My first thrilling foray into mushroom hunting. I cooked about 10 pounds of them today. They're amazing I didn't even pick a third of what was there. I'm so excited these are highly medicinal and delicious both. Medicinal mushrooms have been helping me a lot every fall -- the rest of the year I can't... Continue Reading →
Healing plants: mineral rich herbs for nourishment etc -- My primary relationships right now are with the plants that are healing me. It's an all encompassing love affair.
Photo: Mimosa or Albizzia tree in flower Update Sept. 2016: I had reason to remember this post today since I'm off to a local's house to pick up some branches so that I can harvest the bark. I'm very excited to have some local bark. This is a lovely herbal medicine that I am now... Continue Reading →
Our modern forms of helping people in emotional distress (talk therapy and medications) have largely supplanted more traditional forms of healing. In some cases this is a continuation of oppression and colonization that has gone on for hundreds of years. -- Indigenous healing practices are denigrated and seen as unscientific, based on superstitions, or as an adjunct to the proper, modern way of helping people in distress. In this way, we have ignored and suppressed folk methods of healing that are often highly effective. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
Plants both as food and medicine continue to be an important part of my healing process. I like what Wendell Berry says about herbalism because it's very much in keeping with the "everything matters" meme I often mention. Everything matters because everything is in relationship with everything else in our environments and our lives. Systems of healing that include herbalism understand this fact. Indigenous and shamanistic cultures understand this fact. We need to return to our roots while embracing and safely utilizing all we've learned while we forgot about them too. Herbalism is based on relationship ~ relationship between plant and human, plant and planet, human and planet. Using herbs in the healing process means taking part in an ecological cycle. This offers us the opportunity consciously to be present in the living, vital world of which we are part; to invite wholeness and our world into our lives through awareness of the remedies being used. The herbs can link us into the broader context of planetary wholeness, so that whilst they are doing their physiological/medical job, we can do ours and build an awareness of the links of mutual relationships. ~ Wendell Berry
Restoring Balance with the Plant World: By Jon Keyes ~~ As an herbalist, I think of how humans interact and relate to plants everyday. Mainly we interact with plants through our diet. Our morning cereal, a sandwich, tea, beans, rice and salad all come from plants. Even meat comes from animals that ate plants. In essence, our very survival comes from plant life. Though plants represent the source of our sustenance, we have become deeply out of balance in our relationship with them. We have shifted from a diverse and varied plant diet to one that includes just a few highly processed plants. This is leading not only to a breakdown in our physical and mental health, it is leading us to ecological catastrophe as well. In the U.S., 25 billion dollars a year is spent to subsidize the production of just a few commodity crops with an overwhelming emphasis on wheat, corn and soy.
By Jon Keyes
Mental health herbalism is the practice of working with herbs and other plants to improve well being, develop keener insight into patterns of imbalance and to reduce emotional distress. As a licensed professional counselor and herbalist, I often incorporate the use of herbs for helping people to get stronger and feel better. I have seen herbs improve mental health and I have also seen herbs bring profound insights that help a person work through emotional knots. Plants not only work on a physical level, they are able to transform people emotionally and spiritually as well. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
2025: I've come to know many more herbs since I wrote this piece. I have tried 100s of herbs from all over the world and have learned how to make my own formulas. I have studied various systems and have a relationship with plants that is often referred to as "plant spirit medicine." This post remains a good place to start if you're new to using and coming to know herbs.
I tested hyperthyroid about 6 weeks ago...it made my iatrogenic nervous system chaos far worse.
I took herbs (mostly a variety of different but particular nervine herbs which I made into teas and sipped therapeutically throughout the day) and did yoga, concentrating on a few poses for supporting my thyroid and also emphasized certain healthy foods in my diet. A few days ago I sensed I no longer needed the herbs (I continuously intuitively took what I needed, not what is generally prescribed by herbalists, even...I totally listened to my body and the energetics of the herbs) So I stopped the herbs a few days ago as they seemed to no longer be needed and in fact were not agreeing with me anymore and so I stopped them over the course of a few days.
Today it's been 6 weeks since I last tested and my thyroid test came back NORMAL. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
I actually woke up this morning thinking I'd arrived. I'm well...even if still disabled by conventional standards. From the outside looking in I'd be perceived as ill in many regards. I have many practical limitations. I remain unable to make most commitments that most people take for granted, for example. Also, I need a lot of support to manage what might be called activities of daily living. All the critically mundane tasks one must get done to survive. I need help. But from my standpoint I'm well. I'm in touch with what I need to do to live consciously...that is being well as far as I'm concerned. I know what I need and I know what sort of boundaries and limits I need to make for myself. I am privileged to have certain critical supports I need. Other needs remain unmet. We are stretched to the max financially and emotionally. The razor's edge follows me everywhere. Not having society or extended family support in a family of two with one member disabled is rough. And given it feels impossible sometimes, I'm always thinking of those who have far less than I do. Still knowing what I know...this is good stuff.
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