It seems everyone and everything in the world is on edge right now. Walking a tight rope that’s frayed and ready to snap at any moment. So many are quick to anger as the body is so wound up and tense, full of irritability and bursts of rage. The ability to handle day to day tasks can feel just too overwhelming as so many are struggling to just get to the next minute.
If you’re feeling burned out, on edge, stressed, or filled with too much worry, know that you are definitely not alone! Keep reading to learn what’s going on and find out about a plant I’m sure you already know that can have a huge impact in your life .
What’s going on?
Your body and mind are connected together in constant relationship and through that connection you have a system that runs behind the scenes allowing many of the functions of your body to be orchestrated seamlessly. That system is the Nervous System, and it’s in charge of so many daily processes that happen without you needing to even think about it, such as moving your limbs when you’re ready to run, or allowing digestion to occur after you eat a meal. This is because the orchestration happens due to many tiny little wires running through your body, just like strings on a guitar.
When the wires, or strings, are smooth, balanced, and finely tuned, beautiful music can be made, just like you can feel blissful, happy, and radiant, as if you’re listening to your favorite song and singing away without a care in the world.
Think about the last time you belted out with your favorite song on the way home from work… it’s ok you can admit it… I do it too (despite my lack of vocal skills). But you felt alive while you were doing it right? For the moment you felt on top of your game. It’s what it feels like when your body is tuned and running smooth as well.
What happens though when the strings get a bit frayed?
Or the wires are no longer in tune?
The music no longer sounds like the radiant mesmerizing melodies you enjoy, and things start to feel a bit awkward, uncomfortable, and edgy.
The same happens within your nervous system. The strings (AKA nerves) that run throughout your body can become a little frayed and misfiring can occur. Have you ever heard of the saying feeling frayed? It means you might be feeling irritable, anxious, tense, or worried. The saying is actually what goes on.
When your nerves get frayed (lose their smooth balanced functionality) signals can get crossed and you no longer feel your wonderful self as not everything is going on smoothly inside. When you feel burned out or when you might feel on edge and the littlest thing sets you off, it’s often a signal you have some misfiring going on in your nervous system. Sometimes it’s a literal physical thing and actually nerve sensation issues can happen. Sometimes it’s more metaphorical. But either way, supporting your nervous system by reducing stress helps either way.
So how can you support your Nervous System?
Well it’s a pretty big topic and I go into detail about it in my course The Calming Toolkit (which is actually opening up for registration again soon so be on the lookout!). But anything you do to help decrease stress can help, and quite a few herbs are amazing for this purpose. One of them is Oats, Avena sativa.
Now Oats is a plant that is probably very familiar to you as the seed produced is oatmeal, the common breakfast food I’m sure you have heard of and consumed before. While oatmeal is very nourishing to the body in itself and high in fiber, for medicine we use Oats before they get to the fully ripened grain stage (see pic above).
The grains when they are immature and still green produce a milky substance that is released when you press on them for a very short period of time in the ripening process. This milk gives about the term Milky Oats, which they are often called, and that milk is amazing medicine for the nervous system. The milk is superior for working on smoothing out frayed nerves.
There’s another part of Oats that can be used medicinally and it’s referred to as the straw which is the grass looking part of the plant left over after harvesting the Oat grains. The straw definitely has some calming effect on the Nervous System, but it’s not as powerful as the Milky Oats form.
The straw, however, is very high in nutrients. It’s full of protein, calcium, magnesium, silica, iron and many vitamins which strengthen the bones, teeth, nails, and hair, and are essential for a healthy nervous system. They also strengthen the connective tissue, bones, and nerves making it very helpful for arthritic conditions, pregnancy, and menopause when high mineral content is essential. So because of it being so nutrient rich it’s nice to take daily in infusions, especially when dealing with a lot of stress and depletion.
The green milky tops have a higher concentration of milk which is amazing for restoring the nervous system and rebuilding it after stress. It’s one of the best tonics for the nervous system helping with nervous stress, exhaustion, irritation, anxiety, depression, and tension. It covers all the bases within the nervous system. If anxious it calms the mind and helps you be in the moment, chill out, and helps you be more balanced and grounded.
The milky tops are most often taken as a tincture and is prized medicine in herbalism, a favorite for helping with all forms of deep burnout and stress. It needs to be tinctured from fresh (not dried) Oats in order to extract all the medicine in the milk. Above is a picture of some of the Oats tinctured from my recent harvest to be used in formulas for clients (and myself on those nerve wracking days with cranky children ).
If you’re wondering where you can purchase the tincture to use yourself here is one of my favorite sources I like to recommend to students and clients. You can also purchase the straw form here as well.
If you struggle with burnout or you’re interested in a custom blended formula for supporting yourself, or you want to learn more about how you can best handle stress feel free to book one of my wellness consultation offerings or be on the lookout for my course The Calming Toolkit opening up again soon.
I hope you have an amazingly blissful day ahead!
