Herbal Medicine for Stress Relief: Natural Plant Remedies for Burnout & Overwhelm

Feeling burnt out, inflamed, or stuck in survival mode? In this transformative episode, herbalist Jane Barlow Christensen reveals how everyday plants can become your most powerful allies for stress relief and nervous system healing.

Growing up as one of 14 children with a medicinal botanist father, Jane learned plant medicine from childhood—but like many of us, she strayed from natural healing in her twenties. After experiencing health issues from processed foods and chronic stress, she returned to her roots and has now spent 23 years helping others discover nature's pharmacy.

What You'll Learn:

• The top 3 adaptogenic herbs for stress, burnout, and inflammation (holy basil, ashwagandha, rhodiola)
• How to start your herbal healing journey with simple herbal teas and fresh spices
• Why your gut is your second brain and how plant medicine supports digestion and immunity
• Natural remedies for grief and emotional healing, including the powerful osha root
• How to become your own "mad scientist" and trust your body's intuitive wisdom
• Why taking radical responsibility for your health means looking beyond pharmaceuticals

Perfect for:

• Anyone dealing with chronic stress, anxiety, or burnout
• People seeking natural alternatives to pharmaceutical solutions
• Beginners wanting to start with herbal medicine and plant-based healing
• Those interested in nervous system regulation and holistic wellness

Jane's practical, no-nonsense approach makes plant medicine accessible for everyone—no matter where you are on your healing journey. Discover how simple herbs can help you reclaim your inner healer and transform your relationship with stress.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introducing Plant Medicine
• 10:35 Jane's Herbal Heritage
• 17:10 Learning From Plants Through Experience
• 28:07 Simple Ways To Start Using Herbs
• 35:22 Personal Healing and Self-Regulation
• 42:26 Media Detox and Raising Consciousness

Transcript

NatNat Be: 0:00

Your triggers aren't the problem. Ignoring them is. Welcome to the Lift One Self podcast. I'm your host, Nat Nat, and we don't fake wellness here. No fluff, no fixing, just honest conversations about your nervous system and what it is to be human, Ready to stop running from yourself. Welcome to a safe space. Let's go.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 0:23

And today we're going to get into medicine, and maybe not the medicine you're used to. We're going to get into plant medicine and nature and what it can do for you. Where many of us are bombarded with the pharmaceutical and numbing pain, I want to bring a holistic and show people a different way that we can be connected into nature in a much more profound way. So I have a guest. Her name is Jane Barlow Christensen I hope I said it properly and I'm going to ask her to introduce herself to me and the listeners and let us know a little bit about herself before we dive in deep.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 1:02

Okay, well, thank you, natanat, it's really nice to be here. So I live in Salt Lake City, utah. I grew up the second oldest of 14 kids. My dad was a medicinal botanist, so he loved everything plants, plant medicine. He always took us out hiking and we were identifying plants everywhere they were and everywhere we would go, and this was just a normal part of the childhood that me and my siblings experienced. And then I grew up. I had two kids of my own.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 1:34

My first career was in fitness. I did personal training. I used to own my own gym and I did that for about 20 years. And then my dad passed away for about 20 years. And then my dad passed away and his business that he had had started a really beautiful group of really uniquely formulated herbal tinctures and he had a real love of Native American plants. So when he passed away, his business died with him.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 2:00

Because he was the scientist, he was the PhD, and all of us, while we, I think we tended to discount how important experience is, Um, it's just as important. You know, none of us felt worthy to really step into my dad's shoes. So I restarted his company. Uh, four years after he passed and he's been gone for 27 years, so I've been going for 23. Um, it's, I can't believe I get to carry on my dad's work and then I have a whole line of herbal remedies that I've formulated myself. But I've discovered that I have a really beautiful connection to plants and it's almost like they talk to me, um, and, and I do get intuitive hits on what I need to focus on and research and study next. So, yeah, that's what I get to do.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 2:51

it's brilliant yeah, I was just. Uh, before we started recording, I told you I was in my garden yesterday for like 10 hours no music, no podcasts, just being with the dirt, listening, listening to the plants, figuring out what needs to be here, what needs to be there, and, just, you know, finding that communication. And I totally hear you when it's like listen to what the plants are trying to tell you, like we're feeling bodies that think we go by frequency, so everything is sending off a frequency, and we're really told, like you know, to stay away from our intuition, to not listen to our gut instincts, and some of the things that we do see, we think that it'll be conceived as woo-woo or that we don't know what we're talking about. Yet when we go deeper into that, there's such a trust and a profound depthness to what can be possible and learn so much more profoundly than what academic leans on to. Not saying that academic is not needed. It's simply that if academic could also allow intuition to come in, what a beautiful combination that would be of that uniqueness and intelligence.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 4:04

