How to use Herbs and Elixirs to Decrease Stress and Improve Your Health [Episode 912]

Topic: How to use Herbs and Elixirs to Decrease Stress and Improve Your Health

Namaste, loves. Welcome back to our Thursday Q &A show. I hope you’re having a great week so far, enjoying the summer. And today we’re going be talking about a topic in our food cornerstone and specifically how to use herbs and elixirs to decrease stress and improve your health. So everything is energy. And when we choose with intention to put different plants in our body, it can have such a powerful beneficial effect. There’s the active self-care in the first place for choosing these beautiful plants. And then there is the energy in the plant, which imparts a certain energy in our bodies. So we’re going to talk about some specific adaptogens today, which are plants that help to minimize the impact of stress in the next few weeks as well. I’ll be sharing more around how we actually prevent going into the stress response in the first place.

Episode Summary

How to use Herbs and Elixirs to Decrease Stress and Improve Your Health

In this episode, Kimberly Snyder discusses the use of herbs and elixirs to decrease stress and improve health. She emphasizes the importance of choosing plants with intention and the energy they impart in our bodies. Kimberly discusses a variety of adaptogens such as ashwagandha, amalaki, chamomile, lavender, lemon balm, holy basil, and others, providing tips on how to incorporate these herbs into our daily lives, such as drinking teas, making elixirs, and using essential oils. She also highlights the need to listen to our bodies and personalize our self-care practices.

 

Episode Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Overview
01:22 Using Herbs and Elixirs to Decrease Stress and Improve Health
05:50 The Power of Adaptogens: Ashwagandha, Amalaki, and More
12:43 Lavender: Reducing Anxiety and Promoting Relaxation
17:41 Chamomile: Reducing Anxiety and Improving Sleep Quality
20:39 Lemon Balm: Reducing Anxiety and Improving Sleep Quality
22:06 Tulsi (Holy Basil): Reducing Symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder
25:21 Valerian Root: Increasing Sleep Quality
29:04 The Importance of Self-Care and Listening to Your Body

SOLLUNA PRODUCT LINKS

• Glowing Greens Powder™
• Feel Good SBO Probiotics
• Feel Good Detoxy
• Feel Good Digestive Enzymes
• Feel Good Starter Kit
• Feel Good Skincare

KIMBERLY’S BOOKS

• Chilla Gorilla & Lanky Lemur Journey to the Heart
• The Beauty Detox Solution
• Beauty Detox Foods
• Beauty Detox Power
• Radical Beauty
• Recipes For Your Perfectly Imperfect Life
• You Are More Than You Think You Are 

OTHER PODCASTS YOU MAY ENJOY!

• Ayurvedic Tips for How to Boost Energy and Immunity with Vaidya Jay [Episode #839]
• ]The Benefit of Detoxing for Immunity and Overall Health [Episode #567]
• How To Reorganize Your Schedule to Recharge Your Vitality and Lose Weight with Dr. Suhas [Episode #757]
• 6 Simple Food Principles for Increasing Your Vitality and Longevity [Episode #755]
• The Power of Fiber for Metabolism, Ongoing Detoxification and Reducing Inflammation [Episode #850]

STUDIES AND RESEARCH

A 2012 study in the Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine found that participants taking Ashwagandha experienced a significant reduction in stress and anxiety levels compared to the placebo group. Cortisol levels, a stress hormone, were also significantly lower in the Ashwagandha group.

A 2010 study in the Journal of Fertility and Sterility found that Ashwagandha not only reduced stress but also improved overall well-being and reproductive health in men.

A 2013 study in the Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, found that Lavender oil was shown to have significant anxiolytic (anxiety-reducing) effects and was effective in promoting relaxation and sleep.

A 2012 study in the Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine found that lavender aromatherapy significantly improved sleep quality and reduced symptoms of insomnia in midlife women.

A 2019 study in the Journal of Phytotherapy Research. found that Chamomile was effective in reducing generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms compared to a placebo.

A 2019 study in the Journal of Phytotherapy Research  found that Chamomile demonstrated significant antidepressant activity in patients with mild to moderate depression.

