What what's the reality of the world we're living in So what can become even more problematic is when we get into a pattern of stress where we never really relax and never feel calm and often times are never truly present so stress can put us into our fight or flight mode and setting into motion our sympathetic nervous system. So we have our sympathetic comparison but that it can or is systems and sympathetic is our fight or flight it's designed for those short term emergencies So just briefly what's happening in our physiology when we're in that mode when we shift out of relaxation out of the parasympathetic into the sympathetic We have an increase in heart rate our blood pressure is elevated it produces very So constriction which means the blood vessels are tightening and it depresses our gastrointestinal activity or in other words slows down our digestion so the blood is directed away from our vital organs and vital means necessary for life so literally a have less blood going to those organs that keep us alive and more that blood is shunted out to our skeletal muscles to enable us to fight or to run. And that's pretty huge right there and doesn't even get into the potential long term effects. Of being under stress which can include many things not the least of which is leading to diabetes heart disease chronic inflammation in the body can be a result of stress so this is firm urgencies only and if you are on emergency mode in your life on a daily basis eventually something's going to give and hopefully we can be aware enough and support ourselves with the choices we make and herbs that we take in foods we eat in order to keep something from going dreadfully wrong and absolutely we there are many stressors in our life we have no control over. What we do have is some control over our relationship to the stresses so that's not to say that this is easy or simple Well I think it's simple but it's not easy. It's important to focus on what we can change and put our energy into a productive direction when you're experiencing stress or any time for that matter so really to each of us actual size our personal power when and where we're able to and sometimes Stress becomes such a habit and such a reality that we aren't even aware that we're under stress or the extent of that stress until you get a break from it so it's important to step back once in a while and re-evaluate to take a break it's another good reason to be present to check in with yourself on a daily basis and also to consider your family medical history because this is a place where. You have potentially a predisposition for a weakness whether it's a family history of diabetes whether it's a family history of heart disease whether it's a family history of mental health and balances Whatever your family history is it doesn't mean that you're automatically going to get those things but it can mean that you have inherited a predisposition or a weakness is another way to say that as well. What can become problematic also is when we get into a pattern of stress where we never really relax and never feel calm and remember that relaxation is supposed to be our quote unquote normal state is how we are designed to be most of the time is relaxed and how many of you listening are relaxed most of the time I don't think too many hands are raised Hopefully I'm wrong so please do your work and prove me wrong on that point. It's also important that we watch and be aware of things that boost and or mimic an adrenaline state so what revs you put speeds you up so it can be substances caffeine sugar speed nicotine even really high carb diet it can also be things like interpersonal drama or high risk activities can also kind of rev you up and get you into an adrenaline state so you want to be mindful of those things also and a lot of this is free. Doesn't cost anything and that's really important to since I know money is a stress for most of us and those world excel really to consider those things again that's about being in our personal power as well what can I do on a day to day basis to keep myself healthy. So really consider ask yourself how do I deal with stress where do I hold it in my body and where do these patterns come from you know sometimes they're learned I mentioned family medical history before even if you're adopted think about the family you grew up in because we learned how to deal with things within the family also within the people we grew up with so even if you're not genetically related to those people you could still have some of the same physical conditions through learned behavior and to remember to be extra gentle with yourself during times of stress and be especially mindful of that place in your body or that body system where you hold your stress so for instance if you know your back goes out when you're really stressed which is common for a lot of folks at least once we get into middle aged don't offer to help your friend move during a time that's peak stress for you this is part of prevention also is knowing remembering what we know and being mindful of how we are caring for ourselves and also being mindful of the ways that we are to caring for ourselves this is important too and it's not just important for ourselves but it's important for the people around us for a variety of reasons one is. The people that care about you they care if you're suffering and they care if you're in pain. And if we model good self care then that helps to create a climate in which self care is being supported and that's another benefit and we're all connected so we're really only as healthy as we are as a whole as a community and that's important as well that we move ourselves individually and collectively toward wholeness and balance so all of this is really important. And really think about so you have some understanding of what you do with stress what happens for you once that stress response gets ingrained in our bodies it takes a lot less stimulus to activate that stress response so absolutely there is a physical problem that needs to be addressed that's real however to really get past the physical issue to heal that physical issue we need to get to the root and understand that the physical symptoms are a physical manifestation of an emotional spiritual root. So that is the place where we need to unwind and look at things more deeply otherwise if we just deal with the physical It's a Band-Aid approach and it'll either come back that same issue or another physical issue will come up our body is wise our body's intelligent and tries to get our attention and so it's important hopefully we're