Before we start to dive in deep because I have some questions of my own would you join me in a mindful moment so that we can ground ourselves. I would love to. That sounds amazing For the listeners. As you always hear, safety first. If you're driving or need your visual, please don't close your eyes. Yet the other prompts you can follow and listen to, to just take that mindful moment to slow things down in your day. So, jane, I'll ask you to get comfortable in your seating and, if it's safe to do so, you're going to gently close your eyes and you're going to begin breathing in and out through your nose. You're going to bring your awareness to watching your breath. You're not going to try and control your breath, you're just going to be aware of its rhythm, allowing it to guide you into your body there may be some sensations or feelings coming up, that's okay.

NatNat Be: 5:10

Let them surface. You're safe to feel.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 5:16

You're safe to let go. Surrender the need to control.

NatNat Be: 5:24

Release the need to resist and just be.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 5:25

Be with your breath, drop deeper into your body. Now there may be some thoughts or to-do lists that have popped up. That's okay. Gently bring your awareness back to your breath, creating space between the awareness and the thoughts and dropping deeper into the body, being in the space of presence with your breath. Again, more thoughts may have popped up. Gently bring your awareness back to your breath, beginning again, surrendering completely into the body, creating even more space between the awareness and the thoughts and allowing yourself to just be.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 6:24

Be in the breath, be in the presence. Now, while still staying with your breath, at your own time and at your own pace. You're going to gently open your eyes while staying with your breath. How's your heart doing, right? So you mentioned you know your father had, uh, this connection with plants in your childhood. Did he bring you into that curiosity and give you the experiences of understanding what certain plants did and what their medicinal purposes were?

Jane Barlow Christensen: 7:08

Yeah, that was just a constant part of our childhood and it wasn't just me, it was all of my siblings. So it wasn't like he sat us down and lectured us about it. Never, that was never part of it. It was all like, you know, we'd be driving somewhere and he'd want he'd see a plant next to the road that he wanted to identify and teach us about. And this is the part of the plant you use.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 7:29

This is a common name, this is the Latin name, and we're going to, we're going to harvest, you know, harvest the flowers after the dew dissipates off, and we're going to take it home and we're going to make it into a tincture or like. This was just a constant. We had pots and herbs everywhere and, um, you know, my mom was all aboard all in when she wasn't having babies. She was, you know, we this is what we all did. So, yeah, it was just a normal part of our growing up. We learned pretty quickly as teenagers that we were. We were very different from everybody as far as kind of hippie-ish, very different from everybody as far as kind of hippie-ish in a not a bad way. But, you know, as adults now we're all like thank God, we were raised that way Cause it was a real gift.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 8:13

Yeah, is there anything in your childhood that you wished you would have paid attention a little bit more to, or you were very present with it?

Jane Barlow Christensen: 8:23

Yeah, that's a great question. You know, we were. We dipped in and out of homeschool and of course, every person my age says this, but times were different back then.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 8:34

Yeah, they were internet.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 8:35

You know, I grew I was born in 61. So 60s and 70s were my childhood and we were present, simply because that's how the majority of humans were then. I don't know how it would be different, right, I think? Well, I think it would be different if my dad was raising us now. But yeah, we were very present, it was beautiful.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 8:55

Yeah, because I you know, like it doesn't matter where we are with technology or no technology, there's still this counter, you know, intuitive thing that goes on with parent and child, and sometimes we find our parents boring, or here we go again with something else and you don't really understand the depthness of what they're teaching you. So it's like, it's nice when it, like you said, it didn't feel like a lecture, it didn't feel like you were being dragged into something, it was just part of life that was embedded in your everyday.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 9:27

Yeah, and I think it was really unique in the fact that there was. There was not enough time for our parents to for us to feel like our parents were trying to tell us what to do because they were so busy having and raising so many kids that it was. You know, when I turned 18 and left the home, my parents never told me what to do. They never told me. They never bailed me out of financial mistakes. They never. Now, they loved me and they stayed in communication with me and all my other siblings as we started to leave the house.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 9:57

But there was never. We got to make a lot of mistakes the hard way. You know we didn't do anything to put our life in danger, but that was like a real gift that I think a lot of parents could really stand to to maybe do a little more of. Let your kids leave or leave the nest, and don't try to tell them every little thing to do, even though you know what's best for them. You know my kids are in their forties now and I have grandkids and it's like so badly, even with my kids in their 40s, I want to tell them what to do because, I know.