A 2014 study in the Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry found that Lemon balm extract significantly reduced symptoms of anxiety and improved sleep quality in patients with mild to moderate anxiety disorders.

A 2008 study in the Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine, demonstrated that Tulsi significantly reduced symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) compared to a placebo.

A 2006 study in The American Journal of Medicine  found that Valerian root improves sleep quality without causing morning drowsiness, making it an effective natural sleep aid.

 

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Transcript:

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (00:03.214)
Welcome to the Feel Good Podcast with Kimberly Snyder. My goal is to help you develop a holistic lifestyle based on our four cornerstone philosophy, food, body, emotional well -being and spiritual growth. This holistic approach will help you feel good, which I define as being connected to your most authentic, highest self. And this is the place from which your energy, confidence, creativity, true power and true beauty will start to explode. Every week we provide you with interviews from top experts in their field or a solo cast from Yours Truly to support you in living your most beautiful, healthy, and joyful life. I’m your host, Kimberly Snyder, founder of Saluna, New York Times bestselling author and holistic wellness, nutrition, and meditation teacher. Let’s get started.

Namaste, loves. Welcome back to our Thursday Q &A show. I hope you’re having a great week so far, enjoying the summer. And today we’re going be talking about a topic in our food cornerstone and specifically how to use herbs and elixirs to decrease stress and improve your health. So everything is energy. And when we choose with intention to put different plants in our body, it can have such a powerful beneficial effect.

There’s the active self -care in the first place for choosing these beautiful plants. And then there is the energy in the plant, which imparts a certain energy in our bodies. So we’re going to talk about some specific adaptogens today, which are plants that help to minimize the impact of stress in the next few weeks as well. I’ll be sharing more around how we actually prevent going into the stress response in the first place.

through the power of the heart and heart coherence, which is a whole other topic. And I’m excited to announce on that note that we just, I just did the cover reveal on social media. If you haven’t yet checked it out, please do it at underscore Kimberly Snyder for the hidden power of the five hearts. We are officially two months out from the book launch. We are pre -selling. We have an amazing offer for a four week.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (02:15.448)
Heart Reset Immersion Program that’s going to include weekly Zooms and community and videos and worksheets. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. We will never offer this free again. Change your life in four weeks. Your gut health, your physical health, your ability to be more resilient against stress, improve your relationships, a million things. So that is something I’m very excited to share. You can go to our website, mysolluna.com and find the book page on there for the Hidden Power of the Five Hearts. You can also check out our new Glow in Greens powder if you haven’t yet already. Lots of things are over there on that hub, including our show notes.

For today, as I mentioned, we’re going to talk how we use these plants and herbs on a regular basis. Some of them we want to cycle so that we just keep our body as strong and resilient as possible. Besides, as I said, gaining more tools and knowledge on how to prevent stress. There’s daily stressors just living in the modern world, living in a more urban environment, having to deal with driving and traffic and schedules and getting our kids around. I don’t know about you, but as a parent, there’s just stress I feel from my kids.

being really loud and screaming sometimes and I love them so much, but I can feel it in my body, all these little dings. And so there’s these amazing plants that can help us to become more resilient. So along that note, our question today comes from Laura who lives in Minnesota. Thank you Laura so much for writing in. It really makes such a difference when you guys ask questions because it brings to the forefront these amazing topics. So sending you much love out there to the Midwest and you write,

Hello Kimberly, I love watching your podcast. I wanted to ask you to incorporate more herbs into my meals and cooking, as well as find out about some drinks to help with my day -to -day stress levels. So this is a great question. And as I mentioned, Laura, this is something that we can just start to incorporate into our lifestyle. I love how you talk about cooking. I love how you talk about drinking things. So it doesn’t feel like something we just

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (04:27.156)
once in a while or if on some special retreat in Costa Rica and it feels really new and exciting, but it doesn’t become part of our lifestyle. When we start to make great change in our life, it happens from small regular steps that add up. That’s why we talk about our morning practice. That’s why we talk about an evening practice. That’s why we talk about regularity and drinking your glowing green smoothie, ideally now with your glowing greens powder, exercising regularly, going to bed on a regular basis.

dive into some herbs and foods that I want to call out and some ways in which we can use these herbs. I also want to mention that as well on our website are many different elixir recipes and different combinations of plants that I like to use. In drinks and hot drinks in particular, I love to drink hot drinks all year round. So I don’t like to drink cold.

iced matcha or cold coffee in the summer, one of those people that always likes warm drinks. But some of these you can steep and prepare into colder versions if it’s really hot where you are right now in the summer. So let’s start with ashwagandha. There’s so much research now around ashwagandha. The word in Sanskrit in Ayurveda is bala, which means strength or strengthening. And that is what is used to describe ashwagandha as a bala herb, a strengthening herb.

