HERBS FOR MOVING
Plants don’t move the way People do
I’ve been moving. This is only the second time in my life that I have moved, intentionally, and not because of the displacement of eviction. Last May, I left the island where I has lived for the better part of 15 years and let myself ease into, leaving. I was potted up for transplant, branches of roots bundled into a temporary container.
Perhaps its just my constitution, perhaps it’s the stubborn and village oriented Sicilian part of me, but I am the kind of person who finds moving difficult. The Earth element, governed by Saturn, connects our nerves and bones to the soil within us, the digestive microbiome. This delicate ecosystem, evolved to be in rhythm with the seasonal food cycles of the animated world, is quite sensitive to disturbance. The gut is the instinct, the felt sense of place and safety. It is our connection to mortality, with enough food, with shelter, with earth. It knows when it is falling, uprooted, transplanted. When I move, I sense this disruption as frenetic energy in my nervous system, and I know that I must nourish the little earth element within me.
To understand, we look to the enteric nervous system, known in click bait as “the second brain”, or, “the gut brain”. This is vast neural network that innervates our digestive system in a truly complex and living way. It’s motor branches reach from the upper esophagus down to the muscles of the anus, and embedded within the small and large intestine are thousands of submucosal ganglia that communicate sensory information to the brain and central nervous system via the dorsal vagus nerve. The dorsal vegus nerve is the seat of our parasympatheic, or “rest and digest” reflex. When its communication with our inner soil becomes disrupted, so too does the Gut-Brain Axis. With bidirectional communication from the brain to the soil inside us, we find ourself asking - am I home? Am I safe here? How does it feel, to be in this place? Can this place hold me? Am I home? We assess if we should indeed, be taken out of the pot, and extend roots into the ground. Our guts will know when we find it.
HERBS ARE FOR MOVING
Taraxacum officinalis - Dandelion Root - The impacts of a disrupted Gut Brain Axis quickly accumulate. Inflammation pathways activate, increasing bloating, heat and sensitivity across the digestive system. Acid levels become dysregulated, leading to malfunctions in digesting fats proteins. Intestinal permeability decreases, leading to larger molecules of undigested food entering the blood stream. The immune system becomes activated, targeting these food molecules as foreign bodies, and allergies develop. The levels of microbiota increase, and not all bacteria are beneficial bacteria. Dandelion root, cold and dry, like the earth element itself, is a gentle amendment to this disrupted inner soil. Specific for those who feel like they must smoke weed after meals, Dandelion’s gentle actions can be felt from the mouth to the butt. A bitter, this tonic herb increases salivation and gently stiumlates acid release in the stomach, beginning the symphony of digestion. It’s action on the liver supports detoxification due to damp heat - the kind of inflammation from a disrupted Gut Brain Axis. It helps to clear waste products of immune reactions from the blood out through the liver, and promotes bile release to appropriately break down food particles. It nourishes the microbiome in the large intestine with inulins, simultaneously decreasing overly wet or stagnant bowels. It is a gentle laxative, helping to move us along in our process of reorienting to a new place.
Matricaria recutita - Chamomile - If the enteric nervous system is “the gut brain”, then Chamomile is “the mother of the gut”. It is bitter, cool and sweet, simultaneously regulating digestive and nervous functions. The strong bitter glycosides speak immediately to the dorsal vagus nerve, sending parasympathetic impulses deep down into the gut. The volatile oils work to smooth muscle tension and stimulate the ease of food down into the body, while the signals of calm reduce inflammation across the digestive system. Drinking chamomile is like watering in your transplants - once you have unpotted your plants from the bundle, stream water around it to support the roots in seeking out home in the new place.
Stachys officinalis - Wood Betony - Working on the brain side of the Gut-Brain Axis, Wood betony has been know for hundreds of years to be indicated for those with pain or distemper in the head, while not being able to digest their meat. It is specific for nervous debility associated with anxiety or nerves, is useful for any painful internal inflammation, and is bitter enough to break through liver congestion causing head aches or migranes. Cold and dry, Wood Betony awakens the senses like emerging from an illness on a crisp morning. In returning us to our senses, we can once again orient to the sun and begin building our world anew.
blessings to you as you root down into yourself,
xoxoxox
carmie
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please exercise caution with herbs and work from within your skill set and experience. this is not medical advice. contact a registered herbalist or physician with questions on safe use of herbs. tysm!
