Andres Vergara, L.Ac., M.Ac. and Michele Collins, RH (AHG), MPH
Herbs can work on many levels in the body, one of which is the physical. However what many people may not be aware of is that you can use herbs to support your emotional health, your mental health, and your spiritual health. In several previous posts, Michele has written about the multiple-level healing properties of plants such as peony (Paeonia lactiflora), mimosa (albizia julibrissin durazz), and poke root (phytolacca americana) and how to explore for yourself the healing nature of individual plants (click here). In this article, we want to talk about how plants can be used to nourish both emotional health and spiritual health. On the February 26th episode of Holistic Healing with Herbs and Chinese Medicine, we interview Lesley Tierra about her new book Metaphor-phosis in which she describes how to bring subconscious stories that hinder health to light and transform them to instead, support health and well being. We will describe ways that herbs can be used to further support inner transformation.
Plants can change your physiological reaction to thoughts that contribute to anxiety, stress, worry, or fears. As your physiology changes, it will become easier to change your thought patterns so you can align them with a higher purpose of being rather than stuck patterns of illness. When in a pattern of consistently spinning the wheels of negative emotions, it is sometimes necessary for an effective intervention that can shift the pattern of thoughts so as to create more ease and wellness in life. The use of herbs and plants is one effective way to do this, as is meditation and other tools to promote inner growth.
The Intelligence of Plants
Plants, especially those that are used in their whole form (ie as opposed to individual plant constituents that are extracted) are infused with life force energy or qi. They absorb the energy from the sun, the moon, and the stars, as well as from the earth itself. Recent science is supporting what shamans and herbalists have been aware of for centuries, that plants are intelligent beings, capable of complex communication and decision-making as to their growth and development. Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, the authors of the Secret life of Plants, summarize a whole body of research that supports this thesis, including evidence of energy or “life fields” around plant seeds. Monitoring the life fields of trees, medical doctor and anatomist Harold Saxton Burr, discovered that this energy had cycles that corresponded to the lunar cycle and to sunspots. Plants, like us, are an intricate link in the complex communication patterns and rhythms of nature and their growth and development works in harmony with this larger cyclic pattern of communication.
How Plants Reveal Themselves
Plants teach us a lot about themselves and what qualities they can by simply observing them in nature and noticing under what conditions they best grow, in which season they thrive, and how they respond to their environment, as well as their unique color, shape, taste, and texture. What they reveal through their very presence can be called the doctrine of signatures, which simply is the idea that plants growing in the wild will offer clues as to how to use them. It requires some time and patience to establish a relationship with individual plants. There are many different ways that plants will reveal themselves to you in the wild, as complex as the plants themselves.
Some plants tend to resemble the body part or organ that they have an affinity for. Like the walnut, for example, is good brain food that contains a lot of omega 3s. The fine hairs on a mullein leaf are reminiscent of the lungs and the fine hairs that remove waste during respiration. For other plants the clues lie in their habitat, and how they interact with their environment and exist in that climate that tells you how it will act in your body. For example, calamus, or sweet flag, grows near the water and it is a great diuretic herb that is used to clear excess water or dampness from the system. Some offer clues by their color such as those that have bright red stalks, indicating the need for caution, such as poke root.
Other plants offer important information as to how they can support the physical body given how they cycle through the day. Mimosa flower is a tree whose leaves and unfurl each morning to greet the sun, curling back into itself when night falls, revealing a plant that is used to alleviate depression or moodiness, engendering a happier or lighter spirit. In reality, plants reveal themselves to you in multiple, complex ways. The more time you spend observing and attuning to a plant, the deeper your understanding of its purpose and of the ways it wants to be of use in the world.
Different Ways of Interacting with Plants
There are many different ways of working with plants, from ingesting them in larger physical quantities, such as in a tea or tincture. You can use plants as a simple, meaning one plant for a specific effect, or you can use multiple plants working synergistically together in an herbal formula to address chronic or complex emotional issues. Using a balanced herbal formula is a great way to gently and effectively change your mood and shift difficult emotions and emotional experiences. This can then provide room inside oneself to build and create new thought pathways that will feel more effortless and free. Enjoying plants in nature and in other prepared forms is also a great way to transform one’s body, mind, and spirit to allow for a more radiant and wholesome experience of life.
There are other subtler ways to feel the healing qualities of plants, such as through the use of herbal baths, flower essences, as well as through simple meditation such as connecting to a plant from your heart center. Enjoying plants in nature is also a great way to transform one’s body, mind spirit to allow for a more radiant and wholesome experience of life. In essence, plants can awaken and deepen our awareness of the life force energy that flows within us, as well as what blockages we may have to this flow.
Chinese Medicine Informs an Integrated, Individualized Approach
A holistic system like Chinese medicine offers a way of understanding how to apply herbs, acupuncture, and qi going to effectively address issues like anxiety, excessive worry, or fear. This is because Chinese medicine has a diagnostic system that links the physical, the emotional, and the spiritual to the our overall health and well being. We both use herbal formulas, as well as qi gong (and Andres uses acupuncture) to help deepen inner awareness and support harmonious and balanced qi flow, allowing for a unique, individualized approach to support inner growth and transformation.
