I’ve never seen a list like this, and I thought it’d be fun to put it together — it’s allllllllll the ways I could think of to work with herbs. I’ve made most of them, but not all—so inspired to keep exploring this beautiful herbal life!

In categories:

Topical (applied on skin)

• herbal oil
• creams
• salves
• balms
• compresses
• poultices
• herbal steam
• neti pot
• spritzer
• hair oil
• mouthwash
• eye wash/ drops
• ear oil
• shampoo/ conditioner
• hair detangler

Internal

• tea
• tincture
• elixir
• herbal-infused honey
• electuary
• herbal-infused vinegar
• oxymel
• glycetract
• syrup
• smoke blends

Culinary

• herbal salt
• herbal butter
• in meals – curries, stews, eggs, etc
• in baking – cookies, cakes, bliss balls etc
• smoothies, ice blocks and ice cream
• spice blends
• pesto
• natural food colouring
• marshmallows
• candies
• cordial
• bitters in cocktails and mocktails
• kombucha and other fermented drinks
• in ferments

Personal Care/ Home Care

• cleaning spray
• smudge sticks
• deodorant
• moxa sticks
• incense
• deodorant
• potpourri
• simmer pot
• herbal eye pillows
• herb moth-repelling sachets
• herbal baths
• floral/ leaf displays
• wreath

Art

• botanical illustration
• eco-dying
• flower mandala

Are you feeling inspired?

This is one of the reasons I LOVE home herbalism – there are literally so many ways to work with herbs in daily life!

Our herbal homes are full of creativity, potential, and joy as we personalise it to our interests, tastes and needs.

Does your home herablism need to look like anyone elses? Hell no!

Do you need to do it all? Definitely not!

Can you find what works for you!? YESSS!

I’m sure there’s probably more – drop a comment below (or email hello @ everydayempowered.com.au to tell me what I’ve missed (Contact form’s not working atm, so don’t use that yet!)

The post The Complete List of How to Use Herbs in Daily Life! appeared first on Everyday Empowered.

Well, If your kids are anything like mine, sometimes they’ll want the remedies and sometimes not.

So, keeping it real, here’s 7 tips you can use to get your kids take herbs.

1. Start early and make it fun.

Remember that saying, the “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.” No matter how young or old your kids are, the best time to get started is now.

Find ways to make herbs a tasty part of your family life. Whether that’s a ritual of herbal tea in the afternoons, lavender mist before bed, sprinkling cinnamon in cookies, using herbs in their baths, there’s an ENORMOUS number of ways we can introduce kids to herbs in our daily life.

By using herbs for simple, fun and delicious things, we’re not just equating them with medicine, so it’s more likely to have a positive association. Also, it’ll be easier for your kids to use herbs medicinally when sick if they’re a comforting, familiar part of your home, rather than something strange and foreign.

2. Make it delicious

When using herbs more medicinally, try to make it delicious – especially for younger kids. Herbal-infused honeys, syrups, gummies, herbal chocolates and yummy teas are all great ways to get herbs into kids.

For instance, elderberry syrup and fire cider are both really effective immune system stimulants, but I’ve had more success with elderberry syrup in my family. I know quite a few kids though, who don’t like overly sweet things, and fire cider might work better for them.

As with everything, my mantra is to find what works for you!

3. Try to sandwich crap in yumminess.

We’ve had some health challenges in my family that meant my kids had to take some pretty strong [aka disgusting] herbal medicine at times. Whilst we generally don’t drink juice, to ease them into it, I hid their tinctures in juice. It got them used to it, then I could gradually reduce it till they were used to these strong tastes. Note – even after all this, they still sometimes complain and I’ll still try to follow with a more delicious remedy where it makes sense to (or sometimes, with something else they want).

4. Start small and build up

Along that line of thought, it can take time to build up a taste for certain herbs, even for adults.

Say for instance you want to make them a herbal multivitamin tea (called a nourishing infusion). There are a few ways to make it more palatable and build them up. Start with a weaker tea by either using less herbs when you steep your tea, or make it as normal but dilute it. You could even mix it with a bit of juice. You know your kids best, so whatever will work for them.

