Sniff Medicine. Sensory Enhancing Botanical Herbs.
You’re probably wondering from the title of this article, what in the world am I about to talk about, however, I know by the end of reading this you’ll be eager to know where you can get your hands on some Sniff Medicine!
I recently met the wonderful Natasha de Grunwald who’s passion is Breathwork and where her expertise lies. Natasha believes the Breath is one of the most empowering, simple, and natural tools for health, vitality, joy, and self-actualisation. Her aim is to help people around the world lead joyful lives with improved mental, physical and spiritual health.
I quickly learnt from Natasha that breathing is the key for me and could be for many others too. At the end of our session together, I bought a jar of Natasha’s Sniff Medicine that is made by her in small batches.
The Sniff Medicine is based on the ancient Thai recipe originally made by Shamans called Ruesi in Thailand, dating back thousands of years. The Ruesi were the people who would’ve experimented with herbs and put together formulas which Natasha has written about in her book – Thai Massage Dissected.
The Ruesi experimented with herbs and experimented with their bodies which was a very animalistic practice. Animism is where you see the world as everything being alive and that everything in the natural world has a living component to it as well as having a spirit e.g. trees and plant. The Ruesi would’ve tested out their herbal formulas on themselves before then sharing it in their communities.
Herbal inhalers are readily available in Thailand, known as “Ya Dom”, that come in plastic tubes, however Natasha’s Sniff Medicine has been a labour of love developing over the past 8 years where she has added her own touch to create the exquisitely crafted Sniff Medicine that enhances physical, mental, and emotional health. Natasha has been to Thailand many times and studied with numerous teachers over there. She was given the recipe and has added her own personal mantras and magical spells making her unique formula.
This ancient Thai recipe is ideal for anyone who has issues with anxiety, insomnia, brain fog, lack of focus, nausea, respiratory problems, headaches/migraines. It also helps to balance the mind, body and soul as well as calms and energises the nervous system bringing balance. Just by taking a deep breath and inhaling the aromas will permeate the mucus membranes in the body giving you an alchemical explosion for you to experience a shift in mood, focus, and access higher consciousness.
Natasha has been teaching Thai medicine for 30 years and her journey started when she was just 14 years old where she experienced physical and sexual abuse. She found herself on a path of self-destruction which led her to starting her own process of healing and learning about herself which Natasha described as a path of “awakening”.
She began with training in massage as she was interested in helping other people especially through the body as it was her body that had been harmed. She quickly realised that general massage was not for her because she wanted to find something that had a lot of ancient wisdom behind it. She went to Thailand in 1990 and travelled the country, experiencing many massage techniques. Natasha soon fell in love with Thai massage, she found a place to train which was a temple in the middle of Bangkok and ended up being the first person to bring Thai Massage to the UK.
Furthermore, lots of questions came up for her as the theory and philosophy that she learnt didn’t make any sense to her. She felt there were gaps in knowledge, so she went on a mission to understand Thai Medicine and to find the root of it rather than mixing it up with things that most people in the West were doing e.g. with yoga philosophy or Chinese medicine.
Luckily, she came across a teacher who was a Ruesi and he became her teacher too. Whilst learning herself, Natasha was teaching and developing her style and medicine knowledge which was what she truly desired and now able to teach Thai Medicine as part of her course and healing method. In addition, Natasha works with trauma, teaching people to help others in pain through her method called the Trauma Release Method.
Natasha’s interest of Thai Healing came about from a mixture of her own healing journey to understand the body and heal through the body, seeing the body in a positive way, and to help people feel good in their own bodies because she was not feeling good in her body.
She has also done a lot of human dissection – which is why her book is called Thai Massage Dissected as she talks about the body from having cut it open and looked inside it. Her knowledge of the body comes through having touched it, seen it, and felt it rather than reading a book about it.
I have to say I have noticed a huge difference in my skin (which I wasn’t expecting at all). My skin is clearer, and I haven’t had any major breakouts since sniffing this herbal mix every day. For reference I have oily-acne prone skin, so I am used to getting spots all the time. My skin looks more youthful and brighter. When I met Natasha, I noticed how smooth and bright her skin was and she said the secret to it was breathing. I didn’t fully understand what she meant at the time until I could see the results myself of working on my breathing and sniffing these beautiful herbs daily.
I have also noticed how much it grounds me and helps to clear away brain fog making me feel present. I have been searching for years to find something I can rely on in the moment if I am experiencing particularly bad dissociation and this is the ultimate way to stimulate all your senses and to feel grounded.
I notice everyday it smells different and each day I can pick up different aromas of the many herbs in it. It changes with the day and the kind of mood I am in as well as the quality of my breath.
The ingredients in Natasha’s Sniff Medicine are all natural and can last you years if looked after properly. As the herbs ripen over time, I look forward to seeing how my breath changes with it.
Millennium Milli