Finding My True Calling: A Journey Through Faith, Natural Medicine, and Real Holistic Healing
The Life I Had Before and the Shift That Changed Everything
I never imagined myself in medicine. For years, I was convinced my path was in filmmaking, it had been my dream since high school. I attended film school for three years after changing from Psychology and dropped out in my senior year when an opportunity came to move to California. I made the move, but over time it became too difficult for me, and I eventually returned home on my own. At the time, it felt like a setback, but now I see it as part of God’s plan and I can recognize that He was steering me toward something far more fulfilling.
After years of medicating my physical and mental health struggles, I hit my breaking point. I was done with the side effects, the numbness, and feeling so disconnected from myself. After finally leaving the tumultuous, abusive relationship, I wanted to start living my best life and take better care of my body and soul. I moved into a nice condo in Midtown Miami, right in the middle of the action. Traveled more, explored psychedelics, went to weekly yoga and Pilates classes, rollerblading at Crandon Park, wandered through art museums in Wynwood, and dancing under flashing festival lights and in intimate small underground venues.
This was my life… full of movement, adventure, and community. This was my way of processing the pain I’d been through and reclaiming my joy. Then quarantine hit. Overnight, my outlets vanished. I found myself with extra paid time off because my job only allowed ten people in the building at a time, so we rotated shifts. Suddenly, I had the space to focus more on myself.
I began learning about different herbal remedies and lifestyle choices that could support anxiety and depression naturally while supporting the body, eventually i started a small YouTube channel to share what I was discovering and to find community and social connection again. While it’s true that healthier hobbies and habits surged during the pandemic, I wasn’t simply hopping on a trend. I was following a series of personal “aha” moments that made me realize this was something I genuinely wanted to pursue.
The Unexpected Path That Led Me to Islam
I was uncovering a whole new world of natural ways to support my mind and body, and I had been given a platform to talk about it through YouTube, but something was still missing. Sharing my mental health journey and past experiences, especially online, was harder than I expected. Old trauma and heartbreak began resurfacing and the vulnerability it required left me feeling exposed. I even constantly worried that those who disliked me may twist my words or use my story against me.
I knew I wanted to help others who were struggling with their mental health, but I also knew I couldn’t do that until I faced the pain I’d been carrying. I needed deeper healing, the kind that doesn’t just soothe symptoms, but restores the heart.
One night, while browsing YouTube, I came across a Ruqyah video. It was a powerful prayer for inner peace and relief from depression, recited in Arabic. I didn’t understand the language, but the moment I heard it, an overwhelming sense of inner calm washed over me.
That moment stayed with me. It planted a seed that would eventually grow into a major turning point in my life… one that would connect me not just to a new faith, but to a whole new way of approaching health and healing.
Embracing Islam and a New Approach to Healing
That single encounter with Ruqyah lingered in my heart. I didn’t fully understand why it had moved me so deeply, but I couldn’t ignore the peace it brought. Over time, my curiosity grew into exploration, and that exploration led me to Islam. It didn’t take long for me to embrace the faith, and when I did, my life completely changed. I learned the prayer (salah) quickly and made it part of my daily rhythm. Later, I discovered that the movements and the prayer itself carry profound health benefits, which amazed me. What touched me most was realizing that in Islam, caring for your body is not separate from faith, it’s a form of worship. We even have a complete account of how the Prophet ﷺ lived a healthy, balanced life until Allah took him.There is no cure for death, but there is a way to live in balance until that time comes.
Islam gave me something I had been missing for years: a framework of meaning, hope, and trust in Allah’s plan. It transformed the way I processed trauma, pain and sorrow. My nervous system found moments of peace in salah, and I held tightly to the Qur’anic reminder: “Verily, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest” (Surah Ar-Ra’d 13:28). People often overlook the spiritual aspect of health. Holistic health means looking at the whole picture: environment, spiritual, emotional, and the whole physical body. Not all spirituality promotes well-being though… true spirituality grounds the mind, eases emotional burdens, and fosters healthier choices that naturally support the body’s healing and resilience and I found that Islam aligned perfectly with that.
During my first Ramadan, I came across another Qur’anic verse that says Allah created both the disease and the cure. This verse really stood out to me. To me, it confirmed that the cure doesn’t lie with Big Pharma, but in the natural medicine Allah created and solutions (diet + lifestyle choices) designed to work in harmony with the body rather than against it. That insight lit a spark in me to begin studying natural medicine seriously instead of relying on random Google searches and quick fixes.
Seeking Structure and the Right Teachers
That Ramadan spark pushed me beyond casual interest… I wanted to truly understand natural medicine, not just collect bits of information from the internet. I bought the most generic herbalism books I could find and dove into rigorous self-study, but quickly felt frustrated. Most of the books were overwhelming and unhelpful, filled with endless lists of what herbs were “good for” without explaining how or why they worked. There was no real depth or clear system for actually putting these herbs into practice in a way that made sense.
