Inner Soul Reflections

Healing With Plants & Making Herbal Infused Massage Oils

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve written a Wisdom Wednesday! This segment I’m going to talk about my recent journey of making herbal infusions and how I plan on using them in my business! I’m excited to share with you what I made and how it will amplify future sessions with me!

I know summer got a little busy for me, and over the last six months I’ve been taking an online herbal medicine making class. This was one of the big reasons why I wasn’t writing a whole lot. I wasn’t sure what I was going to get out of this class at first, I initially thought it would be fun to expand my knowledge and possibly get inspired to make something. I knew that I wanted to incorporate herbalism somehow into my business, I just didn’t know how until the the very end.

Within the online class we learned to make a variety of things ranging from herbal tinctures, infused vinegars, to topical applications. After making each one, I had to document each product I made and submitted a pdf document at the end. As much as I enjoyed the whole learning process, the element that resonated with me the most from the class was the topical herbal infused massage oils! It was like a spark of energy surged through me and got me really energized, to where I couldn’t stop thinking of ideas on what to make!

For my herbal infused massage oil I had to make for my class, I chose to infuse rose petals, stinging nettles, and blue vervain into coconut oil. The herbs were all dried and I combined them all with the coconut oil in a blender, then put the contents in a jar for about two weeks. The longer the herbs sit and get infused, more of the benefits will be extracted from the herbs. Another way I learned to make it was on a stove top. It’s a quicker method and only takes about 6 or 7 hours to make. However, I don’t feel this is the best method for myself personally because you have to monitor the temperature of the oil the whole time while cooking it. My attention span for that was not ideal, and you don’t want the oil to get above a certain temperature. It just didn’t feel natural for me.

I definitely prefer the slowly but surely method, letting things take their time to nurture or saranate. Nature doesn’t rush, so why should we.

Now that I’ve given a rough idea on how I made the infused oil and what inspired me to make it, let’s chat more about the herbs I used and why I chose to use them! How about we start with blue vervain.

Blue Vervain

From spring until fall I have been a part of a community garden group where we nurture a garden together, and the harvest gets divided amoungst the members a part of the garden. I came across this herb in spring time, right at the begining of the planting stage. On that particular garden session day, I learned that planting certain flowers near certian veggies helps the veggie plants polinate better. After the garden session, the person in charge of flowers asked me if I wanted to take a few of the flowers home with me. I said sure, I’ll give it a go growing this at my house. One of the flowers was blue vervain.

A few weeks go by and I still hadn’t planted the flowers I got from the garden. I noticed they were pretty sad looking and I thought they wouldn’t make it if I finally planted them after a month. With little hope to see what would happen, I decided to get motived and at least repot them into a couple large pots we had in our yard. I potted with with some fresh organic fertilized potting soil and started watering them every day. Within about a week, the blue vervain was thriving and doing well! A rush of excitement came over me realizing that I naturally have a green thumb and can grow things! Haha. The other flower (which I don’t recall the name of it) on the other hand, was still looking pretty sad and it took a lot longer for that one to come back.

It was in that moment of bringing the blue vervain back to life, that I knew the universe was calling me to work with this herb. Later in the summer I ended up clipping a few stocks from the plant and hung them to dry in my house. I didn’t know how I was going to use it until I came across the herbal infused massage oil portion of my class. The universe is always speaking, you just have to know when to listen!

“A lover of moist soil, it’s tall stately stalks appeared on their own and shows no sign of leaving. We take its presence as a daily reminder to slow down and relax. Blue vervain is three-to five feet tall, proudly upright perennial. The rings of purple blooms open first at the bottom of each flower spike, and by late summer the blooms reach the top. The flowers are great pollinators and the seeds are a favorite food for songbirds.”

These are some words from an herbalism book called “Energetic Herbalism” by Kat Maier, and in this book she talks about the energetic properties of herbs and how they enhance our inner terrain or soul. Blue vervain and nettles were both listed in this book, so this is another reason why I chose these herbs for my infusion.

Before I decide to go on a tangent about this cool book and share more from it, let’s chat about the benefits of blue vervain, then talk about nettles. There is a variety of benefits of blue vervain but I’m going to stick with the ones that might be benificial with a massage:

• Supports the adrenal glands and helps reduce stress, anxiety, and depression.
• Is a trophorestorative nervine which means it nourishes, repairs, and restores the overall nervous system over time. Which makes sense as to why it supports the adrenal glands.
• Helps decrease blood pressure and headaches caused by intense emotions.
• Aids the lymphatic system by encouraging lymph fluid flow and circulation.

