Bri Hurlburt 0:03
Welcome back to Homeopathy at Home with Melissa. Hey, Melissa.
Melissa Crenshaw 0:07
Hey Bri.
Bri Hurlburt 0:08
Hey. I’m great. This is such a good day! There is zero humidity in Tampa. How are you doing?
Melissa Crenshaw 0:33
I know you went to the pool today and folded sourdough at the pool. This is the ultimate homeschool mom.
Bri Hurlburt 0:43
Oh my word. I showed up with my big bowl and my timer set for every 20 minutes. Like sorry, this was the only way I could hang out is if I bring this guy with me.
Melissa Crenshaw 0:53
That's right. Do it. I love it. I can't wait to taste it.
Bri Hurlburt 0:57
And this is a good loaf. So I'm just hoping all that paid off. My sourdough is happy by the pool, too. It turned out so good today.
Melissa Crenshaw 1:05
Awesome. That's so funny.
Bri Hurlburt 1:08
I know I can go on tangents right from the get go, but we've had to really encourage a lot of people, especially lately I feel like, in sticking with the remedies and sticking with homeopathy, because they're getting discouraged or frustrated in not seeing the progress that they are expecting. You and I have been able to look at the situation and say no, this is working and we have been able to identify healing. You've taught me all of what I know about what to look for and how to recognize it, and I can't express enough how much that has just shifted my use of homeopathy, and of healing in general. Like what that means and how different really healing your body is. And it even makes me think of …we can get to all this later, but when you start homeschooling. This is my first year homeschooling, and I've realized how much I've had to deconstruct … When I think I'm going into it knowing exactly what it should look like or what homeschooling is, the more I've done it the more I'm like, wow, I really had no idea how systemized my mind has been. So that's a tangent. Maybe we can get more into that, but …
Melissa Crenshaw 2:45
You just made me think of unmet expectations. That's the root of offense. I usually talk about this in the context of marriage or relationships, when we have unmet expectations, then that's when we get offended and that's where problems start. But if you think about it in homeopathy, people come into it expecting to take a medicine, a homeopathic remedy, and symptoms go away, because that's what we've done all of our lives with allopathy. That's what happens. You take Advil and within 20 minutes, the headache is gone or much better. Right? Fever? It comes down. Pain. Whatever the thing is, we take a medicine and it goes away. So we come in with the expectation that homeopathy is just going to be a natural way to do that. And that's not the way homeopathy works.
We have to remember that we're on a healing journey. This is a lifelong healing journey. There's going to be the next thing and the next thing. I believe that we can get healthier and healthier as we get older. Right now, at 50 years old, I am healthier than I was at 30, tenfold. When I was 30, I was a whole mess. When I was in my 20s: acne, anxiety, depression, all the things and so I am healthier at 50 than I was 20 years ago, and I believe …
Bri Hurlburt 4:40
You’re not 50 yet.
Melissa Crenshaw 4:42
But when this podcast comes out I might be.
Bri Hurlburt 4:44
That's true. Just barely. To your point, yes, you're right.
Melissa Crenshaw 4:56
So this is a journey and homeopathy is the natural way to support your body on that journey. As we go along, as our bodies are getting stronger and healing from past trauma, from past things, and then, you know, a new thing comes up. You know, if you get in a car accident or you have a shocking event, an accident or whatever, even just a bee sting like a shock. That does something. That like pricks your immune system a little bit. I think it depends on the severity of the thing. So then there was more healing to do. It's not just the … everything's connected, so we can't look at the bee sting as that's the only place that something happened. That's what we're gonna heal. That's where we're focused. That shock did something mentally also, and so we can heal the whole body with homeopathy.
It's your body that's doing the healing. It's your immune system. So it's not the remedy. When you take these remedies, I want you to try to get out of the mindset that you take a remedy and it’s that remedy that's going into your body, into your stomach or even your bloodstream, and healing your body. The remedy is going under your tongue, and when it hits the mucosa, it goes into your bloodstream system faster, into your body, and it stimulates your immune system to do what it was made to do.
Sometimes we need help to get over humps. Sometimes we need help to just heal something because it's just too much for our bodies. And that's what homeopathy does. When you take a remedy, and it doesn't work like you expected it to, it's that unmet expectation and it's the unrealistic, or the fact that you're not clear on how homeopathy really works. Because we live in a microwave society. We want it right now. When people come to homeopathy, they have tried everything else. It’s their last stop.
