How do I feel less stress and anxiety?

If you struggle with anxiety and feeling stress all the time, you likely need to focus on self-care and wellness in order to tackle these things. 

I know you’re probably finally ready to prioritize your well being, and do something about feeling stressed out, and anxious every day.

 I’ll be walking you step-by-step through how to reduce your stress and anxiety with sage, smudging with sage, and other Indigenous wellness teachings.

I am personally no stranger to stress and anxiety. I’ve dealt with anxiety my entire life, and it took a long time of learning, understanding what was going on, and slowly taking steps to improve my mental health before I saw real results in my happiness every day.

For me personally, my journey to dealing with my stress and anxiety has been deeply rooted in re-connecting with my Indigenous culture, Indigenous spirituality as an anishinaabe kwe.

These are the 6 important steps that will help you overcome feelings of anxiety due to stress:

STEP #1 - Understand where stress & anxiety comes from:

First of all, what is stress and anxiety?

Anxiety is a feeling of fear, dread, and uneasiness.

Feeling anxious might cause you to sweat, feel restless and tense, and a fast heartbeat. It can be a normal reaction to stress. For example, you might feel anxious when faced with a difficult problem at home or work, or before making an important decision.

Where does anxiety come from:

• Not feeling good enough 
• Bad or negative environment
• Limiting beliefs of yourself, poor image of yourself and your worth

When does anxiety start to become an anxiety problem?

Difficult experiences in childhood, adolescence or adulthood are a common trigger for anxiety problem

Why is it so hard to improve stressful feelings and anxiety?

These negative thoughts and mindsets can be very difficult to escape from, it takes hard work and practise

Now on to step number 2.

Step #2 - Have personal reflection where where your stress & anxiety comes from:

Ask yourself the following reflection questions in either a journal or just think about them (a journal or notepad is always a good way to see in on a surface separate from your own thoughts). Ask these questions:

1. Where is the source of stress and anxiety for you personally?
2. What does it mean to you that you’re feeling this way?
3. Are you in certain environments that seem to be the source of your stress?
4. Are there people who seem to specifically create stress and anxious moments for you?
5. How often are you feeling stressed and anxious?Do you feel like your anxiety is at a level of it being a problem?
6. What are your current coping techniques for when you’re feeling anxious? 

After you have asked and answered these questions, reflect on your answers. This will give you clarity and understanding for yourself.

Once you reflect on your answers, especially if they are written down and you can evaluate them by looking at them, you'll likely start to see patterns that can lead to realizations that can help you understand your feelings better.

 

Excellent job! Now on to step number 3 for reducing your stress and anxiety using Indigneous wellness practises.

Step #3 - Learn WHY it’s so powerful to use Indigenous wellness to help with stress and anxiety 

Why is Indigenous wellness so amazing for health?
Indigenous people are resilient and the culture is so beautiful, when you start to learn more indigenous teachings you will quickly see how amazing the traditional teachings are in making you understand how to be a good person, how to live in a good way. 

Resiliency framework:

this is the basis for my smudge circle program

CLARITY - Indigenous worldview, or your worldview can help you to under, clear vision of your personal values, and beliefs, your background & where you come from.

CONNECTION - Intention practises help us feel more connected to ourselves, such as smudging with sage

BALANCE - The medicine wheel is a beautiful teaching to help identify areas of imbalance in our spiritual, physical, emotional, and mental states of being

When you use all of these 3 core Indigenous teachings together, you can create more resilience for yourself than you ever imagined 😁

 

If you need any more reasoning for why Indigenous cultural teachings are so amazing for improving your mental health - watch more videos on my YouTube Channel.

 

Step #4 to reduce your stress and anxiety using Indigneous wellness practises - Evaluate when smudging a good option: 

Smudging is the spiritual and ceremonial practise of burning sage, and wafting the cleansing smoke that purifies, and cleanses your space

When is smudging the best choice for reducing your stress and anxiety?

• It’s such a good option as smudging for a beginner, there are so many benefits to smudging, on a spiritual level 
• If you’re wanting something hands on smudging is a great choice to help you reduce stress

Who can smudge? Do I have to be of Indigenous background to smudge?

We have lots of videos on these topics but anyone can smudge. But, no, you don’t have to be Indigenous! 

 

Step #5 - When to use other forms of Indigenous wellness practices for reducing stress:

Some other popular forms of Indigenous wellness practices are Indigenous worldview, the 7 grandfather teachings, the medicine wheel, and many other teachings

When should you use the 7 grandfather teachings?

When you need help finding clarity in your values and beliefs that are most important to you?

If you want to learn more about the 7 grandfather teachings watch this video 

When should you used the medicine wheel?

1. When you feel off balance, unhappy, or unhealthy but you don't know where to start

 The 6th step to reduce your stress and anxiety using Indigneous wellness practises is to

Step #6 - Take action and begin learning

HOW you can actively take steps to smudge with sage, and other indigenous wellness practices to maintain a reduced level of stress & anxiety 

ACTION STEP #1 - Start with self-reflection from step #1 & 2.

Self reflection is really important because you need to build a foundational connection with yourself, and understand where you’re at right now, and be able to make sense of how your feeling.

ACTION STEP #2 - Choose Indigenous wellness practises 

Decide which of the Indigenous wellness teachings feel like their the most applicable for you to start with in helping to heal from your feelings of anxiety.

If you choose smudging with sage:

1. obtain your smudging bundle items, or smudge kit
2. Learn about the other sacred medicines that can be used for healing

If you choose medicine wheel:

1. Watch more of my videos on the medicine wheel teaching
2. Download the medicine wheel poster 
3. See more medicine wheel wellness offerings to emerse yourself in this incredibly powerful teaching

If you choose the 7 grandfather teachings:

1. Take the spirit animal quiz to find out which of the 7 grandfather teaching is more connected to your personal strengths

ACTION STEP #3 - Don't stop there

* After you’ve learned and applied one teaching to your own personal wellness, move on to another teaching, as they all have their own unique values to help guide and support you on your journey.

I'm so glad that you now know these 6 important steps that will help you overcome feelings of anxiety due to stress, and how to use powerful and spiritual Indigenous wellness practices to get there!