Healing a broken heart after losing a marriage, career, pet, or loved one can be intensely emotional, and herbs like lemon balm, skullcap, lavender, and motherwort can gently support soothing the mind and body. Along with these herbs, lifestyle factors play a significant role in healing.
Here’s how you can integrate these herbs and lifestyle approaches for emotional recovery:
Lemon Balm: Calming and uplifting, it helps reduce anxiety and stress, supports relaxation, and gently lifts mood. Use lemon balm during quiet reflection times, such as journaling, meditation, or before bed, to calm racing thoughts.
How to Use:
Drink as a tea: Brew 1-2 teaspoons of dried lemon balm leaves.
Take as a tincture: 2-3 droppers full of water up to three times daily.
Take liquid or capsule supplements.
Skullcap: A tonic that helps the CNS central nervous system, relaxes the nervous system, eases insomnia, and helps with mental exhaustion or overwhelmed emotions. Practice deep breathing or restorative yoga using skullcap, especially during intense grief or emotional overwhelm.
How to Use:
Drink as tea: Add one teaspoon of dried skullcap to hot water.
Use as a tincture: 2-4 droppers full in water up to three times daily.
Lavender: Promotes relaxation, reduces anxiety and tension, improves sleep, and calms the mind. To improve sleep and mental clarity, engage in self-care rituals, such as a warm bath, massage, or a relaxing bedtime routine.
How to Use:
Use as aromatherapy: Add a few drops of lavender essential oil to a diffuser or water spray bottle.
Drink as tea: Steep 1-2 teaspoons of dried lavender flowers.
Take a lavender-infused bath for full-body relaxation.
Motherwort: Calming relieves anxiety and heartache and helps restore emotional balance, especially in times of grief. Engage in supportive social activities like spending time with friends or joining support groups to foster emotional connection.
How to Use:
Drink as tea: Steep 1-2 teaspoons of dried motherwort in boiling water.
Take as a tincture: 1-2 droppers full of water up to three times daily.
Lifestyle Factors for Healing:
Grief Journaling: Write your emotions and experiences, allowing yourself to process the loss. Herbal teas like lemon balm or lavender can accompany this practice to help ground your emotions.
Meditation & Mindfulness: Incorporate mindfulness meditation to reconnect with your breath and stay present, which helps reduce overthinking and ruminating on the loss. Use calming herbs like lavender and skullcap to assist.
Physical Activity: Gentle movements, such as walking, yoga, or tai chi, can help release tension and improve emotional balance. Lavender aromatherapy or a skullcap tea post-exercise can aid relaxation.
Connection with Nature: Spend time outdoors to ground yourself in the present moment. Herbs like lemon balm and motherwort, which help center and calm the heart, can be taken as teas during nature walks or garden time.
Creative Expression: Engage in creative activities like painting, music, or crafting to express your emotions. Lavender and lemon balm can support emotional release and inspiration during these times.
Surrounding yourself with a support system is crucial for emotional healing. Herbal remedies like motherwort can help calm your heart as you process your grief with others. These herbs and lifestyle approaches provide a gentle and holistic way to heal a broken heart.
Staying consistent with a healthy lifestyle during times of loss and grief can be challenging, as emotions can strongly influence habits and choices. However, creating structure, using the right tools, and understanding the importance of holistic health can guide you through the healing process. Functional medicine tests, like an Organic Acids Test (OAT) and Comprehensive Stool Analysis, can be valuable in identifying any underlying imbalances that might arise from prolonged stress and grief.
Steps to Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle During Grief
Meal Planning and Balanced Nutrition
Prioritize Whole Foods: Focus on nutrient-dense meals that include lean proteins, healthy fats, whole grains, and plenty of vegetables and fruits. These foods can help stabilize blood sugar, improve mood, and support energy levels.
Examples: Baked salmon with roasted vegetables, quinoa salad with chickpeas and spinach, or scrambled eggs with avocado and brown rice toast.
Meal Prep: When emotions feel overwhelming, skipping meals or choosing unhealthy options is easy. Set aside time to prep meals for the week to avoid reaching for comfort foods. Having ready-made, nutritious options will help you stay on track.
Snack Smart: Keep healthy snacks like nuts, seeds, and fruits readily available. Grief often leads to emotional eating, so having healthy snacks will prevent mindless consumption of unhealthy foods.
