I’m a whole-herb gal at heart and don’t use a ton of essential oils (curious about why!? ask me in my newsletter, that’s where I love to chat with you!), but eucalyptus essential oil has earned a permanent spot in my winter medicine chest.

Why?
Because it’s literally just so effective. It’s an amazing congestion buster that can help you breathe easier in minutes, and can even kill airborne germs on contact.

In herbalism, we often aim to get remedies in direct contact with the tissues that need support. These three methods do just that, bringing eucalyptus oil straight to the respiratory system, where it can work its expectorant and antimicrobial magic.

Let’s dive into three practical ways to use eucalyptus essential oil for colds, flus, and winter wellness.

1. Steam inhalation for congestion relief

(How to use eucalyptus oil for blocked nose + sinus pressure)

This is hands-down one of my all-time fav ways to use eucalyptus oil (although I can’t say my kids feel the same… but that’s why I’ve got a few methods here, cause you might find different herbal remedies suit different people in your home!)

The warm steam opens your airways, and the eucalyptus helps loosen mucus, soothe tissues, and kill microbes on contact. It’s a gentle but potent remedy for colds, sinus infections, and that stuffy, muddled-wombat-headed feeling.

How to do it:

• Add 2 drops of eucalyptus essential oil* to a bowl of boiling water (yes it’s ok if a few more drops dribble out, that’s why we aim for 1-2 drops, but try not to get more than 3-4 drops. Essential oils almost have this soul lesson reminding us that more isn’t always better!)
• Very carefully, put your head over the bowl and cover with a towel. Breathe deeply for 5–10 minutes.

*Don’t have eucalyptus essential oil or don’t like using essential oils?? You could also throw in 1 big handful of dried thyme (thymus vulgaris) or sage (salvia officinalis) leaves.

👉 Grab full instructions in my FREE eBook

2. Diffuse it (or try this no-diffuser trick)

(Purify the air + support better breathing at night)

When someone’s sick, I love getting eucalyptus right into the air. Diffusing eucalyptus essential oil can help cleanse the room, reduce exposure for others, and support better breathing overnight.

No diffuser? No problem. Try the old-school method:

• Add a few drops to a tissue, cotton ball, or scrap of fabric
• Place near the bed or in the room

This is especially great at night to help unblock sinuses and get some healing sleep.

3. Make a simple natural room spray

(A germ-busting, air-cleansing spray for sick days)

A homemade eucalyptus room spray is a great way to freshen the air and minimise the spread of viruses.

✨ DIY Germ-Away room spray recipe:

1. Fill a 500ml(ish) spray bottle with water
2. Add 8–10 drops of eucalyptus essential oil (if using a smaller spray bottle, use less)
3. Shake well before each use, otherwise the essential oils float on water
4. Mist into the air, especially in bedrooms or wherever the sick person’s hanging out.
   🚫 Don’t spray directly on faces

Eucalyptus essential oil is an affordable, accessible ways to bring potent natural healing into your home. Whether you’re using steam, diffusing it, or making a DIY spray, this plant ally can help support your respiratory system and keep the household breathing easy this winter.

Also – cause I’m a big fan of use-what-you’ve-got herbalism, you could also work with: thyme, sage, tea tree or lavender to freshen the air, clear congestion and kill viruses in the respiratory system.

Want more winter wellness tips? I’ve got heaps on the blog, or get hands-on making your own with my DIY Immunity Herbal Remedy Kit

The post 3 Powerful ways to use eucalyptus essential oil for colds, flu & winter wellness appeared first on Everyday Empowered.

Every home needs at least one immune stimulant remedy on hand to quickly turn to when winter lurgies are doing the rounds. Fire cider could be that for you! Whilst my family tends to favour elderberry syrup, it’s so interesting how sometimes I’ll crave fire cider instead – the wisdom of the body at work. And fire cider is a great remedy to take with you if you’re on hols as it’s shelf stable.

This is a foundational kitchen medicine recipe, using many easily accessible herbs and foods! I love recipes that cross the food-medicine divide and brings herbal remedies right into our kitchen and that was the inspiration of Rosemary Gladstar who first created this remedy.

While we made this recipe at a recent workshop, I had this seriously old song stuck in my head – and I tell ya, I didn’t hold back from sharing 😂

🎤Give it to me baby, uh huh, uh huh…. pretty fly for a white guy… on repeat….. for 2 hours….🎵🎶 (ok, ok, half the time I sang in my head, I wanted people to want to come back to the workshop after all! – I run regular herbal medicine workshops on the Sunshine Coast – come join us! )

So in honour of that earworm, I wanna call this new recipe:

Give it to me Baby Fire Cider Recipe

Which also works, cause hopefully it’s so delicious your friends and family will be begging for more!😉

Recipes are great, but understanding the principles (or the ‘why’ behind things) is even better than that’s the how I love to teach herbal medicine.

