I spent a really great day off last week making a few herbal body treatments. I made the cucumber/instant milk eye mask, a ground oatmeal/instant milk face and neck mask, and a body scrub made with brown and white sugar, vanilla, coconut oil, and a variety of spices. I was most excited to have all of the ingredients in my apartment (I had gone shopping for them in previous weeks). Taking the ingredients out of my herbal box reminded me of all of the books I’ve read where women healers go into their cupboards or medicinal chests of herbs and take out various bottles/potions! It was funny because while I was first making the scrub, I found myself thinking, “All of this sugar that is sort of wasted”. And then I realized how excited I was that I was going to be using the sugar scrub over a couple months and really enjoying it! It actually felt like making a present for myself kind of. I was really proud of the scrub when I was done (I put it in a clear spaghetti jar which I had washed).
So, I put on my cucumber eye mask and oatmeal face and neck mask and laid down and listened to one of my guided meditations. It was really nice to feel like I was actually spending time doing something just for my body and mind. I also had a mini-aha-moment. The meditation talks about recognizing traits you admire in others and I had always thought I needed to work on my confidence but I realized that I actually admire conviction in a lot of my friends/family/mentors. So, it felt like a big shift acknowledging that I don’t think I give my own opinions or thoughts (mostly in terms of school/work) enough credit in my mind. I haven’t started to work on this yet much but I felt relieved just recognizing and finally identifying what it was…
And the masks and scrub were great. The oatmeal mask made my cheeks really soft (however, I have a few zits right now and I’m a bit suspicious of my oatmeal/instant milk mask…) and the sugar scrub was super oily and smelled really good (probably would only use it once a week or so since it was so moisturizing - the coconut oil is super thick and was even hard to wash off of the tools I used to mix it with). I still think I need more time to see if the cucumber eye mask has an effect, but it is refreshing.
In terms of the books, I’m sending a lot of time reading the Herbal Healing for Women book right now and I really like how she explains thoroughly how to brew different herbal teas etc (page 46).
Which brings me to where I want to go next with herbal healing. I have been writing down ingredients from my teas and looking up what different properties they have. So now I think I want to try and make my own herbal night-time and morning teas. I still have more research to do but I think I would really enjoy that. I think it will be easier to make the night-time tea because I’ve seen a lot of information about sedative/relaxing, relief from nervous tension/anxiety herbs. For the morning tea though, I would really like to find a couple mood-lifting/energizing teas if they exist. So far for the night-time tea, I think I would include Chamomile, Valerian root, Skullcap, and St. john’s wort.
To Jedi Kiri: I have not ordered the jungle effect book and I can’t believe I forgot! Ordering it right now and will absolutely keep you posted on what I learn. I read in one of the reviews that there are only about 14 recipes and I will of course scan them to you. I have high hopes to learn a lot from that book so we will see. Also, I asked my mom to send me a book on mythology (another topic – like piano – that I wish I knew more about so I’m going to read that as well). And I’m ordering a keyboard this week!
Jedi Kiri also sent me a website where you can order herbs and it felt like I had stumbled my way into an online candy store! I am so excited to order things but I also want to find a place locally. I was thinking that I would only be able to find a store in San Francisco but I did a search on Yelp and found out there is an herbal store in Berkeley with pretty good reviews! I am definitely going as soon as I feel like I have done some more research and know what I want (hopefully this weekend).
So here are my current goals: 1) Research and create my own morning and night-time teas 2) implement conviction somehow in my life (possibly through meditation or just more awareness?) 3) Read the Jungle effect book and mythology book and piano training 4) Continue with the body brushing-oil/lotion routine, eye mask once a week and sugar scrub once a week
I really admire the fact that you are taking on making your own teas from scratch! I am still not at that point yet as I am still following recipes and their directions and looking up the properties of the herbs.
ReplyDeleteYour scrub also sounds good! I have begun to think that maybe as I run out of things (like lotions, scrubs, etc), I will try to make my own. Because right now I am stocked on scrubs, moisturizers, lotions, etc so there is no need for me to make some and just have more.