Ingredients: Organic Dried Rose Petals, Organic Dried Thyme, Organic Dried Hawthorn Leaves & Flowers, Organic Dried Mugwort, Organic Dried Chamomile, Australian Sencha Green Tea
Grief is a natural process with many stages to it - and is an important part of being human. No two people experience grief in the same way - it is completely individual and does not serve us to compare our own grief with anothers or judge how another is grieving. There is no normal way to experience it and the severity is not reflected on the outside but experienced on the inside by the individual. Loss may be sad to one person but manageable and yet to another it may cause their life to unravel and leave them completely devastated.
Grief, in all her forms with the right support, can strengthen rather than break us. We have blended hawthorn, rose petals, thyme and sencha green tea, for their ability to work together to strengthen the heart, lungs and mind. Enjoy some time by yourself sipping this tea with your journal, or share with another loved one.
Hawthorn: There is much history from many cultures that have worked with the hawthorn tree for emotional integration of heart-wounding experiences. "One energetic lesson this plant offers humans is the practice of boundaries that protect the tender fruit of the heart while simultaneously staying conversant with the information and understanding the heart peels back throughout a lifetime". This is an essential ingredient for heartbreak and grieving. Besides being known as an antioxidant it has physiological benefits on the heart muscle and circulatory system of the physical body (Shane, 2015). It is also thought to assist us back into our body and reminds us that this is our sacred space, so helps to ground us if we are feeling dissociated with grief.
Rose : Besides teaching us about protection and cultivation of the heart, the rose is known to assist us in the human experiences of love, desire, vulnerability, loss and bereavement. Rose helps to engender empathy for self and other. It is foremost about the human ability to learn or relearn self-love. This can become severely challenged when we experience loss, trauma and betrayal and Rose helps us on our journey back to self-love and self-care. In combination with more protective herbs like Hawthorn, rose encourages us to stay aware and open in the heart, to keep up our self-care routine, and to not build walls of structure around us.
Mugwort: Helps us with any family dynamics as well as navigating the transition of what's happening. Time can feel very non-linear in this state of being - invite it in. If you can get hold of any fresh mugwort - you can put it in glass jar of boiled water and sit it outside in the sun for a while. Then you can either sip - this helps to bring shock down, or put in a spray bottle to use when you feel to. You can also add it to a warm bath.
Thyme: Throughout history Thyme has been related to strength, courage and protection. It was also tucked under pillows to ward against nightmares and promote sleep. Thyme is intimately connected to the health of the lungs and we have added this to support the lungs and this meridian. In Chinese medicine grief is connected to the Lung meridian - and is used with grief that is unexpressed or unable to be expressed, repressed, or expressed without control or in the proper context. The lungs are typically associated with communication and clear thinking, ability to relax, let go, be open to new ideas, positive self-image, and being happy. When out of balance and you are dealing with excessive grief then you may have difficulty coping with loss and change, feel alienated from those around you, experience a prolonged sense of sadness that does not seem to go away. The lungs can also be associated with attachment - and the ability of letting go. If the energy in the lungs is weak you may experience overwhelming and a constant state of grief. In contrast, expressing your grief fully helps to strengthen you both physically and psychologically.
Chamomile: Let Chamomile calm and soothe your nervous system and bring you back to the centre of your being. Let it show you how to nurture yourself again. As a nervine, it eases anxiety and tension and promotes a restful sleep in both children and adults. Helps us to process our emotions from our day and to digest them before heading to bed.
There are some great breathing exercises that you can do if you are feeling overwhelmed and we have included these below:-
- Deep Breathing. Breathe in through your nose and imagine breathing deeply into your belly. Hold for a count of five. Then exhale slowly through the mouth until your lungs are empty. Repeat this three times, and do up to three times daily.
- Another technique to practice is to find a comfortable place to sit where you can have both feet on the ground, placing your hands in your lap, with your left hand over your right hand. Think about your lungs and connect to them as you breathe. Then begin to breathe in through your nose, as above, hold your breath for 5 and then as you exhale, tilt your head back with your teeth loosely clenched, tongue pressing gently on the roof of your mouth. As you exhale make an SSSSS sound. Repeat three times. Always connecting to your lungs. See yourself releasing, letting go.
- The colour white is associated with the lungs so we can imagine white light through this breathing exercise. If your grief is associated with a person or animal try to remember a happy time or funny situation that you shared together. You are going to use this energy to send healing to your lungs. Begin your breathing exercise as in 1. and when you are holding your breath send that energy that you shared down to your lungs. Repeat three times and then breathing in again, holding and picturing white light flooding your lungs filling them up. Exhale through the mouth, repeating 3 times, sensing the white light healing your lungs.