So this fire cider recipe is more of a recipe framework than a recipe per se as I show you how to easily customise according to taste and what you’ve got on hand.

Don’t have an ingredient? Leave it out.

Want it to have a gentler flavour? Amp up the yummy herbs

Ingredients

• Parchment paper
• Apple cider vinegar
• Honey
• jar with lid (you can use any size jar, match ingredient amounts to your jar – see instructions below)

Core herbs

Make sure at least half your jar consists of these core herbs as they’re the ones doing the immune system heavy lifting (although they all have a role to play!).

I’ll tend to pick 3-4 of these core ingredients and then use in roughly equal parts, although use 1 or 2 herbs if that’s what you’ve got on hand.

• Onion
• Garlic
• ginger
• Horseradish*
• Thyme
• Rosemary
• Nasturtium leaves and flowers
• Chillis*

*horseradish and chillis are both strong flavours, even amongst a crowd of strong flavours, so tone these down or leave out if you don’t like things overly spicy

Optional Herbs

For added vitamin C and bioflavonoids: Lemon – sliced, including peel, rosehips, lemongrass (which also has antimicrobial and antiviral properties)

To soften the taste for kids: raisins, cinnamon, blueberries or apples (I haven’t tried, but imagine it’d be nice!?)

Random ideas: herbs like cardamon, cobblers peg, echinacea etc

(Got any other herbs you like to add to your fire cider? I’d love to hear! Just reply to one of my newsletters, or use the contact form to reach out 😊)

To make:

1. Chop and slice your herbs and foods
2. Add to your jar. If using mostly fresh herbs, fill jar ¾ full, if using dried, then fill jar ½ full.
3. Fill jar ¾ full with apple cider vinegar.
4. Fill remaining way with honey (if your honey’s too stiff, gently warm jar in a saucepan of hot water)*
5. Cut parchment paper to cover jar, then screw on lid tightly (the parchment paper is super important if you’re using a metal lid as the vinegar will corrode the lid – yes I’ve had personal experience 😂) Skip if you’re using a plastic lid
6. Shake jar
7. Label jar with ingredients and date made
8. Keep jar in a handy place as you’ll want to shake daily or 3x a week for 4-6 weeks.
9. Strain and taste. If you need to, you can add a bit more honey to make it sweeter.

*Another way to make this (and you might see this on other recipes, is to infuse the herbs in only vinegar. Then once you strain them you’ll add the honey. Depending on your taste, you’ll add 1/4 cup – 1/2 cup honey for every 1 cup vinegar (and you can even increase the honey if needed, although I’d personally explore adding yummier herbs to the blend).

To use:

Preventative immune tonic: 1 tablespoon/ day for adults and 1 teaspoon for kids, diluted in water.

Acute: 1 tablespoon every 3-4 hours for adults and 1 teaspoon for kids, diluted in water.

As food: use in marinades, salad dressings etc

Hope you love this fire cider – as you make it over the years, take note on favourite batches and flavours. After a while, you might have your own favourite recipe with particular herbs and foods you like to use each time! That’s one of my favourite parts of home herbalism, as it’s a living legacy and family health culture you can pass on for generations.

Love learning herbal medicine understanding principles, rather than just recipes? You’ll adore my Mastering Herbal Teas in 5 minutes a day course where I lift the curtain on how to craft your own tea blends for tummy troubles, anxiety and stress, sleep, vitality and more! And yes, there are a tonne of recipes too, I wouldn’t leave you hanging! Although with my simple and intuitive BASE-BUILD-EXTEND process, I know you’ll be confidently blending your own teas in no time at all! Learn more

Want a simple version of this recipe on a recipe card? Grab the DIY Immunity Kit– comes with recipe cards, herbs, bottles etc – our remedy kits are convenient, expert-backed recipes and saves you oodles of time sourcing all the bits ‘n’ bobs you need!

The post Fire Cider Recipe appeared first on Everyday Empowered.

Because we’re home herbalists, we’re naturally going to be thinking of herbs we can work with to ease the transition and it’s a good idea to have a back-to-school herbal toolkit on hand!

Stress, and worry

It’s totally normal to be stressed about back to school – new teacher, new timetable, maybe shifting friendships after the summer break – there is a lot going on!

Luckily for us, there are tonnes of herbs to help ease the worries and relax the nervous system, that are super safe and gentle for kids. The main nervines you could turn to are:

• Lemon balm (melissa officinalis) leaf
• chamomile (matricaria recutita) flower
• catnip (nepeta cataria) leaf
• lavender (lavendula angustifolia) flower

These herbs make a beautiful tea when on their own, or you can blend 2 or all of them together.

