🍲 kitchari recipe for y’all! (it’s not super specific as to leave room for variation & creativity :)) 1 cup mungbeans 1 cup basmati rice soak overnight rinse rice/beans in a large pot, add 2 tbsp ghee or coconut oil fry: cumin, coriander, mustard seeds add in rice/beans, fry in spiced oil add in a few cups of water add in sliced/chopped fresh ginger root, turmeric root if available simmer with lid on ~20 min or until just cooked, soft but still firm add in: finely chopped root veg: sweet potato, carrot, potato turmeric powder, black pepper, salt more water if needed cook with lid ~15 min or until soft, well cooked add water as needed finally add in chopped kale or spinach, more water/spices to taste, let cook for 5-10 more mins top with ~ as you like~ fresh parsley/coriander, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, salt/pepper, fresh ginger, yogurt, tamari, seaweed flakes, ghee to taste … enjoy 🤍🔥😋 I love making a big batch of this and eating it as a mono-diet mini-“cleanse” for a few days. Winter is not the time to be water or dry fasting in my (TCM informed) view as we need to be nurturing & warming our bodies, but taking a break from sugars, meat, processed foods etc and simplifying nutrition for a few days is beneficial to our whole system - the liver loves it, and it’s a good mental break from thinking about meal planning- and gives our spleens a little warming boost with the aromatic spices, and allows our stomach to rest a little as the food is easily broken down, and nurtures the gut flora. 🧡 mung beans drain excess dampness and are gently detoxifying. turmeric adds anti inflammatory benefits. makes the best breakfast , lunch or dinner - and when/if you do fast, this is a wonderful food to break a fast with. apparently used as a baby food in India, it’s a good one for those with sensitive digestion. this is a traditional Ayurvedic recipe that I have adapted over the years , inspired by living in India & yogic communities. xo

I’m offering an online course! ☯️ this is for those of you that are curious to integrate into your life some of the many nourishing lifestyle teachings that Traditional Chinese Medicine has to offer. We will explore Acupressure, Qigong, meditations, seasonal nutritional attunement, with some herbal guidance, astrology and New Moon magic, too. ✨🌑 Starting with Water, we will flow into Wood, Fire, Metal and Earth, exploring one element per month, and all the philosophy and theory associated with each. 5 workshops, 90mins each, on Zoom & recorded! Did you know that there are 8 branches of TCM? 🎋 1. Meditation 2. Nutrition 3. Exercise/Movement 4. Feng Shui 5. Astrology 6. Massage/Acupressure 7. Herbal Medicine 8. Acupuncture This course will cover 6 of those 8 limbs … acupuncture only covers one! my intention is to empower you to tap into your own inner source of self-healing. This medicine is a way of life, embodying the seasons, cycles and rhythms of the earth, moon, macrocosmic and microcosmic orbit. It is truly my joy to share and nerd out on all of this beautiful wisdom. Would love for you to join me 🤍 Link in bio to register via my website or Dm me for more info :)

❄️ winterfest set up! first time tabling a market since birthing Nymphaea 🪷 ** i will also be vending @ the Goddess Fair at the wellness centre (Saltspring) next saturday the 17th- an all womxn show, everyone welcome to attend for now I have available for purchase: * balm of gilead (small $20, large $40) * witches butter (herbal body and lip balm) $20 * massage oil $40 * healing salve $30 * full spectrum heart medicine flower essence blend $18 * elderberry greek honey elixir $30 * oneiros elixir (dream tincture/honey blend) $20 🤍 serving salty and victoria and cowichan and can ship * after the holidays also 👀check out my website www.nymphaeaacupuncture.com 😊 ** mucho amooor ! photos by the best brujo helper @movementlab84 ✨

autumn / queen annes lace 🌾

Returning from a brief and rich ancestral journey to my family’s homeland, the island of Skopelos, in Northern Greece. All of these photos were taken on the land that my Papou (father’s father) was raised on, that he and his family tended, grew food on, kept bees and took shelter during the war. I am indescribably fortunate to have the opportunity to return to these lands, to breathe in the sweet pine-dripped aromas emanating from the warm earth, with wild oregano and mints kissed by the sun, mingling with the ocean breeze. jasmine flowers awakening in the dusk, seducing the evening. myrtle-bush hugging the Agean coastline. Lemon, almond, and fig-tree offering up their sweet abundant fruits. Connection to the Plantcestors. Our home land is named Mourtias, the native myrtle-bush. While I bask in the immense gratitude of having this experience reconnecting with my family and this place, somewhere I have had the privilege of knowing all my life, and is the most consistent home I have known; I am also tending a complex grief around leaving, feeling like this is my deepest home, and that I long to return. This time I experienced the island pulling me in stronger, like my belonging to it had been woven in more deeply. And in the same breath my longing to cultivate more relationship to this place, my relatives, the language, and my own rememberance, has been amplified. Anyways, I am back on Canadian soil, Hum’ulq’uminum territory (Saltspring Island) with a sense of inspiration and peace, and effused with the medicine of my ancestral saltwaters and sunkissed land. From one abundantly beautiful island to another… If your body, mind, soul are in need of holding, unraveling, and care, I am here in full service with the tools in my belt. Feeling inspired more than ever to be available to offer these Medicines. Private Acupuncture & Bodywork, Community Acupuncture, and Herbal Medicine services are available. link in bio or dm to book in/ inquire. 🌿🙏🏽

