This week, Kate talks with Micah Mortali, author of Rewilding and founding director of the Kripalu School of Mindful Outdoor Leadership. Together they explore what it means to reconnect with nature in a culture shaped by screens, artificial light, and constant productivity.

Micah shares simple, realistic practices to reintroduce natural rhythms into daily life, especially during winter. The conversation covers candle rituals, light hygiene, the physiology of rest, the lost rhythm of second sleep, nesting, outdoor rituals, seasonal awareness, and the restorative impact of what Micah calls the green mirror.

This is a deeply grounding conversation for anyone feeling scattered, overstimulated, or out of sync with seasonal changes.

What We Cover 

Micah Mortali is an author, public speaker, and leader in the fields of mindfulness, rewilding, traditional archery, and nature connection. He is the author of Rewilding: Meditations, Practices, and Skills for Awakening in Nature, a guide that blends yoga, contemplative practice, ancestral skills, and earth based wisdom.

Micah is the founding director of the Kripalu School of Mindful Outdoor Leadership, where he designed one of the first training programs to certify mindful outdoor guides. His teaching centers on restoring human relationships with the natural world through presence, awareness, and direct experience.

He is also the creator of the online School of Rewilding, an ongoing community for people looking to live more nature centered lives. Micah holds a Masters degree in Health Arts and Sciences from Goddard College and lives in the Berkshires with his family.

Website: https://www.micahmortali.com

Instagram: @micah_rewilding

Take Home Practices

Relevant Links

If this episode leaves you craving more rhythm and rest, subscribe to Everyday Ayurveda with Kate and share it with someone who has been feeling winter fatigue. To explore deeper support for seasonal routines, visit healwithkate.org.

Health Disclaimer

The information shared on Everyday Ayurveda with Kate is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, supplements, or wellness routine.

Connect with Kate: https://www.healwithkate.org

How is it that stress seems to run the show in our lives? In this solo episode of Everyday Ayurveda with Kate, Kate O’Donnell takes us beyond the usual “stress management” advice and introduces a more empowering approach: stress shifting.

Instead of treating stress like an unchangeable force that we just have to “handle,” Kate breaks it down into clear categories, reveals how much of it is actually self-generated, and explains why so many of us are living in a constant stress reflex. From an Ayurvedic perspective, she connects this to Vata imbalance, nervous system agitation, and the feeling that “everything is not okay” even when nothing is actively wrong.

Kate shares practical ways to reconnect with nature’s rhythms, anchor the mind in something larger than the to-do list, and use simple daily routines to change your internal relationship with stress. You’ll learn how to stop overscheduling, how to say yes less, why morning and afternoon “sense breaks” matter, and why rest is not a luxury but the direct antidote to stress.

If you’ve ever felt like stress is calling the shots in your digestion, sleep, mood, or hormones, this episode will help you see it more clearly, soften its grip, and choose a different way of living inside your life.

What You’ll Learn

In this episode, Kate explores:

For more on daily routines, lunar rhythms, and women’s health, explore Kate’s books and resources at healwithkate.org.

If this conversation helped you see your stress patterns in a new light:

Ready to shift your relationship with stress, rather than just survive it? Join Kate and the community at healwithkate.org for more Ayurvedic tools, courses, and seasonal support.

Connect with Kate: https://www.healwithkate.org

In this warm and practical conversation, Kate sits down with her longtime friend and colleague Emilie Reid, co-owner of the beloved Ayurvedic lifestyle brand Farmtrue. Emilie shares the full-circle story of discovering Ayurveda through cracked knuckles and toasted sesame oil, building a thriving yoga studio, navigating its closing during COVID, and ultimately finding her dharma in reviving Farmtrue with her husband.

Emilie walks listeners through the process of making thousands of pounds of ghee each year, the subtle differences in butter quality, why Farmtrue’s ghee is casein-free, and why ghee behaves differently than other fats inside the body and on the skin. She also breaks down the skincare line, the philosophy behind their dosha-specific body oils, why ghee makes an effective nasal oil, and how slow medicine has reshaped her life and routines.

If you love ghee, natural skincare, seasonal routines, or small-business stories rooted in purpose, this episode will be a favorite.

Episode Breakdown

Guest Bio: Emilie Reid

Emilie is co-owner of Farmtrue, a modern ayurvedic lifestyle brand. Together with her husband, she handcrafts face care, body care, teas and spices using ayurvedic herbs and ghee. Emilie is also Faculty at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, Ma. She leads workshops, retreats and yoga classes online and in-person. Emilie’s superpower is sharing meditation, Ayurveda and Yoga in a way that is practical, useful and fun.

Emilie leads retreats, teaches Ayurveda, creates handcrafted herbal products, and brings her love of slow medicine into every batch she makes.

Kate's Cardamom limeade Fix Stick: https://shopfarmtrue.com/products/fix-stick-ghee-based-balm-cardamom-limeade

Skin mask Recipe from Emilie:

1 tsp Triphala powder

1 tsp Neem powder

1 tsp peppermint powder*

1 tsp coconut oil

Mix into a paste with a spoon or your fingers. 

