This is the story of my journey into learning about the power of natural remedies to cure both physical and mental problems.
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My journey into learning about natural medicine started a very long time ago. I can't remember what exactly
triggered my interest. It was a very turbulent phase in my life.
My best guess would be that I got introduced to it by my ex-husband. His parents had been into it for years, and when we first met, he had plans to go back to school to get his degree as a health counselor. He's the one that introduced me to for example Bach Flower Remedies.
He also told me about a book called 'The Healing Power of Illness; The Meaning of Symptoms and How to Interpret Them', written by Thorwald Dethlefsen and Rüdiger Dahlke, which changed my entire perception of physical symptoms - but that's a story I'll tell you sometime later.
(If you are interested, I found out you can download it as a .pdf file or read it online here
Messed Up
You see, during my late teens and early 20s I was pretty messed up. I was self-destructive, aggressive, a pathological liar, a mind-fucker (especially towards myself), and loads of other things. In short, I was a danger to myself and everyone who was close to me, my ex-husband in particular.
If my parents (or the rest of society, for all that matters) would have known what was going on, they would have sent me to a psychiatric institution - people are being committed for less. Fortunately, my husband knew of a homeopathic doctor who treated people according to Samuel Hahnemann' vision of homeopathy, the so called 'classical homeopathy'.
The Difference Between Classical And Clinical Homeopathy:
Homeopaths generally begin with detailed examinations of their patients' histories, including questions regarding their physical, mental and emotional states, their life circumstances and any physical or emotional illnesses. The homeopath then attempts to translate this information into a complex formula of mental and physical symptoms, including likes, dislikes, innate predispositions and even body type.[120]
From these symptoms, the homeopath chooses how to treat the patient using materia medica and repertories. In classical homeopathy, the practitioner attempts to match a single preparation to the totality of symptoms (the simlilum), while "clinical homeopathy" involves combinations of preparations based on the various symptoms of an illness.
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It took me years of treatment to find my inner balance again, but I did.
I owe this guy big time! Without him, I would have been a lost cause.
I assume you have already guessed that I didn't need any more convincing about the power of natural medicine.
Starting Small
Because you have to get a medical degree before you can start studying homeopathy, I decided to start small.
I bought myself a couple of books and started making my own remedies. Since classical homeopathy was way out of my reach, I settled for the clinical homeopathy: making cremes, cough syrups, herbal teas, soap, infusions and whatever more you can think of.
At that point in my life, we lived on the second floor of an apartment building, where we had a balcony which was about 1.5 square meter in size. Every single centimeter of that balcony was taken by containers in which I grew the herbs and flowers I used in my preparations.
I didn't have the confidence to prepare remedies for other, so everything I made was meant for my ex-husband and me. It didn't take long before we had supplies that could last us a lifetime.
In only one particular case, I shared a recipe. It's a funny story, actually.
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It started with finding out that both I and my husband (and a lot of our friends) had head lice. Because we both had dreadlocks, it wasn't the simplest thing to get rid of them. We tried every cure that was available on the market, but because of the dreadlocks, we could never get all of the eggs out. The remedies the pharmacist gave us, became more chemical every time, but nothing seemed to work. Many of our friends solved the problem by shaving off their dreadlocks, but we were too stubborn for that.
Week after week, we soaked our hair in all kinds of strong chemical substances, only to find out nothing worked.
In a final attempt to save my precious dreadlocks, I decided to try to create my own remedy, using the herbs and essential oils I used to create my other remedies.
I studied my books, and came up with a combination which I unfortunately don't remember. We applied it to our hair, and guess what...? My natural solution worked perfectly. Never seen a head louse again afterward.
Next time I visited my pharmacist he asked me whether I had already found a solution to the problem. I felt so proud telling him I did, and that it was my self-made cure that had finally done the trick. He asked me what I had been using to make it work. I should have know better at the time, but I told him the exact ingredients I had used.
When I came into his pharmacy one week later, I noticed he was selling a cure against head lice, and that it was my recipe he had used. For a while, I really felt cheated on. He could at least have offered me a compensation for it. But after a while I realized that the fact that so many people would never have to soak their hair in those groce chemical products again, was enough of a reward for me.
Lost And Found
I don't know when or why, but somehow I became less and less involved with creating my own natural medicine. I guess life just took some strange turns, and my priorities shifted to something else.
It wasn't until last year that the flame started burning again. Seeing all these calendula flowers in my garden brought back so many memories. So I started again, but took it very slow. Last year, I made some infused oils and soap, but that was about it.
But the curiosity is there again. Last week, I ordered some essential oils, and I've gathered the ingredients to make my own 'Golden Milk', a healthy tonic based on turmeric and black pepper. I plan to brew in during the weekend. I'll make sure to post the recipe.
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This is an entry for @mudcat36's '#NATURALMEDICINE SP GIVE AWAY CONTEST!'. You can still join if you want to, but you've got to hurry, since there are only two days left until post-payout.
