What are Ayurvedic herbs? They may be closer than you think. Check out this inspiring episode exploring Ayurvedic herbs, the wisdom of plants, and why connecting with your ecosystem is the best medicine. 

• What Ayurvedic herbs are.
• Why connecting to your ecosystem is key.
• Why single herb pill popping is ineffective.

• Living Ayurveda training
• Have a conversation
• Understand Ayurveda Herbal Formulations
• Kate O'Donnell's Ayurveda cooking and lifestyle books
• Podcast on Invasive Weeds

• Cate shares the parable of Ayurvedic graduates writing their final exam. 
• Cate’s favourite quote by Amadea Morningstar
• Why Cate loves chewing Aspen leaves

• 7:23 Learning the language of plants 
• 9:45 Plants as potent healing allies 
• 16:00 Connecting with the herbs in your ecosystem  
• 17:24 Creating Ayurvedic herbal formulas

• “Life is abundant, plants are intelligent. Plants are hundreds of millions of years older than humans. They’ve been on this planet way longer than mammals. They have so much wisdom within their cells, within how they grow, where they grow, who they grow alongside, and then what they can do in the human body. And that perspective of, all plants have value, all plants have medicinal value, that perspective is so needed right now as we continue to spray petrochemicals on healing plants; plants like chickweed, plants like thistle, plants like dandelion. Plants that I eat most of the year.” - Cate Stillman 
• “All plants are part of the science of life.” -  Cate Stillman 
• “What’s really healing, I find more than anything, is humans connecting with plants. Not encapsulated pills. Or plants that are dried and powdered and put into a capsule, and that capsule is then put into a plastic bottle, and that plastic bottle put onto a shelf, with a shelf life.” - Cate Stillman 
• “Plants are potent, healing allies.” - Amadea Morningstar
• “Part of the problem is we’re over harvesting plants not from our ecosystem, so we’re not actually connecting with our ecosystem. We’re not creating potent healing allies. Because when you do, you care for your ecosystem.” - Cate Stillman

Are you carrying excess weight? Ayurveda can help! Listen in for weight loss tips for Vata, Pitta and Kapha constitutions.

• How you can lose weight with Ayurveda 
• How to poop
• Weight loss tips for Vata, Pitta and Kapha dosha

• Have a conversation
• Check out our Ayurveda Tip Sheets
• "What Is Vata Dosha" Podcast Episode
• "What Is Pitta Dosha" Podcast Episode
• "What Is Kapha Dosha" Podcast Episode

• Cate shares tips for moving waste out.
• Cate describes the work of her friend, Brant, who helps people with gross obesity. 
• Cate’s shares her morning winter walk routine.

• 8:54 Tips for complete elimination
• 10:30 Weight loss tips for Vata
• 17:07 Weight loss tips for Pitta
• 21:40 Weight loss tips for Kapha  

• “It’s not just what you eat, it’s when you eat.” - Cate Stillman
• “If we’re not moving waste out, waste and weight can become synonymous. So non-functional tissue taking up mass in the body that has weight to it can be undigested or poorly digested food that then becomes a waste product as opposed to a functional tissue in the body. Even if we look at fat tissue, what’s the functional amount of fat tissue in the body, according to the textbook of Ayurveda, written by Dr. Visant Lad, it’s two handfuls! Two anjali.” - Cate Stillman
• “When the nerves are relaxed the bowels start to be able to let go, so instead of being constipated or contracted what happens is the body is more able to release waste.” - Cate Stillman
• “Life is rhythmic, there is a rhythm to things. There’s a rhythm to digestion, there’s a rhythm to absorption, there’s a rhythm to feeding, there’s a rhythm to fasting. And this starts to build a deep sense of trust in the person with their body. They start to be able to actually trust and on a very deep level love, on a cellular level feel that the essence of consciousness is loved, and love their body again.” - Cate Stillman
•  “For the Vata person it means a few times a day they’re going to lay down and put their hands on their belly and relax. That will actually accelerate (weight loss). It means for the Kapha person even skipping a meal at night now and then, just having tea or having broth at night, that’s going to take the weight off a lot faster. For the Pitta person to wind down and let themself adjust to efficiencies the more they do that the faster the excess will come off and the more they’ll naturally find their best weight.” - Cate Stillman

What is the Ayurvedic diet? Cate explains it’s not all kitchari and mung beans. Check out the podcast to learn about the Ayurvedic diet and thriving for your constitution with food!

• What the Ayurvedic diet is.
• How to thrive in your constitution with food.
• Why the ecosystem and seasons offer the biggest insights from Ayurveda.

• Have a conversation

• Cate describes her health hurdles before Ayurveda entered her life. 
• Why Cate recommends ‘Eat Wheat’ by Dr. John Douillard.
• What to do if you get the food blahs. 

