Herbs For Mom Life & Love

Feeling overwhelmed by the daily grind of motherhood? In this episode of The Herbalist's Path, I’m getting straight to the heart of what it means to juggle motherhood, work, and everything in between without losing yourself in the process. Because if we’re not feeling our best, how can we give our best? I’ll share some of the herbs that have been lifesavers for me—like milky oats and ashwagandha—that help calm the chaos and restore balance. Join me for some down-to-earth advice on how to nurture yourself so you can keep nurturing those you love.

00:27 The Challenges of Motherhood
01:50 Balancing Roles & Responsibilities
15:22 Herbs for Motherhood Support
15:39 Milky Oats: A Nervous System Restorative
19:19 Gotu Kola: Mental Clarity & Skin Health
22:05 Ashwagandha: Stress Management & Libido
25:21 Tulsi: Emotional & Mental Well-being

Catch the show notes, and find these herbs here: https://www.theherbalistspath.com/blog/herbal-support

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Chapters

• 1:27 Nurturing Mothers
• 19:27 Herbal Support for Motherhood
• 34:29 Spreading Herbalism Awareness

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:28

Hello and welcome to the Herbalist Path, a podcast where you'll discover how to make your own herbal remedies at home so that you can take better care of yourself, better care of your family and better care of our planet. I'm Mel. I'm a clinical herbalist, environmental educator and mountain-l living mama with this crazy passion for teaching more mamas and their little loves how to use plants as medicine in a safe, effective and tasty way, so that there can be an herbalist in every home. Again, it's an absolute honor to have you on the journey down the herbalist path with me so that together we can make herbalism Hashtag spread like wildflowers.

Speaker 1: 2:18

Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode on the herbalist path and today's episode. It kind of feels a bit special and maybe long, long, long overdue, and if you feel that this kind of episode is also or also feel that this is long overdue, I apologize, my goodness. So today I really just want to talk about ways that we can nurture ourselves as mothers. I spend so much time on this show talking with you about different herbs that you can use for your kids to help improve their health and well-being, but we all know that the truth is, without a happy, healthy mom, we're sure as heck going to have a really tough time having happy, healthy children, right, and so why not talk about that on this show, right here and right now? So, again, I apologize that it's taken me so long to share this kind of episode with you, because it's so important. Like motherhood while one of the most beautiful things in this world, right, like what an experience. It's also a real big challenge and it's so easy for us as moms to put everybody else's needs in front of our own all of the time. We are always on the go, we are the ones in charge of so many different things, and it can become a real big emotional stressor. Right, you've got to navigate work. If you work, if you are a homeschool mom, you've got to navigate that kind of you work. If you are a homeschool mom, you've got to navigate that kind of curriculum and are you keeping your kids engaged and really helping them learn to love learning? You have this whole role of mom. Right, then you've also got to be a partner to your loved one, whether that's a husband or a wife or a girlfriend or a boyfriend or whoever. And if it's nobody, then you've got to give all that extra love to you and if you are working for somebody or running a business, that is a lot to juggle, so so much, and it makes you in this state of always on, always having to take the pressure of other people's expectations and put them on you. At least, that's what's happened for me in life a lot, and I'd love to hear if that's happened for you as well.

Speaker 1: 5:03

Like I am, I'm the mediator in my family. Like I, I'm the mediator in my family. I have a partner. His name is Chris. We've been together for 14 years and he is my daughter's father and he's wonderful and we are a great team in our partnership.

Speaker 1: 5:21

But I am also the peacekeeper in my family. I am a person who really likes harmony and peace in my household and those two will butt heads a lot and when that happens, it means I'm the person that has to deescalate the arguments for me to have that peace within my own home, and that can become stressful. And I manage my own business and run my own business and managing a small team to make those things happen and making sure that I don't overload myself with tasks, which is something I am really, really good at. I love to keep putting more on my plate, and even though I know it's not the best thing for me to do, I still do it.

Speaker 1: 6:09

And as a mom, you can really become physically exhausted as well. Right, you're doing laundry, you're going to get the groceries, you're taking care of the kids and hopefully, you're having time to get your own exercise and your own fun. Or maybe you're also working out of the home home, or maybe you're not sleeping well and so you're always feeling lethargic and deprived. Or maybe you're spending so much time feeding your children that you forget to feed yourself. Oh my gosh, I am guilty of that. Like, yes, we all need to eat the same thing in our house, but I am really guilty of just getting into the let's be busy, busy, busy all of the time and I will literally forget to eat.

