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Carlee
Have you ever wondered what your dreams really mean? Hi, I'm Carlee Myers, a stress management expert, and this month we are exploring spirituality and stress. And for that, we brought on an amazing guest, Abigail, who is a visual artist, performer, herbalist and Dream Work enthusiast based in South Philadelphia. She's been working with plant medicine since 2015 and is particularly passionate about cognitive wellness, sleep science and stress management and her work as both a creator and healer aims to link spirituality, wellness and self study. Abigail, I'm so excited to have you on the show.
Abigail
Thank you so much. Carly, it's great to be here.
Carlee
Absolutely. Absolutely. So I'm curious, like, how did you get into all of this? Like the herbalism and art? And I mean, you you are clearly a Jane of all trades here.
Abigail
Thank you. Yeah. I mean, since a young age, I've always been really fascinated by the mind. Plant medicine in particular, just as someone who's very deeply connected to nature. And as a result, I've just had a really creative, overactive kind of just very cerebral perspective on life, and particularly when it comes to dream work. I've actually been experiencing recurring visions in my dreams since I was a teenager and I developed this deep interest in sleep hypnosis and using herbs to my advantage as a tool for all of this. And I just think the brain is so fascinating.
Carlee
Yeah, isn't it? It's so, such a perplexing thing. I am as well. I have a very interesting experience with dreams. So I'm really excited that we're gonna be talking about this very specific area today for my listeners. They pretty much know at this point, but as a result, for me of my PTSD, I had night terrors. And I have to tell you, at first I hated them. At first I was like, get them freaking away. But now I. My relationship with nightmares and dreams is so different because it's actually one of the most empowering things that I can have because it's my subconscious that I believe. We'll see what you believe in, what you want to share today. But I believe it's one of one of life's spiritual biggest teachers.
Abigail
Absolutely. I mean, I completely agree with that. And I think one of the most profound things about the dream state is our ability to really transcend our ego and sort of take all these different lessons from whatever themes are showing up in our dreams in order to kind of reassess some of the programming, you know, in our day to day lives. I think there's a lot of patterning and, you know, unresolved trauma for most folks. And for me, as someone who's dealt with a lot of anxiety and depression as well, you know, tapping into this kind of work has really allowed me to deconstruct myself.
Abigail
You know, like I can see, like, why do I keep having dreams about my childhood home or the school that I went to? And, you know, you start to understand this this pattern that's coming up. And we can really kind of develop new pathways in the mind and overcome a lot of anxiety. And I think, you know, one of the biggest takeaways that I've had dealing with anxiety and stress is acknowledging that typically anytime we decide to say yes to ourselves, we are saying yes to deepening the practice of self study. And this is a direct gateway into mitigating stress and tapping into our personal power. And dreams are such a vivid and textural, beautiful place to explore ourselves.
Carlee
Yeah. And I love that you're using self study. I think right now we're we're hearing a lot about self love and self compassion and self this self that there's so many buzzwords. But in order for us to really take those steps, the the study, the awareness has to come first.
Abigail
Yes, absolutely. And I think, you know, like you said, particularly in this time, as we're facing such an uncertain time with COVID and everything. You know, we can kind of look at it in one of two ways. We can either see this as something that divides us and allows us to stagnate, or we can really see this as an opportunity to jump in and really take a deep dive into ourselves. And I think, you know, sleep is something that's so empowering and so important that's often overlooked. And as a result, we really downplay dreaming and the significance of this work. But, you know, even reflecting on the dreams that might come up in a time like now where we're experiencing social distancing and the unknown is sort of, you know, right in our faces every day. So being able to dream and really decompress and take the time out to reflect on those dreams through practices like dream journaling and by integrating herbalism into our dream practices, you know, we're really giving ourselves the opportunity to learn and to stay inside and to really focus inward rather than being so focused on the external as we're really acclimated to the society.
Carlee
So for my listeners who are like, what the heck is herbalism? Can you explain a little bit how what that looks like and how we would incorporate that with something like dream journaling?
