Reflections on Chamomile
This blog post essay is a series of essays that follow the monthly herbal community course(s) I am teaching at Tree of Life Wellness Center in downtown Winston-Salem, NC. The purpose of this blog post is to be a reflection on my relationship with Chamomile since I began consciously working with it as part of my class series. If you are interested in the full materia medica of the herb, it is available in e-book format for .99 via paypal.
Reflections on Chamomile
In the month of January 2014 several students and myself sat down to discuss and learn in community about the herb Chamomile. This began a quest to redefine the “common” herbs of the collective consciousness of my hometown and the general western understanding of this herb. I had been asking myself, what do I really know about “common” herbs? Do I frequently use them in my clinical setting, and if not, why not? Is it because I don’t have a firm grasp on their medicine, or is it because I relegate them to the box of “benign and common” in my mental medicine chest? The answer was both: although herbs like Chamomile are in my repertoire of herbs, it was an herb that I had never given much consideration to.
At the time, Chamomile was one of those herbs that was useful as a tea, but not really something I would tincture and distribute to my clients. Something about that just seemed wrong. Isn’t there a reason herbs like Chamomile are so widely known and used? Could it be because it is safe, potent medicine that has stood the test of time? Could it be that tea form makes this herb great for client-compliance? It became clear to me that I needed to enter into right relationship with Chamomile & some of the other herbs that I had unfairly disregarded[1].
Chamomile has truly become an ally in my work-life over the past three months. Part of my career involves running a retail store which has poor seasonal traction during the Winter. Oftentimes the stress of this can feel insurmountable. Coupled with the stress of dealing with holiday customer service and general customer service, it was hard for my ego self to not get involved. For quite some time I was going through a phase of “me against the world” and “me against the customer” and severally judging the customer and severally judging myself for judging them! This cycle made for quite a lovely concoction of seeing lots of negative and basically disregarding the positive. But then Chamomile came into my life.
I began toting my bottle of delicious Chamomile rum glycerite and suckling the dropper every time I started feeling that pang of pure irritation. Slowly I began to notice the herb’s effect on me. I would feel the warmth in my belly (solar plexus area). Slowly it radiated outwards and dispersed my irritation while creating a warming and holding sensation. I would then feel more at ease. I could look at myself and see how the situation at hand was not about “me” at all. Over the course of those months, my conscious work with Chamomile helped me begin to soften my outer core, take things less personally, and be more objective and understanding. I believe in Traditional Chinese Medicine they would describe this as “softening the Liver.” In pseudo-metaphysical terms I would describe this as “ego release.” In my job I often get questions about how to open the third eye and become more spiritually aware. One of the biggest ways to do this is to begin the great ego-release! For this reason, Chamomile is one of the herbs that I will be discussing in my Herbs for Chakra Healing Class coming up later this Spring.
Like many herbs, Chamomile will react somewhat differently depending on who you are, what your constitution is, and how sensitive you are to herbal medicine. The best way to learn the medicine of an herb is to begin a conscious connection with it and work together to see what wisdom the herb has to offer to you. Of course, a good basis in herbal medicine and energetics (i.e. TCM or Ayurverda) also helps! I firmly believe that the only way to become a good herbalist is to develop deep and conscious relationships with the individual herbs in your medicine chest. This takes time and commitment, but is totally worth it. Building these relationships and cultivating this wisdom is a life-long journey. There is nothing to do but to be and receive!
[1] Some of the other herbs I have made a commitment to work with this year: Calendula, Rose, Lemon Balm, St. John’s Wort, Catnip, and Rosemary.