Plants help us heal on many levels and from many levels. The physical body of the plant contains chemicals and compounds that interact with the human system to create change. The scent and color of the plant also creates change within us through the eyes and the scent and the ways in which these senses work with the whole of our being. Plants also have life energy which is the empowering agent behind their own growth and blossoming. Finally, plants have spirit. Different traditions and cultures have defined this word in unique ways, but to simplify it here we’ll just say that the spirit of a plant is the wisdom and consciousness behind it. When we brew healing herbal tea, one of the most amazing things we can do for our own empowerment is to take a moment and mingle our intentions with the spirit, wisdom, consciousness, and energy of the plant. It takes just a few seconds at most, and it can positively transform your entire healing process.
Today, I’d like to show you a simple meditation you can do as part of your tea brewing adventure that I believe increases the level of healing you can get from your tea in many powerful ways.
Your Need As An Intention
We all drink herbal tea for a reason. Relaxation, comfort, headaches, anxiety, digestive issues, diseases, prevention, or strengthening. We choose the plant medicine we work with because it has physical, sensory, or energetic properties that can help us get what we seek. Turning what we need from the plant into what we intend to co-create with the plant is a powerful experience that I invite you to try. As we move forward, consider your needs more in the form of ‘I am making this happen’ than ‘I need/want this to happen’. Get positive and proactive about the process and the energy will follow suit!
Sharing Your New Reality
Now that you’ve created a positive intention from a need, it’s time to share that intention with the plant or plants that you’d like to help you. I do this by simply holding my herbal tea dose in my right hand with my left hand on my heart, then introducing my intent to the plants I hold.
- Take a few seconds to just feel the herbs resting in the palm of your hand. Smell them, look at their colors. Greet them and express gratitude for their presence.
- Now, in any way that works for you, share your intention with the plants. You can speak it out loud, close your eyes and visualize sending imagery to the plants, or just ‘feel’ it happen on another level.
- Remember that the plant has spirit, and that this spirit is more than capable of communicating with you in its own way. We know this to be so from projects like ‘The Hidden Life Of Plants’, and from communications that happen between people and animals. Trust the process and let it be meaningful for you.
- Once you feel that you and the plants are on the same page about your goals, get grateful. Express gratitude in your own way for their help, and thank them in advance for working safely and effectively with your unique body, mind, emotional profile, and soul.
How simple is that?
Taking time to connect, be grateful, and align your wishes to the spirit of the plant is an ancient practice that shows up in various forms among all traditional cultures who work with plant medicine. Make this process your own, and let the plants show you the right way to grow and blossom.
Some other things I do to connect to the spirit of the healing herbs I work with are…
- Look up photos of the plants to connect to their beauty, environments, and personalities.
- Offer a small amount of each new herb purchase to the Divine as a gift of gratitude.
- Plant and cultivate the herbs I use most often for myself as a way to honor them and know them personally.
- Share the herbs I love most with the people I love most.
As your personal relationship with healing herbal tea evolves, you’ll find that these simple practices go a long way. Taking time to connect with the plant can actually put your body more at ease so that it more readily allows the herbal tea to do its work!
Enjoy!