listening when our body is just whispering to get our attention that we don't. Only stop to listen when we're hit over the head. Literally or figuratively with there being a problem. So stress for a lot of people is 1st felt in the nervous system and then often the digestive system and our dreams are also working in tandem with our nervous system to create that sympathetic stress response however each one of us is unique and it is amazing the impact stress can have on our physical bodies any organ any disease any system in the body can be adversely affected by stress so this is no small thing no you're weak areas and take tonics to support that part of yourself during times of high stress and then periodic Lee. The rest of the time as well so you take you know say if your lungs are a weak point for you when you're under times of high stress take a long time something like Mile One for instance and then even in those times when you're doing really pretty good once in a while still take a tonic because you know that's a weak system so you want to keep it up keep it in balance and as with all aspects of health we want to rest eat well exercise and have some form of meditative or spiritual practice are all important also what's really important to our health is time to connect with other other people and time to connect with nature our other excellent self care strategies in the face of stress. If you're just joining me you're listening to the herbal highway in your tune to 94 point one f.m. P.f.a. In Berkeley 89.3 k. P.f.b. In Berkeley 88 point one care of c.f. In Fresno and 97.5 k. 24 it b.-r. In Santa Cruz where else is streaming live on the web that k p f 8 o r g I'm your host Sara Holmes and today I'm talking about stress and I'm excited now to introduce you to the plants to get started on Ok that was the intro but what can we do. Beyond those things so hopefully that. Discussion gave you some food for thought of questions to ask yourself things to be aware of what you what kind of choices you might be able to make to mitigate some of the stress in your life and the rest of the hour I'm going to share with you herbs and essences that you can also take that you can incorporate into your daily life or periodic Lee in order to support your system. So before I talk about the herbs I do want to after that lead up sorry to tease you on that. I do want to mention because we're on a new day so some of you might not be as familiar with the plants and taking the herbs as those of you who've been listening to The Oval highway for a long time. That the plants just like your produce in the grocery store can be commercially grown or can be organically grown so commercially ground means that it could could have been grown with all kinds of pesticides and fungicides which we want to avoid to the best of our ability and especially with our medicine because our herbal medicines are then concentrated as well which can then also concentrate that Hox and that they were grown with. So ideally especially for medicine where accessing organically grown plants the other form of herbal medicine that you'll find in commerce is wild crafted herbs and I recommend not using wild crafted herbs for the most part it's a good general rule there's exceptions I'll talk about another time but as a good general rule wild crafted means that the plants were harvested from their environment and where they grow naturally which sounds like a beautiful thing and it is however in this commercial world of capitalism that we live in. Everything gets misused and abused and this happens with our plants as well. So there's this place where plants are being over harvested where they are not being harvested properly where there's there's so many issues here so as I said that's a whole nother piece that needs more time than today has to offer but what I do want to say as. In the name of being respectful to the plants and being respectful to nature which also means being respectful to ourselves. As that general rule not to use wild crafted herbs in your medicine so the best choice is to use organically grown herbs and even grow your own if you can even if it means one or 2 and up pot in your windowsill because I know not all of you listening have access to Earth where you can grow things. So that's the place to consider the other place to consider is using lowest effective dose so what's the least amount of plant you can use and still achieve the desired effect. This is again respectful to the plants that we're not using more than we need and it's respectful to ourselves and our bodies that we don't have to get into really high doses in order for change to happen and that's part. Of free building this trust in our bodies so there's this this place of approaching the plants where they care and respect that we are hopefully also approaching ourselves and our own health and our own care it's all connected so we don't want to use that those patterns of. Overwork and abuse and misuse that caught us out of balance in the 1st place that's different forms of trauma by traumatizing nature in the plant world in our medicine and our desire to get better and get healthy and the other piece I want to say is if you are taking pharmaceuticals or pregnant or have long term chronic illness do consult with a practitioner before taking plants as well so we're using our common sense here and we're also I want to encourage you to explore the world of the plants or those of you who are already have a relationship with the plants to work toward deepening that relationship to the plants as well. So all of the plants and going to talk about today and I promise I am going to actually start talking about them. All of them have many many uses and I'm just going to talk about a few of those he says that are really focused on our topic today of stress. So as I mentioned before our nervous system because our nervous system in our drain all systems are what create that. Initial stress response of fight or flight energy talk about some nerve vines or herbs that support our nervous system and a really great place to start is nettles and stinging That is one of our California native plants and it's actually prolific and still around which is really exciting as well so I like to celebrate that. Nettles is really great as a t. And we use that aerial are above ground parts and this is high in a mineral content and it protects and feeds the nervous system so it's very nutritive. With stress our nervous system literally can get to pleaded so we want to feed it the nutrients it would give it just like you might feed your nervous system