, and then in menopause and how you can use plants to support your body wherever you're at. So she's great. Another one is Rosalie de la Foret. She's written a couple of really helpful books. And what I really like about these herbalists is they don't assume that you know anything. They start from square one. So you don't feel like, I don't know what a rhizome is.

Samia (40:23)
⁓

Alright.

Michelle McAninch (40:45)
How am I supposed

to know how to use this? I don't want to have to look up every word you're saying. And they really start from the beginning. And so those two ladies have been a wealth of knowledge. There's another one, I think he's called Herbal Ninja. And he's a goofball, but he has a great YouTube channel.

Samia (40:49)
Yes!

I'm sorry.

⁓

Michelle McAninch (41:00)
So you

really can learn from a lot of people. the YouTube ones are very helpful because you actually see someone holding the plant and you can see it like growing in their yard where when you use books, books are really helpful, but sometimes the picture doesn't necessarily look like what's in your yard.

Samia (41:15)
Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (41:17)
So seeing an actual video of it, I've found is really helpful, especially in the beginning for me when I was starting to learn about them going, okay, I think I know this is Mullen. I'm pretty sure it has all the telltale signs, but is it really? And then watching a video and going, ⁓ totally, that is the weed in my yard. books and videos are...

Samia (41:20)
Yes.

Michelle McAninch (41:38)
really, really great and then just reach out to your community and you'll find that it's not nearly as hard or as intimidating or as scary as you think. And then trust yourself, trust your intuition. Like every one of us were made, if we have kids, we were made to be their parent. There was no one else that was meant to be their parent but us. And so...

Samia (41:58)
Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (41:59)
Trust your intuition because they're yours. Trust your intuition with yourself. You know your body. Man, no one else is gonna know what you're feeling. No doctor, no matter how many years of school they've gone to, just like your situation, they're never gonna know what you're feeling. And so if you go, man, really, every time I walk by this plant, I just kind of feel happy. Like it's just so beautiful.

Samia (42:12)
Yeah.

Yes.

Michelle McAninch (42:20)
bet your body is telling you, hello, I'd like that inside of me because it will really help. So just listening, just being willing to just be curious is really the best thing you can do. And be willing to be a little bit goofy too. mean...

Samia (42:23)
Yes.

Michelle McAninch (42:36)
My kids are always laughing at me. They're like, my gosh, she's eating our weeds. Or like when we always cut down our own Christmas tree out in the woods. And so we used the Christmas tree for medicine this year, because fur needles are full of vitamin C. And so I made tea with it. We use it in a lot of our different tinctures and different things that we use. So everybody's cutting down the branches and getting the needles off. we're not wasting this. And they're like, my gosh, are we really eating our Christmas tree again? Yes, 100%.

Samia (42:56)
Thanks.

Right?

Michelle McAninch (43:02)
I am totally okay with you laughing at me too. No big deal.

Samia (43:04)
Yes, yes, absolutely. And you know, a lot of what you've been talking about fits right in with the pillars that I follow of lifestyle medicine, which is, is not really medicine in the form of medication, but medicine in the form of the things that we do in our lifestyle that can be helpful. And those are

you know, nutrition, physical activity, connection, stress management, sleep, and avoidance of risky substances. And as you were talking about some of your favorite herbs to keep on hand, right? And you talked about basil and oregano and garlic. And I was thinking to myself, those are all the things that I used to cook. And so I imagine that, you know, they're really good as remedies, but

I wonder what that does to you when you eat them regularly. I imagine that that has some form of preventative measure or, you know, like preventative medicine. Do you know anything about that?

Michelle McAninch (44:00)
⁓ mm-hmm.

100 % yeah, so eating oregano regularly is going to strengthen your immune system because it is Cleaning out your body it is looking for bacteria and it is taking care of it eating garlic regularly is going to support Your body and fighting off viruses There are a lot of different plants I'm trying to think of other ones that we've used that strengthen So elderberries like a lot of people will buy elderberry syrup in the fall We sell an elderberry tincture and an elderberry syrup kit

But we have heard time after time from multiple customers that say, when I give my kids one tablespoon of your elderberry syrup every day in the winter, they don't get sick. Or if they do get sick, it's done in two days. so just so taking elderberry daily, it builds up your immune system. I like to I like to tell people it kind of makes you slippery on the inside. So viruses have a hard time sticking.

Samia (44:46)
Yes.

Michelle McAninch (44:57)
because they just they'll come in. mean, they're always going to come in. But if your if your immune system is strengthened, then they're going to have a hard time sticking. So those are some very specific ones. And then what you were saying to just nutrition is so important, avoiding things that are going to tax your system like seed oils and refined sugars and refined flours and hyper processed foods like when you avoid those, you're not going to get as sick as someone that is eating Taco Bell every day. You're just not because you're you're

Samia (45:00)
Yeah.

