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9. The Power of Green
25 Plays1 month ago
Join us as we attempt to discuss the enormous range of meanings and associations of GREEN. There’s a lot of ground to cover, and we’re certain we didn’t even touch half of it.
We're grateful you're here! If you like what you’re hearing, you can follow us on Instagram: @soulpodthepodcast. You can also email us directly at [email protected].
Hosts: Christina Bell & Molly Wilde
Music: The Confrontation, by Jonathan Boyle, licensed from Premium Beats by Shutterstock
Editing: Molly Wilde
Disclaimer: The purpose of this podcast is for entertainment and enjoyment. We are not professionals in any regard. We do not have professional knowledge, training, or education in physical health, mental health, or spiritual matters. Any suggestions or recommendations made during our episodes should be independently researched by the listener before considering implementation, or better yet, listeners should ignore everything we say. We cannot be held responsible or liable for anything we say, or any actions taken by any persons as a result of listening to our podcast episodes. Stay safe, stay informed, stay smart.
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Transcript
The Power of Preparation
00:00:22
Speaker
this is one of the ones but shes like I think I'm gonna feel better if I have notes. Yeah, and I wanted to do a little bit more studying than I did, but um I did listen to an episode of a podcast in my preparations. And then I did one quick Google search about something that I, um like a point that I wanted to make sure I was making correctly. So I have that at the ready too. Cool. Cool. Cool. Yeah. No. And I, I wrote a bunch of notes, like physically handwrote them. And then I also.
00:00:59
Speaker
because I was doing the research like on my phone, um saved the links for those pages I was referencing. in a note on my phone so that like if I feel the need or if somebody asks where we got our information, I will be able to provide that.
Introduction to 'The Power of Green'
00:01:17
Speaker
I'm like looking at the door behind you and I'm like, dude, it's green. It's green. My whole kitchen is green. That's amazing. Guess what, people?
00:01:30
Speaker
That's the topic of today's episode, the power of green. And I love it. It's like, it's ah the way you wrote it in the list. The episode title just writes itself, you know, like you, you you've made it so simple. it's So easy. Yeah. it's So straightforward. So yeah.
00:01:49
Speaker
I don't know why, I'm going to be clear in my throat, sorry. um I don't know why that topic kind of came to mind to me one day. I was thinking about all the different things in our life that's a green and that are green. and how important all of them are. And I started coming up with a list of different things that are green that we could talk about. yeah he yeah I know it sounds a little simple, but I think it's kind of got an underlying powerful message. yeah That's my opinion.
Channeling, Chakras, and the Heart Chakra
00:02:20
Speaker
Totally. And I'm looking forward to like hearing what you have to say on it because I
00:02:25
Speaker
you I mean, you sent me your notes ahead of time. I will admit they were a little hard to read. yeah yeah ah It was, did you say it was that you um used voice to text on the thing you were hearing? I was in my, so like, you know, I'm an Android user and I have like the Microsoft, I don't know, Microsoft suite of apps that you can use. And one of them is called Note or something like that.
00:02:52
Speaker
So yeah, when I was in the notes app or whatever it's called, I just had like the keyboard up and I hit the microphone button and I let my microphone listen to what was being said on the television and it was transcribing it for me. oh And which is sort of like voice to text, but you know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. That's effectively what it was doing.
00:03:13
Speaker
And and i I mean, I had rewound it back to the point where things were getting interesting. So some of it is a little bit off topic, but it was leading into what I wanted to say. And so I wanted to remember the whole thing. And that way I can like reference it correctly, like all that. Yeah, definitely. Do you remember the name of the show or the? Oh, yeah. um Because yeah, because I'm sure people would be curious to know what it was that sparked the ah the idea. ah Well, I mean, it was just one of the things that I run across that I was watching and had a kind of interesting point that I was like, oh my gosh, that that fits this topic exactly. and Gotcha.
00:03:55
Speaker
so I had decided to try a free trial of the Gaia channel, which I had seen a ton of commercials for them over the past few years. Everything that I saw that would come up looked so interesting to me. And at one point I just said, okay, I just need to know what the heck. Because this one article grabbed my attention in such a way that I was like,
00:04:21
Speaker
Okay. They got me. I got to try. I got to try the free trial. So I ended up just letting it go. I'm like, yeah, I'm paying for it now. So whatever. um But the the channel Gaia g a i a is, I have it through prime and this one particular show caught my attention called channeling.
00:04:41
Speaker
you know And it's kind of weird because the first few episodes go together pretty well. They all kind of cover a different topic, but they use the same people throughout each show to that they're interviewing. And most of them but most of those people are channelers, if not all of them. And do you mean like psychic channeling? Yeah, yeah they channel information from beings. Got you. Most of them are channeling information from like other beings or angels or whatever. Cool. Yeah, it's very interesting.
