(audio fixed! sorry y'all) The Ayurvedic concept of "ojas" can feel elusive, especially because it's a unique perspective on something that we might refer to as our deep inner well of resilience or the nourishment we can call upon when we are in a time of stress or strain.

There's no real physical component we can point to from a western anatomy lens.

But it's an essential literal substance in the Ayurvedic paradigm that is required for recovery from "karmic crunch" times and also for things like healthy menstrual cycles, fertility, gentler perimenopause and even longevity.

Ayurvedic practitioner Adena Rose Bright speaks to both her clinical and embodied personal experience identifying low Ojas and replenishing this "inner well" through simple practices that are accessible to all of us.

We also chat about the often overlooked significance of bodywork in integrative health practices and so much more.

Resources:

• Shownotes: Get links to Adena Rose's free course, apprenticeship etc
• Free Womb Connection & Clearing meditation
• Episode 97: Understanding & pacifying Vata dosha w Kristen Timchak
• Episode 182: Deeply replenishing postpartum care w Coco Genevieve

If you loved this episode, share it with a friend, or take a screenshot and share on social media and tag me @herbalwombwisdom

And if you love this podcast, leave a rating & write a review! It's really helpful to get the show to more amazing humans like you. ❤️

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only, I am not providing any medical advice, I am not a medical practitioner, I’m an herbalist and in the US, there is no path to licensure for herbalists, so my role is as an herbal educator. Please do your own research and consult your healthcare provider for any personal concerns.

Click here to send me a quick message :)

Click here to send me a quick message :)

Traditional intact cultures, and systems like Ayurveda and TCM, all include not only physical and emotional healing but also speak to how the energetic layers of our beings impact our healing, too.

Whether it's tuning into the medicine of the wheel of the year like Summer Solstice (the expansive, invigorating sunlight) or the harmonious dance of Yin and Yang or the subtle energies from the Vedic lens of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, every system holds its own wisdom.

What matters most is how these subtle energies truly impact us, what we notice, what we feel affinity towards and what works for each of us as unique individuals.

The dance of light and dark, contraction and expansion, the underworld and above world, are part of the necessary path to healing. Without one we cannot have the other.

I explore all of this in depth and share some reflective prompts and share some examples of herbs and foods that can help you cultivate some of the subtle energies as well.

This was a total riffing episode, so I hope it offers some little gems for at least one of you since it just sort of flowed through!

Resources:

• Today's shownotes: Subtle energies on your path to radiant wellbeing
• Free guide to Gardening for Your Hormonal Health
• Episode 172: What is vibrational medicine? Flower essences & mantra

If you loved this episode, share it with a friend, or take a screenshot and share on social media and tag me @herbalwombwisdom

And if you love this podcast, leave a rating & write a review! It's really helpful to get the show to more amazing humans like you. ❤️

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only, I am not providing any medical advice, I am not a medical practitioner, I’m an herbalist and in the US, there is no path to licensure for herbalists, so my role is as an herbal educator. Please do your own research and consult your healthcare provider for any personal concerns.

Click here to send me a quick message :)

Iron deficiency is incredibly common, and even more common during pregnancy where there is some level of physiologic anemia with all that blood dilution but it can definitely become too much.

But what is really happening? Today's guest, Samantha Chandler, speaks to what minerals are doing in our bodies, and why she sees copper as a key ally to support our overall mineral balance, including iron available in our blood, and why.

She also speaks to how menstruation may be a part of female-bodied longevity, what deficiencies might be happening when progesterone is low, and what estrogen dominance may be telling us.

The truth is, without basic nutrients - minerals included - we cannot actually produce healthy hormones or tissues, so minerals are often a missing piece in any hormonal or menstrual health picture. And we literally need iron in our blood to transport oxygen, which cells require to to produce energy (aka vital force).

So, this topic is more important than it may seem at first glance.

Resources:

• Today's shownotes: Get links to Samantha's offerings
• Episode 22: Stinging nettles herbal spotlight
• Episode 36: Blood building herbs

If you loved this episode, share it with a friend, or take a screenshot and share on social media and tag me @herbalwombwisdom

And if you love this podcast, leave a rating & write a review! It's really helpful to get the show to more amazing humans like you. ❤️

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only, I am not providing any medical advice, I am not a medical practitioner, I’m an herbalist and in the US, there is no path to licensure for herbalists, so my role is as an herbal educator. Please do your own research and consult your healthcare provider for any personal concerns.

