I think it all started around the end of January 2000, but it was definitely in full swing by February 5th, the day of a solar eclipse. The eclipse point was very near the planet Uranus the Trickster, a symbol of crazy nervous energies that tends to upset everything and run over us like a Mack truck. Since then, events have been flying by us fast and furious, with hardly any time to catch your breath. Needless to say, this has been an extremely stressful time for most people I've talked to lately.
In my particular case, the craziness is because of the Minnesota state legislature. I've been following several bills in the legislature the last three years related to therapeutic bodywork and alternative health care that would affect the way I practice. You may not realize it, but everytime you go to an alternative practitioner and consult with them about your health problems, that practitioner is breaking the law. Minnesota laws relating to medical care make it illegal for you to talk to a "dangerous person" such as myself! The "Complementary and Alternative Health Care" bill, which hopefully may pass in 2000, would change all this and legitimize alternative therapies in the state. If you want to find out more about this bill and lend your support, please contact the MN Natural Health Coalition at 612-721-3305, or check out the web site I'm maintaining to follow these issues (http://www2.bitstream.net/~bunlion/massage/ is the address). However, given the total chaos of the legislative process and the need to get people to respond to news within 24 hours, I haven't gotten much sleep or free time for weeks, even during a head cold of several days duration. I've been running on empty for a long time, living in a state of overwhelm. I'm not alone, apparently.
Besides taking your vitamins and getting some sleep occasionally, there are some flower essences that are important tools for dealing with this unforgiving overwhelm. In a nutshell, this is a situation where events in the outer world are happening so quickly and with such intensity that all your energy is drawn outward. You lose contact with your inner world and the guiding light inside. Without this calm center, you start running on sheer nervous energy all the time, eventually leading to stress and burnout. It's hard to stay grounded and focused in the midst of all this chaos, so your actions gradually become less and less effective. At some point, if you're not careful, you're doing a lot of running around but you have no results to show for the effort. You've become overwhelmed by the world.
A number of flower essences are perfect for this "zitzy", nervous state. The FES people have one called Indian Pink that is excellent for living in a state of high chaos like this. When emotional agitation and stress related to constant activity knock you off center, Indian Pink helps you handle the strain without becoming depleted. The Bush Flower Remedy called Paw Paw is very similar in effect. It's particularly suited to situations where you have to make crucial life decisions or feel like you're being buried in a glut of information that you can't process. In either case, the tendency is to shut down and stop functioning when you need to continue working. Paw Paw is also reputed to aid digestive problems, especially when these have a nervous cause (that "knot in the stomach" when you're overwhelmed). Paw Paw often works well with another Bush remedy, Crowea, that calms a state of worry and agitation.
About 2 years ago, I made one of my astrological remedies under circumstances that were as chaotic as this winter has been. I gave it the nickname "Electric Dreamtime" to commemorate Neptune's passage into the electrical sign of Aquarius. I remembered this remedy again a few weeks ago, instantly realizing this was the same kind of nervous energy as we're feeling now. A few drops seems to calm me down and bring me back into my body instantly, releasing the nervous tension that builds up in the muscles and shuts down the breath. A dose of Electric Dreamtime now and then has been most helpful to me as I face my work at the legislature.
Life is going to dish out these crazy times to us every now and again. There's not much you can do about that. You can change how you react to these times, however. If you can stay calm, rooted in your spiritual core, instead of spinning out of control, it doesn't matter how crazy the world gets. With a little help from the flowers, you can keep even the biggest crisis in perspective. Keep smiling...