The author with freshly dug Valerian roots grown on her homestead.

Good morning! This morning I'm going to share a wrap-up halfway post concerning the #ihaveanxietytoo challenge.
You still have another week to share your posts, if you feel so inclined, toward your experiences with anxiety and how you have worked with that energy in your own life.

I have been delighted and grateful thus far reading all of the posts beneath the tag. There are some amazing resources to glean and I encourage anyone interested to click #ihaveanxietytoo and read through the posts seeing what grabs your interest!

Today’s featured herb, Valerian

One thing I've really appreciated is the discussion around masking our anxiety - or being "con men" and our relationships around "faking it" versus (or together with) actually getting to the root of healing. Many of the articles have focused on getting to the root.

I have already experienced a lot of freedom/healing in this and the lessening of the stigma of saying #ihaveanxietytoo. Thank you to everyone who has contributed!

So many people in the comments of these articles are saying me too! or I have a family member who has this too! It is an honor to incentivize healing through the creation of a hashtag on the blockchain (to jog your memory, this cross pollination was started through the @sndbox challenge What makes a good hashtag? and the @naturalmedicine Share a Natural Remedy contest.)

Screen Shot 20180903 at 1.36.49 PM.png
A sampling of the week's #ihaveanxietytoo posts. And yes, this is using Steempeak.com! I highly recommend it in place of steemit.com

Here are the posts under the #ihaveanxietytoo tag in the first week of the challenge:

@eftnow

has created a wonderful 3 part series on the difference between excessive anxiety and regular anxiety that we all experience (normal human response to keep us safe). He talks about getting to the root cause and uncovering it using META-health.

@riverflow's

fantastic post taking a good honest look at her relationship with anxiety. I really love how she also has focused on accepting and finding the root causes and not masking or judging the experience. She shares a host of techniques that she uses in relationship with anxiety in her life.

Finding Root Causes & Supporting My System: #ihaveanxietytoo

@zen-art

wrote a wonderful response detailing her intense journey with anxiety and the techniques she learned to "make friends with anxiety". I loved how her focus was on mainstream medicine and a host of natural medicine techniques that she learned, including focusing on what makes you happy!

Dealing with anxiety - tips and tricks

@walkerland

created a beautifully honest post sharing her experience of realizing she had anxiety and taking steps to shift her life as the anxiety was a message that something needed to change and that she needed to listen to her body. From her blog posts, you can see that she has followed her own advice to sculpt a healing life for herself.

Tuning Into Anxiety #ihaveanxietytoo

@porters

shared an interesting take on the nature of stress and community. I love that all of these posts are taking a look at the roots of anxiety and not necessarily of responding to it once it's already here. Check it out!

Of Families, Psychiatry and Stress...

@thetreeoflife

created an insightful post on Breath and the power of the pause in relation with anxiety. Her post is a sweet and educational meditation on something that we always have with us.

Anxiety and the Power of the Pause

@metametheus

made a thoughtful post on the yin balance of the yang activity and "doing" imperative of our culture. This is also another aspect of anxiety- pushing ourselves to be "outward" when we really need to allow ourselves to be.

On Being Small And Unseen

@friendly-fenix

did a write up on Skullcap & Lemon Balm. He has actively been sharing many anti-anxiety herbs so be sure to check out his other posts.

Anxiety remedies that work part 2: Skullcap

Anxiety remedies that work part 3: Lemon balm

This is only in the first week. Submission window (3 people will earn 3 Steem) is open until September 10th. Of course I encourage people to continue using the tag after this challenge ends.

Last week, as part of my #ihaveanxietytoo posts, I wrote about Skullcap, a powerful mind-body ally that works on the GABA receptors to neurologically shift our experience of anxiety, giving us some space to remember techniques like breathing or positive thought to shift in the moments of anxiety.

Valerian self propagates by seed but also at the roots. We dug this up very carefully and separated the daughter roots coming off of the main mother plant (fully detailed in the video) and planting the dozen daughters around the homestead. This is a sure-fire way to propagate Valerian!

As I shared then, these herbal allies are only tools and YOU are the real resource when it comes to shifting anxiety. @zen-art said it well when she declared that You can get better if you want to! (and there are many tools to help you holistically get there along the way.)

