Poet Paul Reps wrote, “Drinking a cup of tea, I stopped the war.” CCNH bachelor of natural health graduate and doctor of naturopathy student Hilary Humphreys shares that this is one of her favorite quotes, and the way she approaches working and sharing her knowledge of natural health with others exemplifies her own belief that being positive can act as a catalyst for greater things, including personal healing. “I feel that our attitude about ourselves internally predicates our attitude about our wellness,” Humphreys says. “I think that positivity is the great catalyst, a jumping off point, for greater things. I notice that when I talk to people about their wellness path, I find that they are much more successful when they are positive!”
In her work as a wellness consultant at a health food store in the Northern Sierra Nevada mountains, where she lives, she shares her knowledge about the uses of herbs and plants with an attitude of joy, demonstrating her belief about being positive. “I have the joy of being able to effect change at a very tangible level.” Whether she is giving presentations on the edible and medicinal uses of plants of the Sierras to garden clubs, guiding plant walks, or teaching classes on herbal product preparation, she says it gives her great joy to share this knowledge. “I am happiest when I am teaching.”
She found CCNH when she was a stay-at-home mom and it wasn’t feasible for her to move in order to learn more about natural health. “This has worked very well for me as a student, because well, life happens, and the self-paced path has allowed me to shift my focus at my convenience, and to continue to meet the needs of my family.” With two young children, meeting the needs of her family is important to her, and she uses her knowledge of herbs to teach her children as well as visitors to the health food store where she works. When her family was hiking one time, her three-year-old daughter tripped and scraped her leg. “We found her rubbing yarrow on her leg and smiling.”
Humphreys not only liked the flexibility that CCNH’s self-paced programs afforded her, she also liked the programs because they are broad. “Clayton’s program does not maintain adherence to a narrow scope.” In her work every day, she borrows from several different approaches to healing, including Western herbalism, Ayurveda, nutrition, and homeopathy. “As I continue to learn, I become more and more convinced that we must not become ‘stuck’ looking at one way to heal as the only way to heal,” she says. “It seems that everyone resonates with different forms of healing, and it is my job to find out which one works!”
It seems that her belief in more than one form of healing has always been with her. When she was young, she lost her mother to cancer, and began studying native plants and their uses before she was a teenager. “My experiences with hospitals and doctors left an indelible mark that prompted me to explore health and wellness from a very young age.” Her own children embrace natural healing as well. “I find that my children consider the ‘natural methods’ the normal methods, and visits to allopathic doctors rather odd and few and far between.”
She has not only learned more about natural health from CCNH, she has also been mentored by Nancy Harnach, an herbalist who lives in the Sierra Valley. “I have learned more from her than she could possibly imagine.” Humphreys feels that whenever you teach, you are a mentor, and she approaches mentoring others with not only an attitude of joy, but also an attitude of humility. “I feel it is my joyous duty to pass on what I have learned. I think there are some people who feel that I am a mentor to them, but I feel very humbled before that kind of title.”
She is enthusiastic about learning even more. “I will never feel that I am finished learning. Every time I get out to wildcraft, I learn something new. Every time I have a client who comes back to tell me what worked and what didn’t, I learn. The field of natural health is a beautiful, evolving, tangible thing, because when we learn we grow, and when we can share what we learn, we grow even more.”
When she has completed her doctor of naturopathy program, she would like to open a consulting practice and to author books on natural health. She has previously been published in her local newspaper and had a column in it as well. “I know I have a book or two waiting to pop out!”
She says that her studies with CCNH prompted her to try new things she wouldn’t have ordinarily explored. “My studies have allowed a paradigm shift in the way I approach healing.” Perhaps if the global community could experience a paradigm shift in the way it thinks, it could heal itself and heed the poet Paul Reps’ advice, as well as Humphreys’ insights about being positive. “It is so easy to get stuck in the downward spiral of unhappiness, and this negative attitude hinders our ability to be well. It is truly amazing what can be done with a perspective of positivity, as opposed to one of negativity.”
