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.

Click here to send me a quick message :)

From the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) lens, the first 40 days postpartum are a key time to deeply tend the body, mind and spirit after birth.

According to today's guest, Madeline Ishmael, this time is characterized by a need to replenish both the blood and qi -- and while there are a number of ways to do this, she focuses largely on deeply nourishing foods in her practice.

She blends her western medical background as a public health professional and registered nurse with her training in both functional medicine and TCM to offer a truly integrative approach to this tender time.

This conversation is deep and rich and embodied. She tells her own story of how it was the process of weaning her first child that alerted her to the lack of actual postpartum care in the more conventional medical environment, where she was essentially dismissed rather than listened to.

These stories are so common. And unfortunately we still don't have enough people offering the level of truly restorative care in this foundational time that can have an impact on the coming decades in our lives.

Maddy shares about what to focus on food-wise so you'll definitely receive some practical wisdom from this conversation, but she also shares about the deeper reasons this is all needed. And how her newest offering - postpartum meal delivery - emerged almost alongside her most recent babe, during the early postpartum window itself.

We speak to all of this and so much more. I'm excited to share this conversation with you!

Resources:

• Today's shownotes: Grab links to Maddy's IG and email!
• Free guided womb connection meditation and clearing
• Episode 25: Immediate pp care the herbal way w Liz Philbrick
• Episode 148: 5 key herbs for every mama's apothecary w Mel Mutterspaugh
• Episode 152: The power of "two-eyed seeing" w Amy Eldredge
• Episode 182: Deeply replenishing pp care the Ayurvedic way 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 :)

So many of us feel deep grief, overwhelm and even lost in the midst of the ecological and upheaval we are facing collectively. It's not easy to know what to do, where to turn, what actions are meaningful and worth our time.

The truth is our nervous systems are not made for the level of constant stimulation and overflowing awareness that we are being exposed to. We need to honor our capacity, and yet it is so hard to look away.

So what can we do? What can help the earth around us, our communities, ourselves?

We chat all about this - from an ecological lens Kendra Hoffman calls EarthCare - on today's episode.

She's developed a framework including 4 core principles and practices that align with the directions and the seasons, and are really accessible to help begin or deepen your reciprocal relationship with the earth and other beings around you.

We chat about traditional ancestral lifeways and how returning to the roots of our roots is needed in these times, and how you can explore this no matter whether you live in a city, the suburbs or a more rural place.

There's so much embodied earth wisdom in this one, I'm excited for you to hear it.

Resources:

• Today's shownotes: Grab links to all Kendra's offerings + resources
• Free visualization: Womb Connection & Clearing meditation
• Song by Mo Washburn on YouTube
• Episode 41: Nature connection as stress relief (science & more) with Efan Hsieh

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 :)

It's officially Springtime here in the northern hemisphere, which means so many of our plant friends are returning!

Some of those wild weeds might be exactly the herbs that can help you as we transition from deep winter into the heat of summer.

But the term "spring tonic" can be confusing and vague, like what does that even mean?

And how can we effectively incorporate them into our lives -- which actions are most important and what herbs are good options?

I cover all of this and more in this week's episode.

Resources:

• Free: Dandelion Recipe collection
• Today's shownotes: What are Spring Tonics?
• Episode 26: Premenstrual breast or chest tenderness
• Episode 62: Embodying Spring with seasonal wisdom

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 :)

Postpartum is an immense time of transition that includes not only having a new baby, but also navigating a massive hormonal cliff, recovery after birth, body changes, erratic sleep schedules, identity change and so much more.

So where does pleasure, sexuality, sensuality and eroticism come in?

And how do we enter into that space with attunement, tenderness, self-awareness and... perhaps most importantly embodied consent?

Most mamas and birthing parents are given the go-ahead to engage in sex again at 6 or 8 weeks by their provider, but many are not ready - at all (let's normalize this).

Just because your tissues are healed enough to safely engage in sexual intercourse does NOT mean you have to start doing it again. There are SO MANY WAYS to experience pleasure and orgasm and sex that do not have to involve intercourse.

And listening to your body, your mind, your spirit is paramount. What you want and what you like might be entirely different from before.

Sexological bodyworker and sex educator Gal Mar-Qz shares all about these topics and much more on today's episode.

We also explore some practices you can bring into your body, your partnership or even your parenting life that may be very helpful as you re-discover who you are now as you blend the identities of mother and erotic being.

I hope this conversation feels like a gift for you!

Resources:

• Today's shownotes: Grab links to Gal's offerings
• Free visualization: Guided Womb Connection & Clearing meditation
• Betty Martin's Wheel of Consent
• Episode 185: Enhanced orgasms w Susan Bratton
• Episode 190: Awakening erotic aliveness w Usha Rose
• Episode 192: Pleasure as medicine w Dr Emily Wilson

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 :)

What if relieving menstrual pain or releasing stuck emotions in our wombspace could be fun, engaging, and... include twerking? It can!

To be honest, I've tried twerking in the past and maybe it's because I've compared myself to others but I just figured I was bad at it, and it wasn't for me.

Today's guest, Twerk Temple teacher Abigail Morrissey, laid it all out in a way that actually felt approachable for me.

I didn't know that there are 5 separate movements that can be included in twerking, and some of them are easier or more natural for some of us.

She also guided some really simple steps to get started, and encouraged just 2 minutes a day of the "booty pop" which is like, so possible for most of us.

But before we got into twerking, we talked about her healing journey which I think will be very relatable and inspiring to listen to.

From being a hospital nurse to experiencing an injury that catalyzed her to re-assess her life to getting off hormonal birth control to cycle synching and becoming more integrative in her approaches...

And then a huge life upheaval which led to her finding twerking and experiencing near total relief of her menstrual pain symptoms...

And her deep trust in the unfolding of her life.

There is so much here. I'm excited to share this conversation with you!

Resources:

• Free recipes: Dandelion Recipe Collection
• Today's shownotes: Get links to Abigails offerings + playlist
• Episode 82: Herbal vinegars, oxymels & shrubs
• Episode 209: Sacred rage w Andrea Thompson

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.