00:05:12
Speaker
And at one point, like one episode started playing and it was completely different than the rest of the shows. And I was like, what the hell? But it was about, it it had like a panel of experts and one guy that had been in the US military that had seen area 51 or whatever, like had been there and saw an actual creature alien person thing that they had captured and it tried to get away.
00:05:40
Speaker
Oh my goodness. It's insane. it's i mean it's it's I mean, when you listen to it and you hear these guys talking, you're like, they <unk>s like i don't I don't know, man. So anyways, interesting stuff. But one of the people who were channeling in one of the episodes had started talking about chakras. And so I'm going to be reading what my phone picked up. Okay. And I'm going to try and make sense of it. And so it's going to be kind of, it's not going to be verbatim. It's going to be like me putting it in my own words in a way. Okay. But it is from that show channeling on Gaia. So, so you have different chakras and they all do different things. And so what's it interesting about the chakras is, and this is what she's saying. Okay. I'm reading what it says.
00:06:28
Speaker
um the chakras is it that it integrates with the nervous system of the spine. There's one in the root that extends straight down in between the legs off the coccyx, which is your tailbone. And she says the tailbone of the body. The second chakra is in the lower abdominal area and goes through the front and back of the but body. These are the primary ones. They guide your life. The southern hemis hemisphere ones is how she was referring to them.
00:06:57
Speaker
The three lower chakras guides the root and the rudimentary parts of your primal life. The upper three, they are your spirit world. And the heart, which is right in the middle of the seven, is the integrator. And that one is represented. this is These are my words. That one is represented by the color green, oddly enough. And I just thought that was so cool because we just came back from a retreat called Anahara's Purpose.
00:07:25
Speaker
And Anahata is, correct me if I'm wrong, Sanskrit for heart or Sanskrit for heart chakra. I'm not sure which. I think it's, it's, I'm not sure if it's a direct translation or not, but the way I heard it explained was simply that it was the word, the Sanskrit word.
00:07:45
Speaker
for the Heart Chakra or the the Sanskrit name for the Heart Chakra. Okay. um So it's something like that. So I don't know. Yeah, I don't know if there's any direct translation there, but ah it is it is that is that. Yeah. Yeah. But just the way she said it, it was so it it just kind of like hit home like so fast. She was just like, the lower three are roots, are base physical needs and all that stuff. But as you work your way up, it becomes a more spiritual and like a crown chakra is the highest one and that's the spirit one that shoots straight up out of your head. So right in the middle, literally the one that is dead center of the seven is the heart chakra and it is green. And it integrates and the way she said that I thought was so cool. It integrates the top half and the bottom half of the chakra system.
00:08:38
Speaker
So take that as you will, but it kind of hit me like, like a big punch to the gut. It was just like, whoa. took What a, what a title for such a, I mean, like for anything, but like for something so central in the human body and in the human like energy.
00:08:55
Speaker
system, the energy pathways for the heart chakra to literally be titled the integrator. Like gives, that gives me chills. Yeah. That's what it did to me. I was like, who it's like yeah when you hear truth that you're just like, wow. Yeah. That has to be true because of the way it just hit me like a ton of bricks. Oh my God. For real. So that, that was kind of like giving away the the big shebang of the show right off the top. But but I guess I would just say that like I thought about this topic one day and it was a few weeks ago. But like after Anahana's, I realized the significance and how it all relates back to the Heart Chakra and like but in that it's represented by the color
Nutritional and Aesthetic Benefits of Green
00:09:43
Speaker
green. So yeah. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.
00:09:50
Speaker
I love it. I love it so much. And so yeah, like I, I love, that was like a great introduction into, because like, I kind of like, I don't know why, or I don't know how, but I kind of assumed that you had like a list of points you wanted to make and that one of the points was about the heart chakra being corresponding to the color green. But the fact that you've just presented it, like it's the the basis to launch off of where everything else is coming from. Like I love it.
00:10:20
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I didn't intend it that way, but hey, whatever works. It fucking worked. No, because I mean, I just, and especially relating to the event that we just attended, not as purpose, it sure is pertinent. I love it. But yeah.
00:10:43
Speaker
i okay so did you have like an order of operations how you wanted to present your you know points because i i have points and i don't know how much our points are going to overlap yeah it's really funny because i wanted to make a list of all of the things the green things that i had wanted to talk about and i don't know if i ever did it and if i did do it i don't know where it is so yeah how how prepared how prepared am i hey well you know Let me see, because I was going to make that list and I was going to put it in our episode ideas little file and I did not. But one thing I will continue on underneath the those notes was.
00:11:27
Speaker
So I'm trying to, like I'm reading this stuff and I'm trying to remember if this is something I wrote or if it's something I got off the show. um I think I wrote this. So what it says is plant medicine, like plants. You know, you're thinking and in terms of the color green, we have all the green things on this planet that, you know, new are nutritious and feed us. And so besides the foods, there's plant medicine and.
