Logo's, eclipses and self care....

I'm in the process of designing a new logo slash labels for my herbal makings, and it's been a time of reassessing. Who am I kidding, I'm always reassessing, I have little choice! Ha! However, attempting to simplify essences of your tangent, with enough detail to include what's important, whilst being able to fit on a 30mL dropper bottle, can be tricky. Although, the recent series of eclipses seem to be aiding in the honing down!

I wanted to write about nourishment, gentleness and self care in such times. These may seem like obvious traits for any apprentice to the green folk. Yup, that's the textbook version. It's an indicator, when you haven't showered for days, or attended to self care. I've experienced this in times of peak mental health challenge, if you, or someone you love, have too, know you're not alone.....

That being said, by goddess when you can pull it out of the bag to do what's kind, it's both a good feeling, and waving flag! If I am making a herbal infusion before bedtime in prep to drink the next day, or a cuppa specific to whats going on, making medicines with the moon, remembering to reach out to my spirit kin, smudging our home, getting dirt between my toes in the garden...well, the stars (at times despite them) and my self care, are aligning. We all have these signs, different and diverse. Yay!

Fish in rivers rarely swim against the currents to the point of exhaustion. Ok spawning Salmon are an impressive exception, lucky for our Bear cousins. Most finned ones however, rest in the eddies and pools, periodically retreating as they navigate their waterways. For those of us who live, play and work with underlying distress, allowing for this with gentility is a gifting.

Internalised stigma can have one flagellating about the fact I'm utilising pretty full on pharmacetical support. In my dream world, I would be wholey managing my life with love, herbs, music, spirit connections, fresh air and good food. Skip de skip, tra la la! Clean and pure, aarggh watch out for that type of language! Just ain't my reality, yet. I'm emphasising the YET folks, not the pure bit, not interested, mayhaps the clean, and all for the skipping ;).

Growth, and indeed healing, take time. She says who goes out each morning to check if those seeds she planted are flowering yet! Anyone who says otherwise is selling something, which is ok, as long as there's honesty there. It takes about 15-20 minutes for a benzodiazepine medication to kick in during a panic attack, I find Motherwort tincture, tea and support, about the same, BUT getting off benzo's can take years. Therein lies the catch. Rebuilding wholth and integration, especially after experiencing trauma, can be slow. This is basically the best of what pharmaceuticals are allowing the space to do.

I don't get the stuff about the science of altered receptors in the brain, and the truth is the drug companies don't either really! However, I do gel with the fact that these are mind altering substances, which suppress and change us. Everything we imbibe through our senses, and body, does!

Whilst at times for various reasons I have been forced to take these meds, they have at times been useful tools to help my situation. In the same breath, I try to work with reclaiming and exploring other ways to nourish, I believe these tangents can co exist, and be in process. That's what I live, and want to share with my story....

So I will continue to sketch my designs, journey, experiment with cheap, accessible ways to make food n medicine, and I'm enrolling at Tafe to take a course in anatomy and physiology. To get there I catch the bus for 40 minutes, with my trusty spirit kin Moraig at my side. They may not sound like big career moves, ain't, but they are some of my wee steps of reclamation. What are yours?

Removing a psych med from my Medicine pouch....

 

Travelling the roads of this life has seen me carry in my medicine pouch, amongst the herbs, stones, fur, bones and feathers... psychiatric medications. If you judge this, feel free, at times I do the same! The medical model has only been the dominant paradigm in Western culture for some hundred years or more. It has at times assumed it alone is the most well aligned, yet healing wise folks have been working with peoples distress through time and place, using many strategies around the way one lives on planet Earth. In my current journey to taper off one med, a benzodiazepine family drug, originally prescribed for panic attacks I'm calling out deep to all kinds of resources, including herbal allies.

I'm naming the feelings I'm getting in my body as I taper down, 'restlessness'. A restlessness which is at its worst for the first days, being neither comfortable nor easy. I'm walking. When the adrenaline begins to rise, so do my feet. We're lucky enough to dwell near bush and beach, where I can put one foot in front of the other amidst nature for a goodly span of time with relative ease. Often when I begin there's a lot going on with my thoughts as well as in my body (surprise, surprise!). If I can keep moving, generally they reach a still or quiet point. As a counter to their content I may offer prayers, blessings and slightly out of tune song, honouring the landscape that supports me in its beauty, and my own  reemerging voice.

