Tagged: herbal tea

Tapping for a cold

Snotty, grotty, sneezy, wheezy… NOT AGAIN!

I’ve got a cold. A-no-ther one. It’s only about 6 weeks since the last one.

My system has taken a hit recently and left me with less in the tank and a lowered resilience. I am not sure whether it is a post-covid immune, peri-menopause or the general over-adrenalised way of living that my body is reacting to. Most likely, it’s a combination of all three. But, it doesn’t really matter. What I do know is that I need some re-building.

Re-building is what herbs, herbal medicine and medical herbalists are really good at. We have the tools, you see. That overview of you, your body, your emotional health, mental health and the way you fuel yourself and speak of yourself and more. And, subtle medicines with multiples of constituents, providing multiples of therapeutic actions. (Unlike pharmaceuticals which usually have a single intended action and then some unintended actions (side effects) which may be useful in another scenario)

Back to speaking about yourself… Recently, I have noticed that my reaction to finding myself in a room with someone snuffling, sneezing, coughing – demonstrating signs of a respiratory infection – triggers an “Ugh, that’s all I need” response in me. Why? Because I have noticed I am more susceptible currently, likely to ‘catch’ it and it’s genuinely NOT what I need A-GAIN right now.

Why is this a REALLY UNHELPFUL THOUGHT pattern?

Because, my body, the Universe – whichever higher power you recognise – doesn’t understand sarcasm. It hears that it is all I need. As though my body is actually welcoming it in. Think that’s fanciful? Semantics? Start to watch and listen to your thoughts. You may notice something similar. It might not be about your health but about things being ‘just my luck’ or ‘typical, I always get/do/forget… XYZ’ Start to notice patterns in thoughts and events which occur. It’s phenomenal how effectively we bring things to ourselves entirely unintentionally. Our thoughts are strong.

So, the next big question is… How do we shift our thoughts?

Catch the thought and switch it up. Instead of “that’s all I need”, thank your body for its efficiency. Acknowledge that, despite being exposed to a virus, it has defended you against countless viruses before. (Think how many we may be exposed to daily which DON’T create an illness) Take considered action to employ your body’s best reserves and resilience. Get good rest – have a bath and an early night. Can’t do that? At the very least don’t eat sugar or drink alcohol. Sugar almost literally feeds the virus – giving it pure shots of energy and alcohol impairs the healing deep sleep phases. Both of those things make your system more vulnerable. Eat loads of veggies, quality proteins and a little of the brown carbs.

And, the beauty of herbal medicine and food medicines is that you can take them prophylactically. Dose up on crushed raw garlic (if you tolerate it and don’t have reflux) with your meals – nature’s power house in warding off the lurgies. Taking Echinacea root – and plenty of it – can support your immune system’s improved resilience. And, consider teas such as elderberry, elderflower, yarrow, peppermint, catmint as well.

But what about that thought? I also choose to tap on it. And, whilst I am doing it, I listen to the undercurrents; the thoughts which arise from the depths and undermine the intention of the tapping. And, I tap on those too. You can do this as well. It might seem daunting but it’s a simple thing you can do which you can’t really get wrong. Honestly, you can’t!

So, I might start with statements like: ‘My body is strong and well resourced’ ‘My body can encounter viruses and fight them off’ aiming to support my body in being resilient. Whilst also tapping on the ‘truth’ that I currently feel. “That’s all I need” “I seem to catch everything going at the moment” “I don’t want to be sick” “I’m sick of feeling sick” “My immune system isn’t working at full capacity”.

To do this for yourself, capture all your thoughts, feelings and body sensations as you tune into one of the sentences above. Write them down if you want and grade them 0-10. Then tap on them all, grading each time you go round, until they feel neutral.

In a recent bath, I was tapping on the idea that ‘My body can efficiently eject this virus from my body’ and I noticed a strong resistance floating up… ‘but I want to rest’ – the idea of having a cold, being under the weather, brings with it PERMISSION to stop, to rest, to take care of myself fully. I am good at chucking the herbs about, tapping and BUSILY caring for myself but far less good at saying STOP. This is a sign to REST. A sign I need a BREAK.

This is where the beauty and creativity of tapping is so wonderful. This floating thought is key to the forward motion. So, the trick is to then tap on any resistance to that as well. Click here to follow my tapalong video.