• 5:05 Cate’s take on the Ayurvedic diet, perfect digestion and Sama Agni.
• 9:12 Best foods for the three constitutions.
• 21:51 Seasonal insights from nature to guide diet.

• “When I look at the Ayurvedic diet, I look at what is food? What is food according to Ayurveda? What is nourishment according to understanding your constitution? So we get into a different level of complexity where it’s not like these yes and no lists. It’s more, notice the impact that different foods eaten at different times have on you and see if you can find seamless digestion. What they call Sama Agni. Perfect balanced digestion.” - Cate Stillman 
• “Ayurvedic diet rule number one, like increases like and the opposites reduce each other.” - Cate Stillman
• “Vata accumulates in the colon so anything that’s too airy they’ll get bloated and gassy. Pitta accumulates in the small intestine so anything that’s too fiery, like hot sauce, they’ll tend to get the runs from because there’s already a lot of bile in their small intestine. And Kapha accumulates in the stomach and it’s mucus. So we’ve got gas, bile and mucus (and these are translations for Vata, Pitta and Kapha) are the forces as they go out of balance in the body.” - Cate Stillman
• “What we want to do is let the body feed itself, get more matter over mind. Most of us have way too much information in our brains about how to eat. I’d rather not rely on our brains about how to eat! Build body awareness. Build body wisdom, body intelligence about what to eat. The body is physical, it’s part of nature.” - Cate Stillman

Water + Earth = Kapha. Our Ayurveda intro series continues! Find out more about the stable and nurturing qualities of Kapha and how to thrive as this dosha. Tune into the podcast!

• What is Kapha dosha.
• What are Kapha imbalances.
• How Kapha types thrive.

• Check out our Ayurvedic tip sheets
• Take a Dosha Quiz
• Living Ayurveda training

• Cate likens Kapha energy to that of pond life.
• Cate describes her Kapha husband and sister.
•  Cate explains why calming Kapha isn’t necessary.

•  9:18 Qualities of Kapha.
•  10:06 Physical traits of Kapha types.
•  18:07 Kapha imbalances.
•  22:23 Best food practices for Kaphas.

•  “Yoga is the path of enlightenment. Ayurveda is the path of thrive in body mind and spirit.” - Cate Stillman.
• “Kaphas are blessed with endurance.” - Cate Stillman
• “Emotionally people like hanging out with Kaphas. They’re mellow, they’re calm, they're reflective. They can listen, like really listen.” - Cate Stillman
• “The more we understand our nature and our tendencies that bring us out of balance, the better we’re able to actually cultivate the opposite.” - Cate Stillman
• “Kaphas work is to become a flowing river.” - Cate Stillman
• “When Kaphas go out of balance it comes from not doing enough. It comes from not being as involved in the world. It comes from not being physical.” - Cate Stillman

Are you achievement oriented? Do you have a powerful intellect but sometimes lose your cool? You might have a predominance of Pitta Dosha. Find out how to shine without burning out on the podcast!

• What is Pitta dosha.
• What it is like to have a Pitta constitution. 
• What happens when Pitta goes out of balance.

• Check out our Ayurvedic tip sheets
• Have a conversation

• Cate explains how Pitta shows up in her personal life.
• Cate describes the extreme side of a Pitta imbalance in the mind.
• Cate details the mini rejuvenation breaks she takes during the work day.

• 4:22 The function of Pitta in the body and mind.
• 7:19 That qualities of Pitta and how it feels in the body and mind. 
• 10:03 The nature of Pitta imbalances in the mind.
• 12:58 Physical qualities of Pitta.
• 19:32 How to calm and balance Pitta.
• 20:11 Practices to help the Pitta mind unwind.
• 22:38 Foods that aggravate and calm Pitta.

• “It’s discriminating in nature. It’s separating the wheat from the chaff. It’s separating the truth from the BS. That’s the natural power of Pitta in the mind.” - Cate Stillman
• “In the paradox is the healing. One of the paradoxes of Pitta in the mind is to have compassion, to actually soften and try to see with empathy all sides of the situation. For a lot of Pitta types this can be the hardest work.” - Cate Stillman
• “So in terms of digestion, this is one of the easiest ways to identify if you have more Pitta. You’ll tend to have a stronger appetite, you’ll tend to be able to eat more frequently than other people. The whole ‘hangry’ word for people who get angry when they’re hungry, that’s more a Pitta type.” - Cate Stillman 
• “Because they’re such hyper-metabilzers if they eat a high carb diet they’re body is going to burn through everything really quickly. Having a substantial meal in the middle of the day that’s higher in protein and higher in fat can really help a Pitta person.” - Cate Stillman
• “Pitta’s have to learn how to turn off. Because their mind is so strong they have a desire to go and go and go. Developing a strong discipline to not working after the sun goes down can be a phenomenal lifestyle change for Pitta; to actually unplug. The time between 6:00pm and 10:00pm, that’s the time of Kapha. That’s the time of earthy watery energy. It’s the time of connecting and being with our people and relaxing, enjoying, reflecting on the day. A Pitta type with a Pitta imbalance will tend to burn the candle at both ends and keep working after dinner, checking email, multitasking, getting everything done before going to bed, and that leads to a Pitta imbalance. They’re violating the rhythm of rejuvenation.” - Cate Stillman

Are you constantly moving? Do you have a ton of ideas but poor follow through? You might have a predominance of Vata Dosha. Find out everything about how to make the best of this Dosha on our podcast!

