Founder’s Insight
People say anxiety is “all in your mind”. But some of my darkest times began with a pit in my stomach the moment my eyes had started to wake and my brain hadn’t even started to think, yet I could feel the dread. And then you realise “It’s back.”
As a child, I was diagnosed with what was described to me as “emotional asthma” and given Ventolin to take for years. Looking back, I never had asthma, those experiences were anxiety and panic attacks. I was only four or five, with no words for what was happening inside me.
As an adult, I thankfully no longer experience those panic attacks, but I know how debilitating anxiety can be. The shallow breathing. The dread in your stomach. Feeling frozen, desperately wanting to get on with life and struggling to move.
Sometimes there seemed to be no reason for it. Life could look good from the outside while my body told a different story. Looking back, I can often recognise something underneath that I hadn’t understood at the time, but my body knew, it just wasn’t communicating with my mind.
Over time, I’ve learned to lean in a little more. My instinct used to be to escape the feeling or become frightened that it had returned. Now, when I can, I sit with it. If it’s in my belly, I gently bring my attention there and ask, “What do you need from me right now?”
Sometimes it feels like a younger part of me needs reassurance, nurturing or simply a hug. I don’t always need to work everything out. Sometimes I need to offer myself a little tenderness.
Nature, grounding and gently reconnecting with my breath have helped me. So have tapping, resting with my legs up the wall, gentle bouncing and other somatic movements.
Most of the psychedelic-assisted therapies I’ve experienced have eased my anxiety. Psilocybin made a particularly significant difference. After my first two or three sessions, I experienced a long stretch without anxiety, which felt profound after living with it for so much of my life.
Since beginning my journey with plant medicines and psychedelic therapies, I haven’t needed to return to SSRIs. That is my personal experience, and it has been a meaningful part of finding my way forward.