Blue vervain might not help relaxing muscles directly but I can help reduce emotional stresses that can cause muscle tension and help increase blood flow circulation, which is what massage already helps with as well. Now let’s move on to the next herb Stinging Nettles.

Stinging Nettles

Now this herb didn’t present itself the same dramatic way blue vervain did. Haha. It more or less came to light when I was trying to decide what other herbs might I want to put into my infused oil.

It was brought twice in my herbalism class and the second time it was brought up, that’s when I decided that was the herb I wanted to use. The second time that it was featured in the class, it was talking about how it helps with the lymphatic system. I thought to myself, “I have a couple clients I could use this on that are struggling with some lymphatic issues.” It literally presented itself to me as simple as that. Haha.

I don’t know if anyone reading this knows much about stinging nettles, but I do know that when you touch the herb it does sting a little bit. It’s not a strong zap sting, but more of a buzzing feeling. That’s why when you do research on the herb and read about it, the sources talk about wearing gloves or something when you harvest it. I have a massage mentor whom has used stinging nettles that they harvested in their practice, and mentioned once that they would harvest it without using gloves. They liked the tingling buzzing feeling when picking it. One of nettles benefits is support of blood flow, which when reflecting on the tingling sensation from the herb, it only makes sense this would be one of the benefits.

“Many meet nettle for the first time inadvertently by brushing up against the leaves and getting ‘nettled’ or stung. The sting from this perennial is due to the hollow hairs called trichomes on the surface of the leaves. The plant injects formic acid through the hairs onto the skin of the lucky person who inadvertently brushed up against it. Urtification, the genius name Urtica (uro means to burn), is the word given to the act of brushing nettle against the skin in order to stimulate blood flow to areas of pain and decreased function.” This is another little excerpt from the book I mentioned earlier, so I thought I share from the nettles section too.

Here are a few more benefits of nettles and how it can enhance a massage oil:

• Has anti-inflammatory properties which can aid in joint inflammation such as arthritis.
• Stimulates blood flow and the cardiovascular system.
• Has been known over centuries to help restore sensation for those suffering from neuropathy.
• Helps support fluid movement and sluggish lymph flow.

Most of the lymphatic benefits of nettles from the research I’ve read, seems to pertain to ingesting nettle teas or tinctures. This is because nettles is rich with a wide variety of minerals including iron, which can help restore energy after a long sickness. I was reading somewhere that it can also be beneficial to take intermittently with chemo treatment. Granted I would double check with your doctor or pharmacist before taking it internally, to make sure it won’t interfere with any medications. Let’s briefly talk about the last herb of my herbal infusion, rose!

Rose Petals

I mostly chose rose petals because I was looking for more of a relaxing herb to aid in my relaxation massages. This choice really didn’t have any epiphany or fancy story at all, and sometimes that is ok. Felt like I was more inspired by the benefits of rose rather the energy of the plant. Those benefits include:

• Pink and red petals are high in antioxidant properties and have anti-inflammatory benefits.
• They are cooling, drying, slightly antimicrobial, and astringent. This can help calming redness, puffiness, and other irritated skin conditions all while relieving sensitive or dry skin.
• Considered a nervine and can help calm the nervous system. Scientific studies have suggested that the aroma of rose helps activate the parasympathetic nervous system, or the “rest and digest” mode.

As you can see the benefits of rose actually pairs well with the other two herbs, that I have chosen to use in the herbal infused massage oil I made. I did chose rose intentionally, but it didn’t necessarily present itself to me at all like the other herbs did.

I have stated using this infused oil in a few of my massage sessions and my clients seem to like it! One commented on how they enjoyed the scent of it! Granted it smells more like earthy nettles than the sweet smell of rose, but I can see it being as a more grounding for emotions and energy.

Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts on making this herbal infused oil and what herbs I used. I wish I had more to say, but it’s getting late and my train of thought has left the station! I definitely plan to make more infusions in the future and I hope you continue to go on this journey with me! Maybe even book a session with me to check out the infused oil for yourself!