Freedom has been a huge theme at Natural Medicine for the last couple of weeks. We have been discussing our freedom of choice between alternative and conventional medicines, and the place both have in our lives. Most NatMed folk agree that choice is of utmost importance, and that we need to have control over our own health.

@richardcrill is the founder of Freedom Tribe and a big supporter of @naturalmedicine (thanks a BAZILLION!), and the two tribes share a lot in common. We hope you enjoy this interview conducted by the unstoppable, gorgeous and kind @thetreeoflife with the beautiful bearded braveheart @richardcrill! You can find him somewhere in his Dodge on a grand adventure, living an enviable life of freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeddddddddddddddddddddddom with the lovely @lindsaylambz.

TOL: Ok! So nice to sit and chat with you for a bit @richardcrill! This is super exciting for us at @naturalmedicine. Two of our favorite topics, Freedom and Natural Medicine! Let's dig right in. I suppose my first question for you is this, what are some ways you feel the concept of Freedom, or lack there of for that matter, relates to our health and wellness? I've been considering this for a few days now, and have some thoughts, but I would really love to hear first what you think about the relationship between the two ideas.

RC: These are two of my favorite topics as well and I've been wanting to contribute to @naturalmedicine for a while, so thank you!

Freedom is essential to health and wellness for many reasons. The freedom to choose what you do, what you eat, where you go, and what you think are all good examples of the freedoms needed for personal health and wellness. If you are imprisoned, you might only be left with your freedom of thought to keep yourself sane. You can also be a “free” person, but be imprisoned in your mind by beliefs that keep you from experiencing real freedom.

For me, the freedom to be totally different from the norm and be ok with being considered weird was a gigantic step in finding health, wellness, and happiness in my life. I believe in going for what you want and what you think is right even if everyone tells you it’s wrong. There can be hard lessons to learn that way, but for me it was essential.

TOL: What an amazing point you make here, "you can also be a 'free' person, but be imprisoned in your mind by beliefs'", that's absolutely true. It's not hard to get trapped into patterns and beliefs, which are so restrictive, and what's even more challenging about that is there are many people who some would consider "prisoners of their own mind" who may be totally unaware that it is actually the case.

As a person who has suffered with mental illness in the past, I can definitely relate to this. I was also at some point a prisoner in my own mind, and body in the case of experiencing anxiety.

I love what you are saying too about your own personal journey toward freedom. We are all a little weird eh! But there was a sense of self acceptance there, right? Of saying, this is who I am, and I am free to be who I need to be, to live my own truth. How beautiful.

What did it take for you to find that place inside yourself?

RC: Exactly! Self acceptance. At this point, I will tell you that I am weird before you do and the mainstream seems so crazy to me that I am glad to be weird! I guess it was mostly just trial and error. At some point I realized that being honest about who I am made everything easier. It is definitely liberating to be true to yourself. I remember when I was a teenager, I was lying to my parents about a lot of things. I still remember so clearly a time when my dad said to me "it's easy to lie to the people that love you". It makes me tear up to remember that. Honestly though, it wasn't until several years later that I really started to be totally honest about who I was with everyone in my life. I guess it's also about self discovery. I went through a period a few years ago that was definitely a time of transformation. I sought out and made amends with all the people that I had wronged over the years. I vowed to myself to do the things I know I should and to not do the things I know I shouldn't. Over time I learned that if I was totally honest about who I was and what I thought, felt, and did, it helped me to find people who actually love me for who I really am. My vibe tribe if you will. I think some of the hardest and most beneficial parts of my journey is that I often take a long hard look at myself. That can be a really hard thing to do. You can be lying to yourself and avoiding the truth just to find acceptance from others, or hide something, or any number of silly things. It can be scary and hard to be vulnerable, but for me, it's just way too much trouble to be anything but myself. After a lot of pain and what I guess was my "dark night of the soul" I came through the other side with love for myself. I forgave myself. I think after that, I was able to share my love and happiness with others and my life has been so immensely joyous since then.

Stacking of a natural kind somewhere in the Pacific Northwest Cred

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TOL: You make a great point here when you talk about being true to the self. I think it's so much easier to live as an open, honest person when we are firstly accepting of ourselves. For me personally, I definitely care less what others think of me when I am cool with who I am as a person, and strong in my core. Yes. Definitely.

I also think that when we are more open with other people, it gives us better feedback, to our self, to others and how they perceive and use their own discernment. It is a way of better communication, in a sense.

How awesome for you that you have found joy through this vulnerability. Just awesome.

Let's talk other medicines!! Since I've got ya here now haha! What are your thoughts on freedom when it comes to more external forms of natural medicine? For example, the ability for us to choose what we put in our bodies, whether it be food, herbs, or natural drugs. Thoughts?

RC: I am definitely a big believer in plant medicines and a plant based diet! I am glad to see the prohibition of cannabis beginning to go away as well. The freedom to have access to these plants and all the current and ancient knowledge about these natural medicines is absolutely necessary to preserve and promote our health. Plant medicines are clearly very powerful and have been used throughout human history. We have the ability to grow theses plants and share seeds and information and we must preserve this power. I am proud to support @naturalmedicine because I think putting this information on the Steem blockchain is a brilliant idea and worthwhile project.

TOL: I couldn't agree more, especially how imperative it is that we continue to share knowledge to keep these traditions and skills alive.
As far as having the end of cannabis prohibition in sight, we are also pretty grateful for that. There's a lot of movement toward decriminalizing psychedelics as well which is also super promising.

As for how these relate to freedom, I am in agreement that the ability for us to grow these things and use them in the ways we see fit for our own personal choices is so important. There's not just knowledge there, there's also the choice to inform ourselves, to take charge of our own health and wellness, and to feed ourselves with what we feel our bodies need at the time. I'm hopeful that the world is moving in that direction, of choice, freedom, and connectedness.

Thanks for chatting with me @richardcrill, it has been a pleasure!

RC: Well said! I hope so, too! I am glad to see more and more people that are waking up to the truth about these plants. It's mind boggling to me that there are plants that are illegal. Specifically cannabis and psilocybin mushrooms. I think these powerful entheogens can help show us how free and powerful we are which might not be good for a government who relies on citizens to pay an income tax to fund continued wars and domination through force. I can't imagine that we will let this continue. These psychedelic plants have been shown to help with depression, anxiety, addiction and many other maladies. We either share this knowledge and freedom together or we are dominated by a military industrial complex. I can't even consider the latter. We will fight for freedom. Thank you @thetreeoflife for helping spread this knowledge through @naturalmedicine. It was lovely chatting with you!

And with that, @richardcrill jumped off into his Dodge and rode off into the sunset, beard a blazin', and @thetreeoflife resumed swinging around on her new yoga swing. Ain't freedom, and natural medicine, grand?

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What does freedom mean to you?

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