3 Herbal Therapies for Anxiety & Overwhelm

We are just over a month past Winter Solstice now, the daylight is slowly returning and the promise of spring is something that is beginning to feel more tangible, more real than a just memory of a warmth that once was. We've seen the smallest remarkable signs of spring start to appear here on Vancouver Island, the first snowdrops and crocuses are sending up shoots, and I spied some tiny new leaves appearing on the dormant honeysuckle vines. Yet, with all this lovely promise that is warm and green and vibrant on the horizon, we still have a couple months of winter ahead of us. 

Wintertime can be challenging for many. It can be a common time of year for anxiety symptoms to pop up. The darker, colder days drive us inside more, inside our homes and inside our selves. With the movement inward we are encouraged to do shadow work, to delve into ourselves, process, digest and integrate all the lessons of the year that has now passed. With shadow work often comes great discomfort, but also great healing. Fortunately, the medicine plants are here to help aid us on our healing paths.

In this post I share about three herbal therapies that I’ve found helpful for managing the symptoms of anxiety and overwhelm that may come up at this time of year, or at any point along the wheel of time. I am excited to share these therapies with you, as they have helped me so much on my own journey. It is my greatest wish that they will also serve you well on yours.

A holistic view of anxiety

The body is the best health coach you can have at your disposal. If you listen carefully, it will let you know in each moment of each day what will bring the greatest amount of balance and wellness to your life. Your body lets you know when you need rest by getting sleepy, when you need nourishment by making you feel hungry, and when you need hydration by producing symptoms of thirst.

Our bodies also let us know when we need to be nourished on other levels of our being, the levels of mind, spirit, and soul. It lets us know by producing emotions that may feel uncomfortable, calling us to become aware of deeper needs that we may need to hold space for. Though we often try to quiet it or shut it down, the body is a wise healer if we can learn to listen. The symptoms that your body produces are its language of healing.

Anxiety can be a powerful teacher. It can reveal to us our deepest needs and fears. It can reveal the places that we need to grow and heal most on our personal paths to restoring a sense of wholeness in our lives. It can also reveal to us our edges and our limits. It can teach us about boundaries, the need for dedicated self-care, or the need to bring awareness and compassion to the deep wounds we may be carrying in this lifetime.

Anxiety can be a powerful teacher, and not necessarily a gentle one. I was plagued by chronic anxiety all through my teens and twenties. After many years of struggling against what my body was trying so desperately hard to tell me, I eventually learned that I couldn’t escape my emotions by fighting, avoiding, or numbing them. However heart-wrenchingly painful those moments of overwhelm and anxiety may have felt, there was only one way out, and that was surrender.

What I discovered by holding space for those feelings was that they were a gift of communication from my deeper self. My feelings and sensations of anxiety, overwhelm, and at times depression, became a clear signal to me that in those moments I needed to slow down, check in with myself, and find some time for restoration and grounding. It guided me into patterns of rest, reflection, and self-care that have become invaluable tools in my ability to maintain a sense of balance and ease.

Sometimes managing anxiety means learning how to say ‘no’. Knowing that we need to put our own needs first at least some of the time, and recognizing that there will be times that choice is absolutely pivotal to our wellbeing. Learning what your own unique needs are for the nourishment of your body, mind, and soul is key. For me spending time with my hands in the dirt is essential. Activities like harvesting herbs in the wild, gathering seeds, and playing in the forest in solitude are profound allies for preventing anxiety from welling up in my life.

Discovering the activities that are most restorative to your own unique being will always lend so much support towards maintaining a sense of emotional balance and buoyancy. For each of us that looks different. For you it might look like a daily yoga practice, or maybe you have a need to engage in meaningful conversation and are restored by the sense of connection that it brings, maybe it means having regular alone time, or making music or dancing, meditating, journaling, creating art, spending time with plants and animals, or gifting your time to others and feeling of service.

Maybe it means different things at different times. Whatever opens up a sense of spaciousness and ignites a sense of gratitude and peace in your soul is a good place to start this exploration. Mother Earth, working with the elements and the cycles and patterns of nature, and first and foremost the medicine plants, play a very central roll in managing anxiety my personal life, and in helping others in my practice as a herbalist.

