It has been a rough few… weeks? Years? Well, a while, anyway! In the last month more than ever, people have been asking us how to get some space, how to find ways to feel grounded, how to find some calm. So we thought, maybe it would be good to share the things that we are doing to get through the days.

Being an herbalist doesn’t mean you never get sick, and it doesn’t mean you never have emotional issues either – emotional exhaustion, despair, uncertainty, panic sometimes – all the things we’re all feeling lately. Herbalists catch colds and turn ankles just like anyone else, and the same is true with emotional health troubles. Sure, we have all these herbs and we work with them every da -, but sometimes we also just want to hide under a giant pile of blankets and pretend the world isn’t out there. So if you’ve been feeling that way, you’re not alone.

In this episode we offer up some of our favorite comforts and soothing strategies – things we turn to again and again when we need them. Whether it’s herbs to protect the heart and give it a safe space to be tender, embodiment medicine to get out of our heads and into our hearts, or relaxants to let the tension go, we’re sure that some of the things that help us will help you, too! And not “just” herbs, either: as you listen you’ll hear that community and social support are also very important during difficult periods, and we’ve got lots of ideas about how to cultivate those for yourself (even during lockdowns).

Mentioned in this episode:

• Apotheker’s Kitchen – amazing honey-sweetened chocolates, hot cocoa, & marshmallows!

Herbs discussed include: catnip, yarrow, calamus, pine, juniper, mugwort, dandelion, kava, tulsi, & “any effing herb” 😜

Not sure where to start? We love to organize our thoughts about all things herbal & healthwise into the “four pillars” of good health: food, sleep, movement, and stress management. Our free course, Four Keys to Holistic Herbalism, explains this approach and also shares our best tips for starting your herbal journey. Check it out – for free! – right here:

Four Keys to Holistic Herbalism

As always, please subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it more easily. Thank you!!

Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

In this episode we explore the skills and disciplines necessary to conduct a successful self-experiment. Self-experimentation in this context might mean making changes to dietary, lifestyle, & movement habits; developing stress management skills; or trying out herbal medicines.

First we address why and how self-experimentation can fall into self-justification, and how to avoid this. Then we highlight the skills of perception, reflection, and connection which are the bones of a good n=1 experiment, and share some key methods for developing them. Finally we talk about the practicalities that make this work go more smoothly, and share a few thoughts on how this all applies to clinical practice work as distinct from individual efforts.

This is at the root of our work as herbalists, so we hope you’ll listen in! Plus, you just might have some intention-setting and some self-experimentation to embark on sometime soon, what with New Year’s resolutions and all. 😉

This is our last episode for 2020, so we’ll see you in 2021!

If you’re dreaming up new ideas for the new year, why not do so literally? Check out our Herbs and Dreaming mini-course and delve deep into the Sandman’s kingdom. The plants know the way…

As always, please subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it more easily. Thank you!!

Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

This week we take another look at COVID-19 and its long-term effects.

First, we check in on what have been our top 5 herbal interventions for COVID:

• Herbal steams – with aromatic herbs, to fight infection and stimulate local immune activity in the respiratory tract
• Garlic & thyme tea – for a strong immune-stimulating and lung-warming effect
• Elecampane decoction – an ounce or two every hour during acute illness, or when lungs are phlegmy
• Ginger (& chamomile) tea – for anti-inflammatory and circulatory warming actions
• Marshmallow root cold infusion – to maintain hydration and healthy mucous production in the respiratory tract

Those all still hold up! They continue to be important in acute, recovery, and long-haul cases. We go on to discuss those long recovery periods and lingering symptoms, and describe how we approach them as holistic herbalists.

Herbs discussed include: thyme, oregano, monarda, rosemary, sage, lavender, peppermint pine, spruce, garlic, elecampane, ginger, marshmallow, reishi, lobelia, pleurisy root, mullein, codonopsis, nettle, hawthorn.

Want to make sure your immune system is in fighting shape in case you get exposed? Looking for ways to rebuild immunity to make sure you’re back to full power? Our Immune Health course has everything you need to understand, protect, and strengthen your immune system. The course features all our best holistic strategies to boost immune responsiveness, and to corral unhelpful inflammation too. This self-paced online video course includes access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions so you can connect with us directly!

