A Simple, Delicious Calming Tea Recipe

Do you ever feel stressed? If you're anything like most of us, then the answer is most definitely yes. Sometimes it feels like stress is all around us, from anything to a big traumatic event to a very simple daily irritation. Stress can really build up and then weigh us down. But thankfully there are some helpful and very simple herbal preparations that can do a lot to support us, and I'm going to share one of those with you today, a simple and delicious calming tea recipe. My name is Stacey and I'm one of the staff herbalists here at the Herbal Academy, and I'm so grateful to come to you today from my home to share this recipe with you. Before we get to the recipe, let's take a minute to talk about why we would want to make tea in the first place, and I have my cup right here. Teas are a wonderful way to utilize our herbal allies for stress management. The herbs go about their gentle work, soothing and strengthening us, while just that very act of sitting down and sipping our tea can bring a sense of calm. The calming tea recipe I'm going to share with you today is a daytime nirvine blend that helps keep the nervous system cool and collected. This recipe comes from our Herbal Stress Management course, which delves into a holistic approach to self-care for stress management, and it provides insight into helpful nutritional choices, lifestyle practices, and herbs that can transform your response to stress and enhance your well-being. Now let's make some tea. We will be using five herbs to make this calming tea. I'll briefly introduce you to those right now, and then as we make the tea I'll talk about them in a little more detail. To begin with, we have lemon balm, and then chamomile, linden, rose, and spearmint. As you can see here, the dried lemon balm and spearmint look very much alike, but their scent makes it easy to tell the difference between the two. Before we begin, I wanted to mention that this recipe is measured in parts. A part is just any form of measurement used to dole out the ingredients in a given recipe. Parts can actually be by volume or by weight, it just needs to be consistent. So that could be one cup, one tablespoon, one ounce, or one pound, or anything such as that. In this recipe, we'll be using a one-eighth cup for our part. The first herb we're going to use is lemon balm, and this has a lovely lemony smell and a mild lemon flavor. Rosemary Gladstar actually calls it one of nature's best nirvine herbs. We are going to use one-eighth of a cup, this is our part measure for today. In this recipe, we'll use two parts of lemon balm, so I'll do two of these. And something to know about lemon balm is that it has a long history of use in supporting anxiety and stress and nervousness. It's actually thought to promote a positive mood and encouraging calm, which is wonderful for when you're feeling stressed out. Lemon balm is also really great for tummy upsets and especially good for those that are a result of nervousness. This is really the main base of our recipe today, there's more lemon balm in it than any of the other ingredients. I just start with that so you can see it, and then we are going to move on to chamomile. And for chamomile, we're only using one part, so we'll just use one of our scoops here. And chamomile is another relaxing herb, it's another nirvine that's frequently used to ease emotional stress. And you'll find chamomile in many, many teas, and it has a lovely sweet flavor and a lovely calming scent. And next we have linden. And linden is a gentle, relaxing nirvine, it's often used to help ease anxiety, irritability and restlessness. Linden does have a slight sedative action, and it's commonly included in different preparations to help promote peaceful sleep. And we're just going to use one part of linden as well. The great thing about linden is that it really does have an affinity for the heart. It's also thought to help support cardiovascular health. Linden has long been used in tea form, and is sometimes even referred to as the tea of happiness. Next we'll add our rose. Considered a symbol of love, it has a gentle, calming action. And of course it adds a beautiful, beautiful color to our tea. And we're using one part rose. Just look at that gorgeous color. Rose is actually thought to aid in soothing anger and grief. And it's often used to help promote feelings of joy, and ease feelings of a broken heart even. So it's really a great addition to this calming tea blend. One important thing to know about rose, especially if you're someone who likes to experiment with different herbs and might adapt this recipe, is that usually a little rose is best. Too much rose and you'll end up with a bitter result instead of a sweet one. And lastly, we'll be using spearmint. The brightness of spearmint really rounds out our calming tea. It has a lovely sweet flavor, and it's long been enjoyed for soothing the body and helping promote mental focus and supporting memory. This is actually great for easing different digestive discomforts too. And we're using half a part of spearmint. So you can see here, I switched to my tablespoon since one eighth of a cup is the same as two tablespoons. And so this was our one part, and so half a part would just be one tablespoon. The great thing about spearmint too is that it's often enjoyed by kids and adults. So that makes it a really good addition, not just to this tea, but to other teas and other herbal preparations you might like to make for your family. So now that we have everything in our bowl, you can see it all in there, all we need to do is stir it together. And this should make enough just to fill one of these eight ounce jars. And look at that. It just looks beautiful. If you find you have any trouble getting it to blend evenly, sometimes