So when our bodies are more strong and resilient against stress, they don’t tend to break down in the same way. And there was a 2012 study in the Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine. They found that participants taking ashwagandha experienced a significant reduction in stress and anxiety levels compared to the placebo group. Cortisol levels, which is a stress hormone, were also significantly lower in the ashwagandha

And this is something that we want to take note of because everything works together. When our bodies are feeling strong and more grounded, this can also impact the type of thoughts we’re having. We can feel more grounded and more stabilized mentally and emotionally. Stress comes not from the actual incident, but it comes from our body’s reaction to something. So let’s say the glass falls and the water spills everywhere when your kid’s knocked over a cup.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (06:47.276)
When we’re in a more frazzled state, we can start to say, my gosh, this is so overwhelming. The day is starting so hard. Or when we are not in reactivity, we’re not in that parasympathetic nervous overdrive, we can look up, take a deep breath, flow, get a towel, clean it up, keep our breath pattern more regular. And so the herbs that we’re talking about, including ashwagandha, taking them into the body can create more of that

regular syncing up in our bodies so we’re not in chaos. And it keeps our thoughts and our emotions more regular because everything works together physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Also, 2010, this is interesting, study in the Journal of Fertility and Sterility found that Ashwagandha not only reduced stress but improved overall well -being and reproductive health. So all of

seems to work together, right? When we are not stressed, our body says, wow, this is a really healthy time where you can procreate, where you can create life. If we’re stressed, I mean, this sends signals to our reproductive organs, to the testes, to the ovaries. So the body responds to energy. And so what’s amazing about Ashwagandha is it helps, again, to keep us in that more grounded state.

How best can we incorporate ashwagandha? You can take supplements. You can also take it in a powdered form and add it into its bit, a stronger taste. You can take it in a type of herbal formula. Ashwagandha specifically is one that I like to take more in capsules personally, is the main way I use it. Also, Dr. Vaidya J, the Sanskrit word for doctor.

We recently talked about Ashwagandha a bit on our recent podcast, which we’ll link to in the show notes. He says it’s one that you want to cycle. So it’s not one you want to take every day, long -term forever, but you take it for periods and then you take a break and then you can come back to it or you can come back to it on a monthly basis or a seasonal basis. So that’s also something to keep in mind. We want to shift the ways in which we, every herb is different and there are certain ones that you don’t want to just

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (09:11.672)
forever every day. Some of these herbs become really popular in the media and they tend to take off. But that doesn’t mean that it’s something that we want to always, always take. There’s ancient wisdom behind how we actually incorporate these plants. Now, on the other hand, on the flip side, I want to talk about Amalaki, which is a really powerful herb. And when I learned about it, I was blown

by Amilaki and how powerful it is. Amilaki is considered the primary raciona herb. A raciona herb is considered anti -aging, rejuvenative. It is also an adaptogen, so it helps our body deal with the stress response. A study in the National Library of Medicine found that Amilaki promoted stress tolerance and had anti -aging effects.