Bri Hurlburt 7:45
What I think is interesting, too, is that homeopathy is usually their last stop. Most of them have even worked their way through other natural methods and so I even think, in the natural/crunchy worlds, we have still used things that can help make us feel better quickly for a short amount of time. They're not even bad. They're not harming us, like allopathy can suppress and harm, but they're also not dealing with the problem. Most of those things you can use in tandem with homeopathy, even essential oils. You can take that and sometimes getting rid of a headache, it really works well, or herbs for lots of different things, but I still do think it's really a mindset. It's not that anything is bad, but I think it's our mindset that, “Well, these things work faster. Why would I do this?” or “Homeopathy is making it worse,” which we do get sometimes.
I feel like I've seen this a lot. And I want you guys to know, we're not throwing anybody under the bus! So, if we mention something that maybe you've done, or you've even said to us, this is to be helpful and encourage you because there are many people who have reached out. But I'll see them say like I tried this remedy, and I've learned from you to clarify, what does that mean when you tried that? Did you take that one time? Did you take it two times? Did you give it a good 24 hours? Or in a chronic condition, did you stay consistent with that for weeks? And then let's clarify what did not work? Like what did you see happen? And then we'll talk about if that is actually healing or not.
You were saying something though about the microwave thing and I feel like you were going somewhere with that, the microwave society.
Melissa Crenshaw 9:49
Yeah, we just want it right now. And we don't give it enough time. I cannot tell you how often, I believe that it really happens, that people walk away from homeopathy … We have to remember that the homeopathic remedies work in the body for a long time. This is not like allopathy where it's only working for three hours and you're done, then it's out of your system, and then you have to take it again. Even in an acute condition, when I say take that remedy every three hours, it's not that the remedy is out of your system in three hours, and you have to take it again like Tylenol. It's that we want that more stimulation. We want to hit it again, that immune system. Stimulate it again. Stimulate it again. Stimulate it some more to get through that acute condition.
But I believe very often people walk away from homeopathy thinking it didn't work, it didn't do anything, and there's such a subtle, gentle uprooting of their conditions that it does come, but then they've moved on and started trying something else and they say it was that thing,but we'll never know that. I mean, how would we ever know that? But that's how slow and gentle it is. And I do believe that there's people walking around right now that left homeopathy a few weeks ago, a few months ago, a year ago, and those remedies are still working in your body that you took then.
It’s a gentleman. Homeopathy is not … what’s a non-gentleman? Do you want to name names? Who’s like a rough man who's not a gentleman at all?
Bri Hurlburt 12:30
Maybe we should think of … what is it? Gaston in Beauty and the Beast? He's not a gentleman.
Melissa Crenshaw 12:36
Yeah, that's right. That's right. Gaston is allopathy, and …
Bri Hurlburt 12:42
The beast.
Melissa Crenshaw 12:46
The beast is homeopathy. Mm-hmm. Gentle.
Bri Hurlburt 12:52
I’ll think of a good analogy as soon as we're done, so we'll come back later.
Melissa Crenshaw 12:57
He was so slow. I think this is a good one. The Beast, he was so slow.
Bri Hurlburt 13:00
He was. And I think something to remember is we're working on long term … like you have to think of what you're doing is long term, making your body healthier, not just not getting sick, or not just not feeling bad. Really, we're moving through those things. And it reminds me of counseling, if you've ever gone to therapy, especially if you've ever gone to like trauma therapy, or anything. Even if you've done it outside of counseling, but as you go back and kind of work through things, or even something as small as conflict in your life, there are lots of people who they encounter conflict, and they're like, “I will avoid that. I will avoid it. I will avoid it. I will avoid it.” And there's not growth. That's not healthy. Sometimes as you start working through old trauma, or you start addressing conflict as it comes, it feels worse, before it gets better.
Melissa Crenshaw 14:08
Mm-hmm. Because it brings it out. You address the actual root.
Bri Hurlburt 14:14
The problem.
Melissa Crenshaw 14:15
You address the thing.
Bri Hurlburt 14:17
Yeah. And it takes work. It usually takes work to face the conflict and then look at your own self and try to move through a conversation in a productive way and then try to make life changes that fix that problem. It's a long process to truly become … you know, sanctification. That is what that is. For God to really sanctify us. And so homeopathy is, sometimes it takes bringing old things to the surface and then it can truly heal and uproot them and your body.
