 A look at the best foods to nourish and replenish you in times of high stress and/or burnout.
When you have been under a lot of stress and/or are recovering from burnout, your nutritional needs are going to be impacted because stress uses up a lot of resources in your body. Let’s take a look at what you can eat to help support your body through challenging times. Magnesium and Stress When we are under stress, our bodies burn through minerals at a faster rate than usual. That, in turn, can lead to more stress. How so? Well, consider the role of magnesium in the nervous system. It sits on certain receptors in the synapses (the gaps between neurons) in the nerves and decides which messages to pass on and which can be ignored. But if your magnesium is low, it will just pass along everything. That’s the moment when every little thing imaginable just seems to set you on edge and make you twitchy. I think we’ve all been there! Magnesium can help. Our modern diets are deficient in magnesium to begin with, because modern agricultural practices don’t replenish the soil with magnesium. This leads to more and more depletion over time. So supplementing magnesium is generally a good idea for everyone, although you can only absorb a little bit at a time. Adding some Mega-Mag drops to your water or mixing in some Natural Vitality Calm throughout the day is one way to boost these levels. But adding more mineral rich foods to your diet is a great idea as well—bone broth and seaweeds are great places to start, as well as working with mineral rich herbs like nettles (also a great spinach alternative!) and horsetail. Wild greens like dandelion leaves and anything else you can scrounge up in a yard untreated with pesticides will be full of minerals. And if you can stomach it, organ meats are powerhouses of both minerals and vitamins that are hard to get elsewhere (and are much more affordable than supplements). And finally, if you are fortunate enough to be able to grow some of your own food, adding rocks around your garden area will allow your plants to absorb more minerals. Cortisol and Inflammation When excess inflammation is in the body, more cortisol is going to be produced, and if you are already stressed out or in burnout, more cortisol is not what you need. So rather than just thinking about how much fat and how much protein you should be getting and that sort of thing, it’s better to think about what kind of fat and what kind of protein are going to lower inflammation so that cortisol can be lowered as well. The same goes for sweet things—refined sugar is for sure inflammatory, but honey is anti-inflammatory. So you don’t have to cut all sweet things out of your life, but switching to things like honey or maple syrup when possible will go a long way. Healthy Fats and Proteins When it comes to fats, we are looking for ones that are higher in omega 3s and lower in omega 6s to lower excess inflammation. For oils, coconut, olive and avocado oils and ghee are excellent choices. Industrial seed oils (and basically anything you are likely to find when you eat out) are going to be inflammatory. Now here’s the interesting thing about meat—whether the meat is inflammatory or anti-inflammatory depends on how the animal lived. You may have heard that tuna and salmon are great sources of omega 3s, but that is only true of wild salmon and tuna. If it is factory farmed fish, the diet and the life of that fish is going to be very different (and pretty depressing), and now the fish is producing omega 6s instead of omega 3s. The same goes for chicken, beef, etc. If the animal was able to live in a pretty natural environment without unnatural stressors and eat food that is ideal for them (think pasture raised, grass fed cows), they are going to be healthy sources of protein and fat. A lot of those studies that seem to show that meat is inflammatory are flawed in the sense that they don’t distinguish between Oscar Meyer bologna and your neighbors beef that you got at the farmer’s market. They are not the same! Protein plays another key role here in terms of giving you what you need to stay sharp and focused during the day (harder in times of stress) and in keeping you full longer. Grazing between meals leads to extra inflammation (especially if you’re grazing on processed foods and/or refined carbs), but getting 20 grams protein at each meal will keep you full so you are less likely to snack between meals. Getting plenty of good fats is also really important to help nourish your nerves from the effects of stress. You hear people say things like “my nerves are frazzled,” or “I’m so burned out,” and there is some truth to that! Just as oils can help nourish and hydrate sunburned and dried out skin, so can good fats nourish and replenish your nervous system when it gets impacted by ongoing stressors. Stress and Appetite Now let’s talk about how stress affects our appetite. If you are someone who finds it hard to eat when you get stressed out, either because you lose your appetite, get nauseous or feel like your stomach is tied into knots, there are some things that will help you out. Eating something bitter 10-20 minutes before a meal will help stimulate the appetite (and is also great for your liver!). Ginger will help with nausea, and and carminative herbs like fennel and chamomile (especially if steeped strongly for 30 minutes or more), will help relieve stomach cramps. Try to make it easy on yourself by having ‘easy’ foods around that you just can just grab when it feels really hard to get something down. Bone broth with some added oil is one example. A handful of almonds, an apple (with almond butter!) or some hemp seeds you sprinkle on top of whatever for some extra protein are other good options (both almonds and hemp seeds have 10 grams of protein per serving). You may find it helpful to set alarms for yourself to remind you to eat. If, on the other hand, stress leads you to craving all the “bad stuff,” don’t despair! Deprivation is not the answer. Consider that for one thing, cravings may