Reprogram Your Nervous System with Kratom: Teachings From a Plant Medicine

hey guys! my intention is that this article leaves you feeling empowered to explore different tools that can help reprogram your nervous system and recondition what you consider stressful situations.

image from kratom cafe USA

*disclaimer (you know it's gonna be a good one when it starts with a disclaimer):

I am not a medical professional in any sense of the word. as always, please use your best judgement and contact a licensed health care practitioner if you have any concerns or questions.

I was/am skeptical about publishing this because I'm aware of the controversy it may beg for. but. I realize this is not about upholding any type of image. my intention is to release content that can potentially aid other kindred spirits. my commitment to this site was to be real. when I publish something I will be as transparent as I can in that regard. so. here we go.

choose your POV

you can look at this from a myriad of perspectives. which, as multidimensional beings, no surprise there. you can look at this from the perspective of someone who is masking their experience. still trying to control how they look in the eyes of others. manipulating their situation. OR. you can look at this from the perspective of a cosmic explorer. a soul has incarnated onto the planet with certain lessons and themes to explore. key word here is "explore." this soul is open and curious in discovering ways to work with the body-mind-spirit complex as a whole unit. holistic healing means that the entire system is acknowledged.

I was initially fighting this exploration. I don't want an easy way out. I want to integrate my intense emotions. I don't want to rely on anything external to feel a certain way. I don't want to ignore what's coming up. I don't want to cover it up or dumb it down. but I'm curious. I trust myself and the guidance I receive.

this article has five sections:

1) why I began exploring (non-psychoactive) plant medicines

2) overcoming conditioned guilt around the use of natural medicines

3) a tangible way you can utilize them to reprogram outdated, habitual responses

4) the science and metaphysics behind reprogramming

5) final thoughts and a final, important disclaimer

I hope that this brings value to your own life and adventures. enjoy, friends.

feeling safe in the body

I can count on two hands how many times I've used kratom. my introduction to it was a result of exploring other ways to gently bring balance to the lower chakras: grounding/root chakra meditations. breath exercises. physical activity. for those of us who have suffered childhood trauma and are sensitive to this world on top of that, it can be hard to feel like this body is a safe place to be. I realize that while it's important to not become attached to a story or a victim state of being, it is also important to acknowledge where some of these developed, habitual responses emerge from.

even if your earlier years of incarnation were pretty mellow in terms of how much unconscious negativity you were exposed to, attempting to leave the body is something that can be developed as a sensitive soul who doesn't have the awareness of how much information is being processed at once. it can be incredibly overwhelming. I started to notice how alluring certain meditations and spiritual practices can be for those who are already pretty judgmental of themselves. it's easy and almost natural to want to disconnect from something that feels so heavily distorted. dissociation and healthy detachment is a fine line to walk.

how I found kratom (and other plant medicines like her)

firstly, let me be clear: I'm extremely cautious with what I ingest. after my daughter was born, my sensitivities increased 5000% and even thinking about ingesting something I can feel it's effects. nevertheless, I've increasingly been given entry points and synchronicities that suggest plant medicine as an avenue that I may find great value in.

so. you know how your universe will give you little seeds to follow? like you notice a certain phrase or word that kinda catches your attention but don't know why because you have no context to refer it back to? I kept seeing/hearing the word kratom. after doing some research I discovered it's a relative to the coffee tree found in Southeast Asia. used to lower blood pressure, stave off exhaustion, and help relieve chronic pain as a mood enhancer. traditionally the leaves were stewed or chewed during community gatherings to help reduce social inhibitions.