During COVID, there was a big wave of new herbalists and wellness practitioners, many of them meant well, but unknowingly adopted an allopathic approach which meant matching symptoms to remedies without considering the bigger picture. This happens because much of the traditional knowledge of herbal medicine was actively taken away through colonization, industrialization, and the rise of pharmaceutical monopolies. In many parts of the world, traditional healers were criminalized, indigenous practices were suppressed, and plant-based medicine was dismissed as “unscientific” to make way for patented drugs and profit-driven health systems.
Herbal medicine did make a comeback in the 1960s (especially in the U.S. and parts of Europe) thanks to the counterculture movement, back-to-the-land living, and a growing distrust of conventional medicine. However, it largely returned without the full lineage of traditional frameworks. A lot of that revival relied on “use-this-for-that” folk wisdom and herb lists, rather than the deeper diagnostic systems from traditional medicine. That’s why many well-meaning modern herbalists (especially those self-taught) lean toward symptom-matching.
I started off the same way too, because it’s the most accessible entry point when the deeper frameworks aren’t mainstream. You have to seek out the right teachers who’ve preserved this knowledge. As a beginner herbalist, after a few lucky successes mixed with plenty of failed attempts, I began to realize that this “symptom-matching” mindset wasn’t how herbs were truly meant to be used.
My search for a more rooted approach eventually led me to the Evolutionary School of Herbalism. I watched countless videos from the founder, Sajah Popham, and immediately resonated with his teaching style… A blend of deep plant knowledge, traditional wisdom, and practical application. My husband saw how serious I was about this path and invested in my education, enrolling me in their Advanced Clinical Herbal Practitioner program. It was exactly the kind of guidance I’d been searching for. ᥫ᭡
Building a Strong Foundation in Herbalism and Nutrition
Once I joined the program, I quickly realized it was exactly what I’d been missing. Before we even touched on herbs, we started with the foundational stuff. The tenets of holistic herbalism, the roots of health, the interconnectedness of the body’s systems, physiological patterns and how to evaluate a person’s health without relying solely on machines or lab reports. Even today, modern doctors still check the tongue; that wisdom has been passed down for centuries.
My instructor, Sajah Popham, apprenticed with Matthew Wood and studied extensively with renowned herbalists like Paul Bergner and David Winston. While he’s spiritual but not religious, what mattered most to me was that he’s an exceptional teacher with over a decade of clinical experience. He showed me how to weave together fundamental concepts, historical applications, and multiple traditional systems, highlighting their shared truths and timeless principles. As a Muslim, there were parts of his teaching I set aside, such as medical astrology, but I embraced the wealth of knowledge he offered in every other area.
Alongside the other roots of health, he reminded us that food is an important restorative form of medicine, which inspired me to seek additional training in nutrition, a subject he did not teach in depth. I enrolled in another school, Joyful Belly Ayurveda, to study nutrition in a way that went far beyond calories or macronutrients. At Joyful Belly, I explored foods through their physiological patterns, medicinal actions, and how they interact with different physiological baselines. Under the guidance of multiple instructors, I began a 500-hour certification in Integrative Digestion & Nutrition, specializing in digestive health and studying over 30 major digestive tract pathologies. In traditional medicine, digestion is considered the foundation of health, and I was learning how to build personalized gut-healing strategies.
Coming Full Circle
Everything I’d been learning was starting to fit into a cohesive, meaningful picture… one that could help others truly reclaim balance in their own lives. My training showed me that true healing requires tending to all the roots of health: lifestyle choices, emotional well-being, spiritual alignment, and a supportive environment, alongside the right foods and plant medicines. This was real holistic medicine, and I could see how powerful it was when every part worked together. I felt ready to share this approach with others.
Last year, I launched my own business, The Passionate Herbalist, and decided to take my skills a step further by enrolling with NASM to study science-based wellness coaching techniques. I built an educational website to guide people toward whole-person healing and teaching them how to create sustainable wellness habits that truly last. Originally, my site was supposed to launch last year, but I hit an unexpected setback when I learned that Wix, the website host I was originally building my website on, was a Zionist-owned company. I couldn’t in good conscience keep my work there, so I started over from scratch, rebuilding everything on a new hosting platform. At the time, it felt like yet another hurdle, but now I see it as one more step shaping the work I was meant to create.
Every chapter of my life, every setback, every wrong turn, every moment of doubt has led me here. From my days of searching for peace, to my spiritual awakening, to diving deep into natural medicine, I’ve learned that health is never just about one thing. It’s about tending to the whole person, mind, body, and spirit while honoring the rhythms of nature that Allah SWT so perfectly designed. And if my journey inspires even one person to explore their health more holistically and believe that healing is possible, and to trust that every step they’ve taken has a purpose, then it’s all been worth it.
