It’s a funny thing, when I was growing up in the 1970’s, something we all heard over and over is “they can put a man on the moon but can’t cure the common cold”. This is not true now and it wasn’t true then. It is true, that antibiotics weren’t used for colds back then, as they have been since the mid 80’s. But, we could always cure a cold.
Yet, this urban myth from the 70’s can tell us a great deal about our colonial history and why we see things the way we do. It’s very telling that, even north of the U.S. border, in Canada, we fawned over every detail of the spaceships and the U.S.A. ’missions’. And yet, amazingly, many of us are ignorant of the local herbs that could easily cure a cold.
There are probably about fifty plants within grasp of most people that can help cure or prevent colds and flu. First, there’s the ones the pioneers brought with them from Europe. Such as, Rosemary, Sage, Oregano, Parsley, Thyme, and let’s not forget Garlic. Later, Ginger and Cayenne peppers added to the roster.
These are all ancient healers. We had an ‘arsenal’ at our fingertips to ‘fight’ common illnesses in a natural way, but they were ignored. We didn’t just ignore them, we banished and forgot about these herbs from our European heritage, still thinking of them only in culinary terms. We left them in the name of progress and convenience. Like anything could be more convenient, and less harmful to the planet then picking something in your yard.
And if you leave the kitchen, as soon as most of us step outside into a wild area, we see Spruce, Eastern Hemlock, Balsam Fir and Pine. All of these are big healers. We also see Willow, Alder and Poplar around everywhere. These ones are good for inflammation, pain, headache and stomach problems. Then, there are the wild herbs like Coneflower, Boneset, Gill over the Ground, Roman Chamomile… . But this article isn’t about what herbs to use or how to use them. This information is easy to find, or come to one of our herbal workshops and get steeped in this traditional knowledge first hand.
The realization I’m hobbling toward, is that – everything we need is right in front of us, often literally at our doorstep, if we could only see. We’re always so busy looking toward a ‘brighter future’, that we’re carelessly stepping on the now.
Then and now, ignorance prevails. While there are many ways to “beat” a cold or flu, antibiotics or over the counter drugs are by far the most common remedy. But the ‘age of knowledge’ has let us far astray from our naturally evolved path of using the plants around us. Antibiotics are terrible for our body, for our immune system, digestive tract and the Earth. But they are good for giant corporations and the GNP. This forceful way of curing also results in breeding stronger pathogens that become immune to the antibiotics. But this is not what this article is about either. Much has been written about these things, even within allopathic circles, so I feel no need to elaborate.
What is seldom if ever addressed is that when we are sick, the body is processing not just a physical pathogen but an emotional/spiritual trauma or imbalance. Our bodies get sick as a last resort; as a way to throw off deeper imbalances that have been caused by exposure to ‘negative’ forces. These forces are embodied in people, the things we make, and in the land. Some of them are disembodied and essentially ‘at large’. These ‘shadows’ are drawn into our system through negative experiences and thoughts which match their conditions, so the dis-ease feels at home in us.
Any healer worth their salt, realizes that the illness itself is just the tip of the iceberg. This becomes clear in our practice, because, while we can treat the symptoms of an illness and make them go away, the deeper imbalance is not so easily addressed, and often circles around, manifesting again and again. The disease may come back in a different forms, and increasingly severe ways until it’s underlying cause is addressed.
What we are forgetting, when we assume immediate treatment is the only way to work with illness, is that our body’s symptoms and expression of illness, are the most effective mechanism for compartmentalizing (making a home for) the external pathogen. Our bodies do this in order to confine it and separate it out from our deeper selves; our soul.
So, when we have a cold or flu and don’t create the space for our bodies to play it out, we’re preventing this naturally evolved mechanism. And this can have many negative repercussions. One of which is our immunity.
I remember the first few times Oscar, our first child, got sick. I wanted to take care of it with herbs right away, to bring his fever down and stop the suffering. But I spoke to a wise doctor friend about Oscar being sick and he said “good. Don’t bring him in to see me or do anything but rest and fluids, give his body time to find a way to heal itself”, “that’s how kids get strong and develop immunity”. And he was 100% right.
While this is easy to say, and imagine being cool with, in reality I have a busy life and I’m a good herbalist. So, more often than not, my knee jerk reaction has been to nip these ailments in the bud. This can easily be done with the herbs I mentioned above and many more. And, because the herbs are immune boosting or chemically complex antibiotics and antivirals, unlike mono-chemical antibiotics, they don’t harm the Earth, our bodies, or breed stronger pathogens.
Yet, and finally I get to the point of the article, when using the more aggressive herbal treatments, I have noticed in my own body, and those I am intimately living with, that, the result is not always black and white. While initially working, and helping us to dodge being ‘wiped out’ by the cold, there is often a longer, milder, lingering aspect of illness, and/or an emotional backlash. This happens because we’ve stuffed what was naturally coming out, back in. We’ve messed with the body’s system.
I say “intimately living with” because when a doctor or herbalist treats a patient, the connection to the emotional backlash or a new illness, that may come a couple weeks or months later, will not often be seen or recognized or admitted as being a direct result of the original treatment.
