It’s time for girl talk. (mingled with a tea recipe)

Feeling hyper emotional, tense, anxious, snappy, easily upset, touched to tears by cuteness or sadness on TV, manic depressive mood-swings. Bloated as if I just happened to gain 5 kilos (11 lb) overnight, always at least one or two pimples showing up on my face and for the grand finale: a strong pain knocking me out for a day when finally my menstruation came…relief!

It wasn’t always quite so bad but often. – I wondered „Is it like this for every girl or am I not normal?” or how my mum enjoyed to verse it „Are you ever not menstruating?“ – An occasionally rather exhausting hormonally steered dance, restarting every two weeks, already heading towards my next menstruation.

Next to tea recipes like the one that will follow further down below, one of my reliable supporters has been Magnesium Supplement, fending off muscle aches in the last week leading up to my menstruation. Additionally, Beetroot Spinach Salad with Feta (or goat) cheese and Walnuts is one of my favourite menstruation balancers from the comfy food category. Beetroot is a rich source of Vitamic C and supports our iron levels through the blood, a natural menstruation pain remedy due to its anti-inflammatory effects and being rich in natural antioxidants. It furthermore helps regulate the blood flow, blood pressure and cholesterol levels. In the form of beetroot juice you’ll find it rather popularly recommended to counter menstrual ailments. Feta contains more calcium than many other cheeses and spinach is rich not only in calcium or magnesium but also potassium und various other essential minerals. A bit of white balsamic or apple cider vinegar to shake it up. Without the walnuts, the salad in my opinion simply looses its special flavour. Nevertheless, walnuts are possibly known best for their benefits to our brain and heart health. They have greater antioxidant activity than any other common nut.

A tea recipe for your menstruation pain

There are various other recipes and plants that you can use to remedy general issues with your menstrual cycle. The tea recipe below will reduce the menstrual cramps and support your relaxation, overall emotional well-being and sleep. Personally, I simply really like the combination of different smells and flavours in this tea recipe!

Lady’s Lavender Tea

Lady’s Lavender Tea is a fine tea recipe for a healthy cycle. It reduces your menstrual pain, stress and anxiety. Discover your favourites and swap some of the herbs for different flavours and slightly varied benefits each months!

⏱️ Prep Time 3 min

⏳ Cook Time 10 min

🍵 Cups 2-3

Ingredients

two teaspoons of Lemon Balm
one teaspoon of Lavender
one teaspoon of Valerian (swap for Chamomile if you don’t like its taste)
one teaspoon of Lady’s mantle

Directions

I use a 0,5l ceramic pot but you could also use a smaller pot of 350ml or a bigger one, depending how strong you prefer the flavour of your tea
Boil water, pour it over the mix and leave your tea to steep for 10 minutes
Add (raw) honey and fresh lemon to your liking

Nature’s pharmacy – interesting facts about the herbs in this menstruation tea recipe

Let’s start with the plant literally pointing us towards its possible application in women’s health – Lady’s Mantle. A herb that used to be harvested exclusively during the waning moon cycle. In ancestral times, the famous drops of fluid found on the leaves in the early morning hours were associated with fertility and beyond that alchemists searched for the philosopher’s stone in lady mantle’s magical morning dew. Cooked in milk, the plant was also used as a facial lotion to reduce freckles.

Lady’s Mantle/ Alchemilla vulgaris

Lady’s mantle or Alchemilla vulgaris carries its name for good reason: the herb is one of the most important healing plants in women’s health. It is clinically accepted as a herbal remedy for digestive issues and diverse menstrual issues. In folk healing it is famously applied to regulate the menstruation not exclusively but also when preparing for pregnancy. Lady’s mantle regulates the bleeding during the menstrual cycle, relieves menstrual cramps and balances our hormones. It furthermore mitigates PMS symptoms such as fluid retention and depressive mood-swings. The ability of Lady’s mantle to stimulate progesterone production supports a healthy hormonal balance which helps alleviating a wide range of symptoms associated with PMS, relieving menstrual issues up until the journey of fertility ends with our menopause. Progesterone is a female hormone that rises 2 weeks before our menstruation and as such can help us understand why our PMS or menstrual exhaustion restarts around every two weeks.

