The Nourished Nervous System

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Today's guest is Andrei Efremov — psychosomatics researcher, author, and founder of the Efremov Method. Originally trained in medicine, psychiatry, and psychotherapy, he now focuses on the neuroscience of fear and the body. His peer-reviewed work proposes that fear-based pathological neural networks can turn stress and emotion into chronic physical symptoms — and that fear may be the foundation of all emotional states. He is the author of Unwiring Pain and Primal Fear: Somatic Echoes.

This is a genuinely unusual conversation — Andrei's framework is distinctive and doesn't map neatly onto other approaches you may have encountered. I found it fascinating and wanted to share it with you.

What we cover:

• Andrei's path from medical school and psychiatry training in Russia to developing his own method — and why none of his formal training prepared him to actually help people heal
• The concept of pathological neural networks — neural networks created during psychotrauma that generate symptoms in both the mind and the body, drawing their energy from the fear-based emotions stored within them
• Fear as the root of all emotional states — including positive ones; and why Andrei believes working with different emotions separately (grief, guilt, depression) misses the underlying driver
• Why you can't talk or command yourself out of real hypnosis — and what his approach does instead to eliminate fear-based neural networks rather than simply managing them
• The psychosomatic component of disease — why lab results, ultrasounds, and MRIs can show objective findings that are nonetheless driven by psychological neural networks, and what happens when we treat only the physical symptom
• The connectome — ultra-thin neural fibers connecting the brain to every organ and cell in the body, influencing whether cellular function increases or decreases, and why chronic medication can sometimes work against this system
• What complete healing actually looks like — Andrei's observation that when a pathological neural network is fully eliminated, people sometimes have no memory of the symptoms at all, as though they never existed
• Fear and inflammation — the vicious loop between stored fear and systemic inflammation, and why this matters for autoimmune conditions

Andrei's books:

• Unwiring Pain 
• Primal Fear: Somatic Echoes 

Connect with Andrei:

• Website
• Multiple Micro Hypnosis E - Book

Resources:

Free Masterclass:  The Alchemy of the Perimenopause Portal

Ayurvedic Dosha Quick Reference Guide

Abhyanga Self Massage Guide

Weekend Nervous System Reset

Nourished For Resilience Workbook


Find me at www.mynourishednervoussystem.com

and @nourishednervoussytem on Instagram

Send us Fan Mail

Today's guest is Natalie Rivans — co-CEO of ReOrigin, certified menopause coach, somatic practitioner, and mindfulness teacher. Natalie shares her story with us: years as a Metropolitan Police officer in London, living with undiagnosed ADHD, overriding her body's signals in a high-pressure environment, and eventually experiencing a complete physical collapse with chronic pain, digestive issues, and debilitating symptoms that no specialist could explain. Her turning point came sitting in a car overlooking the sea, listening to a podcast about neuroplasticity. That moment led her to ReOrigin — and eventually to becoming its co-CEO and co-creating ReNew, a menopause program that has produced remarkable pilot results.

What I love most about Natalie is that she brings both the lived experience and the science. And she is deeply, genuinely compassionate about what women are moving through.

What we cover:

• Natalie's story — from Metropolitan Police officer to chronic illness to complete collapse, the thousands of pounds spent on specialists, the spreadsheet tracking symptoms, and the moment sitting by the sea that changed everything
• What brain retraining actually is — a structured way of working with neuroplasticity to recognize and interrupt automatic patterns that keep the brain and nervous system in a heightened, protective state; it is not toxic positivity or positive thinking, it is deliberate, repetitive, embodied change
• Neuroplasticity explained accessibly — the brain's natural ability to adapt and change through experience and repetition; like learning to drive, new neural pathways are built gradually through practice
• The nervous system as common thread — why so many chronic conditions (fatigue, pain, anxiety, digestive issues) share nervous system dysregulation as a component, and why the brain-gut connection is central to all of it
• The window of tolerance — how prolonged stress and trauma narrow our capacity, making small demands feel enormous, and how pacing, titration, and pendulation at ReOrigin help gradually widen that window
• Menopause and the brain — how estrogen and progesterone interact with receptors throughout the brain, not just the reproductive system; why the limbic system becomes more reactive during the transition; and what is actually happening physiologically during a hot flash
• Limbic loops — the repeated cycles in which a sensation or thought triggers an automatic emotional response (the sleep example is particularly recognizable), and how ReNew helps women identify these without self-blame
• The ReNew program — education, neuroplasticity, somatic practices, sleep support, mindset and self-compassion, movement, community, and body kindness; built from thousands of peer-reviewed studies
• The pilot results — by day 90: 77% of participants described overall wellbeing as good (vs 13% at baseline); 80% improvement in sleep; depression lowered by 80%; anxiety lowered by 83%
• Perimenopause as threshold — a beautiful closing exchange about how this transition is not an ending but a doorway into a more authentic version of ourselves, and why being in the body matters so much right now

