"It saved my life,
my future, and my sanity."
I spent almost all of my 20s, about eight years, living with so much anxiety and overwhelm that I could barely get out of bed.
After being sexually abused two weeks after my twentieth birthday, I was diagnosed with chronic PTSD and severe depression. It was so bad that I couldn't even remember if I'd showered some days.
Or I would end up somewhere and have no memory of driving there.
The worst part was that every day I felt like I wasn't actually living my life. It was like it was just passing me by without me having any control of where it was going. And because I was so numb at this time, I ended up missing all the warning signs, including my own intuition, when I met and married my ex-husband.
Which ended up being an experience I almost didn't survive.
So there I was, numbingly tired after 8 years of trying to cope with my trauma using therapy, medications, meditation, yoga, self-help books, affirmations –– you name it.
Exhausted from doing everything not to drown, living in domestic violence, seeing no way out, no hope for anything to change, or even the possibility of having a future-
When something woke me up...
The whole time, since my doctors told me it was chronic, I'd been telling myself, "It doesn't make sense."
From my family (especially my grandmother), our people, and knowledge–– I knew that we were not made to live like this.
We're not made to live in survival, in any way.
Stress, trauma, and all the ways it affects us and changes us.
But I had not been listening.
My whole childhood I'd been proud to be Indigenous. I'd been proud of all the work my family had done (and still does) to protect our knowledge since the reservation system started in 1880, and even long before that.
But as I became older, and as the first generation in my family to be born into Western society, it became harder to listen to our ways.
I started to think that this dominant culture must be right, about everything, because it was all I heard and saw around me.
But then I looked at my own life. And the millions of people who live with anxiety, depression, stress, and trauma around the world today.
And I realized– that was the problem.
We've all just been listening to this one perspective. A perspective that keeps telling us that we can only learn how to live with it, or "cope"–– but not heal from it.
Whether you decide to join SLG or not (but of course, I hope you do) know this:
You don't have to spend the rest of your life living like this.
Nature made it possible for your body to heal.
My name is Mandy Martini- Kvyen (Moon) Chihuailaf (Mist Spreading Over a Lake), and I'm of the Mapuche Nation–– People of the Land.
After returning to my people's kuyfi kimün–– Indigenous knowledge that's been passed down for generations–– I was finally able to let my body heal from the trauma I'd been through, as nature intended.
The process, or cycle, to heal from trauma is very similar to when you heal from a wound or get a cold.
It's a physical experience that needs to happen from inside your body.
Not talked about inside a building, following some theory an man in a white beard had once that everyone started blindly agreeing with. Not by repeating affirmations, over and over again.
And not by numbing ourselves from the pain.
Healing becomes hard (if not impossible) because everything you're taught in this culture is about theory or controlling your responses (and thoughts).
But healing starts when our natural responses finally get the opportunity to do their job without being interfered with, and even stopped.
This difference, between Western and Indigenous approaches to healing, is something this doctor noticed when going through SLG 👇
- JULIETA T.
[Pijao descendant]
New York
- VICTORIA LISE
[Cherokee]
Ute Territory (Colorado)
** Going through financial/life hardship? You could qualify for a scholarship.
* Enrollment comes with SLG 30-Day Peace of Mind Guarantee.
Most people inside SLG, like most in this world, work very hard to survive in this culture. Some are even single parents with no family around or community support.
That's why SLG is made to be easy to digest, and learn, in your own time and pace.
Plus, the "work" you do in SLG will help you not get overwhelmed. And give you more energy for the things that matters.
Our Elders and family members used to (and still do) arrange 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.
These live talking circles through Zoom are our "modern" version of it.
** Going through financial/life hardship? You could qualify for a scholarship.
* Enrollment comes with SLG 30-Day Peace of Mind Guarantee.
** Going through financial/life hardship? You could qualify for a scholarship.
* Enrollment comes with SLG 30-Day Peace of Mind Guarantee.