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IN THIS PODCAST, WE COVER:

 

01:40    Importance of self-education

06:12    Finding time amid busyness

10:32    Repetition of remedies and provings  

21:21    Starting with the study groups

26:04    Tips on easy learning

 

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST:

 

Gateway to Homeopathy: A Guided Study Group Curriculum

Stop It! How to Antidote a Bad Drug Reaction

A Salute to Ignatia Real Medicine for Post-Traumatic Stress and More

Good Gut, Bad Gut:  A Homeopathic Strategy to Uproot Seemingly Unrelated Illness in Body and Mind  

Allergic!? Escape Allergies, Sensitivities, and Intolerances, with Homeopathy. Practical Protocols to Get Your Life Back

Feminopathy: How You Can Correct Female Ailments Using Safe, Inexpensive and Effective Homeopathy

A Materia Medica: Practical Homeopathy® for Busy Families

Dr. James Tyler Kent's Materia Medica

My free blog

 

 

Kate:  This is the Practical Homeopathy® Podcast Episode Number 84 with Joette Calabrese.

 

Joette:  Joette Calabrese here, folks. I’m happy that you’ve joined me for my podcast today. You’re in for a treat. From my virtual classroom, I’m privileged to see how homeopathy is transforming lives all over the globe. Their successes inspire me. They’re glorious and powerful, and I can’t keep their triumphs a secret. I want you to hear the excitement my students experience, too. So, you can be inspired by their unique stories. With the help from Kate, my reporter, I bring you a podcast series I call, “Moms with Moxie.” Sometimes we even interview “Dads with Audacity” or “Teens with Tenacity.” See how regular mothers and others — average folks who love healing those around them — have gone from freaking to fabulous by simply applying what they’ve learned using what I call Practical Homeopathy®.

Kate:  Hi, I'm Kate. I'm here with Joette today for another episode of the Practical Homeopathy® podcast. Today, Joette is feeling a little spunky, and we are going to have a conversation about self-education. So, Joette, let's talk about education. I know you're very passionate about it, and you have a lot to say. Let's jump right in.

 

Importance of Self-education

 

Joette:  Yes, I'm very opinionated, especially lately, regarding universities. My husband and I actually discouraged our sons from going to the universities because we didn't want to lose them. I think that's what happens in these universities. Certainly, there is a reason to go to college if you want to get a further degree such as medical doctor, engineer, astrophysicist. Okay, I get it. Now, that makes sense! You need to go to college, and then you need to do some post-grad degrees.

 

But to get a degree in music, really? I'll tell you about music.

 

My father, who never went to college, was a very successful man. He was a finished musician. He played in symphonies. He played flute, classical flute. He also played jazz in big bands. He was in a lot of the big bands in Buffalo when big bands were hot back in the 30s and 40s and 50s. He played trumpet. He did not go to college for that. I'm not telling you that there aren't good teachers in colleges for trumpet or flute, but he sought it out.

 

He worked in the dry cleaners establishment, delivered dry cleaning, and had all kinds of little jobs, so that he could make enough money when he was a young man, so as to take lessons from the teachers that he sought out regionally — all around Buffalo, New York.

 

But he was also a businessman. He had small businesses. He bought and sold real estate. He had a small construction business when he was a very young man, and Buffalo was a very hot town at the time. Actually, Buffalo has come around quite a bit, but it went through a difficult time in the last 40, 50 years. But at this time, it was a very exciting city.

 

He went to New York City and bought hundreds — maybe even more than that —of ties (men's neckties) and brought them back to Buffalo. He got a big, long dowel, strew it across a tiny little room — which was really not even a store, it was more like a closet with a door to the street — and sold neckties. He was enterprising. He did that to make a living. Then he had a delicatessen. He had a lot of businesses.

 

But my point is that in spite of him being able to take care of a family, he still educated himself. I've often told the story of how when I was about 12 or 13, he switched from a complete focus on trumpet playing — and he was a very good trumpet player — to learning how to play the flute as well. He played constantly. He practiced constantly.

