72. A Food as Medicine Approach to Herbalism: Nena Aleschewski on Self Care with Herbs

Nena Aleschewski BNat IBCLC is a naturopath, nutritionist, herbalist and International Board Certified Lactation consultant. She has been in clinical practice at Goulds Natural Medicine in nipaluna, Hobart, Tasmania for over 14 years and has a passion for optimising the health and wellbeing of women, babies and children. She particularly loves to weave the magic of herbal remedies and food-as-medicine into all the lives she comes across, and strives to bring simplicity and connection into everyday healthy living. Nena grew up with natural medicine- as a child her mum would use homeopathic remedies to support the family’s health. She has a strong early memory of family friends growing Echinacea in their garden. Her family grew food and Nena remembers ‘food herbs’ like garlic being used regularly.  After experiencing ill health in a foreign country and feeling particularly helpless, Nena had a strong desire to be able to help herself and support her own health, which inspired her to study a Bachelor of Naturopathy at Southern Cross University. She credits some wonderful herbal elders she encountered during her studies, for encouraging her passion for herbal medicine. Following university, Nena was lucky enough to gain an internship at Gould’s, which included growing and manufacturing herbal medicines and cemented her passion for using plant medicines.  Nena shares one of the biggest barriers to regularly prioritizing herself is the need to hold everything- and the guilt of letting something go in order to be able to carve out time for herself. Which ball will she let fall? It’s a feeling many of us would be familiar with… We chat about the vicious cycle of hearing the screams from our bodies and minds for the need for self care, but the lack of motivation that sometimes accompanies this time. Nena speaks about her garden and how spending even a couple of moments here connecting with the plants, can help to lift vitality.  And finally, Nena offers some really clever and practical tips for helping us to weave herbs into our days using a food as medicine approach… **CONNECT** You can connect with Nena here: Gould’s Apothecary: https://www.gouldsnaturalmedicine.com.au/nena-aleschewski Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/naturopath_nena/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/naturopath.nena **THE ELDER TREE TROVE PATREON COMMUNITY** You can join our Patreon ⁠here⁠ and gain a deeper connection to our podcast. Pay only $2 per week to have access to bonus and often exclusive resources and opportunities- plus support the Elder tree at the same time!  To find out more about The Elder Tree visit the website at www.theeldertree.org and donate to the crowdfunding campaign here. You can also follow The Elder Tree on Facebook and Instagram and sign up to the newsletter. Find out more about this podcast and the presenters here. Get in touch with The Elder Tree at:  [email protected] The intro and outro song is "Sing for the Earth" and was kindly donated by Chad Wilkins.  You can find Chad's music here and here.