Tea Ritual for Reset + Renewal

Several times a year I find myself overwhelmed and burnt out from some unsustainable life habits. Usually for me it’s a gnarly cycle of excitement about possibilities, taking way too much on without thinking the processes through, unconsciously putting tasks off til the last minute because pressure improves cognition, then carrying out some project or event in frenzied insanity that leaves me totally drained and sometimes incapacitated - for days or  even weeks.

Once I’m able to come up for air, I swear to myself that next time I’ll do it differently. I won’t put stuff off. I’ll thinking things through. I’ll say no to opportunities until I have enough information to know a yes is wise.

And still…the cycle continues.

During the burn out phase of this cycle, feeling discouraged, frantic, fearful, depressed, and hopeless are all pretty typical. It’s normal to hang out there, until eventually I hit a psychological rock bottom. And while no one wants to imagine themselves at rock bottom, and it sounds pretty terrible, it’s actually where the magic happens - and where botanical medicine is most potent in my opinion- not only for me in this pattern, but for many of us who hit a metaphorical wall when we’re trying to accomplish something, and it doesn’t quite work out the way we expect.

Rock bottom is so beautiful because that’s where the insights come from. That’s where we realize something needs to change. That’s where we realize our insanity (defined as doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results). It’s where we can come to terms with what parts of ourselves CAN change, and what parts we need to accept and allow and love, even tho they don’t fit the model of what we wish we were.

I’ve recently come through one of these cycles, and this time, the rock bottom phase of it was a little different. It was more intense. Usually when I’m working on something big (like events and classes and writing projects) and I delay in organizing all the moving parts, I get it all done under enormous pressure and the thing somehow turns out beautifully and that at least is some kind of salvation that carries me through the “I can’t do it like this anymore”.

But this time. Oh lord this time it did not go that way.

I took on a few too many projects, including a 3 day holiday market, launching the website’s redesign, recreating the monthly newsletter, working with an apprentice, establishing new retail partnerships, and creating a white label product line for a business in my community.

They all flopped. Or flipped. Or still haven’t been launched.

Not even joking. I hustled super hard creating, refining, printing, bottling, packaging, writing, designing.

Not one thing on that list came to fruition in the way I wanted to. Not one thing on the list came to fruition in a way that was unexpected yet awesome. They all just…didn’t.

Everything sort of dissipated or vanished as if none of my work had ever been done on any of these things. As if the money and time and energy I’d invested had never existed to begin with. I was left overextended and broke and terribly confused. All my soul longed for at this point was to run away from everything. My town. My profession. Money. Work. All of it. Just run.

It was good fortune that I got to do that. Time away is always a reset for me. It clears my head. I get the most expansive clarity and best ideas when my body is moving through space and time, and that’s when I can start to formulate a new plan. I guess because I’m not feeling bound to the mire of failure and self pity, because I’m somewhere new, getting to see and feel things that are out of the ordinary, my brain seems to work a little better. My soul gets fed. My heart can remember what it loves and is impassioned by.

And after some time away to reset, it’s super important for me, and most of us I think, especially women, to reconnect with our truth and our ideas, in a deeply personal ritual space. This is the place where our reset meets renewal, and we can use our experiences as wisdom for doing things differently - while loving ourselves in spite of getting into a little bit of exhaustion.

This most recent bout of rock bottom was different because the cycle I’m used to didn’t end up rewarding me. It all ended up sucking. So I was not only depleted, I had in some way, failed. And this awareness wizened me.

When I got back to my present reality, I formulated this tea blend and had a simple reflection ritual and made this reel and started strategizing my life with a renewed perspective.  

The herbs in this tea combined with my intention to see myself without any sugar coating, brought so much to the surface for me to question, acknowledge, and work with. What was actually within my power to change? What had I been doing automatically without checking in? What that had failed was something that I truly wanted, and what was just something I’d taken on without ensuring its alignment with my spiritual goals AND the way I best function?

To dig into these questions, way beyond surface level obviousness, I chose these herbs for clarity and purpose.

Estafiate is also known as Western Mugwort, Artemisia Ludoviciana. The Artemisias are the herbs I gravitate to more than any others, instinctively and intuitively. They are naturally bitter, and bitter herbs support our digestive processes. Helping us to assimilate what is beneficial and eliminate what is unnecessary or harmful, many of them are known vermifuges and antihelmentics, as well as stomachics and cholegogues.

The actions they take within the body, for Artemisias and all herbs, have correlating behaviors on the psyche (the unconscious, the uniquely developed programming we all have that drives our behaviors) and the spiritual self. Estafiate cleanses us body and soul of the physical and emotional residues that cloud our vision (think third eye, not necessarily our physiological optics).