NatNat Be: 10:31

I know better.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 10:33

Yeah, it's a difficult thing as a parent, as I you know. What we're not told is the most difficult thing is witnessing the pain of your children and not being able to do anything and recognizing that life will teach things and, unfortunately, as humans we really learn with pain. We don't learn with joy and ease. So as soon as something really hits us, we course correct really quickly and we're like we don't want that, whereas for some reason, our condition, if we appreciate something, we can find it difficult to really grow on that abundance and ride in that intuition and flow.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 11:10

Uh, I think you know 14 children I that my brain hurts because I have twins and I have a 30 year old, so the twins are 15 and then, um, the 30 year old, so three boys. I'm like 14. I don't even know when you would be able to even take a breath for yourself, because that's a lot of different personalities, a lot of different stages of development. So, with the plants, how was that incorporated in your everyday living? Um, for, like you know, there's so many ailments and illnesses that go on with children. So was that just embedded to know what to use and when to use it?

Jane Barlow Christensen: 11:52

Well, I think it's multi-layered. You know, we didn't grow up eating fast food or processed food. I mean, we had always had a big garden. My mom did a ton of canning, we made all our homemade bread. Big garden, my mom did a ton of canning, we made all our homemade bread.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 12:07

Um, and when, I guess when you're feeding that many kids, and in that time too, I think the food supply was a little bit different. And and then here's kind of a massive thing that I is very controversial, but none of us were vaccinated and none of us have health problems. So, uh, I never really thought it was a big deal until 2020. Then it became a big deal. But I do believe that it's multi-layered in the food that we ate and the food that we didn't eat.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 12:33

So we didn't go to the doctor a lot unless there was like a broken bone. One of my sisters had her appendix burst when she was a teenager and only like emergency care did we ever go to the doctor. But we were just, um, we did have access to medicinal herbs, but it was so my mom cooked with a lot of stuff like basil and rosemary and cayenne, and there's a lot of power. That's herbal medicine that people might not realize because they're simply cooking with it and that was just our lifestyle. It wasn't simply cooking with it and that was just our lifestyle it wasn't oh you're sick.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 13:07

You need to do this, even though that did happen sometimes with, like a bad cold or when we'd get PMS as teenage girls or whatever, there was always herbs there, yeah.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 13:15

Yeah, so for you, because it was, you know, part of your living experience. When did you finally recognize that plants and nature were more profoundly like your ally, and it was medicine, Like it's one thing for your dad to teach you something, but for you to really intuitively look at it in a different way and have a different relationship with?

Jane Barlow Christensen: 13:40

it? Yeah, that is such a perfect question because almost every one of me and all my siblings fell off the wagon when we left the house and got. I got married when I was 18. I had my boys when I was 20 and 21. So I was very young and I I thought the whole world was opened up to me. I started eating, drinking diet Coke and eating fast food, and you know I.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 14:03

So through my twenties I started having some minor health issues like constipation, digestion. You know I, sometimes I didn't sleep that great and I and I'm lucky, and all my siblings are the same we all fell off the wagon and, like you said a little bit ago, you have to sometimes learn these painful lessons before you go. Oh course, correct, I need to go over here. So, you know, by the time I was 30, I had dialed it all back in and you know I'm 64 now and it's like I've had perfect health for a long, long time. But I did go through a painful learning curve of what I thought I had been being deprived of. You know, ding dongs and Twinkies were my favorite for almost a decade and I, you know it's a little crazy to even think that I would never touch those now.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 14:56

So, yeah, you know it's recognizing too. Sometimes, I think, when we're kept away from something, your curiosity is going to wonder you know, what does that taste like? And these foods are created to keep you addicted also. So it opens up all kinds of different sensors and chemical dumps and everything else. And I thank you for being vulnerable, not having that perfectionism and like, oh, it's always been my way having that perfectionism and like, oh, it's always been my way. It's like, no, I'm human too and I had to, you know, traverse in different ways to really understand, to understand the profound foundation that my parents created for me and that you could lean back into that. Some people don't even have that foundation, so they're trying to create that as an adult.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 15:43

It's true, and here's the cool thing, I think people need to realize that they can create it, no matter where they are, what stage or age they are, and then you get to build that foundation for your posterity, your children or your grandchildren, because the foundation might be hard to build Like. My dad was the only one in his family he's the second oldest of seven, and he's the only one in his family. He's the second oldest of seven and he's the only one who did that, and so the rest of his family worked in the family electrical and plumbing business, except for my dad. So he had to build this foundation for us, and now we've all built it for our kids and our grandkids. You have to start somewhere and realize that that knowledge and wisdom and foundation that you pass on is going to go on to your posterity, which changes the game for everyone.