00:11:55
Speaker
plant medicine starts with the basics of nature and nutrition. We as humans need natural green foods that grow from the earth to get the most important nutrients in our body. And thinking on that topic, I i felt like you know like a new appreciation for growing my microgreens because they provide a more potent dose of those nutrients for us to consume. And then of course, ah I don't know if you have a favorite green vegetable that you want to talk about or not.
00:12:25
Speaker
Oh, I love spinach. Spinach is good. And arugula. Arugula. I love spinach for like, I don't know. I love them both, but like arugula is a more recent love of mine. It's got a very interesting, cool flavor. It's like my go-to. That's awesome. I grew something. Like lettuce item for a sandwich. I did do one batch of arugula for microgreens um one one time. and people really liked it. Yeah. Yeah. um I was gonna say also, and because I literally just remembered literally the
00:13:01
Speaker
paint color of my kitchen is Arugula by Sherwin-Williams. Oh, that's the name of it. Yeah, Arugula. That's so cool. You know what? It's so funny because ah when we painted John's office, when he first was moving in with me, um he liked green and he was like, he, you know, and I thought, okay. And if you look at actually Feng Shui,
00:13:25
Speaker
The back left corner of the house, if I'm not mistaken, is the like money center of the house or the money area of the house or something like that. Interesting. And that's where his office ended up being and he wanted it to be green and green represents money, right? But the name of the paint was called Celery Sprigg.
00:13:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's a love lighter, min almost minty kind of green, but more sagey than minty, you know? Yeah. I was going to say, like, I love the fact that like a lot of, you know, green paint colors have those nature focused names. Um, whether it's like plants and food, like vegetables and stuff, or just nature in general. Yeah. Um, like the the color that I'm going to be painting my bedroom whenever I get around to it.
00:14:14
Speaker
is like ah such a dark green that it's almost black, and that one's called Jasper by Sherwin-Williams also. and not not ah advertise or Not advertising for them, or what's what's the word? We're not sponsored. Yeah, not sponsored.
00:14:35
Speaker
But I mean, hey, not opposed to it. ah but Jasper, like, I feel like is probably a little more abstract of a name for a color. But, you know, even I think of like Jasper stone is is a nature is found in nature. Is Jasper stone green? I don't know. I feel like there's a lot of different kinds of Jasper.
00:15:00
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Again, i think we're talking about things that we don't understand. That's okay. We are allowed. Yes, we are. Oh my goodness. But yeah, I can't wait to to paint that.
00:15:15
Speaker
to paint my bedroom that color. It's going to be gorgeous. Yeah. So, and I wanted to just say my favorites in the green vegetable family. Oh yes. I love broccoli. I love Brussels sprouts, which I actually used to hate when I was a kid. They, did you know they genetically modified them? Stop it. No, they did. Okay. Tell me. So in the eighties, like in the eighties and nineties, the reason that everybody like famously hated Brussels sprouts was because they needed to be genetically modified to be less bitter.
00:15:50
Speaker
So they did do that and that yeah people like that's why people like them now. That's now. Oh, that's very strange. And i I hope to God that I didn't just like hear that somewhere and believe it and somebody is out there that's like, actually, you're wrong. like i But like, it makes sense to me, especially because like, it's such a like collective experience that everybody hated Russell Sprouse. It was literally like famously despised um in the 80s and 90s. And then And then there's been the shift. Yeah, that's interesting for sure. But I do i do love a Brussels sprout too. And I love green beans. And for some reason I just remembered this because Brussels sprouts are like baby cabbages, but I love cabbage. Oh yes, I love cabbage too. I love cabbage. Love pickled cabbage. Oh, kimchi isn't very green, but it is good. um Oh my goodness. Okra. Yes.
00:16:48
Speaker
Ooh, okra. That one I couldn't get on board with. You know what I like? I mean, I did not like how my grandmother and my mother cooked okra because they just kind of steamed it in a shallow little saucepan with a little bit of water. No, you need to deep fry it, if anything. Dude. Oh, that would be good. I don't think I've ever had that.
00:17:08
Speaker
Well, the southerners do the the deep fry everything, but especially deep fried okra. Oh, you know what? I did have them sliced up, like little coin-sized okra. I don't know. but here but But what I was going to say is that I had them, the deep fried okra. It wasn't whole okra. I don't know why I was thinking a whole okra would be deep fried, but I had them cut up like little sliced okras. And I think You know who did that? I just now remember who did that. Who did that? The Cracker Barrel. ah crackp Of course. Cracker Barrel, did the the the fried okra. More and more recently, I keep hearing about Cracker Barrel and now I'm like, now I gotta go. Oh, right? There's one I think in Connecticut or somewhere in like Southern Massachusetts, I gotta go. Have you not been to one?
Genetic Modification and Appreciation of Brussels Sprouts
00:17:57
Speaker
I've been to one. I've been to a few, but not for a very long time. Okay.
