When I was in Northern California, the land of the herbal remedies, herbalists, naturopaths and clean living, visiting my sister, I happened across an herbal shop.  I wanted to find something in the shop, which had a lot of raw herbs that you could buy in bulk, which could help ease the anxiety I had been feeling as of late. 

The herbalist there recommended a few things as remedies for depression and anxiety.  She said she’d recommend lemon balm, and so I bought some of that, and then she also recommended an herbal tincture of something that I cannot recall now, but I know I did throw it away because the taste was so awful it lingered in my mouth for an hour after I took a dose, and several doses a day were needed with the dropper. 

 I just wasn’t willing to go that far to get results, so I didn’t really see any benefit to it.  Now, on to the lemon balm though.  I really like the lemon balm.  In fact, I ended up purchasing some more when I was back here in Ohio because I like the taste of it in my tea and I also enjoy its relaxing effects it seems to have on me about a half hour after I consume it. 

I bought it in dried form, and bought a tea ball diffuser to put some of it into and drop it into hot water, so it would make a tea.  In fact, what I do is I mix it with a peppermint tea (caffeine free of course), and have a nice relaxing cup of tea before bed time. 

I find that it helps me take my mind off of the hectic work day that is behind me and also it does seem to have a noticeable effect on my mind and my physical body. 

Is it just psychosomatic?  Well, of course anything you take, right down to aspirin, probably to some degree has a psychosomatic effect, but I definitely enjoy using lemon balm as a calming agent, especially after a long day at the job, it’s a welcome resting period or calm and relaxation in my day.  Plus, I love the lemony taste.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 15th, 2007 at 10:05 pm and is filed under Natural Depression & Anxiety Relief. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.