Arnica - free audio monograph

There was a bit of discussion among peers about Arnica which I thought was worthwhile. So I picked this as my freebie of the week: https://mysoundwise.com/soundcasts/1687795537404s among the audio lessons I've published on Soundwise . This was recorded many years ago, so it's not a reflection of the current online discussion, but I do think it is pretty in-depth. It's based on experience going back twenty years to (near) present, including use while first aiding, in a teaching setting, and as a backcountry guide, own use, use with athletes, use for the injured, the arthritic, and the aging, use post-surgery, and use among the busy and physically busted farmers whom I shared personal interactions with weekly for ten years as a community herbalist. I'm sure the language is colored by the foundations of my early teachers, and their teachers, and other honest-to-goodness herbalist teachers I met later on, who also know inflammation and physiology really well! I learned Arnica by fraternizing with a fleet of massage students whom I housed for a summer in our coop house. At the same time, I was a student at the first herb school I attended, and I learned it by an acute injury and not believing it would work for me though I'd recommended it to many that same week! I also learned it by sharing it with many young and old, suffering new and old injuries, and from 7Song and Tammi Sweet who would each be great to learn arnica from too.

The first herbalist I ever learned from is 7Song, a very practical and no-nonsense teacher. He and his students do quite a lot of first-aiding, and medicine-making. On service-oriented first aiding field trips required of students we would see a lot of 'bruisions and contusions' as I would come to call them. I also first saw Arnica montana in the wild while assisting him with first aiding and guiding students on a first aiding and botany-oriented field trip in the mountains of Colorado.

Now I grow a little bit of Arnica chamissonis when I can - to lift harvesting pressure from wild Arnicas, and this is described in the free soundcast on Arnica.

While I attended an herb school for the first time, I was also a student of Cornell, and I was also charged with filling the summer sublets in a huge co-op house. By fate I filled all those rooms with students of the Finger Lakes School of Massage!

All summer the subletters and I compared notes on the topical uses of plants and they urged me 'You have to learn with Tammi when you can!' Tammi was the designated Anatomy & Physiology teacher at the massage school and a spunky no-nonsense honest-to-goodness herbalist teacher, I was told. Though I haven't formally studied with Tammi, I did have the pleasure to help record a talk by her about inflammation, and I was personally pleased that it followed suit with how I learned Arnica too! Tammi Sweet has been an Anatomy & Physiology teacher and herbalist for many decades in many capacities and has an advanced degree in neurobiology and endocrinology. She's also an accomplished athlete who also has worked for decades with clients and learners who most want to know about injury, inflammation, and pain. This is all to say, how I've come to understand arnica is triangulated so to speak by own use, with clients and peers, and confirmed by honest-to-goodness teachers on the subject.

There are many who can teach you Arnica, and use alone can teach you! It is my belief that for Arnica, you need not overthink it! ;-] But if you would like a guide, I have you covered: https://mysoundwise.com/soundcasts/1687795537404s