00:18:02
Speaker
So, yeah so anyhow, but like, no, my grandmother would cook it like that. Right. And it would turn slimy, which yeah ochra is slimy, but it would just be slim. The whole thing would be slimy and nasty. Why i like no i would i but anybody actively choose to do that? Like exactly what the hell. And then um the odd thing is my my grandpa, my step grandpa told me about pickled okra in the grocery store. And like the brand name, somebody might know if I'm wrong or whatever, it was Taco Texas or Taste of Texas, Taste Old Texas. But it had like a Texas shaped little, you know,
00:18:39
Speaker
shape onmogo yeah And it's like taco, taco Texas or taste or Texas, but it was pickled okras and they are so yummy. I will eat the whole thing, including the little stem. Interesting. Now I'm trolling.
00:18:55
Speaker
Oh, boy. Whoops. I don't know. So, yeah, I would just say my favorites would be broccoli and Brussels sprouts and green beans. And then my microgreens, of course. Yeah. No, I love all of those too. And I also love asparagus. Oh, yeah. Yes, yeah. This is great. Have you ever had white asparagus? I've not. I've had white asparagus. How was it? And I had it in Germany.
00:19:25
Speaker
And it was this good or amazing. so So what's the difference, taste-wise, between green and white asparagus? I don't remember.
00:19:36
Speaker
It was a long time ago, but like I just remember that that whole dish that I got wherever that restaurant was somewhere in Germany, it was like we had to try and translate the menu with our little translator books. And like I noticed like I saw the one was like white asparagus and I was like, hmm. Interesting. And I don't remember if it was like veal or some other kind of like meat. I don't remember, but um the whole dish was really good. And I think that that's asparagus had like a cream sauce on it or something like that, but it was very good. yeah And I think if if memory serves, the taste of the asparagus might have been slightly milder. That doesn't surprise me at all. Yeah.
00:20:17
Speaker
Yeah, that makes total sense to me. But it seems like white asparagus is always showing up in the context of like more expensive restaurants or something. But I could be wrong. Yeah. I don't know. i'm I'm trying to think if I've ever seen it in a grocery store that wasn't like Whole Foods or something. But I guess, you know what? I don't know if I'll seek it out. It's kind of out of season right now. It's more of a springtime vegetable. yeah But ah I'm going to see if i if I spot it. i'm gonna spring for it and see see how it is. Try it out. Cook some and let me know. I will, i will for sure. but yeah so and As usual, surprisingly, we've managed to stay on topic while going on a rant about food.
00:21:05
Speaker
That's okay. It's a part of the green you know know vegetable stuff. um i just I am continuously entertained by like the the frequency with which we just go off on complete tangents about food. um so so Let me just say this then. okay so That was like my you know PG version of plant medicine, but let's go to the like more R-rated version of plant medicine.
00:21:31
Speaker
You can fill us in on that more. You have more experience with that subject. I mean, I really, I still don't have much
Cannabis and Mental Health
00:21:42
Speaker
experience. I mean, like, I guess it depends, right? so Which one is green? Well, yes. see see So here's the thing. When you say plant medicine, I think of plant medicine retreats, which I've never been on. Right. But that is something I do want to explore in a future episode. So like,
00:22:01
Speaker
just putting that out there. yeah yeah But, uh, corresponded to the color green is that pungent classic cannabis.
00:22:12
Speaker
yeah um maryjuana Oh my goodness. ah And you have a lot of experience with that as a medicine. And I just was going to say, tell us about how it helps you. Yeah, because because that's the thing. Like I historically have taken it honestly in the moment to alleviate anxiety.
00:22:37
Speaker
And then I've seen long-term effects that have really ah that were unexpected. um And I think I've talked to you about this before, but it's been a while. But I think of i think of neural pathways as tracks in a dirt road. And when your dirt road is packed pretty tight, pretty like firmly,
00:23:01
Speaker
like it's very, very difficult and potentially damaging to try to deviate out of it, especially ah especially the deeper the ruts get. Especially when you're thinking of like in old-timey visuals like a dirt road and a covered wagon or something with those wooden wheels that like if you turn them the wrong way and they hit something wrong, they're going to snap.
00:23:27
Speaker
Um, and not to say that the the human brain is necessarily prone to that kind of, um, damage, uh, or irreparable damage, but like think about, I consider, if I'm considering neural pathways to be the ruts in a dirt road, I consider plant medicine to be rain that softens the dirt, that muddies things up maybe.