3 Herbal therapies for anxiety & overwhelm

The medicine plants seem infinite in their ability to lend their gifts and support, and building relationships with them is a process of tapping into an unending well of potential for healing. I have outlined below three herbal therapies I have found to be the most effective for relieving symptoms of anxiety and overwhelm.

1. Herbal Tinctures

Herbal tinctures are an indispensable resource to have on hand to manage symptoms of both chronic anxiety, and acute episodes of panic or overwhelm. These alcohol-based herbal extracts are fast acting and easy to administer as needed.

Tincture extracts are made by a process of steeping a herb in alcohol for several weeks. During this maceration period, the alcohol acts as a solvent to pull out the healing constituents of the herb. The resulting extract is very concentrated in potency compared to other extracts such as herbal teas, and has a very long shelf life in comparison.

Wherever you may be, tinctures are easy to have on hand, whenever symptoms might arise. The small bottles travel well and can be thrown in a purse or backpack so that you’ll have them available as needed. They are convenient and ready to take directly out of the bottle with no extra preparation needed.

The extracts can be taken directly on or under the tongue, and they can also be diluted in water or tea; though the tinctures will be take effect a bit more rapidly if taken directly, in their undiluted form. The undiluted alcohol acts as a vehicle for the healing properties of the herbs to enter our bodies, by gently relaxing our nervous system, dilating blood vessels, and increasing circulation.

In general, the dosage for a herbal tincture is 1 dropper full (equivalent to 1ml or 3o drops) up to 3x per day. Depending on the herb and your individual constitution, dosage may be adjusted to anywhere between a few drops to one tablespoon per dose. The effects usually can be felt within 10-15 mins, sometimes even immediately. When trying a new tincture, regular to small dose (.5 to 1ml) is best to start with and then adjust as needed once you get a sense for how the herbs feel in your body.

The main category of herbs that are used to treat anxiety in herbal medicine are called nervines. Nervine herbs are calming, soothing, and/or restorative to healthy nervous system function. Some are also relaxing to muscle tension, and others act as sedatives to the mind or body.

My go-to herbal tincture for acute episodes anxiety and overwhelm over the years has always been Wood Betony. Wood Betony is calming and grounding without being sedating. I’ve seen it work again and again for clients that are stuck in acute periods of overwhelming anxiety, stuck in what I’ve come to call ‘the spin cycle’. This herb seems to know how to hold your hand in just the right way and gently bring you back down into your body.

Other herbs that are also wonderful for acute anxiety and grounding are Motherwort and Valerian. For anxiety induced insomnia I find Chamomile, Ashwaganda, and Hops tinctures most helpful. When there is depression with anxiety, for me nothing compares to St. John’s Wort in effectiveness, it is like a warm golden blanket of love.

One of my most beloved personal herbal allies for the nervous system is Skullcap. Skullcap helps to slow our thoughts down, calming the mind and inducing a restful state. It is also wonderfully sedative in the most cozy blissful way. It is thought that Skullcap helps to increase dopamine levels in the brain, and it certainly feels this way when you take it. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter responsible for the feeling of being rewarded or satiated.

In cases of chronic anxiety, nervous exhaustion and frayed nerves, herbal tinctures are best taken daily and consistently over a period of time. Two weeks to three months on a herbal tincture can often help to bring stress levels down enough so that the nervous system has a chance relax and reset. Though any of the other herbal nervines listed above will be beneficial, Milky Oat tincture is one of my favourites for this purpose.

We have several tincture blends in the shop that I have personally formulated for different types of anxiety. Our Tension Tamer tincture with Wood Betony, Pedicularis, and Passionflower is wonderful for relaxing nervous tension. Our Nerve Nourisher blend contains Milky Oat and other herbs in a formula to restore healthy nervous system function, and Trauma Remedy is a herbal formulation for acute periods of stress, panic, and anxiety attacks.

Incorporating three of our native Pacific Northwest herbal allies, Sagewort, Cedar, and Wild Rose, our Energy Clarity tincture is a low dose remedy for spiritual grounding. Wonderfully uplifting, our Light Weaver blend is a mood enhancer designed to instil a sense of lightness and connection.