Speaker 1: 6:53

When I ran my apothecary tea and smoothie shop, one of the women that was on my crew there she was amazing and I loved her, but she would always be like Mel, have you eaten? Yet today, I need to remind you to eat, which is just silly and preposterous, but it really goes back to like the root of why I feel that this episode is so important, because, even if you don't relate to any of the things I said. I know that there are moms out there who totally, totally do. And then there's that other piece of motherhood that happens and I'd love to know if you felt this when you first became a mom. But you suddenly become a whole new identity, right, and you lose the identity of the person that you were prior to motherhood. You are now mom and so maybe all of those fun hobbies and interests that you really loved are no longer something that you have the time to do.

Speaker 1: 7:53

A lot Like I love to dance and I would go out dancing three to five nights a week. I love live music and that's something I've always really had a blast with. And like I hadn't gone to live music in a couple of years and part of that was like I was just kind of like whatever, it's not that phase of life for me, but I have been going to live music again recently and it's really bringing me that sense of joy and that like, oh my gosh, this is such a part of my soul and I have just let it kind of go to the wayside for so long. And, you know, I think back on it like, yes, I took Anira to a few shows and I really wanted her to love going to live music so we could make it a family experience. But she doesn't. She hates loud noises and she hates big crowds of people, and so the times I have taken her to a show, even with some kind of earplugs or ear protection or with her best friends or something, she just gets really overwhelmed and doesn't enjoy it. So I don't go do that as a family so much. But anyways, I really love it and I love to play sports, I love to play softball, I love to do all of these things that I just kind of missed out on, and now you know Anira's 11. So I'm kind of getting back into those things.

Speaker 1: 9:22

But these are just some of the things I feel that can be challenging in the world of motherhood and that is so important to just talk about, to recognize like this is real and we all go through it. And then we can also get that feeling of like oh my gosh, I'm not doing enough right. Or feeling guilty because we take time for ourselves, like I need to be there for my kid, I need to be doing this other task that hasn't been done at home, or looking on social media and all of the perfect moms living their perfect life Like Ooh boy, comparisonitis. Like, my life is far from perfect and I am definitely not a perfect mom and you know I'm old enough to be cool with that and understand it. But I also have had those times where it makes me feel guilty or I just, you know, I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm the worst mom, which is so not true, so not true. I'm such a great mom. Even my baby girl tells me all the time and gives me the sweetest little kisses on my cheek that are just filled with this magical, very dust of love. It's really so beautiful.

Speaker 1: 10:34

But anyways to this podcast episode. I'm just kind of getting rambly about all the challenges in motherhood, but I also want to talk about that importance of self-care and the importance of self-love. Number one what a great example we set for our children when we take the time to refill our own cup so that we can fully be there for them, so that we can give the love and the time and the energy that it does take to be a mother. It's not only good for them but for our mental and emotional and physical well-being. All of these are so incredibly important and one thing I have been working on a lot lately and I kind of just had this brought to my attention not long ago is having self-compassion.

Speaker 1: 11:35

I am now in such awareness of how I have been so hard on myself for all those imperfections in life, in motherhood and who I am today right, and all of those learning lessons or mistakes are all a piece of that and I've been so mean to me, but instead I take the time now to like say, oh well, that was a thing and I forgive myself because I am always doing the best that I can. Any of the mistakes I've made in life I certainly didn't do intentionally, certainly was not intending to harm anybody, including myself. So how can I show myself some forgiveness and compassion and show more forgiveness and compassion to everybody else, and some of the greatest ways I have been taking time to do that? I was doing a lot of journaling, so one of my favorite ways to take my own time and not feel guilty about it, I will take off in the evenings for a walk in the woods. I am really blessed to live in some beautiful mountainous terrain and deep woods and along several different mountain rivers, so it's very easy for me to find a wonderful trail to go hike on, and I've been bringing my water and my earbuds and a journal and I will walk to wherever usually a beautiful spot on a river, which I know. Not everybody has that incredible luxury, but you can find yourself a spot that is beautiful Sit next to a tree, sit next to a flower that you see, or wherever you can and I will tune into some really great meditations or just kind of guided hypnosis that I've been into lately and I've been doing like a lot of inner child healing and it is so amazing, so powerful, definitely brings up a lot of tears, it definitely brings up a lot of things that I'm like holy moly, I didn't even realize that that was a thing and I've just held it with me deep inside of me for 40 years or whatever now and that's kind of crazy.

