Achieve Instant Calm - The Wise Woman Way
c. 2002 Susun S. Weed

In her newly updated best-selling classic, New Menopausal Years The Wise
Woman Way, Weed offers a number of approaches women can use to calm jangly
nerves, achieve greater overall calm, and cope on-the-spot with stressful
situations.

For instant calm, Weed suggests one or more of the following simple
calming exercises, herbal allies, or movements, and can give you more
details on how and why they work:

Unfreeze yourself: Curl up in a fetal position (on your side with keens
drawn up), breathe deeply, and hum. You may want to rock back and forth.
Concentrate on what feelings want to emerge. Do not be surprised if grief
is what you are really feeling.

Focus your eyes: Look at anything, steadily, with concentration, and
breathe deeply. Feel a warmth in your upper abdomen; breathe; focus.

Conjure an image of safety: Imagine a huge image of safety, such as a
cowrie shell, the palm of Buddha or Christ, a giant mother's lap, or a
cloud of pink light. Surround the object of your anxiety with this image.
Fear locks up movement and speech; a clear visualization can unfreeze you.

Take an herbal calmative: Tincture of red clover is a profound relaxer and
soothing calmative. Its salicylic acid content (similar to aspirin) makes
it an excellent pain reliever, too. Motherwort is also effective.
Motherwort is not sedating, but calming, leaving you ready for action, not
flying off the handle or bouncing off the walls. Try 10 to 20 drops as
soon as you feel your nerves starting to fray or just before a stressful
event. Repeat every five minutes if needed.

Try yoga postures. Yoga postures, yoga breathing, and quiet, focused
medication soothe the sympathetic nervous system instantly. Regular
practice alleviates anxiety, often permanently.

Excerpt from New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way by Susun S. Weed.