The root Kava Kava is said to relieve anxiety, cause a feeling of euphoria and taste like dirt.
All of the above, in my humble experience, is 100% true.
It also numbs your lips, which feels kind of like that "Lip Venom" lip gloss that was such a hit at Sephora however many moons ago that was.
For those of you new to Kava, it’s a root most commonly found in Vanuatu. It is commonly prepared by crushing the root into a powder, mixing it with water and serving it in a coconut shell. (Visual: Imagine a ginger root and you are on the right track.)
You can find Kava Kava in Whole Foods and other holistic candy stores. Go to the “Wellness" aisle in a sea of all the other wellness aisles and you’ll find it camped out with the other supplements.
The other day we visited the local KavaSutra in Fort Lauderdale to have a sip before we skipped down the road for a bite to eat.
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Now, as someone who manages their Anxiety, Panic and Depression holistically (which means no meds) any time I introduce something, anything, to my system I’m a pretty cheap date. In other words, I feel it really fast and really heavy. Even too much tea sends me off and running. The Kava Kava I had the other day, as it turns out, was a whole new realm for me.
Hopefully I'm setting the tone of what's to come...
KavaSutra is a tiny little spot off Las Olas. When you see the gorgeous mural (pictured above) you've found the spot. The entrance is nestled under a great big oak tree decorated in twinkle lights.
You’d think you walked into a tiny little dive bar….but there’s no alcohol for sale. Just Kava, Kombucha and some fruit bowls.
We grabbed a few stools and bellied up to the bar, ordered a few coconut cups and proceeded to sip away on our dirt drinks.
Here’s how everything unfolded for me from here:
A few sips in I could feel my lips getting numb, not dentist office numb where you are drooling or anything like that….just tingly "lip venom" numb.
Then, as I’m nearing the bottom of my coconut cup it’s like the weight of an elephant had stepped off my chest and a veil lifted up, up and away so I can see everything in it's crystalline clear beauty.
All of this sounds beautiful, right?
Right.
Because it is.
Until it isn’t.
What I didn’t calculate after my cheeky smile and eyes wide open glow was the transition back to my own, personal version of “normal”.
For me, that’s where those mean motherfuckers, Anxiety, Panic and Depression settle back into their spots on my chest.
What I didn't anticipate, at all, was that little bit of relief from their mutinous rule opened a door to a room I had boarded up and closed a long, long time ago.
That room was where I didn’t live with these heavy assholes draped all over me in the capacity I do now.
Oomph.
So, as the evening passed and the Kava Kava euphoria exited stage left….the others stomped back in with ferocity.
I wasn’t prepared.
At all.
In fact, the process of letting them all back in and readjusting to “normal” sent me for a spin.
You see, the reality is, sometimes I forget how heavy my Anxiety is.
Sometimes I forget how sneaky my Depression is.
And sometimes I forget how agile my Panic is.
I’ve been living with them, managing them for so long…..a string of minutes without them felt so light I was almost crushed by the weight of them all when they returned.
It was a lesson for me.
Maybe I’m not managing them all as well as I think I am.
Maybe I’m not working my “Tool Box” (yoga, writing, running) as diligently as I promised myself I would. (Note: That’s my agreement with myself. As long as I’m exhausting all of my options to the best of my ability to manage my “stuff” without meds, I’ll stay off meds. But if I exhaust all my options and it’s not working, then I’ll consider the conversation of…well, something else.)
It appears, I’ve been getting lazy, comfortable and complacent.
As Sweet Brown so eloquently said in her interview that went viral on the good ol’ web….”Ain’t nobody got time for that!”.
So here’s to that far away root supplement, Kava Kava, and the lesson in lightness it brought me.
Here’s to working our individual tool boxes to live the best lives each of us can.
Here’s to NOT BEING LAZY.
And here’s to good health…Physical, Mental and Spiritual (in the best ways we can all independently achieve this triumphant trilogy).
I’m going to continue on my yoga, writing, running path...but I’m promising myself I’m going to work it far more diligently so they next time I choose to sip a dirt drink I'm prepared for the reentry.
:: Always from under the same sky ::
Tara