Right.

Michelle McAninch (45:25)
supporting your body and you're giving it the right conditions to fight hard.

So there's a lot of it to me is so simple because it just comes back to what are you putting in your body every day? What are you looking at on your phone? Like what is your how do you talk to yourself? Do you are you always like so dumb? I'm so fat. like if you're saying that all the time, you're not going to lose weight because your body will go. ⁓ we're fat. Okay, we'll stay fat. Cool. Got it.

And so just the way that you talk to yourself is so important. I think that is as important as using plants. I'm trying to think of other ones that my family and I use on a regular basis. Another one that's really great to, especially if you are someone that's prone to any kind of heart condition or bladder infections or a liver condition would be dandelion.

Samia (45:56)
Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (46:12)
⁓ Dandelion root and leaf together. I like to use them both together because I forget which one does what but one of them will kind of deplete your magnesium and the other actually gives your body more magnesium. So when you use them together they make up for the lack.

Samia (46:24)
I'm

Michelle McAninch (46:27)
And so a dandelion tea that's made out of like the whole dandelion is a great thing to have on a daily basis if you are struggling with anything UTI related, ⁓ heart related, really any kind of like lymphatic function. If you're feeling really like stuck and swollen, that's a really great one to help drain out your body. So there are.

Samia (46:46)
Maybe.

Michelle McAninch (46:47)
a of things you can do. And then we make ⁓ herbal supplements and tinctures and teas out of those too. So if someone is not necessarily going, well, those are great ideas, but I'm never going to go out and forage a dandelion in my yard. It just won't. There are some people that won't, and that is okay. That is kind of why I do what I do. So if they need something, I've got them covered.

Samia (47:04)
Yes. Yeah, I think

last time we talked, you also mentioned cayenne pepper and charcoal as some of your go-to's. Okay.

Michelle McAninch (47:12)
Mm. Yes, I'm so glad you brought those up. Yes, all right, I would love to tell you about those. So cayenne pepper is

so cool. There are a lot of herbalists, myself included, that carry cayenne capsules in our emergency kits. I have a little bag of cayenne capsules in my first aid kit. And the reason why is because cayenne is the ultimate heart herb. And so if you, God forbid,

come upon someone that is either going through cardiac arrest or in some kind of shock and they cannot come out of it, you can crack open the capsule and just literally pour that cayenne pepper under their tongue. And many, many times it has pulled people out of a heart attack because it goes straight to your heart and cayenne opens up blood vessels, but not in a forceful way, but in a cleansing way.

And so it causes movement and the place it goes is straight to your heart. so it's not necessarily like, I wouldn't use it in place of getting a bypass if you need that, but it can save you some time and it can get you to the hospital so that you actually make it to the hospital or make it the few days before your appointment where you go. I really think I need some help. Start taking high dose cayenne pepper. And cayenne pepper is actually, it's so spicy.

Samia (48:12)
Right.

Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (48:28)
but it is the safest herb of all the herbs on earth. Unless if you're actually allergic to it, it will be good for you. So when I get stressed out, I tend to get chest pain. We had a really, really busy month in our business in July where we were getting hundreds of orders every day and it was wild. And I remember the first day looked at my computer, I was like,

Samia (48:46)
Yes.

Hmm.

Michelle McAninch (48:49)
How do I do this? And I started to get chest pain and I was like, I don't have time to die. I need the cayenne pepper. And so I literally kept a jar of cayenne capsules by my computer and I would eat like two or three every few hours during the day. And it was like within two minutes the chest pain was gone. And it was so cool. And it just helped my body roll with the stressors. Cause I knew there was no breath work I could do to like keep going. was like, I just, I need something right now. And

Samia (48:54)
No.

again.

Michelle McAninch (49:16)
So cayenne is great. The other thing that cayenne does is it will help with bleeding. So if you cut your hand in the kitchen and you've got a gnarly cut going on and you're bleeding everywhere, pour cayenne pepper on it and it actually will coagulate the blood and it will help to close up the blood vessels. And so it's really, we've used it on multiple occasions. The hotter the cayenne, the better. I like to keep 90, I think it's 90.

Samia (49:33)
Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (49:42)
KU, I can't remember, or HU, 98U, heat units. I keep the 90,000 around, but really anything you've got is going to help. So cayenne is fantastic. Or if you are someone that is prone to heart conditions, if you are, I would definitely take cayenne pepper on a daily basis. It's totally not medical advice, but I found it very helpful for me. Or if you're someone that runs cold, if you are cold all the time, every day,

take some cayenne pepper. You could pour it in some tea and drink it or you can take it in capsule form. I take it in capsule form because I'm kind of a wuss when it comes to hot stuff.

