Calming Tea - Use, Varieties and Homemade

Calming Tea - Use, Varieties and Homemade /

Just do it yourself

Expensive tea blends for reassurance are more than enough in the trade. You can actually make your own calming tea even at low cost. Appropriate soothing herbs are available in every herbal trade, so it is easy to stock up. The prerequisite is, of course, that you know which herbs you need. We can help you.


contents

  • Just do it yourself
  • Why calming tea?
  • Tea as a sedative has a long tradition
  • Which tea herbs have a calming effect?
  • Western calming herbs
  • Calming herbs from TCM

Why calming tea?

Modern everyday life is full of stressful situations. With all the social performance orientation, the relaxation is often too short. Deadline pressure, tensions at work, family requirements, examination stress - something is always there. We often forget that in addition to performance, even rest should find an important place in our everyday lives, if we want to avoid health problems.

Calming tea is a stress-solver in everyday life. (Image: Antonioguillem / fotolia.com)

The most common consequence of a permanently overcrowded schedule is the loss of a healthy day-to-day rhythm, which makes it increasingly difficult for our body to turn off when it is appropriate. Driven by restlessness and hecticness, numerous bodily functions suffer from this inner restlessness. Typical health complaints are then:

  • fatigue,
  • depressions,
  • immunodeficiencies,
  • a headache,
  • performance degradation,
  • fatigue,
  • sleep disorders,
  • Confusion and disorientation,
  • cognitive disorders.

In addition, the consequences in the social area should not be underestimated. Because people who are chronically overworked, stressed and therefore suffer from inner unrest, often withdraw from the social events. They simply can not find the strength to make appointments. Social isolation, in turn, can worsen mental health problems such as mood swings or depression. This sometimes leads to a true vicious circle. Especially uneasy minds tend to suppress mental stress with even more work.

It is therefore all the more important, at the first signs of inner restlessness, to pull the rip cord in time and take targeted measures of relaxation. In addition to specific relaxation therapies (such as yoga or meditation), an efficient sedative is the best way to help the body's own system to "shut down". In addition, such a tea can help even in more harmless cases of nervousness such as before an exam or a job interview. And even as a concomitant therapy for diseases that experience has been associated with inner restlessness, soothing tea herbs can provide reliable support.

Tea as a sedative has a long tradition

It is no secret that herbal teas are among the oldest remedies in the world. Just for relaxation, all peoples of the earth used hot brewed soothing potions by default to get a clear head again. No wonder, then, that drinking tea is still part of daily break rituals. From 5 o'clock tea in the UK to tea at the German coffee party, to ancient but still practiced traditions such as the Japanese tea ceremony, there are countless examples that illustrate how much people always enjoy tea with a certain calming and relaxing effect have connected.

In addition, most medicinal herbs that are used to make soothing tea are true traditional herbs. However, many of them have been forgotten because today we usually take tablets for almost every symptom. This is not healthy and can bring a number of unwanted side effects, especially in case of nervous or emotional stress. Although pharmaceutical preparations are able to induce rapid symptom relief due to highly concentrated active ingredients, they often resort massively to the body for this purpose. Nervous or in terms of their inner peace particularly sensitive persons often experience through medical measures only more mental and physical chaos.

Turning the pill on a single "set screw" in the body, often has no lasting success in inner restlessness. Rather, holistic measures to restore balance are important. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) recognized this as one of the first medical disciplines. Internal restlessness is considered here as an indication of a disturbed energy flow, the so-called Qi River. Target-oriented calming measures in TCM are therefore aimed at holistically reconciling the patient's body rhythm in order to eliminate turbulent energy flows.

Essential for this is a change in lifestyle, behavior and food habits towards more balance and harmony. From a nutritional point of view, this changeover usually also includes a detoxification treatment that is supposed to release harmful body substances in order to cleanse the qi. A daily tea ritual serves for a better relaxation, since people with disquiet must consciously take time to prepare and take the tea. The mere process of making tea thus already helps to defuse everyday stress.