00:23:56
Speaker
but in a positive way where suddenly you can make your way out of those ruts. And and i'm the metaphor probably has too many unintentional layers because I'm not necessarily even thinking of it as like, oh, you find yourself in a rut. Like it's very much, I'm thinking in terms of neural pathways here where like using plant medicine to work your way out of the thought patterns and limiting beliefs and things that are deeply ingrained in you for a reason because they served you at one point, but are no longer getting you where you want to go. The rain is the thing that's going to save you from being stuck in those tracks effectively. yeah and i that's That's the long-term effect that I saw over time while you know using cannabis to alleviate depression and anxiety was
00:24:55
Speaker
ah a change in my thought patterns. lial like I found myself initially you know recognizing the ways in which I was thinking differently whilst high and found that over time those thought patterns, those new thought patterns, those new neural pathways were present while I was sober. and I thought that was really cool. I don't think, not that necessarily that I consulted a doctor about any of it beforehand, but I'm not sure that any sort of professional would have pointed out that that could be a long-term effect. right i've no i've not i've really and I hope that there are people out there who understand what I
00:25:36
Speaker
and talking about you know from their own experiences, but like I've not heard anybody explain it that way before. And I've i've i've had ah people, even people who have been longtime cannabis users feel like my explanation was somewhat of a revelation to them. So yeah, the power of that's the power of that green. yeah for sure. It hasn't single-handedly saved my life, but it sure has done more than its fair share, yeah I think.
00:26:14
Speaker
So I thought of also, like, this is the one that I looked up earlier just to make sure that I was talking, or rather not talking out of my
Green Spaces and Mental Well-being
00:26:23
Speaker
ass. um I wanted to make sure that I was right about what I was going to say. um And the AI on Google ah says, being in green spaces can have many health benefits, including improved mood. Exposure to green spaces can help reduce stress and anger and improve mood.
00:26:43
Speaker
Better concentration, green spaces can help improve concentration and attention. Reduced risk of mental disorders, people who live near green spaces have a lower risk of depression and psychiatric disorders. Better sleep, exposure to natural light okay, that's not green, but okay, can help regularly. see Yeah, yeah. Well, like being in outdoor spaces, I think is where it's getting because I actually, this is this is we are now meandering into the territory where I wrote the most notes. And it was a lot of there was a lot of um when I looked up because I what I thought of was green therapy, like the phrase green therapy. And when I found was a lot of discussion around
00:27:31
Speaker
just the benefits of being generally outdoors rather than like the direct correspondence of like the positive impacts of the color green entering your eye cones. Yeah, that's the thing that I was thinking because I heard that even if you're just looking at trees, like if you're sitting by the woods and you're just looking at them, that that helps you. like Improved eye health even, green scenery can help reduce eye strain and prevent digital eye fatigue. That's a new one.
00:27:59
Speaker
Oh, yeah, no, that makes total sense. I mean, like, just think about the, you know, the general advice and recommendations you hear around like, hey, if you spend your day staring at a screen for your job, like, it's so good for you if you take the time to like step outside and like stare at a tree for a bit. That's interesting. Yeah, I don't think I had heard of that.
00:28:22
Speaker
Um, then there's a a website called silvotherapy.co.uk. Uh, one little blurb from there and said exposure to green environments has been shown to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system responsible for relaxation and recovery. Green environments also promote physical activity, which is known to have positive effects on mental health. Yes. Yeah. Oh my goodness. see Yeah.
00:28:50
Speaker
Yeah, very true. And like that, yeah, it segues perfectly into the research that I did, um which I will admit off the top, it's not, I'm not a professional researcher. I just looked up some stuff and I wrote it down. ah Take it away, Molly. But yeah, like that was the thing. The green therapy was the thing that came to mind, as well as the concept of forest bathing. Hmm.
00:29:20
Speaker
Um, which is like kind of the same thing. They're a Venn diagram and they mostly overlap. Like they're almost a circle. Um, so explain what that is. So green therapy is something that like, I think is the less technical term, uh, uh, between the two of them where it's literally just the presence of green, like entering your eye cones.
00:29:48
Speaker
being a thing that alleviates your stress you know and that yeah like even looking at it through a screen as much as that's still not ideal. But like I just remember once being like in the depths of winter and like having coming across on TikTok, ah somebody who lived way down south who was already experiencing a lot of green budding in the spring.
00:30:11
Speaker
and they took a TikTok video of themselves just hanging out outside in their yard like sitting in the grass and like with a nice big backdrop of trees behind them and just saying like hey for all my northern buddies you know here's some green therapy for you while you're still stuck in the in the dredges of winter um yeah and i remember seeing that and being like oh And now I kind of let have latched onto that when it comes to anticipating the leaves sprouting every spring, just because it does make me feel so much better. Yeah. And you know, like the environment that we were in at Anahatas definitely played a big role in that one session we went to where we were outside in the Woodland Pavilion.
00:31:04
Speaker
Right. um And the green around us was, I think, very inspiring. Walking to it, being in it, and then, you know, walking through it when we left. and And why is it important for us to take off our shoes and put our feet in the grass? Or any ground, any natural material, technically, but most people like to put their toes in the grass because it's soft and it feels good, you know? ah Yeah, yeah, exactly. That was like another note that I had taken. Yeah. So tell me. Well, cause, so I didn't get to do any research on grounding specifically. Okay. But that was one of the things that I thought of grounding from a spiritual standpoint, as well as grounding from like a mental health standpoint, where the the physical feeling, the sensation of digging your toes into the grass, you know, or into the soil.