• What is Dosha?
• What is Vata Constitution?
• What are Vata imbalances?

• Take a Dosha Quiz to Find Balance and Learn Your Ayurvedic Body Type
• Deepen Your Self-Healing Body Wisdom with Ayurveda
• Navigating Stress and Ambition Podcast episode

• Cate explains why Ayurveda can seem hard to learn and understand
• Cate shares the difficulty of having Vata predominance in the modern world
• Cate dives deeper into how Vatas can create resilience

• 05:13 - Understand the meaning of Vata  
• 14:54 - Physical qualities of Vata
• 17:35 - Emotional traits of Vata
• 20:41 - Keeping your energy as a Vata
• 22:48 -Symptoms of Vata Dosha

• “Some people have less than, less than a teddy bear, fuzzy cozy personality. People can have roughness in their skin. These are ways that we might see the quality of rough. Vata is also subtle. Even when you start thinking about how huge this universe, you live in actually is.”
• “They have, in so many ways, these incredible, innate superpowers that are all about being like a super-sensitive instrument. And what can be so hard about being a Vata, about having Vata predominance in your constitution is that the modern world is hyper-stimulated.”
• “Netflix says its biggest competitor is sleep.”
•  “the biggest issue for most modern-day Vatas, is that life in the modern world is very challenging, right? There's a lot of draws in your attention. There's a lot of opportunities, there's too much to do. The endless to-do list can all get done and you are limited. You're limited in your energy.”

Find out everything about how Ayurveda can help you live your best life. Tune into this episode and learn about Doshas, Elements and Gunas.

• Understand what Ayurveda is
• The connection between Yoga and Ayurveda
• Understand the different Doshas

• Take a Dosha Quiz to Find Balance and Learn Your Ayurvedic Body Type
• Deepen Your Self-Healing Body Wisdom with Ayurveda

• Cate shares her first encounter with Ayurveda
• Cate talks about her medical struggles growing up

• 2:45 Different takes on the meaning of Ayurveda
• 16:33 Is Ayurveda really effective?
• 19:59 Looking at disease from an Ayurvedic perspective
• 24:13 Doshas, Elements and Gunas

• “Where Ayurveda to me is, maybe has a slight edge, or is really super fascinating is, because it was so deeply tied to yoga. To the path of enlightenment, not just the path of spirituality and awakening, but the path of what is your true nature. What is you, what are you as a fully awakened human being.”
• “You could heal yourself through understanding your Prakruti and your vikruti, through understanding your constitution, and understanding the current situation of imbalances.”
• “I look at the dosha's Vata, Pitta, Kapha, of those forces, those are verbs. The five elements, earth, water, fire, air, ether, those are nouns, and then the 20 gunas, is it hot, or is it cold, is it have, or is it light, is it moist, or is it dry, is it sharp, or is it soft, is it rough, or is it oiling, or smooth. “

The last episode of our series on stress: Yoga for Stress Management. Check it out to identify pitta and vata patterns of stress and learn what postures will bring you back to balance. 

• How to differentiate pitta, vata and kapha stress.
• What kind of yoga practice is most beneficial for each dosha.

• Have a conversation
• Find Balance and Learn Your Ayurvedic Body Type

• Cate describes her yoga teacher training.
• Cate talks about the benefits of functional movement.
• The power of savasana and Cate’s love of sandbags.

• 4:53 Yoga for the Pitta pattern of stress.
• 8:40  Third Chakra energy and letting go of the need to accomplish.
• 17:23 Yoga for the Vata pattern of stress.
• 25:57 The Kapha tendency of stress.