NatNat Be: 16:32

Yeah.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 16:34

In a world that's so quick to numb or suppress or outsource healing, how can someone begin to claim their inner healer? Like that inner healer and also like, especially if they're overwhelmed and burnt out, like, how can they return back into their body and start to introduce grown food, like earth foods, even like the spices, Because I know a lot of people it's like an all or nothing. And let me just switch it really big where I've learned small little steps start to change so that you're not overwhelming your whole system and beating yourself up. So how would you meet that person that is just now coming to realize and wants to start making those shifts?

Jane Barlow Christensen: 17:22

Yeah, I love this question there's. My two favorite ways are first, and start introducing herbal teas into your daily routine, because teas are delicious, they're nutritious and they're super easy. It's really easy to get a packet of peppermint, organic peppermint tea, and if you sip on peppermint tea with your evening meal or after your evening meal, you're improving digestion. Peppermint is very calming, it has a ton of really beneficial properties and it's delicious and you might not really realize the power that you're getting. And then something like dandelion root tea is really nourishing for your liver and you know, and it's if you're not used to drinking tea or maybe you love tea. This is just a really good way to step up and start, because I agree with you, I think some people want to go all in and change everything at once, and that's some people can do that. Very few people can do that and I think a lot of people I see do do that maybe have just been diagnosed with something really hardcore and they're like they've had a wake up call. But for most of us it's like not only are baby steps important, but they there's a really beautiful concept called the compound effect, that basically one little thing that you do and you do start doing that daily, it compounds in. In fact there's a really good book called the compound effect by Darren Hardy which is absolutely powerful and um, not just the herbs.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 18:51

Then my second way is with spices that you add into your, into your, your food. And it's here's the thing with spices the fresher the better. So if you have a bunch of spices sitting in your cupboard and they've been sitting there for a year, five years, 10 years, they might still flavor your food a little bit but they're not going to give you any medicinal benefits because they've all oxidized and you need to get your spices in small amounts, as fresh as possible, and keep them rotated. So buy small and keep, like a basil plant in your kitchen. You know everybody can go get a basil plant from the grocery store and keep it in your kitchen and use it.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 19:30

So if someone's listening right now and they feel burnt out, inflamed, a lot of people think weight gain is like weight, where it's like it's inflammation a lot of times because your system is overworking or they're stuck in survival. What are three herbs you would want to hand them with love, and why?

Jane Barlow Christensen: 19:51

Well, number one I love for stress and almost survival is holy basil, and holy basil is an adaptogenic herb. It's in the it's in the mint family. It tastes delicious, it's easy, easy to get and my favorite way is in a tea, because holy basil tea there's nothing more nourishing. And what an adaptogenic herb will do is it'll. It helps to balance body chemistry. It lets your body know that you're not running for your life, you're not in fight or flight. You are in fight or flight but you're not in physical danger.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 20:24

But we get so used to those hormones being out of whack in our modern world we think that kind of stress is normal that we don't realize that we're constantly in a state of chronic stress. So holy basil is probably my top. I love things like ashwagandha is really good, and for women I think it's really important to use things like rhodiola or even maca, and all of those I just mentioned are adaptogens. Those will immediately balance your body chemistry. It helps your hormones, it helps your nervous system, it helps your digestion, which, if you are in chronic stress, you can have. Your immune system takes a hike. Yeah, inflammation ensues. And, um, if you can simply sip on an herbal tea during the day.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 21:28

There's no stimulants in it, it's not going to make you know, it doesn't do it. Diagnosis of what caused the lesions. Yet, you know, going internally and really listening to what my system needed, what nature could provide in that, and what are things outside of the pharmaceutical. Because when I would ask you know what about nutrition, they were like, well, there's nothing, we can't patent that. What about you know other things that, well, we can't patent that? What about you know other things that, well, we can't patent that neither, but we can offer you a prescription.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 22:00

