Meet Your Weeds: Goldenrod No, Goldenrod isn't Ragweed! It is true that when Goldenrod's bright yellow froth sweeps over roadsides, the tiny, unassuming Ragweed blooms too, and causes sinus misery all over. However, Goldenrod is actually a great remedy for Ragweed allergies, among other complaints. On one of our recent hot, swampy, rainy days I tried the loose Goldenrod harvested locally by Barefoot Botanicals in Doylestown. It has a unique flavor, almost menthol and refreshing, and it felt dry. (You know what that means- wine can be dry or sweet, spinach feels mineraly on your teeth, butternut squash soup feels soft and moistening. This tea felt the opposite of the swampy day.) The next morning, the boyfriend whumped down on our couch. He had sniffles (maybe allergies, maybe a little cold), a sore neck from sleeping funny, and a slightly upset tummy. Goldenrod tea to the rescue! And it worked. Goldenrod tones mucus membranes- if they're loose and drippy, it'll tighten them up, and it's anti-microbial. This works in the nose and in the belly, and in fact it's been used for ages in the Urinary system too. The awesome thing is, his sore neck felt better too. Goldenrod has a long history with pain relief, although it's usually infused in oil and applied to the sore muscle or joint or area topically. How do you get Goldenrod? Right now is prime harvest time, so local growers like Barefoot Botanicals might not have any in stock till it gets cut, dried, bagged and tagged. Or you might find some in person- visit your local farmer's market! Picking your own is a fun, easy entry into foraging. Get a good field guide, like Petersons Edible Wild Plants or Medicinal Plants. Always use a guide when foraging. Rebecca Altman of Kings Road Apothecary describes what to do next with your bought or foraged Goldenrod: Gather the flowering tops, plus about 3-10 inches (depending on how big your plants are; ours here are quite short), on a warm, dry day, and make sure they are DRY. Then chop them up, into 1/2 inch pieces, and cover with an oil of your choice. I like coconut oil, castor oil, sesame oil, or jojoba oil for external use, but you can use what you have on hand. Now, heat it slightly. I do this in a crock pot and keep it at a steady low temperature but you can do it on the stove if you can make sure it doesn't boil. Yogurt makers also work... Steep for 5 hours or up to 5 days, and then strain and put in a bottle. And there you have it, homemade pain relief oil, made from stuff you can pick on the side of the road. Although I'd recommend someplace cleaner, like a park or preserved farm field. *may have affiliate links
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Here we are at the end of June, and some days it feels like winter isn't over yet. I'm talking to lots of people who are privately having a hard time coping. When it's sunny and warm, it feels 'right'. But then we get another cool, rainy, clammy day and I'm reminded that this is familiar, it has been since last Thanksgiving, and it completely erases the memory of that bright thing up in the sky. How can we manage this? I have some ideas: First of all, keep your D up. I stopped taking my vitamin D supplement because, well, it's summertime now, right? Turns out no, not really. So the last few weeks I've been taking it again, and what a difference! I take a chewable tablet right now, but have done drops and liqui-gels and sprays. Find the kind you're most likely to actually use- compliance is everything. Next, seize the sun when it's there. When it gets bright out I'll force myself to weed, or read outside, or do anything in the fresh air, irrespective of what else is on my to-do list. Even short bursts outside help remind your brain of our place on the year's wheel, and getting hot and muddy and bug-bitten makes those cool days feel like some relief! Being uncomfortable is not the worst thing in the world, either, so go with it. Finally, try to re-frame your perspective. Years ago I heard Dr Dan Gottlieb on NPR talking to a caller about her depression. She had described feeling crushed, like a weight pushing her to the ground. His response was seared into my memory: Instead of being crushed, imagine the Earth holding you up, like a gentle hand cupping you until you are strong enough to stand on your own. The vision I have of this is way beyond my pathetic art skills but if I could draw you a picture, you'd hang it on your wall. I just love it. But what about the HERBS?! I hear you cry in dismay. An Herbalist without herbal suggestions? Well, sure, herbs are great too. Herbs that help nerves, and are sunshiny, like Lemon Balm or St John's Wort or even hemp oils, would be great too. Remember though, herbs aren't like pharmaceuticals. They are only part of the solution. We are empowered to help ourselves, with herbs adding to the overall picture. This is one of those situations where your choices clearly impact your wellness. Use your power! Are you leaving on a jet plane?