 

I know I've told this story. When he picked me up from school in high school, he would have the flute by his side, and I would be in the passenger seat. At every light that turned red, he’d pick up his flute, and he would play a riff, or he would play a scale. Then he’d play it in the minor, and then he’d do the arpeggio. He hoped for a nice, long red light.

 

When it was green, he’d put it down and start over again. Instead of talking to me, he would talk to me while he was driving, but at the lights, instead of talking to me, he'd face me with the flute, playing. His eyebrows would lift, and he would be gesturing to me with his facial expressions and do a little bird fluting up at the top of the register. Then he’d do something that would make me laugh.

 

He would communicate through his instrument. That was because he had a passion for something. He took it seriously and didn't look for a degree. He was looking to master something.

 

Degrees and mastery are not necessarily synonymous. In fact, often they are not. Because if they were, we would all be going to post-grad medical school, homeopathy school. We are not. We're learning at home.

 

I guess this leads us into the discussion of how important it is to self-educate. That is the ultimate of being an adult, in my estimation: to remain curious and always be educating. Always be learning something new. When you finish that … okay, you've mastered that or almost mastered it? Okay, onto the next.

 

Finding time amid busyness

 

Kate:  Let's talk about time for just a few minutes because I know that a lot of busy moms listen to this podcast. We are all busy and struggle to fit in the time to learn the things that we're passionate about like homeopathy. I recently had the opportunity to listen to John Maxwell speak. He had a really great tip. I just wanted to share that with everyone.

 

As you know, John Maxwell has written a phenomenal amount of books. People ask him, “How do you write these many books?”

 

He says, “15 minutes at a time.”

 

So, it's kind of like the stoplight philosophy that we can find these little pieces of time …

 

Joette:  Snippets.

 

Kate:  … and if you add them up, you will be educated. You will eventually become an expert or very well-versed in a subject if you just keep chipping at that information little bit by little bit.

 

Joette:  More importantly — you're absolutely right — but more importantly, it gives it cohesiveness. Because if you found 15 minutes two hours ago, and then you find another 10 minutes now, you're building on what you learned earlier in the day. That builds on top of building on top of building, and it adds cohesiveness and a collection of information by the end of the day.

 

More often than not, most moms who are learning how to use homeopathy to treat themselves and families don't realize that they've learned a lot. They think they don't know much. They’re just looking at how high they have to go to get to the end of the line — which to be honest, you never get to.

 

But if they talk to someone who knows nothing about homeopathy, and that was them a year ago or six months ago, they realize, “Oh, my gosh! I guess I really do know a good amount because I've cured my husband's shin splints, and I've cured my sinus infection, and my menstrual pain, and my son's attention deficit. Look at all the things I’ve done. I guess I have learned enough to say that I'm getting this.”

 

That's what we need as humans. We need that self-congratulatory sensation that gives us the confidence to move forward.

 

Kate:  Sometimes we need someone to come alongside of us and just say, “Yes, those are great choices.”

 

I've had several people email me recently who are taking my study groups, and they've told me, “This is what I'm doing for a sprained ankle or something like that.”

 

They’ve given me three different medicines that they're using, or two, and I say, “That's great. That’s perfect!”

 

Joette:  They got it! They figured it out!

 

Kate:  Yes, I know.

 

Joette:  I see it every day when I work with my clients and when I teach in the classes at night with the study groups. I hear what these people are using, and I can tell. I used to ask in the classes and the study groups when I’d meet them on Zoom. We'd have 15 to 60 people up there, and I'd be looking at them. I'd say, “Tell me how long you've been using homeopathy.”

 

I don't do that any longer because the questions that they ask, I know instantly approximately how long they've been using homeopathy — by the kinds of questions they ask.

 

Kate:  I think people just need that reassurance, that confidence, that you can do it. You can research. You can learn and make good choices. Then they need to be encouraged just to maybe go that next little step, whether it's not being afraid to use a medicine too often. I mean, I know that you can use them too often. But I think they're extra cautious — which is a good thing — but just someone to hold their hand and say, “Yes, you're doing a good job. Now, let's go to that next little step.”

