Ma manière d’apprendre (appliqué à l’herboristerie)

Hello, I hope you are doing well in this summer period. I'm going to try to make a slightly lighter topic for you today. It's a question you've asked me quite often. It's not directly related to medicinal plants, but I think it's a really interesting question. How did I develop my knowledge of plants? Do I have a particular strategy to learn? Do I have tips to share on how to develop new skills? The question seems simple at first, but it's actually quite complicated to dissect and understand how we work to acquire knowledge. In any case, as far as I'm concerned, I've always been a very messy learner, excuse my language, but there are always open books everywhere, notes, lots of files on the computer, more or less well arranged. So at home, the desk is perfect, with not a single sheet missing, it's never seen before. And then I always have ten projects to start at the same time. My day is cut in half because I don't stay in one place too much, I go from one project to another. But still, in this big mess, I have things that characterize me in my learning journey. The first point is to work horizontally and vertically at the same time. I'll explain myself, I'm not talking about the position of my body when I'm learning, because in a horizontal position, it's more like a nap that calls me. If we followed a classic learning system, we would place boxes in a horizontal way, one next to the other, well arranged. If we take a classic learning system from the history book, for example, we would have the basics of human physiology, then the basics of botany, and then the basics of galenics, and then the basics of advice and support, etc. And then once we've covered all these bases, we've laid all these boxes or bricks, we're going to put a layer on top of it, but with new and more advanced information. Human physiology level 2, botany level 2, galenics level 2, etc. And in fact, it's a bit like the classic school system, at least in France. That is to say that every year we take the same materials, and then we will make reminders because there are always those who are a little bit behind, and then we will go a little further. So I call it the horizontal model because in my head I see myself placing bricks next to each other. And then I add a layer, two layers, three layers, and that's how we get better at it. And that's how we're going to go deeper. In fact, the vertical is done through several horizontal layers, if I can explain it that way. And that never worked for me. Linear learning bugs me. That's not how I learn. I progress horizontally, and at some point I'll have to go up vertically, but up to the top. And then I forget everything else around. So if I had to give you a typical example, I might be reading a book on wild plants. So here we are more in botany. And then I'm studying the family of lamiaceae, for example. And then I see the characteristics of the sea bass. And there may be a little note somewhere in the book that says, I don't know, sometimes used to stimulate cognitive and memory capacities. And then all of a sudden I'm going to think of an elderly person around me who needs help from this point of view for his memory. And then I'm going to take a tangent, but then a complete one. I go into the physiology of cognitive disorders. I'm going to find tracks, brain inflammation, circulatory disorders, metabolic disorders, etc. I take notes. And then it brings me to the works of phytotherapy, because I'm going to try to find these properties that interest me in plants. So I'm going to look for plants that stimulate brain circulation, anti-inflammatory plants that will cross the hematoencephalic barrier. Not all of them do that. I'm going to look at rosemary acid. So here I am in the constituents. And then I wonder what shape this particular constituent is going to extract. So here I go into the gallenic. And then I get completely lost in this subject by jumping from one box to the other. And then I go up, I go up, I go up, but I go up into a very narrow corridor around a very targeted subject. And now I'm not in botany at all. So I lost track of my horizontal, linear and classic learning. I went deep into several subjects. I learned a lot of things. But suddenly I paused what I was studying at the beginning. I'll do it again later. So that's maybe a little chaotic as a way to progress. And I don't know if I'm atypical from that point of view or if you do the same thing. I feel like it's not done for everyone. This type of debunking of information. And for me, it's not a choice of strategy. As far as I'm concerned, I've always worked like this. Without doing it on purpose. It was done on its own. But it was a method that helped me a lot to integrate, in fact. Integrate different materials that make up the herbaristory. Here. Quickly giving advice to the person. It allowed me to understand certain aspects. Which were not advice, but which