Three herbs from the medieval pharmacy

In this tea recipe we are using three so called “Officinalis” plants. The addition directly points us to their rather long traditional usage in a medicinal context. While their historical application most often arches back much further, the term “Officinalis” indicates that we would have found both herbal remedies in the medieval pharmacy “officina”. Not only did monasteries have such work and storage rooms where they crafted and sold medications made from their herbal gardens, by 1240 the profession of the pharmacist was born due to a new medicinal law separating the craft strictly from the clinician. Formerly traveling traders and herbalists started to settle down in cities, with those of them who had learned from a maester, becoming eligible to open up the first public pharmacies. The term itself was used later, for example by Carl Linné in 1735 in his Systema Naturae, describing plants which are “of or belonging to an officīna”.

Valerian/ Valeriana officinalis

Valerian or Valeriana officinalis has been used as a healing plant to remedy nervousness and tension since Roman times. The root of the plant was widely used in tea, tinctures or other medicinal remedies during the Middle Ages and is still valued to date for its many abilities to treat our central nervous system. It’s intensely calming and can help regain sleep in times of stress. Valerian supports the regulation of the neurotransmitter GABA in our brain which lets the mind settle. Stress is a widespread nowadays issue causing several ailments, amongst them are menstruation irregularities and menstrual pains. Spiritually speaking, valerian root directly grounds us back into ourself, life and present moment.

Lemon Balm/ Melissa officinalis

Lemon Balm or Melissa officinalis is a tonic for our nervous system with a long tradition of high appreciation as a medicinal herb, its relaxing and antispasmodic properties helping us remedy strong menstrual pains and supports a healthy bleeding. In the Middles Ages, Lemon Balm was cultivated and traded as a common medicinal plant all across Europe. The alchemist and physician Paracelsus (1493-1541) described Lemon Balm as an ingredient to the “elixir of life” and English diarist and gardener John Evelyn (1620-1706) wrote: “Balm is sovereign for the brain, strengthening the memory and powerfully chasing away melancholy.” Nowadays the plant is used to strengthen us and calm issues derived from our nervous system such as anxiety, depression, irritability and nervousness as well as issues with our digestive system resulting from anxiousness or stress.

Lavender/ Lavandula officinalis

Lavender or Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavandula officinalis) is a classic remedy for tension, restlessness, insomnia, headaches or stomach and digestive issues originating in nervousness, hyper sensitivity and irritability. The plant is often hung around the house for its intense and calming smell, nowadays still recommended to enhance the atmosphere of our bedroom. Herbal remedies often combine lavender with lemon balm or passionflower to support a healthy and deep sleep or release tension and anxiety. A bath in lavender can furthermore revitalise our body in particular promoting a stimulated blood circulation. Lavandula originates in the Latin word “lavare” meaning “to wash” not only highlighting the benefits of added lavender to a stimulating and healing bath.

Where to buy Valerian, Lemon Balm, Lady’s Mantle & Lavender Tea

Below I collected some links for you to find the teas from this recipe. Like this you can either directly purchase them or simply to get some ideas about availability. I also wanted to provide some easy shop options. Living in the countryside, I will admit that I order many things online. Nevertheless, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualified purchases, so buying through any of these links, you would indirectly contribute to our blog at no extra costs for you.

Actually, I don’t like to drink tea all the time! What could I do?

There are fabulous herbal remedies that you can try in the form of capsules. Ideally, also for these, please don’t necessarily fall for the „cheapest offer“. It’s important to watch out for a good bio quality and no pesticides being used in the process. For tea you would also want to make sure it’s packaged in a way to prevent the sun from kissing the herbs every day. Great herbal supplements to take over several months and properly rebalance your menstrual cycle or ward off PMS symptoms are: Vitex-Agnus Cactus, a supplement derived from berries. It is also called Vitex, Chaste Tree, or Chasteberry. Chaste tree has a legitimate reputation being used to treat menstrual cycle problems and pain, premenstrual syndrome, and menopause. It stimulates progesterone and rebalances our estrogen and progesterone levels. Dioscorea or commonly called Yam is a root also available in the form of herbal supplements. Similarly, yam helps to re-regulate our hormone balance. As a result, menstrual and menopausal symptoms are significantly reduced or even disappear completely if taken over a minimum timeframe of three months.

A Tea recipe, a quick’n’easy beetroot salad, less stress, some supplements – if I can say one thing for sure: our hormones and menstruation can keep us ladies very busy 🙂 no matter which season of life we are in! I hope that some of the information in this article will help you find some relief too!

– with love –

your Lina

sown & uprooted @ https://for-a-better-living.com

Please note: As with all things in life, some things will have ripple effects and the amounts make the difference. So please don’t overdose herbal teas or plant based supplements either. Especially if you are on medication, suffer a medical condition, are prone to allergic reactions and during pregnancy it’s recommended to seek medical advisory before starting any self medication.

sown & uprooted