At times I may have a moment and need to do a couple of round the blocks, or blockies to shift through it. Also we're swimming in the ocean, and I'm practicing tai chi. I'm lucky enough to be with a wonderfully supportive partner, something I have great appreciation for, and which I hadn't forseen happening a few years back. Doing this work is hard enough, gather your Kin in spirit and flesh and let them in on this.

"Many people report having to "re-learn" how to cope with difficult emotions when they come off psychiatric drugs."

                     from Harm Reduction Guide (see Resources)

  

Thing is about these processes, we may have previously been forced, or even from a place of empathy been advised, without full understanding, to suppress symptoms to ease our intense distress, but when we have then been on and reduce pharmaceuticals, it rises up and comes back to haunt us. This can suck, and also be dangerous.  I am working with a psychiatrist, and my Gp, on doseage issues and timing so far.

  

Working with the herbs as a deeply embedded part of our lifestyle, wildcrafting or growing, and making medicine from them, is a reclamation of our mental, indeed whole health, as we learn to take back our power and how to nourish different states with their help. These plants are beings of compassionate and giving natures when treated with respect. Their assistance can ease distress states and form a bridge to the natural world, a world feeling as much suffering and new growth as we are.

Motherwort (Leonuris cardiaca) who I met, grew, and tinctured, several years ago, has become an indispensable ally to turn to in this process. Having a cup or two of Motherwort allows me to feel 'held' in her soothing embrace, but like her flowers as they mature there is also maternal protectiveness. I am drinking 3 or 4 small teapots a day, using 2 teaspoons of dried herb brewed for 10-15 minutes.

  

Her fresh plant tincture is great for a quick response to anxiety or panic, however I find I'm calling more on the dried herb tea. It feels like she is building up my reserves of resilience whilst also answering the call of that restlessness in my body with a responsive calming effect. I now find her somewhat bitter taste goes down just fine, as I know the ease she will bring.

                                                             young Motherwort plant.....

  

I am also currently connecting with Rose, in particular at this time, Rosa centifolia. The tincture of which I made (gleefully) from a stash of dried pink petals, when I read words from herbalist Kiva Rose saying that this is how to bring out her best qualities in this form of medicine. I find her gentle but potent touch, good heart chakra healing for depression or grief, and having a flower essence like energy. I feel she works to help heal past wounding and scar tissue that may be triggered in the now, whilst encouraging one to 'take heart' or find courage. I have been taking 5 drops twice a day.

  

Then there are nourishing herbal infusions a la Susun Weed. Nettle (Urtica dioica)and Oat straw (Avena sativa) mostly, as they both nourish the nervous system. Nettle brings me right home to the present earthy moment, whilst giving minerals to nourish the nervous system. Oatstraw, and oats, strengthen the nerves, soothing frazzled edges. I'd had a pause in these but have picked up the thread again, and a couple of 2 litre canning jars to prepare the brews.

Just as the exercise and herbs combine in a beautiful way to build up resilience, empowerment and allow nourishing through some of the states I am experiencing, spiritual practices I am engaging with are deepening.

As we reduce medications, we need to simultaneously build up the contents of our medicine pouch. I hope this process will give me ways to continue tapering the pharmaceuticals, yes, but in the process and perhaps more importantly, recover more aliveness....

  

Resources:

'Ease your Mind: Herbs for Mental Health' by Janet Kent

 available for $US5 post paid from Medicine County Herbs, 2014.

 http://www.medicinecountyherbs.com/

  

The Ashton Manual

https://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/

The Harm Reduction Guide to Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs

Published by The Icarus Project and Freedom Centre,

http://www.willhall.net/files/ComingOffPsychDrugsHarmReductGuide2Edonline.pdf

Nervines....

I am learning the ways of anatomy and physiology and how they relate to plant medicines, it seems a vast and far ranging task that is a case of the more you know the more there is to learn. Yet I remember, when I first drank a cup of Skullcap tea, the words 'protects the nerve sheath', came to me loud and clear. This was before I had any knowledge of the fatty myelin sheath that surrounds or insulates every nerve fibre, enabling messages to travel along nerves, without 'wires getting crossed'. So, I hold that experienece close when it feels overwhelming, that teachings come if we listen. That there are many ways to absorb and gain information.