 

Joette:  You bet. You bet. It's not just about homeopathy and joining study groups or starting another one. Interestingly, I've seen, and I know you've seen this, too. We see someone who joins a study group, and they love it. Then they join that next person, — whoever's running the next one — they join that one, too. Then they join the next one, and the next one, and the next one. You're not rebuying the book! You've got the same book. Just keep going and listen to other people’s conditions and how they have dealt with them, and you will learn.

 

One of my teachers told me years ago, you will never learn homeopathy until you're in practice. I don't expect folks to go into practice, but that's the second-best level is to hear everyone's problems, and how they were solved. Then you can see over and over, story after story, and it's memorable.

 

That's how you remember. Because inevitably, whatever that person suffered that last week, I'll bet, within a month, you're going to have the same condition in your family.

 

Repetition of remedies and provings

 

Kate:  I brought up repetition of the remedy. I would like it if you could flesh that out just a little bit more for listeners because, like I said, they're cautious. And they have a right to be cautious because these are medicines. But if you could just explain this a little bit more, how often can they repeat these remedies?

 

Joette:  Well, I can't give a rule of thumb as to how often a medicine should be repeated because I don't know what the medicine is, and I don't know what the condition is, et cetera, et cetera. We have to be more specific than that. But I understand your general question. What has happened in homeopathy is — in my teaching — that you don't want to overuse a medicine, and you want to always be observing whether or not it's doing good or not.

 

I have cautioned people from using a medicine over and over and over again for no apparent reason. It has to hold up to the scrutiny of whether or not this makes sense to do this.

 

But in doing so — I'm afraid that perhaps it was me, perhaps it's from other teachers — many of my students, I find, are very afraid of provings. If they're not afraid of them, they think they see a proving when it really isn't a proving.

 

I want to make it clear that in my experience of using homeopathy for 33 years and working full time as a practitioner for 24 years — so far that I'm aware of — I've never seen a proving not being able to be stopped, to be aborted, to end, and move on.

 

So, I think people are so afraid of them that it confuses them. I have a lot of times when people say, “I think I'm proving a medicine.” And I ask, “What's going on?” I ask them to explain to me, and it turns out what it really was … was a cold.

 

“Oh, it was a cold.”

 

Or, “I think I'm proving something,” and they forgot to mention that they had taken a drug, and this was the side effect. They jump to the proving because they know about provings. It's an interesting concept. In that concept, what happens is the fear is brought to the fore, and the angst that I'm going to do a real injustice to myself or my family member.

 

Of course, I've written about it. I call it “Stop It” on the article that I've published on the blog. It talks about halting a homeopathic medicine that is obviously not correct.

 

But many people think that they're going to see it within a dose or two. They take a remedy, they say, “Okay, I didn't feel so well after it. That must mean it's a proving. It's no good.”

 

No, not really. A lot of times, we need to see a little stirring of the undercurrents up, and then it can resolve. It's a matter of observation and sitting back and watching.

 

Now, it's easier to do when you're watching someone else than yourself … or someone else, especially for whom you're not too close to where angst would get in the way. Because that's what happens is that we get anxious when we see our loved one not feeling well, as well as anxious when we don't feel well. Excuse me for saying, but we, women, have more anxiety than men in general. That's another little tidbit that I see frequently. We get more worried about health and well-being than men do. So, it’s not uncommon for us to feel a little uncomfortable and then jumping to conclusions.

 

It's important that we learn the differential: the differences between what is a proving and what is not.

 

If it is a proving, and you're afraid, then one can use Camphor (or Camphora) 200. Stop the medicine. Camphora 200: one dose, one day. Don't take any other homeopathics that day. The next day, start up again on what you were using minus the medicine you think might have been causing the problem.

 

Or you can replace what you thought was causing the problem with the correct medicine because that, too, will antidote.

 

Kate:  If you don't have Camphora, could you use Nux vomica 200 as well?

 

Joette:  Nux vomica will antidote some homeopathic medicines. Camphora is more universal.

 

Kate:  Or you can sniff mint.

