Using Herbs to deal with Snow and Stress
By Marilyn Zink
It’s been snowing here a lot in Nanaimo, an awful lot. The scenery looks like something people in Eastern Canada are used to.
Here on the West Coast we’re more used to rain in December, with the snow coming in January. It’s currently -6 C and usually it’s 6 C. Let’s see, -6 C is 21.F
The other day I had to get my son from school and the roads were incredibly slippery. Some guy was spinning his tires in the school parking lot and I was afraid he was going to slide into me.
On the way home, I had to go up and down several hills. We live near mountains so our community has a lot of hills. As I travelled home, I had to watch for vehicles spinning sideways and everytime I stopped, it was a little dicey getting the tires to grip and get moving again. If the driver in front of me is going too slow, he loses momentum and starts sliding backward or just comes to a complete stop.
Then it’s hard to get going again as now he is halfway up a hill and I am behind him. This happened on one particular road near our home. Actually, there were five cars behind this one guy. Fortunately he got going again. Then I had to get up enough speed to make it up the hill. There was one last little hill near our home and I made it up that. By the time we got home, I was quite stressed.
I should add here that I’ve had several accidents on snowy roads in the past, nothing serious, fortunately. I was in my parent’s car years agao when we were driving home from Alberta on a snowy highway and the car slid off the road down a steep embankment. Fortunately no one was hurt but a branch had sliced through the car’s roof like it was butter. Another time my car slipped on black ice on the Fraser Highway and spun around 360 degrees several times before it came to a stop on the side of the road.
So now when I get stressed from driving in the snow or get stressed for other reasons, I use essential oils to soothe that away. My favourites are geranium and lavender, as the first one helps balance your nervous system and the second one is calming and relaxing.
One of my favourite ways to use essential oils is in the bath, but you can also use them in massage oils. You can find out more about how I use essential oils in my little ebook Healing Baths, which is actually a bonus to A Herbal Christmas. Deal with that winter stress and go here now http://www.herbalcollective.ca/christmas-ebook.html
How to you deal with stress from winter driving? Let me know by posting your comments below.
Marilyn Zink is the publisher.editor of the Herbal Collective magazine, www.herbalcollective.ca
December 19th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
I too got stuck in the storm on Wed. It was clear when we left home and next thing I knew I was in a blizzard. It was so bad–I was literally sliding all over the highway–that I pulled over, grabbed a donut–I NEVER eat donuts–and went to the washroom and did a round of EFT! The ride home was treacherous but the EFT calmed me down. I just clicked on my hazards when faster cars were behind me.
They shipped all of BC’s snow tires out east! Ontario and Quebec now have mandatory snow tire laws and I guess they were short. How ironic is that?