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Herbal Remedies for Relaxation that Might Already be in your Garden

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If you suffer from anxiety, but don’t feel it’s severe enough to go the pharmaceutical route, perhaps you should consider herbal remedies to ease anxiety. There are a number of herbal remedies, proven to help relax your mind, and ease stress. Kava, chamomile, and passionflower are all clinically proven to reduce stress significantly.

Amazingly, there are some relaxing herbs that are so common in many gardens, some of them are considered by many to be weeds. Whether or not these plants grow wild in your area, this list of relaxing and commonly found herbs should provide some ideas to alleviate anxiety naturally.

Catnip

That’s right, catnip isn’t just for cats! It certainly doesn’t have the same intoxicating effect on humans as it does on cats, but it does help with relaxation and alleviating anxiety. Catnip possesses mild calming and relaxing properties, making it especially great for children who can’t sleep. The most common method of ingestion is to dry the buds and leaves and use them as a tea. Catnip can be harvested nearly all year in some climates and grows wild in many areas.

Lemon Balm

 Lemon balm is intoxicating by smell alone. The fragrant leaf provides relief of anxiety through aromatherapy and ingestion. This herbal remedy for relaxation provides sedative effects when ingested. The most common and inexpensive way to enjoy this relaxing herb, is to harvest the leaves, which grow wild in many areas, let them dry, and make it into a tea. Let the leaves steep for a few minutes, then enjoy a delicious and relaxing herbal sedative. The tea has a mild citrus flavor, and also contains many antioxidants.

Red Clover

Red clover is a nutritional, and medicinal powerhouse. In addition to its array of minerals and vitamins, red clover has a multitude of medicinal uses as well. Some of the red clover’s medicinal uses include an expectorant, a blood thinner, an anti-inflammatory, and of course a sedative.

The easiest and most beneficial way to enjoy red clovers is to eat them fresh! The flowers can be added to salads, for a gorgeous, tasty, and nutritional punch. The flowers can also be dried and used as a tea. Red clovers are rarely grown intentionally. Instead of mowing down those gorgeous little buds, let them grow, pick them, and reap the benefits of one of the most multifaceted herbal remedies found in your yard.

Lavender

A staple in most perennial herb gardens, lavender provides more than a little beauty and a fragrant smell. Lavender is well known to have relaxing aromatherapy properties and is the most popular of the herbal remedies listed. What’s less well-known, however, is you can ingest the buds directly, for an even more profound sedative effect.

Like red clovers, the flowers from lavender can be ingested directly. A lavender garnish isn’t unheard of in many gourmet settings, but it’s not exactly common either. In Germany, a tea consisting partially of dried lavender leaves is used for relaxing sleep aid and has received official recognition for its ability to promote restful sleep. Whether you add some lavender to a bath, drink some in a tea, or make a potpourri, out of it, one sniff, or taste of this heady flower will immediately put your mind at ease.