This is really exciting as we start to see how much these Ayurvedic herbs are starting to be studied in formal research. Now, in that same podcast with Vaidya J, he talks about the fact that Amalakki is very powerful for all body types and it can be consumed regularly on a long -term basis. So this is not an herb that is considered where you have to cycle like Ashwagandha. This is something that can really support you long

Now, those of you that have checked out our glowing greens powder, or if you haven’t yet checked it out, I’ll say to both of you, there are 1 ,250 milligrams of Amalaki per serving for that scoop, which is a very concentrated scoop of greens, which you can add as a booster into your glowing greens powder or even your power protein smoothie, or just drink on its own in water or coconut water, which is something that I love to do as well. So, 1 ,250 milligrams is over to taking

typically over two capsules. So you’re getting an amazing serving of Amalaki in on a daily basis, which is very powerful for helping your body stay resilient, strong, not age as quickly from stress, and come into that beautiful rejuvenative energy. So it’s something I recommend. And in this case, an easy way to get it is through the Glowing Greens powder. Also like Ashwagandha, though, you can take it in capsule form.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (11:36.268)
So yeah, it’s one of the ones that I learned about some years ago in my Ayurvedic program. It blew me away. And that is, of course, the reason that I wanted it to be one of our star ingredients in our glowing greens powder. It’s so powerful on so many levels. OK, so the next herb I want to talk about is lavender. And you may have a lot of just

How can I best put this? You think about lavender and potpourri or just in essential oils or room sprays. This might be your connotation. That’s the word I wanted to say. Your initial connotation to lavender is thinking about these types of scents and home care products. But lavender has been shown in the Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicine to help reduce anxiety.

It’s also great for relaxation and sleep.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (12:43.64)
Most all of us are so busy and sometimes we think to ourselves, how are we supposed to eat healthy? How are we supposed to also fit this in? And I get it. I really try to streamline my and my family’s eating by getting my food delivered to my door. And this saves me hours of shopping and hours driving. And there’s a service that I really love and I’ve been using a lot called Hungry Root. Now this week alone, I used their cauliflower rice.

They have this amazing cilantro and a different type of rice that my kids love and I put it into a stir fry, which by the way, they have pre -cut veggies for stir fries. It just makes everything so easy. There was also these amazing Cuban black beans. So this week alone, I made at least three meals from my hungry root delivery and it just made everything so much easier.

And I feel great as a mom that I’m keeping my kids and my family’s meals on point. Hungry Root can give you recommendations you can put in if you’re gluten -free or plant -based, or you can just come up with your own order. And sometimes when I take their recommendations, I try things I wouldn’t have usually picked, and so that’s what I also love about it. Highly recommend Hungry Root, and they are also giving our community right now 40 % off your first delivery.

and free veggies for life. So please go to hungryroot .com slash feel good to get 40 % off your first delivery and your free veggies. Once again, that’s hungryroot .com slash feel good.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (14:31.694)
So we’re talking about lavender today more in an herbal form and in an elixir form, how you would drink it, but also having a lavender spray for your pillows or putting a little bit of essential oil lavender on some cucumbers, on some cotton rounds and sticking them inside your pillowcase, which by the way was a tip from Charlene Avery, who we’ve done multiple podcasts on. She’s an amazing national educator for essential oils.

can check out some of our podcasts with her. She talks about using it specifically in that way. And there’s a type of essential oil known as Roman Chamomile, which is also, I’m going talk about chamomile next, but another one that she said is really great for sleep to put on the cotton rounds in your pillowcase. You don’t want to put too much essential oil directly on your skin, which can be absorbed. It can be toxic. You don’t necessarily want to drink essential oils.

but it’s great to use them in these safe ways like room sprays and diffusers and things like that. But back to the lavender for a moment. Another study in the Evidence -Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Journal found that lavender aroma therapy significantly improved sleep quality and reduced symptoms of insomnia in women. So it’s really wonderful to

Lavender, there’s lavender teas where the lavender is balanced so it doesn’t feel so earthy or so strong. You can cook with lavender as well. I would use it judiciously. You don’t need to add a ton of it, but you can put lavender in certain muffins and certain dishes. I’ll be honest with you. I don’t cook with lavender so much. I know some people that

Here where I live in California, there’s a lot of dried lavender. I prefer to have it in tea. You can even have it as a little distilled elixir. Some people take it in drops. A lot of uses for it, as I mentioned, entail just using it in your environment around you. But it is very powerful. It’s very calming. It’s a beautiful plant. You can also keep it in your kitchen in a little pot.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (16:47.926)
We have lavender growing around our land here. I just think having its energy and its presence around is really powerful. So the next one that I mentioned already gave a teaser there was chamomile, which is so easy to access. And te de manzanita, I believe I’m saying that correctly. I remember going to Peru and doing some incredible treks

all around some of the ancient sites. And it was so powerful, the energy of Machu Picchu, but also some of these other ancient sites that I can’t recall some of their names, and they’re not as popular. But I remember drinking so much chamomile tea. It’s one of the places in the world where they harvest it and feeling really clear and really good in my body. And of course, it’s one of the most popular

