Herbal Womb Wisdom

Midwinter can feel like such a draggy time characterized by cold days, lots of time inside, and often low mood and lack of inspiration - especially for people of the earth who love being outside with the plants!  What are some ways you can bring the herbs into your winter routine?  What if it can be simple? In this episode, I share how to incorporate herbs into teas, broths and tinctures -- both f...

TW: addiction, sexual trauma, pelvic pain I've been reading Gabor Maté recently, and learning about the undeniable link between trauma and addiction, and feeling just how much that plays out in our world.  According to today's guest - yoga therapist Rosemary Holbrook - addiction is often more of a symptom of past trauma.  Her story of how she went from addiction (and sexual trauma which...

Most of us move through life on auto-pilot, which makes so much sense. The pace of everything is fast and requires so much of our attention. It's easy to end up stressed, frazzled, burnt out and feel like our cups are only half full - especially when we're mothers or parents, caregivers in any capacity, healing arts practitioners, teachers or facilitators, or just living meaningful lives...

In this generative dark wombspace of the year, you might be starting to dream into some of the herbs you'd like to grow (or harvest) in your garden this year. So while these three are not necessarily "wintertime" herbs, there are actually plenty of reasons to incorporate them into your wintertime herbal formulas... and they are each potent allies for hormonal health throughout the l...

Our wombspaces are SO MUCH MORE than our menstrual cycles. They are locations of profound power, pleasure, wisdom and great teachings.  In this week's medley episode, I bring together three episodes that illustrate some of the depth and breadth of the palace of the pelvis. First, I offer an invitation to consider your wombspace as not just a physical location in your body, but a place of sacr...

Ahh, solstice has passed and winter has officially arrived - into the landscape and into our bodies. While this holiday time can feel like a lovely time to connect with family and community, it can also be a time of a lot of conflicting emotions. But when we tune into the energy of this season, the impending wintertime, the wombspace of the year, it's actually so much more about quiet, reflec...

How often do we hear the term “integrative medicine” and what people are really practicing is symptom suppression medicine with more natural, herbal or supplement methods? I think it’s very hard to break away from that “treat the symptom” approach when you’ve been indoctrinated into it, and when so many patients are familiar with it. But occasionally I’ll have a client who says they want to get to...

From pleasure to tissue healing to nurturing presence to tending generational trauma, so many of us have no idea what's possible in the palace of our pelvis.  One thing that is especially wild to me is that we often believe what we see in the media is reality.  As if all of us can just immediately feel lubricated and aroused and we can just have overwhelming orgasms in a five minute quickie. ...

It's pretty astounding how many different perspectives there are on natural contraception.  Everything from, "that doesn't work" to "that's dangerous" to "it's the best thing on the planet" and on and on, really. Because I'm currently *launching* the Natural Contraception- The Herbal Way program, I thought I'd come on here and share some...

The truth is that behavior change is NOT easy.  Most of us can't just say we want to do something, and then just do it. Especially if it's something we're trying to incorporate into our lives for a long period of time, regularly. We have rhythms and patterns we are accustomed to. Sometimes they're healthy for us, and sometimes they're not. Sometimes we're choosing the...

What herbs are must-have remedies for every home apothecary? I think every herbalist would probably answer that differently.  But there are certain foundational herbs that are not-to-be-missed, partly because they are safe, gentle, and versatile.  Those are the kinds of herbs we cover in today's episode. Clinical herbalist and host of The Herbalist's Path podcast, Mel Mutterspaugh shares...

Fire. The energy of light, of transformation, digestion, metabolism, creation, vitality, radiance. In Ayurveda, the concept of Agni (which is akin to digestive fire) is a key to digesting, metabolizing and absorbing both food and information.  It's not solely related to the gastro-intestinal tract but relates to anything we are taking in -- through our meals, sensory experiences, information,...

