A voice for
herbal medicine

We share traditional, scientific and practical insights written by experienced herbalists and health experts from the world of herbal medicine and natural health

← Back to Insights

5 herbs to enhance your mood in winter

  • Simon Mills
    Simon Mills

    I am a Cambridge medical sciences graduate and have been a herbal practitioner in Exeter since 1977. In that time I have led the main professional and trade organizations for herbal medicine in the UK and served on Government and House of Lords committees. I have written standard textbooks used by herbal practitioners around the world, including with Professor Kerry Bone from Australia.

    I was involved in academic work for many years, co-founding the University of Exeter pioneering Centre for Complementary Health Studies in 1987 (where we built a complementary research and postgraduate teaching programme from scratch), then at Peninsula the first integrated health course at a UK medical school, and the first Masters degree in herbal medicine in the USA, at the Maryland University of Integrative Health.

    I am particularly fascinated by the insights we can distill from the millions of intelligent people who over many centuries needed plants to survive. Mostly I want to learn and share the old skills, to experience healing plants as characters, that can help us fend off ill health. My passion for offering people tools to look after themselves and their families has led me to work with the founders of the College of Medicine on pioneering national self care and social prescribing projects. I am now the College Self Care Lead and also Herbal Strategist at Pukka Herbs.

    Listen to our Herbcast podcast with Simon Mills as the host.

  • 7:34 reading time (ish)
  • Ayurvedic Herbal Medicine Mood & Mind Stress & Sleep Western Herbal Medicine

Written by Simon Mills

As we move through the dark days of the year, and in this 2020/21 season the extra pressures imposed by pandemic restrictions, it is not surprising that doctors report more demand for antidepressant prescriptions. Of course there are many people who suffer the awful bleakness of severe long-term or recurrent depression, for whom a very wide range of treatments must be considered. However antidepressants are increasingly prescribed to comfort unhappy patients or to alleviate symptoms of stress.

The natural way to lift your spirit

Where our melancholia has not reached the status of depressive illness we can usefully be reminded that there are natural approaches to lift our spirits. Indeed nature can provide the best reassurance when we are down: if one can step outside, of both one’s home and one’s self, and can get fully immersed in the cycles of life, one sees that all things are rhythmic. At the very darkest, coldest, lifeless part of the year when some animals hibernate (and show blood markers similar to clinical depression), the seeds and rootstocks are also at their most potent, bursting to get going again for the spring. Even hibernating (depressed) animals know that they will emerge with the next turn of the seasons. For many centuries humans have collectively laughed at this darkness: northern hemisphere midwinter festivals, Christmas, the Roman Saturnalia, Jewish Hannukah, Slavic Koliada, pagan Yule, Persian Yalda, or Asian Dongzhi, all are time to party! Earlier in the season the Hindu festival Diwali symbolizes the victory of light over darkness and good over evil. Often the best way to beat the winter blues is in experiencing that this is the way of the world, that darkness has its role in the cycle as the precursor of light and life.

Being able to get out for a walk in nature, taking a moment to look and be there with the plants, can be enormously enriching and mood enhancing, a true healing presence. You can even bring nature home with you. The smallest space at home can become a place to nurture it. In Japan you can find little gardens on doorsteps, in any nook and cranny, in even the most blighted urban landscapes. Tending a garden, even in pots, is a great source of serenity. The act of walking is also important: exercise is probably the most efficient and speedy way to stir the happy neurotransmitters and hormones.

Simon Mills

I am a Cambridge medical sciences graduate and have been a herbal practitioner in Exeter since 1977. In that time I have led the main professional and trade organizations for herbal medicine in the... Read more

Sign up to our Newsletter

Sign up to our newsletter to receive the very latest in herbal insights.

Sign up to our newsletter