And teas now, herbal teas that you can get at the grocery store, they serve them on planes sometimes, get them at restaurants, get it at restaurants. And with good reason. The Journal of Phyotherapy Research found that chamomile was effective in reducing generalized anxiety disorders. So there is something about this plant. There is some type of energy in it. And I like to say that because I don’t believe that everything in science, not everything can be measured scientifically, right?

Everything is energy. Everything is created part of this greater intelligence. Everything has a specific blueprint. Everything is sort of living energetic field that interacts with other fields. So something in the chamomile when we drink it is allowing us to relax the nervous system to come into more balance, to come into more regulation, for us to just feel more grounded in our bodies. A 2019 study in the Journal

Phytotherapy research found that chamomile demonstrated significant antidepressant activity in patients as well. So I would recommend drinking chamomile tea. You can also use chamomile in cooking. Chamomile has been, and some of these other teas have been used in many different recipes. So you can look up something around chamomile recipes if you’d like to cook with it. For me,

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (19:10.094)
Just keeping it real simple, I like the power of a warm elixir, meaning you’re imparting the actual ingredients of the plant into the hot water. And this is how Arduvita prepares decoctions, right? There’s something about the hot water that allows the active ingredients of the plant to go into the water. So just simple tea, I think is such a powerful way to take in chamomile and a lot of these herbs. And then we keep it real simple.

And then if you want to add some other ingredients to it, if you want to sweeten it with raw honey, you can do that. You can mix and match. You can even see if you like ginger chamomile tea or certain other ingredients with it, or just keep it really simple, which is the way I personally like to enjoy it. Now, you can also for added freshness and benefit get fresh chamomile tea, meaning it’s not in tea bags. And then you would just get a little bit of a strainer.

or one of those tea spoons, the kind of that sits on the top. There’s different names for them. Some of them close up and the properties of the chamomile go in. But I really love loose leaf teas because they feel really potent. So you can check out some of those ways to get the loose leaf tea online very affordably. Now, lemon balm is something that I also love. I have a lemon balm plant in a pot growing outside my front door.

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry found that lemon balm extracts significantly reduced symptoms of anxiety and improved sleep quality. It’s such a fresh, beautiful plant. Sometimes when I’m with my sons and we’re playing outside, I just take a leaf of it and break it up and smell it because the aroma feels really fresh. This is another plant that you can steep into water and drink as a tea. You could probably cook with lemon balm as well. For me, just the simple elixir.

on its own. I don’t like to sweeten it. This one I don’t like to mix with other things. Lemon balm is powerful. Actually, there’s a elixir that one recipe that I’ll share with you here. I’ll say it out loud and we’ll also put it in the show notes. Chamomile, lemon balm, lavender, and raw honey is something that you can mix together and you can strain

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (21:37.44)
Again, if you want to use just the fresh lemon balm and the chamomile flowers in the loose leaf tea and steep it in water, strain it, add that honey into it. It’s a wonderful drink that you can have in the evenings, sip on it while you’re journaling or reading a book. Wonderful practice as part of our evening routine. Now, another tea that’s really powerful, another herb that I highly recommend that you keep in your cabinet is tulsi, known as holy basil.

There’s a lot of research around Tulsi these days, a 2018 study in the Journal of Evidence -Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine found that Tulsi significantly reduced, once again, the symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder. So this holy plant, Dr. J used to say that in India, you would keep a holy basil plant in your home for just blessings and abundance. It’s such a powerful plant.

