I spent the last week staying at my dear friends Dewey & Matthew Raybon’s house in the Bywater of New Orleans, and had a blast connecting with them and the beautiful plants that surround and fill their home. The trip was a amazing reunion of the Integra Collective’s members: Bailey McNeill, Dewey Raybon & Cameron Conklin.

Over the course of the week we nerded out on our favorite herbal medicines, the ways we navigate health challenges, and our favorite elixirs. We drank bitter concoctions daily with Dewey’s extensive medicine/bartending cabinet- swirling up mixes of sparkly water, vinegars, juices, and bitters to make delicious mocktails for the late-summer heat.

Sadly, Cam had to leave before we recorded this episode, but Bailey, Dewey and I had a blast sharing our quick-and-dirty top recommendations for connecting to herbs and herbal community. Here are our notes from the show!

Thank you to our teacher and retreat co-facilitator Kealy Rudersdorf of KIS Botanicals

Top tips for wellbeing from Bailey & Dewey:

* Wear an eyemask to sleep for deep rest

* Spend time outside: skin in the sun, feet on the earth

* Eat enough! Be conscious around restrictive diets

* Build a daily relationship with your favorite plant

* Walks (combine with a weighted vest or ankle weights if you so choose!)

* Incorporate herbal medicine into your daily meals! Make “sprinkles” of blends of herbs, nuts, seeds, and salts

* Make infusions of herbs in oils and vinegars to add to your foods (try thyme in your olive oil)

* Bioregionalism: Work with the plants outside your door

* Finding community around herbalism to learn and grow together

More about us! The Integra Collective hosts immersive programs and events that connect people to their bodies, communities and the Earth in service of a more regenerative future. Over the last three years we’ve hosted three festivals and three retreats connecting people to local herbalism, music, art, and more! Stay tuned for our Earth Body Spirit Retreat in North Carolina Fall 2026 and other upcoming events in California. You can follow along @integracollective on Instagram.

I truly could not be more grateful to have my teacher, DeAnna Batdorff on the podcast for this episode! DeAnna has been one of the most powerful influences on my life and helped me become the practitioner and person I am. She has an unabashed desire to dive into the depths of existence and talk about the things most people relegate to the shadows.

In this episode we talked about DeAnna’s journey to becoming an Ayurvedic practitioner: from being a child who saw spirits, to supporting loved ones in the HIV/AIDS crisis in San Francisco, to living in an Ashram in India and to creating multiple centers for radical health in the North Bay.

I have been so lucky to study with DeAnna for almost 4 years now and absolutely loved getting to hear some of my favorite stories of hers again (and lots of juicy new tidbits!). We even got into some spicy “Ask DeAnna Anything” questions towards the end that I’m sure will make you giggle as much as I did.

Here are some of the fabulous resources we mentioned throughout the podcast:

DeAnna’s Website: https://dhyanaessentials.com/

dhyana Essentials Instagram: @dhyanaessentials

Community Clinics: https://dhyanaessentials.com/pages/community-clinics-1

Abbey’s Community Clinic: https://www.abbeyjoyhealing.com/community-clinics

Stacey Pfiefer’s practice: Sways on the Watertop

Find a practitioner trained by DeAnna near you

Free Ebooks on Lymph, Breath, and Hydration

For this week’s episode I decided to go solo to share why I decided to start this podcast! In this ep, I share why bitters are so important and my journey to becoming an herbalist, Ayurvedic practitioner, and reproductive health specialist. So get yourself an herbal mocktail with bitters and enjoy the ride!

Here are some links to the amazing places & practitioners I mentioned in the episode and plan to interview over the next few months:

Dr. Nicole Fodel of Synergy Holistic Health in Charlotte, NC

The Eco Institute in Chapel Hill, NC

The Occidental Arts and Ecology Center in Occidental, CA

Kealy Rudersdorf of KIS Botanicals in Mastatal, Costa Rica

DeAnna Batdorff of dhyana Essentials in Occidental, CA

To learn more about me and my practice you can check out my website or follow along @abbeyjoyhealing on Instagram.

Thank you to the FABULOUS Curtis James of @muunjuun for making my amazing intro and outro beats!

It was such a joy to talk with Caitlin McMurtry about how to avoid and heal from burnout and support holistic hormone health. She is an incredible resource on all things Fertility Awareness Method, hormones, and general cyclical living. We got into the bitter truth about the challenges of living in the modern world, and how we can integrate practices to support our bodies through times of stress and uncertainty.

Learn more about Caitlin McMurtry at https://www.cyclewiselove.com/ or @cycle.wise on Instagram

* Caitlin’s “Learn to Chart” Book: https://www.cyclewiselove.com/fertilityawarenessbook

Morning recs:

* No screens for the first hour after waking up (and ideally the hour before going to bed)

* Splash cool water on your face

* Do the hard thing you don’t want to do first

* Eat breakfast!

* Try these Protein muffins with collagen powder

Daily practices:

* Throughout the day take breaks to do nothing to teach your body that it is safe

* Put your feet on the Earth

* Turn down the lights the hours before going to bed

Thank you thank you to the fabulous Curtis James of MuunJuun for creating the intro and outro music! Go check out his music!

Welcome to the first episode of the Bitter Truth Podcast - where we take herbal bitters and talk about the truth!

It was such a delight to chat with Fiona McNichols of Embody Wisdom about Mugwort (Artemesia Vulgaris)- one of our all time favorite bitters!

We went deep into the magic and medicinal properties of Mugwort including as a connection to the womb space, a tonic for clarifying your purpose, and a portal to the dream world. Mugwort is truly a plant that contains multitudes.

I highly recommend growing mugwort at your home if you have space, or purchasing from a trusted seller like Mountain Rose Herbs.

Please use caution when taking Mugwort internally and consult a trained herbalist. Mugwort should not be taken by those hoping to conceive or currently pregnant.

You can find more about me, Abbey Cmiel, at @abbeyjoyhealing on Instagram and at www.abbeyjoyhealing.com

And you can learn more about our superstar guest, Fiona McNichols, at Embody Wisdom

Thank you SO much to Curtis James of MuunJuun for producing this episode and creating the super fun beats for The Bitter Truth pod.

Please tell us how you like to connect to mugwort in the comments!