Grief + Herbs for the Spirit

In my own life as well as in my clinical practice I am seeing a profound need for the space to grieve. Whether it is personal grief or collective grief, grief is a profound teacher, one that doesn’t teach in comfortable ways whatsoever. My mentor once told me that grief is how the heart pays honor for the love one experiences, and while we may never stop loving that which initiates the grief, grief can act as a detailing tool, refining and smoothing over sharp and rough spots, and in some ways this can work at reminding us that through pain, that we are in fact alive.

Remaining anchored to love through the grief process can be challenging and that is totally okay too, this is all a practice not one likely to master, because yanno life is life, both intricately complex and profoundly simple all at the same go. However we relate to our grief, we have tools and resources such as herbs to aid us through this inner journey and while we unfortunately live in a culture with no spaces to collectively hold each other and grieve we are now those pioneers of creating a new way forward, including creating more spaces for grief on the individual and the community level. We need each other in more ways than one.

It feels important to acknowledge that we barely have space to process one tragedy before another one appears to contend with, and exhaustion is easy to reach when we are constantly in an onslaught of emotional pain. So I acknowledge and recommend the importance of being tender with yourself, your feelings, and others always, but especially in these ever changing times.

With that said we have tools for supporting ourselves and others through grief, and since we live in the plant world here I wanted to share some of my favorite Herbs for Grief with you all.

In TCM the heart has two flavors that soothe and nourish the heart and these are bitter and sweet, and in many ways this conveys a deeper understanding of what our heart, below we offer a list of herbs for nourishing, soothing and calming the heart spaces.

Herbs for the Heart

Reishi

Rose

Linden

Hawthorn

Mimosa

Herbs for grounding + centering

Motherwort

California poppy

Skullcap

Passionflower

Chamomile (long infusion)

Herbs for Clarifying and Brightening

Tulsi

Lemon balm

Rosemary

Bacopa

Chamomile (short infusion)