be your body’s way of communicating with you what it needs. When you crave salt, for example, your body is probably low on minerals. So load up on something full of minerals first, and then if you still want some chips, so be it. If you are craving sugar, on the other hand, your body is seeking nourishment. Consider that in the wild, poisonous foods are never sweet. Sweet foods are always safe and nourishing. In the modern world though, it’s the other way around. But our bodies are still so deeply hardwired for the natural world that this gets mixed up. It does not mean that you are bad for craving something sweet—it’s hardwired into our biology! So the next time you find yourself reaching for something sugary, start with something deeply nourishing like bone broth with added oils (and maybe a bit of honey), and then you are likely to have less refined sugar afterwards. And if you are reaching for chocolate, perhaps you need both nourishment and minerals (chocolate is super high in magnesium). You can also focus on harm reduction. While sugar is inflammatory, honey, molasses and maple syrup are anti-inflammatory and have other nourishing properties (like minerals!) that sugar does not. At the end of this post, I’ve included my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe that uses a small amount of maple syrup, almond flour, and no eggs. The cookies do not taste like maple syrup at all, and the texture is just amazing—the perfect combination of chewy and a little crispy on the outside. I keep these in the freezer and can pull one out whenever the urge fro something decadent strikes. But whatever you are craving, be sure to keep healthier alternatives stocked in your home so that you can make better choices when the cravings kick in. So to wrap things up, consider giving your body extra dietary support during challenging times, just like you might turn to chicken soup and citrus fruits when you have a cold. Stress depletes you in some key ways, and what you eat plays an important role in helping you recover. CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES (sugar free, gluten free and egg free) 2 cups blanched almond flour ½ teaspoon baking soda ¼ teaspoon sea salt ¼ cup melted coconut oil and ghee (the ghee really enhances the flavor—even 1 TBS will be noticeable) ¼ cup maple syrup (at room temperature) 1 TBS vanilla extract 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar ½ cup mini chocolate chips INSTRUCTIONS Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, stir together the almond flour, baking soda, and salt. Add in the melted coconut oil/ghee, maple syrup, vanilla, and vinegar, and mix again, until the dough looks uniform, with no clumps. Fold in the chocolate chips, then use a tablespoon or 1-ounce cookie scoop to scoop the dough onto the prepared pan. You will get roughly 16 small cookies from this batch. Use your hands to flatten the cookies then bake at 350ºF for app. 11 minutes, or until the edges look lightly golden. Almond flour cookies get softer if you store them at room temperature overnight, so I recommend serving these the day you make them, or keep them in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer for the firmest texture. They are extra-crispy if you serve them straight from the freezer. REFERENCES: Much of the data referenced in this post was sourced from the Fundamentals of Holistic Nutrition and Neurological & Emotional Health courses from CommonWealth Holistic Herbalism.
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 Learning to unmask can be a bit tricky. Here are some thoughts on how to do it authentically while still building relationships with people you care about.
Imagine you just started a conversation with someone and they happened to ask you about something that you are deeply passionate about. You perk up and immediately start telling them all about it. A number of minutes go by, and you suddenly realize you have been dominating the conversation the entire time, and have not asked the other person a single question about themself. To be honest, you aren’t super interested in changing the subject and you have no idea what to ask them about anyhow. And also you’ve been trying not to mask lately, and you’re wondering if suddenly forcing yourself to ask the other person something about them would just be you attempting to mask as a neurotypical. Has something like this ever happened to you? I’ve had various clients talk with me about some version of this scenario, and it can be a lot to unpack when you have only recently discovered you’ve been masking in the first place but you’re also wanting to build more relationships. You start to question yourself a lot. I think that in order to really answer these kinds of questions, you have to know what and who you really care about. Let me explain. To me, who I am having that conversation with makes all the difference. Is it someone I know and love? Is it someone I am feeling out the potential to build a relationship with (that could include someone you just met)? If so, there are some good reasons to make an effort to balance out the conversation a bit. Sure, it may feel unnatural at first, but I see that as more of the difficulty of switching gears and maybe not having a lot of social fluidity. If I really ask myself about my core values and whether this person matters to me (or the potential of building a new relationship does), and the answer is yes, then it is not masking to make an effort to ask them something about themself. The reason it feels hard isn't becasue I really don’t care about them (I do care about them!)