1-5 pm

3798 Grand Ave, Oakland, CA

Come out to support your local grass-roots herbalists, healers and business women as you enjoy an afternoon of free herbal and healing classes.

Stock up on your supply of herbs for winter and find unique holiday herbal gifts.

Taste, sample and enjoy the herbal products from Ancestral Apothecary and Community Herbalist.

Our offerings include:

Tarot readings & dreamwork

Free mini herbal wellness classes

Free Jin Shin Jyutsu Self-Help class

Flower Essence and Cordial Bar

This past month, despite my best efforts to stay well, I caught the flu.

As an herbalist, getting sick is always an educational experience.  Each time I have a chance to learn first hand what natural remedies are helpful for my condition.  Here’s a list of things I found helpful when dealing with the flu:

* If you can catch the flu at the very beginning stages, try taking a hot bath while drinking a hot cup of ginger-cayenne-turmeric tea.  After about 20 minutes in the bath, get out, wrap yourself in blankets and sweat.

* A fever is a good thing.  Fevers are your body’s natural way of warding off infection. Reducing a fever with aspirin, ibuprofen or acetaminophen may decrease your body’s immune response, prolong the illness, and increase chance of complications.  If the fever goes about 104 degrees, seek medical attention.

* For the aches and pains of a flu, try a hot cup of herbal boneset tea, or one of my favorites, lemon balm.

* A flu is caused by a virus and can’t be appropriately treated with antibiotics.  Anti-viral herbs include elderberry, echinacea, olive leaf, ginger, shiitake mushrooms & lemon balm.

* Eat lots of raw garlic, which has been a cure for many ailments since ancient times.  Garlic helps with many aspects of colds & flu including cough, sore throat, bronchitis & pneumonia.  A medicated oil made of garlic and mullein flowers is also helpful for ear aches.

* Decongest your lungs & sinuses with herbal team inhalations.  Get a big pot of hot water and add 2-5 drops of Floracopeia essential oil of eucalyptus, thyme, tea tree, fir or peppermint.  Cover your head with a towel and inhale deeply.  Can repeat several times per day.

* Keep hydrated, drinking lots of water and herb tea.  Eat light soups, broths or cooked cereal (congees).

* Rest, rest, rest!  It is important to give your body enough time to heal.  Pushing yourself to go back to work too soon can result in getting sick again.

* To rebuild your vitality after a flu, try adaptogenic and chi-building herbs like eleuthero, codonopsis, reishi, ashwaghanda, or one of Ancestral Apothecary’s Power Mushroom

Extracts.
* Check out the blog by Mountain Rose about herbal cold and flu remedies.

* For more specialized treatment, make an appointment with an herbalist.

* To help get your body back into harmony, try Acupressure or Jin Shin Jyutsu®.

I am glad this important piece about dreams has reached the mainstream. As a holistic health care practitioner, educator and dream worker, I’ve been leading Mind-Body Healing Dreamgroups in Oakland for the past few years.

A simple way to start working with your dreams to improve your health is to pay attention to dreams of food. I recently wrote an article for DreamTribe about how to examine and follow your own dream diet:

http://thedreamtribe.com/dreaming-your-diet-for-optimal-health/

Chapparral, larrea tridentata, one of the oldest living plants on earth

I have been observing the messages plants give to us in dreams for many years now with myself, my herbal students and my dream group members. Here is an article that I wrote for the Dream Tribe about dreaming with plants.

http://thedreamtribe.com/how-plants-heal-us-in-dreams

I also am collecting plant dreams, so if you have one you’d like to submit, you can email me at atava@ancestralapothecary.com.

Blessings,
Atava

I hope each of you is enjoying this powerful time of year when we have a chance to remember and honor our ancestors.

Every autumn season I like to share some basic tips to stay healthy. As I reflect upon this, what comes to mind is the old saying “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound in cure.”

As an herbalist, much of what I do is to teach people to pay attention and listen to their bodies. Most of us know when we are coming down with something. Each of us may have our own set of symptoms that is typical for us- it might be a sore throat or a feeling of being tired, run down and achy.

When we listen to our bodies and take the appropriate action to take care of ourselves, we can greatly decrease our chance of getting sick.

This means, when you start feeling a little bit unwell, slow down and rest. Don’t ignore your body and keep pushing it. Our bodies need extra energy to fight off unwanted pathogens and it is important to give your immune system a chance to do its job. The more you ignore your body’s need to rest and repair, the more you put stress on your immune system and interfere with your body’s innate ability to heal itself.

