Rhodiola rosea

Rhodiola has got to be one of my ‘most favouritist’ medicinal herbs. But I’ll admit, I am somewhat biased when it comes to this herb. I first experienced Rhodiola many years ago when I was studying to be a Medical Herbalist. I’m not one for public speaking, so I didn’t relish giving presentations in class. My body would respond to this ordeal like I was about to face an angry mob, rather than a bunch of natural therapies students! My knees would shake, my voice would quiver, and my heart would race. By all indications, my body was telling me to run!

However, because I really wanted to gain my degree in health science, I had to stay and reluctantly ‘box on’. It was awful — I hated every moment of it. I would waste the majority of my thinking capacity (90%) worrying about what my classmates were thinking, as well as focusing on not-wanting-to-be-there. I therefore only had 10% of my brain left to concentrate on what I was actually saying and doing.

I willed (and silently threatened) them not to ask me any questions during the presentation as this would throw me off even further. To make it worse, because I wasn’t concentrating on what I was doing, if I lost my place during the presentation, then I would snow-ball.  I couldn’t figure out where I was up to because some silly idiot in my head kept telling me, ‘Now would be a good time to run, Lisa!’,’Now would be a really good time to run!’

Note: Under the circumstances, and in the state that I was in, I couldn’t ‘fight or flight’. Nothing was left for me bar ‘fright’! Please see my previous blog-post on stress hormones.

When you take Rhodiola you’ll find that situations that would normally ‘throw you’, now seem manageable. When I took Rhodiola in the lead up to my presentation I didn’t really notice anything different — it didn’t sedate me. But when used for ‘my’ stress situation, it made me perceive the whole situation more appropriately — that it wasn’t life threatening at all!

Note: You only really note this herb’s ‘adaptogenic’ affect on you when you’re placed in a stressful situation. You suddenly think, ‘For some very strange reason (!), I am incredibly cool about all of this’…

I got up in front of the class that day and I ‘owned it’. I fielded questions from my class mates, I made jokes, and I spontaneously used props to get my point across. I ultimately did what I was supposed to do — educate my peers about the topic matter. And, I actually enjoyed myself. I felt I represented myself well — instead of acting on behalf of some other blundering idiot! It was a relief to feel resourceful in this situation, rather than out-of-control. I felt like the tables had turned. Now I was using 90% of my  brain to focus on my task, and only 10% on scouting for the nearest exit…

Note:  Rhodiola does more than just make you act more appropriately in stressful situations — as you’ll see below. For example, it improves your mental capacity, accuracy, concentration, and memory!