The tea ritual itself serves for relaxation. (Image: creativefamily / fotolia.com)

Which tea herbs have a calming effect?

For soothing tea herbs, a distinction must first be made between herbs from western medicine and (largely) traditional Chinese medicine. Although both disciplines have many herbs in common, they are used very differently, depending on the school's view.

Western calming herbs

In Europe's traditional herbalism, the healing properties of calming herbs are mainly focused on nerve and pain relieving aspects of plants. Anti-spasmodic and sleep-inducing herbs fall under the term "calming". Herbal teas or tea blends to soothe it are therefore usually the three main complaint areas

  • neuropathy,
  • sleep disorders
  • and pain complaints.

Nerve disorders in particular include not only inner restlessness but also depressive moods and other mental stress disorders. The most important herbs in this area are:

  • Real oat (Avena sativa)
  • Yellow lady slipper (Cypripedium calceolus)
  • Real hops (Humulus lupulus)
  • True St. John's wort / spotted St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum)
  • Real star anise (Illicium verum)
  • Real lavender (Lavandula officinalis)
  • Real chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla)
  • Melissa / lemon balm (Melissa officinalis)
  • Glowing passionflower (Passiflora incarnate)
  • linden blossoms (Tilia cordata / Tilia platyphyllos)
  • Genuine valerian (Valeriana officinalis)
  • Real verbena (Verbena officinalis)

Many of these herbal recommendations go back to the most famous of all herbalists, Hildegard von Bingen. To make a sedative, it usually suffices, in their opinion, to commit to one of these herbs. Usually a teaspoon of calming herbs is enough for a cup.

Tip: If you want, you can also mix the herbs, for example to improve the taste. However, it is advisable to then choose the proportion of mild herbs such as oats, chamomile, lime blossom or Melisse much higher than that of the taste and drug-intensive sedative herbs such as valerian or lavender.

Our recipe for 1 jug (1 ½ liter) soothing tea:

  • 1 teaspoon (TL) valerian root,
  • 1 tsp. Oak bark,
  • 1 teaspoon of lavender flowers,
  • 2 tsp lime blossom,
  • 1 teaspoon lemon balm leaves.

Put the herbs in a tea strainer and hang it in a large teapot. Then pour the herbs over with hot water and let the tea flow for about 10 minutes. The calming tea can then be drunk throughout the day. A little lemon and / or honey refine the aroma.

Calming herbs from TCM

Traditional Chinese medicine also knows many of the above calming herbs. The valerian is called here for example "Xie Cao" and the verbena "Ma Bian Cao". Basically, however, the composition of calming stones in TCM differs significantly. According to the Qi doctrine, nervousness, inner restlessness and insomnia arise due to a disturbed energy flow in the liver or spleen. Therefore soothing herbal mixtures are always added to liver, spleen and often also heart herbs, which are to regulate the Qi flow in appropriate organs.

The recipes are tailored by the TCM experts individually to the patients, which is why it requires a visit to the specialist. But if you would rather try out individual calming herbs from the Far East yourself at home, here are some recommendations:

  • Bearded Scullcap (Scutellaria Barbata)
    Chinese name: Ban Zhi Lian
  • Chinese Angelica Root (Angelicae sinensis Radix)
    Chinese name: Dang Gui
  • Chinese rabbit ear root (Bupleuri radix)
    Chinese name: Chai Hu
  • Ginger root (Zingiberis rhizoma recens)
    Chinese name: Sheng Jian
  • Sweet brownwort (Rehmanniae radix)
    Chinese name: Di Huang> / li>
  • Pine sponge (Poria cocos)
    Chinese name: Fu Ling
  • Herb of Immortality (Gynostemma pentaphyllum)
    Chinese name: Jiao Gulan
  • High Goldbaldrian (Patrinia scabiosifolia)
    Chinese name: Huang Hua Bai Jiang

Important: The dosage instructions of each herb contained in the leaflet should be strictly followed with TCM herbs. Experimenting with self-selected mixing ratios is not recommended here. (Ma)