Tea, dammit

[ksmith]

Can anyone out there rec an herb tea that promotes relaxation? I'm currently working my way through a box of Celestial Seasonings "Tension Tamer", which contains ginger, chamomile, and licorice, among other things. One bag in 8 oz tastes like hot water. I've got a two-bagger steeping at the moment.

Nothing illegal, thanks, but if it requires harvesting from hillsides by the light of a gibbous moon, I'd probably go for it. It's reached that point.

Maybe I should just spring for regular massages...

Comments

[janni.livejournal.com]

I've been amazed by the strong antidepressant properties of massages, actually, and have been working on making them more a part of my life for that reason--the first one I had, especially, had this amazing building mood lifting effect over the hours following it. We have a massage school here, and they only charge $25 for an hour's student massage. Maybe you have something like that there?

If it's the sort of thing basic cognitive therapy techniques would help with, too, I can recommend a book called Feeling Good, which in spite of the awful title really has been a life altering book for me.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

If it's the sort of thing basic cognitive therapy techniques would help with, too, I can recommend a book called Feeling Good, which in spite of the awful title really has been a life altering book for me.

If it could help me drag my mind out of the same old nonproductive worry cycles, I will give it a shot.

[janni.livejournal.com]

It definitely might. It has done that for me, anyway--when I'm stressed and uneasy I'll still sit down, years after my first reading, and use its techniques to get myself of my various mental hamster wheels my mind tends to get onto.

[naomikritzer]

The herbal tranquilizer I recommended to my mother last week is valerian. You would not, however, want to drink it as tea; the capsules smell foul enough that I wash my hands after touching them.

I take valerian occasionally for insomnia. It helps me to shut off my brain and go to sleep. I'm not sure how it works when taken not as a sleeping pill, but I've heard people recommend it for anxiety and tension.

[naomikritzer]

And just to clarify, it helps me shut off my brain. It doesn't hit the off switch on my behalf -- it's not a pill that would knock somebody out.

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

Funny. That stuff *does* knock me out. It's a lot like handing my body a slug of tryptophan.

As far as teas go, I'm no help. I can drink strong black tea for hours and feel relaxed and soothed. Then I go take a nap. Apparently, this is an abnormal reaction.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Nope. I drink my white and green teas and either wake up or relax--whatever I need them to do, they do. Not sure how that works.

I highly recommend massage. I got rid of crippling migraines through massage.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

My last massage was--damn--during Torcon. The hotel had a spa, and I sprang for the works, which included an hour-long massage. At about the halfway point, the masseuse, a very nice lady named Gilberte, told me that she wasn't going to be able to get to my legs because she'd been working on my back and shoulders for a good 15 minutes and hadn't even begun to get them loosened. "You're not very nice to yourself, are you?" she asked as she *leaned* into my left shoulder blade.

I should probably look into massage...

[windrose.livejournal.com]

It's certainly helped me. I had one session with the massage therapist, and it was like the last two months of erratic sleeping patterns never happened. I'm able to get to bed at a reasonable hour, and actual feel refreshed when I wake up.

[naomikritzer]

Well, by "knock somebody out" I was thinking in part of my reaction to Ambien, which rendered me absolutely nonfunctional. I could never take it at home, because if there were a fire, I would be unable to get myself out of the house. (It also gave me hallucinations. That is one drug I'm not planning to take again.)

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I've heard horror stories about Ambien.

FWIW, I think that double dose of Tension Tamer did something. I couldn't keep my eyes open past midnight, and I slept through the night. Got up around my usual time. I'm still a little tired, but the weather could be partially to blame. It's muggy and overcast and we're expecting rain later today.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Valerian knocks me out. It also occasionally leaves me with an unpleasant hangover--muzzy head and tired over the following day. I don't know if you an build up a tolerance for it or not.

[mindyklasky.livejournal.com]

I'm a big fan of both chamomile and peppermint (separately), putting one Celestial Seasonings tea bag into the mug as the water boils, and leaving the bag in until I've finished drinking the tea.

I don't know that the herbs themselves are tension tamers, but I've worked hard to promote them in my mind as end-of-day spin-downs; I only drink them when I'm ready to turn off my brain for the day. The "trigger" effect seems to work in general - sort of a sense memory.

When I was going through a particularly bad stretch at work a few months ago, I bought myself a very chi-chi blend of lavender and chamomile. I don't remember the brand - it's sold in metal tins at Barnes & Noble. I wasn't all that impressed with the tea as a beverage, but it would make lovely sachets. (And it kept me from drinking caffeine which, at the time, would have resulted in complete nuclear meltdown of a vital portion of the Georgetown waterfront.)

Good luck.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

For some reason, the thought of lavender in tea lacks appeal. I think of it as a scent more than a drink, but maybe I'm wrong.

The main ingredient in Tension Tamer is something called eleuthero. There's also cinnamon, lemongrass, catnip, and tilia flower...along with the peppermint,chamomile, ginger, and licorice.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

...and I'm glad you didn't take out Georgetown in a nuclear event.

[planetalyx.livejournal.com]

I bought a fennel tea recently that's very soothing, but it's all about the aroma; the flavor's very weak. I don't know if you're in a city big enough to have a speciality tea shop, but Kelly sometimes gets me a redbush tea with bits of caramel that's quite nice.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

No tea shops around here, but there's always the internets...

[jennifer-dunne.livejournal.com]

I don't normally have trouble with relaxation so I don't have first hand knowledge of how these work for that, but they're tasty....

Stash Teas has a set of Chakra teas (see below). I'd recommend either chakra 4 or 6, to destress. They're both teas that make me feel happier to drink them. But if you want to relax and go to sleep, maybe chakra 7 would be better. It's very light in color, though, so you might get that "drinking water" sense again.

Red Berry Rooibos
Chakra No.1
An Herbal Tea for Health & Prosperity. Dark red and fruity, this blend contains antioxidant rich South African rooibos and soothing uva ursi, a fortifying herb.

Dragonfruit
Chakra No.2
An Herbal Tea for Passion & Creativity. Combined with a cool aftertaste of ginger and mint. Created with the mysterious damiana herb, which enhances male and female sexuality.

Vanilla Honeybush
Chakra No.3
An Herbal Tea for Gathering Strength & Power. African honeybush is sweetened with vanilla and orange peel.

Melon & Green
Chakra No.4
A Tea for Love & Harmony. Sweet dew melon blended with fine green tea and South American yerba mate makes a refreshing and stimulating brew that will awaken your heart.

Blue Ginger
Chakra No.5
An Herbal Tea for Expression & Resonance. Blue malva flowers, warm ginger and tropical feijoa combine to make a distinctive herbal tea - a special opportunity to give, to share, to stay and talk.

Guanabana
Chakra No.6
An Herbal Tea for Imagination & Insight. Relax and nourish your intuition with this soothing medley of vanilla-scented guanabana fruit, eyebright, lemongrass and orange.

White Lotus
Chakra No.7
An Herbal Tea for Meditation & Wisdom. The scent of fresh flowers lingers over this pale golden infusion of white lotus, chamomile, chrysanthemum, and linden.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Some of these sound good--thanks!

[jennifer-dunne.livejournal.com]

Oh, and Zhena's Gypsy Teas makes a Red Lavender and Chamomile Blessings, both of which are for destressing. I really dislike the taste of chamomile, but found the red lavender very refreshing. Plus, I'm partial to red teas.

https://www.gypsytea.com/shop.php?cat_id=3&page=viewAll