I love what you said. I feel like I'm still thinking about this in five different ways … that the remedies are not healing your body, but your body is healing.
Melissa Crenshaw 15:11
So we don't give homeopathy the glory. God gets the glory. He made our bodies. When we’re good stewards of our health and our bodies, we are glorifying the Lord. He made these immune systems that we have. Homeopathy can stimulate that immune system. Yes, it's your body that's doing the healing because it's what what God meant in the beginning. I was wanting to … Were you done?
Bri Hurlburt 15:51
Yeah. I mean, I can keep going about random things but no collected thoughts. All those are done.
Melissa Crenshaw 15:57
I was wanting to just touch on the patience. Patience is huge in every part of life but especially if you're going to step into homeopathy. Because we're thinking long term health and uprooting the conditions, there's got to be a level of patience there. You cannot run into homeopathy in a hurry. That's where it gets hard because people come to it last. They've tried everything and at that point, they're desperate. And I feel really … my heart goes out to them when they come to me and they're desperate.
Bri Hurlburt 16:40
Or they truly are really sick because you have tried a lot of things that have either suppressed or prolonged illness, like haven't gotten rid of it. So it is hard when you feel like it's gotten worse, or it's just you're really sick and you're sick of feeling that way.
Melissa Crenshaw 17:01
Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love. That's Ephesians 4:2. The bible talks a lot about patience. Patient endurance is what you need now so that you will continue to do God's will, then you will receive all that He has promised. Hebrews 10:36, I think that says without my glasses on. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud and that goes on, you know, in 1 Corinthians 13.
Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble and keep on praying. That might be the best one yet, especially if you're sick. And that's Romans 12:12. Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble and keep on praying. So when you are sick, keep on praying. Focus on the Lord and be patient.
Ah, here's another good one. But if we look forward to something we don't yet have, our health, so maybe you don't have good health and you're looking forward to good health, we must wait patiently and confidently. Who's our confidence in? The Lord? There's so many. I mean, I could go on and on and on. There's a huge list. I could really scroll for … I'm still scrolling it. There's a lot. Are there any that stood out to you that you want to share?
Bri Hurlburt 18:39
I'm looking. A lot of them that you've already read. I love that one though that you said is the best one. Romans 12:12.
Bri Hurlburt 18:50
Really, endurance and patience in any good thing. Any change in your life. Anytime you're trying to make a big change, and anybody will tell you this, if you're trying to lose weight or restructure your lifestyle, get rid of the things that you're eating and change that, it takes a lot of discipline and endurance and patience and those are all Fruit of the Spirit. Long suffering. Patience. It's not easy work.
We've talked about it before, too, how important it is to have people around you. I think we say that a lot in our class and maybe we've said it here before. To have a community who will encourage you in the hard things. Not just homeopathy, but sticking with the long, slow work of most of life honestly.
I think it will. It does take time. I have worked through … I mean, Melissa has been there for a lot of my frustrations and it's kept me from really being super frustrated just having you around and encouraging me all the time. And I'm like, “Okay, I know it works. She's been doing this for way longer than me. I can have faith it's gonna work for my family.” But also, sometimes I'm like, “Why are my kids getting so many colds?” And you had to help me remember that the goal is not for my kids to never get sick again. Really, that is how their immune systems are built, by a lot of these young childhood illnesses. Our goal is not to avoid them. It's not bad. Now, obviously, there's a lot in between, like truly sick all the time, but like normal. Going through little viruses here and there. So, have a community of people and, biblically speaking, the body of Christ is so important to encourage you as a Christian. So man, it's just so much overlap here.
Melissa Crenshaw 20:57
When I talk about things like this, like what we're saying, I see almost a discouragement come over elderly people. So when women, you know, 60s, 70s, 80s. And I'm not saying that 60 is elderly. I'm just saying the older generation, when I start talking about this and how I feel like I'm getting healthier, because I've been using homeopathy for 20 something years, I see a discouragement come over them, like is it too late for me? And I always encourage them, no. It's never too late to start using homeopathy. And I was wondering if you had any encouragement for them?
Bri Hurlburt 21:59
Well… this is hard, I think, for older people that I know who feel like, “I'm not raising kids anymore. I'm not childbearing, so why does my health really matter that much,” or whatever the thing is. I don't know that I can confidently speak a lot to it since I am still in my 30s, but I can say that the women ahead of me who I see, I don't think you realize how influential you really are to not just your own children, but to all the people around you.