Connect with Natalie & ReOrigin:

• ReOrigin
• ReNew menopause program
• Instagram

Resources:

Free Masterclass:  The Alchemy of the Perimenopause Portal

Ayurvedic Dosha Quick Reference Guide

Abhyanga Self Massage Guide

Weekend Nervous System Reset

Nourished For Resilience Workbook


Find me at www.mynourishednervoussystem.com

and @nourishednervoussytem on Instagram

Send us Fan Mail

Today I'm joined by Shannon Presson — author of The Unexpected Story, which includes a healing fable called "Lumina's Journey" and a reader guide called the Dragonfly Path. Shannon spent 20 years as a corporate event planner before a disruptive menopause transition cracked her open and led her into coaching and writing. Her work sits at the intersection of story, nervous system, and what it means to find your way back to yourself.

This conversation went so many places I didn't expect — and I loved every one of them.

What we cover:

• Shannon's origin story — two decades in corporate event planning, a disruptive menopause transition, and how following what she couldn't explain led her to write The Unexpected Story
• Brain vs. body wisdom — how the brain deletes, distorts, and generalizes reality, and why the heart and gut offer a more grounded, truthful signal
• How survival-mode storytelling keeps us contracted — the stories we tell ourselves that once protected us and now keep us small, stuck, and separate from what's actually possible
• Fables as healing tools — why indirect story (like the fable "Lumina's Journey") can reach places that direct teaching cannot
• Empaths and borrowed emotions — how highly sensitive people absorb others' emotional states and how to begin distinguishing what is yours from what you've taken on
• Human design — defined vs. open centers, energy types (projectors vs. generators), and what this framework reveals about nervous system needs and how we're designed to give and receive energy
• Reframing stuckness as winter — why the composting, fallow, apparently unproductive season is not a failure but a necessary part of becoming
• Ancestral and cultural narratives — the stories that aren't even ours but live in our bodies and shape our sense of belonging
• Perimenopause as threshold — including the astrological context of Chiron and Saturn returns, and why this time of life is a doorway into deeper sovereignty rather than a decline
• Shannon's noticing practice: Identify a repeated story you tell — about yourself, your life, a relationship — and ask: What do I get from telling this story? Not as self-criticism, but as genuine curiosity. The answer is often illuminating.

Shannon's book & work:

• The Unexpected Story (includes "Lumina's Journey" fable + Dragonfly Path reader guide): [insert link]
• Website: theunexpectedstory.com
• Free gift: [insert link from end of episode]

Resources:

Free Masterclass:  The Alchemy of the Perimenopause Portal

Ayurvedic Dosha Quick Reference Guide

Abhyanga Self Massage Guide

Weekend Nervous System Reset

Nourished For Resilience Workbook


Find me at www.mynourishednervoussystem.com

and @nourishednervoussytem on Instagram

Send us Fan Mail

This one came straight from the heart — no notes, no plan, just something I had been wanting to say for a couple of weeks.

I'm coming off a deeply nourishing retreat at Limina Renewal Center in Searsport, Maine — three days of Ayurvedic bodywork, classes, ocean air, and beautiful people — and I settled into this episode with something I've been sitting with all September: the idea that perimenopause corresponds not just with transition and difficulty, but with harvest, abundance, and fullness.