Massage all over your face, avoiding the eyes. Then let sit for 5 minutes. 

Wash thoroughly with warm water and pat skin dry.

Relevant Links

Farmtrue Products

If this conversation inspired you to rethink how you use ghee in your kitchen or your skincare routine, explore the full Farmtrue line at farmtrue.com.

For more Ayurvedic wisdom, seasonal routines, and practical tools, follow Kate at @kateodonnell.yoga and visit healwithkate.org for programs, books, retreats, and resources.

Connect with Kate: https://www.healwithkate.org

Kate is a self-described holiday dork who loves parties, cookies, cocktails and a good stuffing situation. She also remembers what it felt like to stagger out of Thanksgiving week bloated, gassy, constipated and anxious for days. In this solo episode, she downloads her personal Holiday Health Guide, honed over two decades of living Ayurveda, healing her gut from parasites, and still saying yes to celebration.

You will learn the one shift that made the biggest difference in her digestion during feast season, how she navigates appetizers, cocktails and desserts without deprivation, and the simple kitchen and travel tools she never shows up to a party without. From meal spacing and spritzers, to CCFT in a thermos and fennel seeds in a mint tin, this is a realistic Ayurvedic survival guide for Thanksgiving and the winter holidays.

If you want to enjoy the cheese board and the pumpkin pie and still feel like yourself the next day, this episode is for you.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Key topics and practices Kate covers

Kate explains why heavier, fattier, sweeter foods make sense in colder seasons from an Ayurvedic lens. Root vegetables, meats, fats and harvest feasts can be supportive when digestion is strong and timing is thoughtful.

The main problem is not necessarily eating “too much” but eating too often. Constant grazing on treats, candies and cookies between meals means the previous meal never fully digests, building ama and weakening agni.

Kate’s simple focus:

Appetizers used to be a major trigger. Now she:

Kate shares her go to supportive blend: equal parts cumin, coriander and fennel seeds simmered in water, then strained into a thermos.

She uses it to:

She also chews fennel seeds after meals to calm indigestion, gas and heaviness, often carrying them in a small mint tin.

Kate still enjoys a party and usually has around two drinks across an event. She:

A big part of her success is presence. She closes her eyes for a sip, or quietly steps aside to savor a favorite cheese or dessert so her senses register the pleasure. That presence helps her feel satisfied with less.

One of the biggest shifts Kate names is learning to savor. When there is a lot of stimulation, conversation and family dynamics, it is easy to eat and drink on autopilot. She now:

To kindle agni before a big meal or when she feels heavy, Kate uses:

She eats this about 20 minutes before a meal to wake up digestive fire or first thing the next morning if she feels sluggish.

Important nuance: she avoids this ginger shot right before alcohol on an empty stomach because that much fire plus alcohol can create acidity. In that case, she may switch to a gentler ginger tea or skip the ginger altogether.

Kate’s Ayurvedic doctor once told her to “run about” after sweets to help her body metabolize sugar. She now:

Rather than hoping a holiday table magically matches her digestion, Kate brings what she wants to eat and share, such as:

This lets her fully participate in the feast while lowering the burden of poor quality ingredients.

Instead of letting holiday cookies creep into a multi week sugar marathon, Kate:

When feast days are done, she balances heavy, sweet and salty foods with:

About Kate O’Donnell

Kate O’Donnell is a nationally certified Ayurvedic practitioner, longtime yoga teacher and the founder of the Ayurvedic Living Institute. She is the bestselling author of the Everyday Ayurveda series, including The Everyday Ayurveda Cookbook, Everyday Ayurveda Cooking for a Calm, Clear Mind, The Everyday Ayurveda Guide to Self Care and Everyday Ayurveda for Women’s Health. 

Through her books, online courses and live teachings, Kate is known for translating traditional Ayurvedic wisdom into simple, doable practices for modern life. 

If this episode helped you rethink your holiday habits, share it with a friend or family member who wants to feel better this season too.

Subscribe to Everyday Ayurveda with Kate in your favorite podcast app so you never miss a new episode. To go deeper with these practices, explore Kate’s books and online courses, or join the Ayurvedic Living Membership community for ongoing seasonal support.

Health disclaimer

Health Disclaimer:

The information shared on Everyday Ayurveda with Kate is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, supplements, or wellness routine.

Connect with Kate: https://www.healwithkate.org

Kate sits down with Ashley Turner to explore midlife as a true rite of passage. Yes, hormones matter. But Ashley makes a compelling case that what many of us feel in our 40s and 50s is also a psychospiritual reorganization. We cover what’s actually happening with progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone; why anger and irritability spike; how Ayurveda explains the energy shift after menstruation; and where tools like sisterhood, sleep, nutrition, and thoughtfully facilitated psychedelic therapy may fit. You’ll walk away with a saner map for midlife and simple places to start.

