Face your fears to use your herbs
Why don’t you use herbs in your daily life more often? For me, it’s because I’m afraid. Afraid to waste money, afraid to invest time in something that really won’t work, and most irrationally, afraid to poison myself!
Well, today that is changing! I want to encourage you to be bold! Be brave! And, most importantly, be smart!
People talk about a healthy fear, but your fear of using herbs wrongly is not healthy if it keeps you from jumping in and trying. Rather, what is healthy is a wholesome respect for herbs. They are powerful. This is where being smart comes in. Know what herbs will be harmful for you personally (I’ll be posting about contraindications next.) Be smart in what you purchase; obviously if you don’t have anything personally harmful to you or your family in your herb collection, the risk of causing harm is much lower. Most importantly, learn, learn learn! Make it your goal to learn what an herb can treat, how to prepare it, proper dosing, etc before you even bring it into your home. Then you can be much more confident in using it. How do you gain all this information?
Start small & study how you learn best; read blogs, buy books, listen to podcasts, talk to folks at conferences etc.
Knowledge is power; you are making a priceless investment every time you apply yourself, even for a few minutes here and there, to learning about using herbs to improve your health. It is so easy to waste time on facebook or yahoo news (which really isn’t news) or pinterest that it can make it feel like there isn’t an extra second in the day. Instead, pick a topic you are interested in, find a few good articles online, and leave them up on your phone or computer screen. Then pupose to take at least 15 minutes you would have wasted surfing the web and invest them in learning. This is my goal, and it becomes addicting quickly!
What about the fear of wasting time on treatment? Herbs, because they gently work with your body to treat the whole issue, not just the symptoms, do take longer to have a visible effect. Here’s a few suggestions that I have been using to fight this hesitation . . . First, when there us an immediate issue, I don’t over concern myself with using only one treatment at a time. If taking zinc, garlic, and guzzling lemon water will help my body fight a cold, you can be sure I will be doing that along with anything else I can find that will complement my treatment. I do like to know which treatment is having which effect, but I generally save the experimenting for when I’m trying to help my husband. Just kidding! That’s mean. Anyway, a second suggestion is stopping and thinking about where you will be in a week, a month, next year, and what your future self would be begging your current self to do. Most likely your future self will be saying, “Just try it! Persevere and keep going! We can beat this, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.” For example, if you are trying to cure your candida but don’t want to invest months in taking your herbs, I can guarantee you will be kicking yourself when you look back in a year and realize just how much you could have improved in that time. I’ve done it enough myself.
Concerned about the cost? View growing your herb collection as investing in your family’s health not wasting money. I already suggested waiting to buy an herb until you know what to do with it. Now I’m saying don’t stall on purchasing what you are going to need! I can say from experience that it is extremely frusterating to have an issue crop up, get excited because you know how to treat it, then realize you do not have the herbs you need. If you are able to use the herb, money invested purchasing them is well spent! In fact, once you can turn to your herbs to treat common health concerns instead of your doctor’s prescription or the pharmacy, I am confident you will be saving money instead!
Taking the plunge and purchasing herbal reference books can be costly and intimidating too. Sure the internet is at your fingertips, but slogging through an overwhelming about of information or the conflicting prescriptions of Dr. Google is frusterating when you need a quick answer. Not to mention the power can go out or your phone can die when you need an answer; I’ve had this happen a few times already. Real rustling, yummy smelling books are worth the investment. I would strongly suggest checking out any book you may be interested in from the library then buying used online. You can save yourself from buying useless books and save well over half on the books you do want this way. Soon I’ll be posting about my current recommended resources, so check back soon!
I hope this has encouraged you to spend your herb budget wisely, invest your time in learning enthusiastically, and replace your fears of using herbs with a healthy respect for them. Be smart with your time, money, and treatment to be successful in improving your health and the health of your family.
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