This week I'm going to dig into another plant ally that has been crucial for me along this path of shifting my moments of anxiety and that is:

Valerian

I had heard about Valerian for many years, but didn't get a chance to try it until one day during a landscaping job that I had- we were weeding out (yes weeding!) the abundance of valerian plants in a client's garden. I saw this as an opportunity and carefully dug up the plants and set them to the side. That night I made a tincture by steeping the freshly cleaned roots in high proof alcohol and letting them steep for at least 6 weeks.

Base of Valerian plant. If you look closely, you can see the multiple individual stalks of the plant. This is what you divide to make more plants!

I used this tincture many times that summer to help with my moments of anxiety.

Specifically I remember using it as I stretched my skill set by starting on a new endeavor: hosting a musical radio show. I had anxiety in the lead up to every show. One thing I loved about valerian is that I would take 2-4 dropperfulls and would feel my anxiety instantly lessened in my body. That window, that space, allowed me to continue on doing the thing I wanted to do but felt anxiety around. Once I got into the show, it was smooth sailing. I find that, for me, the use of herbal anxiety relieving herbs makes space for me to continue on and over time get used to the activity I want to do (like hosting a radio show) but feel anxiety around. Now I host a radio show each Tuesday on the Global Homesteading Collective about Permaculture and don't feel anxiety.

Actions

Valerian, Valeriana officinalis, is an anti-anxiety medicine and sedative that is very effective. For some people.

For others, it actually has the opposite effects and is very energizing! I spoke a bit to this in my skullcap article as well, but each herb interacts with people in differing ways. While for some, valerian may truly help them get to sleep or reduce their anxiety, for others it will "wire them up."

You'll know which one you are pretty early on. You can take a small dose of tincture to find out. Based on how effective it is, I'd say it would be worth trying it out.

Valerian earlier in the season starting to flower.

I have always found valerian calming and relaxing, but not mind-clouding and it doesn't take you out of the present. It calms you just enough so that you can continue on with life, only with lessened anxiety.

Similar to Skullcap, Valerian also has consitutents which act on the GABA receptors in the brain:

However, some of the GABA-analogs, particularly valerenic acids as components of the essential oil along with other semivolatile sesquiterpenoids, generally are believed to have some affinity for the GABAA receptor, a class of receptors on which benzodiazepines are known to act.

Scientifically, as they research and test Valerian, they're realizing it has powerful constituents which account for it anxiolytic features.

Growing

Valerian on the homestead earlier this summer before blooming.

The plant is very easy to grow, verging on "invasive" if it likes the spot. I am personally encouraging the reseeding of valerian on our homestead. I would like to grow a lot of this medicine, dig the roots each fall, tincture them and share them with my community. I want to make this medicine accessible to people and also have plenty of it around the homestead.

It sends up a lovely stalk which flowers with pink or white flows which some people like the smell of and others equate to dirty socks (the root gets the same feedback!). I personally love the smell and would visit it in the garden each day while it was in bloom! Heavenly!

Ini helped me dig up the plant yesterday.

This scent in the roots is likely due to the presence of the powerful Valeric acid which also is the source of some of its sedative activity.

It's also attractive to cats in the way catnip is! It's a fun and easy plant to grow and a stately addition to any garden.

Making the Medicine

Making your own herbal medicine is an easy, safe, fun and empowering way to take more control over your own healing process. Each time I put my hand to making herbal medicine, I feel a mix of gratitude, elation and deep reverence for the plants and the humans who have passed down this lineage.

Valerian tincture I made from roots I dug

You can make your own medicine by growing the plants yourself or ordering from a reputable company (like Mountain Rose Herbs) and tincturing the root- a process wherein we steep the herb in alcohol (90 proof is best for roots) for 6 weeks or more in a cool, dark place, shaking the roots gently each day. Strain and store in dark glass bottles and you have made your own medicine!

I will share more herbal profiles on anxiety reducing herbs as a part of my endeavor that I wrote about months ago in this intro. It is worth noting again, however, that the causes of anxiety and their remedies are many and diverse. What works for one person may not work for you. It's also best to think of these herbs as tools instead of magical pills. As many have written, it helps to not think of "getting rid of" or "fighting" anxiety, but treating it like a friend bringing a wise message that something is off or that we could heed. In some cases, that message happened long ago during an event or string of events.

Long term meditation or breathwork practice, EFT, therapy, anti anxiety medication (whether herbal or pharmaceutical), and a host of other methods can all help shift the experience of anxiety so you can live a freer life and thrive living out our dreams in the world.

Thanks so much for joining me and for all those taking part in sharing #ihaveanxietytoo!