Speaker 1: 13:54

But doing these things has really felt so good, even with the crying, even with the challenges that come up with, like facing the things that we hit. I hit away long ago as a child, so this has been incredibly healing for me and I feel like it's this awesome part of my growth journey as a mother, as Mel, the woman herself, her own identity as somebody who loves people and loves to connect with people and share my passion of nature and health and healing and, yeah, connection in general, which brings me to the part of community and support. So the other day I was gifted these tickets to a really fun show. It happened to be Michael Franti and Spearhead. If you're a fan at all, he does nothing but like exude and gush all kinds of positivity and love on stage and he brings the kids up and he talks a lot about his mom and just you know, so much positivity.

Speaker 1: 16:48

But I was given these four tickets and it's been so long since I've gone out or anything that I was like who do I even invite? Like I don't know what my community and my support around is. And so I reached out to other moms that I felt like needed a night out and it was amazing to me how many moms were like nope, I've got to do this or nope, I have this on my task list and I'm like dude, I'm just asking you to come out and dance with me. And I know for a fact, like some of them, even I had talked to their partners the day before and they're like oh, please, take her out, please. I got the kid like take her out, she needs to go. And then that particular mom was like no, I can't, I'm so sorry, I have all these things. And I'm like, no, you don't come with me. But thankfully I finally well, not finally one of the first moms I asked definitely said yes, but I had those other tickets too, and one of the first moms is actually one of my apothecary mama and medicine making mama students and we were homeschool mamas together and our kids are best friends and actually her son is coming down to my family camp this week and that'll be really, really fun. But we had a blast. We got to go out.

Speaker 1: 18:11

It was just that realization for me that having a network and a community of moms is okay and I think I always had so much community around me based upon the jobs that I've always had and the roles I've had, like running a business that was pretty prominent in my community. It definitely had a lot of people coming around me. So when I let that go, like I needed a bit of a like a setback and kind of a recluse kind of mode in my own life for a bit and that was great. But as I'm doing all this inner child healing stuff I was talking about, I'm really getting in tune with who I am and why I am and why I do what I do and what really lights me up in life. And one of the things that truly, truly lights me up in life is having connection and bringing people together, and one of the ways I love to bring people together is through herbal medicine, is through music, is through the love of nature. All of those things like light me up like no other. So, anyways, I'm, yeah, back to that rambling stuff and just chit chatting with you.

Speaker 1: 19:28

I really also want to share some of the herbs that have really supported me in my motherhood journey in some of the best ways, and I think you might find these herbs to be really, really helpful for you too or at least I hope you do. And one of the first herbs that I want to share is milky oats or oat straw, but particularly the milky oats. And these come from the same plant that the oatmeal that you eat for breakfast comes from. It's a vena sativa, but it's got a very small window that you can harvest them, and it's the fresh milky tops of these oats. When you squeeze them, they'll have this milky latex like substance and it's really fantastic. And this is where the extremely good medicine comes out of them.

Speaker 1: 20:23

And the reason I use them as medicine is because they are what's called a nervine trophorestorative. So that means that it helps to restore the nervous system and really help those that are dealing with nervous exhaustion or burnout or just like total mental depletion and nervous system depletion. It actually helps to tonify and nourish that entire system and it's gently calming, but definitely not calming enough that it's going to make you fall asleep or anything like that. So you can take it throughout the day to get that support throughout the nervous system. It can help people that deal with headaches, particularly if you get nervous headaches like oh my gosh, I'm nervous, I'm dealing with anxiety, here's a headache. That can be something that could really really help you. If that's you, if you are dealing with anxiety, if you are a menopausal or premenstrual woman dealing with anxiety, you can really get a lot of benefits from using milky oat tops on a regular basis.

Speaker 1: 21:39

And again, the best way to use this medicine is when you have extracted it, preferably in an alcohol-based extraction, like a tincture, which we definitely talk about in Medicine Making Mamas, but you can use it all on its own. I like to use it with a few of the other herbs we're going to talk about. It could go well with like lemon balm or hawthorn, just to give lots of great, great love. So I really love it for that. You can also use the oat straw, which is fantastic. It's not going to provide as much benefit for the nervous system as the oat tops the milky oat tops will, but the benefits to oat straw is that it's incredibly nourishing. They're really loaded with minerals and can really help for bones and teeth and hair and nails and helping them be nice and strong and healthy and lustrous and things like that. So it's a really, really cool plant. It's got lots of magnesium and calcium as well, so it is going to be great during pregnancy, generally regarded as safe.