For lung constriction or mild asthma induced by anxiety, our Peaceful Warrior tincture is a specific formulation for clearing the mind, while calming and opening the lungs. Also activating to the throat chakra, this blend is a favourite for singing, public speaking. It contains Lobelia, a herb known to fill nicotine receptor sites in the brain, making it a great ally for those trying to stop smoking.

Specific for the dream time and sleeping, two of our most popular tincture blends are our Deep Sleeper and Beautiful Dreamer tinctures. Deep Sleeper, with Skullcap and Ashwagandha, is for a deep restful night sleep, whereas Beautiful Dreamer, with Mugwort and Passionflower, is designed to lift mood, and enhance dreaming and visioning.

2. Herbal Body Oiling

Another favourite remedy for managing anxiety, herbal body oiling is the the practice of applying oil-based herbal extracts to the skin. The nervous system is primarily made up of fats and oils, and on the highly absorptive surface of our skin we have billions of nerve endings. When herbal oils are applied to the skin, they can act to directly nourish the nerve endings and tissues of nervous system.

Naturally incorporating the healing element of touch with the medicinal properties of herbs absorbed through the skin, the practice of body oiling can be incredibly soothing, calming, and restorative to the nervous system. When practiced daily it can help bring stress levels down to a place of balance, helping to increase the body’s capacity to cope and reducing the frequency of episodes of anxiety.

Body oiling is a simple practice that has surprisingly powerful results when it comes to calming symptoms of anxiety and overwhelm, and the more regularly it is practiced the more powerful and effective it becomes. With each application the oils and herbs begin to saturate the tissues of the skin and muscular skeletal system more and more deeply.

The herbal body oiling I practice is done mainly with herbal infused oils. Herbal infused oils are oil-based extracts for topical use. They are made by gently warming herbal plant matter in oil, a process which releases the herbal healing properties, creating a medicated oil. Herbal infused oils are gentle and effective whole-plant extracts that have a broad range of constituents and applications; they differ from essential oils.

For the practice of body oiling, herbal oil can be rubbed over the entire body, from head to toe, to nourish the nerve endings, and sooth and calm the nervous system. Start with your head and move down to your feet, oiling every inch of your body, massaging as you go in smooth strokes always toward your heart.

The skin acts as a barrier between us and the world. It is a protective, yet permeable, layer between the inner and the outer. Applying oil to the skin can act as a ritual to symbolically and energetically strengthen this boundary, allowing us to repel any negative influences that may be around us; containing, restoring and strengthening our reserves within.

My favourite time to do body oiling is after a hot bath, the warmth lingering on the skin helps the oils to penetrate deeper into the tissues. Oiling may also be done before bathing or showering, or anytime during the day as needed. As there is not always the time and space to strip down for the full practice, sometimes I find it helpful to just oil my neck and shoulders for relief of nervous tension, or I take a moment to remove my shoes and socks and just oil the soles of my feet if I’m feeling ungrounded and anxious.

St. John’s Wort Oil is my absolute favourite oil for anxiety-specific body oiling. The nerve-calming and normalizing properties of St. John’s Wort’s medicine is absorbed directly into the nerve endings when applied on the skin. There is something very magical about rubbing this crimson oil upon the body. Not only does it nourish, calm, and ground the spirit, but its magic also relates to energetic protection.

I love Calendula infused oil for body oiling. The deep golden-coloured oil made from the whole flower heads feels as if energetically infused with sunshine. When applying it I can imagine coating my being in the healing light and vitality of the sun. Calendula is an ally to the skin, emollient and healing to skin irritations and blemishes.

Muscle tension is a very common symptom of anxiety, and Arnica oil is another favourite for body oiling as it is a well known and very effective remedy for pain and inflammation, helping to relax the tissues of the muscular skeletal system. Arnica is associated with the healing of trauma, both physical and emotional. Yarrow is another favourite herbal oil, also anti-inflammatory and healing to the skin, Yarrow tones the tissues and improves circulation.

Other equally wonderful herbal oils to use include Devil’s Club oil, Poplar oil, and Comfrey Oil., and of course our beautiful lavender scented Blessed Body oil is also a favourite. Salves, made by stabilizing herbal oils with the addition of beeswax, can be used for body oiling with great results.