Same goes for other remedies. Want them to take a spoon of something or enjoy the herbs you’ve added to foods? Start with a ¼ or even an 1/8 of a spoon. Get them used to it.

5. Give them some choice

Like all of us, kids like some degree of control over their lives. When I’m thinking of how to get kids to take herbs, where possible, I give them choices that I’m ok with. Do you want this before or after dinner? Do you want lemon balm or chamomile?  It doesn’t always work, but it can be a good tip to keep in mind.

6. Make a game of it

Mary Poppins didn’t just sing ‘A Spoonful of Sugar’ for fun you know! She obviously understood some of the above points, making it more delicious, but she also knew games and songs simply make things more fun (and she’s a book character who didn’t have to do all the chores herself, keeping it real 😂).

Depending on the age of your kids, and their personality, this could make it lots easier for your kids to take herbs

7. Hide it

When you’re ready to throw your hands up in despair – simply hide it. This isn’t always possible for more acute medicinal remedies, but certainly is for some general daily-use ones.

Whether that’s using herbal tea as the basis for smoothies or ice blocks, or using herbal broth as a base in stews, curries and soups, or medicinal mushrooms in chocolates or hot chocolates there are lots of ways to hide herbs in their foods.

BONUS – cause I just thought of another but can’t be bothered changing title to 8 tips 😂

Patience and persistence. When my kids are sick, I’ll patiently offer my kids remedies throughout the day. They might say no 5 times before they’re ready to take it. As long as this stays positive, I’ll keep offering, but I also know when to let it go.

This is just a few things we can do to make it easier for our kids to take herbs. Hope this helps and if you want a really simple place to start – check out our DIY Remedy Kits. I heard from a mom just the other day who said she and her son love the remedies in the kits and I know you’ll love them too.

The post 7 tips for how to get kids to take herbs appeared first on Everyday Empowered.

Personally (Heidi speaking here) sleep has been a source of trauma for me for many years. As a new mother I had a  baby who didn’t sleep, then another baby, then when they went to school I started a business and I would work in the evening and be so wound up I couldn’t fall asleep, then I stopped working at night and things improved a little until menopause hit and bought with it hot flushes and you guessed it MORE insomnia.  

So how can we deal with these challenges that affect so many of us from new mothers, to shift workers, to the stressed, anxious and depressed masses to the menopausal and the elderly, all of whom are awake at all hours of the day and night….

I actually think the 8 hours sleep a night recommendation is a mythical aspiration. If
you get that, then more power to you! But I think you’re in the minority.  

According to a study by the Sleep Health Foundation most people average around 7
hours of sleep with an average of waking at least twice due to needing to go to the toilet, over active thoughts, or physical pain or discomfort. I would add to that those being woken by children, pets and neighbours.

So with the odds stacked against a good nights sleep what can we do?

Short of restructuring society, bringing down the patriarchy and forming a new way of living that honours human needs and physiology,  we can at best aim for measures to minimise the impact of insomnia and increase our chances of sleep.  

To maximise our chances of falling asleep:

BEHAVIOURAL STRATEGIES

🤾‍♀️ getting adequate physical exercise during the day of at least 30 to 60 minutes of exercise per day. If you can do this outside then it’s even better as the exposure to sunlight 🔆 helps set our biorhythms and sleep wake cycles.

🕯 At night we can continue this by turning off as much electric light as possible and using candles and firelight which increases levels of the sleep hormone melatonin. At least try to do this for the
last hour before bed if its not realistic for the whole evening.

🛀 🫖 An hour before you want to go to sleep, have a warm shower or bath, a nice relaxing cup of herbal tea and put on candles, relaxing music and unwind.

📓 If you are upset of anxious try journaling or
drawing as a way to express what’s bothering you.

When you go to sleep make the room complexly dark to increase melatonin levels and reduce distractions.

If you use screens in the evening use apps like lumen or twilight to reduce screen glare and help you break away from the excess cortisol that keeps you going even though your exhausted and leads to insomnia due to being ‘over tired’.  

