Finding calm

It can be difficult to find the calm amidst the raucous of chaos. However, there usually is at least one small opportunity for a moment of stillness, even when it seems like so many things are moving around us. That moment is just difficult to spot sometimes.

I like to bring herbs with me into spaces and places where I know there will be some variety of chaos. In these situations, the goal is not to make everything orderly and easygoing, but instead, to embrace the unpredictable movement and find that tiny slice of calm, wherever it might be hiding out.

This past week I started playing drums at a new weekly gig with a jazz quintet. There were a lot of moving parts: the group is new and we did not do any rehearsals, so many of us were just meeting each other for the first time at the start of the gig; the restaurant we played had just reopened after a change in ownership, so people were greeted with some shifts and changes in a place they used to know; there were some complexities among the musicians involving who should choose which songs we should play and how we should get paid; my snares on my snare drum kept coming a little loose; it started to rain and people were sitting on a patio. Definitely some chaos.

I was aware that this could be a mildly stressful environment - one that could make me feel a little bit tense - so I prepared an herbal decoction of a classical formula to sip on my drive into the city. The formula I worked with is called Gan Mai Da Zao Tang or Licorice, Wheat, and Jujube Deoction. It contains only three herbs: licorice root, wheat grains, and jujube dates. This formula used to be thought of as a women’s formula, back when women were “diagnosed” with hysteria and needed to be treated for their intense emotions. Nowadays, Gan Mai Da Zao Tang is classified as a formula that nourishes the Heart and calms the Shen (spirit).

Wheat (Fu Xiao Mai) is cool and sweet, with an affinity for the Heart. It calms and grounds.

Licorice root (Gan Cao) is neutral and sweet, with an affinity for the Heart, Lungs, Spleen, and Stomach. In this formula, it nourishes the Heart and tonifies Qi (supports life force energy).

Jujube dates (Da Zao) are warm and sweet, with an affinity for the Spleen and Stomach. They support digestion, calm the Shen, and help all the herbs in the formula harmonize with one another.

I drank this decoction on the way to the gig and kept a bottle of the granules in my cymbal bag, which made it possible to prepare another cup of the formula at the short break in between sets. Though not sedating, this formula does help one feel calmer, with a slowed speed and a sensation of “it’s going to be ok”.

Oh, and by the way, unlike some Chinese formulas, this one tastes great as well because of the natural sweetness of the herbs.

Herbal medicine doesn’t have to be super complicated. Sometimes the formula is made of only a few herbs. The small break to work with the tea is part of the medicine, and then we go onward with the day or the night, knowing that the herbs are alongside us, within us.

Hope you’re all having a nice turn toward summer and are feeling well!

Artemisia

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