But if I'm really cold, I'll just take a capsule of cayenne and it usually will warm me up because it will speed up your metabolism. Some people have even used it for helping with weight loss because it does cause your metabolism to work a little bit faster. There's so much you can do with it, but it's a great one. It's one that I take almost every day just to support my system. It even helps with brightening up your skin tone because it promotes blood flow. And when your blood is flowing, you're going to be a little bit brighter and you're not going to look as like

Samia (50:29)
Okay.

Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (50:44)
It's dry and sallow because it is really cold and snowy here. So could use all the circulation I can get. ⁓ then, so activated charcoal. That is one of my go-tos for sure. We use it specifically for any time someone in our family has any kind of a tummy bug. So if there is like stomach flu going around in our community or someone gets food poisoning, the activated charcoal comes out immediately.

Samia (50:45)
Yes.

Definitely.

Michelle McAninch (51:10)
and it's one that you really can't take too much of. The bottles always say to take like two, but if I am like really fighting something or I know like, man, my husband is throwing up, like I don't want to get that. I will take four because I'm like, I don't want it. And it's a very, very benign.

Samia (51:10)
Okay.

Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (51:27)
It's not an herb, it's a mineral. But it's very benign, but at the same time it really works. And what it does is it's like a magnet to poison. And so when you take it, it attracts, all the poison is attracted to it and it grabs onto it and it binds it together. And then you're able to.

flush it out of your body naturally. So when you use activated charcoal, whether it's in capsule form or in powder form and you're drinking it, you wanna make sure you're taking a lot of water with it too because your body is going to grab onto whether it's parasites or some kind of virus or infection or bad food, whatever it may be, and it's going to grab onto it and then your body needs a way to flush it out. So make sure you're drinking a lot of water.

Samia (51:44)
Bye.

Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (52:06)
We've also used activated charcoal for things like bee stings or slivers. So since charcoal is a magnet for poison, you could put like ⁓ a charcoal paste on a bee sting or a mosquito bite and it will draw out the inflammation and the itch and the sting. One of my really dear friends, she came over a couple years ago and her son had, was wearing, he was riding his motorcycle and he had his helmet on and a bee flew up in his helmet and stung his ear a bunch of times.

And so they were already coming over for something and she was like, my gosh, look at him and his ear was just gigantic. And so I make, one of the things we sell here is the black drawing salve, which I make out of activated charcoal. And so I just slathered that all over his ear. And with about five minutes, the pain was completely gone and the inflammation went down because it just went sucked it all up and flushed it out. So it's really great for that. And then it also even helps with

Samia (52:42)
Right.

you

Michelle McAninch (53:01)
slivers or any kind of like foreign object that you've got stuck in your skin. So you could take a paste of it or a black drawing salve and put it on your skin and then put a band-aid over it. And usually by the time you get up the next morning when you take the band-aid off, whatever was in your skin will be on the band-aid because it like it's a magnet to it and it will kind of push it out. So yeah, there's so much easy peasy stuff you can do. We sell the black drawing salve here, but you can also they're pretty widely available at most places.

Samia (53:05)
Okay.

Yes.

Yeah

Wow, this stuff is so interesting and you make it so approachable and so easy to understand. How do you approach teaching natural remedies in a way that makes people feel safe and informed and empowered rather than intimidated?

Michelle McAninch (53:33)
⁓ good.

Great question. I encourage people to use their common sense and go, hmm, a kid is sick. This thing I've heard about like draws.

Viruses draws toxins. I guess I could give him some but just using your common sense and listening to your gut I mean we we are amazing our bodies are made so much so much more amazing than probably any of us will ever realize so really trusting your gut and then ⁓ just realizing that you are made to take care of yourself and you're made to take care of your kids and ⁓ And then also that you're smart enough. Like I didn't go to college. I don't have a degree I actually barely graduated high school because math was

Samia (53:56)
Yes. ⁓

Yeah.

Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (54:22)
really hard for me. Math is still really hard for me. And ⁓ I had a tough, tough time in high school.

Samia (54:24)
Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (54:28)
I figured out how to do stuff because I was absolutely desperate to help my family. And I'm not a scientist. am not a naturalist. I am not, I mean, I'm an herbalist. There's actually no certification for herbalism in the US. If you make a tea out of the plants in your yard, congratulations, you are an herbalist too. There's really, mean, it's kind of silly to even.

Samia (54:33)
Yeah.

Okay.

Michelle McAninch (54:52)
have like there are some people that will say that they're certified herbalist and that just means that they're really good at taking tests and that they pass the test and they get a good job but you do not need any kind of a class to be any better herbalist than the really fancy person that is teaching classes or or me or anyone else like and if you learn about the plants in your yard you're in the club welcome we're glad to have you ⁓ so just

Samia (55:09)
Yeah.

Okay.

Michelle McAninch (55:15)
Man, using your common sense and realizing that you are capable of doing this. And then I always tell people, if you can read, if you can see colors, you can taste and you can smell, that's all you need. You're good. You can take care of your family. That's all you need. Just grab some books, walk around, start paying attention. You got it.

