Let's chat about Blessing Herbs and Self Care.
On the first day of my apprenticeship in sacred plant medicine I found myself in a circle of 20 strangers passing around burning pine resin. My teacher beating her drum to the rhythmic beats of our hearts and the pine resin billowing up and around each of us. This was my first "for real" taste of working with blessing herbs and they truly filled my heart with so much joy. I had heard the term "smudging" before and understood the concept of moving energy around or pushing out the "bad energy" but this felt altogether different from that in the most beautiful of ways. It has since become a staple part of my self care both for my home life, work life, and in my spiritual life.
Fostering the relationship I have with the plants is often a focus of all my herbal practices. You will hear this often from me as I share about herbs, plants, and how we can work with them (not use them) in many ways, but especially when talking about self care.
Working with the blessing herbs allows us to connect with the plants on a deeper level and with ourselves. They can help guide us
In listening to and understanding our body better
Soothing our nervous system
Grounding us or helping us to come "down into our body"
Honoring our bodies and emotional selves
Connect us with mother nature, our ancestors and guides
Releasing or clearing mindset, energy, the space around us
Creating sacred space
Calling in energy
Creating an anchor for deep healing work, meditation, prayer
and so much more
In fact, Blessing Herbs open up a whole world to us beyond just "clearing out negative energy" The key is to work with intention, reverence, and a desire to get to know each plant you choose to work with.
All of the things listed above serve to help us physically, emotionally, or spiritually. This moves us out of our sympathetic nervous system to a more calm state of being. Since we know that managing our nervous system can be a key component to helping ease fibromyalgia symptoms, This could absolutely be a beneficial self care practice for those with fibromyalgia.
There are many ways to work with the blessing herbs that can fit your budget and your life style. While sacred smokes and incense tend to be the most popular; one of my favorite ways to bring blessing herbs into my massage practice is to simply sprinkle the herbs around. Sprinkling dried roses is not only beautiful and pleasing to our senses, it helps to bring the loving and healing comfort of rose energy into my space.
Here are some examples of how to work with blessing herbs:
Burning the resin or dried plant material to create a sacred smoke
Sprinkling the dried herb around the area
Bringing fresh plant material into the home- a jar of roses or wild goldenrod can really effect the energy of the space.
Using liquid forms of herbs like infusions, teas,hydrosols or even oils to wash with, anoint the body with or even gently spraying the area or self. -Sticking with my rose example: A spray of rose hydrosol on my face after coming inside from a stressful drive is not only great for my skin but can immediately help me ground, center, and feel better, alternatively washing the floor with some peppermint tea is both cleansing to the floor and the energy in the area.
As you can see there are many reasons this may be a helpful self care practice for you. In my next post I will be sharing about which herbs you might want to begin to explore first as well how how to get started.