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October 8, 2025

Happy Wednesday, Reader!

Many of us have herbs still hanging on in our gardens in these early days of Fall. Even here in North Idaho, I've got a HUGE patch of one of my favorite herbs growing still, and may you have it too?

You need this herb in your Home Medicine Chest!

Ready for it?

It's LEMON BALM (Melissa officinalis)! Yay!

Especially as we veer into cold and flu season, this is just an absolutely wonderful herb to have available in tincture form or as a glycerite.

If you're a gardener like I am, you likely have huge bunches of it right now, as the summer comes to a close, and before it gets too cold. It's time to harvest it!

Here's why:

Lemon balm is incredible.

A member of the mint (Lamiaceae) family, it contains chemicals, namely citral and citronellal that provide powerful aromatic benefits. It's rich in phenols and has many anti-oxidant qualities, which we all need.

I love using lemon balm with children and adults. It's calming and soothing to the nervous system and does a great job calming anxiety and irritability gently. It improves mood, relieves stress, and even promotes healthy sleep. Its flavor is pleasant too!

Besides its many benefits for our emotions and stress response, lemon balm is an incredible antiviral herb---one of my favorites to work with!

Here's a bullet list of some of the ways to work with lemon balm:

• Emotional support (calms, soothes, helps sleep)
• Anti-viral: Especially for viruses in the herpes family (chicken pox, the simplex types, shingles, etc.) it has a special affinity for lessening the intensity and duration of the outbreaks and the pain.
• May protect the body against radiation. In one study, researchers found that X-ray technicians who drank lemon balm had significantly reduced DNA damage.
• Improves cognitive function. Now this one is exciting! This is an herb I'm adding to my regimen on the daily instead of just when I need it.
• Relieves indigestion. Because it's a mild antispasmodic, it can support healthy digestion in smooth muscles.
• Reduces menstrual cramping. Due to the same reason it's helpful with indigestion, it may also help with spasms in the uterus during menses.
• Headaches! Lemon balm is helpful for headaches, and is one of my favorites in a wonderful migraine blend.​
• It can lessen the pain from toothaches, wasp stings, and more. You can make a little spit poultice and apply the leaf directly to the area.
• And more!

I get asked if people who struggle with low thyroid should avoid lemon balm. This pseudo-myth is due to an in vitro study that showed lemon balm may inhibit the function of the thyroid. However, this has never been proven to be true in humans, to my knowledge. There's just not very much evidence. If you're on thyroid medications, be sure to consult with your medical doctor before using lemon balm.

You can prepare lemon balm in herbal teas, tinctures (see how to make lemon balm tincture here), glycerites, honeys, vinegars, and syrups. In fact, here's how to make a delicious lemon balm syrup:

Lemon Balm Syrup Recipe

You'll need:

2-3 cups fresh lemon balm leaves (if you have some stems, it's ok--just chop them up)

5 cups of water (we'll be making a decoction, which will pull constituents out and allow the honey to absorb)

1 1/2 cups raw honey.

Directions:

Place the leaves into a pan. Add the water, making sure the leaves are covered. Bring the water to a boil, then turn the heat down to a slow simmer. Partially cover the pan to reduce the amount of evaporation (which carries off the volatile oils---you're going to lose some of these no matter what, so it is what it is).

Alternatively, you could steep your lemon balm in just simmered water overnight and proceed. Be sure to cover the jar if you do this, and use about 4 cups of water instead of 5.

Measure out about 3 cups of the lemon balm tea, and be sure the tea is cooled to about 100 degrees or less because you'll be adding your honey next, and you don't want it too hot or the invertase enzyme in the honey will be destroyed.

Add your honey to the tea. If you have 3 cups of tea, then 1 1/2 cups of honey should keep it shelf stable for a few weeks in the fridge.

Stir well and store.

Optional: You can add some ginger or lemon juice if you like for additional flavor. You can also add a cinnamon stick during the steeping or simmering process for more flavor too.

Take a daily spoonful, use as a sweetener in other herbal teas, enjoy wherever syrup is needed!

SAFETY: Do not give raw honey to infants under 12 months old due to the potential dangers of Clostridium botulinum.

Enjoy!

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Encouragement and Inspiration

It's been a little moment since I've written my E&I section in the Wednesday notes... and I miss them. Eventually, I'll start a brand new list for these (coming soon!), but for now, this is on my heart and mind to get back to doing for you.

It's so easy to go down negative thinking rabbit holes, especially with the state of the world as it is and what things are showing up in our media channels.

So many of us believe our emotions just happen to us or are caused by outside things. But they don't, and they aren't.

We think that our feelings of frustration, resentment, fear, and anger are caused by our challenging family members or that demanding job with the unappreciative boss or a husband who doesn't seem to cherish us the way we want.

But this is wrong thinking!

You see, our brains are powerful, and it listens to us!

It actually takes our thoughts, and it goes to work to make us right. Our brains create the exact feelings we tell it to make for us! No person can cause us to feel what we don't want to feel.

Essentially, this means that if we choose to engage in "stinking thinking," we're allowing ourselves to get stuck in a mire of really horrible (hormonal) thought "soup." Negative, heavy thoughts really do harm us.

I know that takes a moment to wrap your mind around. But the truth is that others don't cause our negative feelings. It's all about the thoughts that we're having about a person, situation, or circumstance.

It's the thoughts.

Our thoughts are the language of the mind, and our feelings are the language of the heart. If you want to feel good, change your thinking. If you want more love in your life....think more loving thoughts.

It's really as simple as that.

That doesn't mean it's easy....but it is simple.

You can't ever have a better experience of your life than the thoughts you choose to think about it and the events you experience.

Take captive your thoughts so that you can have the life you want to have, even if your circumstances aren't what you would have chosen.

Those thoughts of frustration and resentment? They are NEVER going to give you the life of beauty and joy that you really want. They ARE going to give you a life of resentment and frustration and on top of that make you a person nobody wants to be around.

You get to choose. I get to choose!

Isn't that wonderful?

This is a challenging thought process, but the fact is that you were made for this life! Your one and only beautiful life! You are capable of creating the future you want.

Life is short, so choose your thoughts wisely.

If you find they're not giving you the feelings you desire, then change them. I wrote about my RYM (Renewing Your Mind) inside our 21 Day Joy Course, and if you're a member in the Confident Herbalist Tribe, you have access to that course besides all the others! Maybe go and look at that. I'll be sure to talk about the RYM Cycle some more in the future too. It's been incredibly helpful for me.

In fact, if you're interested in knowing this thought cycle, please hit reply and just say, "yes"! Or, you're welcome to write a lot more if you like. I love reading your replies.

And...some thoughts from the book of truth:

"Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10

and

"Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope." Romans 5:3-4

Take captive your thoughts!

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Hugs, Health, and Herbs,

Heidi

P.S. If you didn't pick it up already, you can download your copy of FREE Fall Diffuser Blends here.

P.P.S. We'll be opening enrollment for our family herbalism course and certification option soon! Stay tuned!

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"The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace." --Numbers 6:24-26

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