We know we are in unprecedented times with this global pandemic. I’m going to venture we have all run through a gamut of emotions, probably multiple times.
Below are herb and supplement resources, yoga class opportunities, and session updates to help serve you through this crisis time.
Please contact me here with any questions.
I am on FaceBook as Opening Spaces, Christine Morris. Here I am doing fb live videos that speak to different aspects of this crisis — body, mind, heart and spirit. Join me there if you’re on FaceBook.
Where are you right now?
My favorite business advisor (my husband Steven, Matter Consulting matterco.co) shared with me the concept that we all may be moving through stages of grief with this crisis. Businesses included.
The 5 stages are of grief are:
Denial – disbelief and outrage
Anger – outrage and blame
Bargaining – making trade-offs
Depression – feeling helpless and/or hopeless
Acceptance – being open to options and finding ways forward
Where do you see yourself in this process right now?
Fear, Ground and Stability
Throughout this whole experience, fear is widespread. Fear is a healthy part of human processing, until it consumes us. Fear is the collective go-to response. It’s a knee-jerk survival response. In order to get out of our inherent survival response, we have to consciously take the reigns of our mind and our actions. This is often easier said than done.
Fear is interlaced in the above stages of grief, until we get to acceptance. In fact, it is the underlying impetus of the stages before acceptance. Like any process, we can’t go around it. We have to move through it. That means feeling your feels, holding onto the ground below you, and finding what is stable and supportive around you. We’re getting our phD in trust, grounding and stability. It’s a process.
*Please contact your health care providers if you have trouble breathing or are concerned for your health, even with the information below*
Cultivate Health with Supplements, Herbs and Whole Foods Below
As well as a licensed Holistic Health Practitioner, Bodywork Therapist, and Yoga Instructor, five years ago I became a Certified Family and Nutritional Herbalist, and am currently in school for my Master Herbalist Certification (which is a master’s degree.)
Our bodies are amazing healers by design. We know the challenge with this virus is that it’s new to our systems. We haven’t created community immunity to it yet. But our body naturally fights invaders in its system. Here are some suggestions to cultivate health in your system and support your immune health.
When buying herbs, look for whole plant or whole food herbs as opposed to extracts. These have synergistic nutrients that allow your body to process them as food, simply excreting whatever isn’t needed.
Vitamin C (Ester-C and whole food versions are easiest on the stomach.)Vitamin C is an antioxidant that feeds our immune system, can break down cell walls of viruses, and helps build our white blood cells and macrophages which attack pathogens in our body.
Reports are coming in of studies specifically using vitamin C to work with COVID-19 symptoms. Initial reports show a reduction in symptoms. These studies are using large doses (10,000 to 24,000 mg.) This is intravenous and we can’t do this at home.
But we can take 500-2000 mg (to tolerance) of this water soluble supplement a day even without symptoms.
Zinc. Most of us are zinc deficient. It has been called our immune system’s number one defense. Zinc has been shown to combat other strains of coronavirus by scientists that have studied it. Many common colds and flus are a strain of coronavirus. COVID-19 is a new strain.
Lemon Balm. This herb does a double job. It has powerful antiviral properties. It also supports our adrenals, as well as calms and soothes our nervous system.
Spirulina. This whole food supplement is a complete protein, nourishes on a cellular level, and has been said to help stop viral growth. This nourishing supplement is helpful for chronic illnesses as well. It helps our cells function optimally.
Mullein Leaf. This herb works strongly with the glandular and endocrine system. It is a powerful healing herb for our immune system. It is also an expectorant and has a soothing effect on the mucous membranes of the lungs.
Echinacea & Goldenseal. Echinacea is an immune tonic. It may be used before symptoms to strengthen and tone the immune system. Goldenseal, however, should be used only when symptoms are present, and then only for up to 14 days in a row. It can be used at the first signs of colds or flu. It works with infections, inflammations, and irritations to the mucous membranes.
Astragalus. This is a powerful tonic herb and immune strengthener. Some reports say it is good for lung function.
Red Raspberry Leaf. This herb cleanses mucous membranes and thins excess mucous secretions. It also helps balance hormones. Raspberries have their own healing properties. Yes, you can eat fruit.
(*Follow your medical professional’s advice if you are concerned about your blood sugars.)
Yarrow Tea. Yarrow is many an herbalist’s go to for working with fevers. Fevers are your body’s natural way of working with pathogens. They should not be suppressed. If you suppress a fever, the body has to work harder to pump out the original toxicity, as well as the debris created from the germs the toxicity is feeding on. A DRY FEVER IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. You have to keep a fever ‘moist’ meaning you have to stay very well hydrated. Yarrow tea is a diaphoretic, meaning it will make you sweat. Yarrow will raise heat in the body, equalize circulation and make you sweat. As long as moisture is going into the body and perspiration is occurring, the fever is doing its job and very little damage can be done by it. Keep it hydrated.
Online Yoga & Meditation
Like many, the yoga studio I teach in has gone to online teaching. If you follow me there, please continue to support the studio through that avenue. It is needed and very much appreciated.
If you’d like to take a class with me, I am starting with 2 online classes later next week —
1 Gentle yoga class & 1 Intermediate yoga class.
These will be on Zoom live and then I will have recordings for you after. In the first week or two, they are a free resource. After that, they will have a donation fee, which I haven’t determined yet. Please contact me here if you’re interested in yoga classes. I hesitate to send another full list email, but might toward the middle of the week for this.
Opening Spaces Office
At least through April 1, my office is closed to clients. I am seeing online clients still. If you were thinking about a Life Attunement Session, or would like support during this time, there are ways we can work together online. Please contact me here for online sessions.
We will get through this. This is a shift that has been coming for some time. It’s requiring us to pause, pivot and tune in to what is most important. It is causing us to care for one another. This crisis is a point in time that will be marked for the ages. Take good care of yourself, your neighbors, loved ones and family.
How many of us does it take to change the world? All of us.
Please be safe and take good care of one another.