I've experimented with CBD oil, which extracts the non-psychoactive component of cannabis and can be created into salves, oils and tinctures. it is known to have analgesic, anti-inflammatory and anti-anxiety properties. the tinctures I've used allow me to feel relaxed in the body without over-activity of the mind that can come from THC.

around the time I started exploring CBD oils, I also found myself introduced to kava tea, sometimes referred to as "liquid meditation." it's the ground up root of a tall shrub found in the pacific islands. it's been used ceremonially and still is. it's extremely bitter and traditionally you down a cup all at once so it can enter the bloodstream quickly. it can create euphoric effects in the body. it leaves you feeling centered and calm and is used to treat sleeplessness and chronic stress.

what CBD oil, kava, and kratom all have in common is what I'd been looking for. they're natural. they are "legal", whatever that means. they are plant medicines that don't induce intense alterations of consciousness (depending on how much is taken of course) but allow me to experience a greater degree of soul embodiment in the midst of situations that usually elicit the opposite. I can still feel as much as I normally do energetically but the plant spirits encourage me to respond from a relaxed, heart-centered place.

my friend from boarding school saw on the socials one day that I was at a kava bar and asked me if I'd heard of kratom. he has an online café selling premium powders. his family harvests these organic, highly trusted source of kratom leaves. after getting many synchronicities about this plant, I inquired more. he sent me three samples of different powdered strains (from ground up leaves) to try. like cannabis you can narrow your search to indicas, sativas or hybrids. he sent one of each.

overcoming the guilt around plant medicine

I decided to work with kratom before a two day training event I had recently. I was super comfortable in the few times I used it before. if you read my first article, you'll remember that even in extremely casual settings, my anxiety can overtake me to the point of completely polluting an experience. I really craved to work with myself in a loving way that wasn't denying the deeper roots of my anxiety yet allowed me to function in a setting that was extremely important to me. I desired to be present to the information. fully in my experience. I was excited about learning more about the human body so I can better guide clients into a deeper, more balanced experience of their mind-body connection in my classes. I was also getting universal nudges in the coming weeks to just give it a try in this type of setting.

my only reason for hesitation was obvious: it was created from fear-based energy. don't get me wrong, being cautious is a really good thing. but more than anything I felt guilty. I didn't want to do it out of fear that I'd be bypassing something in the moment. like I would somehow be cheating. my logical, black and white based thinking was trying to override what I deeply felt called to do. these feelings of guilt around natural substances isn't new to me, I definitely have been affected by what's fed to us about the dangers of natural medicines (insert crude pharma joke here) most of my life. so it's not a surprise that there would be so much resistance surfacing.

what gave me permission to surrender to the idea is that I truly trust my path. I've been walking with intention for some time now. I highly trust my intuition and internal compass. I know there is no way to do this thing called life wrong and we don't learn by theory alone. we need to put it to the test. and even if it turned out to not be in my best interest, first of all who's to say that? and secondly I'm learning something of value either way. it was a beautiful reminder of where I still have these thickly dense, conditioned ideas and how they can keep us in resistance to what is only trying to aid us in our journeys.

my first reprogramming with kratom

it was 6am on a tuesday and I was about to leave for the first day of training. I blessed my space, then said a prayer to the plant spirit before taking about 1 teaspoon of the sativa powder with a shot of water. I just asked that she show me what I needed to see. I'm pretty sensitive to what I put in my body so it was only about 15 minutes later that I felt her sweet magic working with me. I still felt every single emotion come up. I still felt the excited jitters that come before any type of immersive workshop or training event. I was going with two other instructors from my studio so I was also excited to spend the next two days learning with them. in no way were my feelings being influenced but I felt an expanded relationship to them.

she (kratom) showed me something about "where attention goes" that we've all heard before but isn't always to put into practice. let me divulge. we went around in a circle sharing who we were, how long we've been teaching and what we were excited to takeaway. again, if you've read my first article you know what kind of response is usually triggered for me in this setting. I still felt my adrenaline kick up. I still felt really nervous. my heart was racing and I began deepening my breath. but what was different this time was I felt like I had more assistance in controlling where I directed my attention. in fight/flight/freeze we are solely thinking about survival. about ourselves. about preserving these vessels that illogically seem threatened. as people were sharing, I noticed that I could actually hear them. I wasn't tormented by how long it felt like it was taking to get to me. I wasn't consumed with self-obsessive thoughts. wasn't worried about what I was going to say when it got to me. it was pretty neat honestly because I can't remember the last time I felt so at ease in this type of setting even among the initial, practiced responses in my nervous system.

her plant spirit told me what feeds social-related anxieties is focusing too much on the self. I've heard it put like this: self-consciousness is just self-awareness filtered through lack beliefs. she reminded me to focus on what I was delivering. where I was sharing from, what substance I wanted to contribute to the group. for sensitives, sharing in a group can be overwhelming because of how much information our energy bodies are receiving all at once, especially when large amounts of that energy is focused towards us at once. I could still feel everything in the background but was able to deliver from a grounded place nonetheless.