 

Joette:  Essential oil of mint. A peppermint patty is not probably going to do it. I’ve tried it.

 

Kate:  That’s funny you tried it. You just wanted the chocolate, Joette. Come on. Let’s be real.

 

Joette:  Absolutely! That’s exactly what it was.

 

Kate:  I just want to clarify that when we're talking about repetition of medicines, in general, right now, we’re going to be talking about acutes. Because chronics are a whole other genre. There's protocols, and you know how often to repeat the medicines. But right now, we're just basically talking about acute conditions, right?

 

Joette:  Yes. Let's say someone is sneezing, and they're coming down with a cold. You would give the medicine maybe every three hours, something like that.

 

But if they were sneezing, it was spasmodic, and they couldn't stop sneezing. They're sneezing so that now they can't catch their breath (or they can barely catch their breath), and they're weakened by it — now we're going to use a medicine that is specific to abort the sneezing issue. We're going to use it frequently, every few minutes, every minute even, because the person is weakening from the sneezing fits.

 

It can happen. I've actually seen it happen. So, when we say, “Well, this is for sneezing,” well, yes, but what kind of sneezing? Are you talking about sneezing where it's a fit, and they're weakened by it? Or are you talking about three or four sneezes — not 50 sneezes?

 

Kate:  I think people are afraid, “Oh, my goodness, a medicine every minute or two? That seems like a lot.” They are afraid of that.

 

Or even if they've had an injury, I feel that people, in general, are not using the remedies frequently enough when they've had a pretty severe injury.

 

Joette:  I agree. I totally agree.

 

When I had a tooth extracted some years ago, it was infected, I asked the dentist to please scrape the bone, remove the ligament, and clean out the area as best as he could, he did his job. After the local anesthetic wore off, the pain, really, it felt as though I had been shot in the mandible with a gun. The pain was extraordinary! I used the medicine every three minutes, four minutes. It was a high potency. I used it every four minutes because I could not have waited three hours! I was moaning and crying with pain.

 

Now, I could have used conventional medicine, but I do everything I can to avoid that. I haven't had it in many years except for that local anesthetic. But I was going to find out what it took, homeopathically, to eliminate this.

 

I used Hypericum, and I used it every three or four minutes, and up to the fourth dose. By the fourth dose, my shoulders could drop. Then I could feel the pain starting to minimize enough that I was actually able to fall asleep — and I did.

 

Then hours later — I'm going to say maybe six hours later — it was early morning, I woke up. The pain was back, but not to the same degree. What was, on a scale of 1-10, that pain was a whopping 20. Now, it went down to about a 9 when I woke up.

 

What did I do? I used exactly the same medicine again. I was poised for the possibility that I might need to use it every four minutes, although I did not expect that because I could tell by the kind of pain it was that it wasn't just going to be as severe.

 

I took a few more doses of it that morning, and I worked that day. I took that medicine maybe two or three times that day, and that was it. The next day, I took it once. The next day, maybe twice, something like that. It was over with within three days — without drugs.

 

Kate:  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I almost think that if you have a ton of pain, it's almost better to use the remedy a little more frequently in the beginning. Then you will have to use it less in the long run. As opposed to if you use it every three to six hours, that pain might go on for a longer period of time because you're not correcting the issues.

 

Joette:  Some homeopaths call it “loading.” It's an odd way of putting it. But they say “loading it up in the beginning,” (you're using it more frequently).

 

I don't look at it that way because I don't want to teach that you “load up.” I want to teach that, instead, what you're doing is using it accordingly. That's a little bit more careful with the description. Because if you're loading, and you don't need it, that can be a mistake, too. But if you're using it accordingly — the pain is so severe; we meet the pain with the frequency of the medicine use. That's how you're going to use it.

 

If they’re hemorrhaging on the way to the hospital — it's hemorrhaging, not bleeding, but truly hemorrhaging — you're going to administer that medicine every few minutes, every minute.

 

If the pain is extraordinary, it's going to be every few minutes — until you can get a handle on it, and then you back off.