• “Vata is the energy of wind, and it's air moving through ether, air moving through outer space. It’s the universe expanding and it’s all the movement in the universe. Pitta is the energy of fire, it's the energy of digestion. It’s the energy of intensity, of focus, of goal setting and moving towards a direction. It’s the energy of vision into action. So those energies are really super different. One expands and moves all around in infinite potentiality and the other goes towards an object. Think about it. It’s not the same thing at all. If you're trying to put out a fire, that's one thing. If you're trying to calm down a whirlwind, that's quite another.” - Cate Stillman
• “One of the goals of yoga is to actually become nothing so you can intentionally become something. This practice of dissolution and then reengagement is so deeply healing for pitta types.” - Cate Stillman
• “Bow and allow the breath to lead.”  - Cate Stillman
• “What we need to do is bring all that scattered energy inward and downward. Because what’s happening is the daily rhythm of a person with vata stress imbalance is all their energy is going upward and outward and it’s getting scattered to the wind. We want to cultivate the energy of earth, the energy of water and the energy of fire for a vata reducing practice.” - Cate Stillman 

Is negative stress holding you back? Check out the podcast to free yourself from this pattern and invite your identity to evolve.

• Negative stress vs. positive stress.
• How the five layers of self interact and inform each other.
• Why living in rhythm with the habits enable spiritual growth.

• Order Cate Stillman's new book "Master of You"
• Have a conversation

• Cate describes the qualities of the spirit and intuitive bodies.
• Cate addresses the problem with sticky technology.
• Cate talks about serving others with a surplus of energy.

• 6:05 The five layers of self: spirit, intuition, mind, energy, and physical body.
• 7:45 Asking your spirit what it wants to awaken intuition. 
• 11:17 Asking your body what it wants to awaken desire.
• 19:16 Freeing yourself from negative stress patterns.
• 23:09 Waking up rejuvenated with the dawn.
• 25:37 The connection between meditation and stress.
• 34:21 The Bodhisattva Vow.

• “When someone is grounded and living in the rhythm of life, what the yogis would call an alignment through Dinacharya, to the daily rhythm, what happens is they become strong.  They become mentally strong and physically strong, and they become able to take on more. Taking on more is positive stress, and it leads to adaptability and it leads to increased levels of resilience. Negative stress is stuff that is degenerative.” - Cate Stillman
• “Degeneration creates this lack of integrity, where we’re out of integrity with the life force itself and we’re out of integrity with our day to day life. When this happens, when we’re out of integrity with our own time or out of integrity with our own need for deep sleep or very deep nourishment, cellularly what happens is confusion and degeneration.” - Cate Stillman
•  “You get a sense of who you want to become next from spirit. When we look at spirituality and stress, when we have so much negative stress, we can’t explore the next level of spiritual development.” - Cate Stillman
• “If we understand the pattern we can say, oh who I am is not the pattern. Who I am is the one who can see that pattern. And then ask spirit ‘what do you want right now’, and start to pivot my actions. As soon as I pivot my actions I’m actually pivoting how I appear in the world. I’m pivoting habits.” - Cate Stillman 
• “In this post modern age that we’re in right now, what tends to get the most attention is the mind. We pay more attention to our mind, which is less evolved. That monomyakosha is less evolved or in synch with (that’s all I really mean by evolved) in rhythm with, in synch with, in connection with intuition and spirit.” - Cate Stillman 
• “Many of us need to move our bodies to access spirit.” - Cate Stillman
• “Check in with, what does my spirit want to experience today? And to allow your identity to evolve. This is the work that we do in the courses at YogaHealer.” -  Cate Stillman

What is success? Tune into the podcaste for the Ayurvedic take on mindset, stress and changing your thought patterns.

• What mindset is in Ayurveda.
• How to define success.
• How the habits dissolve stress.

• FREE conversation to Awaken your Deeper Dreams
• Order Cate Stillman's new book "Master of You"

• Cate shares her definition of success.
• Cate talks about sleep deficit disorder as it relates to aligned behaviour.
• Cate offers simple practices to shed stress.

• 2:30 Mind explained as wisdom, intuition and energy bodies.  
• 6:42 Making aligned decisions by acknowledging your crutches and your story.
• 9:10 Defining success with Ahamkara. 
• 13:02 Allowing rest and rejuvenation.

•  “So when we look at what's happening with stress and the vijnanamaya kosha, we're talking about not making decisions in alignment with what we want. Because we always want towards the good, the true, and the beautiful. We always want towards ananda. That's vijnana's job, to point our awareness in that direction. But say we've designed our life circumstances in such a way that we don't get to do what we want. There's a story behind that. And we can spend a lot of time trying to dissolve the story behind that or we can get totally obsessed in the story. But what matters is that we don't perpetuate the story. That we don't take actions in alignment with that story.” - Cate Stillman
• “ We practice the pattern of dissolving the pattern. And we practice allowing these deeper waves of desire to come through.” - Cate Stillman
• “Any crutch that is disrupting focus or ease is perpetuating the stress pattern.”  - Cate Stillman
• “So the way you change that anxiety thought pattern is by exhaling. By getting on the mat, by getting on the cushion, unwinding the pattern. By feeling your own fatigue and moving in a way, breathing in a way that starts to release that fatigue.” - Cate Stillman