Plant Allies in Tough Times: Building a Holistic Relationship with Herbs
“Study Nature, love Nature, stay close to Nature. It will never fail you.”
-Frank Lloyd Wright
Life is a Hike and Other Puns
Fresh off a backpacking trip in the White Mountains and I have ample metaphors for life swimming around in my mind about how we navigate peaks, valleys, rocks, boulders and unforeseen obstacles like fallen trees in our path. I will spare you!
Suffice it to say that the road to anywhere ain’t straight, and the downhill is just as hard as the uphill. To boot (pun intended, can’t help myself), we often end up falling flat on our faces in a puddle at the easiest points and on the flattest land due to sheer exhaustion and distraction. But I got that IG photo! SO what you get to see on social media is me smiling through the glute burning pain on my fourth 5,000 ft peak of the day when all I really want to do is collapse in a puddle and live on that mountain eating tree sap and insects because if I have to take one more step I’ll sob. Woe is me! I did sob.
Dudes, we never know what people are going through.
I clutched my CBD lollipop and Ashwaghanda capsules before the first night of tossing and turning through sore muscles, and I was faced with the hard truth that we get exactly what we need and exactly what we wish for in life. I’ve been so focused on spiritual leveling up, through shadow work, tarot, psychology, archetypes and intuition, that I sorta forgot that my body has so much to say. I was begging for the next challenge, thinking it would be something else to think my way through. Wrong. I had to feel that shit all over my body.
While our culture values the cerebral, we are definitely here in this human form to find balance between the physical world and the spiritual world. The video game that is life must have heard me professing my satisfaction with achievements in the inner emotional world and said, “Great! Time for the next challenge!” So that is essentially how I came to find myself carrying a wayyyyyy too heavy backpack on a way too difficult wilderness trail that I was way unprepared for. Ouch, pain. Ouch, more physical pain, and geez did I get to test my mental capacity to know that everything is impermanent! It feels so permanent!
Plant Allies When Things Get Rough
One thing that I draw on consistently is an understanding that my “plant allies” are all around me. I’m noticing that the more I get to know herbs, the less reliant I am on ingesting them like a pill to “cure” and the more I can call on what they’ve taught me for support. Getting out of our predisposition to the superiority of Allopathic medicine takes work, as we’ve been so conditioned to think that pills, treatments, and cures look only one way. But the possibilities for healing that lay outside this realm of conventional medicine are whole, sustainable and fulfilling in ways that humans innately know, but have been encouraged to forget.
Passionflower was one of the first herbs I connected with for sleep and anxiety. I started by taking capsules, then moved into tea infusions and tinctures, and now I can kind of just think about it, look at pictures of it, draw it and remember all the times it has been there for me. It’s a plant that travels with me in spirit whether I have it physically or not. Even when I am not consciously pulling it up, it’s been so present in my life that it sits in the background of my psyche like a little green goddess holding space for me. I can see it when I close my eyes, I can feel it wrapping it’s curly little tendrils around my stress and softening the self inflicted pain that our egos are so prone to. Have I lost you yet?!
Intention is Healing
I took an herbalism workshop with Ashe from Pura Luna Women's Apothecary and she talked about the power of intention. If we can simply change the structure of water molecules by placing an intention on a glass of water (it’s a thing! the molecules become more beautiful with positive intentions! what?!) then the possibilities are endless. If you’re the kind of person that needs research to convince you that these energetics are real, then do your research! It’s worth getting past the hurdle of cynicism because the payoff is that you start seeing the world as a magical Avatar-esque symbiosis between humans and nature. We are IN IT not ABOVE it.
If you read my post about Guides, then you know that having a figurative “team” of people, places, and/or things can truly support your growth and personal sense of safety. Plants can be on your team!
In the midst of stress I may feel miserable, but I don’t feel so lost anymore. This is largely due to the fact that I’ve learned how to enlist several natural therapies to support and nourish my system. Even if I wasn’t going to feel better immediately on top of that mountain, I have an arsenal of Tulsi, Lemon Balm, Echinacea, Passionflower, Hemp, and Ashwaghanda waiting for me at home to refortify my body and mind. My formerly hypochondriac mind would have panicked indefinitely about the stress to my system, often creating health scenarios and reasons to go to a doctor that couldn’t find anything wrong. THAT was not a great cycle!
Now, I’m tending towards looking at herbs not just as a selfish way to seek immediate escape from my difficult feelings, but as more of a two way relationship that enriches my life. When we try to impose the same prescriptive approach on herbal medicine as we do with other western medications, I think we miss most of the payoff. The medicine is real, it is physiological, but it is also emotional, metaphysical, spiritual and reciprocal when operating at its best.
Journal prompts to get you thinking about your relationship with your herbal allies:
What is your first positive memory of a plant or herb?
What herbs are you naturally drawn to due to the way they look, taste, feel, etc…?
What herbs have you had an easy time growing, cultivating, or finding in your life?
Are there plants that you’ve drawn, doodled, or photographed frequently? Why?
What herb do you gravitate towards when you are stressed, tired, or depleted?
Plant Spirit Healing in a Changing Reality
It’s an understatement to say that we are going through a collective shift in consciousness with regards to the deep seated injustices running through every part of our society. Being attentive to the impact that a process of destruction and rebirth can have on our individual and collective psyche requires a tenderness that we are not usually taught.
Given that plants can thrive and create new ecosystems in even the most decimated of environments (have you seen Chernobyl recently?!) how can we enlist them to teach us and nurture us through our own personal and societal transformation? The psychological benefit of nature is undeniable, it improves depression, lowers stress, improves immune function, and impacts well-being. Sitting under a tree can do this, but how can we start to weave the natural world more deeply into every aspect of our lives? The more we practice being in conversation with the natural world, the more present it will be in both our conscious and subconscious thoughts.
Ideas for Creating a More Unconventional Healing Relationship with Herbs
The way herbs work for each individual is different. It’s about relationship, individual physiology and psychology. It’s about where you are now, and where you’ve been and where you want to go. It’s different for everyone and it’s not one size fits all. This can feel confusing, overwhelming and new, because it’s simply not what we’ve been taught. Give yourself a break, take your time. Smell, taste, sample, play and breathe with any herb that calls to you. Notice what comes up and if nothing does, notice that. Why? Be patient, building a new framework for observing your self and the world takes time. Also, be wary when someone says “this will fix your problem with x, y or z!” for the same reason I am reluctant to make sweeping recommendations on herbs for the general populace…we all require different things at different times.
Here are some ways you can start to build an energetic relationship with herbs:
Grow some little herbs in your kitchen or yard, tasting and smelling them regularly, especially on their own and not mixed in with other foods.
Notice what colors, shapes and textures you’re drawn to and research the environments and benefits of those herbs.
Think about a place you connect with. What grows naturally there? What do indigenous cultures use for healing in that environment?
If you’ve been told something is “good for” a specific condition that you don’t have, find out what else it can do, most herbs have multiple beneficial uses.
Drop some herbs in your drinking water or tea. A real casual thing here.
Experiment with them at different times of day. We are told that many herbs are for “sleep” or “energy”, but the way your body interacts with them varies constantly (especially with adaptogens).
Happy Herbing!
