Privacy Policy Consent

WholeHumanMama.com and GraemeSeabrook.com is owned by Graeme Seabrook (“Company”, “we”, or “us”). The term “you” refers to the user or viewer of WholeHumanMama.com and GraemeSeabrook.com (“Website”).

This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, process, and distribute your information, including Personal Data (as defined below) used to access this Website. We will not use or share your information with anyone except as described in this Privacy Policy. The use of information collected through our Sites shall be limited to the purposes under this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service to customers.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy on the Website at any time without notice. In the event of a material change, we will let you know via email and/or a prominent notice on our Website.

Use of any personal information or contribution that you provide to us, or which is collected by us on or through our Website or its content is governed by this Privacy Policy. By using our Website or its content, you consent to this Privacy Policy, whether or not you have read it.

Information We May Collect
We collect personal information from you so that we can provide you with a positive experience when utilizing our Website or content. We will only collect the minimum amount of information necessary for us to fulfill our obligation to you. We may collect:

  • A name and an email address so we can deliver our emails to you — you would be affirmatively consenting to this by providing this to us in our contact forms.
  • Billing information including name, address, and credit card information so that we can process payment to deliver our products or services to you under our contractual obligation.
  • A name and an email address if you complete our contact form with a question. We may send you marketing emails with either your consent or if we believe we have a legitimate interest to contact you based on your contact or question.
  • Information from you from a co-branded offer. In this case, we will make clear as to who is collecting the information and whose privacy policy applies. If both / all parties are retaining the information you provide, this will also be made clear as will links to all privacy policies.

Please note that the information above (“Personal Data”) that you are giving to us is voluntarily, and by providing this information to us, you are giving consent for us to use, collect, and process this Personal Data. You are welcome to opt-out or request for us to delete your Personal Data at any point by contacting us at graeme@graemeseabrook.com

If you choose not to provide us with certain Personal Data, you may not be able to participate in certain aspects of our Website or content.

Other Information We May Collect:

Anonymous Data Collection and Use
To maintain Website quality, we may use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server, to administer the Website by identifying which areas of the Website are most heavily used, and to display content according to your preferences. Your IP address is the number assigned to computers connected to the Internet. This is essentially “traffic data” which cannot personally identify you but is helpful to us for marketing purposes and for improving our services. Traffic data collection does not follow a user’s activities on any other websites in any way. Anonymous traffic data may also be shared with business partners and advertisers on an aggregate basis.

Use of “Cookies”
We may use the standard “cookies” feature of major web browsers. We do not set any personally identifiable information in cookies, nor do we employ any data-capture mechanisms on our Website other than cookies. You may choose to disable cookies through your own web browser’s settings. However, disabling this function may diminish your experience on our Website and some features may not work as intended.

What We Do With Information We Collect

Contact You

We may contact you with information that you provide to us based on these lawful grounds for processing:

  • We may contact you if you give us your clear, unambiguous, affirmative consent to contact you.
  • We will contact you under our contractual obligation to deliver goods or services you purchase from us.
  • Legitimate Interest. We may contact you if we feel you have a legitimate interest in hearing from us. For example, if you sign up for a webinar, we may send you marketing emails based on the content of that webinar.  You will always have the option to opt out of any of our emails.

Process Payments
We will use the Personal Data you give to us in order to process your payment for the purchase of goods or services under a contract. We only use third party payment processors that take the utmost care in securing data and comply with the GDPR.

Targeted Social Media Advertisements
We may use the data you provide to us to run social media advertisements and / or create look-alike audiences for advertisements.

Share with Third Parties
We may share your information with trusted third parties such as our newsletter provider in order to contact you via email, our merchant accounts to process payments, and Google / social media accounts in order to run advertisements and our affiliates.

Viewing by Others
Note that whenever you voluntarily make your Personal Data available for viewing by others online through this Website or its content, it may be seen, collected and used by others, and therefore, we cannot be responsible for any unauthorized or improper use of the information that you voluntarily share (i.e., sharing a comment on a blog post, posting in a Facebook group that we manage, sharing details on a group coaching call, etc.).

