We’re looking forward to introducing you to Amelia South. Check out our conversation below.
Hi Amelia, thank you for taking the time to reflect back on your journey with us. I think our readers are in for a real treat. There is so much we can all learn from each other and so thank you again for opening up with us. Let’s get into it: Have you ever been glad you didn’t act fast?
Yes! Recently I had a problem with getting a tooth filling. The nerve was damaged near the root of the tooth, causing me excruciating pain every time I ate. I got a second opinion from a different dentist to make sure the tooth wasn’t infected and she confirmed that, then suggested she pull out the current filling and replace it with a new one. I had to turn down the appointment they had for the next day in favor of one two weeks later.
During the time I was waiting, I had an epiphany: why don’t I just put St. John’s Wort oil on the area and see if it will heal the nerve damage? So I started doing that right away– rubbing St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum) oil on my jaw and around that side of my face. It absorbed through my skin into the nerve tissue there.
In just THREE days the pain was so greatly reduced that I could eat again. I also was taking doses of Corydalis (a Chinese herb) to manage the pain, but after a full week of applying the St. John’s Wort oil I didn’t need that anymore either. This herb is such a godsend, and I’m grateful I made some this year!
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Amelia South, also known as The No BS Herbalist. I prefer to explain what I know so that regular people who haven’t been studying herbalism for years can understand how their body works and how they can resolve or manage their health problems with a combination of nutritional support, herbal support, and nervous system regulation. I healed my own chronic candida and rosacea through recognizing that the human gut microbiome is the root of most common health problems and by discovering my own solution to leaky gut syndrome. I also went through an incredible transformation when I was 38 after a severe mental breakdown that resulted in me completely reprogramming myself into the woman I am today. I’m a professional foraging instructor, practicing herbalist, herbal medicine maker, and author of the book, Think Like an Herbalist.
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
When I was young, I never felt like I was “good enough” for anything. Not quite getting all A’s was never good enough. I was always too loud, too boisterous, too goofy. My father wanted a boy and he got a girl– I internalized that for 38 years of my life, constantly acting a tomboy. My mother kept me down until puberty, when I sprouted breasts– that meant I could finally attract a man. I was taught mainly that the only quality I had that would attract anyone to me was that I had nice boobs, so I was sexualized from my teenage years onward and led my earliest relationships based off hating every part of my body that wasn’t perfect enough to attract a man. I never really understood that it was my personality– who I really WAS at a deep core level that was attracting the people in my circle to me.
In order to stop that reality from continuing to cycle over and over, I HAD to let go of control.
I didn’t finally release this negative programming until I began to like, love, trust, accept, respect, and protect myself at all times. I stopped trying to control all the people around me and the situations in my life. I started letting Spirit take the reins and trusting my intuition more.
I became my own best friend. I realized that true beauty has nothing to do with the physical body and everything to do with your spiritual, mental, and emotional health. That’s where real confidence comes from. And that’s what I teach other women how to do in my Complete Woman coaching program. It’s an incredibly difficult choice to make because when you rewire all your current subconscious beliefs from negative to positive, you truly become a different person. It’s not something to be undertaken lightly– but for the woman who is DONE with being someone who she was never meant to be, it’s a game changer.
What’s something you changed your mind about after failing hard?
I used to try SO hard to help everyone with everything. Once I started to gain popularity on social media, I had hundreds, sometimes thousands of people sending me messages and emails asking for help. At first, I gave it freely. But after months and months of giving more and more of my time, knowledge, and resources to anyone who asked, I was exhausted and had little to show for it. Some people asked me questions as if I were Google. “What to take for ED?” “What is this plant?” etc, etc. I was struggling financially, trying to help everyone for free, afraid they wouldn’t like me if I charged them money. And many of the people I tried to help didn’t actually WANT my help– they just wanted an easy button. They thought they could ask me “What herb can I take for this?” and I’d tell them the name of some magic herb, they’d go buy it someplace else, and be magically free of their problem with no effort or real money spent.
I’ve learned a lot since then. Nowadays I tend to open up with “Do you want me to tell you what you want to hear or do you want me to tell you the truth?” If the person gets upset with me for telling them the truth, which is normally something along the lines of “There is no magic herb, you have to change your diet, you need to exercise, and you need to be willing to let the people or situations in your life that are not serving you to go their separate way”. VERY few people are ready or willing to hear or accept that.
But it’s the handful who ARE ready for substantial change from a deep level who are going to succeed.
Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. Is the public version of you the real you?
Yes! Believe it or not, I am very authentically me online. Sometimes I talk too fast when I get a little nervous or feel like I’m having to prove myself for some reason. And I don’t talk very often about subconscious reprogramming on social media yet because I’m waiting for my next book (all about that) to be finished and published before I dive into that content. That’s coming soon, and I can’t wait to share it with people because it’s all about the frightening transformation I personally went through and how I was able to heal myself. It’s the sort of thing that proves I know what I’m talking about because I’ve LIVED IT.
It’s the same with my foraging and herbalism. Yeah, there are some people out there who teach this stuff for fun or who learned from books and rehash the knowledge back to you. But I actually do live it. My medicine cabinet at home is filled with tinctures and herbal salves, my kitchen cabinet is full of dehydrated mushrooms, herb salts, infused vinegars, and fruit leather, and my dining room is covered in jars of dehydrated herbs that I grew and foraged over the year. I’m constantly learning more and sharing what I learned with the world in a meaningful way.
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What do you understand deeply that most people don’t?
True mental health.
Even your therapist doesn’t understand it. Because they never had to live it. That’s why lived experience trumps book knowledge any day.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://nobsherbalist.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nobsherbalist/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amelia-south-ct/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nobsherbalist
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-no-bs-herbalist-killingly
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@theoriginalmealchan
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@theoriginalmealchan
Image Credits
Professional portrait by Ling Li Messer
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