Well hey my loves, it's a freaking wild time in the world. Full of uncertainty. Who knows what's coming this week, this year, in the next decade, and on and on.  There is so much we have no power or control over. But one thing we DO is our own bodies and ideally also, our choice of what to do with them.  But when we talk about choice related to our bodies, it's often speaking to acc...

I don't know how else to say it... we are in times of collective, regional, political, global and personal upheavals that somehow feel more unraveling than previous generations. Is that true? Are there people who've faced so much all at once previously? Yes, probably.  The reality is that it's likely that humans have faced collective trauma over our entire evolutionary history. We&a...

There is power in circles. Both the actual shape, reminding us of our cycles, the ways the seasons move, the shape of the sun and the full moon. But also, there is power in creating spaces to share and grow in the form of circles, and perhaps even more potency when we gather as women (or folks with wombs) in this space together. Ritually. Ceremonially. Intentionally.  For today's guest, Danie...

If you're newer to body literacy, cyclical living and cycle tracking, you might be wondering what the heck FAM (Fertility Awareness Method) is.  Or maybe you've read about it and kind of know, but you haven't started practicing it. Or maybe you are already practicing it but you're not sure how to tell what your personal cycle rhythms are telling you about your hormones. Whereve...

So many of us have all but lost connection with our ancestral lineage traditions.    Especially those of us living in westernized, industrialized cultures... and even more so if we live in the United States (or somewhere far from our lineage homelands) where so many of us have been cut off from the threads of deep relationship to land, place, community and family story for generations. But even th...

We hold so much in our wombspace.  Stories, trauma, imprints, births, losses, past sexual experiences, and even more energetic qualities like our creative energy or feelings of safety. So, even if we aren't experiencing any issues "down there" we could still benefit from some regular caretaking just to tend our tissues. But if you *are* someone (like many of us) who's got anyth...

If you've heard of mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), I bet the primary action you've heard about it is that it can enhance dreams.  And mayyyyybe that it has an affinity to bring on menstruation? But this herb is so much more dynamic than that.  I've often heard of people adding mugwort to sleep blends (with names like "good night's sleep" or "sleep well") and I...

It's Autumn equinox time! Well, almost. Technically, it's this weekend (Sunday, 8:47 am eastern time).  So, it feels fitting to offer an episode on how to align with the season through foods, herbs and lifestyle practices that can support the transition into Fall.  And from the lens of Ayurveda, this seasonal change is particularly significant on the body, mind and spirit, partly because...

If you're reading this, my guess is you're likely already aware that your menstrual cycle is something you can cultivate a generative relationship with. In the process of getting to know our cycles (whether through pure observation, actively tracking signs and symptoms and/or embodying cyclical living practices),  we gain valuable understanding of what our bodies are telling each month d...

Well late summer is here, and between medicine making, food preservation and family visits, life is full.  So today I'm bringing you a medley full of juicy past episode snippets all about understanding your cycle and your choices. First you'll hear about your choices of non-hormonal birth control -- specifically focusing on the copper IUD and condoms, but you can absolutely go listen to...

How do you find resources you can trust around perinatal herbal care? Whether you're a birthworker, an herbalist, or on your own fertility/pregnancy/postpartum journey, it can feel confusing to sort through all the information on herbal safety and efficacy in pregnancy, birth and postpartum (especially if you're nursing).  Not to mention how to comfortably incorporate herbs into the worl...

As humans, grief is an unavoidable part of life. Loss, illness, unexpected upheavals internally and externally, in relationship to others, self, the earth, our wombs, the cycles and seasons of life, and on and on.  There's no poverty of opportunities to face grief, but there is a poverty of grief literacy -- at least here in the United States.  Most of us are socialized to contain our emotion...

Last week I had some discomfort "down there." I felt a slight tinge of pain when I walked, and a little itchiness, and it felt like something was growing on my vulva. I took a mirror and a headlamp and checked it out. (Yes, you can do that too. If you've never looked at your vulva, please do. It's a treasure.) What I found was a little red stretched pea size lump inside my inne...