b. Vitamins for instance. Nettles is also a strange thing it's a dire Reddick it's an anti-histamine which is really great Also this time of year for those of you who have seasonal allergies and you can also eat it it is digging nettles So if you're eating it fresh you want to blanch it 1st if you don't actually cook it more deeply so do me mindful of that it also makes a really great vinegar steeping it an apple cider vinegar. As another great way to take your nettles and apple cider vinegar also has its own healing properties as well so it's a great balance but t t of nettles is lovely Most people find it pretty palatable It just has to me a nice green flavor sometimes when it's really strong it can even have a slightly seaweed kind of taste to it so for those of you who really enjoy the taste a seaweed that's another benefit and it should be really deep deep dark green almost black when you make that tea of nettles So if it's not easy there haven't steeped it long enough or it might not be that fresh anymore and that's a piece too but generally speaking Nettles is fine tea is fresh or dry and as long as it's dried properly and as long as it's not too terribly old it's still got some vitality to it you can enjoy it. And oats straw oats are not oatmeal but of Venus a tea which is a straw. We use the above ground parts so that the straw are the stocks literally in the leaves which are great in tea or the fresh milky tops can also be dried and made into tea or the fresh milky tops can be tinctured in an alcohol extract and that can also. That's the strongest medicine the fresh milk ETOPS this is a little warming it's a nice anti-depressant and oats also is very nutritive it's a good nerve and adrenal system tonic So it's supporting both onery is to take it you're really vital it's really best and small frequent doses so you might sit down some tea throughout the day you might take 4 or 5 drops of tincture a few times a day. And it really helps you also to come back from long term illness if you've been chronically ill for a long time and it's really safe for children as well as elders as as nettles oats can also be really helpful in recovery from drug or alcohol abuse as well again. Like chronic illness something that's very depleting and the body needs to be. Regenerated if you will and renewed your fide making up a word there for you gamma male camel male we use the flowers really easy to find. Fresh air dry it's warming it also turns there relaxes the nervous system Kam m l is also really great for reducing stress and anxiety and again it's really safe for children as through elders as well as people who might be in somewhat frail health for any reason kamma males a nice safe plant it's grounding and relaxing as well and this is a good one for folks that put their stress in their digestive system especially their upper g.i. Like stomach so if you when you're stressed feel tightness or tension or hardness in your stomach or pleasure appetite even you might consider a little cameo. It is classified as a bitter so it will stimulate your saliva will stimulate your gastric enzymes so if you have excess Demick acid. Be mindful with camera mail and at the very least make sure you're taking it with food when you have food in your stomach also . And California poppy California Poppy we used can use the whole plant. It's really best fresh so I like to use a fresh plaque tincture of California poppy and this is anti-anxiety and especially when you're in that fragile vulnerable place California poppy can give you some strength and help soothe that anxiety and it also helps to relax the mind and the body into each other they can also soften minor physical pain and it can also help to relax and release and motional pain that's become there's a call that now has a physical manifestation so goes going back to my earlier comment about our body trying to get our attention when our fears bear your heart and yours subconscious haven't got your attention yet. Whatever is troubling you to your conscious mind that sometimes our body knocks on the door and says hey time to pay attention to California poppy also can be somewhat sedating in larger doses so for some people it can really help them to sleep it is contra indicated with many pharmaceuticals including sleep sleeping pills they are sleeping pills and psychiatric beds so do consult with a practitioner 1st if you're taking any of those. And the other plant that I think about for folks that put their stress directly into their digestive system is a lemon balm. And the member again is best fresh as are a lot of the nerve vines and we use the above ground part of lemon balm and this really helps to lift melancholy in the blues it's a nice anti-anxiety it also has a balancing and strengthening effect on the nervous system so it really helps when your nerves feel frayed and it's centering and calming and it helps in the digestive tract at all help relax and soothe the stomach relax and soothe the gut when it's tense due to stress so Lemon bombs another really nice one to consider in that connection between the nervous systems adrenal stress and the digestive system which is really common as a lemon balm doesn't stimulate digestive enzymes in the way that cam a male does and it's a little cooling whereas Kemah males a little warming so couple other considerations that you might make when you're trying to decide which one you want to take. And mother were mother were again we use the above ground parts and this is another great nervous system tonic and it's also a heart tonic it's a cardiovascular tonic So this is a plant to think about if you put your emotional stress into your cardiovascular system into your heart which a lot of people do and you may not be aware of this especially those of you who are younger because it often doesn't show up until you get into your forty's fifty's sixty's. But it's important to notice now so if you're stressed and you feel tension or tightness in your chest around your heart this is good to pay attention to or if when you're stressed you get heart palpitations or your blood pressure goes up. Which is true for a lot of people. Then think about other work it helps to lower high blood pressure it helps to feed the nervous system it helps reduce anxiety and. Mother were is also somewhat estrogenic So if you're avoiding estrogen for any reason you might want to consider that however if some of your anxiety is through a low estrogen say in men a pause or certain parts of a menstrual cycle then you might consider taking mother work for that very reason and also really helps you to fe