The Anxiety Epidemic
“Hello darkness my old friend...” Simon & Garfunkel
We have all been there. Dark thoughts. Dark days. The depth of our shadows. For some of us, the shadows linger and for others, they lurk, unsuspecting. Some of us are better at confronting our shadows. Others, not so much. For some of us, we can overcome dark thoughts, anxious feelings and unwanted emotions in a healthy way but for many of us, we were never taught what to do with things like anxiety, fear, grief and shame. Maybe we were told to just get over it. Or that we were overly sensitive. Maybe we were too dramatic. Or maybe we weren’t told anything at all. So what are we supposed to do with our anxiety? And when do we know when anxiety is part of a bigger issue?
We tend to view anxiety in a purely negative light and though it is largely true that the effects of chronic anxiety can be very negative, it also doesn’t paint the entire picture. Have you ever wondered why we have positive emotions and negative emotions? Have you ever wondered why we revel in happiness, joy, courage, and love and distract ourselves from feelings of anger, shame, fear, and hatred? Emotions or states that we deem negative are actually very important evolutionary milestones. Without fear, we would not know how to evade danger. Without anger, we would not know how to set boundaries. Without shame, we would not know how to confront our beliefs and grow as humans. The truth is, we need all the emotions and we need them equally. However, we also need the tools to confront certain emotions and move on.
Anxiety is not inherently bad in and of itself. Anxiety is your body’s way of communicating that something is not right in your being, whether that is physical, spiritual or emotional. Anxiety might mean that your intuition is trying to communicate something to you. The trick is to acknowledge your anxiety and have the appropriate tools to respond to the triggers. What lies at the root of your anxiety? Can you use techniques such as breathing, exercise, energy work or even creative pursuits to overcome your anxiety? Are you actively trying to fix the root of the issue? While there are many tools that we can grab to deal with anxiety, our lifestyles are also very important. The food we put in our bodies, the amount of sleep we get and the number of hours we exercise, all contribute to our general wellbeing. Plants can also be a great ally in times of need and in fact need not be ingested in order to reap the benefits. Getting into the garden and putting your hands in the soil, taking a walk amongst trees or simply slowing down to notice all the neighborhood flowers, can do wonders for the bodies’ stress responses and numerous studies show what forest bathing or nature walking does to our nervous system.
Herbs can also soothe an overworked nervous system, nourish and support your organs to adapt to the situation around you, help you sleep, stay asleep and help you feel rested when you wake up. Some herbs work to support our body’s natural functions and help us adapt to the situation we may find ourselves in. These sets of herbs are known as adaptogens and help us adapt to stressful situations and environments. These herbs include Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng), American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius), Siberian ginseng (Eleutherococcus senticosus), Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera), Shiitake mushroom (Lentinus edodes), Shizandra (Shisandra chinensis), and Tulsi (Ocimum tenuiflorum). Some herbs work directly on your nervous system to quiet down “monkey brain” and help support the proper functioning of your central nervous system helping you transition from the sympathetic to the parasympathetic state or the rest and digest state. These herbs include Milky Oats (Avena sativa), Oatstraw (Avena sativa), Chamomile (Matricaria recutita), Lavender (Lavandula spp.), Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora), Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata) and Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis). It is best to avoid herbs that contain caffeine, such as coffee (Coffea Arabica), green tea and Yerba Mate tea. These also have an effect on your nervous system but rather in a stimulating way, so that if you are feeling anxious or uptight, they will serve to increase the body’s physiological response to stimuli.
It really is amazing that nature provides us with so many different herbal remedies for anxiety. It is as though nature knows exactly what ails us and offers us its medicine quite freely. And yet, without confronting the roots of the issue. Without removing the environmental conditions that are causing us stress and anxiety in the first place, and without supplementing herbs with lifestyle changes that address how a person is responding to external stimuli, we will still find ourselves spinning our wheels unnecessarily. But with many of these herbs being palatable, it really is as easy as making some tea before bed every night in order to really ease the body into a restful state.
So go ahead and make yourself a cup of tea to sip on throughout the day, knowing that the ritual may serve as stress and anxiety relief but also that there is medicine in your cup. Herbs are friends, teachers and healers and we never suffer alone when we are in their company.