3.1 Rebecca Lazarou: The Plant Scientist
Hello! Welcome to episode one series THREE! of Prompted by Nature. It’s so lovely to be back and speaking with some amazing people who I know you will love.
Today I speak with the wonderful Rebecca Lazarou, otherwise known as Laz the Plant Scientist.
Rebecca is a medicinal plant researcher at Kew Gardens, an editor for the academic Journal of Herbal Medicine, science teacher at schools of herbalism including Botonica, a writer and educator. She is also the proud founder of Laz The Plant Scientist, an educational platform for holistic wellness, science and plant medicines and where she’ll soon be offering her gorgeous botanical creations.
In this conversation we talk about:
What a Plant Scientist is and how she came to study Ancient Greek Medicines at Kew Garden
Research around psychedelics
How she came to do what she does
Awe and her work
How she came to work with Kew
The importance of creating a record of quality for plant medicines
The importance of connection to indigenous wisdom and the land in plant sciences
The part that her own creativity plays in her work
How she grounds her energy and uses visualisation in her day
Plants to help with your creativity
Her hope for the future
What she has learnt that she would like you to know
You can find Rebecca on Instagram @laztheplantscientist and sign up for her newsletter over on her website www.rebeccalazarou.com
As always you can find me over on Instagram @prompted.by.nature or on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk where you can find all the details of my upcoming in-person outdoor creative writing sessions and creativity day retreats as well as my online versions of these offerings. My Thursday evening session is the highlight of my week and I’m considering starting another Monday night one. Please do join in when you can.
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Warm Heart Meditation and Writing Prompt
As always, if at any point in the meditation you feel that your mind is running away from you or your thoughts are taking over and you can't come back to it by focusing on the breath and letting those thoughts pass, just stop and come back another time.
In this meditation, I talk you through a visualisation inspired by Rebecca's own practice. The writing prompt is based on whatever comes through as a result of the visualisation. Allow it to be a starting point for something that might end up being totally unrelated :-)
Let me know how you get on!
Happy writing!
Helen x