A long car ride counts too, or that awesome trip by train from NYC to Seattle that one of my pilates clients took recently. Being away from home means not only being away from all your little remedies and fixes you keep on hand, but also your regular route of health food stores, drug stores, and well-supplied grocery stores, and this can lead to lots of discomfort on your trip. Let me share some of my favorite short cuts for staying comfortable when I'm away from home. (The products I talk about here are linked to my Amazon affiliate site.) First, hydration. This is a BIG biggie for me, especially when I fly. I buy the biggest water I can find in the airport, then try to time my drinking it to suit when bathrooms are available. Drink a bunch right away, well before boarding, and as much as I can when I know we'll be landing. Then I have a big bottle to refill when I find a filling station, such as at my hotel. On the plane, my absolute number one tip is this: ask for hot tea. The warm water and steam make such a difference, it's amazing. This little trick has become my standard "All's well" ritual, which looks funny to people who know me because as a rule I'm not a black tea or even a caffeine person. No matter, travel makes everything different. You can bring rehydration salts with you to add to your water. I like the Hibiscus Ginger Coconut Water powder by Pure Planet. Sometimes water alone isn't enough to replenish you, particularly when you are changing environments rapidly like you do between airports. Second, tummy trouble can also happen any time. I always travel with a Chamomile tea bag, because while it's not my favorite flavor, when my digestion needs help this is where I turn. Chamomile helps move digestion along, and it is also relaxing to your whole lower abdomen, which helps with cramping or tension. Also always on me somewhere is a couple Honey Ginger Crystals packets. These little beauties dissolve in hot or cold water, and make a yummy, quick fix if I'm a little nauseous or when I get cold. Plus, Ginger really helps circulation so sipping some on long stretches when you can't get up and move can help things from getting too stagnant. Peppermint relaxes smooth muscle and cools things down, so it can help move along a poor food choice and quell nausea. In a pinch, York Peppermint Patties are made with real Peppermint oil so they're a fine choice when you're uncomfortable. When I'm planning a car trip I bring a box of organic peppermint patties along, though I've found they don't ever hold up well when flying! Third, stress is a huge deal when you're in unfamiliar territories without your usual routine. I have 2 go-to's for this. The first is Magnesium. (Anyone who's heard me give a talk knows I couldn't NOT slip Magnesium into this! Magnesium is your friend.) I like Calm powder, to add to drinks, because then I can dilute it as much or as little as I like. The individual packets travel well, but be prepared because they usually make a white powdery mess which will fizz in contact with water- not the best look! My other favorite stress-buster is a Lavender perfume roller from a local Lavender farm. Not everyone likes Lavender, so pick your own favorite. A familiar scent can be as comforting as the helpful quality of the oils it is made with. I don't favor straight essential oils, and their tiny bottles are easy to damage in travel. So the little roller goes with me all the time. Plus, Lavender has the added benefit of being good for burns, and I've used my perfume on a hot coffee spill. Have a good trip! One of my teachers said once, "Balance is a moving target. You don't get to stay there," That's quite a thought. Take it further, and nothing has a fixed point that we get to hold onto- health, happiness, grief, it all shifts. This is actually a good thing, because it lets us experience life. For years now, I've loved a snowfall. The simple act of seeing snow come down so gently and inexorably gave me such a feeling of weighted comfort, like the heaviest, fluffiest winter blanket. I had to sit when I saw snow, and when sitting I very badly wanted to lay down. Just looking at it though a window made me instantly ready for a good nap in bed, not just a quick couch snooze. See, for years I'd been... tired. Exhausted. Worn out. Beat down. About a decade ago I went through one of those things people go through, and I made it to the other side but at the cost of my vitality. Sleep became all important as a healing mechanism. Convalescing