Samia (55:19)
again.

Okay.

Perfect.

wonderful. And you know, when we talked about cayenne pepper, you mentioned how it's good for the heart and you said, well, I wouldn't recommend it, to replace a bypass, for example, how can people know when a natural remedy is enough and when it's time to seek medical attention or professional care?

Michelle McAninch (55:49)
I would say with that one, that is such a personal thing. And it really is, man, if you have been taking care of something or you've been working with a problem and it has been a couple weeks and you're going, I just, something's really wrong. Like that's gonna be something where you're gonna know yourself because you're the only one that really knows what's going on. So like I had...

Samia (56:00)
Thank you.

Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (56:09)
something happening recently and I just I knew something was off in my body and I just so I went to my holistic practitioner and I said hey can you just like put together a blood draw for me because I don't feel like I'm well and he did and I figured out that my liver was really in not good shape and it actually was from we had toxic water in our house and we didn't know about it. We had a bad pipe and that doing that test and realizing that my liver was like super taxed because of the bad water that my family and

Samia (56:28)
you

Yes.

Michelle McAninch (56:38)
I had been drinking, we were able

to fix it and remedy it and get a filter and everything.

I realized like, okay, this isn't normal. Like I shouldn't always feel like I am exhausted. I should feel different and I'm doing all the right things, but I still feel this way. So I would say it's very personal, but if you are going, something's really not right and I am doing all the right things and it's still not right, then that might be when you go seek someone else. But as far as I'm concerned, the only time that I personally would go see a doctor is if there was like a broken bone

Samia (56:49)
Yeah.

See ya.

Michelle McAninch (57:11)
or someone was like actively having a heart attack ⁓ or if there was something major, cancer? No. There's so many amazing things that God has given us to deal with that. Like autoimmune diseases? No. There's so many amazing things that you can do for that lifestyle being the number one. So there are very, very few reasons why I would go see a physician and that's a real, real short list.

Samia (57:11)
Yeah.

Yeah.

So again, leaning into that intuition, right? Like, if you you feel like there's something that needs to be looked at a little further than you go, otherwise, you probably can take care of it yourself.

Michelle McAninch (57:37)
Mm-hmm, very much so.

Definitely. Yeah, and I mean your lifestyle like you were saying your lifestyle and what you're eating is really the most important thing Like if you are really not feeling well, but you're still eating Doritos every day Maybe cut out the Doritos or maybe like if you have a whole bag Maybe go to like a quarter of a bag and see if you start feeling better So making lifestyle changes first would be like the very best way and then if you still are like man Like I'm clean and something that's still not right then maybe it's time to go in but

Samia (58:02)
Cool.

Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (58:14)
As

I said, it's a real short list for me.

Samia (58:16)
Yeah,

I often ask my guests to share some pearls of wisdom with us. What's one piece of herbal wisdom that you wish everybody knew?

Michelle McAninch (58:27)
Mmm

That your body is made to heal all it needs is the right conditions So it's not necessarily herbal advice, but just life that you Our bodies are so much more incredible than we will ever realize and we are 100 % made to heal we just have to give ourselves what we need and and really when you Put your body in the right conditions with your mind and with your food

with getting outside and the people you surround yourself with, you're probably going to find that things are going to work out. And then the other thing too would be if you go to a doctor and they give you a diagnosis, don't take it. That to me diagnoses can be like curses sometimes like you are this, you have diabetes, that's now on you.

Samia (59:11)
Yeah.

Michelle McAninch (59:12)
I think I'd like to get a second opinion. ⁓ I had someone recently reach out to me about cancer and they said, you know, my friend was diagnosed with cancer. How can you help them? And I said, well, number one, tell them to get a second opinion because just because someone said that doesn't mean it's true. There's like medical mistakes. What are they? The number three leading cause of death in the US. Like don't just buy that and don't take that on as your own.

Samia (59:23)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Samia (59:32)
That is great advice. Michelle, thank you. Thank you so much for sharing your story, your wisdom, and your grounded approach to herbalism. I really appreciate how you remind us that wellness doesn't have to be complicated and that sometimes the tools that we need are already all around us just waiting to be noticed. To everyone who's listening, if you want to see what Michelle is up to, please go to tamaracgarden.com.

and I'll also be sure to include Michelle's information in the show notes so that you can learn more and connect with her work. Until next time, stay well, trust yourself, and keep being your best.

Samia (1:00:19)
Thank you so much for tuning in to Thursday Tea with Sami, your sip of wellness and mental health. I hope that today's episode gave you a little inspiration in your journey. Remember, your journey to wellness starts here. I would love to hear from you. Drop me a comment letting me know how you liked this episode or what topics you want to hear more about. Until next time, stay well and keep being your best.