HERBAL STRATEGIES

Herbs can be used throughout the day to manage stress levels and at night to unwind. My favourites during the day are Tulsi and Withania (Ashwagandha).

🌿Tulsi reduces metabolic stress through normalization of blood glucose, blood pressure and lipid levels, reduces psychological stress by improving memory and mental function and
through its anxiolytic and anti-depressant properties.

🌿 Ashwagandha calms the brain, reduces swelling, lowers blood pressure and helps the body adapt to stress by reducing the effects of stress hormones on the body.  

At night herbs can be used to calm the nervous system and help create sleepiness.  

👉👉 Do this! 👇🏽👇🏽

∙Make some herbal tea by adding 1 dessertspoon of herbs to a cup of boiling water.
Let it steep for 10-20 mins, then strain and drink.  
∙Add essential oil of lavender to your warm bath at bedtime to feel a calming effect,
inducing sleep.
∙Massage herb-infused oils of chamomile or lavender mixed with olive, grapeseed,
or coconut oil on certain parts of your body such as your forehead, neck, chest,
wrist, hands, or feet.  
∙ Take an herbal extract supplement


Good nighttime (sedative) herbs include:

Lavender – reduces stress and anxiety and promotes daytime wakefulness and more sustained sleep at night.

Chamomile – reduces anxiety, soothes your nerves, and eases insomnia. It also eases tension in the gut, which is good for those with anxious stomachs and bloating in the evening.

Valerian – reduces insomnia, restlessness, and anxiety and helps relax tension in the muscles

California poppy – Eases physical pain, restlessness, anxiety and insomnia

Hops – Hops flowers contain methylbutenol, a sleep-inducing chemical that is used for insomnia  

Passionflower – reduces stress and anxiety and helps promote sleep

⭐💖 Want to do this but not sure where to get started!?! 💖⭐

👉👉 Find the Chamomile and Lavender Moon Milk recipe in the Herbal Starter Kit:

👉👉 Join us to learn more about Ashwaganda this month at Herb Folk – where you’ll make your own sleepy-time capsules!

The post The Mythical 8 Hour Sleep… appeared first on Everyday Empowered.

The Screen-Smart Families workshop has been designed with busy parents in mind. It’s a crash course on how screens can impact our family and what we can do about it. It’s about setting up strong foundations so that your family can develop a healthy relationship with technology.

What this workshop is:

• Developing a tech-positive vision
• Learning foundational principles to develop a healthy relationship with technology
• A supportive community to share the ups and downs of parenting in the digital age. We’re here to have nonjudgmental, compassionate, and honest dialogue.
• Have a plan, and a basic understanding of where we’re going as parents in this new ‘wide open frontier’
• All about you and your family. I’m not going to tell you who you should be or how your family should use technology. You’ll get to explore what the foundational principles and expert recommendations look like in your context.

What this workshop isn’t:
The scope of internet and kids is huge! Honestly, the sheer number of topics and issues that various families will encounter is enormous, and beyond the scope of any one workshop to cover. This workshop will give you the solid foundation you need to set up a healthy digital culture in your family, and we’ll cover some of the hot topics that you and your kids might encounter online. This workshop:

• isn’t solely about cyber safety. We’ll cover how to stay safe online and what to do when scary stuff happens, but we won’t get as in-depth as a cyber safety expert. Stay tuned though if you want that help, and we’ll organise a cyber safety expert to come and talk to us one day too.
• isn’t based on fear, guilt or worry. Like fearless warriors we will cover all the common issues your kids could face online – even the ones that make you want to bury into your doona wishing you’d never had kids –  but by supporting each other and  having a plan, we’ll walk away feeling confident and empowered.

So whatever questions you’ve got – bring them!
Think you don’t need to come to this yet – come anyway!
Wish you could be doing something else with your precious time – then let’s make this time count!

