In this week's Health 101, Cassie Mae schools us in everything from taking ownership of your food sources to self love and acceptance. There is so much wisdom in her words that I encourage you to go get yourself a cup of nice herbal tea, relax, settle in, and sip slowly as you enjoy this dropping of knowledge with a capital K.
How would you define healthy living?
I would define healthy living as taking a holistic approach
to achieving balance in your life, looking at your health as one of your most
precious assets, and making choices for yourself and those you hold dearest
that always place your physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being as top
priority.
Were you always
healthy or was there a turning point in your life that made you decide to
become healthier?
I think I was always exposed to the idea of holistic healthy
living by my mother, who was an ex-hippie and Pentecostal minister. She
instilled the value of healthy eating and a strong devotion to spiritual
growth, but growing up in the 80's we were assaulted like all other kids in my
generation, with the marketing of highly processed junk food towards children.
With my mom being a single mother of six we often succumbed to eating McDonalds
and sugar cereal, Kool-Aid, Twinkies, etc. Despite our unhealthy eating habits,
we also had a strong family culture of cooking our own food from scratch,
especially in times when there was very little food available, and an awareness
of the type of lifestyle my mom lived as a young adult. She often told us about
how she made everything from scratch and ate from the land. At one point
in my childhood when I was around 8, the kids in the family would walk to a
family owned farm that was in close proximity to where we lived in Eugene,
Oregon at the time, and we picked blueberries for a small amount of money. I
learned a lot about the reality of working hard for very little money, but also
about the type of life that small farmers and their families lived. Even at
that young age I think that I saw great value in that lifestyle and carried
with me that dream of being able to grow, prepare, and deeply appreciate my own
food someday, from the soil to the table, when I had a family of my own.
I became a vegetarian as a teenager as a sort of rebellion
of the status quo, but also because I wanted to get in touch with healthy
living...I didn't really understand at that time how to approach a vegetarian
diet in a way that I was getting the maximum benefit out of it. I remember
going to Denny's back in the day and ordering french fries and salad with ranch
dressing, after partying all night and taking in all kinds of toxic chemicals
through smoking, drinking, etc, not really realizing that this was incongruent
and ineffective in achieving good health. Obviously I was confused and without
direction, but I think this was the point at which I really began my journey
into understanding my own body and seeking the knowledge that I needed to
become a healthier person, and to place myself and my own well-being as the most
important factor in how my life went on around me.
I also think that growing up
in the Bay Area really caused me to look at things from the perspective that
seeking a healthy lifestyle and the knowledge necessary to maintain it, was not
only important for myself, but also to the community that I grew up in. I saw
the lack of access to healthy foods in areas that were inundated with liquor
stores, and saw the contrast of areas in Berkeley and other middle and upper
class neighborhoods that had access to gourmet and health food stores, and how
it seemed to breed a sense of entitlement in many of the people who held the
key to that access. I began to understand that healthy living was a form of
empowerment, that people had been locked out of access to these resources in
America, and that those with power had attempted to ingrain the idea that only
certain individuals, due to their economic/class status and ethnicity, should
have the resources available to live healthy lives, and that my husband and I
wouldn't allow this to be the case with me and my children as we began to grow
our family.
Being pregnant with my first child completely changed my
life and my approach towards healthy living, when it becomes about another
human life residing in your body it completely changes the game. Pregnancy
and then nursing each of my four kids, kept me accountable to myself and them,
for what I was ingesting, and for the environment that I created around myself
and them. I had a close friend in my later teens whose mother was fighting
breast cancer with healthy eating and natural medicines and I became very close
with her mother who had so much to teach me about food, medicine, lifestyle,
and the mind body connection. She lived for many, many years using this
approach and she inspired me greatly. My friend and her mother had both, during
my friend's childhood, lived on a commune in the mountains in Northern Cali. I
learned so much from visiting their land, spending stretches of time
experiencing life without electricity, walking through the woods, being
completely at peace with myself, that I felt fit so much with who I
authentically was. In this environment in the mountains, along the river, far
away from the city girl lifestyle, I felt at completely at home, and it put it
into perspective for me what I really wanted out of my life, even if I had to
seek to achieve it in the city.
Another kind of big thrust forward for me and my family was
opening a primarily organic, from scratch, restaurant in Berkeley and being in
touch with the organic foods market and movement in the bay area, as well as
people who were engaged in the struggle for food equality. The roots of strong
social and political movements that focused on food equality in the bay were
monumental and strongly shaped the generations that followed.
What piece of
knowledge would you like to share with others?
Always trust your intuition about your own body and health.
I think we are far too reliant on other people to tell us what is wrong with us
and what we need while being open to the instincts, knowledge, and expertise of
those around you who are gifted in helping others understand their bodies and
achieve wellness. I strongly believe that our bodies and our spirits clearly
indicate to us when there is an issue that needs to be addressed and that God
gives us wisdom on how to approach those issues through directing us to the
knowledge that we need to be empowered. I feel like a solid approach to healthy
living is to always seek out knowledge of the issues related to our health, to
know the current issues that affect us and our families, and to be present and
active in changing things that negatively impact our communities and our world.
We live in a carcinogenic world and how strongly we push against the
bombardment of things that make us sick, pressing in to establishing good
healthy habits and caring for ourselves as well as well as we can, will not
necessarily guarantee a long life, but it will definitely contribute towards
helping us to enjoy the life we have now. I think it's important to learn as
much as possible about how to grow/raise/prepare your own food so that we are
not completely reliant on an agricultural industry that does not usually have
our health and well-being as a priority and places profits first.
What is the one
natural product you can’t live without?
Organic raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar. I use the ACV for everything from making a
tonic with it to using it on my scalp and hair or to treat any fungal issues in
the body. I love it for cooking and pickling too. I make my greens braised in
ACV sometimes, and they are so bomb.
What piece of advice
would you give your 20 year old self?
To trust myself more. To accept my mistakes as opportunities
for growth, and to not operate out of the need to know or control everything.
To allow others the room to fail and to disappoint just as I want them to grant
me that same grace, and to lower expectations while still establishing strong
healthy boundaries in relationships. Nobody will ever be perfect, we have to
take what is positive and beneficial from each relationship and experience and
leave the rest. There is no joy without pain and we can't skip over pain and
suffering to get to the good stuff because they are both indelibly linked and
vital to growth. Having peace and faith that everything in life will work
itself no matter how it may look at the moment is really essential to creating
a foundation for good health. The way we feel emotionally and spiritually
completely dictates to us how capable we are of caring for ourselves and
others. Faith is not contingent on seeing people or situations going our way,
it is trusting regardless of circumstance that all things will work together
for good, even if I don't see a positive change in our own lifetime, and even
if the outcome doesn't benefit me.
What makes you hella
fresh?
I'm hella fresh
because I have no other choice but to be distinctly and uniquely ME! It was
something that I had to come to terms with at a very early age, that I would
never fit into anyone else's mold and it forced me to spend time discovering
who I really was to myself and to live in my true purpose. I'm happy to say
that I really enjoy just being me. As long as I stay true to myself and God
there is not much that anyone can do to hurt me, also realizing that I am fluid
and will continue to grow and evolve throughout the course of my life.
Check out Cassie Mae's stunning jewelry line at:
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