If you’ve visited any of our event booths, read the followup email after placing an order with us, or contacted us to ask about using our Spagyrics, you’ve heard what we consider the most important technique: take a moment to think about why you’re taking our (or any) medicine.
This simple pause for connection opens you to the experience ahead, primes you to watch your own inner state for changes, and starts the conversation between you and the plant represented in the Spagyric. It can make a huge difference in the results you get from even very small doses, and it empowers you to be your own healer.
Lately, I’ve been inspired to take this dosing ritual just a bit further, and I’ve come up with a three-step process that really works for me. I promise I’m not trying to make things more complicated for you- if you’re happy with the simpler practice we’ve been talking about all these years, carry on! But, if you’d like to get even more out of integrating our Spagyrics into your daily life, why not try something new?
Connect
Much of this first step is like our usual advice– start with a low dose, think about your intent, really taste the drops, and sit for a moment before moving on. But, the act of connecting in a deeper sense starts even before you open the bottle.
Each of the over 450 Spagyrics we create offers a unique array of healing energy and effects, and each has a specific constellation of influences it pulls together, different than what any other green being offers. Researching and understanding their gifts is the first step in our lab work process, and it’s also a great first step in using the Spagyric created from the plant.
You might be someone who loves research and will dig into the historical, scientific, and ethnographic data on each plant you consider working with, as we do. Making that mental connection to the plant’s properties will help you select the right Spagyric and know what to expect from it.
If that’s too heady for you, and you prefer the intuitive approach, you may want to try just looking at images of plants you’re interested in, growing some in your garden, or visiting them at a nearby botanic garden or conservatory. This can be useful if you’re working on something which is not a serious or urgent imbalance, since you have the time and flexibility to be guided in a more playful way.
Researching plants, or intuiting the right one, also helps you to organize and focus goals. That focus and intent should be the first thing you call upon when you sit down to take your drops.
On dosing, you may know our advice already: more is not better! If you’re willing to meet the plant halfway with your own healing energy, the effective dose on our Spagyrics really is as low as what’s listed on the bottle. And, as Paul says, you can always take more, but you can’t un-take drops you’ve already overdosed on.
Take the drops directly under your tongue, un-diluted, and sit with the taste for a while. Do you like it or not? How does it make you feel? Does anything in the flavour or immediate effects remind you of your earlier research or insights? Sit for a bit and feel yourself be affected as changes move through you. Don’t sit for too long, though- the next step is important!
Act
You had a goal in mind for the Spagyric to help you with, but you need to act on that intent while the energy is still fresh. If your intent was just to sit, whether for meditation, stress relief, or just a moment off from your day, then stay where you are. But, if your aim is anything that requires action, get acting right away.
It wouldn’t make much sense to ask a friend to help you get fit, and then call them over to take you out for fast food. Better to get together to work out or go on a hike. The same principle applies here- you’ve asked the plant and its Spagyric to support you in your efforts, but first you must make those efforts.
You might even want to set up something to get started on before you take your drops- get that blank canvas all prepped for paint and sitting next to you as you take our Rose; roll out your yoga mat so it’s ready for your asanas before your drops of Asana; light candles and put on soft music, and then share some Damiana. Your intent is a road, so get up to cruising speed as soon as you can and your travels will take you far.
Reflect
Give the Spagyric some time to align with your intent and initiate its manifestation, and then pause to look within and ask yourself how it’s working. Is the flow of the plant in harmony with yours? In opposition to it? Too strong or too soft?
The changes and effects might be striking or subtle, so don’t be afraid to look for them and accept even fleeting intuitive insights. Think about your goal, how success in that goal will feel when you reach it, and see if you can find that feeling within you now. If everything is lined up, keep acting in whatever way you’ve started.
If something is off, try to feel out what it might be. If the Spagyric’s energy is right for you, but not quite enough push, take a bit more. If it’s pushing too much, try less next time. If it’s just not right at all, make note of how so that later, you can research and find something else to try, and so that you will also know if another goal comes up that this Spagyric might be perfect for. Unless your experience is really wrong or unpleasant, we suggest repeating this process a few days in a row to know for sure what short- and long-term effects you’re getting.
Our Shen Somalixir is a good example here- as we like to explain it, supporting your Shen is not about feeling sedated in the moment, and it may be a few days of taking it before you look back and realize you were more calm than before you took it. That effect is subtle but real, although it takes a longer time of reflection to see it.
Sticking with the same Spagyric for a time allows you to find those slower-acting qualities and to know exactly what plant they are coming from. This is why, in our first steps of plant processing, we eat the raw plant every day for two weeks without taking other medicines, and after the Spagyric is done, we work with it alone for another long stretch.
All of this might seem like a lot of effort, but remember- a lot of work goes into making our Spagyrics, and you’ve invested in them rather than simpler, cheaper medicines because of that extra energy they require- from us, and from you!