So the simple adage of “starve a fever, feed a cold” and to “get lots of liquids and rest”, may in fact be a much better approach than a pharmaceutical or some herbal cures. Having said that, I also need to say I am a still a strong believer in immunity building herbs like astragalus, nettle, raspberry, clover, burdock and sweet fern, to help prevent us being open to the pathogen in the first place.
But once we are sick there’s something to be said for giving the body time and space to play it all out, and just being a support person, for ourselves! Being really wiped out by a cold or flu can be a great spiritual cleanse, where we are forced to take the time to listen to, and attend to the deeper goings-on in our body and soul.
It seems this is a hard lesson for many of us these days because to accept being disabled by illness is tantamount to accepting death. These fears are deeply rooted, but have also been greatly magnified by the ‘health industries’ promotional propaganda. A couple hundred years ago, before industrialization, pharmacies and advertising took over people’s lives, nobody really knew or talked about what their ‘ailments’ were. We accepted illness and old age with some grace, and didn’t complain, worry and obsess about minor ailments and getting old like we do now. Now, aging is seen as a problem, which needs to be overcome. These days, to be anything less than 100% well, is unacceptable. But this way of seeing life is, itself, a big problem.
Not only can our lack of acceptance threaten the health of our soul, but it drives our health-care costs up. In our hypochondriac state people go see their doctor over every little thing. And then are given unnecessary pharmaceuticals, many of which the tax payers are also getting the bill for.
To accept our aging, illness and death, is to accept life on Her own terms. This is blasphemy to the colonial mentality. For most of us the phrase “going down kicking and screaming” comes to mind. But these realities of life (illness and death) are coming for all of us, no exceptions. It’s just a matter of time. So the act of surrendering to a cold is good practice for what’s to come.
Our modern preoccupation with perfect physical and mental health, has spread into our perception, and reaction to, the natural flow of our day to day emotions. Happiness rules, and anything but love and joy is somehow not acceptable and needs to be changed. The self-help shelves are stacked with ways of achieving and living in bliss. But, our natural cycles of emotion are like the weather, and it can’t always be sunny or everything begins to wither and die. We need to surrender, not just to illness and death but to the shadows of ‘the moment’. When we’re having feelings of sadness, boredom or discomfort, just be with them. Don’t reach for the cell phone, music, coffee, smokes, food or the hundred other distractions we’ve created to keep us from surrendering. Just be with the feeling. My dad used to say “just hold-up under a doorway and watch the storm pass.”. What’s contained in that phrase is: there is always a small dark port to hold up in. And that it doesn’t seem so bad if one has faith (knowledge) that the storm will pass.
In Buddhism there is a strong principal of non-intervention. I try to take this teaching to heart in everything I do, from healing to farming. The essence of this teaching is that we shouldn’t interfere with what we perceive in the outer world, for our own reasons. That we shouldn’t try to change things or another person’s path unless we are moved to correct a situation, created by a previous intervention, which took the person from their path. When we interfere in someone’s healing or life path, we may be denying them their Life’s teachings. In these circumstances, as agency and individuals we always assume we are saving or helping someone. But in reality, sometimes, we might be preventing them from a revelatory cross-roads or life enhancing experience; and the empowerment that comes from living through Life’s trials and coming out the other end in one piece. Sometimes, maybe we just need to be there for ourselves or someone else, and not intervene.
This teaching is hard to swallow for many of us who see our life purpose as being a “problem solver” or “healer” of some kind. I imagine the hackles of many readers rising up in threat. But the message here is not, to not do things that will improve the life of others, or to not heal sickness.
The message is; to be aware what your motivation is first, and what the origins of the ‘problem’ might be, before acting. While it is a fine thing to be of service to others, if the giving isn’t unconditional and selfless, it might be more about us than them and cause further karmic complications, down the line.
The truth is, all we can do in this life is assess our own motivation. Because, in the long run, we never really know if we’re helping or not. There are many tight, problematic ‘bottlenecks’ on our life path that force us to adapt. The unwelcome blockage, the unwelcome guest in our lives, in some unforeseen way, often, not always, turns out to be a blessing in disguise even if we can’t see it at the time.
So as a herbalist and as a human, I think pausing to feel the ‘nature’ of the resistance in our life, whether this is pathogens in our bodies, or in the garden, or the darker feelings that circle round in our days. The only time I know for sure when I need to act is in the moment. And in that moment we are moved to do something. Then we need to follow through on this feeling. Conversely, we can feel when there is no opening, and it’s best to just watch things play out.
Then the question arises; why would we ever want to let any negativity in or have its time with us? The short answer is because the negativity, illness or resistance we’re feeling might be the edge of a bigger thing that needs to lived through, in us or our clients, for it to be gestated and birthed into a being of great positive force for the world. Like giving birth or putting up with a teenager.
In the end there is no test for when to treat a cold or not, when to act on something or just be with the discomfort of the moment. We have to intuit this, because these ‘negative’ things in life, like illness, sometimes need to happen for reasons we may or may not understand.