As always, please subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it more easily. Thank you!!

Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Dreaming matters: it’s a critical part of our identity-building and experience-processing work, and vital to our ability to regulate our emotions. But not all dreams are good. When nightmares happen, especially if they happen chronically, they can make dreaming itself feel unsafe. But never fear: when we need help we can always turn to herbs, and nightmares are no exception.

In this episode we present a very personal case study about working with herbs and nightmares to improve one’s relationship with dreaming.
This is katja’s story, and it’s a story involving trauma from assault, which led to nightmares for more than a decade. It was exacerbated by an abusive living situation – as Katja puts it, “like microdosing the original traumatic experience”. The work she engaged in, with the help of plants, was about building agency in dreams. This effort paralleled work she did in waking life, building healthier boundaries and developing her own empowerment. These efforts supported each other – each one helped the other proceed.

Of course, nightmares and poor sleep are connected – nightmares lead to dread of sleep, poor sleep worsens nightmares. So the approach is to combine herbs for dream work – cultivating feelings of safety, lessening fear of dreaming & dread of sleep – together with a comprehensive sleep protocol, plus herbs that helping her build agency in her waking life.

Herbs discussed include: mugwort, motherwort, ghost pipe, yarrow, blue vervain, ginger, chamomile, skullcap, passionflower, linden, hawthorn, tulsi, wood betony, rose, nettle, elecampane, st john’s wort, sage, elderflower, calamus.

Interested in deepening your dreaming? Want to explore herbs who can help you dream more vividly, or achieve lucidity in your dreams? Our mini-course on Herbs and Dreaming is for you! Learn key herbs from across the world (and probably in your backyard!) with oneirogenic activity.

As always, please subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it more easily. Thank you!!

Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Yes, they are herbs too! Medicinal mushrooms are an important part of our herbal practice, but it looks like we haven’t profiled them on the podcast before today – so it’s time to correct that lapse. In this episode we’ll look at some of the key activities of four of our favorite fungi: shiitake (Lentinula edodes), maitake (Grifola frondosa), reishi (Ganoderma lucidum), and lion’s mane (Hericium erinaceus).

Essentially all medicinal mushrooms share some features of interest to the herbalist. Famously, they can modulate immune responses – boosting immune surveillance and efficiency, while reducing excessive inflammatory or autoimmune expressions. Some mushrooms can also have adaptogenic activity, improving our endurance, resilience, and fluidity of response to stressors. And some mushrooms (more than you might expect, actually) can even help regenerate damaged or diseased nerve tissue, and protect the nervous system. Sounds pretty good, right? Listen in for the full story.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Herbal Revolution – our friend Kathi Langelier’s new herbal recipe book – you can pre-order your copy today! Also check out all her excellent herbal remedies & delights.
• Radical Mycology by Peter McCoy is an excellent and down-to-earth book on all things fungal.
• Neuronal Health – Can Culinary and Medicinal Mushrooms Help?, Sabaratnam et al, J Tradit Complement Med. 2013 Jan-Mar; 3(1): 62–68. doi: 10.4103/2225-4110.106549 – This is the review paper showing neuroregenerative activity from lion’s mane, reishi, maitake, and cordyceps, among others.
• Antitumor Effect of Ganoderma (Lingzhi) Mediated by Immunological Mechanism and Its Clinical Application. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2019;1182:39-77. doi: 10.1007/978-981-32-9421-9_2 – This is the paper Ryn quoted an excerpt from, about the anti-cancer activities of reishi.

After learning all these powers our fungal friends are endowed with, it won’t surprise you to learn that these medicinal mushrooms make a key appearance in our Immune Health course. That course is a deep dive into the immune system, and outlines all our best holistic strategies to boost immune responsiveness, and to corral unhelpful inflammation too. This self-paced online video course includes access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions so you can connect with us directly!

As always, please subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it more easily. Thank you!!

Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Samhain, Halloween, the death of the year – this is a good time to talk about grieving, and about how herbs and grief can go together. It’s a universal human experience, but one we don’t often allow ourselves to experience and explore, because it is painful and difficult. It can often seem like there are only a few ‘approved’ ways to move through a grieving process, but everyone grieves in their own way. Learning how to respond, rather than react, to our grief is something we must each navigate.

A Halloween that is only about sugar and sweets doesn’t teach us these skills. But the plants are there to remind us: this is a time to die back, to go underground, to process the deep dark parts of ourselves. This is what allows transformation, new growth. When we work with herbs and grief rituals, the focus is on letting go of what’s no longer serving us: allowing death to what has run its course. That includes our own ideas of ourselves which are no longer serving us, too.

There are a lot of places where herbs and grief come together. Some herbs help us get into that introspective place, some help us feel protected while we’re there. Some herbs protect the heart, or circulate our inner waters, or open up our lungs – traditionally associated with grief in many cultures. Other herbs help us move through liminal spaces like dreaming, or to access our own inner wisdom from those realms. Whatever kind of support you need, there’s an herb who can help you.

Herbs discussed in this episode include: calamus, rose, hawthorn, linden, heather, self-heal, elecampane, lungwort, catnip, chamomile, yarrow, st john’s wort, vervain, goldenrod, jiaogulan, mugwort, bittergrass, bittersweet nightshade, vanilla.

This material is part of our Neurological & Emotional Health course! It’s a user’s guide to your nerves & your emotions – including the difficult and dark ones. We discuss holistic herbalism strategies for addressing both neurological & psychological health issues, and it includes a lengthy discussion of herbal pain management strategies, too! This self-paced online video course includes access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions so you can connect with Katja & Ryn directly.

As always, please subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it more easily. Thank you!!

Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

This week we listened to a talk by a Buddhist teacher about mantra chanting practices, and one particular facet of their purpose: to be a mental reset or redirection, a way to get a hold of your mind when it’s spun up & agitated. It inspired us to think about herbs as mantras, as mind tools – which herbs are, just as much as they’re physical supports. Herbs can help us introduce new mental patterns and change the way we relate to our minds.

People have been working with mantra and other meditative practices for a long time. That means people have been seeking ways to calm and direct mental patterns for a long time – it’s not new! If you feel this way sometimes, you can rest assured that it’s not just you; it’s everyone. You might say that it’s a natural consequence of having a brain that can do all the complex & amazing things our brains can do. Sometimes that complex computer gets stuck or spinning, and you need a reboot.

That’s where meditation comes in, traditionally – and that’s also where herbs as mantra come in! These plants can slow down the spinning so you can step off the mental merry-go-round. They can release tension that stops you from being able to identify what you need, or express it. They can bring in some sunshine and get your inner waters moving smoothly. Whatever pattern you find yourself falling into in those moments, there are herbs that can help!

Herbs discussed in this episode include: hawthorn, linden, sage, mugwort, juniper, cedar, pine, st john’s wort, yarrow, calendula, heather, kava, pedicularis, solomon’s seal, crampbark, orange peel.

Our Neurological & Emotional Health course is a user’s guide to your nerves & emotions. We explain how these systems work, what they need to work well, and what gets in the way of their smooth efficient function. We discuss holistic herbalism strategies for addressing both neurological & psychological health issues, and it includes a lengthy discussion of herbal pain management strategies, too! This self-paced online video course includes access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions so you can connect with Katja & Ryn directly.

As always, please subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it more easily. Thank you!!

Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Maintaining a sharp & healthy mind has always been one of the things people ask us about most often. Whether it’s a nagging difficulty recalling words, or a tendency to forget why you walked into a room – or more seriously, a relative showing early signs of dementia – lots of folks are wondering if there are herbs for cognitive decline prevention. And here’s the good news: there are!

When we’re trying to diminish the risk of dementia, herbs can help in a few different ways. For one, they can improve circulation to the brain, bringing in fresh oxygen and nutrients to keep the nerve cells well-fed. They can also protect those nerves and thus stave off senility, by reducing inflammation and improving nerve communications (both chemical and electrical).

