“When we buy most of our food from groceries and when our interactions with nature are limited to seeing the bushes on the side of the road as we drive by, it starts to come at a cost.”
These were the cautioning words of Dr Katija Khan, as she appealed to the women attending Tulsi, held in Observance of World Mental Health Day (October 10) at the oceanfront Dolphins Vacation Resort in Grove Park, Otaheite.
[caption id="attachment_1043368" align="alignnone" width="768"] Lisa Atwater is honoured for advocacy on behalf of the descendants of enslaved peoples - the Merikins. - courtesy Camille Lowhar[/caption]
‘But this is not casting a judgment, far from, this is an appeal, this is a beckon and an enticement to pause, for us to intentionally and mindfully revisit our relationship with the natural world and what that would look like for you in your own space and setting,” Khan said at the event held on October 14.
Khan, a lecturer in psychology at The UWI, St Augustine, among many areas of interest and areas of scholarship, is also a mental health advocate who has done work on the impact that traditional knowledge and culture has on the issue of suicide.
[caption id="attachment_1043363" align="alignnone" width="768"] Founder of CreateBetterMinds Caroline Ravello presents the King of Soca book prize donated by Unicomer Trinidad Ltd to Diane "Miss Blue" Dupre. -[/caption]
Tulsi – a GreenTEA initiative – billed as healing conversations for women was an intimate forum to talk about what impacts women, and aimed at creating resilience for them and their communities. Its intention is in that return to things natural and innate, to which Khan alluded, as remediation for what portends in the world today – things in which women can lead the change, a media release said.
The TEA in GreenTEA stands for talk-explore-action, and the concept uses lime green, the colour of global mental health advocacy campaigning, coupled with the idea of traditional knowledge and culture of healing using bush medicine and herbs, tradition once held sacred among women.
[caption id="attachment_1043364" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Designer Kimo, right, with friends Joanna Camps and Elizabeth Camps relax at Tulsi. - courtesy Camille Lowhar[/caption]
GreenTEA, coined by Caroline Ravello, founder of the NPO CreateBetterMinds, is a metaphor for the healing and restorative conversations and encounters that women must have in order to reconcile and rebuild community.
"We need TEA," Ravello says, "because our values are under siege from the social, spiritual, physical and psychological load of our life circumstances."
Tulsi, or holy basil, is the time-honoured healing herb that was chosen as the inaugural theme. Dubbed the queen of herbs, and referred to as “the giant of herbs” by Khan. Tulsi is highly effective in protecting the body from numerous malaise; it is earthy and fragrant; a calming balm for stress, depressive states, and anxiety, and a purifying relief for the mind.
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