When SHTF it will be too late to start
If you are considering switching to herbs and essential oils when SHTF but are not incorporating them into your lifestyle now, I hope you’ll change your strategy. It’s a learning process to gain the wisdom you need to effectively, consistently, and safely prepare herbal medicine and incorporate it into your lifestyle. Like all preparedness strategies, practice will teach you how to act intuitively in an emergency.
For instance, we’ve had yarrow growing around us at every home we’ve lived in. But for 25 years I never once used it medicinally. Then about 15 years ago, after moving from a zone 7 garden to a zone 3 garden my herbal options decreased. Yarrow became a friend in my herbal journey.
When yarrow was the hero
I started using it in tincture and in infused oil, to help with colds and flu, to lower blood pressure, and to provide some antimicrobial benefit in salves. But last winter Mr. Joybilee had a bad tumble on the ice. He was moving a heavy wheelbarrow and when he fell the barrow slipped. It was loaded with manure because he was cleaning out the stalls in the barn. The barrow tipped and the edge of the barrow crashed down on his forefinger, pinning it between the barrow edge and the ice. It was a very bad bruise, but not broken.
His finger started swelling immediately. He came in and iced it, but it looked bad. It was rapidly swelling around the nail and turning purple. It hurt.
A friend had a similiar injury, many years ago and went to the hospital. They could only slice his nail open to relieve the pressure. Not exactly a pleasant idea. Plus we are 30 minutes from the hospital, over an icy mountain pass.
I remembered reading that yarrow would stop bleeding and I thought. just maybe, it would work on internal bleeding. We soaked a clean handkerchief in yarrow tincture and wrapped it around his finger. Within just a few minutes the finger stopped throbbing and the swelling stopped. In half an hour the finger had returned to its normal size.
He continued to apply the yarrow tincture (dried yarrow flowers and leaves macerated in vodka for 6 weeks) and within a few days there was no pain and no sign of the injury. He didn’t lose his finger nail. In fact the only evidence of the accident was a few months later, when the nail grew out. A small white mark across the nail showed where the injury happened. Yesterday, as I was writing this article I asked him which finger he had hurt. He couldn’t remember. The finger nail has completely grown out and there is no evidence. Since this accident we’ve used yarrow tincture on bruises with good success.
But how would we ever have tried that had we not already had some experience using yarrow for other things? We wouldn’t. Some herbal and essential oil wisdom is learned through the experience of using herbs and essential oils in daily living. You have to start somewhere, right?
Here’s just some of the ways I use herbs and essential oils in my day to day. By doing this I have grown some intuition on when to use them in an emergency. And I have confidence if SHTF or TEOTWAWKI comes, I’ll be able to help my family and my community with the herbs that we have growing close by. This is what I want for you, too.
How I integrate the herbs and essential oils into my day to day
I used homemade deodorant powder when I got dressed, made with frankincense and myrrh resins, clay and starch, and frankincense essential oil. Get the recipe here.
I washed my hands with homemade lavender soap, made with coconut oil, olive oil, and lavender essential oil.
I made Lamb sausage with fresh mint and chives that I picked in the garden, before breakfast, to go with our farm fresh eggs.
I rubbed pine salve on my hands to alleviate swelling and inflammation in my knuckle, a little arthritis in the joint. The swelling is almost gone.
I used elder flower infused argan oil, pomegranate oil, and rosehip seed oil to soothe my tired, dry eyes
I drank cold herbal tea with rosehips, hibiscus, motherwort, hawthorn berries, and nettle, to quench my thirst midmorning. I stirred a teaspoon of rose infused honey in it. The faint rose fragrance is uplifting.
As I was passing the cupboard where I keep my essential oils, out of the reach of children, I opened the lemon verbena essential oil bottle and breathed in the fragrance to lift my mood and shake away the doldrums, in the midafternoon.
I cleaned the kitchen counters and sink with all-purpose โThievesโ cleaner made with lemon peels, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, rosemary sprigs, and lavender blossoms
I cleaned the toilet with lemon peel cleaner and baking soda
I ate lox that I made a week ago, using fresh dill, parsley, and rosemary from my garden, salt, sugar, and sockeye salmon filets.
I put 5 drops of peppermint essential oil and 7 drops of rosemary essential oil in an essential oil diffuser to help me concentrate during the mid-afternoon slump. Breathe deep.
Before dinner I placed 7 drops of homemade bitters on my tongue. It helps with digestion and is made of grapefruit peel, yarrow, cacao nibs, wormwood, and fennel seed in vodka.
I applied an essential oil blend, with lemongrass, tea tree, and peppermint in witch hazel, to repel mosquitoes when I went outside to gather puff ball mushrooms, at sunset.
I brushed my teeth with tooth powder I made myself using this recipe with myrrh, frankincense, and peppermint essential oils.
I put a drop of tea tree essential oil on the dental floss when I flossed my teeth.
I had a soothing, detoxifying bath with 1 cup of baking soda and 1 cup of Dead Sea salt blended with 25 drops of lavender essential oil.
I spritzed the bed pillows with lavender essential oil blended in water to freshen the bedding before bed and give us pleasant dreams.
Don’t wait t SHTF aill thend TEOTWAWKI happens to start integrating herbs into your healthy lifestyle. Start now. I’m here to help you with the learning process. My blog posts are available to you without cost. I post consistently on Facebook and Pinterest to help you. But you need to take action, too.
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