Healing Wise

Violets, violets, violets (Viola)

Edible Flowers of May:

Here are a few of the many violets blooming in my yard and garden. There are lots more, each with its own distinctive flavor, out in the woods. All violets are edible. (African violets are not violets and are not edible.) A hundred years ago, it was all the rage for ladies to wear a violet, until violets became associated with women-who-love-women. Except for Eleanor Roosevelt, who loved women and maintained the custom, violet wearing fell out of fashion. But eating violets – or pansies or jump-ups, their cultivated sisters – is never out of fashion. Try some tonight.

Pain-relief Alternatives

Pain-relief Alternatives

excerpt from: Abundantly Well: Seven Medicines

Generally best not to combine these with drugs.

Serenity Medicine: Meditation alters brain regions that process pain.

Mind Medicine: Acupuncture releases endorphins.
* Alexander Technique is more effective than massage or exercise in relieving low-back pain.

Lifestyle Medicine: Regular exercise counters chronic pain.

Alternative Medicine: Reflexology releases endorphins.
* A cold plunge alters pain perceptions, counters chronic pain.

Herbal Medicine (safest first):

* High CBD (Cannabis) - up to five drops of tincture of the fresh flowering plant, taken as often as every fifteen minutes - is my favorite non-addictive pain reliever. Often, a single dose will do. There will be some THC in the tincture, as all plants contain a mix of cannabinols, but this does not, in my experience and the experience of many students and friends, make you “high.” First choice as an ally for transitioning off opiates/opioids.

* Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) - 5 drops of tincture of the fresh flowering plant, taken as often as needed - is my favorite pain relief, especially when I need to sleep.

* Kava kava (Piper methysticum) - sips of the lightly-fermented infusion or dropperful doses of root tincture - offer fast, effective relief of musculo-skeletal pain, traumatic pain, chronic pain from injuries, heartache. Less likely to put you to sleep, too.

* Willow (Salix alba) - 1-2 dropperfuls of tincture as needed - is as effective as aspirin and contains the same active ingredient.
So does meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria).

* Wild lettuce (Lactuca virosa) - tincture of the fresh sap taken by the spoonful - may be as pain-relieving as poppy juice.

* Valerian - up to a teaspoonful of root tincture - counters chronic pain, puts you out, leaves you hung-over and groggy.

* Poppy (Papavera somniflora) is the source of opium, heroin, opiates, and poppy seeds. Opiates are addictive; poppy seeds aren’t.
A tea of the fresh poppy seed heads entices the brain to make natural opiates (endorphins). Do not combine with drugs or alcohol.

excerpt from: Abundantly Well: Seven Medicines