🌕 tending grief and joy 🌿 with ocean spray ~ medicines for my grieving being have been showing up as mirrors in the plant realm for the past while. perhaps it is the cancerian waters that we are in, feeling into all the crevices of emotion existing hidden and lodged within the body, especially the lungs and respiratory system. in the TCM five element model, the metal element is associated with the emotion of grief and the organs of the lungs and large intestine. its seasonal connection is autumn. so why at the peak of summer sun does this arise? since I was a young child I have experienced waves of depression that arose most significantly in the summertime. a cultural paradox as the solar months are often connected to ecstatic joy and celebration, easefulness and play. while this is true, polarity, and duality rule our inner and outer worlds. for every expansive peak there is an equal and opposite deep sorrow that exists. and when we create space to feel the depths of our loss and longing, we carve out an equal and opposite space to feel our joy in its fullness. ocean spray (Holodiscus discolor), a native plant to the pacific northwest, has been a strong ally in my embrace of the full spectrum of feeling. since it began to bloom several weeks ago i have been feeling a deep permission to sit with my grief and heartache. she has been encouraging me to take a pause ; a full breath in to fill the alveoli with presence and let them release , more and more, all that they are carrying… what if, instead of perceiving heaviness as something negative, we could allow it to pull us into the depths of our human experience and witness what it is there to be felt, loved, released and transformed? what if we could reject the notion of needing to be always-happy and embrace the yin within the yang, the replenishment that is the gift of slowing-down and feeling all that is true within the multilayered self? we are dynamic, ever changing, intergalactic and earth. permit it all to flow through.

🌿pickled gobo/burdock🌿 “gobo” is the japanese name for burdock, arctium lappa ~ a bear medicine whose roots coax us out of our dens of hibernation i love this sweet earthy herb ~ connecting deep with its rich nourishing and detoxifying essence these spring days. this herb is an excellent support for the liver & skin, and is a rich source of inulin which helps to keep encourage growth of healthy gut flora 🌿 it is so very delicious and one of my favourite root medicines i also love its quality of gently supporting, nourishing and grounding whilst encouraging liver and kidney pathways that already know how to flush buildup through our systems ~ the following is an adapted japanese gobo recipe based on what i had in my kitchen. traditional recipes call for sake and mirin which i did not have! i made this with fresh green garlic which could be swapped with scapes or bulbs 🧄 2 cups sliced fresh burdock root 1 stalk fresh green garlic sliced ginger 3 cups water 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar 1/2 cup tamari sauce sterilize a 500ml mason jar slice burdock roots and simmer in water to steam for 5 minutes add steamed root slices to the jar, and use the infused water to fill about 1/2 of the jar add in garlic, ginger, apple cider vinegar and tamari cap lid tightly let sit on the countertop for one day & then refrigerate pickles will be ready in 3 days. * should last 3 months or more enjoy & happy wood element season 🌱

Beloved Salt Spring 🌷 I am overjoyed to offer Acupuncture four days a week coming up reeeal soon. I have bookings open at Flow Day Spa Tuesday April 26 (link in bio to book or dm me !) && starting in May I will have Monday/Tuesdays open for private treatments. AND I am excited to be offering affordable Community treatments @ Kokoro Care Wednesdays and Thursdays 😻 (find me on their website soon!) I love this medicine so much. I have a special interest in nervous system, mental, emotional and spiritual health as well as reproductive and digestive wellness. If you are in the area I would love to support you with these nurturing gifts that Chinese Medicine has to offer. much springtime love to all 🐝

happy mars-day beautiful folks 🌓 I took a little pause from this account, as I was hibernating 🐻 and then buzzing around Mexico soaking up sunshine, surfing in warm water and gazing at as many flowers as I could find 🐝 I am feeling beyond grateful for the lands of Baja and Oaxaca and the rich culture there that nourished me deep 🌺 now, I am returning in a new way ~ as an officially registered acupuncturist (!!!) and relocating to Salt Spring Island/ Hul’q’umi’num/SENĆOTEN speaking territory where I’m setting up my clinical practice. 💃🏽 I’m so grateful to everyone in Lekwungen territory/Victoria who has supported my herbal medicine offerings and encouraged me to keep sharing and learning on this green path. It fills up my heart so deeply to connect plants to people and I intend to continue to do so in an expanded way as I fully step into clinical practice🧚🏽 Excited for this new chapter and for all that it will bring and teach. Check out my link in bio to book in for an Acupuncture session. Monday/Tuesdays at Flow Day Spa ~ private table acupuncture with moxa/cupping/tuina/guasha available. Sliding scale $80-120 for an hour. and starting in May book in with me in the community clinic @ Kokoro Care on Wednesday/Thursday! Herbal offerings will look different until my apothecary is fully set up in my home. Mugwort/artemisia vulgaris is always with me in the clinic 🙏🏽 Right now the focus is on sharing the potent and nourishing healing ways of Traditional Chinese Medicine ☯️ giving thanks to all the incredible teachers and for this lineage standing behind me. Oh, and on the name change - I’ve shifted my business name to encompass the spectrum of my offerings - still invoking that beloved ancestral goddess of feminine independence, wildness, and care for animals and childbirth. 🦌 pictured with beloved Datura Stramonium in San Mateo Rio Hondo 🍄 blessings to all Zoë

also fully stocked with hand sanis for the season 🌿🙏🏽 70% isopropyl with aloe Vera, witch hazel and essential oils of fir, rosemary and sage $10