I'm like, yeah, I don't want that, like, is there something else that I can work with my body? Uh, and not everybody's there, because a lot of people have been conditioned to listen to the medical system. And why would they, you know, stir me in a different way where, if they do a little bit of research, you know most doctors only get like maybe 10 hours or maybe five hours on nutrition. There's like no information or education about nutrition, but it's all taught about chemicals and what kind of pills go with this, and it's like wait, wait, wait. Now you know it's starting to break open that there's more and more doctors that are going in a holistic aspect and understanding what nature can do for you and everything else. I want to ask a personal question.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 22:46

I have something to add in here, because I think what you're saying is really, really important. I believe that we are in a time of taking radical responsibility. It's not your doctor's job to keep you healthy, and it's very obvious Some of the things you were just now saying. It's very obvious that they don't really have the background of the training and they've not been given the incentive to help you be well, and I think that we're so disconnected from mother nature that we forget that that's our first, that's our first apothecary, that's our first healer. So, yeah, I just wanted to say that, because that was so, so profound what you just said.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 23:23

Yeah, and I'm I'm very thankful Like people don't realize those doctors that have switched things and come out of the medical system and going holistic, yeah, that's a big visceral threat because they're letting go of something that has been safety and security and they're coming out of a system that is very oppressive and is very conditioning that it's only this way and it has a lot of profit where it does but it has to change somewhere.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 23:54

It's like something has to change. You've got to get these doctors who are brave enough and the people like us who are brave enough to say no, thank you, I'm not going to do that, and that's how the system changes. If it's like the profits are here, the comfort zone is here. Those brave people who start to become outliers and are brave enough to step outside of the system, whether it's the practitioner or the person individually this is how the change starts. So I admire I know so many doctors now who have started to opt out of what they were trained and the system that they've been working in, and I applaud them for their bravery Truly.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 24:34

Yeah, I do too, because people won't realize. You know the condition and what they're stepping into and trusting within and you know letting go of what they once considered home and recreating a new type of home and a space that doesn't feel the same support or you know the same safe space. Yet more and more of us are coming out and uniting so that safe space is coming out there, that you're not just one in 1000. Now it's becoming like five in 100 that are starting to speak up and speak on this and seeing that, oh, wait a minute, we do have it right, even though we'll be barked at and be told like no, no, no, you don't know what you're talking about. And I just want to take a moment for any listener that has chronic pain, that has any illnesses, that has anything that is life threatening. Nowhere am I diminishing your experience. If the medical system is working for you, then you stay with that path. Because I know one thing for certain whatever you really believe in, that will support you. So if you like, you know, if you believe in a certain thing, then that is serving you, then you go there. I also would like to introduce that there's other things that are possible that are not highlighted. So there's a lot of things in nature that you can do.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 25:59

Like I just said, I was barefoot with my hands in the dirt, no gloves.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 26:05

Sometimes I had garden gloves because I didn't want to get pricked by the roses, yet the majority I had my hands in the dirt so I was getting the bacteria in the microbiome.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 26:14

So many of us are thinking bacteria is so bad and it's like. No, there's very healthy bacteria and when you sterilize too much, you're diminishing the good biodome that you need in your gut to support your immune system, which your gut, is your second brain. So when you like, you know when we've said like, let kids play in dirt and be bare feet and be out in nature, there's a reason for that so that they can be a part of the earth and they can build up their system and their resilience and everything else. I want to ask for yourself you said that you've been doing this business for 23 years, so that means a lot of energy, a lot of caretaking, a lot of supporting other people when and life happens. So when life has happened for you and you have come to the edge possibly a burnout or overwhelm what are the herbs that you go to to help replenish your system and revitalize your energy.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 27:20

Well, you know I've got this really dialed in supplement routine that that changes as it changes as I've gone through this different stages in my life, when I went through menopause, that it changed and and all of that. And you know I've reached a point where, where I muscle test everything I take before I take it, I have a group of tinctures, a group of capsule stuff and got my teas and you know, muscle testing is just applied kinesiology where I I intuitively like I love what you said in the beginning of this it's like our intuition just doesn't get nurtured enough and it's it should be our guiding light and I can intuitively tell which ones I need. So I really am to a point where I don't I've got. I've got so many habits yoga, meditation in the I. I'm a hiker, I have this walk I do every day.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 28:11

My kids are way grown up and of course I got grandkids, like I said earlier. So I have enough. I have time and space to take for myself and I I I've been very strategic about dialing these habits in. So I you know holy basil I go back to that because it's one of my favorites. A pot of Arco is one of my favorite herbal teas, those two never get skipped. In a day, I take, I I always have a cup of Pada Acra or a cup of holy basil.