And there’s a lot of these, you should look for organic, of course, a lot of these organic Indian tea brands that feature many different forms of Tulsi mixed with other herbs or sometimes just Tulsi on its own, which is really my favorite. It has a nice flavor. I find it not overly earthy, like you might feel that turmeric is, but just really fresh. And it’s such a powerful adaptogen for helping your body deal with stress.

as these other ones are. So it’s one that you want to keep around. If you’re having a tough day, you can drink it in the middle of the day or in the evening. It doesn’t have any caffeine. So if you’re someone who avoids caffeine in general, you could have it in the morning as well with your hot water with lemon. I admit that I do have some caffeine these days. I really like some of these coffee alternatives like the peak drink. The pink tea has some really wonderful ones.

I like matcha tea as well. I try not to drink coffee on a regular basis because it does induce stress because our bodies can get the energy crashes and the jitters. just feels imbalancing. Some people’s bodies handle coffee better than others. My husband certainly drinks coffee every day. But it’s good to cycle these things in. Dr. mentioned that he drinks coffee, but only when he’s really recovering from jet lag. And I asked

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (23:59.598)
Do you drink coffee every day? And he says, no, because then I wouldn’t have that medicine for when I really need it because our bodies start to become so used to the coffee effect that it doesn’t become as effective. So that was his perspective. I used it when I needed it. I had to get up at 430 the other day to do a 5 a morning show right here on Zoom. did Good Day Houston, which is the really great thing about technology now. I don’t always have to leave to do these TV segments.

But you can be sure that I woke up and took some coffee, did a short meditation, which I don’t usually like to drink coffee before, but I was waking up. so anyways, not to go too deeply into that, but it’s great to have all of these around to be your own practitioner. How wonderful to have chamomile and tulsi and coffee and cacao and amalaki and ashwagandha and all of these in your home.

And a lot of them are fairly inexpensive and it feels like you can have your own little herbal pharmacy for yourself and pick and choose and be intuitive and use your own wisdom to really deeply care for yourself. Now, the last one that I wanted to bring up is called Valerian. And this is one that we want to use judiciously. Again, not every day all the time.

But a study in the American Journal of Medicine found that it helped to increase sleep quality without causing morning drowsiness. Now, some holistic experts will say that valerian taken too much can actually create some interesting dreams. That’s something that a practitioner told me. know, lots of tribal and shamanic and indigenous holistic practitioners have

takes on some of these plants. And so I was told that you can take Bollerian sometimes, but it’s not something that you want to take again all the time. By the way, just similarly how you wouldn’t want to drink melatonin every single day because it might interfere with your own body’s production of melatonin. So it’s something to keep in mind, something to be aware of. There are ones that you can take generally fairly regularly, the Tulsi, the Amalaki, as I mentioned.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (26:17.93)
And chamomile is something you can take quite regularly unless you have a specific condition or whatever. is all your general information I’m giving. Of course, you want to tune into your own wisdom. But some of the ones you want to cycle are ashwagandha and maca, which we didn’t talk about today, which is another wonderful adaptogen.

that you can take in the easiest way is a powdered form. You can add it into your power protein smoothie, but it’s one that you want to cycle as well versus every day, forever, every season, every body type. Because then you can, again, just really tune into your body and into your heart. And this is where self -care and wellness goes to a whole other level, right? There’s so much that we’re taught to look to the outside. Even

wearables can give us a lot of information today and I think they can be really useful. But I was wearing a wearable and I felt really good one morning and then the wearable said, you had such a poor sleep quality. I sort of got in my head a little bit and I said, really? Because I feel really great. So take the information, but also remember that you know your body best. And when we create

inner connection, which we can foster and build through meditation, through really having that space specifically in the morning to do your meditation practice, and then take some time to just listen to your body. Your body will start to tell you some amazing things. Sometimes my body tells me to give a little stretch or a little shake. There’s some energy that’s blocked in my shoulders or my neck that I need to work out. Sometimes it tells me

take some extra time to be outside, to get a little bit of sunlight. There’s so much energy in the light codes and grounding. Sometimes I feel called to walk across my lawn barefoot at certain times of day just you know, just tune in deeper with the earth. And of course I apply this wisdom very much to how I eat, how I cook for my kids. Yesterday, for example, I just felt that we needed a little bit more grounding. So we had a little bit of a earthy dinner.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (28:34.934)
with black beans, peas, rice and quinoa, some greens. My kids, by the way, love broccolini. They’ll eat a whole plate of it. And sometimes, especially not because it’s summer, we’ll have a lighter dinner or, you my kids still need to eat something a little bit heartier every night, but sometimes I’ll just have more of a kale salad with some tempeh on top of it or whatever. But this is the next level of deeper self -care and no one can give you this information except for yourself.