There are several things that I do myself and recommend to my clients to employ at the first sign of a cold:

1. Rest, rest, rest. Allow your body the time and space to heal.

2. Mega doses of echinacea root. Echinacea stimulates your body’s immune cells that destroy bacteria, viruses and fungi.  For adults, it is safe to take up to 1 tsp of echinacea extract every two to three hours at the very first onset of symptoms. Make sure you have a good quality echinacea root tincture- it should make your tongue tingle when you taste it.

3. Elderberry. Elderberry not only strongly anti-viral, but it also is a great remedy for respiratory infections.   I like to pour a shot of Elderberry cordial in a glass and cover with an equal amount of hot water to make a delicious hot elderberry toddy. For an extra boost, add ginger, cinnamon or cayenne to your elderberry cordial.

4. Garlic. Garlic is one of the most powerful, natural anti-microbial substances on earth. It has an affinity for the respiratory tract and is great for all respiratory tract infections, from sore throat to bronchitis.

It is important to eat garlic raw to get its anti-microbial effects. For people who may experience stomach irritation from garlic, you might want to try garlic honey or other easy recipes.

5. Essential oil steams. Steams are helpful to try when you feel infection, congestion, or inflammation in your respiratory tract (sinuses, throat, lungs).  My favorite oils are from Floracopeia. 

Bring a big pot of water to a boil. Remove from heat, put on your kitchen table or other sturdy surface. Add 3-5 drops of respiratory supporting essential oils like Eucalyptus, Peppermint, Fir, Cedar or Rosemary. Cover your head with a towel and breathe in the steam.

6. Jin Shin Jyutsu® Self-Help. The healing art that I practice, Jin Shin Jyutsu®, a kind of acupressure, has a wonderful system of self-help to help nourish and harmonize your total being. My sister Jenny is leading a Jin Shin Jyutsu® Self-Help Circle on the first Wednesday of the month at our Oakland office. For more info, contact her at 510-839-9252 or email her at jennyrebeccajsj@yahoo.com.

So, frankly, I was worried. I made an appointment with my primary care doc at Kaiser who — though meeting me for the first time — spent about 3 minutes with me and did not really look me in the eye! But he quickly wrote out the referrals I asked for. Thinking something might be seriously wrong, I asked for and took a battery of tests, including chest x-rays. Thank goodness everything appeared “clear.”

A month or so later, I began taking Atava’s Power Mushroom Extracts. I have taken this formula since, and — except for a couple mild head colds — HAVE NOT GOTTEN SICK ONCE! Atava explained that after years of continual stressors — being a single parent, putting myself through law school, post-graduate career challenges — my natural immunity was badly depleted. Her formulas have gotten me back to optimal health!

I have also taken herbal formulas for other needs as they arise — but I believe the above story illustrates how taking a regular immune-boosting supplement can have dramatic results! (And, in particular, how amazing the mushroom formula is.) I have also taken several classes from Atava, including two in her “Herbal Medicine 101″ series, where we learned to identify local plants and make simple remedies from them (including the oh-so-delicious Elderberry cordial!) One big reason I am so enthusiastic about promoting Atava’s work is that I admire her commitment to sharing knowledge for self healing. It is very fun and empowering to make your own medicine!

LV, attorney, Oakland, CA

To order Power Mushrooms, visit our on-line store.

Last month, I wrote about elderberries. This month I want to talk about some of my favorite immune enhancing herbs, which in fact are not even herbs at all, but belong to the vast kingdom of fungi.

For thousands of years, medicinal mushrooms have been highly valued for their incredible healing properties. One of my favorite mushrooms, reishi or ganoderma lucidum, was referred to in the ancient texts of Chinese medicine as the “herb of immortality.”

Reishi supports and strengthens almost every organ system in the body, including the respiratory system and the immune system. These two organ systems are crucial to support to keep us healthy during the cold and flu seasons.

Many of the medicinal mushrooms are deep immune system tonics. In our bodies they work slowly and deeply to boost our immune reservoir and strengthen our resistance not only to colds and flu, but also to many other serious diseases like cancer.

For example, Reishi contains polysaccharides that have been proven to increase by five to twenty five times the body’s natural cancer fighting processes.

