In January, we fully embrace the deep winter. It feels like the biggest exhale following a period of tightly held breath as we navigate through the rollercoaster that often is the holidays. While the end of the year brings joy and magic, it also often requires an expenditure of a lot of energy. In January, we enter a new and fresh year, and this also feels like the time in which we get to truly embrace rest and recuperation.

And yet, while this is a time of quiet and introspection, there is also the faintest buzzing that starts to hum a song in January. As we embrace the time of rest, January also invokes a bit of a dreaminess. With the celebration of a new year, we also start to just ever so slightly think of the months that lie ahead. What does this year hold for us? What new memories will we create? What new people may cross our path? What might we learn that we have not yet before?

Perhaps along with this dreaminess, this comes with the joy of planning for a trip to somewhere new. Travel can be such nourishment of the soul, and can bring new perspectives and awareness of this incredible planet we get to live on. We get to be acquainted with new lands and cultures, get to try new foods, make new friends, and more.

While the benefits outweigh the downsides, there is also no doubt that travel can also have tough moments (neck cricks or hip pain after sitting on a cramped overseas flight for 9 hours anyone?). And yet, this is another opportunity to call upon our beautiful plant allies to support us as we navigate airports, train stations, or even the classic road trip!

Get to Know The Plants of the Land

In addition to working with your known plant allies you have an established relationship with, a beautiful way to weave your herbal practice into your travel plans is setting the intention to learn the herbs of the land where you are traveling to. Moreover, you can research the relationship the people who stewarded the land of your destination had with the native plants – how they worked with them, what plants were supportive for ailments, what plants were food allies, or even what plants were utilized in important ceremonies or traditions.

Learning the native plants of the land where you are seeking to visit can bring a whole new level of appreciation and understanding of the local ecosystems and culture. However, as always, it is important to recognize that you are a guest of the land and respect, reverence, and reciprocity apply more than ever when you are visiting lands you do not originate from. If you are seeking to harvest or forage plants, it is of utmost importance to ensure that the plants you are harvesting are not endangered or threatened. It is also important to have awareness as best as you can of plants that are sacred to closed cultures and may be at risk from exploitation or use in ways that are not respectful or in relationship with the plants. It can also be beautiful to plan to bring gifts or offerings to give in return to the Earth.

Using Herbs to Prepare for Travel

As aforementioned, the actual activity of travel can be a bit tough on our mental and physical wellbeing. Whether it is breathing stuffy, recycled air on a long flight, not getting to stretch your legs enough on a roadtrip, upset digestion from trying foods your stomach may not agree with, or inflammation caused from stress of trying to dash through the airport to catch a connecting flight, travel no doubt can put us through the ringer. The good news is that we can work with herbal allies leading up to our trip to better prepare our bodies to be able to navigate these less than ideal aspects of travel:

~Flood the Body with Nourishing Herbs. This is often a staple we recommend with any endeavour working with herbs because it is just so important. We are most optimal in any situation when we are adequately nourished and our body has all of the vitamins and minerals it needs to thrive. Therefore, a simple yet effective way we can prepare for travel is to work with overnight infusions of wild weed herbs such as Nettle, Oatstraw, Alfalfa, or Chickweed for the weeks leading up to the trip. It can also be cozy and nourishing to make daily decoctions of root herbs like Dandelion Root or Burdock as well!

~Work with Food Medicine. Incorporating herbs into the meals we eat leading up to travel by adding them to our meals is also an easy and simple way to work in relationship to the plants. Adding Turmeric or Ginger to dishes can help to reduce inflammation that may exist already, or help reduce the levels of it occurring as we are on our trip. Additionally adding adaptogenic herbs such as Rhodiola Root or medicinal mushrooms like Reishi or Turkey Tail to your daily coffee, soup broths, or other dishes can help give the body a boost to better adapt to environments and situations it is not used to.

Build an Herbal Travel Kit

As the adage goes, its more difficult to fail when one is adequately prepared! While it is of course not realistic to bring your entire home apothecary with you (we wish!), there are a few ways we can pack our herbal allies along with us to support us in our travels:

~Tinctures. Packing a few tinctures in your toiletries kit is an incredibly travel-friendly way to bring our herbal allies along for the ride. If flying, tinctures are most commonly only 2 ounces as well, meaning they pass TSA standards! When selecting which tinctures to bring, opt for ones that can help to boost the immune system such as Elderberry or Thyme extractions. Additionally it can be a really good idea to pack some nervine tinctures that can help regulate our nervous system when we may experience stress or emotions may run high. Opt for a yummy Lavender or Damiana Gycerite, or perhaps reach for tinctures with Skullcap or Tulsi extractions.

~Herbs for Respiratory Support. This can be particularly helpful when on longer flights where the air can leave us feeling congested or dry our sensitive mucous membranes. It can be helpful to bring or prepare a balm with lung-clearing aromatic herbs such as Sage or Eucalyptus to rub beneath your nose, or dab essential oils of these on a scarf you can wear around your neck and gently breath in.

~Herbal First Aid. When traveling, you never know what could be in store, including bumps and bruises. It can be helpful to also consider an herbal first aid kit as part of your herbal travel repertoire. To help you out, we have an entire blog post about herbal first aid you can check out! 

While it’s hard to believe that we are starting another new year, we are so very grateful and excited for what 2025 will bring. We thank this beautiful community for their support and patronage, and if travel plans are in the cards for this year, we wish you so well on your trip! May you make the most beautiful of memories (and take photos so we can live vicariously through you!)