were rather in the galenic, for example. And then quickly putting myself in the galenic. That is to say, in the manufacturing, in the transformation. It allowed me to understand certain aspects of plant phytochemistry. And then putting myself in the phytochemistry. It allowed me to understand certain good habits of harvest and storage. Etc. So, this integration of different materials. It is very important. Because otherwise we learn different boxes in isolation. And we don't know how to connect them. Here. We can make this connection at the end. When we have studied all these materials separately. But I advise you to do it much earlier. To do it much faster. Here. It's as if you had several wire coils. And these are your different materials. Different colors. Different wire textures. And you need to weave a canvas. And that may be your own needs. It may be a brother who has seasonal allergies, for example. And we want to help. And then you have special needles. And that may be your environment. Your particular biotope. And you will see what you can weave with all this. And in fact, it is experimentation that allows us to do all this. Which brings me to the second point of my discussion. The second point is to follow the cycle that I call. Understand. Experiment. Explain. Understanding is done by reading books. It's done by following programs like the ones I've been offering you since 2015. Or others. To experiment is to take action. It's to do. It's to test. If we talk about a plant like the Chamomile Matricare. I'm going to discover its properties in a book. And that's going to be stored in a corner of my head. I read that it is soft. It is milky. It calms digestive inflammation. It calms skin inflammation. It calms a nervous system in a state of hyperexcitation. It will calm the menstrual cramps in women. So that's in the mental sphere. And we're going to have to transmute this energy into physics. So I'm just going to order a little bag of Chamomile Matricare. At a local producer. And then I'm going to prepare an infusion. And a dye and a macerate. I'm going to taste. I'm going to test. I'm going to feel inside my body. And here we are in the physical. We are in the senses. I'm going to feel what it means to use a softening and calming plant. Like the Matricare. At this stage. I am ready to do the ultimate test. Of these few knowledge I have acquired. And the ultimate test. Once I have experimented. It's going to be to explain. To teach. And so to pass this knowledge on to someone else. And I don't know if you've ever experienced this situation. Where we have the impression that we master something. And then we try to explain it to someone. And there we bug. Explain. Verbalize. Draw for someone. It's a little bit the ultimate test. And there we are going to get out of the comfort zone. And then we always say. That if we can explain to a child. Maybe in seven or eight years. It's even better. Because at least we are not tempted to use complicated words. So keep these three steps in mind. Understand. That's in the head. Experiment. That's in the hands. In the physical. And explain. That's in the verb. And also in the gesture. In us, the Provençal. The third point. It's to use all the senses. I love to read. I love to listen to the people who inspire me. And I really try to listen to them. Without thinking about what I'm going to say right after. Touch is essential. We touch when we garden. We touch when we walk in nature. We're going to touch the hairy aspect of the viperine. We're going to touch the sweetness of the guimauve leaf. We smell, of course. Herbarium is full of aromas. Fresh plants, dry plants. We're going to smell in nature. We're going to smell in the shop, at home. We're going to smell in the herbal tea. In the cup. And then the taste, of course. In the mouth. Bitterness, acidity, acridity, sweetness, etc. So to develop solid knowledge of herbalism. You have to stimulate all the senses. That's why in my teaching programs, I always encourage you to discover the plant we're talking about. To pick it up or buy it. To taste it, to feel it, to test it. And we're fully in the sensual here. All the senses are going to be involved. Thought is not in the sense. The brain, but then the hands, the eyes, the ears, the nose, the mouth. And so it brings us back to the point of experimentation. Which we talked about earlier too. Which is so important. So there you go. It's a bit of a mess. But that's all I had to tell you. About my way of learning. The one that allowed me to progress relatively quickly. In the world of plants. And if I could only remember one thing. I would say, without hesitation. Experimentation. As soon as you think you've acquired important information. Test it. Validate. Be curious about the child. Who discovers a new world. With the prudence of the adult responsible. Of course. Thank you for being there. I'll leave you. And I'll see you very soon for a new episode. Thank you.