Results for Category: Live Well
Herbal Support for Pregnancy Nausea
Pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting can affect up to 85% of pregnancies to varying degrees. Although a small amount of people do experience pregnancy nausea during their entire pregnancy (as in hyperemesis gravidarum), it normally starts around 4 to 9 weeks and usually subsides by 12 to 16 weeks (Romm, 2014). There are different theories as…
How to Decorate Your Home With Fresh Greenery
Make your home come alive this holiday season by bringing the outdoors in with fresh greenery! The festive and cozy feeling that l...
Cannabis and Adaptogens for Stress
When it comes to modern-day living, it can seem like there is no relief in the frequency of life’s demands and the required fast...
Troubleshooting Fire Cider: Answering Your Questions
Fire cider is a beloved and potent wellness tonic known for giving the immune system a powerful kick. Made from a variety of herbs infused into apple cider vinegar, a classic herbalist’s recipe is easy to make, convenient to dose, and a delight to the tastebuds. Here at the Herbal Academy, we’ve been sharing our…
Greek Olive Oil Traditions + How to Do an Olive Oil Tasting and Identify the Best Variety
Olive oil has a rich and magical history in Greece, where the landscape is dotted with millions of majestic olive trees. Derived from the pressing of ripe olives picked from the Olea europaea tree, this supreme food has been used for thousands of years in the Mediterranean region, Asia, and Africa. The magic of Greek…
The Core Carrier Oils: How to Store Them Properly
This excerpt on core carrier oils is from the book The Carrier Oil Palette by Jade Shutes and Sherilyn Siegmund-Roach and is repri...
Tincture, Decoction, Tea, or Ghee: An Ayurvedic Perspective on Herbal Preparations
We all have our preferred methods of enjoying herbs. Some love hot herbal tea, some like a cool infusion, and others reach for the...
Lavender, Lemon, and Peppermint Essential Oils: Boring? Or Powerful Allies?
Do you ever feel that your retailer or favorite essential oil blogger is always touting the benefits of new essential oils you have not heard of or, at least, do not own? We may or may not know much about the oil other than what the retailer or blogger claims, but the advertising makes it…
Summer Solstice: Mark the Changing of Spring Into Summer With Intention
It seems to me as though the more years I accumulate the faster they seem to fly by, each racing past more quickly than the last. A core lesson of my adult life has been to find ways in which I can regularly slow down and honor the passage of time. One of my favorite…
Triphala: Time-Honored Digestive Support for All Types
Most herb lovers have their shortlist of herbal essentials. These are the single herbs or formulas that you are sure to keep in st...
Getting Ticked Off: An Essential Oil Blend to Repel Ticks
Ticks are arachnids from the order Ixodida, divided into three families, the Ixodidae (hard ticks), the Argasidae (soft ticks), an...
Agni: Understanding the Digestive Fire
Digestive fire or digestive strength is discussed with some frequency across different herbalism and wellness traditions. However, oftentimes we don’t take the time to really break down our understanding of what is meant by digestive fire. Ayurveda has a unique, well-articulated, and beautifully poetic model for understanding digestive wellness. In Ayurveda, one’s agni (digestive fire)…
Undercover Women: Historic Botanical Illustrators
In the modern age, the title of “artist” is an acceptable profession for both male and female persons, but it wasn’t always this way. Historically, the art world was a male-dominated one. This was most likely due to the fact that men were considered the “breadwinners” of the family while women tended to more domestic…
Herbs for Dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease, and the Aging Brain: What the Research Has to Say
Most of us will be touched by the heartbreak of Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. Whether a parent, life partner, friend, or ones...
Hot ‘n’ Spicy Essential Oils for Winter
Winter season…snow season…holiday season…fireplace season…conifer season…cocoa and tea season…cold ‘n’ flu season....
Ayurvedic Holiday Gift Guide
The holidays can be a wonderful opportunity to show your love and thoughtfulness. Homemade gifts, party favors, and stocking stuffers are a festive way to get crafty, have a little fun in the kitchen, and apply your passion for herbalism and wellness. Making (or purchasing) ayurvedic-inspired gifts is a great way to offer something that…
Essential Oil Perfume: A DIY Gift Idea
The holidays are a wonderful time to give something that the receiver wouldn’t normally indulge themselves in. Something pretty, or something sentimental, or something handmade. An essential oil perfume recipe checks all those boxes! Crafting a unique scent is a fun way to show care to the receiver, and to pull in special memories through…
Plant Allies to Prepare Your Immune System for Winter
Winter stirs up nostalgic thoughts of evergreen trees and warm, cozy fires, but it can also cause increased stress and anxiety, wi...
Balance Your Holiday Menu With Ayurvedic Six Tastes
Ayurveda teaches that all things in nature are made up of some combination of the five elements: earth, water, fire, air, and ethe...
Strange Ways to Heal: Medical Curiosities of Ancient Greece
Throughout history, humans have sought ways to ease many ailments. Some lasted through millennia. Others fell into disuse. The ancient Greek civilization (c. 3,000 BCE-600 CE), practiced a variety of healing methods over centuries influenced by population growth, trade, and conflict throughout the Mediterranean region. Medicine in antiquity shifted and evolved as a result of…
11 Ways to Save Money on Herbal Supplies
As your herbal studies gain momentum, we know how tempting it can be to purchase brand-new herbal supplies: herbs, books, materials, and equipment to bring your recipes and projects to life. Like any craft, there are baskets upon baskets of fun, exciting tools that you’ll want and need as you stock your herbal supply cabinet,…
Essential Oils and Pets: How to Use Them Safely
If you use botanicals for your own health and wellness, you have probably wondered about essential oils and pets. How might you us...
Ayurveda and Yoga: Yoga for Your Constitution
“Ayurveda is a paradigm, not a prescription” is a phrase that I commonly emphasize in my introduction to Ayurveda public lectu...
How to Use Dye Plants: Plant Projects for the Home
This book excerpt is taken from A Woman’s Garden: Grow Beautiful Plants and Make Useful Things – Plants and Projects for Home, Health, Beauty, Healing, and More by Tanya Anderson, and is reprinted with permission from Cool Springs Press, an imprint of The Quarto Group. Using Dye Plants From archaeological evidence, we know that people have…
Mood and Mental Support for Pitta Dosha
Pitta dosha, the most fiery of the three ayurvedic types, relates to solar energy and rules the summer season. Pitta types run warm, tend to have warm-colored complexions, and aren’t afraid of competition and intensity. In fact, they welcome it (sometimes to their own detriment!). These bold, fiery types are naturally intense, driven, and competitive,…
Strategies for Creating a More Gender-Inclusive Herbal Practice
This post is co-authored by Linden de Voil R.H. You are reading Part 2 of a series on how to make your herbal practice, classes, o...
Growing a Gender-Expansive Herbal Practice
This post is co-authored by Linden de Voil R.H. For most trans/non-binary and gender non-conforming folks, medical care is a horror show. It’s hard to overstate the problem, given the long, ugly history of violence done to trans bodies and psyches under the modern medical system. To this day, trans people in need of health…
Cooling Recipes for Managing Pitta Dosha
“The brilliance of a raging fire dragon in the city of sparkling gems—such is the nature of pitta” (Tiwari, 1995, p. 48). Ayurveda teaches that summer is ruled by pitta dosha, and pitta is composed of fire and water. Temperatures are on the rise, as is the need and desire to stay cool. If you…
Essential Oils in Pregnancy
What makes an essential oil safe to use during pregnancy? Essential oils are potent extractions of the most volatile components ...