00:32:01
Speaker
and like connecting with the earth just helps to achieve like more of an internal balance. And on this specific topic of grounding, like I'm speaking from my experience. Like I said, I didn't get to do research on it specifically. So like I'm speaking from how I have felt and what I've experienced when I have you know deliberately gone outside, taken off my shoes.
00:32:25
Speaker
and dug my toes into the grass, is achieving more of a balance. like you know Achieving a better state of mind mentally and emotionally, as well as you know the spiritual, I don't want to say side effects because it's not really.
Forest Bathing and Sensory Experience
00:32:40
Speaker
it because it's there's like ah It's like the main effect you know grounding spiritually is it keeps you centered, it keeps you connected, it keeps you from floating off into the ether. but you know Because it's we're all you know a spiritual spiritually minded people are pretty prone to just being so elevated and like in such ah such a high frequency, so connected to the the crown chakra, um that we can float off a little bit sometimes and digging your toes into the grass keeps you from
00:33:13
Speaker
getting out of kilter. But yeah. So I just went ahead and looked it up really quick because I know that there's an actual scientific thing behind it. Yes. Thank you. WebMD. Yeah. WebMD says, um unlike practicing meditation or using therapy to feel grounded,
00:33:33
Speaker
Grounding is the practice of connecting to the earth either barefoot or via a product that grounds into an outlet Which I don't know how that would work, but okay um or into the earth with a metal rod ah But literally your body and it is says your this is a quote from like um right from right from WebMD your body absorbs electrons naturally on the earth that are said to balance out your electrical circuit and Yeah. That is something I so want to know more about. like I know. That's what I always remembered about it was like there's literally, you can literally, it's been proven by science that there's an electrical exchange. Right. um Yeah. Between your body and the earth and it helps to like neutralize whatever crazy, I don't know, protons maybe the ones that are hyper
00:34:25
Speaker
It helps to like neutralize those. so literally i do Literally, I came so close to failing chemistry in high school, like I'm not the person to ask. but Well, i'm I'm just kind of guessing, because I remember proton like was like the active one, and neutron was the one that's neutral. That's how I remembered it. i ah The one thing that I remember, and again, with the caveat of I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, I got a D in chemistry, is that electrons are the ones that jump from molecule to molecule.
00:34:54
Speaker
Okay. ah Between atoms, not molecules. Okay. um But again, I don't know what I'm talking about. Please don't take me seriously.
00:35:06
Speaker
It's all good. But yeah, I do. So I have like a lot of notes on forest bathing. Oh, yeah. Tell me about the forest bathing because i that's one I've not ever heard of before. And this one I took care to write down the scientific words. Good doing.
00:35:24
Speaker
So, first of all, I want to say forest bathing, it's not, I don't think, I don't think it originated anywhere in particular, but there is a Japanese term for it that is commonly attributed. And that term in Japanese is shinrin yoku. And so that's the concept of forest bathing, where you spend time in the forest, literally to alleviate mental health.
00:35:49
Speaker
symptoms, depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms. And I think think it must have been a study done or something that happened. some Some research that was done in Japan that showed decreased cortisol in people who either lived in heavily wooded areas or who frequented heavily wooded areas, nice um which I love. yeah um i It's been a while since I've been on a hike and I need to go on more hikes again, but I did go on it big hiking stint in like 2021 where I really, really felt those effects myself. Amazing. um It was, I mean, I ah feel like everybody in through 2020 through 2021 was all like going through their own like crazy personal shit. ah ah For myself, the way that I coped literally was forest bathing, even though I didn't even have that term yet.
00:36:49
Speaker
I knew like going out into the woods was like having a positive effect for me.
Terpenes and Aromatherapy
00:36:56
Speaker
so yeah and then thinking about because I'm also thinking about, like yes, there is the visual like effect of seeing green all around you from the trees, but it's also a full immersive sensory experience. you know The sights, the sounds, the smells, the feeling.
00:37:16
Speaker
you know if you you know get get your hands on a tree or get your you know feel like the the dirt underneath your boots like when you're when you're on a hike i assume because it's generally not a device to hike barefoot but i mean to each their own um Like that that full ah sensory experience compounds on itself in terms of positive effects that you feel in your brain and in your like sense you in your nervous system. And particularly, and i I put a star next to this just because like I feel like this is critical, um is specifically to do breath work in a forest setting.
00:37:55
Speaker
oh um And the reason for that is because of the, okay, I'm going to mispronounce this, or I'm almost positive I'm going to mispronounce this because I didn't hear how it was pronounced. I only read it. Phytonsides, P-H-Y-T-O-N-C-I-D-E-S, which are airborne essential oils found in evergreens, which can boost the human immune system by increasing white blood cell production. Amazing.
00:38:24
Speaker
um In addition to that, terpenes, which I am obsessed with. I'm obsessed with terpenes. And i i knew that I knew that phrase, I knew that term before, before, you know, digging into this.