So a really great starting place or a place to also, I’m saying starting place, but if you’re new to this and you may feel a little bit more unsure in the food department, start with these amazing teas and these elixirs and these herbs and start to notice if maybe there’s some extra projects coming up or you’re starting to feel a little bit stressed with all the back to school stuff. So you may want to take in that ashwagandha if you feel like your body needs to reground and you’re feeling a little bit off.

make sure you’re taking that Amalaki on a regular basis, which by the way, I will say, as I mentioned in our glowing greens powder, it’s been used in Ayurveda traditionally for fertility and conception as well. So if you’re looking to prepare your body from an herbal standpoint, it’s really wonderful and powerful. If you’re not, it’s still considered the most powerful rejuvenative, even more than Ashwagandha.

Also, we didn’t talk about turmeric and curcumin, which is another wonderful herb to be used in cooking. It has a pretty strong flavor, so you want to balance it as well with maybe some cumin and a little bit of sea salt. Vaidej also says that women shouldn’t have too much fresh turmeric. And you can use the powdered because we have more fluids in our body. tends to open up the fluids.

So especially around your menstrual cycle, around your moon cycle, not to have too much fresh, but for men, it’s a wonderful thing. You can chop up fresh turmeric and put it into teas, use it in elixirs. Just like ginger, I like to have it with some honey, some lemon, and that’s another wonderful elixir that you can have as well. So incorporating herbs and routines into your day.

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (30:52.992)
into your life, into your wellness routine is a really powerful way to do that. We only talked about a few plants today because there’s so many thousands out there. But to review some ones that I think are really great for anxiety and stress because we live in this world today are ashwagandha, lavender, amalaki, chamomile, lemon balm, holy basil, valerian root. So check these out.

Check out the little DIY that I’ll put into our show notes, which you can make as a tea or you can also make as a tincture. Think about using some of these plants, as I mentioned as well, in your space, specifically Roman chamomile and lavender. Get yourself some nice, beautiful essential oils. You can have these DIY room sprays. Again, put them on a cotton pad into your pillowcase, especially when you’re starting to feel a little bit of that pitta, a little bit of that heat, a little bit fire built up.

It’s great to just keep things nice and cool and relaxing. and another thing is adding a couple drops of lavender essential oil into a body oil or a clean body lotion can be another wonderful way to just get that aroma, that energy in. Because once again, we’re talking about energy here. Whether we’re talking about meditation or food or herbs or relationships or the energy of the heart, everything emits a certain energy.

Everything is energy. And the longer I go about my life and about my research and wellness, both from a spiritual, energetic, and scientific standpoint, we realize it boils down to energy. So pay attention to your energy. Pay attention to what you need, whether it could be more space, more boundaries in a relationship, reaching out to a friend, reaching out to community, reaching out for certain herbs and elixirs. Everything that we’re talking about ultimately comes down

your own personalized self -care. And once again, I’ll say because I’m so excited in the Hidden Power of the Five Hearts, I’ll talk about the science and teachings around increasing your intuition, which will really help you increase your self -care. Also, I’ll say that every chapter of this new book has an embodiment section, which does mention specific foods, practices, herbs, and elixirs to deepen your

Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (33:06.126)
overall wellness and your heart, brain, nervous system connection, your gut health, which ultimately leads to more vitality, more wellness overall, and just more love, more connection to yourself and others. So I cannot wait. Please check out our show notes, as I mentioned, on mysalina .com. If you enjoyed our show, please share the show with anyone you think would benefit, anyone that would benefit from today’s conversation or any others.

Please also leave us a review. It is such a wonderful way to support the show. So thank you so much in advance. I look forward to connecting with you more on social every day at underscore Kimberly Snyder. So we’ll be back here Monday for our next show. Till then take great care and sending you so much love.