NatNat Be: 28:41

So okay, yeah.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 28:43

Yeah, I mean, I'm kind of a bit of an outlier as far as but then I've been doing all these things for a long time. So it's like and I've made some stupid mistakes, I've had some horrible like yeah, you don't get to the age I am and not have done some dumb stuff.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 29:00

Yeah, I think it's lived experience. I think you know we have been conditioned because of the school system that learning means you know everything. Where it's actually learning means you don't know when you make mistakes and it's only until sometimes you may know something, yet you don't know how to trust your intuition that's telling you don't do this. But you're like, oh, we're gonna bypass that, we're just gonna do what we're gonna do. And then after it's like why didn't I listen to what was going on internally? Or, yeah, some of the people around me that were supporting me and saw certain things. Yet we have to go through those lived experiences to better trust ourselves, to better understand things.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 29:39

And I love what you're saying. It's you've been your own mad scientist. You understand what your body needs. Yeah, in a world that just wants one size fits all and what will work for me and just make it work, it's like no, you have to be your own, like I've been my own mad scientist these past 10 years also of this works. That doesn't work. Now this isn't working anymore because menopause kicked in and that my chemistry is different, so really adapting with things. But there's certain foundational things of meditation, gardening, nature walks being still, gardening, nature walks, being still being able to move and dance those are foundational things that everybody needs.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 30:22

And when I think you have to be willing to be an outlier, you have to be willing to be the odd person over here doing a crazy dance and not care what anyone thinks about you. Yeah, and, and I love, that's my favorite, this is my favorite thing that my parents taught us is don't do what the crowds are doing. If the crowds are lined up over here to go get tickets for the latest concert or go get the newest iPhone or like, and that's just a small example. But if you're doing something that no one else is doing, celebrate that, because I'll tell you you'll get to the later part of your life and the end of your life and you'll be so grateful that you just didn't follow the crowds. I don't want to do what the crowds are doing. If they're going there, I want to go. I don't want to go there, I want to go over here.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 31:06

Yeah, um, I've been told that I'm a little woo woo and I'm a little out there, yeah, and then after, people are like I didn't understand it. But now I'm starting to understand a little bit more that, yeah, and some of the choices I made medically, um, that scared a lot of people. Yet I listened intuitively, internally, what was there and it's like, how did you come through that like? And it's like, well, that's not for everybody. I listened intuitively what was going on internally and I was ready to step into certain aspects. Presently I'm going through grief.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 31:45

I was with my friend for two years of her cancer journey. She did hospice for eight days. I was there 24-7. She passed away in my arms. There were certain things that you know. I was able to assist her, like they only gave her three months and she lived for 18 more months, and I know it's because I was there, helping to regulate her nervous system and introduce different parts into her lifestyle that she didn't know and really integrate that fear, not let it overrule you. And so, in that it was difficult where I saw like we were just saying as a parent, like don't do this, that's not helping you. Yet having to just witness certain things and not be overbearing or interfering in certain things. So, for myself right now you know this was in November, we're in May.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 32:41

Grief, it's always with you. What are things? And I'm writing a book right now, which I said I was doing for many years, but now I'm like right in it. So I'm up to. I have 14 chapters written, but I'm at the 10th chapter edited. What is something that you would suggest for me to meet myself? I know how to restore and co-regulate myself with my nervous system, because that's what I hold for other people. That's why people love being around in my energy. However, I've slowed down everything because I understand that I'm needing to be nurtured in this new dimension that I'm stepping into and also, you know, honoring the body of grief. You know your whole reality changes and stepping into that power. So what is something as a herb that you would introduce to me and say that what it would help?

Jane Barlow Christensen: 33:42

Yeah, and this is something that all of us if you're a human being, this is what this is an emotion we will always run across at one point or another. You know the emotion of grief, and especially when we lose someone we love. You know, my mom passed 10 years ago and two years ago I lost two nephews, one to suicide and one to a motorcycle accident within six weeks. So we have these moments of deep grief and deep sadness. That that an interesting thing that a lot of people don't know is that the emotion of grief, it settles in your lungs so sometimes you might not be able to get a big, deep breath because you've just got the emotion of grief and sadness. That will, but a lot of people don't realize that. If you were to look at the energetic scale and the scale of consciousness that was developed by Dr David Hawkins and where sadness resonates, and then you look at someone something like the body keeps the score or the emotion code lungs hold grief, and so my, my favorite herb for helping to support the lungs is osha root, and osha is just a beautiful root that is only wild crafted.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 34:54

