Herbal Lore

A few years ago now, something strange happened to me. I was feeling extremely despondent, lethargic and pretty much run down. (I know, I know..large family and all..its going to happen occasionally). But anyway, I became quite frustrated with myself.

I was standing at the kitchen sink one day and pretty much reached meltdown stage. I raged in my head and even despaired, "What the hell is wrong with me?" Immediately, the word "Potassium" popped into my head. I was a little shocked to say the least. Firstly, as it was not a word that I would think about anyway. Secondly, I wondered where on earth it had come from. And thirdly, (Karisma hangs head in shame) I had no idea what it was.

Now it was not the first time something like this had happened to me, but it was the first time it related to myself and the first time I got such a specific answer. So anyway, I googled Potassium and found that I could get it in Bananas or Potatoes. But I would have to eat an awful lot of them to help me at all. So I visited the local health store and purchased some pills. Amazingly, it helped and after a few months I had the urge to stop taking them and I was fine.

I found that I was able to "ask" for others as well and learned quite a bit about herbs in the process. I would sometimes doubt myself as certain websites would say one thing and others the opposite. I began to research more and more and even started growing a lot of my own herbs at home. I began using more and more fresh herbs rather than the store bought ones and drying the excess ones as well for later use. Mostly herbs I would use in the kitchen but also medicinal herbs. I bought many books to compare notes and managed to find one very special book that goes into far much more detail and covers many many more herbs and foods which are vital in healing.

Of course I kept this pretty much to myself. It sounds a little crazy right? But crazy or not, I have learned over the past few years, that if I do not listen to myself and trust in my instinct, things go wrong. So crazy or not, these days I do exactly that.

There are three herbs that I would recommend everyone either grow in your own garden or keep dry on hand. And they are Yarrow, Chamomile and Lemon Balm. For various reasons, all three of these herbs have popped up on a regular basis and have worked amazingly well. Yarrow was one that I had never heard of before that came into my head for someone else. I researched it extensively as I was very dubious. Now I am so happy that I did.

So why am I telling you this? Well, because this week I have been very drawn to my Lemon Balm. It has for some reason, grown very big and strong this year and seems to be reaching out to me as I walk past it. I had learned a bit about its properties before but had forgotten about it. It was one of the herbs I initially planted for some unknown reason when choosing my original herb garden. I knew we needed it, but not why!

I have been pondering on several people in particular and quite a lot of people in general that all seem to be suffering from the same ailment these days. Not so much asking how to help them as they have not asked me to, but wondering why its happening and what could be done about it as a whole. So rather than offer these herbal remedies up to anyone in particular. I figured I would just post some of what I have learned about each herb once a week and let you all make the decision whether to try it or not for yourselves. Starting with remedies that I have tried and that have worked for me.

I will also aim to add links to sites I have found accurate and useful and tell you where to buy that book I mentioned. Thus far it is the best book with far much more information on herbs than any other I have come across and I have bought or borrowed many from the library over the past few years. Anyway I will try and post about Lemon Balm later today. Im off for a bike ride this morning!

Hugs and smoochies xxoxox