A while ago I shared about a native wildflower The Windflower and dug a bit into its energetic support of easing anxiety.

Many of you were intrigued by this and given my own relationship with anxiety and how I have found incredible support from herbs, I knew I wanted to start a series:

Herbal Anxiety Support

I will only write about herbs that I have experience with. All of them I have grown, all of them I have lived around and made/used the medicine of myself. I'll write from my personal experience and share how these allies have touched my life.

Of course, this is no guarantee of how they'll interact with you.

Me, Wren, Harvesting Ashwagandha Root last fall.

I find with herbal anxiety supports, people have different herbs that work best for them.

While some people will "take well" to skullcap, others may prefer valerian, and still others may like the gentler approach of chamomile or lemon balm and others will need the tonic building action of milky oat. Also there are different types of anxiety and all have different sources so we'll keep this in mind as we go through the herbs.

Anxiety

Oats, a fantastic nerve tonic

When I speak of anxiety, I mean the pervasive unease that is based in the nervous system that brings racing thoughts, feeling of shakiness, out of control emotions and fear. Many of these allies work on the nervous system. Some are nervous system tonics, others are gently calming in nature and completely safe for long-term use, while some are sedatives or have more of an immediate-relief effect and shouldn't be used extensively for long periods of time. Each are valuable in their role and hopefully in writing these we all will become more familiar with plants that we can be in relationship with as we grow toward healing.

I will say that herbal allies are a fantastic support as you seek other modalities of understanding anxiety.

For me, being in relationship with an herb and especially when I'm experiencing anxiety and I take an herbal remedy, it gives me SPACE from the experience and helps me perceive it in a different way.

When our bodies or minds react, it can be really difficult to feel that space and we can spiral further into the moment and feel that there's no way out. With these, we find herbal allies can help remind us to take a breath, ease into our bodies, step back and relax a minute and find strength to reflect on choosing a different thought-pattern or approach to the moment.

Herbal Allies don't do the work FOR you, but they assist you in doing your own work.

Holy Basil/Tulsi

The Herbs

In this series, I will share an extensive plant profiles per post on the following herbs (in no particular order):

Skullcap
Lemon Balm
Valerian
Holy Basil
Ashwagandha
Milky Oat
Catnip
Motherwort

This is by no means an extensive list, but these are the ones I have lived experience with and I will write from the nuance of my experience and not just copy from a book (although I will use my herbal library for reference ;). I have grown each of these herbs and they're all quite easy to grow, in fact many of them come back year after year or re-seed readily, which makes them fantastic companions in the gardens!!

Herbal Medicine Making

Ashwagandha Tincture

Most of the herbs I use for anxiety relief, I use in the form of a tincture. A tincture is the herb's powerful constituents in an alcohol (or glycerin) solution. They're very easy to make and I will share how to do this for each herb.

In creating this Herbal Allies for Anxiety Series, I hope to BRING EMPOWERMENT to many.

Herbal medicine is people's medicine and through growing your own herbs, making your own medicine, you're truly taking control of your healing and coming from an empowered place as a creator! With staggering amounts of people put on anti anxiety pills each year, we know this is a huge issue culturally. I hope to equip you to understand these herbs better and to feel inspired to grow them and use them as medicine or ally with those who are (we have many of these available for sale).

Nourish Tincture, A blend of Holy Basil & Milky Oat available in our shop

This is all to say that anxiety can be complex and I'm not telling you that these will be cure-alls.

Herbs act as gentle supports and other activities like breathing exercises, Emotional Freedom Technique Tapping, Positive Thinking/Affirmations, exercise, getting more sleep, balanced diet with adequate nutrition, drinking water, talking it out with a counselor/therapist/friend, surrounding yourself with supportive people, etc are all supplemental acts.

Anxiety can feel debilitating and many of us who are sensitive and who are inclined toward having nervous systems that are always on high alert either because of previous life events or our natural ways of being understand that anxiety can stop us from living the life we want to.

I know herbs can help. Stay tuned.

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Herbal Anxiety Support Series: Greeting the Allies, An Introduction