It is a plant that thins the veil and allows us to see beyond the physical, and also enhances and surprises us with what is physically there. I’ve had many experiences with this plant where something would appear that was not there before, just by drinking the tea, burning as smudge, or sitting in oneness with it. I add Estafiate and other Artemisias (Mugwort, Wormwood, Silver Sage) to purification rituals because of their ability to clear and enable vision, even in dreamtime. <<write article about artemisias>><<link to Artemisia seeds>><<artemisia oil/smudge/tea>>

Rabbit Tobacco is a plant who allows us to commune with deeper and higher dimensions, and to receive messages from aspects of ourselves we can’t typically access due to lifelong conditioning. Think of your shadow, the part of you you wish didn’t exist, and so is exiled to some forbidden place we choose to ignore. We actually very much need our shadow, and need to love it, but because of our conditioning, it’s hard to connect with. We reject that part of us because at some point we’ve been made to feel shame about that quality. Rabbit Tobacco makes it easier to listen to the shadow, to shed light on it, and to see how it’s helped us survive…and to communicate openly and lovingly with parts of you or your loved ones that have been cut off, banished, killed, or forgotten. It can be a powerful ally in soul retrievals, power animal and deity retrievals, depossessions, and curse unraveling in Shamanic practice. <<rabbit tobacco pillows>>

Red Clover is a known lymphatic stimulant, gently assisting the body in moving lymphatic fluid. The lymphatic system can be thought of as a beautifully designed transport system that carries immune system cells through the body and removes wastes from immune system activity and the blood stream.

The immune system is an entire civilization of cells working to defend us against pathogens, and the lymph is a vital component of immune system function. Red Clover helps the lymph to move and flow, loosening stagnation and congestion, and pushing the lymph when its sluggish. It does the same for us, giving us a push when we are stuck in old patterning and belief systems.

It is an incredibly supportive herb for women, balancing hormones and feminine energy, physically and spiritually. It helps us to release, move, and prepare space for what we desire.

Hoarhound is a powerful remedy that helps the body expel stagnation, and you can see how it would work well with Red Clover. Both of these, as well as Rabbit Tobacco, are useful in lung conditions where mucous just won’t move, and it’s hard to expectorate, even though there may be a lot of coughing. Hoarhound can help us to change our internal environments so that healing can occur. As within, without. What Red Clover helps us to move, Hoarhound helps us to get rid of, making space for a new way of being.

Marshmallow leaf is a mucilage rich herb well known for soothing mucous membranes. It is deeply nourishing on many levels, and is included in this blend because of its ability to sooth the process. Getting up close and personal with the parts of ourselves we’d usually rather deny or ignore can be a jarring experience. Adding a little sweetness can take the intensity down a notch. Transformation comes with its own bit of discomfort, but there is no rule that we must suffer greatly while we try to reorient ourselves. Marshmallow leaf is a balm for wounds in the soul; it doesn’t numb us to the pain of transformation, but rather speeds up the healing process, allowing for truly meaningful shifts in our consciousness.

Turns out, I’d been putting just about all of my energy into projects that were just slightly ‘not right’ for me. And if I had taken the time to really consider what each opportunity meant, in terms of who I’d be dealing with, what the creative process would entail, how I’d felt about similar experiences in the past, etc, I probably would have said no to EVERY SINGLE external project.

Damn.

Sitting in ritual reflection gave me an opening to see very clearly how I operate normally. And that isn’t really normal for most people. I do function better under pressure. And I do need to figure out how to function under pressure without waiting til the last minute. But the most important thing I learned is that from this point forward, everything I say YES to is a real deep sacral yes that my entire body responds to - and not the kind of yes that comes from rationalizing it (I need to write a post on Human Design Strategies at some point).

So far I haven’t found a way to NOT put things off completely, or to function optimally without pressure. But my ritual did provide me with some research into strategies that will help me to work WITH these traits rather than fighting them, wishing I were different. That really real radical acceptance actually DID improve those traits, and the acceptance keeps growing. Into other parts of my Self and MY way of BE-ING. And I’m so much less stressed out, and I’m getting done so much more of what I actually want to do - and not just what I think I SHOULD do. It’s gorgeous.

This is integration. It is accepting who you are (for me, a dopamine driven novelty seeking easily excited person who puts things off because I think more clearly under pressure), releasing who you are not (the person who says yes to every seemingly relevant opportunity out of fear, desperation, and codependence), and getting unquestionably clear on what you want to create/manifest/produce/be (and saying no to everything that is not that).

We all find ourselves desperate for a reset from time to time. A chance to start over. And we always can. There is no limit on how often you can or when or anything. Tea Rituals, even very simple ones where all you do is sit with herbs unique to your needs, in contemplative reflection, can provide some of the greatest healing available to us - leading to renewal of every aspect of your Self. This is Integration.

Interested in trying our Reset + Renewal tea blend? Let me know by sending a message to @rebelherbal on Instagram, or posting a comment on the reel!