took almost as long as the original events did. For the last maybe 3 years I've been rebuilding my strength. There are several parts to the process including nutrition, herbs, acupuncture, meditation, and rest. And I've seen a steady improvement in my stamina, motivation, creativity, and even skin texture. Over all this time I've used recurring events to mark my progress. Remember how last year I didn't go to that thing because I just wasn't up to it? This year was fun, even if I only went for a short time. We just had a late spring snowfall, an "onion snow" as my mom calls it, with big fat slow flakes all morning that coat the grass and cars but not the roads, and is gone by the afternoon. As I stood watching it, part of my mind was on my tasks and goals for the day. Suddenly I realized, I'm not so tired. The snow is pretty, and I'm enjoying it, but for the first time in recent memory it was just snow, not an absolute imperative to fall down with it. Part of the reason I am an herbalist is because we can get better, I've seen it, and there are many many ways to help you do that. I don't want to just feel a little less like I do now, I want to be well and strong and adaptable, with endurance and vigor. Wouldn't that be nice? The state of our health right now, and our ability to envision it better and stronger, is limited by how long it's been since we felt our best and strongest. As you heal, as you improve, the goalposts move and what you expect from yourself becomes ever more tremendous. We're capable of amazing things, given the right circumstances. I'm so done with this. I'm over it. It's just... I can't even. Have you been hearing this, from your friends or from yourself, about this Spring weather? Unfortunately, that's too bad. It's only March. This IS Spring! This is what we signed up for! So what are we to do for our own mental stability? Yes, you can take a vacation. You could bring me with you, too! But seriously, an even easier suggestion is to bring Spring to you. It can be really comforting to see signs of Spring, so go look for them. Get yourself a potted daffodil. Or a bunch of tulips. Or grab your gardening shears (which means you get to go through your gardening supplies! Yay!) and force some blooms indoors. Go find a forsythia or other spring blooming bush. Snip one or two branches that have lots of buds. Bring them back inside (quick now, it's COLD outside.) Grab a jar or something heavy with a blunt edge, and smash up the end of the branches. This will allow them to take up more water than just the small snip does. Now put them in a really simple vase- a small jar, an old pitcher, a bud vase. In a few days, you will have lovely bright yellow flowers brightening up your house! And in a few weeks, you'll have them outside too. I promise, it's coming. What do you do when Old Man Winter just hangs on, fitfully spewing storms at us in between bouts of surprisingly warm sunshine? My two cents: embrace it. Oh, you want maybe fifty cent's worth? OK! Autumn and winter, which are so miserable for so many, is contrary to the GO! GO! GO! we usually live. This is slow. slow. slow. You're perfectly welcome to be miserable about it. Or you can embrace it. It's your choice. A few years ago I heard Dr. Dan Gottleib on NPR talking with a caller about depression. She had been describing the weight of it dragging her down, driving her into the ground. He suggested that maybe she could look at it as the earth holding her up. The visual I took away from that, of laying down and being cocooned between the weight of the world, like a muffling blanket, and the everlasting solidity of the planet, like a big hand holding a tiny baby, has given me some peace in dark times. That mental picture, plus how much I love candles and hot drinks and my mermaid tail lap blanket and even the sight of falling snow, gets me through the cloudy days. What tiny bits of this not-summer weather do you like? I decided to round up the seasonal writings of others who have inspired me, and proven to be more eloquent than me, too: Maia Toll wrote a beautiful piece on Seasonal Sadness, with some on-point herbal suggestions in it. She asks, will you be abducted or willingly seduced by the smoky depths of autumn? The Commonwealth Center for Holistic Herbalism has a great piece on Ground Ivy, a useful and underrated remedy for upper body lymphatic movement. I never thought of it for tinnitus, which I've had since a fantastic (cough, cough) throat infection last year. Maria