How to live a germ filled life

Costa Rican Kimchi recipe next. To follow: New Inner Wilderness post detailing healing lessons from another plant medicine experience

After all the learning, living and trusting my process, here’s my Life With Germs philosophy rooted in nature and with us as a co-creator with the natural world.

By slow degrees, I surrendered to the wisdom of microbes and cultivated an environment where they could thrive in harmony and balance both within me and my surroundings. I chose to have a fully commensal relationship with all the germs, bacteria, virus, yeast, macrophage and the mycorrhizal network within me, connecting me to the intelligence of nature. It takes a lot of energy and hyper vigilance to constantly be afraid of germs everywhere, creating a fear vibration that attracts more of what you don’t want in more ways than ever.

I am very cognizant of my environment and work to welcome all of it actually. A wise naturopath made a suggestion to me back in early 2019. An MS flare caused me to go blind in my right eye. That precipitated the long environmental illness and mold chapter of my healing journey. Once remediated, we sold the house and moved. She said I needed to “break-up with the energy of mold”. The hyper vigilance I had seemed to attract more mold (everywhere!) than I could constantly be afraid of, with mold lurking around every corner and behind every refrigerator. I couldn’t hold that fear energy anymore. It was exhausting.

That’s not to suggest mold and environmental illness isn’t real, and there are indeed microbes in our environment that are detrimental and harmful. The essence of my philosophy is what within me can I change? Not just change my external environment via diet and living conditions. But change the relationship I had with mold and microbe. Change my energy vibration, releasing the fear. I could be in battle mode all the time, there is a constant source of things to be afraid of in our environment, easily sucking my energy in that direction. Or, I can choose to surrender and trust. Befriend. Invite in their wisdom and presence. They proved to know what to do far more than I. I no longer wanted to be in energetic battle with nature.

So, what does that look like? First, I am not afraid of you, where you’ve been, if you washed your hands after you used the restroom or were sick last week. I don’t use antibacterial goo unless it absolutely makes sense in a given moment. I certainly don’t use it indiscriminately or unconsciously. I’m not rigid on getting my teeth constantly cleaned. Gosh, I have great dental health, brush my teeth and floss and all the things, but ever heard of Weston A. Price? The dentist who traveled the world looking into the mouths of indigenous people all over the globe in the 1930’s? People who’ve never visited a dentist? Their mouths were pristine. In a healthy mouth, the build up on your teeth actually contain healthy bacteria that creates a protective barrier between your teeth and gum. It has an important role to play, just like cholesterol does. It has its own microbiome. I choose a toothpaste that doesn’t kill the bacteria in my mouth. The foundation of good dental health is derived from the diet, not the dentist.

I get dirty. Get my hands in the soil of the earth, go into nature as much as possible, trailing my fingers through the ferns and wild flowers. I don’t wash my vegetables from the farmers market with anything but water and a scrub brush. I don’t use any body care products, cleaning supplies and lawn and garden care products that have microbiome disrupting chemicals.

I try to cultivate a hospitable environment for good bacteria. I ferment all the time. Creating an environment rich with beneficial and friendly bacteria to take up residence in my external surroundings, awaiting somewhere to nestle in, creating more health for me. I’m a fresh air freak. Much to my family's dismay, especially in times of illness in our home, every window gets opened. In my environment, windows are open as much as weather permits. In winter in Colorado I crack windows to keep the air moving and constantly exchange the internal microbial balance of my space. Every rental gets thoroughly aired upon arrival.

I try to cultivate a diet rich in internal opportunities for bacterial growth by eating as wide a variety of local and wild food and honey as possible. Lots of fiber and a variety of fermented food options available in my fridge. I also embrace other ways of keeping my immune system strong when I’m feeling depleted or others around me are getting ill such as taking Vitamin C and other appropriate supplements. I take a spore based probiotic and make sure to get healthy sunshine exposure, not with sunscreen, sunglasses, hat, etc to shield myself from the most dense form of Vitamin D our body knows, tapping into our evolutionary wisdom and my innate desire for sun.

In this way, it feels I am building resilience. My immune system is stronger. Most importantly, the deeper sense within, the softening that happened within me and my nervous system when I chose to embrace all of nature and not be afraid of it. Setting down the heavy weight and constant vigilance around “germs” actually created more harmony within me. It was so much easier and freeing. And empowering.

I hope I’ve inspired you to look at ways you can also soften around all the stories stirring up fear about our environment. We can choose, even by slow degrees, to cultivate a co-created relationship with microbes and perhaps be healthier for it.

Attached are resources to deepen your relationship with the microbiome within you and your environment.

With love and microbial abundance,

Christine