How to work through your anxiety and rediscover your joy.
One of the first things we cover in most of the MM programs or classes is the Six Steps to Healing by Susun Weed.
Hint: Steps 00-03 are often overlooked, while steps 04-06 can be accompanied by unwarranted side effects or dependency.
This guide can be adapted and referred to for any physical, spiritual or emotional dis-ease to begin (or begin again) on your healing journey.
The Six Steps to Healing were originally put together by herbalist Susun Weed as a protocol for healing cancer. Overtime this 'protocol' has been found useful for any type of healing! Maryn Green from Indie Birth did a great job adapting this concept for birth. You can listen to the podcast here.
Today, I am going to break down how you can move through anxiety and restore your nervous system using this protocol.
Anxiety Relief in Six-Eight Steps
Step 0: Do Nothing [The Surrender]
When you notice the anxious feelings beginning to arise, pause. Notice and surrender. Unplug from current activities, take a break, sleep.
Step 1: Collect Information
What are you feeling in your body? Feel your feet on the floor and check in.
Is your anxiety arising from an inside source such as fear or shame? Or is it arising from an outside source in your current surroundings?
Step 2: Engage the Energy
Get natural light. Step outside for a few breaths to connect with nature and/or open up the windows to let the light in. (Studies show getting outside before 9 am daily can increase happiness and regulate your circadian rhythm.)
'Change the channel.' Take a break from the news, social media, and anxiety-inducing situations. Turn on feel-good music. Pray, meditate or reconnect in whatever way resonates with you.
Laugh! Play with a pet or call a friend. Laughing produces happy hormones.
Step 3: Nourish and Tonify
Check in with your basic needs. Are you fed, hydrated and showered? Have you slept? Have you moved your body? Spend some time with this step.
Have a snack with some protein and a little natural sugar, pour a glass of lemon water, move your body, and follow with a warm magnesium flake bath. We have a few free yoga classes on the network to help you get moving.
Snack Ideas:
Nuts & Dried Fruit
Cheese & Grapes
Yogurt Parfait or Smoothie
Celery & Nut Butter
Try an herbal infusion to catch up on vital minerals and nutrients.
"An infusion is a large amount of herb brewed for a long time. Typically, one ounce by weight (about a cup by volume) of dried herb is placed in a quart jar which is then filled to the top with boiling water, tightly lidded and allowed to steep for 4-10 hours. After straining, a cup or more is consumed, and the remainder chilled to slow spoilage. Drinking 2-4 cups a day is usual. Since the minerals and other phytochemicals in nourishing herbs are made more accessible by drying, dried herbs are considered best for infusions..I make my infusions at night before I go to bed and they are ready in the morning. I put my herb in my jar and my water in the pot, and the pot on the fire, then brush my teeth (or sweep the floor) until the kettle whistles. I pour the boiling water up to the rim of the jar, screw on a tight lid, turn off the stove and the light, and go to bed. In the morning, I strain the plant material out, squeezing it well, and drink the liquid. I prefer it iced, unless the morning is frosty.I drink the quart of infusion within 36 hours or until it spoils. Then I use it to water my house plants, or pour it over my hair after washing as a final rinse which can be left on." -Susun Weed
Learn about Nettle for Energy & Stamina - this is my FAVORITE herb to use for infusions, I suggest you start with nettle if you are interested in making infusions!
Note: Healing with Steps 4, 5, and 6 always come with an opportunity to cause some harm. Use discretion.
Step 4: Stimulate/Sedate
For every stimulation/sedation, there is an opposite sedation/stimulation, sooner or later. Addiction is possible if this step is overused.
Take a sauna session or ice plunge to shock the system and release toxins.
Try an herbal tincture such as CBD or white willow bark to temporarily relieve symptoms.
See an acupuncturist to restore chi and dissolve elemental imbalances.
Step 5a: Use Supplements
It can be challenging to get enough nutrients if our body is in a constant state of stress or anxiety. Use of synthesized or concentrated vitamins, minerals and food substances can be incorporated to bring the body back to homeostasis.
Warning: These substances may do as much harm as good. Use discretion when choosing your supplements.
Step 5b: Use Drugs
When anxiety has become chronic and all other steps are being incorporated (or not possible), the benefits of high dilution homeopathics, and potentially toxic herbs or pharmaceuticals may outweigh the risks in some situations. Please seek a trusted care provider when exploring these options of healing.
Step 6: Break and Enter
Last resort options are invasive and extremely shocking to the system. This includes interventions and threatening language, colonics and cleanses for gut resets, psychoactive plant or drug experiences, and invasive diagnostic testing of the brain or body. The benefits and risks of these modalities should be discussed with a trusted care provider for true informed consent.
BRAIN: A Guide to Asking the Right Questions to Gain True Informed Consent
Benefits
-How will this intervention or test help me? What are the Benefits?
Risks
-Does this intervention or test have any Risks? What are they, and how likely are these risks to occur?
Alternatives
-What are my Alternative options?
Intuition
-What does my 'gut feeling'/Intuition tell me?
Nothing/Need Time
-What happens if I do Nothing? I Need Time to think about my decision.
‘Susun Weed is the voice of the Wise Woman Tradition, where healing comes from nourishment. She is the author of the Wise Woman Herbal series, including: Healing Wise, Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year, New Menopausal Years, Breast Cancer? Breast Health, and Down There Sexual and Reproductive Health the Wise Woman Way.’
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