Noel Groves always encourages us to get outside. I have to say, I agree. This weekend was very blah for me, then the 5 minutes I spent outside covering my windshield against a forecasted wintry mix turned the whole thing around. Who knew? (Maria did!) Here is the browser version of her latest newsletter. Reading My Tea Leaves has a list of ways to ward off Seasonal Depression that I really enjoy. They're very hygge-inspired. Hygge? No, not hygiene, stupid autocorrect. This is a favorite topic of mine this time of year- the Scandinavian idea of being cozy and content with good food and good friends. And they know something about surviving dark winters. I saw this inspiring book at the Doylestown Bookshop. For those of you who feel better with busy hands, these are crafts and recipes to take you right through to spring. There's everything from making crochet lace necklaces to forcing blooms on forsythia and other early flowers. One final thing: Pennsylvania is a beautiful place. I'll bet wherever you are is pretty too. Take a second and look out your window, or even step outside. Look around and smell the air. Find something right now that makes the corners of your eyes relax. That's all 'embracing the season' means. You can do that. Some links are to an affiliate page where I might earn a little commission from your purchase. Thank you for supporting my work Everybody's had it- upset stomach, gas, a little nausea, a little reflux. GI stuff happens, and sometimes it is a result of ongoing, chronic troubles. But sometimes you just had the wrong milk. These are my favorite Quick Fixes for GI upsets, when your normal is just off. BittersYes, they're bitter! Coffee is a bitter. So are Chicory and Dandelion. But herbal bitters like Swedish Bitters or Urban Moonshine bitters have a more medicinal effect. Herbal bitters engage the entire digestive system. They increase digestive function- both mechanical and chemical- in the stomach, liver, pancreas, intestines, and everywhere else. This includes secretion of things like saliva, bile, stomach acids, and pancreatic enzymes.The bitter taste cools and draws down too, so an upset system that's hot and burpy can feel better. Take bitters after you eat if there's discomfort, or even before if you anticipate it. Digestive Enzymes Apple Cider Vinegar This one makes a lot of people nervous. But here's the thing: in my experience, 9 out of 10 people with "reflux" actually don't have ENOUGH acid Food stays in your stomach until the food's pH is low, or acidic, enough to open the valve into the intestines. If your stomach isn't making enough acid to get the pH that low, the slightly-acidic food ball remains indefinitely... or until the esophagus can't hold it down anymore, like when you're sleeping. That's the burn of reflux- food that's acidic gets into the esophagus because it's not acidic enough to get into the intestines. Adding vinegar to the mix can lower the food's pH enough to continue digestion. Alternatively, antacids work by neutralizing ALL the food, which may relieve discomfort but doesn't help digestion. However, if you can't take the actual vinegar, there's now encapsulated vinegar! The enzymes and other goodies have been extracted from the acetic acid, so these capsules can make a decent substitute for the real deal. If you're up for the challenge, try 1-2 tablespoons of organic apple cider vinegar in a splash of water and see how you feel. Bonus points for using raw vinegar, it has probiotics. Speaking of which... ProbioticsIn terms of Quick Fixes, I'm not talking daily dose capsules here. That's a WHOLE OTHER conversation to be had, and I recommend visiting your local independent health food store for a chat. They are usually staffed with well-educated people. Around me, that's Holly Hill. Food sources of probiotcs are naturally fermented foods. Think raw sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, kefir, yogurt, kvass, and more. Notice how all those are strange sounding words from different languages? All traditional cuisines (SAD, the Standard American Diet, does NOT count!) have fermented foods as condiments. And that's how these are best- a dab of yogurt sauce, a forkful of sauerkraut, a fermented pickle. Adding a probiotic food to each meal helps digestion for that meal. Herbs
One more note... WaterWe hear it a lot. But getting enough water can SERIOUSLY improve digestive function. Really. Try it out.
Good luck! Tell me what works best for you, too, in the comments below. Sigh.