You can get it. I have it in tincture form, because I like when a tincture goes in, it can absorb to the bloodstream quickly. But then here's the thing you can do your own kind of little ceremony, just a very easy take some OSHA tincture, get a little bit of water and when you take it, really, really sit with all that grief that you're feeling. Because I think if we just try to bury it as you know and I'm sure this is all right in your wheelhouse of stuff you help people with, but you can't just bury an emotion because it's hard to look at. You have to sit with it and just cry your eyes out with it, feel all those emotions, give it all the love you can and then kind of let it go. And it might take you a while, you know you might need to sit with it for a while, but I think a beautiful sister in in the herbal kingdom is osha osha root.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 35:49

Okay, I'll look into that.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 35:51

I haven't heard about that root, so I'll look into it and yeah, I, I intentionally shut off the podcast and, like I said, I uh, her funeral was December 27th and I took off to Barbados on December 30th because I wanted to face the grief and feel it. Many of us think our feelings, we don't actually feel them, we don't feel the raw emotion of it and allow, because what happens also with grief is that it will uncover some things that were in your childhood, some emotions that you weren't able to process at that time. That allows it to process now. So a lot of people think it's only this person where it's like oh no, if you allow it, grief will open up that tsunami of all the things that are in your body to let it pass through, and so I'm very thankful for the tools and this presence that I understand, because in these five months like I'm even surprised of where I am and how my mental state is and how I'm navigating through this, yet it just lets me know the profound knowing that I have within of understanding that nervous system, understanding emotions that we tend to, like I said, think our feelings, not actually feel them, and come back into our body.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 37:09

Many of us are neck up, we don't even know how to be in our body, and so nature allows us, like you know, as you said, you know, take it slow, take a tea and all of a sudden, if you're hearing some gurgle gurgles, it doesn't mean that there's something wrong. It could be a detox that it's allowing to finally purge out a lot of things that have been stored in your bowels and in your stomach. So a lot of people want the easy way, where it's like well, no, if you've been a lot of things in your body, there's going to be some discomfort. Yet you could ride that wave and not, you know, panic all the time that you know this is happening or that is happening. Really understand how the body processes things and how it functions.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 37:54

Yeah, I completely agree. I have nothing else to add to that. That was perfection.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 38:01

So I know many listeners are like, okay, where can I find Jane? So could you let the listeners know where they can find you and all your details?

Jane Barlow Christensen: 38:10

Yeah, so I have a YouTube channel that I share herbal wisdom with. It's just Barlow herbal, and once a week I drop a little educational video I want to teach people in a really simple like this is you might recognize this along the road, and all that. So every Thursday I drop a an herbal wisdom video and then on Sundays I do a Sunday message of love, and I've been doing that for years because, as humanity has been shifting and awakening and all this stuff, it feels like we need a reminder that we are pure love, we are love, we are pure, we are a divine spark of creator of our creator. So, and then I my website is barlowherbalcom and I'm on all the socials at Barlow Herbal, so I'm super easy to find.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 38:55

Yeah, and do you ship internationally? Or is it just North America, like what? What is your shipping? So?

Jane Barlow Christensen: 39:03

we do ship to places like Canada. There's a few countries that we are able to get in, like the UK and Australia, new Zealand. Sometimes there's delays when it goes that far, but there are places in Europe that we do not ship because it never gets through customs. So, like Germany is tough, mexico Mexico is even tough, so it'll stay on our website.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 39:27

if you can ship to your country, we'd love to be able to ship everywhere, but the world is not that type of a place yet, so okay, I just bring that so that the listeners you know yeah, at any time in this conversation, if you felt a tingle or an aha or you felt seeing that's your nervous system, that's your limbic system, let you know that Jane has something for you. So jump on her website, jump on her socials. You see how approachable this is our first time interacting and the ease in the conversation and the knowledge that she has. So you know, reach out to her. Knowledge that she has. So you know, reach out to her. There's something that she has that will benefit your life and that your body is signaling Like we are all connected. As you said, the life spark, If we really look, like I always continuously say, we're feeling bodies that think our nervous systems are built off of nervous systems and they all create their own communication. So something that Jane said, if it sparked that tingle, those shivers or an aha or an opening, reach out to her, don't delay, don't put it off. All her information will be in the show notes so that she's easily reachable and that you can get what you need from her.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 40:45

I want to ask is there? As you know, things are heavy but they're light also, like I see a lot of hope and a lot of change that's going on. A lot of people are really anchored into the fear part. Yet I don't have news and media in my diet so I don't get bombarded. Like I understand what the fear mongering does and what it does to a nervous system. Yeah, not everybody you know is knowledgeable with that and hasn't really tapped in to see what it does to them. What is in your heart that you would like to leave for a listener right now as an intention to empower them?

