Mama's Home Remedies: Discover Time-Tested Secrets of Good Health and the Pleasures of Natural Livin, Svetlana Konnikova [classic fiction .TXT] 📗

your heart and soul be open and receptive to the feeling of a strong emotional union with Nature. Gently release any thoughts that enter your mind. Rest and relax. Breathe deeply and smel the fragrance of the flowers. You wil feel refreshed and rejuvenated and ready to face another day of responsibilities and decisions with a clear head. If instead you feel unhappy or fatigued:

r5. Make fresh pomegranate juice, add one teaspoon honey to eight ounces, and drink it.

r 6. Make a cup of green tea. Mix it with white or black tea and pour in it several drops of pomegranate juice instead of lemon. It will lift the spirit and soften the heart. It wil promote energy, refresh the body, and clear sensitivity formed by toxic negativity. Trips to the Fairyland @ 209

Grandma taught me this one:

r 7. Make a special egg-milk drink to combat fatigue. Stir one raw yolk (of an organic egg) in a cup with hot milk. Add one teaspoon honey and mix wel . Drink slowly and enjoy. r 8. A cup of black or green tea can accompany the folowing remedy, which is adopted from Tibetan medicine. It is a natural treatment for fatigue and headaches and for strengthening the heart. Mix and eat one ounce walnuts, 1½ ounces cheese (Muenster, Mozzarel a, Swiss, White American, or Smoked Gouda), and 1½ ounces raisins.

r 9. Add one fresh quince or a teaspoon of quince preserves to your green, black, or black currant tea. A quince gives a special taste and delicate aroma like no other ingredient.

We used many plants from our Dream Garden—our family Fairyland—

as natural medicines, libations, tinctures, nastoykas, decoctions, balsams, syrups, and medicinal herbal teas. Mother Nature provides us with special plants to treat a variety of illnesses.

^ The oak tree stands out as a healing remedy for people suffering with high blood pressure.

^ Coniferous trees and bushes are healers for people with tuberculosis.

^ Poplar, hawthorn, eucalyptus, lilac, and bay serve people with cardiovascular diseases.

^ Linden and oregano plants help people with respiratory ailments.

^ Lavender, mint, and geranium heal people with neuroses and other dysfunctions of the central nervous system.

210 ^ Mama’s Home Remedies

For many centuries humans have developed a close contact with the world of plants, but even so we have strayed far from Mother Nature. Increasingly, as time goes by, we lose this valuable connection with the perfect world of trees and herbs. More and more our precious rain forests with their abundance of healing plants are being destroyed by the bulldozer’s bite. Each day we inhale the toxic fumes of gasoline and other chemicals and the living aromas of natural plants disappear from our homes in exchange for the so-called beauty of silk flowers.

Less and less we breathe in the marvelous natural scents of trees, earth, and snow that bring us health and energy. When I was a little girl, we always had plants such as eucalyptus, aloe, or a branch of a coniferous tree in our home. Near our house grew a proud pine which we knew always gave us energy and oxygen. In our garden Grandma cultivated mint and lavender; the modest, but fragrant chamomile; oregano; and King’s clover or thyme. She sewed by hand smal pretty cotton sachets, which she stuffed with fresh herbs and hung in our closets and on nails throughout our house. They emitted an intense aroma that made us feel as if we had come to change our clothes in a fragrant garden. Over many years I’ve observed that our memory of smells (our olfactory sense) is much stronger than our visual or auditory (acoustic) memory. Even now, as I am writing this book, I clearly recall the familiar fragrance of chamomile from my childhood. Its aroma reminds me of many events in the past. When I hold a sprig of chamomile in my hand, I breathe in its aroma and instantly recall my brightest memories and become happy and content. I realize why this happens. Our sense of smell is connected closely to the part of our brain that rules our memory and our emotions. Different aromas influence

the activity in our internal systems. Our brain’s limbic

system, at the root of the cerebral cortex, releases neurotransmitters (messengers within our body), including endorphins and encephalin, both of which diminish pain and promote an overall sense of well-being; serotonin, which relaxes us; and adrenaline, which

keeps us stimulated and alert. Aromas have the ability

to call up positive and negative emotions.

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Two famous ancient doctors, Hippocrates and Avicenna, used aromas to treat headaches and sleeplessness. Using herbal aromas as remedies, which is what we now call aromatherapy, has been popular for many centuries in ancient Russia, China, and Egypt. For instance, one ancient Chinese doctor discovered that the smell of dried chrysanthemum, lily, nutmeg, and sandalwood helps lower high blood pressure and heal sleep disorders and some respiratory ailments.

Lily can treat skin disorders too. An ancient French remedy recommends: r 10. Cook the bulb of a lily until soft, mix it with honey, and apply to your face. It wil smooth wrinkles, diminish facial spots, and soothe herpes and eczema.

Chrysanthemum was brought to Europe in 1676 from Japan, the land of the rising sun. In Japan this flower heralds fall and is a symbol of the sun and the Japanese nation. For a long time the image of a chrysanthemum was sacred in Japan. Only the emperor