A helpful template for herb of the month study notes
with an holistic herbalist approach
Hi everyone,
I am focusing my monthly herbal studies in a new way this year, and I created a template to help me stay focused.
Of course, you are invited to study along with me!
I will figure out how to post the template on Substack so I can share it with you :-) I am still learning my way around Substack, so thank you for your patience.
Here’s a little background on how this template came to be:
Last year, in my Tellico Plains Herbalist study group, we chose an herb to study each month based on the seasons and what herbs were growing at the time. This is a beautiful way to study herbs and connect more with the seasons and the earth. To help organize our studies last year, we chose Rosalee De La Foret’s book Wild Remedies as a study guide. We will continue to use her book this year as it is a wonderful reference book.
This year, I am creating a new template for my study notes that I will share with the group. The template is called Herbal Joy - Holistic Herbalism Notes.
The template reflects one of my main intentions in working with herbs, which is to listen to my body and learn to work with herbs that support my body.
I will still choose an herb of the month, but I will start by focusing on my body.
Each month, I am choosing an area of my health that I would like to support, checking in with my body’s energetics, and then choosing an herb that can support my body and energetics in this area.
Lots of herbalists talk about the importance of learning your own body’s energetics, and have a practice of doing this. So this is not a unique idea. However, I feel that this study page will be a wonderful way for me to remind myself to tune into my body and take an holistic approach to my studies.
The inspiration for choosing an area of health to support comes from Commonwealth Holistic Herbalism’s Herbal Community Care Toolkit. The toolkit has chapters that tie to different areas of health, such as Heart Health, Blood Pressure, Cholesterol, etc… The toolkit focuses on herbs that are easy to obtain; many of the herbs can be found at a grocery store. The toolkit is priced so that it is affordable and Katya and Ryn at Commonwealth encourage their students to use the Herbal Community Care Toolkit as a study guide. How does it get any better than that?
Commonwealth Holistic Herbalism also has a free online course titled Four Keys to Holistic Herbalism. If you’re not sure what holistic herbalism means, this is a wonderful resource. It is free and easy to understand. I have woven these four keys into my study template to help me remember to take an holistic approach in my own work with herbs.
If you would like to join the study group, please purchase the Herbal Community Care Toolkit from Commonwealth Holistic Herbalism.
I do not get any money from recommending them, I just think they have an awesome toolkit! They have pricing options for folks who need assistance, so please see that info on their page.
We will watch the videos on our own, I will not be copying or sharing that information here.
I will be sharing what herb I chose to support my body, how I chose it, how I worked with it, and how my body responded.
I would love to hear about your experience listening to your body and working with the herb of the month that you choose.
Keep scrolling for a pasted copy of the template.
What’s next?
I will post a pdf version for you as soon as I figure out how to do that. The template could use some better graphic design, so please be kind. I will work on that as time allows.
Then, in a separate post, I will share my personal template for the start of January. At the end of the month, I will update it with my notes on my work with the herb.
As we study together, you can share your experiences through the discussion threads. I may also create a zoom meeting once a month so we can chat about our studies together. Please let me know if that sounds fun to you!
HERBAL JOY
HOLISTIC HERBALISM STUDY NOTES
MONTH:
________________________________________________
INTENTION:
Listen to my body and be aware of my body’s energetics. Focus on an aspect of my health each month and choose an herb of the month to support this aspect of my health.