Chara Armon

From the first moment we connected by phone months ago I knew I had found someone truly unique and magical in the realm of recovery and the healing arts.

Chara is a unique blend of incredible “book smarts” with the biggest heart and most beautiful earth loving soul you will ever meet.

It is my incredible honor to have collaborated with Chara on her “Transformation through Autoimmune Disease” Summit webinar, and my even greater pleasure to share her wisdom with you here.

This is one for a cozy chair and a wonderful cup of tea. (bring your journal too!)

In gratitude,
Lindsay

Lindsay and Chara talk about the Spiritual Side of Healing from Chronic Illness and Autoimmune Disease

Tell us a little about yourself

I’m a teacher, mother, wife, and gardener. While raising my three children, I have expanded my approaches to cultivating wellness for our family and for the world around us. My family appreciates progressive education, service to others, walking in forests, organic food, celebrating the seasons, homemade sauerkraut, gluten-free baking, and reading books! As I have explored nature and childhood with my children, my own life priorities have shifted from my work as an historian to new work focused on nurturing the human relationship to the natural world. I’m currently mentoring women and mothers in deepening their own wellness and their children’s wellness through connection to nature, while also sustaining the natural world.

Tell us about your path to creating your business and your vision

My path has led me to transition from scholarly historical work alone, to teaching and research in spirituality and ecology, to an internet-based business focused on mentoring women in restoring their connection to the natural world as a path to personal and family wellness and ecological restoration. My vision is that our individual self-development will be deepened by our awareness that every living creature on the planet plays a valuable role and deserves to flourish, and that we as people have the responsibility of upholding the Earth’s healthy functioning both because the Earth is sacred and because we depend on it for our survival and flourishing. My business name, Mutual Flourishing for Self and Earth, reveals the harmonized, interwoven relationship of wellness, joy, and loving respect that I’m fostering.

Tell us a little about yourself and your philosophy on wellness:

Until recently I have considered wellness to be a personal journey. I now see it as a personal journey that is deeply integrated with other people’s wellness journeys, and with the wellness of the natural world. No one is ill or well in isolation: we constantly affect and are affected by other people, and, unbeknownst to many of us, we constantly affect and are affected by the natural world. Wellness, in my view now, is composed of overlapping circles that represent the self, other people, and nature.

What was the catalyst in your life to fuel your commitment to wellness?

When I realized the seriousness of our environmental problems and their effects on human health, then became honest about my own deep fear and grief about the state of the Earth, my life path changed. Over about ten years, I gradually allowed the flowering of my passionate commitment to addressing ecological and human wellness as part of the same life reality. My deepening awareness of our inter-relationships with the plant, animal, and mineral kingdoms, the elements, and the planet as a whole encourages me to explore and teach how we may communicate with, serve, and be healed by the natural world.

How do you stay healthy, resilient and vibrant?

For me, Eden Energy Medicine, other energy therapies, and healthful diet are key. I also rely on contact with other people, solitude, and contact with nature to stay balanced. Increasingly for me, my relationship to elements of the natural world is essential for my health, vibrancy, and sense of purpose.

If there was only one thing a person could find the energy and resources to make a priority what would it be?

Nutritious organic food, if that is an area of need, or an energy healing modality if the person’s diet is already healthful.

What is your favorite inspirational quote for wellness / awesomeness / thriving?

“In the process of helping the earth to heal, we help ourselves…. The same values we employ in the service of the earth’s replenishment work for us, too. We can love ourselves by loving the earth; feel grateful for who we are, even as we are grateful for the earth’s bounty; better ourselves, even as we use that self-empowerment to improve the earth; offer service to ourselves, even as we practice volunteerism for the earth.”

Wangari Maathai, Replenishing the Earth, 2010

Chara Armon teaches women to integrate self care with Earth care, for mutual flourishing for people and planet.