Submission, Storage, Sharing and Transferring of Personal Data
Personal Data that you provide to us is stored internally or through a data management system. Your Personal Data will only be accessed by those who help to obtain, manage, or store that information, or who have a legitimate need to know such Personal Data (i.e., our hosting provider, newsletter provider, payment processors, or team members).

It is important to note that we may transfer data internationally. For users in the European Union, please be aware that we transfer Personal Data outside of the European Union. By using our Website and providing us with your Personal Data, you consent to these transfers in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Data Retention
We retain your Personal Data for the minimum amount of time necessary to provide you with the information and / or services that you requested from us. We may include certain Personal Data for longer periods of time if necessary for legal, contractual, and accounting obligations.

Confidentiality
We aim to keep the Personal Data that you share with us confidential. Please note that we may disclose such information if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that: (1) such action is necessary to protect and defend our rights or property or those of our users or licensees, (2) to act as immediately necessary in order to protect the personal safety or rights of our users or the public, or (3) to investigate or respond to any real or perceived violation of this Privacy Policy or of our Disclaimer, Terms and Conditions, or any other terms of use or agreement with us.

Passwords
To use certain features of the Website or its content, you may need a username and password. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the username and password, and you are responsible for all activities, whether by you or by others, that occur under your username or password and within your account. We cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to protect your username, password, or account information. If you share your username or password with others, they may be able to obtain access to your Personal Data at your own risk.

You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized or improper use of your username or password or any other breach of security. To help protect against unauthorized or improper use, make sure that you log out at the end of each session requiring your username and password.

We will use our best efforts to keep your username and password(s) private and will not otherwise share your password(s) without your consent, except as necessary when the law requires it or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary, particularly when disclosure is necessary to identify, contact, or bring legal action against someone who may be causing injury to others or interfering with our rights or property.

How You Can Access, Update, or Delete Your Personal Data

You have the right to:

  • Request information about how your Personal Data is being used and request a copy of what Personal Data we use.
  • Restrict processing if you think the Personal Data is not accurate, unlawful, or no longer needed.
  • Rectify or erase Personal Data and receive confirmation of the rectification or erasure. (You have the “right to be forgotten.”)
  • Withdraw your consent at any time to the processing of your Personal Data.
  • Lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority if you feel we are using your Personal Data unlawfully.
  • Receive Personal Data portability and transference to another controller without our hindrance.
  • Object to our use of your Personal Data.
  • Not be subject to an automated decision based solely on automatic processing, including profiling, which legally or significantly affects you.

You may unsubscribe from our emails or updates at any time through the unsubscribe link at the footer of all email communications. If you have questions or are experiencing problems unsubscribing, please contact us at graeme@graemeseabrook.com

Security
We take commercially reasonable steps to protect the Personal Data you provide to us from misuse, disclosure, or unauthorized access. We only share your Personal Data with trusted third parties who use the same level of care in processing your Personal Data. That being said, we cannot guarantee that your Personal Data will always be secure due to technology or security breaches. Should there be a data breach of which we are aware, we will inform you immediately.

Anti-Spam Policy
We have a no spam policy and provide you with the ability to opt-out of our communications by selecting the unsubscribe link at the footer of all emails. We have taken the necessary steps to ensure that we are compliant with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 by never sending out misleading information. We will not sell, rent, or share your email address.

Third Party Websites
We may link to other websites on our Website. We have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of any other individual, company, or entity whose website or materials may be linked to our Website or its content, and thus we cannot be held liable for the privacy of the information on their website or that you voluntarily share with their website. Please review their privacy policies for guidelines as to how they respectively store, use, and protect the privacy of your Personal Data.

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance
We do not collect any information from anyone under 18 years of age in compliance with COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) and the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation of the EU). Our Website and its content is directed to individuals who are at least 18 years old or older.

