Have you ever driven home but noticed nothing about the trip (and now you’re crossing your fingers you followed all the road rules 😬🤞)
Or what about taking another sip from your mug, only to realise you already drank it all!?
Whilst it’s pretty common to be in our heads and on autopilot during mundane daily tasks, we have to admit this is a pretty dis-embodied way of living.
Embodied Herbalism is the opposite of that. It’s fully being in our bodies, being present to our experience when we’re learning, and working with herbs.
And on a deeper level. It’s an approach to herbalism that sees value in this embodied process, knowing we actually gain wisdom and insights through interacting with plants using our senses and our heart.
It’s the perfect antidote to our overfocus on the mind and intellect as the only source of knowledge.
Cause yes, reading herb books, taking classes and scouring the web for knowledge is valuable BUT That head knowledge has to be paired with embodied herbalism experience to really be useful to us in our daily lives.
Cause after all, we’re not learning herbal medicine to become plant-toting factoids. We’re learning herbs so we can care for ourselves and our family naturally and connect more deeply with nature and the world around us.
(or perhaps we’re looking for a more affordable and holistic approach to health and well-being, or maybe we just enjoy the taste and creativity…. Actually there’s heaps of reasons we can be learning herbal medicine (I’m super curious, join my newsletter and tell me why you’re learning it!)
Why would we want to take an embodied herbalism approach?
Ok, so what can an embodied experience of herbs actually tell us anyway? Why would we want to use our senses when we’re working with herbs. Here’s a few ideas, broken down by senses:
Sight
Eyes are a really important sense for most humans and here’s a few ways sight is an important sense when we’re working with plants too.
- Helps us correctly identify plants and helps us work out which parts to harvest – ie vibrant green leaves vs yellowed ones.
- If we get to see where the plant’s growing, we can also take a look at what type of environment it’s growing in.
- There’s also a concept in herbal medicine called the Doctrine of Signatures, where a plant looks like the medicine its offering. This doesn’t always work, but it’s really surprising how often it does.
Think about the tongue-shaped sage (salvia officinalis) leaf and pair that with knowledge of its affinity for the mouth and throat areas.
- We also use our sight to work out whether got quality herbs or not – the more vibrant the colour, the better the quality.
Smell
We can tell whether a plant has lots of aromatic essential oils or if it an infused oil, cream or salve has gone rancid. Particularly when making and using remedies, it’s a fun, useful skill to get in the habit of sniffing things regularly. That way you know what they smell like when they’re fresh and it can be easier to tell if something has gone rancid, mouldy or spoiled in some other way.
Touch
Touching our herbs can give us insights into their general properties. When I harvest mullein and remove the leaves from the stem, I feel the cool moisture in the stem and this clues me into its soothing, cooling, moistening action on the body (and for anyone who’s harvested mullein, you’ll easily remember the stinging hairiness of silica on the leaves – definitely not a plant to wipe your bum with when you’re out bush).
Hearing
I think I use hearing as a sense more when I’m drying herbs or making remedies and food. Ie. when I’m drying herbs, I listen for the crisp crackle of the plants to know there’s no moisture left and it’s safe to store them now, or I’ll listen to the pop of spices on the stove to know how they’re toasting.
Taste
Taste can tell me HEAPS, like what herbal actions a herb might have, what chemical constituents it might have as well as what the best way to prepare medicine with this plant might be. Read this article for more info on taste (click here) – which is a super critical sense when we’re developing a relationship with and understanding of herbs. Learn more about herbal tastes in my Embodied Herbalism: Herbalism Tastes course (click here)
Feel
When I talk about feel, I’m primarily talking about your heart-perception and your body sensations. When you’re sitting, harvesting, drinking or working mindfully with this plant – how do you feel? What sensations do you notice in your body?
Do you notice body sensations such as heaviness or buzzing? Do you feel energy moving towards one part of your body, or perhaps up or down? Does it feel cold or moistening? Or perhaps you have notice emotions, images, colours or sounds coming up.
All of these sensations are communication between our body and the plant and can be an important source of knowledge and information.
For some people, this interoception (understanding the information generated within our bodies) will be easier to draw on and access than others.
You can also explore a plant more spiritually through plant spirit meditations and more.
How does embodied herbalism help home herbalists?!
I see you, nodding along with this approach, but perhaps wondering if it’s really relevant to you? I mean, you’re just wanting to use herbs to care for your dad’s arthritis or your kids sore throat.
I personally believe, that embodied herbalism is MORE important for home herbalists than clinical herbalists (although I’m certainly hoping they have this knowledge too).
You see, as home herbalists, we don’t have lab studies, or clinical trials or 4 years of study behind us.
But what we do have, is our direct experience, that we build up over time.
And as we can see from the list above, our senses can actually tell us quite a lot about our plants. This can help us make quicker, better decisions about which herbs are right for different situations. (ie remembering to choose moistening herbs for dry coughs and drying herbs for moistening coughs).
It can also help us in getting to know new plants we might be working with and have a simple, clear framework that we can slot new info into place. This is particularly relevant when it comes to herbal tastes as tastes just give us SO much information about how a herb might act medicinally in our bodies (see this article for more info, and this course if you want to learn this firsthand yourself).
From a purely practical perspective as well, I find it easier to remember knowledge that I’ve had a direct experience of in my body, rather than having to rely on rote learning facts from books. Ie, thinking of my mullein experience – because of my first hand experience, that knowledge sits within my body now and I can’t ‘unknow’ that.
My top tips to take an embodied approach to herbalism.
- Start small (but I tend to say this about everything, gotta keep it achievable)
- Get in the habit of paying attention. It might be a bit of extra work in the beginning, but pretty soon this embodied approach becomes second nature and your body actually kinda takes over the noticing, without you noticing… (or maybe that’s just me).
- You could start a practice of mindfulness with your next herbal cuppa, tincture or just sit with a plant in your garden for 5 – 10 minutes/ day. Using the list above, go through your senses, asking what you notice.
- Taste, taste, taste. I guide you through a taste reflection in my Embodied Herbalism: Herbal Tastes course if you want to do that with me – it’s heaps of fun and very insightful to do as a group.
- Stay curious