The nervous system has drawn me in because of its direct links to mental health, which is my focus, however a recent journey with back pain reminded of its furthur relationships, unity of, with and to the body. That there is no nice tidy line betwixt, and that I may have artificially created one. Thanks for that pain, at least some good came of it. That and learning to listen for when to pause, or stop to rest.

As herbalist Dorothy Hall put it...
"Many and varied disease symptoms arise from prolonged overloads. Its common today to call the overloads 'stress'. Depending on whether the brain end or the body end is the 'overheated' zone, you can experience almost any symptom at all, from mental irritability to nervous breakdown (at the brain end) and from ordinary fatigue to pain and limitation of use, swelling, inflammation and tissue damage.

When your body says rest, then rest! If you can not or your head over rides your body's plea for mercy, be aware that you've started an illness pattern as well as that larger bank account or whatever special goal you hope to achieve."

Dorothy never minced words eh.

Rest as called for, and strengthening the nervous system are a pretty deadly combo. That and connecting with and to nature in a way youre comfortable with. Doesnt have to be extreme sports, although it may be. A simple walk is a great way to start, as has been shown in the charity Mind UK's research in conjunction with Stanford University. Also by the Japanese phenomena of 'Forest Bathing', which is now recognised as a health treatment by insurance companies there. The weird world of insurance meets the Trees and Ents, or rather Japanese folks do. Ha!

When it comes to strengthening the nervous system the 'nervines' are who we can call upon in the world of herbs. To be combined with medicical model treatments, or other modalities to create a full picture of nourishment for the nervous system. Nervines are divided up into furthur tribes, the examples of which i give from my experiences n experiments....

Nervine Tonics:
These plants feed and strengthen the tissues directly. Time spent with these herbs over a longer period can help rebuild frazzled nervous systems, aswell as having gentle but potent results in a cuppa or short term imbibing. Includes Oats (Avena sativa), which can be made part of the diet easily as porridge, as 'green milky tops' tincture, or Oatstraw infusions. Skullcap (Scutellaria longiflora) is here, for those myelin sheaths I drink a tea, and I find her shy nature belies her value (also as a Nerve Sedative). Then there's Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla), who can also relieve cramping and spasms with her touch ('nerve relaxant', as you can see, these descriptions are just that, and the herbs themselves may cross language). We are about to do some experimentings with Ashwaganda, so Ill let you know how that goes. The preparing of the root in a milky base with Cinnamon and Honey sounds delicous!

Nerve Relaxants:
Rather than 'blocking' nerve signals with sedation, these herbs relax, ease and soothe the intrinsically linked physical, emotional and soul states. They can indeed result in sensations of calm where distress existed, or even sleepiness where anxiety or worry. Motherwort (Leonuris cardiaca) tincture I use with people in states of crisis like distress.

She won't 'stop' crying or sounds, but she will ease their flowing through and on, into a more peacefull state of process. I have found that her tea is an excellent bedtime accompaniment for those who have trouble getting to sleep, or on waking if sleeping through is an issue. If a form of 'immunity' to her effects builds up, you can alternate with another herb like Passionflower (Passiflora incarta). Lavender (Lavendula angustifolia) is often thought of a Grandmothers plant, well need I say more? You don't reach Grandmothering age without knowing a few tricks. Sipping on and gazing into a tinted cup o Lavender tea can be enough to ease anxious thoughts and body sensations, during, or after a surge.  I suppose each herbalist has their reach for nerve relaxants. I also find Rose (Rosa centifolia)  a gift for lifes heart breaks or aches, and at times I add a little of her to the mix with the other green folk mentioned here.

Nerve Stimulants:
The aforementioned Coffee (Coffea Arabica) comes to mind almost instantaneously, yet a gentler herb like Spearmint (Mentha spicata)  brings blood to the nerves and stimulates alertness. The scent of a crushed Spearmint leaf goes straight to the brain and says hello focus and clarity!
A cuppa can do similar first thing in the morning or between study spurts. Spearmint has also told me an infused oil of her leaves will stimulate circulation, although her cousin Peppermint (Mentha piperita) is better known for this, aswell as being a nerve stimulant. In the same family Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) has that similar 'awakening' mint scent, that places her with this tribe along with on a roast. These herbs are for the person in a depressed state of debility and fatigue who doesnt necessarily want to have so many cups of Coffee that they end up anxious on top of that, or drain their systems longer term.