Notification of Changes
We may use your Personal Data, such as your contact information, to inform you of changes to the Website or its content, or, if requested, to send you additional information about us. We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to change, modify, or otherwise alter our Website, its content, and this Privacy Policy at any time. Such changes and/or modifications shall become effective immediately upon posting our updated Privacy Policy. Please review this Privacy Policy periodically. Continued use of any of information obtained through or on the Website or its content following the posting of changes and/or modifications constituted acceptance of the revised Privacy Policy. Should there be a material change to our Privacy Policy, we will contact you via email or by a prominent note on our Website.

Data Controller and Processors
We are the data controllers as we are collecting and using your Personal Data. We use trusted third parties as our data processors for technical and organizational purposes, including for payments and email marketing. We use reasonable efforts to make sure our data processors are GDPR-compliant.If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at graeme@graemeseabrook.com

Last Updated: January 2025

The Best British Dog, A Colorado Cave, And The Great Green Beast

I didn’t give up. I’m still here.
January 17, 2025

May 2023 

After about 16 months in bed, I’d simply watched all the TV there was to watch. Everything I was interested in, anyway. And so I went in search of something. Something soothing. Something hopeful. Something that would help me forget the pain, fatigue, and isolation of chronic illness. Something that would give me hope.

I “met” Monty Don when I found a series called “Big Dreams, Small Spaces” which follows people across the UK as they overhaul their small gardens and turn them into dream spaces. He seemed genuinely kind and watching the transformations was addicting. I wanted to transform like that. I wanted to dig past rubble and dirt and sprout into glorious color.

The Brits are, well, British. So of course there were only five or six episodes a season. I was still sick, still stuck in bed, and there was no transformation on the horizon. This Monty guy seemed like he knew a lot about gardening, so I did a search for his name thinking maybe he’d done another show. Come to find out he is seriously famous in the gardening world. #Oops He hosts a weekly show on BBC called “Gardeners’ World.” I started watching in the hopes that it would fill in the hole “Big Dreams, Small Spaces” had left.

I had no idea it would change my life.

Sir Nigel of Longmeadow

It started with Nigel. Even typing his name makes me smile. Nigel accompanied Monty all around the garden each week. He flopped in exactly the spot Monty was going to plant crocus and tulips. He dropped his tennis balls into freshly dug planting holes. He chased apples that fell from trees. He was a golden retriever with the most expressive face and charming demeanor. I accidentally learned about gardening while following the weekly exploits of Nigel The Very Best Boy.

My husband heard all about Nigel the same way he heard about what my friends’ kids were up to, or what the latest drama on Twitter was. I took videos of the show on my phone and sent it to him via text while he was working. We agreed that tennis balls should absolutely grow tennis ball trees and Nigel should get everything he wanted, always.

At some point, I realized that there were more seasons of the show than there are years in a dog’s life. I did a Google search and learned that Nigel had died in 2020. I sobbed. Then I started watching more closely, more slowly.

And I ordered a few packets of seeds.

Something about knowing Nigel was gone made me want to see something grow.

Into the Cave

The only reason we could afford to buy this house is because it’s falling apart. Not unsafe levels of falling apart, but definitely unattractive levels. The moment I stepped into the house I thought two things: 1) I WANT IT and 2) Adam is never going to go for this. By some miracle, he did go for it and I got my house. And the yard. We’re on a corner lot, we’ve got a steep slope, and the backyard is massive. I had dreams of terracing it and adding a swing set and play area for the kids and a fire pit for entertaining. Those plans were put on hold first because we couldn’t afford them, then we had health scares with our daughter, then our son was diagnosed with ADHD and anxiety, then there was this small global pandemic you may have heard of… and then me. I happened.

Pain. Fatigue. Swelling. Fatigue. Dizziness. Fatigue. Migraine. Fatigue.

Brain damage.

