I have been dancing with EBV - Epstein Barr Virus, for a long time. It is actually a virus that was responsible for pointing me in the direction of becoming an herbalist and flower essence practitioner - although I would not have belived it at the time. I can see it now, and my perspective on the experience of things like viral infections has changed dramatically. It's still a mixed bag, because even though viruses help us to adapt through genetic encoding, it's not always the most pleasant ride. And it takes a massive perspective shift away from the Western Medicical Complex that we are all indoctrinated with. AND......most importantly, that can only happen (or at least seems to) through dancing with these things ourselves and developing relationship with them. It hardly matters if I tell you my perspective and you agree that it sounds good......even if you do completely agree, there is still an undoing that must take place while a reconvening also occurs. I wish it were easier than that, but we really do have to all take our own journey. We are all in this together....kinda sorta.....execept we each have our own jouney, our own role, while also being connected to everyone and everything else.........and our journey affects everyone and everything else.....so we actually maybe are all in this together.
I will refrain from giving much background and education on EBV itself. I will say that it is very challenging to work with and as a practitioner specializing in Lyme and other chronic conditions, I find EBV to be much harder to work with than Lyme.
The usual route that people tend to go with EBV, and this includes most of the approaches from holistic practitioners, is to deal with the flare ups when they happen, often by attempting to kick back the suspected microbial levels, and addressing any symptoms that may come up. In the in between time, when the body is not in an active flare up, regular nourisment continues. I used to do this. I sometimes still do.
ANd..........while I can say that it does have it's place and can be effective, it is often incredibly short sighted. For one, I don't think what we are actually doing is kicking back microbial levels.....I mean maybe.....but we don't have any sort of tests to prove that, and we have taken this perspective, because it is the one that fits most with the whole germ kill theory and allopathic views that we have all been indoctrinated with.
What I think is happening is far more complex and probably a lot more simple at the same time. Likely our liver is sluggish, our lymph is sluggish and our tolerance cup gets fuller and the body struggles to process things like histamine. As those levels gradually increase, so does inflammation through the. mast cells (which actually produce histamine), so we get activation of those going on, which are the cause of the majority of our inflammation. We get caught in these cycles. So then we start paying more attention. We might reach for the anti viral herbs, playing out the scenario we think is true, that the lomatium or lemon balm, or baikal skullcap is going in there and killing the virus. Again, maybe.....but we have NOTHING that can prove this is what is happening. And if you understand how EBV works in the body, it actually runs back into dormancy, which is when it replicates......so you have this cycle within the other cycle...or underneath it or something like that.
Most practitioners will chase this around over and over again, while starting to add things to address methylation processes, when things start to plateau, and also continuing to nourish the body systems. So we do start to see progress, and then we think....oh we killed some of the EBV....horray this must work. And whether this is true or not, it does seem to work.....until it doesn't....which is. usually when we encounter some sort of big, huge, tremendous, stupendous, and monumental (you get the point) stressor in our lives, and we are thrown for a huge loop.
I have worked with my EBV for years, and worked with many clients and will say that this pretty much happens to everyone.
So back near to the beginning we go......
OR.......
There is another way.
Bring in flower essences.
Delta Gardens makes an essence called EB Vitality 2. The 2, becuase it used to be 1 and was recreated in a different blend, and 2 follows 1, and it would hardly make sense to call it 5. (HAHA)
Flower Essences work differently. They are far more effective for the BIGGER work, than herbs alone are. THEY help us shift the cycles. They also, once we experience them...hopefully., maybe...help us to shift our perspetive through widening our perception. (And I know a lot of people say.....oh I know we are from nature and virues are part of nature, and there is relationship going on....i get it...i truly do.........well.......,lots of people say that.....and there is a huge difference between saying it.....believing it is true....and living it. VERY FEW people actualy live it. I would say I do much of the time, but still catch myself not doing so a lot of the time too. (and I have been doing this at least 25 years and quite truthfully it has nothing to do with skills or herbalism or clientele.....it has to do with life and self trust). I have amazing teachers who have showed up at the right time in my life who have taught and continue to teach me how to SEE. If you dont have those teachers yet, find them.)
So what happens that makes the flower essences differently? Well, we aren't really sure, but we give it our best guess based on the repeated experiences of "It works!"
When EB Vitality is worked with (1,2, or the probably eventual coming of 5), it coaxes the microbes out of dormancy. What this results in, at least for me, and a few clients I have worked with, is a low level crappy feeling for the time actively working with this essence). It doesn't ever bring in a full flare, and in fact, the flares that might occur during the time, tend to be much more mellow in severity and duration and greater space starts to happen between them. Its more of a kinda tired, lacking energy, and then all of the things that I experience in a flare up, being more or less present, but in a way that doesn't knock me on my ass. So I will get a bit of sinus stuff, but manage that with a neti pot or snuff. I will have low level headaches, which i can work with white willow bark, or a heating pad on my neck to relieve most of the time. My digestion is a bit wonky, but I am overall much less reactive to things that previously caused the stronger histamine reactions. I get fatigued more easily, but nothing that forces me to take a nap.
All this while I am still using my herbs for things like inflammation, cerebral spinal fluid (BTW< this is where EBV hangs out and probably CV too), mast cell activation, histamine, mitochondria repair, and blood herbs. I am still paying attention to what I eat (I eat really really well). I am getting movement daily, i am hydrating, and I am tending to my nervous system with reduction of stimulii and nervine herbs.
I typically continue this for 4 to 6 weeks. Or as long as I can tolerate the low level ick.
I then stop, usually because I have finished the bottle. And what I notice is within a day or two, the low level is has subsided and I feel pretty darn good again. What I then notice months out is that I have shifted the flare cycles. They don't happen as often. When they do happen, they are less severe, usually lasting maybe a day or maybe just an evening.
The first time I worked with this in this way was about 4 or 5 years ago. I had been having a flare up every 3 weeks, like clockwork. It would last a week. I would bring in all of the herbs to fight it back. I would get better. Three weeks would roughly pass, and I would get a flare up again (and it. may or may not been following hormone cycles, which if it was, would indicate liver function). Then I did this process for 6 weeks with the essence, and my flares shifted to one maybe every 3 months or so. It was shorter. It was less severe.
I just completed a round of about 6 weeks of working with it, and will say it is similiar in nature, as the day after I stopped I started feeling good again. My flares got a bit kicked up after I had covid this past January, although nothign like the every 3 weeks I had years ago (and those, Im certain, were do to the tremendous amout of stress I put on myself running a brick and mortar apothecary & wellness center, hosting workshops, teaching class and events, and maintaining a private practice, as well as continuing my education - total burn out). Since Covid, I would say, there has just been this gradual improvement of the flares that maybe i noticed every 4 to 6 weeks, but only lasting for a day or two .....but so many other weird things with covid too that may or may not be connected - some of which I am still working through and learning from). ..........So not a lot of time has passed for me to see how this go round will shift yet, but upon stopping, I went "Oh this is familiar". CV is still a wild card.....and I think we will see more things through the years that we will be able to trace back to it......but for now we work with what we got, where we are at.
THere are other ways to work with the EB VItality 2 essence from Delta Gardens. The best thing to do if you want to work with it, is to, at the very least, consult with a flower essence practitioner first. They can help to guide and support you. However, that is not a requirement. Anyone can purchase this blend from Delta Gardens and work with it. You can use this article as a guide and then shift and change it accordingly. However......give it time. Flower Essences dont work like pharmacueticals. They don't work like herbs. Flower Essences work how flower essences work....and my recommendation would be to work with this essence for 4 to 6 weeks and notice what shifts and changes and reorganizes.
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