But keeping your mind agile and avoiding Alzheimer’s isn’t something you can accomplish just by taking some supplements or drinking some tea – even with the best herbs in the world. You’ve got to feed your brain – get those omega-3s! And perhaps most importantly, you need good restful sleep, and plenty of it. Lack of sleep is probably the single biggest contributor to diminishing mental acuity; good quality sleep is the best guarantee of a healthy brain & mind. Herbs can help here, too – to ease the transition into sleep, to deepen sleep, and even to help you dream.

Herbs discussed in this episode include: rosemary, sage, tulsi, ginkgo, gotu kola, & lion’s mane.

Our Neurological & Emotional Health course includes more material about preventing cognitive decline, as well as a whole host of herbal and holistic strategies to support healthy nerves, brain, mind, and emotions. This self-paced online video course includes access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions so you can connect with Katja & Ryn directly. It includes a lengthy discussion of herbal pain management strategies, too!

As always, please subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it more easily. Thank you!!

Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

When thinking about how to start working with herbalism for respiratory ailments, you might get really focused on WHICH ailment it is, and which herbs are “good for” that ailment. As herbalists, though, we don’t work with diagnoses; we work with what we see. So whether it’s a cold, bronchitis, or asthma, we’ll respond to what we see, hear, and feel by choosing herbs to match the current state of the body. It’s not difficult once you start working with the plants!

Some conditions are dry: think of a racking, rattling cough, or just dry red sinuses. Those need moistening herbs, like the mallows and seaweeds. Some troubles are more wet in nature – like a really phlegmy cough – and they need drying herbs like sumac, thyme, and garlic. Can you see how just looking at “herbs for cough” wouldn’t sort those differences out for us? That’s the key!

In this episode we’ll discuss various presentations of respiratory ailments & herbs to address them. We’ll share a couple key formulae (one’s for a tea with garlic in it!) and a brief discussion of breathing exercises, too.

Herbs discussed in this episode include: sage, thyme, sumac, goldenrod, oregano, peppermint, pine, cedar, common mallow, marshmallow, hollyhock, lavender, chamomile, mullein, ginger, garlic, onion, cayenne, black pepper, horseradish, lemon, rosemary, seaweeds (e.g. Irish moss), & purple loosestrife.

This is part 10 in our Accessible Herbalism series! We’re sharing strategies for safely improving some of the most common health concerns, especially for marginalized communities. We want to empower people to take action in support of their own health and the health of their neighbors. The safe, accessible tools of holistic herbalism can fill in the gaps left by uneven access and affordability of conventional care. Working with easy-to-find, inexpensive herbs, with low risk of adverse effects and drug interactions, is something anyone can do.

We’re building a community health collective organizing tool out of this material as we go through the series. You can learn more about the project and find all the collected resources here:

Mutual Aid Resources

As always, please subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it more easily. Thank you!!

Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Our emotions part of our health just as much as our physical organs & system. When we have difficulties like anxiety and depression, we can draw on practices in holistic herbalism for emotional support.

Even when we know what’s causing us to feel stress, often there’s little or nothing we can do about it. When the stressors are systemic or unavoidable given our current circumstances, we can’t simply walk away from them. Instead, we need to find ways to help our bodies and minds cope with the stress and still maintain good function.

In this episode we highlight some of our favorite herbs to call on in stressful situations. First we take a look at some specific plants and their own talents, then we consider common contributors to emotional disturbance and the way holistic approaches can resolve them.

Herbs discussed in this episode include: chamomile, peppermint, tulsi, green tea, nettle, dandelion, seaweed, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, hibiscus, apple, basil, dandelion, cacao, beet.

Other things we mentioned: Natural Calm, Mega-Mag.

This is part 9 in our Accessible Herbalism series! We’re sharing strategies for safely improving some of the most common health concerns, especially for marginalized communities. We want to empower people to take action in support of their own health and the health of their neighbors. The safe, accessible tools of holistic herbalism can fill in the gaps left by uneven access and affordability of conventional care. Working with easy-to-find, inexpensive herbs, with low risk of adverse effects and drug interactions, is something anyone can do.

We’re building a community health collective organizing tool out of this material as we go through the series. You can learn more about the project and find all the collected resources here:

Mutual Aid Resources

As always, please subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen, so others can find it more easily. Thank you!!

Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!