Herbs for Bronchitis

It's been snowing, sleeting, raining, blowing and otherwise messy here all day. I love this weather for the time being. I have felt like doing nothing more than hibernating this winter. I've been reading a lot (A Sorrow in Our Heart, Eat Pray Love, A Language Older Than Words, Gods Bits of Wood, Rumi, The Path of Transformation, Dark Alliance, various magazines, etc.), writing a lot (here, an overview of Ohio for an upcoming event, journaling, poetry, etc.), making myself delicious and nurturing food, working as little as possible and generally relaxing into a slower state of affairs that feels really appropriate for the most winter-y winter we've had in Ohio for a long time.

I've almost kicked my bronchitis which knocked me flat on my ass before I could ignore all the warning signs that I needed a very bear-like winter -- one where I would come out of my den every once in a while to stretch, fart, look around blearily and assess the situation and head right back inside my cave. I'm even living in a basement -- my bearish winter couldn't have been more appropriately manifested. The intense cough of the bronchitis is daily getting better on a heavy dose of the following herbs:

1/4 cup marshmallow root
1/4 cup mullein
1/4 cup horsetail/shavegrass

Add a few Tbsp of mint or a few bags of ginger to this tea to make it taste better.

I brew these into a quart of hot tea at bedtime and then in the morning use the same herbs from the night before to brew one more quart which I drink throughout the day. The cough is greatly improving though sometimes I still sound like a hiccuping, wheezing high pitched engine as my bronchial tubes pull tightly shut during some of my coughing fits. Though this is really much much better -- each day it happens a little less. (1 quart of this tea a day is probably sufficient for most people -- mine just got so bad, I was drinking two).

I should warn you that if you really need a quick fix for your bronchial problems, herbs are probably not the way to go, as they take time, patience, attention, consistency and commitment. (Nor is waiting until you are drooling with the effort every time you cough before going to the doctor, which is precisely what I did). I do recommend continuing to be active -- even in my bear like, bronchial weakened state, I have managed to go walking with the dog every day this winter -- always with a heavy scarf protecting my mouth and neck from the cold air.

If you had told me 5 months ago that I would spend 2 months of this winter sick, coughing and weak I probably would have laughed at you and gone about my insanely busy schedule, glad I hadn't let your naysaying ruin my perfectly constructed house of cards. I was actually thinking I would start my own business this winter and sat down several times to write out a business plan and compose key emails. But, instead of starting a business, I just got really, really sick. It's funny -- and really fortunate -- how our bodies take over sometimes when our minds stubbornly refuse to accept our limits. I am sure I got sick so that I would not embark on a premature business venture that I am in now way ready to begin.

I am grateful and feel, tentatively, that maybe I just might have learned my lesson this time, maybe, finally. I am cautiously hopeful that this is true. And more confidently hopeful that this winter of hibernation will end gracefully and gratefully with the coming of spring.