Aim for roughly 2 teaspoons herb/ cup, steeped for 3 to 10 minutes covered.

ie. 2 teaspoons chamomile, OR 1 teaspoon chamomile + 1 teaspoon lemon balm, OR 1 teaspoon lemon balm and 1 teaspoon catnip OR 1 teaspoon each chamomile, lemon balm and catnip, OR 1/2 teaspoon each 4 herbs.

They’re all good options! If you want to more detail on how to choose – get all my tea-making tips in my easily-digestible course: Mastering Herbal Teas in 5 Minutes a day)

I recommend starting with what you’ve got, or get a small amount of all of them and do a fun experiment with your kids to try to find their favourite blend. Keep in mind lavender and chamomile can get bitter if steeped longer than 3 minutes.

Anxiety

If your kid really falls on the more anxious end and has looping, ruminating thoughts, passionflower (passiflora incarnata) is a kid-safe herb to work with. I recommend combining passionflower with one or a few of the herbs mentioned in Stress and Worry section.

1/2 teaspoon each Chamomile, passionflower and lemon balm makes a lovely blend. If your kid finds the passionflower too ‘grassy-tasting’ you could use less of that herb (ie 1/2 teaspoon passionflower to 1 teaspoon each chamomile and passionflower), or sweeten with honey. Steep tea covered for 3 – 10 minutes.

Passionflower can make some kids sleepy (it’s also a great herb for insomnia due to ruminating mind), so either use it in a bedtime mix, or, if using it during day, just check your kids individual response to it.

Holistic viewpoint:

Like many things in the body, anxiety can have various causes. Whilst herbs can help, if they’re anxious because they’re magnesium deficiency then a cup of chamomile isn’t going to solve the problem. If you’re working with herbs, and things are continuing or getting worse, work with a practitioner or experiment with some other strategies to find what helps your child on a holistic level.  There are other lifestyle strategies such as getting enough sleep, movement and learning some breathwork techniques that can also help with anxiety.

Irritability and frustration

Kids (and adults, let’s keep it real!) can lash out with irritability and frustration when they’re experiencing other emotions like fear, nervousness, stress or overwhelm. If that’s your kid, chamomile can be a really good herb to turn to. You can use it alone or in combo with some of the others herbs in this article.

2 teaspoons chamomile, steeped 3 – 10 minutes (the longer the steep, the more bitter the brew)

Navigating Big feelings

Sometimes our kids are nervous going back to school because they’re actually processing some really big feelings, maybe separation anxiety, bullying, friendship issues etc etc,

Rose (rosa sp) is such a gorgeous herb to hold the heart safe while they process their emotions.

One tea blend could be 1 teaspoon each lemon balm, chamomile and rose, OR 1 teaspoon lemon balm, 1/2 teaspoon rose and lavender. Steeped 3 – 10 minutes covered.

Whilst I love rose in tea, I think she really shines as a glycetract and this is one of my favourite ways to work with her. Rose syrup also tastes like liquid turkish delight (depending which sweetener you use, so a very good option!) Check out rose info and some recipes, including the glycetract recipe

Focus

Sometimes, kids are emotionally ready for school but simply find the back-to-school transition hard cause they’re going from summer playing to having to focus and concentrate.

Along with a good daily dose of movement, a tea made with 1 teaspoon each: lemon balm, peppermint (mentha x piperita) and gotu kola (centella asiatica) can all help kids focus and pay attention at school.

Other areas

Other remedies you might like in your back-to-school herbal toolkit could be remedies for:

• the immune system (for my fav immunity remedies, check out the DIY Immunity Kit or grab my FREE Ebook – Top 3 remedies for every home)
• herbal first aid – such as a cuts and scrape salve (make your own with the DIY Herbal Starter Kit, or grab my FREE Ebook – top 3 remedies for Every Home)

How to use these herbs

These herbs are all delicious as syrups, glycetracts and tea. You can have them individually or make a blend of 2 – 4.

(I give recipes and teach you how to think through tea-blending in my self-paced course Mastering Herbal Teas in 5 Minutes a day)

Make home herbalism your own

Whilst I’ve mentioned a few herbs here, to support you, please never think you need them all, or that there’s “one right herb”.  That approach can really stress you out. Whilst over time you might find you and your children have favourite recipes or herbs that match your particular patterns really well, but in the beginning know that all these herbs are an effective part of a back-to-school herbal toolkit.

I hope you enjoy creating your back-to-school herbal toolkit and that these herbs support you and your family in this transition!

Get support making your own remedies

Want our hand in yours, guiding you to make your own remedies!? Grab the Herbal Starter Kit. Make a chamomile syrup, and soothing chamomile, lavender moon mylk. Learn to make a glycetract in the DIY Immunity Kit (although it’s a glycetract to support immunity

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