What do I feel?
Exquisite Practice no.6 : A practice of elemental inquiry with Rachelle Robinett.
It’s been a long while since the last Exquisite Practice landed on SpaceUnknown. So it is my great pleasure to feature herbalist, writer, and perennial woman crush, Rachelle Robinett!
Today's edition outlines her practice for reconnecting to the primal, instinctual forces that shape her life and her writing—powerful precisely because of its refusal to complicate.
Read on below…
I was first introduced to Rachelle’s work on Instagram eight years ago, drawn in by her potent yet pragmatic herbal guidance, and yes, her killer sense of style (because yes, she’s also a NYC fashion industry veteran).
At the time, I was on world tour as an acrobat with Cirque du Soleil, gradually (cautiously) beginning to explore plant medicine in support of my athletic performance and C-PTSD recovery. Herbalism felt like the obvious next step.
Except—like many before me who have stood lost in the maze of herb and vitamin-lined shelves at a natural health store—I had no idea where to start.
I couldn’t just whack the whole herbal pharmacopeia into my suitcase and figure it out as I went. Whatever I tried needed to justify its weight on the road.
It was a suboptimal, but worthwhile challenge. A challenge, it turns out, Rachelle was uniquely poised to meet.
What sets Rachelle apart—particularly for someone like me who grew up in the fucky shadow of the New Age world—is her refusal to be dogmatic. She holds peer-reviewed science and indigenous traditions with equal respect, letting each speak on its own terms.
That felt not just radical, but safe to me.
I grew up in a world where spirituality was more hollow performance than embodied practice.
There, herbalism oscillated between the pseudoscientific snake oil hawked by predatory capitalists LARP-ing as wellness gurus (looking at u Dr. Joseph Mercola), and the hypochondriac rituals of depressed hippies attempting to herbalize away their body's protests against unprocessed emotional pain. Pain they were, not coincidentally, using “spirituality” to avoid confronting in the first place.
Rachelle was my first example of how a healthy relationship to herbalism could look. An approach rooted not in disempowered and desperate extraction, but in genuine reverence and reciprocity with the greater living world.
It was, to paraphrase her own words, herbalism less as a discipline, and more as a life-orientation.
Grounded by Rachelle's free YouTube channel and educational articles (and recently, her new book!), I found that orientation.
It's become an anchoring root in my life ever since—one I've had the pleasure of passing on to clients and friends along the way. It has also grown into a mutual admiration and, happily, a handful of collaborations (like this one!).
And thanks to her work, the process wasn't complicated.
It was natural.
So without further ado, here is Rachelle's exquisite practice for SpaceUnknown.
WHAT DO I FEEL?
An exquisite practice of elemental inquiry—by guest contributor, Rachelle Robinett.
My writing ritual unfolds in two parts on heavy writing days…
01 • PART ONE
Part one begins with coffee and incense, music, my journal, and the only pen I write with—outside on my deck in Brooklyn where I sit under enormous mulberry trees, or in my yard in Costa Rica where I get to be naked and surrounded by butterflies and hummingbirds.
I watch the sky, feel the breeze, and write stream-of-consciousness—always beginning with the prompt that has come to me automatically for years:
What do I feel?
Sometimes the answer fills a few lines, sometimes several pages.
Then I go for a long run, a bike ride, or into the sea to surf—movement as meditation, as preparation.
02 • PART TWO
Part two begins after that physical intensity, which primes both my body and brain for deep, sustained focus. I sit at my computer to write, again with music (often heavy or fast dance music), again with incense. (I can’t wear sleeves when I write—it’s always been that way. My shoulders, arms, and wrists must be free.)
On writing days, I allow no distractions. No phone. No email. No notifications. Nothing. I set a timer for one hour and write, uninterrupted. When the hour ends, I walk, look outside, stretch, drink water—fifteen minutes of space—then I return.
I repeat this rhythm as long as my mind allows, usually for five to six hours.
After that, I open the doors again—notifications, communication, the rest of the world—and the rest of the day I’m free to do as I please. The only priority thereafter is to allow my system to recover in order to do it all over again the next day.
I love the ritual of writing, as challenging as it frequently is. It’s my favorite way to spend time, energy, and my life.
Writing prompt: What do you feel?
EXQUISITE LIST
…of exquisite stimuli. From Rachelle’s senses, to yours.
LISTEN
Rachelle’s absolute vibe of a writing playlist:
SMELL
Her favourite writing scent-scapes:
Astier de Villate Kingston incense (I can also vouch for Astier’s Nara, Aoyama, Awaji, Yakushima, and Villa Medici incense!)
Suchness—A natural eau de perfume created by Rachelle in collaboration with Serene Body Health.
It’s crafted with 100% essential oils including mugwort, hinoki, blue lotus, siberian fir, oakmoss & spearmint.
Smells like: morning light spilling through lush arborial canopies onto the forest floor.
It’s verdant.
It’s herbaceous.
It’s ethereal.
It’s giving Fern Gully fairy chic.
Get into it.
TOUCH
Moleskine classic softcover notebook in black—her (and I’s) preferred writing vessel.
The only pen she writes with.
READ
Naturally—Rachelle’s wonderful book on integrative herbalism which I can personally and enthusiastically vouch for!
Thinking, Naturally—her bestselling Substack on living a healthy, fulfilling life, naturally.
Rachelle and my conversation from last year, on her Substack:
That’s it for this week! More goodness to follow soon.
Until then, stay exquisite :)
— Antonia
 | A guest post by
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I love your work!! What a pleasure to collaborate, converse, and continue to cross paths. Thank you!