Speaker 1: 22:49

Of course, work with your practitioners. It's also a great herb to have on hand during lactation, because you are going to be nourishing yourself and your body and that's a very stressful time for your body You've been so depleted of many nutrients and nerves and all of that great stuff. So definitely would love for you to start experimenting more with milky oats and seeing how it helps you. It's something that I do like to take on a very regular basis. It is a daily tonic for the nervous system. Okay, that's a lot of milky oats.

Speaker 1: 23:28

I also wanted to talk about go-to cola and a lot of reasons that I love go-to cola One. It really helps me with being able to focus and to alleviate that mental overwhelm and fatigue that comes along with motherhood. It also comes along with being a business owner Like it's definitely a thing, but GoToCola can come along and just really help to rejuvenate you mind and body. It's fantastic and it helps to bring circulation up to the brain, improving mental clarity, improving your memory, helping you to focus more, as I've already said, and it nourishes the nerves and the brain cells. Really just yeah, boosting all over cognitive function for you. Which who couldn't use more of that? It also helps protect the brain. It brings a lot more oxygen into the brain, reducing oxidative stress.

Speaker 1: 24:30

It is something that is commonly used for people that deal with poor memory issues like Alzheimer's, dementia, adhd and things along those lines, so it can be a real great helper in that department, and it's a nice herb to pair with those milky oats as well, because it is gently calming to your nervous system. It's been used as a great ally to uplift the spirits and help those dealing with depression with seasonal affective disorder or postpartum depression or really being helpful for those that are trying to get off of antidepressants. So I love GoToCola for so many reasons. All of that mental health stuff is really important and it's also great for our skin. As we get older, we want more love for our skin and it really helps to improve the elasticity of skin. It can heal wounds faster. It's really great with scarring and just overall skin health. It's also going to improve your blood vessel strength and integrity. So if you are a mama who's dealing with spider veins or varicose veins or hemorrhoids or anything like that, like GoToCola can really really be a fantastic ally for you to have on hand. And yeah, I love it so much I would definitely consider using it in conjunction with milky oats. But, of course, reach out to your people and make sure that you don't have anything else going on where you shouldn't use. Go to cola.

Speaker 1: 26:11

So another herb that I cannot live without that is absolutely amazing at modifying the HBA axis your hypothalamic, pituitary adrenal axis to help you manage chronic stress, is ashwagandha, and this one has been an absolute powerhouse for the last 15 years of my life, I'd say where it really just helps to adapt to various stressors in life, whether they be physical or mental, or emotional or spiritual, whatever it may be. And ashwagandha has a really great way of restoring health to the nervous system and overall function of it. It supports the adrenal glands. So if you are a mom who is just drained because you're getting no sleep, because you're overworked, because you're always go, go, go, go going, then ashwagandha could really be a fantastic ally for you. It's also a gentle nerving, so it is somewhat calming. It is also got those rebuilding, replenishing the tropar restorative properties that I spoke about when talking about milky oat tops. So it is delicious, and one way I like to prepare it is with a nice ghee, so you could do ashwagandha in ghee or use coconut fat or something like that. That is really going to bring in so many of the medicinal benefits of ashwagandha for the nervous system, for your musculoskeletal system, which it does have some great anti-inflammatory benefits for. So if you are in pain or your muscles and joints and all those things are just super tired from mom life, this can also be really helpful for that as well. And hey, let's face it, sometimes when mom life hits, our sex life goes down right. So ashwagandha actually has been known to increase libido and improve sexual performance and potency and just kind of give you those aphrodisiac properties which hey, who doesn't want more of that right? It also brings a lot of circulation to your uterus and reproductive organs, so it's going to really improve the tone and structure and everything of your sexual organs. So really really nice, especially if you are a mom who had a really challenging birth time or you're really struggling in the recovery of birthing, like this is a really supportive herb for you and I think that you will love it.

