Good sleep is essential for our well-being and longevity. One of today’s epidemics, directly related to both depression and anxiety, is insomnia and sleep imbalances. These imbalances are often also related to heart health, respiratory health, medication use and stimulants.
Chronic insomnia affects everything; many health problems start with lack of sleep. It can affect our digestive system, result in muscle pain and inflammation, or endocrine imbalance from excess stimulants during the day.
Having good sleep is essential, restorative and healing. Just as with changing any habit to a healthier one, for serene and restorative sleep it is essential to develop a solid foundation of well-being in all other pillars of life. Observe your diet, seek relaxing practices (massage, acupuncture, yoga, meditation), integrate herbs and plants that promote relaxation and deep rest. To the extent that we lead a life more connected with nature, with holistic health and wellness practices, our vital energy will be greater. Ideally we will get sick less and will be able to respond to illness with nature itself. Many herbs help restore biorhythms; some we can use to support endocrine functions, like maca in the morning, as relaxants (chamomile and lemon balm) in the afternoon and as sedatives (passionflower) at night.
Sleep hygiene is essential. Working with plants will be truly effective when we also care for our rhythms. Here are some tips for deep sleep and better rest:
Allow gravity to sustain us.
Allow the sky to adopt us.
In the daily life of the city there is a great need to reduce stimulating habits. There is a strong call to slow down to create spaces for relaxation and repair, and to take advantage of those spaces to cultivate essential vitality.
When we allow ourselves the opportunity to relax, the body can focus energy on its maintenance routines. Relaxation and rest result in:
When we relax the central nervous system, we reduce our susceptibility to stress, anxiety, hyperactivity, panic attacks, and insomnia.
We can connect with our space of Peace without having a rigid posture. Constantly observing how each part of the body feels. We review from feet to head how the skeleton, organs, and tissues feel. Is there tension? We can do this lying on our backs, with legs open to hip width, arms along the torso, palms facing upward, chin slightly toward the chest. This allows gravity to support us completely and our awareness to move to the breath.
There are many techniques that help us relax: meditating, walking in nature, breathing, yoga, tai chi… Plants complement by helping to moderate the endocrine and nervous system, energizing the flow of energy in the body, improving our moods.
We can live from a place of inner peace when we take healing plants and lead a harmonious lifestyle, with conscious activity, serene sleep, moments of silence, balanced and natural nutrition, sexuality and dynamic exercise. There are essential plants to help release tension from body and mind, which can dilute the impact of stress on our physiology, and possibly also prevent the consumption of antidepressants, anxiolytics, stimulants, sedatives, and other chemicals so common in our society today.
When there is excess fire, of energy, we seek to relax the body with plants that cool, perhaps a little bitter, herbs and foods that reduce bile production. Likewise, to relax the mind we seek plants that relieve tension, calm the central nervous system and relax the mind; they usually have sweet, citric and floral qualities. Through infusion we not only take the healing virtues of plants, but we also inhale their oils that enter directly to calm the mind.
Silence and taking advantage of solitude to be with ourselves is essential for calm and to have perspective in our daily lives. In silence, at first, a quantity of thoughts and emotions emerge that often lead us to break that space to avoid having them or because they agitate us and take us out of ourselves. We think it is more important that our surroundings are under our control, than to take charge of our internal ecosystem.
In those first moments of silence, we allow what arises to emerge and we try to observe. With attention and observation we realize that they are ethereal, intangible and that they do not exist by themselves. With practice, patience, attention, concentration and with compassion we gradually become aware of the immensity, the calm and the depth of that inner space.
In silence energy begins to flow, we connect with our authentic nature, with the creative force that dwells within us. When I invite you to silence I invite you to explore it so that it becomes part of your daily life. There are practices to help us approach this space that for many is difficult. There are mindfulness practices, 21-day programs with recognized spiritual guides, meditation centers, books, videos, podcasts, music, apps. There are many tools out there that help… but what if we try to be with ourselves?
It is so hard for us to enter the world of silence because we have grown up in a world turned outward. How incredible it can be to live the beauty and complexity of the world constantly connected with our essence. It is in silence that we can contemplate ourselves and contemplate life, free from judgment, and suddenly in that space of consciousness realize the interconnection that exists in everything, and the inherent peace.
