healing

So why does the heart hurt? It’s not a physical pain unless you are having a heart attack. The heart itself is not hurting, or wounded, or even broken. What happens is a physical manifestation of the emotional pain that you are feeling. There is an intense sadness because a loved one has left you or deserted you. And you end up channeling it into small bombs of pain that seem to hit you everywhere. You are sad and depressed, and want life itself to end. To compensate, some of us tend to build walls around our heart.

If we are not careful, the older we get the more excuses we can have for why we cannot love.

Botanicals have a lot to offer when it comes to keeping our nervous systems healthy and helping with nerve-related issues.  Here are four of my most used allies!

At the end of this past summer I became a first-time mom to a beautiful baby boy who decided to make a statement by walking out into this amazing world feet first at the only hospital in Barcelona, Spain, trained at natural breech deliveries. After spending five days in the hospital addressing minor complications due to the challenging delivery, we were discharged.

When I first started studying botanical medicine, I was at work and got a call from my then-boyfriend asking which plant in the yard was yarrow.  He had cut his hand and wanted to do some first aid to stop the bleeding and prevent infection. This wasn’t the first time.  Having a garden of first aid plants really comes in handy.  Beyond adding beauty to your surroundings, you have at hand easy and effective remedies for everything from cuts and abrasions to insect bites, burns and digestive distress.  H

We still have a few weeks to wait before celebrating spring, but the end of February brings with it a different sort of seasonal change: Mid-winter marks the transition from vata season to kapha season.

Lapis lazuli was the very first semi-precious gemstone that I had actual real-time healing experience with. It opened the door for me to the healing power of gemstones and from that day forward I have always carried a pouch of stones the color of the rainbow for healing purposes.

Why am I bringing up spring allergies in January??? Because now is the time to start getting ready for them!  Don’t have seasonal allergies but are allergic to Fido?  No problem…keep reading—this is relevant to you, too.