Click here to send me a quick message :)

When cycle alchemist, Tere Marie Martini, first proposed speaking to the 4 P's (plants, planets, pussy & personal agency), I was already ALL IN.

By themselves, each of these topics is compelling, but when we combine them to explore how they can support us to become "whole ass human beings" it gets even more interesting.

What brings each of these seemingly divergent topics together is their cyclical nature. I would also say in general, the way they help us both learn about and become more fully ourselves.

Bridging the worlds of cyclical living, herbalism, astrology and self-awareness and growth together really isn't that far fetched, and is likely something many of us are already practicing in some way.

Tere speaks to how she sees these weaving together, and drops some gorgeous wisdom gleaned from her own womb stories and life journey that have helped her surrender to the will of life, alongside powerfully creating transformational events and spaces.

We talk all about this and more. I really loved this conversation, and hope you find some inspiration in it too!

Resources:

• Free guided womb connection meditation and clearing
• Today's shownotes: Get links to all of Tere's offerings!
• Episode 83: What is astroherbalism? w Andrea Webb
• Episode 197: Somatic practices for healing childhood wounds w Kristen Stake
• Episode 216: How does the moon affect your hormones?

If you loved this episode, share it with a friend, or take a screenshot and share on social media and tag me @herbalwombwisdom

And if you love this podcast, leave a rating & write a review! It's really helpful to get the show to more amazing humans like you. ❤️

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only, I am not providing any medical advice, I am not a medical practitioner, I’m an herbalist and in the US, there is no path to licensure for herbalists, so my role is as an herbal educator. Please do your own research and consult your healthcare provider for any personal concerns.

Click here to send me a quick message :)

Fascia is an extraordinary substance in our bodies that supports both structural integrity *and* fluidity. And it is a web that weaves throughout our entire form.

It has more nerve endings than our skin, responds to our hormones, tenses and relaxes, hydrates and dehydrates and can be a root of chronic pain and/or stuck energy.

It lines all of our organs and muscles and bones! And our endopelvic fascia (the fascia in our pelvis) has direct relationships all the way up to the ribcage.

Our breathing, belly and feet all have clear connections to what Julie Hammond calls the Pelvic Diaphragm (instead of the pelvic bowl).

And even our throat and jaw can have fascial impact on tension or relaxation of the muscles or tissues in our pelvis.

I talk about all of this and more (you'll hear my excitement) on this week's episode.

Resources:

• Free: Gardening guide for menstrual health
• Book: The Pelvic Diaphragm by Julie Hammond
• Episode 22: Stinging nettles love
• Episode 77: Myofascial release for pelvic bowl and chest/breasts with Lindsay Courcelle
• Episode 160: How to nourish fascia with Lisa Masé

If you loved this episode, share it with a friend, or take a screenshot and share on social media and tag me @herbalwombwisdom

And if you love this podcast, leave a rating & write a review! It's really helpful to get the show to more amazing humans like you. ❤️

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only, I am not providing any medical advice, I am not a medical practitioner, I’m an herbalist and in the US, there is no path to licensure for herbalists, so my role is as an herbal educator. Please do your own research and consult your healthcare provider for any personal concerns.

Click here to send me a quick message :)

The sacred windows of our lives, whether postpartum or perimenopause or menarche or any significant transition, are portals of extra sensitivity.

In some ways, they are a gift in that we can almost recreate ourselves from the ground up, renewing, and discovering a new version of ourselves.

In other ways, they are tender, even vulnerable, times that require extra care and deep nourishment to replenish and rebuild from what is often more Vata dominant (from the Ayurvedic lens).

But what can that nourishment look like? And how can relationship to the earth, seasonal cycle and local food play a role?

This week's guest, "nurturer" Ashley Winkelspecht, bring all of this together in her work and practices where she tends and nourishes both postpartum mamas as well as her rural community in the form of meal prep (and growing and sourcing local food).

She also layers on additional practices to enhance the prana, vitality and healing potential of the nourishment she brings.

Listen in to hear all about it.