3. Herbal Steaming

Lastly I like to share about herbal steaming as a therapy for anxiety. This is one of the most effective tools I’ve found for calming the nervous system in moments of acute anxiety, or anytime as an aid to promote a sense deep soothing relaxation. Herbal steams can be prepared easily within ten to fifteen minutes, using herbs available in your kitchen, garden, or from natural areas that may be nearby.

To prepare an herbal steam, all you need is a couple handfuls of herbs, water, a pot with a lid, and a large towel, sheet, or blanket. Place the herbs in the pot, and with the lid on gently bring the herbs just to a simmer, then turn off the heat and let the pot cool for just a minute or so.

Find a comfortable position on the floor, or at a table, where you can hold your head over the steaming water. Drape a towel over your head and shoulders so that it creates a sort of tent over your head, and hover above the steaming herbal water, careful not to get too close to it. Close your eyes and breathe deeply, allowing the heat and herbs to soothe, relax and calm you. Stay with the steam for at least 10 minutes or longer, breathing deeply. You may need to vent the sheet or towel to let a bit of steam out, or adjust as needed for comfort if it becomes to hot or cool.

To take your steam to the next level, try sitting crosslegged, or opened-legged, on the floor. With the bowl or pot of herbal water just in front of you, or between your legs, drape a large sheet over you enclosing your entire body with the steaming bowl inside the sheet-tent. I would recommend stripping down for this process, removing any clothing that inhibits the herbal steam from contacting your skin. I especially find it helpful to feel the stream on my each of my middle chakras, especially my throat, heart and solar plexus.

My personal favourite herbs to use for steaming are Mugwort, Sagewort, Western Red Cedar, and Wild Yarrow, but a great variety of herbs can be used. I often find myself drawn to choosing plants for my steam simply on the basis that they are personal allies of mine and are emotionally and spiritually comforting to me; but on the physiological level, steaming is actually an effective way to administer herbal medicine.

As mentioned above in the section on herbal body oiling, our skin is able to absorb many of the soothing and healing constituents of the herbs directly into its tissues. Inhalation of the herbal steam is a very effective and quick way get the herbs into your blood stream. The herbal steam opens up the airways, and relaxes tension around the heart and lungs. The warmth of the steam increases circulation and allows for oxygenated blood to move through the body, flushing out stress hormones and nourishing tissues with fresh nutrients.

If you have very sensitive skin I would recommend starting with soothing anti-inflammatory herbs like Marshmallow, Fireweed, Chamomile, or Calendula, all of which can be easily grown in the garden. Make sure to steam gently, you may wish to reduce the strength and duration of the heat your skin is exposed to by venting the towel more often or hovering a bit farther away from the bowl.

It is always nice to have a collection of dried herbs on hand in your kitchen so that these will be readily available when you need them. If you don’t have a garden or any nearby natural areas to harvest your own herbs from, you can pick up dried herbs to use from your local herb shop or order them online from sources such as Harmonic Arts or Mountain Rose Herbs.

Additional therapies for anxiety

Complementary to working with our herbal allies, I’ve found working with the water element can also be very transformative for anxiety symptoms. Water is symbolic of the emotional realm, and connecting with this element can be supportive and soothing to emotional imbalances. Sinking into and soaking in a warm bath can be a great way to cleanse not just the body but the aura as well. Sitting quietly and sipping a hot cup of hot herbal tea can also be very therapeutic. Herbal teas and decoctions can also be added to baths.

I live on an island with water always nearby, and when I really need an emotional or spiritual reset, I like to dunk in the ocean. I make sure to submerge my entire body, head and all for at least a few seconds. In the summer when the ocean warms up enough to swim in, I like to float on my back in the water, giving time for the healing mineral salts to absorb into my skin; letting myself feel held and supported by the vast body of ocean water. Lakes and rivers are also wonderful places to dunk or ‘shookum’, as my friend Frazer calls it in his Coast Salish dialect.

A dunk in the wild cold waters of nature can be an extremely powerful way to reset, as can simply sitting by a body of water and listening to its movement. A simple walk in the woods can also do wonders. Nature is alive and nourishing all around us, all we have to do is stop for a minute, take a deep breath, and slow down enough to receive it.

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Wishing you many blessings and gifts of healing as you walk through this life on your heart path.