Despite how it sounds, none of this is particularly time-consuming – a good tapping session can be as little as 10mins. But, the key to creating a good tapping session is being forensic about those little subterfuge-laced, countering thoughts. The slightly sneaky ones which might get past unnoticed unless you’re paying attention! Capture those and you become a Tapping Don. If that’s daunting, listen in to your body and watch for tensions, sensations and shifting pains. These are as informative as those words. ‘Listen’ to those sensations and tap on them and you send your tapping stellar. Your body is talking to you and when you really ‘hear’ it, you go to deeper levels of healing.

Tapalong with this video on the very subject: https://youtu.be/8oO8aXazRC8

If you would like support with tapping and improving your immune system, contact me for a chat to see if an appointment if right for you.

Pop along to CALM CLUB my online tapping group for women: Fortnightly Thursdays 8.30-9.30pm. Free first session. £10 per person thereafter.

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Lucy’s Heartbreak Tea – “To cherish and nourish”

Creative impulse

I created this tea for myself whilst waiting for the ingredients of my intended original recipe. It’s an accidental brilliance which came out of my own need for succour. At a time when old hurts have been re­surfacing and playing out vividly. At a time when healing those wounds is my primary imperative because I know that from now on, all else depends upon the healing of those wounds. In order to truly step forward into my full self and my full human capacity as healer, mother and wife.

A while back, doing some healing work, I had a vision of myself having constantly struggled against the restraints the impact of bearing wounds has had. Wounds which weren’t intentionally inflicted but nevertheless hurt me deeply. So deeply, I didn’t know how to feel the impact so I pushed it down. Because when you push it down, it doesn’t affect you any longer, right? I saw it as a thick band around my waist which drags at me, holds me back against the direction I want to go in. Holds me back because it is tethered to an enormous, round boulder. It’s round so it ‘can’ be rolled but not easily; it takes all my strength. Every centimetre is a life’s energy.

During the time when I created this tea, it felt so like that. Being restrained, not shackled and, ostensibly free. Free, but unable to roam. Held to the weight of the hurt held within me for many decades. Pain from old hurts. Pain from events with people who were supposed to love and care for me. And, they did. But they also hurt me.

It may sound strange to say but recently I’ve been struck very forcefully by the strong sense that I carry pain which isn’t mine, in addition to my own. I carry pain from others in my line. I know that I actively tried to carry my Mum’s very substantial pain. And that I was successful enough in taking it on, in empathising with it, that others have presumed me to have experienced the same. My understanding was so deep that I appeared to have experienced the same. But, I haven’t. And, even if I had, it would be time to put it all down. Time to move on from the shackles of pain.

It feels like it’s late to begin this, I am at midlife, on the cusp of peri menopause but maybe that’s exactly why the time is now. And, perhaps, I am afraid that if I don’t do it now, I never will. And, if I don’t, then who will? If the line of pain and hurting doesn’t stop with me, then I gift it through my learned traits, as well as my epigenetic tags, to my daughter. Who would knowingly pass on these things to their off­spring? Not any that I know.

So, then, in order to process my pains, felt in the wounds I received and the wounds I learned, I lean into my herbs. I seek out their comfort, their wisdom and their succour. And relish the beauty as it travels round my body. Knowingly gifting those things to myself. Feeling the embrace of the floral notes which dance on my tongue and weave into my soul like sistren and brethren.

I created this tea to feel like the warm embrace we all need when our hearts are sore. When we feel our hurts right up at the surface. When we ache all over from internal pain. It is not meant to replace the embrace of A.N. Other, rather to enfold you in love for and from yourself. To lavish yourself with the nourishing support needed when your heart feels like it’s in many, many pieces.

Contact me on Lucy.Blunden.Botanicals@gmail.com to order yours.

How does healing heartbreak taste?

On the first sip, I am struck by the warmth it brings to my chest region – I often drink teas cold. It has a full feeling in my mouth-round and expansive. This extends downwards into my chest and fills me with warmth, a teeny bit of hope and some inkling of love. The flavour is floral with a strong element of summery fruit – no specific fruits, just a fruitiness. This is a herb tea which has flowers to nourish, to protect and filter and to strengthen against lifes tricky bits – the bits which leave us feeling raw and undefended.

