In today’s post I want to share with you what my home essentials are, and what you might want to have on hand yourself.
Together with these ongoing tutorials, you will develop increasing confidence and security in your ability to address many acute issues at home, for your family, friends, and neighbors.
While my primary tools are homeopathic remedies, I also lean heavily on cell salts and flower essences, which are closely related. My kit is a little more robust than most people need for everyday, but if you are also thinking about a bug-out situation where you might need remedies and not have access to them, it’s worth considering starting with basics and building up. Kits can be great and I also have a couple videos where I explain how you can use your initial stash of remedies, even just a couple of pellets, to graft a virtually infinite supply.
Since the FDA is rattling swords about making remedies increasingly difficult to get, it’s useful to have that tool in your back pocket. In a subsequent post I will share what’s in my home kit and why, and how to graft remedies. I recommend you never let any remedy run out completely.
HOMEOPATHIC HOME RESOURCES
Let’s start with some books. When practitioners learn to use homeopathy for chronic conditions, the selection of remedies expands from tens to thousands, and the rubrics (the detailed symptoms that we use to cross reference and index remedies) expands from tens to tens of thousands. This gives me a much broader framework for supporting the vital force in healing from the complex diseases that abound on all the planes of existence in our modern culture, but it also creates a firehose of options and can lead to that old friend, Analysis Paralysis.
And in simple acutes, which is what I’m teaching you to deal with at home, you really don’t need all that and it’s mostly a distraction. 99% of what you encounter can be attended with about 50 remedies. I regularly refer to desktop references that are designed for consumers and home prescribers.
Anyone who works with me as a chronic client gets acute support included (pretty much indefinitely – I may nudge you to get in for a deeper evaluation if it’s been a long time, but unless it’s been years I generally let the client decide whether they consider themselves “active” or not.) My goal in supporting people with acutes is to teach them to do it themselves, so they can feel that power and freedom of knowing the tools are immediately to hand.
So, with that said, here are two books that I recommend for home prescribing:
Steven Cummings and Dana Ullman, “Everybody’s Guide to Homeopathic Medicine”
Miranda Castro, “Complete Homeopathy Handbook”
(All the Amazon links go through my affiliate portal – I know not everyone is a fan of Amazon, but it is accessible so a good place to send people for the information. You can get these books through many other sources.)
That’s the easy part. The more challenging part is when people ask me about kits. My short answer is that I am going to link you to a couple. My long answer is that none of them are perfect, and if I were making a kit it would be constructed along the lines of the spreadsheet I am going to share with you later where I show you what I carry around with me. However, I carry a much more robust collection of remedies than most people need, and, if you recognize that, even with most consumer kits, you will occasionally need to make an order or a trip to the health food store for a remedy you don’t have, then you’re good to go. We can work with an imperfect match – after all, homeopathy is the science of similars, not identicals, so the healing action is in that gap between the unique person and the standardized remedy. I regularly manage acutes with clients where the recommendations have to be restricted to a short list of remedies because that is what they have.
So, given that preamble, here are some reputable kits at varying price points:
Kits can be expensive, and it’s okay to buy a small starter kit and then slowly add remedies as you learn about them. The Boiron remedies in the blue tubes are generally fine, but there are higher quality options, and you get more doses per vial so they are often cheaper per dose. The most popular pharmacies that sell direct to consumers are Hahnemann Labs and Washington Homeopathic; if you ever have trouble figuring out how to buy remedies I am happy to help, either by putting a hold order in for you or helping you find something through a practitioner-only pharmacy. If I need to order the remedy myself, I can only do that for a client (so become a client already!)
CELL SALTS AND FLOWER ESSENCES
There are two other tools that I consider indispensable; cell salts and flower essences. These are easy to learn and use at home, and, unlike homeopathic remedies, you do not need to be as precise with the dosing.
Cell salts are like homeopathic remedies in many ways; they go through a similar process of preparation as other remedies but are far less dilute. Cell salts contain minute amounts of the material substances. The main ones are numbered 1-12 and can be purchased at many stores or online; we’ll do some tutorials on these as well in the days to come. They are most useful for shepherding the body through a natural process that needs support and encouragement, such as digestion, menstrual issues, development stages, acute illnesses, or recovery and nutritional integration. A terrific primer on how to use these is:
Vinton McCabe, “The Healing Echo”
The basic cell salts are numbered 1-12, and then there is the 12 salt combination. In general, it’s better to pick the one or two that best match the issue at hand, but I will use the combination if I’m unsure, at the first sign of a cold, or if the person is very depleted from severe illness. My rule of thumb is not to take anything for more than two weeks without taking a break of at least a few days. It is important in the process of healing to recognize your body’s own signals; less is always more in my experience.
This is the combination, called Bioplasma.
Here’s an example of a single cell salt, number 8, Mag phos 6x, which is excellent for menstrual cramps.
And now, flower essences. Even as I write this I realize we need to have several posts on the magic of flower essences and how to use them. While there are as many flower essences as there are flowers, the ones that are most readily available are the 38 known as the Bach remedies because they were discovered by Edward Bach, and the combination called Rescue Remedy.
I studied these during my professional training; I know there are some desktop guides available but I don’t have experience with them. That said, I love this book:
Mechtild Scheffer, “Bach Flower Therapy”
And I see that she has a comprehensive guide that I might explore to augment my professional resources, called
Mechtild Scheffer, “The Encyclopedia of Bach Flower Therapy”
This is a useful desk reference, but it includes all the flower essences sold by the Flower Essence Society, many of which you need to buy through them or elsewhere.
Patricia Kaminski, “Flower Essence Repertory”
Many people are familiar with Rescue Remedy, which is a combination of five of the Bach flower essences (Star of Bethlehem, Cherry Plum, Rock Rose, Impatiens, Clematis). This is a truly magical formulation for periods of acute stress, and for children and pets who are experiencing anxiety. It can be useful when worries are muted or when they are intense. A few drops of Rescue Remedy in the water glass, water bottle, dog dish, or under the tongue can generate a grounding energetic touchstone that allows that nervous system to release some fear and find ease.
Keep tuned to these pages for much more on the flower essences. Full kits are expensive and I acquired all of mine individually, but if you are so inclined, this is the gold standard:
Bach Flower Essence kit from Nelsons Pharmacy
While Nelsons is the most famous brand, with the yellow label, other brands are also good provided you can find information on quality. I buy many of my flower essences through the Flower Essence Society, where I am registered as a practitioner. Flower essences are fun to make and easy to use; I highly recommend exploring this powerful and gentle modality.
(I offer custom flower essence blends for $60 with consultation, and include flower essence recommendations and blends for clients where appropriate. If you’d like to delve into flower essences but want some coaching, schedule a consult and I will put together a blend and offer support for learning more.)
That’s a lot of material; let’s stop here. As always, if you have any questions, drop them in the comments or contact me directly through the website. In our next subscriber-only post, I will share what’s in my kit, why, and how to extend your existing stock of remedies.