References:

"Herbs for Stress & Anxiety: How to Make and Use Herbal Remedies to Strengthen the Nervous System" by Rosemary Gladstar 2014

"The New Holistic Herbal" by David Hoffman 1990

"Terms of the Trade: Nervine" by Kiva Rose 2009
http://bearmedicineherbals.com/terms-of-the-trade-nervine.html

"Whats Wrong With You? How Natural Therapies Can Help." by Dorothy Hall 1986

"Ecotherapy:The Green Agenda for Mental Health: Mind"

https://www.mind.org.uk/media/273470/ecotherapy.pdf

"Stanford Researchers Find Prescription for Mental Health: Nature"
 http://news.stanford.edu/2015/06/30/hiking-mental-health-063015/

Restfull cups o tea 12/28/2016

Sleep is as much a part of our lives as waking hours, yet many have challenges to restfull sleep for periods in their life. Sometimes it's beneficial, as in creative all nighters of those touched by their particular muses. Sometimes not, as in tossing and turning to nightmarish visions, anxious wide awakes at 3am, or racing thoughts leading to an inability to get off to sleep. There are herbal allies who can be worthy travelling companions in the search for a good nights rest.

My beloved has been pained regularly by insomnia this last year or so, and despite pharma support, is often awake long before sunrise in the mornings including 2.30am. If he can later arise to face the day, watch the sun coming up on our local easterly facing beach, have a swim, perhaps do some yoga, it is a starting of the day that sets up what follows. Despite the challenges of hauling ass there after a night lacking in sleep. Here's a photo he took on one of those rattled mornings....

At the opposite end of the day he is best eased into a state of preparation for a hopefull nights sleep by a blend of more gentle yoga postures to apt music, drinking some Motherwort (Leonuris cardiaca) tea and /or taking tincture. His ways of working with sleep distubance show this as being a process requiring adjustments, kindness to self and a toolbox of approachs. That and sheer determination.


I have taken tranquilisers in periods when sleep evaded me to the point of psychic distress, and reduced them again. I admit theres a place and time for them, Reducing and coming off them takes time and they should be tapered slowly. Whilst these medications can be addictive in action, I believe few people wouldn't trade them in for the capacity to have a peacefull nights sleep without them. Tasting cup o tea allys like Motherwort, Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) and Lavender (Lavendula angustifolia, formerly officinales) can support this. There's comfort in a cup o tea. Medicine ways too.As dried plant teas brew for about 10 minutes, one teaspooon of herb to a cup.

Motherwort tea, (5-10 drops fresh flowering and spiking plant tincture may be added) for getting off to sleep, or to assist returning to it if one wakes during the night, for those transitioning off or on pharma, gives strong results in a warm sense of relaxation (and at times mumbling).Motherwort is like a protective mothers embrace, asking you to tell her all about it, and then listening with an open heart. You know she has your best interests at her centre. She will sit by your bedside and smooth that furrowed brow away, tell you a tale of dreams to come...

"Motherwort is especially valuable in female weakness and disorders (hence the name) allaying nervous irritability and inducing quiet and passivity of the whole nervous system." (pretty old school language Maude but the cores there)
                          
                           Maude Grieves, in 'A Modern Herbal', 1931

I have found Passionflower tea to work similarly, as a relaxing brew, perhaps for different individuals, shes less bitter in flavour, sweeter, with more of an Oatstraw flavour (an excellent nervous system nourisher drunk as an infusion). Perhaps a step along in tranquiliser withdrawel when remaining asleep can be difficult. A slower and deepener of states of ease, to settle with in hand, when waking during the night.

"Passionflower is an old wives remedy for women with nervous insomnia, hysteria, restlessness and headaches."(Susun recommends the fresh flowering plant tincture before bed each evening but I have also found the tea of dried leaves and stems effective)
                           Susun Weed, in 'New Menopausal Years the Wisewoman Way', 2002

Lavender is more floral in taste, and scent, she will ease you gently into dreams with recall of swaying flower spikes. The blue colour of her brew can lift the mood in the wee hours, and is a soul soother to ponder sipping to aid one drifting off.

"Lavendar...These flowers are also burned or smouldered to induce sleep and rest, and are scattered about the home to maintain its peacefulness."

                           Scott Cunningham, in 'Cunninghams Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs', 1985

Living in a coastal area where soils are sandy, I grow my herbs in raised beds and pots. This has allowed me to make Motherwort tincture from the fresh flowering plant. I buy in dried herbs for some teas, and infusions, but all the tinctures I use are from fresh plants. So I'm singing to my six Motherworts as we head into January's upcoming harvest time, as they have risen from a rosette of leaves upon the ground into waving stems!