Jane Barlow Christensen: 41:29

Well, I think we need to first realize that, as human beings, we're not designed to get all of the negative news that's happening all around the world. We're designed to hear what's happening in our communities, in our neighborhoods, with the people that we associate with. And even though I do believe it's really a beautiful thing that we're all connected via technology, we need to be really, really strategic in the way we let it in. In fact, one of my favorite things that I've started doing and I did this probably in the middle of 2020, I did it for the first time. I decided I was going to step away from all my technology for 30 days. I wasn't going to let anything in Now. I still answered emails, but I didn't let. I didn't do any social media. I didn't consume any videos.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 42:14

I haven't been a mainstream media consumer for decades, so I and I know that there's a lot of fear mongering that goes on there, but it's a really interesting conversation to have with people when you tell them I'm going to go 30 days without consuming anything no podcasts, and I don't care what it is, cause I love really uplifting podcasts. I've always got something in my ear, unless I strategically say I'm going to be, have quiet stillness, and it's an interesting thing that people will tell me is that, well, I need to know what's going on, and I don't, as long as I can, even just read the headlines, because if I don't know what's going on, I can't make the right decisions. Here's what I find the most fascinating I'll be very quick with this is that you would be surprised how you're not left out of the loop of anything. If you talk to, if you go walking with a friend, they'll tell you oh, on the 28th, or whenever it was in Spain the 28th of April, they had a blackout. Oh, okay, well, that's interesting.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 43:15

You might talk about it, but you're not getting all the gory details and all the fear mongering of what might happen and the grid's going to go down. They're going to shut off our internet on purpose. They're going to do that, they're going to do this happen and the grid's going to go down. They're going to shut off our internet on purpose. They're going to do that, they're going to do this. And, like you, would be surprised at the brilliance and the turn of beauty your life takes when you just take a 30 day detox from consuming information. It's hard for some people. It's massively hard for some people, but we need to realize that this is the time right now, where the human consciousness is raising. If you have a hope left, then you're raising the collective consciousness by just you vibrating in that energy. So anyone listening to this needs to realize their own power in raising the consciousness of the collective.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 44:19

Thank you so much and I know many listeners will benefit from that upliftment and empowerment to trust themselves and also be very you know people talk about protecting their energy, yet they don't realize the things that you're listening and consuming have a big impact on your energy. So you're like trying to cut people off, not realizing you're letting in so many strangers through social media and the internet that are dysregulating you more than what the people that would be in close contact. So, in actuality, the person that you got to put in check is yourself and really question, because it's an addiction. You know when your nervous system is dysregulated, it's a negative bias and it wants to be fed. Why do people need to know what's going on? Because it feels like a sense of control that I can predict what the future is.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 45:15

Yet when you can allow yourself to be in your story and listen to intuition, like you said, you'll get the news that is meant to reach you, not the news that you think you need to have, because the world says be so informed. So I want to thank you so much. This has been a delight, and I want to thank your father for what he and your mother for what they instilled as a foundation, and also your bravery of doing the work and returning home into the foundation that supported you and nurtured you and using that grief also to ignite the momentum and the trust and and leaning on those ancestors to support and carry you all the way through. So thank you for being that light in the world, thank you.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 46:07

Thank you. It's a every day. I get up so excited to start my day and I don't ever plan on retiring. It's just I'm going to be a little wrinkled old lady giving you a cup of tea.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 46:19

You know I love it, and that's when it's not work. It's your life purpose, because it just comes naturally. Yeah, it's true, but thank you for a lovely conversation. Thank you. So please remember to be kind to yourself. Hey, you made it all the way here. I appreciate you and your time. If you found value in this conversation, please share it out. If there was somebody that popped into your mind, take action and share it out with them. It possibly may not be them that will benefit.

NatNat Be: 46:52

It's that they know somebody that will benefit from listening to this conversation.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 46:58

So please take action and share out the podcast. You can find us on social media, on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok under Lift Oneself, and if you want to inquire about the work that I do and the services that I provide to people, come over on my website, come into a discovery, call liftoneselfcom.

NatNat Be: 47:20

Until next time.

Jane Barlow Christensen: 47:22

Until next time, please remember to be kind and gentle with yourself. You matter Always.