Find upcoming workshops on the event page >

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“express ourselves with honesty and clarity, while simultaneously paying others a respectful and empathic attention. In any exchange, we come to hear our own deeper needs and those of others” (Marshall B. Rosenberg in Nonviolent Communication: A language of Life)

It helps us understand ourselves and others better, as well as helping us move past conditioned patterns such as judgements, criticism, attacking or withdrawing – in short, any and all of our communication pitfalls.

Why is Nonviolent Communication an Everyday Skill?
If you see and talk to people every day, then this is an important skill. Us humans are a beautiful lot, but we are also messy and imperfect, which means conflict and disagreement arises. Rather than letting our habitual, reactive habits dominate, we can learn this beautiful style of communication which allows us to interact with respect for the dignity and worth of ourselves and whoever we’re talking to.

The quality of our relationships is a really important component of our overall health and happiness. We all know what it’s like to be at odds with someone (or multiple someones) and it hurts. It’s stressful, and it can make us angry, sad or depressed. I’m not claiming we’ll never feel these things, or experience great conflict with people, but by using NVC and communicating skillfully we can help to alleviate little everyday relationship stressors. 

How does it contribute to Self-Connection?
Nonviolent Communication gives us an amazing skillset for tuning into ourselves. NVC Is based on universal human needs. We all have them and the quest to fulfill them drives all our skillful and unskillful behaviour. Using awareness and some techniques we can enhance our ability for moment-to-moment self-connection.

How does it help with Health Sovereignty?
Health Sovereignty is taking a proactive, empowered approach to your health. Relationship stress – whether marriage, kids, co-workers or neighbours takes a direct toll on our physical health. Sometimes these physical symptoms shows up straight away and are easy to link to a particular relationship conflict. At other times, it’s just one more stress that contributes to chronic disease and pre-mature aging.

More than just being concerned with direct physical health, I think having good quality, harmonious relationships with those around us is a priority for most people. We love our family and friends, and NVC gives us a toolkit for putting this love into practice, rather than leaving it aspirationally sitting on a shelf, while we yell at the kids… again.

Events
We don’t have any trainings booked at the moment, but we run Foundation training courses and practice days regularly. The best way to hear about upcoming trainings is by joining the newsletter list – sign-up below.

NVC Practice Groups
Nambour
First and third Sunday of the month. 10am – 12noon at Nambour Community Centre.
Contact: Debs Mosely: 0417 624 417, and Glenda O’Sullivan 0405 210 251

Eumundi
First Friday of the month,  9:30 – 11:30am.
Contact Miho: miho.dance.tree@gmail.com

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We can use this annual time to ensure we’re living the lives we most want to lead.

Before we get to the questions, let’s take some time to set ourselves up:
The following are best answered from a place of stillness and quiet. So make sure you set aside some time for yourself where you won’t be distracted. If it’s part of your practice, or you think it would help you, you can use ritual, such as lighting a candle, sitting outside, making a cuppa, starting with breathwork – whatever would feel supportive and familiar to you.

In case you couldn’t see the images, the questions (more prompts are in the images)

⭐ What do you value most in life?
⭐ Does your life currently reflect those values?
⭐ Who are you now?
⭐ Who do you want to become?
⭐ What small changes can you make to better align with the life you most want to lead?

I really hope these questions prompt clarity and insight.

The post Reflection questions for Winter Wisdom appeared first on Everyday Empowered.

In my 2 hour Screen-Smart Family workshop, this is exactly what I hope to put in your hands. A map with a direction forward. A compass that’s built on a set of foundational principles, which I call digital life skills; and a hardy dose of common sense.

Leaving metaphor behind, you’ll leave the workshop with a comprehensive workbook and you’ll know how to:

• set age-appropriate rules with your kids
• deal with scary situations online
• know the biggest influence on your kids technology use

Particularly important to me is that this workshop is a guilt-free, shame-free event where I encourage each of you to find out what works for your kids and your family. We’ll learn a set of foundational principles for setting rules and tackling problems as they arise, and then we’ll have space to discuss what that looks like in your particular context.

Our next workshop:

Saturday, March 6 | 2-4pm. Gathered Folk, Noosaville
$50

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