Resources:

• Free guided womb connection meditation and clearing
• Today's shownotes: Get links to Ashley's offerings
• Episode 49: Sacred windows of our lives with Ashlee Sakaishi Wilkin
• Episode 139: Cultivate resilience in Vata season w Molly McConnell
• Episode 156: Universal Mother principles w Christine Eck
• Episode 182: Deeply replenishing postpartum care with Coco Genevieve

If you loved this episode, share it with a friend, or take a screenshot and share on social media and tag me @herbalwombwisdom

And if you love this podcast, leave a rating & write a review! It's really helpful to get the show to more amazing humans like you. ❤️

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only, I am not providing any medical advice, I am not a medical practitioner, I’m an herbalist and in the US, there is no path to licensure for herbalists, so my role is as an herbal educator. Please do your own research and consult your healthcare provider for any personal concerns.

Click here to send me a quick message :)

In these wild times, so many of us are seeking meaningful ways to engage with our emotions in generative, life-giving ways.

As women and female-bodied folks, we have commonly been socialized to dampen our intensity, our ferocity, our tenacity.

To sit in patriarchal spaces that center the power of a leader on a pedestal versus the power of the circle itself.

But what can a different way look and feel like?

In today's rich conversation with qi gong and martial arts teacher Jaye Marolla, we dig into these questions.

She shares about the practice she calls yin warriorship, what that means and can look like in a martial arts training space or in the world, and how needed it is.

And she also shares all about

• the practice of leading and teaching emergently
• how she crafts containers that are not "safe" but supported
• how intimacy and eroticism are woven into this work
• why she doesn't ascribe the the idea that trauma is the issue in our tissues (and what she sees this phenomena as instead)
• ways to explore your personal "yes" and "no"
• and more!

There is SO MUCH depth and wisdom here. I hope you love it.

Resources:

• Free guided womb connection meditation and clearing
• Today's shownotes: Get links to Jaye's work!
• Episode 140: Mugwort herbal spotlight & my initiation into plant medicine

If you loved this episode, share it with a friend, or take a screenshot and share on social media and tag me @herbalwombwisdom

And if you love this podcast, leave a rating & write a review! It's really helpful to get the show to more amazing humans like you. ❤️

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only, I am not providing any medical advice, I am not a medical practitioner, I’m an herbalist and in the US, there is no path to licensure for herbalists, so my role is as an herbal educator. Please do your own research and consult your healthcare provider for any personal concerns.

Click here to send me a quick message :)

I had a conversation with a friend recently, and the topic of presence came up. Not from the lens of meditation so much as from the lens of what's helping us move through the wild terrain of life these days.

We talked about how easy it is to get drawn into the past - distractions, addictions, spirals of longing, attachment to old stories, replaying what's already happened - or the future - worry, fear, anxiety, concern, responsibilities to come etc.

And how easy it is to go entire days, weeks even, without true embodied presence.

How often are we really, truly, present... in our bodies, in a moment?

Isn't it interesting though, how time can bend? When we are falling in love, or meditating, or maybe even trying hard to get words on to paper, it can feel like 5 minutes is forever. But most often, it's all moving so swiftly, we barely catch a glimpse of what's happening.

Distractions and stimulation is EVERYWHERE, and more so now than ever before.

But the truth is, healing and the possibility of new healthier pathways, ones that include conscious choice of something generative versus destructive, of a world we believe in even, is all only possible when we release the past and the future and cultivate more relationship with the present.

And not just the present moment mentally, but even more powerfully bringing our awareness into our bodies for somatic experience of embodied presence.

I riff on this and share a guided practice to embodied presence in this week's episode. It feels like needed medicine for so many of us right now.

Resources:

• Free: Womb connection & clearing meditation
• Today's shownotes: The healing practice (& power) of embodied presence
• Episode 77: Myofascial release for pelvic bowl and chest/breasts with Lindsay Courcelle
• Episode 219: What are spring tonics?
• Episode 220: The ancestral medicine of reciprocal relationship w Kendra Hoffman

If you loved this episode, share it with a friend, or take a screenshot and share on social media and tag me @herbalwombwisdom

And if you love this podcast, leave a rating & write a review! It's really helpful to get the show to more amazing humans like you. ❤️

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only, I am not providing any medical advice, I am not a medical practitioner, I’m an herbalist and in the US, there is no path to licensure for herbalists, so my role is as an herbal educator. Please do your own research and consult your healthcare provider for any personal concerns.