If your heart is shattered and in need of re-gathering, this is the tea for you. Contact me on Lucy.Blunden.Botanicals@gmail.com to order yours.

Autumnal bug-share

The school’s are nearly going back, the leaves have begun to fall (yup, I know, we’ve hardly had summery weather in the UK this year and we’re already heading into the darkness). And, after all this isolation, distancing and more with Covid-19 measures, we’re going to start mingling our germs too. Usually, that would be OK. In fact it still is, as being exposed to new mildly pathogenic microbes is part of keeping a strong and fit immune system.

HOWEVER, it also means that we are being bombarded with the potential for those seemingly endless Autumnal and Winter infections.

Do you seem to get every bug going? Are you constantly streaming with snot and snuffling, sneezing and coughing? Are you worried that you’ll catch everything the children do but worse?

I can help.

Herbs are brilliant at managing symptoms of these kinds of self-limiting, minor infections, shortening the duration and preventing them occuring in the first place.

You have a couple of options for working on this with me:

A mini consultation where we discuss you most usual symptoms and how the infection progresses and I make you up a special herbal tincture mix to take in small doses as prevention and then an ’emergency’ mix for if you do get something. These can be teas or tincture blends.

Children’s appointments – Children respond so well to herbs. They are brilliant as their bodies are less stuck in habits and habitual ways. I love working with them as they are so honest about what happens to them. My 4-year-old loves my ‘bogey picking nail’ (which is just a long pinkie finger nail which happens to fit up her nose for those chunky boogers she’s not yet old enough to care about! She loves taking her herbal syrups and often reminds me to dose her up each day.

A Winter wellness plan for the whole season. This is an in-depth treatment plan of herbs, food, lifestyle and tapping to prime your immune system for the winter. You’ll receive weekly emails filled with tips on feeding your immune system with great foods and herbs and a tapalong video. You have 1-2-1 sessions with me to keep yourself on track with the lifestyle changes specific to you. I’ll also create an emergency tincture mix in case anything passes your new resilience and a special early bird tea blend bonus. Click here to find out more. We begin in October.

Winter Wellness plan

A tapping and herbal well-being defense plan for you this Autumn-Winter.

My wonderful plan is designed to see you through 20 weeks of Autumn and Winter being as well as you can be! What’s included?

  • Tapping videos;
  • Weekly emails;
  • 3 sessions 1-2-1 with me;
  • A brilliant blend of herbs;
  • Emergency herbal tincture

Plus an EARLY BIRD gift if you sign up by September 18th!

Individual 1-2-1 sessions with me

3 sessions of 30m where we discuss your wellness needs, your progress and the bits you struggle with. These can be in-person in my Hertfordshire clinic or on Zoom.

Tailor-made herbal tea blend

Keeping yourself well with immune supporting herbs with a long-held tradition for wellness. Preparing your daily tea, drinking your daily tea and investing in your health has limitless value.

Tap-along videos

A series of weekly short tap-along videos for you to view and tap with at a time which suits you. Each one is designed to address an aspect of winter health and wellness by boosting the areas of your immune system. A great way to give to yourself the healthy help you need.

Weekly emails

Need support and help with new things? My weekly emails are designed to get you fired up, engaged and ready to be the best you throughout the calmer, darker days of Winter.

Emergency tincture blend

So, something snuck through, despite all your efforts? Keep this tailor-made blend to hand just in case you begin to feel those tell-tale signs of something ‘coming on’. Knock it on the head with strong blend of tinctures created and blended just for you.

Early bird special gift – pay by 18/9/21

Sign up by September 18th and receive a 25g pack of 3 super-special herbs specifically chosen for assisting in the prevention of colds and ‘flu. A wonderfully tasty tea blend used by herbalists all over the world. This great tea is yours if you sign up by September 18th.

The cost to you?

Just £350 per person for 20 weeks of high-quality medicines and great health support. The value of this plan is immense as you will be focussed on keeping yourself in the best of health throughout Autumn and Winter.

Pay here: www.paypal.me/herbalist/350

Want to know more? Click here

NOTES

  • Medicines are tailor-made and not suitable for sharing
  • Refunds are not made for unused medicines
  • You retain full responsibility for your own health
  • Not suitable for pregnant women, those with long-term chronic health conditions, those on immuno-suppressants
  • Medicines are collected from Hemel Hempstead or posted – posting incurs additional costs