Stay Hydrated
Grief can lead to dehydration due to crying or a lack of attention to hydration. Aim for eight glasses of water daily to support your body through emotional stress.
Add Herbal Teas: In addition to water, soothing herbal teas like lemon balm, lavender, or chamomile can help you stay calm and relaxed.
Avoid Vices and Emotional Eating
Mindful Eating: Practice mindful eating by paying attention to your food’s texture, taste, and how it makes you feel to prevent emotional eating triggered by sadness, stress, or loneliness.
Replace Vices: If you have cravings for sugar, alcohol, or other unhealthy habits, substitute them with healthier alternatives.
For Sugar: Have a piece of dark chocolate, or opt for fruit like berries or apples.
For Alcohol: Drink herbal teas can offer calming effects without alcohol.
For Processed Foods: Try whole foods like hummus with veggies or a protein-packed smoothie.
Identify Triggers: Grief often triggers cravings for comfort food or other vices. Keeping a journal of your emotions and what foods or habits you reach for can help you pinpoint and address those moments.
Create a Routine
Set a Daily Schedule: Establishing a routine gives structure to your day, which can be incredibly grounding during times of loss. Incorporate regular meals, exercise, sleep, and self-care practices.
Meal Times: Stick to consistent meal times. Eating can help regulate your metabolism and stabilize your energy levels even if you don’t feel hungry.
Engage in Gentle Physical Activity
Exercise for Endorphins: Grief can drain your energy and make it harder to stay active. However, physical activity releases endorphins, which can elevate your mood. Gentle exercises like walking, yoga, or tai chi can be healing.
Schedule Short Sessions: If a full workout feels overwhelming, commit to 10-15 minutes of movement. Small amounts of exercise, done consistently, can make a difference in mood and energy.
Functional Medicine Testing
Organic Acids Test (OAT): This test measures metabolic byproducts in the urine and can detect nutrient deficiencies, gut dysbiosis, oxidative stress, and neurotransmitter imbalances, which can worsen with grief. For instance, low serotonin levels are linked to mood disturbances during times of grief, and the OAT can identify such imbalances.
Comprehensive Stool Analysis: Grief and stress negatively affect gut health, often leading to imbalances in gut bacteria, poor digestion, or inflammation. This test helps assess the health of your digestive system by examining bacterial balance, pathogens, and inflammation markers.
Use Results for Targeted Interventions: Based on the results of these tests, you can tailor your diet and supplement regimen to address imbalances. For example, if your OAT shows oxidative stress, you can increase antioxidant-rich foods like berries, dark leafy greens, and nuts.
Nutritional Supplements
Adaptogens: Supplements like ashwagandha and Rhodiola can help reduce stress and balance cortisol levels, supporting emotional stability.
Omega-3 Fatty Acids: In fish oil or flaxseeds, omega-3s support brain health and can improve mood, especially during stress.
B Vitamins: These are essential for energy production and stress management. Low levels can lead to fatigue and depression, so consider adding a B-complex supplement.
Probiotics: If your stool analysis shows gut imbalances, probiotics can help restore healthy bacteria in the gut, which is critical for mental health and emotional balance.
Self-Care and Emotional Healing
Prioritize Sleep: Grief often disrupts sleep patterns, but rest is vital for recovery. Create a calming bedtime routine—use lavender aromatherapy, drink calming herbal teas, and avoid screens before bed.
Therapy and Support Groups: Talking to a professional therapist or joining a grief support group can help process emotions and prevent emotional blockages.
Breathing Exercises and Meditation: Incorporate deep breathing or mindfulness meditation to ground yourself in the present moment, relieve anxiety, and improve emotional resilience.
Social Connection
Reach Out for Support: Stay connected with loved ones or support groups, even if it feels difficult. Social interaction can help alleviate loneliness, provide comfort, and create accountability for maintaining healthy habits.
Combining these lifestyle habits with functional medicine testing allows you to stay on track during a challenging emotional period. The key is maintaining consistency, even in small steps, and making space for physical and emotional healing.
Tags: depression, functional medicine labs, grief, herbs, herbs to heal broken heart, Nancy Guberti, SAD, sadness
Leave A Reply (No comments So Far)
No comments yet