 

Kate:  I think we need to clarify, also, that what we're not saying is you're using seven different remedies, one every couple of minutes.

Joette:  No, you’re using the same medicine for the pain. For me, it was Hypericum. The same medicine, say, for bleeding which might be Phosphorus or Hamamelis or Arnica or both. That's the way we're looking at it.

Kate:  Right, or you might alternate two, if two are needed.

 

Joette:  That's right, if necessary. That's right.

 

Kate:  Yes.

 

Joette:  My father had what we thought was a stroke. On the way to the hospital, we administered the medicine all the way — all the way to the hospital, in the emergency room, on the gurney, on the way into the hospital, into the emergency room, on the way into the next room. I just kept administering it to him.

 

Interestingly, we were told, “We don't know what happened. It sounded like a stroke. But I guess it wasn’t a stroke after all.”

 

I feel pretty confident — so did my father — that it was the homeopathic that I had used. Which by the way — because I know folks are going to ask this question — was Aconitum napellus 200.

 

Kate:  Okay, I would have guessed that. That's wonderful! That's a great remedy. That's one of the ones that I tell people never leave home without.

 

Joette:  Yes, that's a good one. Well, because of your story.

 

Kate:  I have lots of stories of using Aconite. Many of them, I tell in my study groups, that it was the difference of going to ER versus not going to ER with my son one time, and it's just amazing. It's an amazing remedy.

Joette:  Yes, it's one of the ones that I keep in my purse. I don't keep that many in there. But that's important. I certainly would never travel without it.

 

Starting with the study groups

 

Kate:  Right. To bring this back to the self-education topic, Joette, if you had a person interested in learning all that they could, how would you recommend that they educate themselves?

 

Joette:  If they're just starting homeopathy, it's brand new to them or they have a vague understanding of it — actually, I should cut back on that! I shouldn't say that because a lot of people start these study groups, and they have a good amount of information — I would start folks on a study group.

 

I started my study group back in the 80s. I gathered a group of friends. This was not virtual. Obviously, in those days, there was no “virtual.”

 

Instead, we met in my living room every Thursday night for four years, and we studied. We learned from each other. We posed questions to each other. We assigned homework for ourselves and met every Thursday night. It was a “ladies’ night out,” of sorts. But we were spending our time focused on our families, in spite of not being with them at that moment. It was pure intellectual joy — plus camaraderie.

 

You know, in a world where women, especially if you're a young mother, are immersed in diapers, and nursing, and colic, and diaper rash, and skin conditions, and making meals, and making beds, and doing laundry, et cetera, et cetera — everything is so physical. What I loved about this — because that's the stage I was in when I started studying homeopathy — is that it gave me the intellectual side that I could delve into. As I've said many times, it was intellectually delicious.

 

I was physical all day long, making beds, putting out the clothes, setting up the homeschooling. It was a lot of physical activity. This gave me my nourishment, but it wasn't separate from my family! Immediately with my new knowledge, I was giving right back to my family. I think study groups are really key because we need that camaraderie. We're doing this by ourselves!

 

It's not the way it used to be when women were living in small communities, and they put their clothes out to hang on the line. Right next door was their mother. Then there was their aunt, their cousins, everybody was all around, and everybody visited all the time. When you made dinner, you made it for 15 people because everyone stopped by. It's not like that anymore. And so, it's important that we find that commonality in like minds in other mothers and grandmothers.

 

Study groups, I can't urge folks enough!

 

Now, once you get through the first study group, then you should go through the second Gateway to Homeopathy: Gateway I, and then Gateway II.

 

These are inexpensive! That's why we did it that way … was to make it super-inexpensive so that anyone can afford this. Once you've finished with Gateway II, then you get your group together and you decide where you need to go next.

 

You may not need to decide to buy a course. You may need to simply all gather around and say, “Okay, let's just study Joette’s blog. It's all free. We can go through each one every week. Everyone is assigned one. Then we come back and report on it. ‘Why did Joette use that particular medicine for that particular condition?’ In other words, if it's Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder blog, then why was Ignatia 200 chosen?”