Speaker 1: 29:07

And another one, okay, herb number four. I'm really getting kind of gushy and happy about the herbs we're talking about today, but I just feel like they're so important and I did talk about this herb on my last episode when I was talking about herbs for mental clarity and to support children in school. But I really think that this herb is incredibly supportive for us as mothers as well. And it's Tulsi or holy basil, because this one will certainly support you and your mental, certainly support you and your mental, emotional well-being. It actually counteracts the negative effects of cortisol and stress and excessive cortisol. Of course, cortisol is a natural thing that we need in our body, but when it is elevated, that's when all kinds of problems can come about. Holy basil is also really amazing for mental clarity and for focus, so it brings circulation up to the brain and will just help you feel significantly more sharp.

Speaker 1: 30:17

It's loaded with antioxidants. It is a neuroprotective agent. Antioxidants it is a neuroprotective agent. It can really help prevent Alzheimer's and dementia and also help those that are already suffering. With those I like to have it with go to cola, or with rosemary or with ashwagandha. It's really, really nice. In those ways. It's also going to actually work to regulate cortisol levels and help with blood sugar levels.

Speaker 1: 30:49

So there's really so much I could say about Tulsi. In and of itself, it is an extreme powerhouse herb in so many ways and it's absolutely delicious. So it is not hard to convince yourself to drink a cup of Tulsi tea because it's straight yummy and I would absolutely consider using it with the herbs I talked about in this episode. So we're looking to milky oat tops for a mama, we're looking to ashwagandha for a mama, we are looking to go to cola for a mama and beautiful, beautiful Tulsi. And you know, all of these herbs may not be your jam, maybe they are.

Speaker 1: 31:32

I highly recommend you start with one of those herbs and then move on and decide if the others are for you or not, because if you do it all in one big formula, what happens is that it becomes really challenging to determine what herb made you feel in a better way versus the herb that maybe didn't make you feel in a better way. So it's just going to take even more time to discover which one is right for you. And these herbs that I talked about are definitely right for me, but that does not mean that they're definitely right for you or for your mom or for your sister. You catch my drift there, right?

Speaker 1: 32:09

Not all herbs work the same for everybody, so it is really important to pay attention to those things, and I did not cover any contraindications in there. Most of them are pretty close to generally regarded as safe or grass, but if you are on medications or having some other kind of health issue or anything along those lines, please work with your healthcare practitioner and make sure that these herbs are safe for you. But that is definitely a unique and personal situation there for everybody. So, yeah, I hope that this episode has been helpful for you. Again, I apologize that it's been so long since I've even mentioned anything about loving yourself as a mom and how you can be supported by herbs too.

Speaker 1: 32:58

Like I speak so much about the children, because there's not a lot of people out there that speak about herbs for kids, but, again, without us feeling great about ourselves, about our life, about our mental capacity and our nervous system being nourished, then our kiddos are not going to thrive as much as we would like them to as well. So I hope it's helpful I really really do, and I hope that you enjoyed it. If you did, I would love to hear from you. Of course, reach out to me on Instagram or a TikTok or Facebook, wherever you listen to these kinds of episodes, and if you think it's going to help another mama who might be going through some challenging times in life right now, would you please share it with her Please, because we need to spread this kind of love. We need to make herbalism spread like wildflowers, right? Okay? Thank you so much for listening to me. I will have you know. I am about to. At the time of recording this, it's the day before my mom's birthday and I am about to take off for a week to go spend time with my family and spread love to them. So, yeah, we're going to go play all over Oregon wherever our hearts may desire, and I hope that you are getting some more time to play before the whole back to school shebang thing happens. So thank you again and have yourself a beautiful day.

Speaker 1: 34:30

Thank you so much for tuning into another episode of the Herbalist Path. Being on this journey with you is absolutely incredible. If you dig this episode, please leave me a review on your favorite podcast player and share it with your friends so that together we can make herbalism hashtag spread like wildflowers. On another note, I must mention that, while I know you're getting some good info here, it's important to remember that this podcast is purely for entertainment and educational purposes and is not intended to be a substitute for medical treatment. While the information in this podcast is absolutely relevant, herbs work differently for each person and each condition. That's why I recommend you work with a qualified practitioner, whether that be another herbalist, a naturopath or your doctor. So thank you again. I am truly honored that you're tuning into these episodes and on the path with me to make sure that there's an herbalist in every home. Again, don't forget to share this episode with your friends, so that we can make herbalism Hashtag spread like wildflowers.