What we cover

Guest bio

Ashley Turner, LMFT, is a licensed psychotherapist, longtime yoga teacher, and facilitator in the modern psychedelic therapy space. She works at the intersection of depth psychology, yoga philosophy, and evidence-based psychedelic care. Ashley offers a monthly community called Haven, a six-week mentorship called Metamorphosis, individual and couples therapy, and small-group intensives.

Relevant links mentioned

Call to action

If this episode helped you see midlife differently, share it with a friend and leave a rating so more women can find it. Send Kate your takeaways by email or DM and tell Ashley you came from the show.

Health Disclaimer

The information shared on Everyday Ayurveda with Kate is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, supplements, or wellness routine.

Connect with Kate: https://www.healwithkate.org

In this solo episode, Kate shares the low-lift routines that keep her nourished all week: the exact groceries she buys, what she soaks at night, her quick morning setup, how she uses an Instant Pot without babysitting the stove, and why cooked water can be a total game-changer for hydration and digestion. Expect straightforward practices—soaked legumes, a pot of greens, a weekly chutney, and a simple condiment strategy—so you’re never stuck at the snack cabinet again.

Health Disclaimer:

The information shared on Everyday Ayurveda with Kate is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, supplements, or wellness routine.

Connect with Kate: https://www.healwithkate.org

Cookbook author and Ayurvedic educator Claire Ragozzino joins Kate to talk about real Ayurvedic eating—beyond dogma and into daily life. They explore how routine and relaxation transform digestion, why many of us actually need more nourishment (not less), and how an omnivorous approach can be deeply aligned with Ayurvedic principles. Claire shares how she meal-preps on Kauaʻi, why porridges and stews are her anchors, and how sourcing food locally (and ethically) connects us back to the ecosystems we live in.

In this episode:

Claire Ragozzino is a writer, photographer, and Ayurvedic educator based on Kauaʻi. Author of Living Ayurveda (Shambhala/Roost), she brings a background in sociocultural anthropology and years in the kitchen to make Ayurveda practical, beautiful, and doable. Her forthcoming book, The Omnivore’s Ayurveda Cookbook, explores classical Ayurvedic nutrition for modern eaters—embracing diversity, local sourcing, and food that truly nourishes. Claire teaches cooking classes, leads cleanses, and shares recipes and resources on her website.

Health Disclaimer:

The information shared on Everyday Ayurveda with Kate is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, supplements, or wellness routine.

Connect with Kate: https://www.healwithkate.org

Dry skin showing up already? In this solo, Kate shares Ayurveda’s whole-body approach to dryness—how to exfoliate without stripping, why oiling before a hot shower matters, which fall oils absorb best, and how to hydrate at the cellular level with hot water, soups, and a simple evening milk tonic. Plus, the once-a-week mung bean body scrub (with a cleanup hack) that makes a big difference when you’re feeling “lizardy.”

What You’ll Learn

How-To (quick)

Resources mentioned

Call to Action

Try the oil-before-shower routine for one week and tell us how it went—tag @healwithkate. Share this with a friend who’s already feeling “lizardy.”

Health Disclaimer

The information shared on Everyday Ayurveda with Kate is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, supplements, or wellness routine.

Connect with Kate: https://www.healwithkate.org

Author and teacher Kate O’Donnell sits down with Mysore-based cook and educator Sahana Murthy to explore seasonal eating, real hydration, and the quiet genius of traditional South Indian cooking. You’ll learn why soupy meals hydrate better than constant water chugging, when to lean on salted buttermilk (and when not to), how to make coriander “coffee” to cool excess pitta, and why food combining matters for digestion. Sahana shares travel hacks, fall-friendly meals, and a simple approach to cooking that nourishes more than it performs.

What You’ll Learn

About Our Guest — Sahana Murthy

Sahana is a Mysore-based cooking teacher and founder of a home-grown kitchen project that blends traditional South Indian recipes with practical Ayurvedic wisdom. Raised in a family steeped in Ayurveda, she teaches in-person classes in Mysore, cooks for retreats, and offers periodic live online sessions. Her work centers on food as nourishment, balance, and vitality—not performance.

Mentioned in the Episode

Resources & Links

Call to Action

Health Disclaimer

The information shared on Everyday Ayurveda with Kate is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, supplements, or wellness routine.

Connect with Kate: https://www.healwithkate.org

Feeling hungry, unprepared, and tempted by the snack cabinet? In this solo episode, Kate shares her real-life Ayurvedic plan for those “what do I eat?” moments—especially in fall. You’ll learn easy, grounding meals that come together quickly: 15-minute dals and greens, creamy porridges, tortillas with eggs or beans, “eggs + greens” anytime meals, and the evening hot-milk ritual for deep sleep. You’ll also hear Kate’s minimal prep habits (chia soaks, toasted pepitas, soaked almonds) that make fast meals possible, plus exactly how she navigates cheese, grains, fats, and variety without stress.

Health Disclaimer:

The information shared on Everyday Ayurveda with Kate is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, supplements, or wellness routine.

Connect with Kate: https://www.healwithkate.org