I notice older people doing healthy things. I go to a workout class where I struggle, every time. There is like a 75-80 year old. She is older, past even grandma stage, and she is kicking my butt. I finally said something to her the other day. I was like, “Thank you for coming. I know you're not doing this for me, but I watch you and it pushes me. It's encouraging to see you do this long term.” I don't know if that's helpful, but also you will feel better. I have full confidence you will feel better. At the very least you will be better, more available, to the people in your life that you love.
Melissa Crenshaw 23:34
Yeah. Absolutely.
Skin and pain can be two of the longest roads to travel. When there's pain, that can take a long time. And when there's eczema, psoriasis, those can be really hard, longer things to deal with. I honestly don't know why. Homeopathy just really shines in the mental. The mental picture always clears up first. You might be trying to uproot some kind of pain or skin condition or whatever else in your body, but your mental picture is the best way I can say it, because, not everybody has a mental condition, but you're going to get healthier mentally first. Then you're like, “I need this pain to go away,” but your mental health is going to improve first and along the way. It's always doing something. Homeopathy is doing something in the body.
Bri Hurlburt 24:47
And you don't always see it. I know there's a few people in my life who have had serious gut issues that Melissa and I have met with and Melissa was, you know, you give them the remedy plan. And they did it. Those take a long time, too. Sometimes a couple of years to fully heal. One ran out of the remedies and just stopped taking them. And I was just talking to her the other night, and we were having spaghetti. She used to not be able to eat any red anything. And I had forgot even. I'm like that felt so long ago that you used to have horrible pain, had to go to the bathroom right away, like was so uncomfortable. And she's like, “Oh, yeah, I can eat anything I want now.”
Melissa Crenshaw 25:30
That’s amazing. I love that.
Bri Hurlburt 25:33
Yeah, I noticed. I sat there and was like, “Oh, my word. You're eating all of these things.” She was totally fine. She never has issues anymore. And my sister is another one. She wouldn't mind me saying this. She stuck with it and she has stuck with it, but it was not going away. It’s been a little over a year even. But she's tried a lot of other things for pain and gut stuff. And she ran out of some remedies about a month ago and just hadn't ordered again yet. And she just told me today, she's like, “I need to place another order. I didn't realize. I just kind of forgot. In the past few days, a lot of my symptoms have come back.” Not to the extreme. It took almost a whole month. I tried to encourage her, “I feel like your body really is healing. The fact that you could go a month. And you, right now, you're experiencing those symptoms again, and feeling like, ‘Oh, my word, nothing happened. I'm right back to where I was.’ but do you recognize it's been a whole entire month?” Where before it would have been maybe two days before you would have been feeling terrible. So that was a long story but I just am seeing now, sometimes it takes so much time and other people in your life recognizing that.
Melissa Crenshaw 26:52
Yes, yes. That's also a big thing. Have somebody else help you to observe yourself. If you're trying to observe yourself, that's hard. You might think it's not working when it really is. You might not even notice until something like that, like you run out of remedies and you see, “Oh, they really were working.” So she just still needs that stimulation from the remedies but eventually she won't. This is not a forever … she's not gonna have to take this forever. It just doesn't work that way.
Bri Hurlburt 27:28
And I think the last thing in my mind is … it kind of goes with maybe somebody who is elderly and feels like there's no other point. But ultimately, if you are a Christian - as believers, our number one goal should be to honor God in all the things that we do. So even if our only motivation is that, and the only reason we're sticking with living a healthier lifestyle and taking care of our bodies, and doing these things is to honor God with what he's given us and be good stewards, that's enough motivation. And all the other stuff is just cherries on top. Really, so much of the Christian life is like that.
Melissa Crenshaw 28:19
That's great. Have your expectations in the right place. You might need somebody to help you remember this over and over and over again. I mean, it's like anything. We often need to be reminded of things when it gets hard, so have your community like Bri.
Bri Hurlburt 29:10
Be in a Facebook group. If you want to keep coming to classes, if you’ve taken them before. Those things have been really helpful to me. I don't want to just always pitch classes and things you have to buy, but really that is a way to learn and to be confident and to be in a group of people who are learning with you and reminding you. I really think that's what changed for me.
Melissa Crenshaw 29:34
Yeah, that's good. We'll see you guys next week for Materia Medica Monday. Have a great day.