I recommend that most people at certain times take medicinal mushrooms for their health. For an average healthy person, this season is a good time to start incorporating them into your daily routine or diet. For people who have been chronically ill, medicinal mushrooms should play a bigger part in your life. In dealing with more serious disease, I would also recommend making an appointment to see professional herbalist like myself.

The power of medicinal mushrooms is amplified when they are in formula with one another. I have formulated a line of medicinal mushroom extracts called Power Mushrooms, which all have a baseline of five medicinal mushrooms- shiitake, maitake, oyster, reishi and turkey tails.

I have formulated my Power Mushroom Extracts to enhance certain healing properties of the mushrooms:

* The regular Power Mushrooms has astragalus to increase the immune enhancing effects of the formula.

* Power Mushrooms plus Liver Support has the additional herbs milk thistle and schizandra to offer an extra boost of protection and strength to the liver.

* Power Mushrooms Plus Turmeric has extra anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer fighting properties that come from the addition of turmeric to the formula. Available also with black pepper, which increases the bioavailability of the turmeric by up to 1000%.

* Power Mushrooms Plus Brain Support includes herbs like rosemary and rhodiola to enhances memory and cognitive functioning.

To order Power Mushrooms, visit Ancestral Apothecary’s online store.

• Lemon balm also has anti-viral properties. It can be used topically and internally for viruses like herpes and shingles. It mixes well with another anti-viral herb, licorice. A suggested formula would be 3 parts lemon balm to 1 part licorice as a tea or tincture.

• Lemon Balm is good for your heart. It helps to lower blood pressure and can be mixed with motherwort to strengthen the heart.

• Lemon Balm is helpful for colds and flu. Drink hot lemon balm tea to help with the aches and pains that accompany fever. It can also help to induce sweating to break a fever.

• Lemon Balm also can lower the thyroid and is useful in hyperthyroidism. However, it is good to avoid too much use of lemon balm is you have a hypothyroid.

Lemon Balm essential oil has also been studied to be helpful with calming the agitated state of Alzheimer’s. To order the best, high quality organic lemon balm (melissa) essential oil, visit the Floracopeia website.

As a healer, I am always learning from my personal experience and this time was no different. I have been reflecting on the things that helped support me and my family during this extremely difficult time. First and foremost were the countless prayers from friends and family. Many people of all religious and spiritual persuasions were praying for us and we could all feel the comfort, strength and support that came from these prayers. Thank you to everyone for your prayers, they most definitely did make a positive difference.

Polish Madonna, Our Lady of Czestochowa

Herbs and flower essences also held me through this stressful time. A bottle of Rescue Remedy was always on hand and I used it liberally on myself and my dad. I made a flower essence mister with Rescue Remedy and an essential oil of Jatamansi from Floracopeia that I used to spray in and about the hospital room. I also used a flower essence formula for extra psychic protection created by Dori Midnight, called Boundaries in a Bottle. Flower essence misters are a great way to bring the healing power of nature into sterile and clinical environments like hospitals and the work place.

My trusted herbal allies helped keep me healthy, rested and calm. Each day I took several doses of elderberry cordial and echinacea root tincture to keep my immune system strong. Herbal nervous system tonics like scullcap, california poppy and passionflower helped me to sleep and also helped to restore my overworked and shaky nerves. Medicinal Mushrooms and herbal adaptogens gave me strength, endurance, and the ability to adapt to a very stressful situation in the best way possible. I particularly loved taking the Ayurvedic herb ashwaghanda in warm milk (with a sprinkle of nutmeg) each night to nourish my body and to also insure a good night’s sleep.

I also received several acupressure and Jin Shin Jyutsu® sessions from my beloved colleagues (Thanks Toni and Claudia!) that helped to return my mind/body/spirit to a place of balance. I would arrive at Toni’s office exhausted, overwhelmed and tense and leave calm, relaxed and energized. I realized, once again, how valuable it is to have hands-on healing work to help support the body during a stressful or traumatic time.

Basically, during the month of December I was the recipient of all of the healing systems that I practice. For the past 18 years I have supported many people through crisis using similar tools: herbs, flower essences, bodywork, and spiritual support. In this New Year, I have renewed faith in the power of these ancient systems of healing because they really work! I give thanks to the healers of all eras and all cultures who have dedicated their lives to keeping these sacred and precious arts alive.

Many Blessings,
Atava