it's nice to use two spoons and kind of toss it like you would a little salad. It just helps everything blend together nicely. And once you've done that, you can transfer it to a container for storage, and then we will make a tea with this. To brew a cup of tea, use one to two tablespoons of the tea blend per cup of water. If you have a tea strainer, you can place it straight in your cup and then put your tea blend directly in there. You can also use a tea ball, but I'll show you how to use this if you don't have a tea strainer as well. So we'll put our herbal tea blend in there. Pour hot water directly over your herbs. And then it's a good idea to cover it. I like to use a small plate that just keeps the heat in. And then we'll let that steep for 10 to 15 minutes. Once it's done steeping, carefully remove your herbs and then enjoy your tea. If you don't have a tea strainer, then you can use a heat-proof jar. And the great thing about using a heat-proof jar is that you can make this tea in larger amounts, which is really useful if you're making it for your family or to share with friends. All you'll do is put your tea blend in there and pour the water over the top as you did with the tea. And once you have it poured, you can actually close this with a lid if you have one, or you can cover it as I did before with a small plate and let it steep for 10 to 15 minutes. When you're ready to strain out the herbs, you could just place a strainer on top of either another jar or a mug, and take off the lid there or your plate, and then carefully strain out your herbs. You can see this tea is a beautiful color. Enjoy three to four cups of this tea per day while encouraging your stress to melt away. While this tea is a great support, it's important to remember that lifestyle practices play a huge role in how we manage stress. Interestingly enough, most lifestyle practices that support our well-being also support stress reduction. So let's talk about those real quick. The first one is exercise. I think most of us can attest to the fact that exercise helps us with managing stress. Not only does it help manage stress, exercise effectively boosts mood. Depending on your situation, exercise may be the very last thing you feel like doing. But most people who exercise regularly can report increased feelings of happiness and lower feelings of stress, so it's certainly worth a shot. But it's important to remember not to overcomplicate it. A simple walk outside can do wonders. And that brings me to our second lifestyle practice, which is get outside. Growing evidence suggests that natural settings have a significantly positive impact on mood and stress level. In fact, connecting with nature has been shown to have a restorative effect. And this restorative effect is physiological, emotional, and mental. Pretty good, right? It's an excellent idea to exercise outside. But even if you don't exercise, just getting outside, being in nature, sitting outside with a book, laying on a blanket, anything outside is helpful to stress levels. So just keep that in mind. Our third lifestyle practice is meditation. Much research shows the great physiological benefits to regular meditation and mindfulness practices. Besides an increased sense of well-being, many report a lower sense of stress and an increased ability to deal with stressful situations as they arise. Meditation may look slightly different for each person, but it generally has a few common elements. These are focused attention, a comfortable position, and intentional breathing. You can read more about a few options for meditation in our linked blog post below this video. Our fourth lifestyle practice is really the one we're doing today by making this tea. And that is to incorporate supportive herbs. Herbs with nirvine and adaptogenic actions have been shown to ease and support the body's response to stress. All nirvines are unique and work differently from one another. Some nirvines have more sedative and relaxing qualities, while others help ease anxiety and go to work to boost mood. An example of a nirvine would be chamomile and also lemon balm. If you check out the post that's linked below this video, you'll find a list of some other helpful nirvines you might want to include in your daily routine. Adaptogenic herbs are also useful in building resilience. They help strengthen the body's ability to adapt to change and cope with external stressors. The benefits of adaptogenic herbs are not always seen immediately, and they often need to be taken over a period of time. The great thing about adaptogenic herbs is that they're pretty easy to use. They can be incorporated into tinctures and different food preparations. So be sure to check out, again, our link below because we have links within our blog post to a number of recipes where you can include adaptogenic herbs on a daily basis fairly easily. Incorporating stress-reducing lifestyle practices with supportive herbal preparations like our calming tea recipe is a great way to manage stress holistically. My recommendation to you would be to think about these lifestyle practices that we just discussed. Think about the ones that would be the most beneficial to you, and that way you can create your own customized stress management plan. I think you'll find that the combination of lifestyle practices and herbal support is not just a great way to manage stress, but it's a wonderful way to support and enhance your overall well-being. Be sure to visit the link below this video, which goes straight to our article on the Herbal Academy, where you can find even more information on how to manage stress holistically. You'll also find a printable recipe there for you so you can get to making this tea right away. I hope to see you next time, and enjoy sipping your tea.