I heard kratom's biggest lesson loud and clear: you can still feel the entire emotional spectrum but it becomes more or less crippling in direct correlation to how practiced you are in directing your awareness. she told me to meditate more. she told me to give myself the kind of compassion that a wise grandmother would give to a child experiencing hard-to-manage emotions; with curiosity, openness and a remembrance of the temporal nature of all manifestation.

now I'm not at all saying I've extracted all of what this pattern is here to show me. I haven't overcome it. and really that's not what this is about. "overcoming" leaves me with a funny taste in my mouth. it's more about listening to what these responses are trying to tell me. they have their own stories. their reasons for existing. they are equally valid expressions of creation as any positive emotion I may experience. and mostly they are caused by years of repression, simply wanting to unravel.

bring on the #facts

the days before and after this training, I kept getting the word "reprogram." to reprogram doesn't mean taking your awareness to a spiritual concept that works as a temporary band-aid to a deeply entrenched wound. now that's bypassing. this is one of those fine line balances that you'll just have to explore. to reprogram the nervous system doesn't mean you keep yourself from circumstances that cause discomfort even though you're being guided there. that's avoidance. and really you're just postponing what you've come here to do anyways, so why not just get on with it? to reprogram your relationship to discomfort means you still find yourself in those situations but you have handy tools available to you in the moment that assist you in creating different patterns. the more you integrate these patterns, the less you will need the tools that got you there.

dr. joe dispenza, well studied in neuroscience, epigenetics, and quantum science, breaks reprogramming down to a tangible level. when I think of him, I think of the phrase "neurons that fire together, wire together." he eloquently maps out how the brain creates neural networks that allow us to learn, store and recall information. every experience we have (including thoughts, feelings, sensations) trigger thousands of neurons at once which create a neural network. when you repeat an experience over and over again, the brain learns to trigger the same neurons each time, eliciting certain (predictable) responses in your body(supercamp, 2014).

I am reminded that these overwhelming reactions are a combination of learned behaviors and attempting to adjust to my energetic environment. with a little openness I can unlearn certain behaviors that are limiting and replace them with new ones that are more conducive to serving my mission.

in researching for this article, I came across a great read on Psychology Today which describes what's considered an altered state of consciousness. to my surprise, it ranges from psychedelic induced hallucinations to your daily meditation practice. here's an excerpt of what they said:

"altered states can occur anywhere from yoga class to the birth of a child. they allow us to see our lives and ourselves with a broader lens and from different angles of perception from the ordinary mind." the article went on to explain how relying too much on our ordinary mode of consciousness can create self-perpetuating problems. that altered states are sacred and powerful places that can reveal there is much more to ourselves and our potential for healing than the ordinary mind can grasp...brilliant!

final thoughts

I want to reiterate that this is my own route of exploration. I know some experience great results from taking prescription medication. this is not to make any decision seem better or worse. it's not to sway or convince. it's to provide different perspectives and alternatives. I've found it's important to work with what's relevant for me and not make decisions based upon how others have found success in similar situations. for some this will be the permission slip they need to feel empowered in their choices and healing journey. for others it's just a good read, if I do say so myself :). move towards what resonates with you, and remember: anything can be misused if your intentions are unclear. if you do explore, just be clear on what your motive is.

lastly, a friendly reminder that body chemistry varies from person to person and different substances will interact differently with each person. I don't recommend mixing medicines with each other or any other substance. please use your discernment wisely!

have any of you communed with these medicines? if so, what was your experience? let's talk about it! leave a comment!