There was a nice wrap up for you here. It was full of descriptions, positive and encouraging, pithy. The blog editor ate it. So instead, I offer you the bottom line. After my month of doing new things, the pattern has continued. New things create new things, new experiences, new opportunities, and new connections. I needed someone to shake me up and demand I re-enter the world; sometimes each of us needs help and advice. It was the best thing to happen to me. Now I demand of you: Go do new things! See what you get in return. Don't run away screaming! It's a real thing to clean your face with oil, and it makes real sense. Your face produces oil, and like dissolves like. So massaging oil onto your face will dissolve excess oil, bind up dirt (there's a pH thing going on here), and moisturize at the same time. So, what, you just rub oil on your face? Well, yes. The type of oil varies, and the best way to discover your skin's favorite is to experiment a little. Start with oils you have at home: olive, coconut, nut oils, grapeseed, sesame, castor, even argan or jojoba if you have it for your hair. Use single plant oils so you know how each reacts. (You can blend later). Use organic whenever you can, as this is sensitive skin. Wet a washcloth with warm water and rub your face to soften and warm it up. Pour a little oil in your hand. (This is not an exact science. Too little and you won't feel oil smoothing around your face. Too much and it'll drip so you'll have to clean the bathroom. You'll figure it out.) Then, "wash" your face with your hands! Massage the oil in and enjoy the pampering. Rewet the washcloth and hold it over your face to 'steam' it a little, when you're done. Then use the washcloth to wipe excess oil and dirt away (choose a washcloth that can become your dedicated oil cloth.) Enjoy your smooth, healthful glow. You can even use a little more to re-moisturize after wiping your face off. Benefits to oil washing include: reduced blemishes, as blocked or dried oil ducts are dissolved. Moisturized skin. Thorough makeup removal. No dryness or stripping of skin thanks to soap removing all oil. Happiness with your new, crunchy, skill. My Favorite Blends Makeup Remover
1 part organic UNTOASTED Sesame oil 1 part (or less) Castor oil Rub them together in your palms and apply. Pay attention to eyes and lashes to get makeup off. Sometimes I'll dab a cotton swab on the oil before I start massaging to clean off my eyes, sometimes I forget and use my gentlest fingers. It's a good idea to remove contact lenses first. Exfoliating Oil Wash 1 part Coconut oil 1 part (or less) baking soda a drop or 2 of essential oils, optional Scoop the Coconut oil into your storage jar. Soften the Coconut oil if your house is cool by placing it in a warm place -the stove, a heating vent, near a lightbulb. Add the baking soda and essential oils if using, then mix to form a paste. I keep this one in the shower. This week handed my butt to me on a platter. Just served it right up. It was a great week, busy and exciting, but I ended up not writing any posts like I promised I would.
I started to get all in a twist about it, then I stepped back. Some days I just don't have words in me to write, only to speak. And I speak to LOTS of people in a week! Some days I do have writing words, like today, and I'll get them out. I apologize for the dead air this week. But I also encourage you to practice self-forgiveness when you encounter your own dead air. It's OK to take a shower or get 30 extra minutes of sleep or make a hot meal or even get a hair cut, instead of doing something else you ought to. It'll be there when you get back. Also today, a spring time picture! I spy with my little eye... |
Fun Fact: I'm an herbalist and a movement coach. Not a doctor, or a pharmacist, and not pretending to be one on TV.
This is a public space, so my writing reflects my experiences and I try to stay general enough so it might relate to you. This does not constitute medical advice, and I encourage you to discuss concerns with your doctor. Remember, however, that the final say in your wellness decisions are always yours- you have the power to choose, you are the boss of you. And, some of my posts may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through them I'll earn a few cents. Thank you for supporting my work. This website is provided for educational and informational purposes only and is not medical, mental health or healthcare advice. The information presented here is not intended to diagnose, treat, heal, cure or prevent any illness, medical condition or mental or emotional condition. Working with us is not a guarantee of any results. Paula Billig owns all copyrights to the materials presented here unless otherwise noted. Categories
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