What we explore:

• The Ayurvedic seasons of life — childhood as kapha (spring, building, unctuous), pitta as the long summer of life (fire, flowering, fruiting, doing), and vata as fall and winter (lighter, drier, subtler, quieter). Perimenopause is late summer — technically still pitta season, but feeling the shift toward fall.
• Late summer as perimenopause season — the variable weather, the hot days followed by cool ones, the storms and the sunshine. Sound familiar?
• The fullness of this time that we forget — the tomatoes still ripening, the dahlias blooming, the harvest happening even as some things are dying back. This is also a time of bounty: decades of experience, all the women we've been, the wisdom we're stepping into.
• The messy garden as a metaphor for a life — it doesn't look the way we planned. There are weeds. But if we pull back and really look, there are still flowers. There is still so much growing. And the non-traditional path has fruited in ways we might not have expected.
• The virgin archetype — not the uninitiated woman, but the woman who is whole unto herself — like a virgin forest or virgin wool. The archetype that lives between mother and crone. Coming into that wholeness even in the midst of still mothering, still building, still doing.
• Being with what is — a practice Chandra Cantor spoke about in an earlier episode. How can we see the wholeness of what actually is — weeds and flowers both — without needing it to be perfect or what we imagined?
• Creating our own rites of passage — our culture offers none for this transition. But we can offer them to ourselves.

Guided meditation: The Fullness of All You've Been
I close the episode with a spontaneous guided practice — a gentle time-travel meditation that visits the child, the teenager, the young adult, and the current self, gathers all those versions together, and finally glimpses the version of you stepping through the perimenopause portal to the other side. 

Previously mentioned:

• Erik Jackson — digestion episode
• Chandra Cantor — "being with what is" episode 
• Limina Renewal Center, Searsport, Maine: liminarenewal.com

Resources:

Free Masterclass:  The Alchemy of the Perimenopause Portal

Ayurvedic Dosha Quick Reference Guide

Abhyanga Self Massage Guide

Weekend Nervous System Reset

Nourished For Resilience Workbook


Find me at www.mynourishednervoussystem.com

and @nourishednervoussytem on Instagram

Send us Fan Mail

Today I'm joined by Aaron Johnson — public speaker, facilitator, filmmaker, and touch activist whose work centers on the emotional and relational lives of Black men. Aaron is the founder of The Chronically UnderTouched Project — the CUT Project — and the director of Dark and Tender, an 18-minute documentary that follows ten Black men during a retreat on Whidbey Island, Washington. It has been called one of the most quietly revolutionary pieces of film in the healing space right now.

Aaron's work begins with a simple and devastating observation: that Black men in America are among the most chronically touch-deprived people in our culture — and that this deprivation has profound consequences for mental health, emotional regulation, nervous system health, and the capacity for genuine connection and community. The CUT Project exists to change that.

What we cover:

• The Black brute archetype — the deeply entrenched cultural narrative of Black men as dangerous, aggressive, and hypersexualized, how it has been constructed and maintained, and what it costs Black men to live inside it
• Making Dark and Tender — what it took for Aaron, as both director and facilitator, to create the conditions of genuine safety that allowed ten Black men to be soft, tender, and vulnerable on camera — and why that safety was everything
• The retreat  — what actually happened in the room: men tucking each other in, holding hands, singing, walking barefoot on the earth together, and the extraordinary range of men who showed up — different ages, economic backgrounds, sexualities, and life experiences
• Why diversity within the group was essential — how having a 24-year-old and a 77-year-old, cis and queer and trans men, men from very different economic circumstances, all in the same space together was not incidental but deeply intentional
• Why this footage matters — how seeing tender Black masculinity documented and made visible begins to create an alternative to the Black brute narrative in our cultural imagination, and why representation at this level is genuinely transformative
• The ripple effects — how the film is already moving through the world, the conversations it is opening, the permission it is giving, and why Aaron believes the impact will continue to spread
• Listening as the first hug — Aaron's understanding of what genuine attunement and presence offer, and why being truly heard is itself a form of touch
• The resonance between Aaron's work and the nervous system — what chronic touch deprivation does to a body, and what happens physiologically when that deprivation begins to be addressed

Watch 9 minute preview of Dark and Tender:
cutproject.org/tender

Aaron's invitation:
If this conversation moved you, share the film. Let someone see it who needs to. That is how the ripple spreads.

