Breathe Deep

Even though I love being up in the middle of the night tinkering around in my apothecary, I'm not too thrilled about having to get up because I need to medicate myself with my herbals. But, here I am, early this morning up listening to the coyotes howl and feeling quite a bit better than when I got up two hours ago.

The first hour I was up I just tried to go back to sleep. I love my sleep. I also nursed my boy, tried not to cough. It's high allergy season for me- and even though I do take an over-the-counter antihistamine, it's sometimes still too much.  And sometimes I take the o-t-c meds too early and it wears off halfway through the night.  Since I have no rescue-inhailer, I rolled out of bed, put on a sweater, and trudged upstairs, hacking and coughing all the way. By this time I was wheezing and felt out of breath. The coughing had triggered bronchial constriction, known as asthma or air hunger. (Not that these are exactly the same, but I would certainly say similar-- and I am an undiagnosed person)

So I started the tea pot, took allergy meds, and walked over to my apothecary to grab some herbs for immediate relief. My lobelia tincture (Lobelia inflata), always helps with the breathlessness immediately, but I personally don't enjoy the taste, and a dropper of lobelia leaves me feeling nauseous. Instead, I take a mullein leaf and start burning it. I waft the smoke towards my face, close my eyes, and breathe it in. Immediate relief! I no longer feel panicked for oxygen. Next I get some licorice root off my shelf and put a couple teaspoons in my gourd. I take my osha tincture, drop 5 drops into the gourd and take one on my tongue. I find osha to be incredibly centering, comforting, and relaxing to my lungs/bronchioles.

I poke around looking for my Warming Respiratory Elixer, (violet-mullein-wild ginger). I don't find it anywhere, and imagine that it's probably in one of my baskets somewhere, so I go to the fridge and pull out my bulk bottle. I pour a new bottle, fill the dropper and squeeze it onto my tongue, I squeeze another into my gourd. I grab my Breathe Deep Chest Rub and rub it up and down my neck and on my chest. It's got mullein-infused olive oil, menthol, thyme, and eucalyptus and definitely helps me to breathe deep! All this has taken as long as it takes for my water to boil, so I fill my gourd with the hot water. I take one more dropperfull of that Elixer, for good measure, and because its so darn tasty!

My tea is still cooling, so I decide I'll take a picture of my mid-night medicines. I've been thinking of compiling that Breathe Deep Herbal Kit, and all of these things will be in it:

Dried Mullein Leaf

A Licorice Root-based tea

Warming Respiratory Elixer (violet, mullein, wild ginger)

Osha Honey Syrup

Breathe Deep Chest Rub

Lobelia tincture (optional)

Well folks, the birds are beginning to chirp, the sky is lightening, and I am feeling much better. :-) I'm off to my yoga mat until the boy wakes up!