Herbs: a totally rad way to get in the mood for Valentine’s Day. Crystal Sublette, a master herbalist at Alternative Health and Herbs in Albany, has several suggestions for amping up your date night. Always consult your herbalist and your doctor before trying something new!
For dudes: tinctures of Sarsaparilla, Egyptian blue lotus, and yohimbe (taken orally in drop form) can be invigorating and are known for their aphrodisiac properties. Similarly, ladies can pop some dong quai, chase tree berry, or blessed thistle, for a more stimulating evening of romance.
If you just need some help relaxing after the workday before your date, you can get a specialized formula with more holistic calmative properties, or fix yourself a cup of tea.
“We have a couple of formulas that are really good in helping to calm the system overall. There’s a formula mixture of hops, valerian, and skullcap, and that is a very good mixture to just help calm the nerves, get the mind from racing, and just to help calm you down,” says Sublette. “[Chamomile] is a more popular [tea] and it is definitely a very good herb to help calm the system.”
And to prevent your romantic 5-course dinner from dragging down your moves, have ginger tea as a cap to your meal, or get a little creative with your garnish.
“For those that are going out and eating an expensive dinner, and they have that little green piece of parsley on the side of their plate—please eat it. It is very good for the digestion and it will help immensely in digesting their food,” she adds.
Once you’ve made it back to your place, put a few drops of essential oil in a diffuser for a romantic atmosphere.
“The best essential oil—if you want to get the senses going in a more romantic way—is ylang ylang,” says Sublette, “…that is revered as the romantic essential oil.”
by Mica Habarad
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