00:38:40
Speaker
ah research because of other podcasts that I've heard talking about it, as well as just like generally understanding like these terpenes are doing wonders for me. So tell tell me what they are real quick, because I can't remember. I know I've heard of the word, but I just don't remember. There's quite a few different kinds.
00:38:58
Speaker
The big, like the most common kinds of terpenes I did write a list. um Here we go. Limonene, which is the citrus scent that you hear, ah that you smell. You're going to smell all of these. You're not going to hear any of them. yeah
00:39:17
Speaker
Limonene is the citrusy scent. Pineene is unsurprisingly pine and rosemary and basil as well. Ooh. why alool L-I-N-A-L-O-O-L, linolule, which is a really, really fun word, i is the um the scent of lavender. Near seam.
00:39:42
Speaker
M-Y-R-C-E-N-E is hops, lemongrass, and thyme. Huge fan of all of them. ah And then this one is the next one, beta cariophylline, which is cloves and black pepper. That's admittedly not green. Oh my goodness.
00:40:04
Speaker
But it was on the list and I love cloves and were headed into fall. So, cloves. As well as black pepper, I thought that was cool too. And then humaline, H-U-M-U-L-E-N-E, hops, clove, and ginger.
00:40:23
Speaker
So those are like the big ones, but it's also, and this is the thing, we're tying it back. Terpenes are also heavily founded cannabis, yeah both in THC products and CBD products. That might be where I heard that word before, because I did do a little bit of reading one day about certain, like the different strains of what they were good for. Yeah, yeah. And in particular, the terpene, there's like positive effects of terpenes that have been found on epilepsy patients who were administered CBD, ah like concentrated CBD, rich in terpenes. And as well as like we've already mentioned, stress reduction for people with anxiety and depression. ah Just like literally bringing down, physically bringing down your cortisol levels.
00:41:13
Speaker
Wow. um And that's those terpenes are emitted through if aromatherapy, literally. like that's that's That's the purpose behind it. The aromatherapy that you would be doing in the forest when you were forest building. Any aromatherapy, really. Because okay if you think of like lavender essential oil as being used in spas, that's your linoleuole.
00:41:38
Speaker
yeah um you know but like But aromatherapy as a whole, like that's the purpose behind it, ah is the terpenes that are relaxing you, bringing your, or activating your parasympathetic nervous system.
00:41:53
Speaker
right and So like that's why I wanted to put a star next to the breathwork in a forest setting specifically, where you need to not only visually see the green to feel the effects, but to breathe in the terpenes.
Commitment to Forest Activities
00:42:10
Speaker
So I think I'm going to make a commitment right here and now, and this's going to be it's going to have to be done before we even post this episode because that's like in almost a week. But within this next week, I'm giving myself homework, and that homework is to get into a forest setting and do some breath work. I'm going to try and do that as well. Okay. That's awesome. All right. let's Let's hold each other accountable. Yeah.
00:42:36
Speaker
And I know that we are nearing the end of our time. ah Yeah. I did have one other note. Well, it's just a small string of notes, really. Okay, run through it. Because I have this wonderful... Okay, I'm leaning over here. This wonderful book. Oh, yeah. Llewelyn's Complete Book of Correspondences. I have that too. I love this book. I need to use it more. I love it so much.
00:43:04
Speaker
but there I wanted to write down magical correspondences, excuse me as I continuously lean over away from my microphone. I wanted to just make sure to incorporate magical correspondences of the color green. And there are some very obvious ones like money and abundance. ah But I there's in this book, there's this nice hefty list of like all sorts of correspondences that I was like some of them were somewhat unexpected and so I wrote down a list off of their list and I tried to stick or they're most for the most part they're the ones that were somewhat unexpected or at least like made me pause um even though like a lot of it when you do think about it
00:43:54
Speaker
makes sense. um And of course this list is going to be in alphabetical order because this is Llewelyn's Complete Book of Correspondences, it's in alphabetical order. ah um So anyway, in addition to abundance, there's accomplishment, adaptability, balance, change, community, generosity, growth,
00:44:18
Speaker
independence, optimism, self-work, sympathy, wisdom and youth.
Magical Correspondences of Green
00:44:26
Speaker
And those are all related back to the color green? Yeah, those were all listed under the color green in this book that I fully trust, honestly. And so I thought it was really cool. It's particularly, I mean, yes, again, some of them, you know, when you do think about it, like change and generosity, it makes sense. But then things like sympathy, growth makes total sense. yeah Like sympathy was surprising. yeah Most things that are green grow, so.
00:44:54
Speaker
right sympathy okay sympathy was surprising to me wisdom was surprising to me not because i think it's wrong but just because i just didn't it didn't occur to me and community was surprising to me a little bit And optimism, because I always associate the concept of optimism with ah yellow. Interesting. Yeah. But I guess green and yellow are not far off from each other. Not particularly. But also green means go. It does.