Nightmares can disturb sleep, causing one to awake distressed or confused. I have found journalling helps, keeping a  book and pen by the bed. Somehow writing them out diffuses their hold on you and can show you themes which are repeating, if you actually need a reminder and therefore to locate a key. The other strategy i use is 'reentering' scenarios and rewriting their endings, which may begin as visualisation and end up as sleep.

 If your night of wakefullness is caused by a desire to create, like this blogpost (ok so it aint high art!), then why not? Late nights, or even greeting the sun after an all nighter by choice are a luxury!

Working out the tools we can utilise to aid sleep creates a self reliance, especially if we are transitioning from or working to reduce drugs, by learning our personal ways to create a relaxed and peacefull state. Please do not jump off tranquilisers sharply but go gently with yourself and allow beings like the herbs to build up your systems nourishment first and as travelling companions.

 As always, this is written from my experiences, keep what works for you and discard what don't.         

                             

Some spring success....

Having brought in three cubic metres of soil in autumn to improve the baseline fertility of my beds by raising them, mulching them, and then just letting nature take its course. Now, when I peel back the sugarcane mulch, theres a happy little ecosystem under there in the soil, microbes working away, and worms!

I created beds in new areas based on a bit more knowledge of how the sun works in the garden. A new area that only gets morning sun is showing promise for when the summer heat kicks in. Up here its wipeout material. Not that suns much of a problem for the more reptilian amongst us, who can simply retire to a cooler spot...

After feeling like a brown thumb last year, this spring I decided to have another go at growing from seed. I kept it simple. Roma tomatoes, large chillies, lettuces, bush basil, borage, calendula, marigolds, cosmos, bok choi, pumpkins and red poppies. This time I sat the seedlings in any kind of waterproof trays I could lay my hands on, including the hideous plastic ones that meat from supermarkets come in, which stopped them drying out so fast. When you add water, the excess drains through, forming a reservoir for the babies to draw on, which also serves as a drinking bowl for catfriend...

Ive had some luck with the seedlings and am now starting to plant them out! Ending up with way more plants than I could have afforded to buy in. I gave them a good soaking with a mix of seaweed emulsion and charlie carp fertiliser to help them settle in. Seems to be working. The climbing beans I planted straight out, and watered in the same mix, are just starting to peep shyly out from under the soil.

I used all open pollinated seeds. The goal being to gradually build up the plant population to self seed away and spread, whilst gathering some as backup. The other strategy Im experimenting with, is to simply sprinkle a few seeds around things as I plant them out. I figure if Im watering the area anyways, may aswell see if others can benifit and sprout. It happened organically in some of my pots, like around the lovely motherwort plants that get a regular drink, I have my first ever dandelion! Which threw up two seed heads I could then distribute elsewhere. Free greens!

There have also been a few surprises, unexpected flowerings occurring off their own bat. I think the garden is getting the message that I'm here to stay awhile and I appreciate its offerings. The real estate agent told me its been years since anyone gave a damn about the garden, as I could tell when I arrived. So its nice to see it begin to flourish some more. Its so luxurious to live amongst a garden where your feet are directly on the ground, especially after ten years in a third floor flat. Hopefully, the whole scene will continue to build abundance as I improve the soil and plant out more and more babies.

  

Motherwort....Leonurus cardiaca....

I have two Motherwort plants, that Im mentally willing to grow, so that I can top up my tincture stocks. This plant is the 'in your pocket' remedy for anxiety. Take 5 drops of the tincture then rest for 10-15 minutes, if she's not kicking in for you take another 5 drops, upto 20 drops, you will then know your base dose for when nerves hit next time round. This herb is effective without being addictive and can be taken several times a day, if needed.
Her soothing nature can help to bring on menses which are held because of stress or tension, and to ease uterine cramping, but if your prone to heavy bleeding, she might not be the best ally for you.
She can chill out menopausal  processes, like the severity and length of hot flashes.
The 'cardiaca' part of her is that those with a rapid or irregular heart beat can slow it down with her help. 
Motherwort was demonised during the burning times for her part in midwifery, along with the women who worked with her.
As an incense she is specific to protecting women and children.

A mother of a herb...