In the spring of 2008, I was diagnosed with anxiety, chronic depression, and PTSD. And not long after, my life started changing in many ways. The happy, social, always dreaming girl got replaced with someone who could barely get out of bed— numbingly scrolling on the phone and watching the same shows on repeat (Friends and Gilmore Girls). Exhaustion made my body feel too heavy to move, no matter how much coffee or energy drinks I drank. I never felt rested: anxiety and nightmares kept me up at night. Every morning I woke up feeling nauseous by dread and a pit in my stomach. My short-term memory was shot: Did I shower today? Some mornings, I couldn't even open my mouth because my jaw had locked up from all the tension in my body. All the stress and trauma made my immune system barely function; I was constantly sick. Last but not least, I had almost no social life because everything made me irritable and frustrated, and answering calls and texts felt like too much.
Nothing had changed except for getting drastically worse. Like you, I had done everything (I thought) I could do to heal, and "get over" what I'd been through. But in reality, I had only learned how to cope and manage.
I could feel something was missing. I really believe that on some level we all do. But the memory of my chuchu (grandmother), who had been a medicine woman in our community, and what she had taught me as a young girl— of how we were born with the ability to release stress and heal from trauma— gnawed at me. We were not only born with responses to survive (fight or flight), but also to heal.
Still, I didn't listen. Because, like everyone else in Western society, I'd been conditioned to believe two things:
1) That Indigenous Knowledge, or any knowledge/science that's not Western, is inferior/untrustworthy/woo-woo/not scientific, etc. (Ironically, Western Science has its roots in Indigenous Knowledge.)
2) Everything we need comes from outside of us, provided by an industry. Not ourselves. Not our bodies.
So I kept ignoring both memory and my instincts, until I hit my turning point: domestic violence. There was no more time to wait. No more doing the same thing year after year without results. I knew that the only way out— out of that house, and out of a life that made me feel like I was drowning— was to start listening.
The moment I started letting my body finish the survival cycle and release everything it had been through over the years, everything it was carrying, I could feel myself changing. Within weeks, I got my energy back, I could think clearly, and there it was... the way out.
Flash forward to 2016, eight years later...
My name is Mandy Martini Chihuailaf (Mist Spreading Over a Lake), and I'm a member of the Mapuche nation.
I'm the founder of SLG, the Science of Letting Go, which started in 2016 inside a domestic violence support group, and grew into what it is today: a global online program that makes people repeatedly say, "It changed my life."
I teach the same IK (Indigenous Knowledge) that helped me, and now people in over 40 countries heal, thrive, and fall back in love with life.
Worried it won't work? SLG comes with
a 30-Day Peace of Mind Guarantee.
Receive 2 private online sessions with me (worth $300) if you sign up before May 10th, 6pm ET.
Like most people, you've probably tried everything that's out there without much luck. Therapy, medication, yoga classes, meditation, self-help books, positive affirmations, anxiety blankets, stress balls. You've done and tried it all.
Or... have you only tried what's offered here, in this society?
For a very long time, other perspectives and sources of knowledge have been pushed away and silenced in the efforts of creating an homogeneous Western society. Which is why when you walk out that door, or scroll through your phone, all you hear is the same: cope with this, manage that.
When you only hear one voice and one perspective it's easy to believe it's the truth and how it's supposed to be.
But ask yourself this: How can a world where so many people struggle just to keep going be normal? A world where stress is called both an epidemic and a silent killer. It's not.
Luckily, Indigenous Knowledge, which has existed much longer than this society we now live in, can help change this around.
My people call it Kuyfi Kimvn–– ancient knowledge that has been passed down from generation to generation.
And since time immemorial, it has taught us how our bodies work, who we are as human beings, and yes— even how we heal.
It's knowledge that many Indigenous people, including my own family, have risked their lives to protect. Even through horrible efforts to assimilate us and make us forget.
"The past month has been the best I've felt in a while. I stopped drinking alcohol and eating toxic foods, and this is the first time I've wanted to live and feel in a very long time. I hadn't realized how numb I'd become. Food is tasting better, and my love for music is coming back. I take long walks in nature and realize how much I've been missing out on because I've just been surviving.
- Michelle
👉
👇 👇 👇 👇
No time commitments. No rush. Go through the program in your own time and pace.
Worried it won't work? SLG comes with
a 30-Day Peace of Mind Guarantee.
CHOOSE A PLAN THAT WORKS FOR YOU
Worried it won't work? SLG comes with
a 30-Day Peace of Mind Guarantee.
LAST CHANCE TO GET INSIDE, MAY 14th 9PM ET.
Our Elders and family members have always had talking circles in our ruka (huts) to allow members of the community to come together and not only support each other, but help reinforce our knowledge and practices.
The live Talking Circles through Zoom are our "modern" version of it.