00:45:26
Speaker
um But yeah, no, it's ah it's a cool color. it'ss Aside from black, it's one of my favorite colors. Yeah. Yeah. so I like a lot of different shades of green, but some I hate, but yeah yeah. I love forest green, which is unsurprising with my obsession with forest bathing. um But yeah i yeah, I'm glad that we talked about this. I'm glad that you added this to the list because damn,
00:45:55
Speaker
Yeah, and I, you know, I just, one of the things I remembered and I just, cause I did a little quick Google search of green things again. Animals and insects are often green as a form of camouflage for protection. You know what, protection was on the correspondence list too. That makes total sense. Yeah, I love it. yeah I love it.
00:46:19
Speaker
ah Well, that's green. Was there anything else you can think of that's green that you need to like throw in before we wrap it up? I mean, honestly, no, because everything I'm literally like looking around and being like, what's green? What's green? And it's like plants. My plants. The Anahata's Purpose poster that I got with the green heart on it. Yeah, like it, but like,
00:46:46
Speaker
Yeah, I and love it. I mean, I suppose we also didn't talk about money. Well, we mentioned it. We mentioned it. I guess there's not a whole lot that needs to be gone into, or at least not that I felt needed to be gone into, just because a lot of it's extremely on the nose. But also, money is often a source of stress. Money is often a source of evil. There is there is some difficulty with that particular subtopic. Obviously.
00:47:16
Speaker
yeah But the thing is, the topic is the power of green. So put it in that context and say, yeah the power of money. And and in my mind, i can go a please yeah that came up as a positive to me though, because there's so many good things that can happen with money. and like yeah caring for people you love, money makes that a lot easier. It's true. As well as, you know, making donations to causes that you care about and things like that. I suppose that like, yeah, it's, it's interesting the way that like, we sort of went in opposite directions thinking about money because like, I thought of greed, you know, greed and the
00:48:00
Speaker
um Which envy is a green correspondence as well. Yeah. like green Green with jealousy is like a ah phrase. Right. Exactly. Or green with envy, I guess is the phrase, but yeah. Yeah. Weirdly enough, this just popped in my head too is, you know, those little ah ah hazardous toxic stickers that get put on things that are like a green, a little green face that looks like it's about to puke.
00:48:28
Speaker
You ever seen those? I don't know, but I know the emoji. Yeah, it was pre emoji times. I just remember seeing that and like, ah like stuck on certain things in elementary school, like, you know, for the kids to put whatever in their mouths because they don't know any better. um I don't think I've ever seen that and you should look it up and send it to me like I'll see if I can. I'll see if I can find it. It's a it's quite a antiquated little thing but uh yeah that that just popped in my head like oh that's another green thing sick um o what about green's representation in uh ireland like the whole country the flag you know yeah well they're nice well i suppose i'm thinking of is it green and orange and white yes it is yeah yeah you know you wear green for
00:49:24
Speaker
for St. Patty's Day and true green beer. yeah Now I'm thinking of the green line in Boston, which is where I i lived ah ah on that line. There you go. I saw somewhere that it was like, you don't get any more Boston than throwing up green beer on the green line on St. Patrick's Day. Oh god.
00:49:47
Speaker
Which I have not done. I've thrown up on the green line on St. Patrick's Day, not on St. Patrick's Day, but I have thrown up on the green line. Not from being drunk though. Hey, hello. My business is called Christina's Greens. Hey. Yes. It's christinasgreens.com if you ever wanted to go and check it out. I set it up and I haven't touched it. Since I started the website. Oh, So that's it. Hey, you wait, avocados. Oh my God. Well, that's another food. I know, but it's still green. But anyway, we gotta go.
00:50:24
Speaker
Yeah, it's true. Thank you for being here and um listening to us ramble. um Please ah check out our Instagram. We are on Instagram at soul pod the podcast.
00:50:37
Speaker
If you have any comments for us, ah telling us how wrong we are about chemistry and yeah electrons and protons, please email us and tell us. Besides that, please tell us what we forgot, the happiest glaring things that we forgot to mention. I'm sure that there are there are things we forgot. But yeah, our email, ah where you can find us, is soulpodthepodcastatgmail.com.
00:51:03
Speaker
But yeah, we are stoked. This is great. I loved this episode. Thank you. Yeah, me too. Yeah, and we want to hear from you. ah We're excited to, you know, interact and get people's thoughts on things, thoughts on green things. But yeah, thank you so much. And hey, everybody, have a wonderful, beautiful day. We're so grateful for you and we're glad you're here and We'll follow us week. but follow subscribe give them Subscribe. Give us a good review. Traitor us with other people. yeah Love you guys. Bye.
00:52:15
Speaker
Oh my God. Fuck.
00:52:23
Speaker
Oh no. And that was like not forced. I just thought I'm just going to let this one out. I don't care. I'm bad. Me bad. You are bad. Oh my God.