Abigail
Sure. Sure. So herbalism is essentially the practice of using plants as medicine and that can be connecting with plants on a more energetic spiritual level, or it can be quite literally making things like tinctures or herbal teas, salves and things like that. You're using topically for healing. In the in the vein of dream work. The herb that I particularly love to work with is called mugwart. And this particular herb as a constituent called phojone, and it said to induce more vivid dreaming because it's such a potent aromatic constituent. So by using an herb like mugwart before bed, we can really induce this vivid textural landscape in our dreams. And all we need to do is either drink it in a tea or we can even just sleep with the herb nearby because again, it's so aromatic and so potent that it actually will induce that vivid state. And you know, these herbs are really easily accessible as well. So mugwart actually a really great herb to start with folks who are maybe not very herb savvy. And I'm always open to, you know, help people source that as well if they're interested.
Carlee
Now, I want to clarify just from from I'm sure some of the listeners at home are thinking this. This is not like a drug in any way. It's not some sort of like I'm thinking of like the experiences you get like from. I don't I don't know, like LSD or something. This is not on that level at all. Right?
Abigail
No. Oh, no. So it is actually also known as black sage, similar to, you know, like a garden saved your white sage. It does have what some would call psychoactive constituents, but it's not something that will induce hallucinations. It's completely legal. Very accessible. You can find it in any herb or health food store. And it's very safe. The only thing I would say to your listeners is that if you're pregnant or you're lactating not to use mugwart because it can have an impact on women's reproductive systems. But aside from that, it's it's very safe. Great.
Carlee
OK. That's good to know. I wanted to clear the air there.
Abigail
Absolutely.
Carlee
You know, let's say like whether we're gonna use that or not. And we want to go we want to start this dream journaling practice. Can we? Like, let's say we're we're feeling stuck in our life or we're feeling like maybe we have anxiety. We don't know where it's coming from or stress. We don't know where it's coming from consciously. Can we like I think if we kind of almost do it like a magic 8 ball, like before we go to bed, ask a question and then of course, magic 8 balls, a little random, but like, can we ask ourselves a question and maybe get the answers in our dreams?
Abigail
Absolutely. I think that this is something that takes practice for sure, but something that I actually integrate into my personal practice is asking questions before I fall asleep. And that could be something as broad as what do I need to bring my attention to right now in order to ease or mitigate my stress? Or that can be an even more specific question, like I'm trying to figure out what to draw. And I need some creative insight. What's going on, Unconscious mind? Give me some good juices to work with. And more often than not, the more frequently I practiced this, the more often I get really, really magical results. In fact, you know, if any of your viewers are familiar with some of my visual art, a vast majority of my work is directly, you know, content being pulled from my dreams.
Carlee
And you guys, if you do not follow her on Instagram, her Instagram is gorgeous. Lots of creative inspiration. Where can we find you on Instagram, actually?
Abigail
Thank you. My Instagram is the shape of sanctum.
Carlee
The shape of sanctum. You've heard of. Her goal. We want to know for you guys at home, you know, have your dreams ever taught you something about your waking life? Have you ever maybe gotten a vision like what has? What's your relationship with dreams? We want to know. So leave a comment below and we'll get this conversation started. Now, for those of you who may be struggling right now, you you're feeling overwhelmed. You're feeling you might be feeling stressed. If that is you, I want to let you know that you are not alone. You're absolutely not alone. And that's why the stress less company and I are dedicated to supporting you through this time by offering you a complimentary stress, less clarity session. This is a 30 minute phone call to get to the root of your stress and to create an action plan to step out of it. So in order to apply for that session, what you're going to do is you're going to visit stress, less code dot com slash apply. Now, again, I want to thank our amazing guests for coming on the show for these great tips for the great calming, soothing energy that you brought to the show as well. Thank you.
Abigail
Thank you so much. I'm so appreciative to be here.
Carlee
Absolutely. So this concludes this episode of the Stress Less Show. If you've enjoyed this week's episode, let us know by giving us a big old thumbs up and hitting that follow or subscribe button. Thanks for listening. And we'll see you next week.