Connect with Aaron:

• The CUT Project: cutproject.org
• Instagram Cut Project
• Instagram Dark and Tender Film

Resources:

Free Masterclass:  The Alchemy of the Perimenopause Portal

Ayurvedic Dosha Quick Reference Guide

Abhyanga Self Massage Guide

Weekend Nervous System Reset

Nourished For Resilience Workbook


Find me at www.mynourishednervoussystem.com

and @nourishednervoussytem on Instagram

Send us Fan Mail

Today's guest is Dr. Natalya Borakowski — a physician with nearly 20 years of experience in women's health and cosmetic dermatology, founder of Desert Bloom Skincare, and creator of Unveil You, a platform dedicated to helping women understand the biological, emotional, and cultural forces shaping how they feel about themselves in midlife. Dr. Natalya combines science, psychology, and compassionate education to help women move from burnout, self-criticism, and overwhelm toward self-trust, vitality, and genuine confidence.

What I love about this conversation is that it goes to the root. So much of the conversation around women's health in midlife focuses on what to do — what to take, what to put on your skin, how to optimize. Dr. Natalya asks a different question: what is actually happening underneath?

What we cover:

• Why high-functioning women often live in chronic survival mode without realizing it — what this looks like from the outside, why it is so easy to miss, and why the women who seem to have it most together are often the ones most in need of support
• Why so many women suddenly stop feeling like themselves during perimenopause — the intersection of hormonal transition and nervous system overload, and why this combination creates such a profound sense of disconnection from identity
• Wellness as performance pressure — the difference between true nourishment and wellness becoming another item on the to-do list, another standard to meet, another way to feel like we're failing
• Whether aesthetic medicine and wellness can become unhealthy coping mechanisms — an honest, nuanced conversation about where genuine support ends and external fixing begins
• What healing actually looks like beyond supplements, skincare, and optimization — rebuilding self-trust, emotional safety, and internal regulation as the real foundation of midlife vitality
• The pendulum between beauty extremes in midlife — a refreshing and non-judgmental conversation about the two poles women often feel pulled between: the "fixed" approach of dye, filler, and cosmetic intervention on one side, and the "natural" approach of gray hair and bare skin on the other. Dr. Natalya's perspective is that neither is right or wrong — what matters is whether the choice is coming from a place of self-expression and genuine desire, or from fear, shame, and the need for external validation. Judge neither. Ask only: is this coming from love or from fear?
• The resonance between Dr. Natalya's work and Ayurveda — the understanding that true beauty and vitality come from nourishing the inside, that ojas is what we're actually seeking, and that a settled nervous system is the beginning of everything

Connect with Dr. Natalya:

• Free Gift 
• Unveil You platform
• Instagram Dr. Natalya
• Instagram Unveil You

Resources:

Free Masterclass:  The Alchemy of the Perimenopause Portal

Ayurvedic Dosha Quick Reference Guide

Abhyanga Self Massage Guide

Weekend Nervous System Reset

Nourished For Resilience Workbook


Find me at www.mynourishednervoussystem.com

and @nourishednervoussytem on Instagram

Send us Fan Mail

This is a "Flashback" episode of an episode that originally aired in September of 2024.

You most likely have seen the word "adaptogen" on some type of herbal product or beverage in the past few years.  They are incredible herbs with an intelligence that helps our bodies adapt to stress.

The thing is, they are so amazing that many companies use this word to market products that don't actually have adaptogens in them.

In this informative episode I introduce listeners to adaptogens, a fascinating class of herbs celebrated for their ability to enhance the body’s resilience to stress.  And hopefully give some insight into what an adaptogen truly is so that you can be more savvy when buying products with these incredible herbs.

The conversation starts with the rich history of adaptogens, from their ancient roots in Ayurveda and Chinese medicine to their discovery in the West during extensive USSR research. 