My bedroom is in the basement. It’s my cave. There are sliding glass doors leading to the backyard and two big windows to let in light, but I keep them covered with blackout curtains. It’s cool and dark and quiet. The bed is piled high with pillows - some for sleeping, some for sitting up, some for propping up whatever is swollen or most painful. The bedside table is full of prescription bottles, over-the-counter pain meds, stomach meds, supplements, and vitamins. A sick person lives here.

And at first, being a sick person was terrifying. But terror takes energy and I simply didn’t have any. There was doctor after doctor and test after test all while the seasons changed and the kids grew and life moved on. Eventually, I got some answers. Severely weakened immune system. Chronic migraine with full body involvement. Chronic inflammation. Chronic fatigue. (You’re seeing the pattern, right?)

Some things are still a mystery. Two years in and I’m still going to different specialists and tweaking medications and dosages and exercises.

Sometimes the terror spikes. When I think about what would happen to me and the kids if we lost Adam. Or when I think about how short my life expectancy is now. Thankfully my anxiety brings those thoughts to me regularly — and if I’m really lucky, I get to live them out in technicolor dreams at night.

I’ve been grinding my teeth so hard that I cracked one, it got infected, and I got a root canal for Christmas this past year.

In the cave, I don’t have to put on a brave face. I can scream and sob into my pillows. I can hide in the cool dark. I can heal.

Slowly. So slowly. So very slowly that even terror has become boring. I didn’t think that was possible. Gut-clenching fear is just Monday. Nausea-inducing pain is simply Tuesday. Oh, I can’t think today? It must be Thursday. Three days of migraine attacks followed by vertigo, followed by fatigue so total I can barely make it from the bed to the bathroom… eh.

I didn’t give up. I’m still here. But I did stop fighting for a while. I sank deeper into this cave, into this bed, into the dark. And then Nigel planted his tennis ball and I planted some seeds.

The BEAST

The vastness of my backyard is overwhelming. So, I decided to focus on the front yard which meant I had to finally tackle my nemesis, THE BEAST. I’ve hated him from the moment I first saw the house, and for the last six years I’ve fumed, pouted, cursed at, and fought with him. But this year, I finally took action. 2023 is the year I battle The Beast and win.

The Beast is a gargantuan juniper bush that took up nearly HALF of our front yard. About twelve feet from front to back and nearly 17 feet wide, he’s definitely earned his name.

But how was I going to take him down? Ideally, with a credit card. We got a few estimates and it quickly became clear that was NOT an option. I bought a few lottery tickets. And then I bought a mini chainsaw.

Yes, you read that right. A chainsaw. A six-inch, battery-operated chainsaw. It’s small enough for me to use safely and the battery is also small enough that I can’t use it too long. I made a plan — every day in April that it wasn’t raining, I would battle The Beast for no more than 20 minutes. Some days I could only manage 10. For a couple of days, I could only manage a withering stare. For a couple of days, I couldn’t get out of bed.

But I hacked away, little by little, tearing him down. That was outside. Inside was a whole other story.

While I followed the exploits of Nigel and eventually of Nell, Ned, and Patti, I was also soaking in a lot of information about gardening and inspiration for my own garden. While I wielded a mini chainsaw outside, inside I started a mini nursery. Perennials in seed trays and pots are sprouting under grow lights on the counter. Strawberries are in grow bags on the floor. Dahlias are potted up and placed on every windowsill. My tools, soil, liquid feed, and garden notebook are stashed in the corner. Life is inside. Life is growing.

Tomorrow Adam will slay The Beast. I’ve wounded him as much as I can. We’re renting a much larger chainsaw and Adam will slice the final bits down, dig it out a bit, and slice some more. Then we’ll clear out his carcass and I’ll probably do a little dance. The kids will laugh at me and I WILL NOT CARE. 

We’ve got plans. We’re turning The Beast’s grave into a no-dig garden; laying cardboard and then layering soil on top, planting my lovely seedlings, sowing some seed directly, and mulching.

This summer I’ll be able to sit on my front porch and soak in the color, the light, the scent, the life. And when I have to be in the cave, I’ll still know it’s all up there, living.

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