Goodbye 2020 (as different as you were you gave me growth)! Hello 2021! Happy New Year.
At the beginning of each year, I choose a word of the year. This year, I felt it needed a spin on it, so I decided to choose an herb of the year instead. I challenge you to join me! Pick an herb of the year for yourself - that’s right c’mon and join me!
How does that work? Let me explain. Simply, think about some herbs. Maybe one has already been showing up for you, and this will challenge you to know it better. Maybe you have no idea so you start to explore a book or read online. I highly recommend coming down to The Herb Shoppe, if you can, to get a little closer to the herbs to see what resonates with you. Pick one that feels right to you, either by name, by color, it’s healing qualities or, maybe you just plain like it. You can print out a picture of your choice and put it somewhere you will see it often. Then, all you will need to do is close your eyes and envision it, use it like a mantra (by simply saying the name or envisioning it’s look or smell) to bring you back to a place of calm.
Learn more about your herb of choice - touch it, feel it, smell it. Nurture yourself with nature. What can you make with it? Get creative and explore (the options are endless) tea, tincture, oils, lotions, and balms. Embrace it, and find the passion in the study of it.
Steep it into your favorite tea. Sit with it in solace or in pain, wherever your mood or emotions may be at any given moment in time, and wrap your hands around that mug to feel the warmth. Breathe in the steam arising from your mug, smelling the aroma of your herb, and sink into the flavor as you sip, allowing your herb to calm you from the inside out. Harbor a relationship with it. Perhaps your herb one you can add to your bath with epsom salts to give you some downtime and reprieve from the worries of the world.
What do you give to it and what does it give back in return? Are there days it does more for you then others? Try to journal about your experiences with this new found herb friend of yours. Whichever herb you choose, give it time to settle in to build the relationship, that bond with it, as with any relationship, it takes time. Enjoy the journey with your herb as you learn and grow.
Stick with it for the year of 2021. Next year, you will be able to look back to the beginning of your year long journey. You will then be able to reflect back to see where you came from and where it took you.
As for me it’s Clary Sage. I closed my eyes and thought about it (I let my unconscious mind do the work). I don’t know why, it’s what came up for me, so I’m going with it. Let's think about that, did I choose it or did it choose me?
So this year I will be cuddling up to Clary Sage and see where this relationship takes me. I will let you know at years end. Happy 2021!