Key adaptogens such as ashwagandha, American ginseng, and Rhodiola are highlighted, alongside the criteria that make an herb an adaptogen: non-toxic, non-specific stress response, normalizing effect, and impact on the HPA axis and SAS (sympathoadrenal system). 

The episode also provides practical advice on choosing reliable adaptogenic products and emphasizes the importance of integrating herbs with a balanced lifestyle. Listeners are encouraged to explore adaptogens further and consider their potential benefits alongside lifestyle changes.


In this episode:

• Introduction to Adaptogens
• History and Discovery of Adaptogens
• Defining Adaptogens
• Popular Adaptogens and Their Benefits
• Using Adaptogens Wisely

Related Episodes:

Episode 55 - Nervous System Herb Allies
Episode 53 - The Window of Resilience


References:

Winston, D., & Maimes, S. (2007). Adaptogens: Herbs for Strength, Stamina and Stress Relief. Healing Arts Press.

(n.d.). The Definitive List of Adaptogens. Rasa. https://wearerasa.com/pages/what-are-adaptogens#definitive-list

Resources:

Free Masterclass:  The Alchemy of the Perimenopause Portal

Ayurvedic Dosha Quick Reference Guide

Abhyanga Self Massage Guide

Weekend Nervous System Reset

Nourished For Resilience Workbook


Find me at www.mynourishednervoussystem.com

and @nourishednervoussytem on Instagram

Send us Fan Mail

This is a quickie episode — and honestly, the fact that it's a quickie is kind of the point.

I came to record today feeling blank and tired, with a bigger episode still in the works. And then I realized: that feeling is exactly what this episode needed to be about. Because if you're feeling that way too right now — like your reserves are dwindling, like you're treading water, like everything's a little drier and a little slower — you are not failing. You are in a season.

Today I'm talking about ritu satmya — one of my favorite Ayurvedic concepts, and one that feels especially alive right now.

What we cover:

• What ritu satmya actually means — ritu (season) and satmya (wholesome, suitable, what we're habituated to) — and why the key word is gradually
• The concept of ritu sandhi — the junction between seasons, which like the joints of the body is both more vulnerable and more potent
• Why this late summer moment is such an important transition point — we are moving from pitta season (fire, heat, intensity, irregularity) into vata season (air, dryness, movement, lightness) — and how we navigate this junction shapes how we feel all the way through autumn
• What ritu satmya actually looks like right now — small, practical, doable shifts including warming the food a little, bringing oil back to the skin, rebuilding morning or evening routine, noticing what you actually have capacity for, and choosing movement that grounds rather than depletes
• Why routine is medicine for the nervous system — and why this natural re-entry into structure as summer ends is something to embrace rather than resist
• A gentle reminder that this accumulation of tiredness is not a personal failure — it is the season arriving in the body, right on schedule

Coming soon:
The Ayurvedic & Somatic Perimenopause Toolkit — practices to actually get into your body.  Join the email list to be the first to know when it's available. 

Resources:

Free Masterclass:  The Alchemy of the Perimenopause Portal

Ayurvedic Dosha Quick Reference Guide

Abhyanga Self Massage Guide

Weekend Nervous System Reset

Nourished For Resilience Workbook


Find me at www.mynourishednervoussystem.com

and @nourishednervoussytem on Instagram

Send us Fan Mail

Today's guest is Amber Caudle — chef, author, speaker, and coach devoted to helping women heal their relationship with food, their bodies, and themselves. 

She is the founder of The Source Cafe, a health-focused restaurant in Southern California, and the author of Hungry: Finding Food Freedom and Reclaiming Body Peace.

Amber's story is one of the most honest I've heard — decades of a very public career nourishing others while quietly struggling behind closed doors, and the long, non-linear journey toward something she describes not as being cured, but as being on the path.

This conversation felt very close to home for me personally, and I think it will for many of you too.

