march 2022 herbal meditation: stop scrolling juice
stop scrolling juice
ingredients: dried passionflower leaf and vine, white rum, dried lavender flowers, and vegetable glycerin. contains alcohol.
supports us with: endless mental scrolling. quieting and relaxing the mind from circular and obsessive thought patterns.
recommended use: take 1-3 dropperfuls as part of your evening ritual, or whenever internal chatter won’t quit.
contraindications: insomnia medication, sedatives, blood thinners.
potion inspired by: my anxiety
The March herbal gift for sumistreet patrons is “stop scrolling juice.”
Enjoy this herbal meditation talk — as a mini voice note, or read it below — including ideas for how to work with this potion.
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herbal meditation talk
themes: anxiety, circular thinking
I’m experiencing anxiety a lot these days. In the mornings, I do tree pose— a standing qigong practice where you bring your mind into your body. I’ll be listening to a recording of our instructor, inviting us to feel for our shoulders. I feel my shoulders, start to fog out the voice of my instructor, and begin ruminating about a current conflict, imagining myself articulating frustrations to my therapist, and recalling my dog was itching her ear last night… and is that an infection or more indicative of a gut issue?
I’ll go through my tree pose practice, having a back and forth between feeling my insides and having these anxious and incoherent conversations with myself. I’ll even tell myself, “you don’t need to be thinking about that right now” or “can’t that wait till after this?” Then I’ll start to compare myself to some make believe people whose insides must be calm and quiet.
It’s interesting to notice the sly nature of my (anxious) thoughts who want so much airtime, all of the time. It feels like they’re trying to outrun each other. Many anxious thoughts don’t finish themselves — they stream into each other and I feel overwhelmed. Is my internal world mirroring my Instagram feed?
I don’t share all this to pathologize myself. Writing about it actually shows me how anxiety, like all human conditions, can teach us things. It also reminds me that I can look to the plant world as a partner and support system, for easing the stress of this mental chatter.
Hence, the potion for this month. I made stop scrolling juice with passionflower tincture (dried leaf and vine, in white rum) and lavender extract (lavender flowers, in vegetable glycerin).
Here’s a bit more about each herb, from two of my favorite herbal zines, which I reference constantly. (Is it just me, or does zine culture feel extra witchy in these times?)
From Janet Kent’s zine, Ease Your Mind: Herbs for Mental Health
“Passionflower is specific for anxiety accompanied by or due to circular thinking. When you can’t turn off inner chatter, have obsessive thoughts, can’t stop worrying or just think too much, try passionflower. It helps quiet the mind and stops the endless loop of worries. Passionflower eases general anxiety, mood swings, nervousness, restlessness, teeth-grinding and stress headaches.”
And from Janet Kent and Roger Peet’s zine, Under Pressure: Herbs for Resilience
“Stress, trauma, the ongoing effects of over-stimulation and too busy lives lead to a cluttered mind. With so many ideas, emotions and memories swirling around, focusing can be difficult […] Lavender pulls us into the moment and out of our heads. […] Lavender is specific for perfectionists and those with obsessive thought patterns. Under its influence, we relax our standards a bit. Not becoming slack, but easing up on ourselves and others.”
Ways to work with this potion:
Bedtime: Notice yourself scrolling in bed before you fall asleep? Let’s try taking 1-3 dropperfuls of stop scrolling juice when we notice ourselves in this familiar ritual. Keep scrolling if you feel like it. Just notice what happens. Do you feel more relaxed? Do you feel sleepy? Do you choose to put your phone away and do something else? Remember, there’s no “wrong” way to be and being hard on yourself can really hurt.
Daytime: Find a plant or tree outside that you’d like to connect with. It could be a plant that you’ve always thought was really beautiful, or a tree that lives in your yard that you haven’t really spent time with, but want to have a deeper appreciation and connection with. Gather your seating needs (a towel, blanket, yoga mat, outdoor cushion, a journal) and sit by the plant / tree. Take 1-3 dropperfuls of stop scrolling juice and have a sitting meditation with the tree. Tell it your fears and anxious thoughts (you can speak them aloud, but you don’t have to). Notice the small details of the flowers, stems, bark, leaves, etc. How the plant moves with the wind. Try asking if they have any advice or wisdom for you. If the tree or plant were speaking back to you, what would they say? What are they saying?