 

Then that person reads up on Ignatia and presents it to the group. “Why? Because Ignatia does this, and this, and this, and this.”

 

Then others around the room say, “You know what? I've used Ignatia for this, and it worked.”

 

“I used it for sleep.”

 

“I used it for,” [and this is a writer downer, folks] “for emotional eating, Ignatia 200.”

 

So, that's how we learn, and you can keep it free.

 

Now, if you want to go much further, then that's when you go to the courses, Good Gut, Bad Gut if there’s gut issues in your family. Or Allergic!? for those who have allergies in their families. Or Feminopathy if you've got a lot of girls in your family, or it's you who's got some hormonal issues.

 

And you keep studying.

 

Meanwhile, you purchase some books.

 

You can get my materia medica. I tried to keep that simple and easy.

 

But to be honest, folks, you could do this all free.

 

Go online. You can read Dr. James Tyler Kent's Materia Medica. You can use that as your reference. It’s perfectly free.

 

My blog is free.

 

You could carry on like this and spend no more than $100! You can do this for a very low cost.

 

Tips on easy learning

 

Kate:  What about time, Joette? Do you have any suggestions for us because you were that busy mom learning homeopathy. Just give us some tips on how to really fit this in.

 

Joette:  Well, one way to learn is by listening while you're driving in the car. When I was first learning homeopathy, I used to take my notes from courses and record them into a tape player. (That's how long ago that was.) I'd listen to my voice over and over again. That's how I studied it. That was my idea for the CDs that I originally put together. That's one way.

 

Another way is to write down … keep some 3×5 cards on the most important medicines that you want to memorize, that you want to learn. Put them in your robe pocket. Put them in your purse. Put them on the sink when you're washing dishes. You take a glance at them so that you can remember what they're used for, when to use them, what potency, and how often, et cetera. That's another way.

 

But the pleasure of learning has to be within us. I think all humans have that. We have to instill that curiosity in ourselves and bring that to the fore on a day-to-day basis. We want to be the ones that care for our families as fully as we are possibly capable. The only way to do that — it's not just gut, spunk, and moxie, that's important too — but without knowledge, without skill, without an understanding of what you're doing, you can't get very far, and you'll become discouraged.

 

I can't urge you enough to put the time aside. If you have to, read your notes or what you're learning to your children, so that you're with them and teaching them as well so that they get benefit. Then make it a family project. Read it aloud to your children and let them learn as well. Don't separate what you’re learning from what your children are learning. Don't think for a minute that they won't understand. Stretch them and their intellects just like you're stretching your own.

 

Take advantage of every moment you've got, doing laundry, raking leaves, making bread, whatever it might be. Take advantage of that time and learn, and memorize, and go back upstairs, and get those notes again, and take them back downstairs with you.

 

Do it time and time again, and it will become yours.

 

I think you'll be remarkably surprised at how much you can learn in short order, particularly if there's someone suffering in your family. You will learn fast. You're compelled to do so. Because being curious, scratching that itch for curiosity, and learning is intellectually delicious. It's a part of being human, and we don't want to forget that as busy mothers.

 

Joette:  As I hope you know by now, on my blog, podcasts and Facebook Live, I offer as many protocols for simple conditions as I can — for free, without affiliates or advertising. But let me be clear. When it comes to more complex conditions, it’s key that you learn how to use these medicines properly. I want you to be well-trained. So, I save discussions of the more involved methods for my courses in which I walk students through each method with step-by-step training.

 

I hope listening to this podcast has inspired you to follow in their footsteps. With the proper training, you, too, can nurture and protect the health of your family and loved ones with Practical Homeopathy®.

 

Kate:  You just listened to a podcast from practicalhomeopathy.com where nationally certified homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese shares her passion for helping families stay strong through homeopathy. Joette’s podcasts are available on iTunes, Google Play, Blueberry, Pandora, Stitcher, TuneIn, and iHeart radio.

 

Thank you for listening to this podcast with Joette Calabrese. To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit for your health strategy, visit practicalhomeopathy.com.