What we cover:

• Amber's story — 30+ years of binging and restriction, exercise obsession, diet pills, laxatives, drugs and alcohol, and the exhausting performance of looking healthy and successful while deeply unwell, and what finally cracked things open
• Food as emotional language — the core reframe of Amber's work: the food was never the real problem. It was the language available for much deeper unmet needs — safety, connection, worth, rest, and belonging
• What our cravings and behaviors are actually communicating — every impulse toward binging, restricting, or emotional eating as a divine message that something is out of alignment, and how to get curious instead of shameful
• The shame piece — why this lives so deeply in the shadows, how shame actually perpetuates the cycle, and what begins to happen when we name what's happening with honesty and self-compassion
• How nervous system regulation changes digestion — the science of eating in a sympathetic state, why up to 60–70% of our digestive capacity is cut off when we're in fight or flight, and why slowing down is one of the most powerful things we can do for our relationship with food and our bodies
• The practice of slowing down — what this actually looks like in practice, the pattern interrupt, talking out loud, naming what's happening, and why even pausing before a binge is meaningful progress
• Biohacking can't replace the basics — why red light therapy, cold plunges, peptides, and supplements become Band-Aids when the foundation of rest, nourishment, hydration, connection, and nervous system safety isn't in place first
• Aging strongly — what this means to Amber at 50 and why she feels more vital now than she did in her 30s and 40s
• The resonances between Amber's work and Ayurveda — you are not what you eat, you are what you digest

A note on this conversation:
If this topic touches something personal for you, Amber's work is a beautiful place to start — and specialized support is always available. 

The Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness helpline is available at 1-866-662-1235.

Connect with Amber:

• Website 
• The Source Cafe, Hermosa Beach, California
• Book — Hungry: Finding Food Freedom and Reclaiming Body Peace
• LinkedIn
• Instagram

Resources:

Free Masterclass:  The Alchemy of the Perimenopause Portal

Ayurvedic Dosha Quick Reference Guide

Abhyanga Self Massage Guide

Weekend Nervous System Reset

Nourished For Resilience Workbook


Find me at www.mynourishednervoussystem.com

and @nourishednervoussytem on Instagram

Send us Fan Mail

We are at the height of summer here in Maine — that peak of the pendulum swing before it begins its long arc back toward the quiet of winter. And I've been feeling that shift in my own body, that sense of the tide beginning to turn. It felt like the right moment to talk about something I've been sitting with for a while.

We have no shortage of conversation about the physical symptoms of perimenopause. And those symptoms are real and deserve to be taken seriously. But I rarely see the other side of this transition named — the awakening, the shedding, the emergence into a version of ourselves that is more whole, more embodied, more able to speak our truth and follow what we actually need.

This episode is about that other side.

What we cover:

• The pendulum of the seasons — how the arc of summer into autumn mirrors the arc of our own lives, and why recognizing those rhythms matters in a culture built around sameness
• Perimenopause as portal — why this transition is not just a hormonal event but an identity shift as profound as puberty or becoming a mother, and why the disorientation of it makes complete sense
• The snake shedding its skin — what it feels like to have previous versions of yourself fall away, and why the essence underneath was always there
• The archetypes: maiden, mother, virgin, crone — how we move through different versions of ourselves at each major hormonal threshold, and why none of those previous versions ever fully disappears
• The midlife virgin archetype — not sexual initiation, but wholeness. The person who is whole unto themselves, whose validation comes from within rather than without. Like virgin wool, virgin forest, virgin olive oil — undiluted, pure unto itself.
• Doing from being — why this season isn't about doing less, but about the doing coming from a place of being rather than the being being a result of what you do
• The ripple effect — how the women who are navigating this transition consciously are doing it not just for themselves but for every younger woman watching, and for the cultural narrative around what midlife actually means for women
• The invitation — who are you when you're not people pleasing? What actually lights you up? Who is emerging on the other side of this fire?

Resources & people mentioned:

• Kimberly Ann Johnson — mother circle training, 
• The archetypes of maiden, mother, virgin, and crone in women's wisdom traditions

Resources:

Free Masterclass:  The Alchemy of the Perimenopause Portal

Ayurvedic Dosha Quick Reference Guide

Abhyanga Self Massage Guide

Weekend Nervous System Reset

Nourished For Resilience Workbook


Find me at www.mynourishednervoussystem.com

and @nourishednervoussytem on Instagram