—it feels hard because it’s hard for me to switch gears. Luckily though, if you get in the practice of just having a few phrases on hand like “So what have you been up to lately?” it does get easier over time, and it’s better for the relationship if it feels reciprocal for both parties. So when is it masking? Again, to me it comes down to whether the relationship is reciprocal, both in terms of both people caring about each other and acting on it in various ways. Let’s say you have a ‘friend’ you’ve known since high school and they always invite you to their parties. But it doesn’t really feel like this person really gets you or knows you or cares about you in any deep way, and you get the feeling like you are just performing some empty role that doesn’t actually connect to any shared values. Or, when it just feels like a one-way street—when you are the person pouring everything into another relationship/work environment/etc. and you are not getting anything back in return. The whole thing is draining, and you never get recharged in any way from it. That can be a little tricky, because events/work/conversations can be exhausting even when they are meaningful. So it’s good to recognize you are exhausted (and take whatever steps you need to take in the aftermath to replenish), but to also take a wider view when you consider the situation that exhausted you. Ask yourself if in the bigger picture, that situation aligned with your core values and the relationships that you value? The other time this can be really tricky is if you are interacting with someone new. If you’re not looking to form new relationships, it may be worth asking yourself why you are really feeling the need to attend that party/event/etc. or even have that conversation. But if you are looking to do more socially, that will require having some initial conversations with folks to feel out if there are shared interests/values/etc. So yes, at times that will mean gearing yourself up to ask some questions to someone you just met, only to discover that you have no interest whatsoever in getting to know that person better. It’s frustrating when it happens, especially if doing so totally exhausts you. But that doesn’t mean you wasted your time or were masking if you did it because building new relationships is something you really care about. The takeaway here is that when you want to start unmasking, you need to be really clear about your core values—who and what really matters to you in your life. All humans need some kind of social interface to interact with each other, and the goal is to get these interactions grounded in authenticity. Separating your core values from other people’s expectations of you is important work, and it is what’s going to make it possible for you to successfully ditch the unhelpful aspects of masking and be your most authentic self.  Having a hyperactive mind can get exhausting if you are have trouble shifting into Rest-and-Repair mode, but engaging your full body and senses in more natural environments can have a profound impact on your wellbeing.
I have a hyperactive mind and the motor is always running. I don’t think of myself as having ADHD because I don’t have most of the inattentive traits, but I’ll admit I could very well be in denial because you can absolutely have mostly hyperactive traits without having a lot of inattentive traits—you just don’t hear about it as much. But rather than go down that rabbit hole, let me get to the point: running constantly at hyper speed is very hard on the system. Imagine a fire engine that is always running around, whether or not there is a fire. It will literally run out of fuel and then not be able to get to any actual fires. That’s why the fire fighters stay put at the fire house and the fire fighters get to hang out until they are needed—they need to have all their resources ready to go when the occasion calls! But for a lot of neurodivergent folks, switching gears is also really hard and we can easily get stuck in racing mode. After a while, living at hyper speed just feels like the only speed we can operate in. We know it would be better to slow down some of the time, and rest, and do all of those things we keep hearing are good for us, but we have no idea how to do it. Can you relate? This is something I’ve been working on for over a decade now, and while I’ve made some progress, it’s still really hard. Having to listen to someone ramble about nothing for minutes on end is almost unbearable, and I have no patience whatsoever for trying to assemble something from Ikea if the instructions are poor. I can’t stand it! Anyone else out there start educational videos at a faster speed, waiting for the speaker to finally ‘get to the point’? Yes, I do that too… I learned early on that sitting meditations don’t work great for me. I have adapted some meditations in motion that I really like, and they also come in handy when there is wildfire smoke or a snowstorm and I can’t go walking in the woods as I usually do. I’ve found that for things like tai-chi or qi-gong, it’s a really good idea for me to follow along with a video rather than do it on my own, because that way I will stay in the slower speed that was intended. Some guided meditations can be helpful in a similar manner—if I meditate on my own, as soon as I slow down and get quiet, it seems to turn on the creativity button inside me and all these ideas start occurring to me. But I am more likely to stay focused if someone else’s voice is leading me through the meditation. Having something visual to focus on (like a candle flame) can also help. Of course, there are times I love being able to tap into that creativity and generate so many new ideas! But I am always trying to figure out how to turn it off when I need to rest. Even when I have a migraine, I have a hard time shutting off /slowing down my thoughts, and I think there is a fair possibility that this is a factor in why I get so many migraines. The practice I am getting the most from though is what I consider to be a form of rewilding—the restoring of natural processes by actively using more of my senses in a way that my body evolved to do. Humans did not evolve to sit in front of screens for hours on end, or to be sitting for long periods of time doing anything, in fact. We consider it pathological if someone ‘can’t sit still,’ but isn’t it the other way around? What animal in their natural habitat does that? Ok, maybe sloths. But you get my point. I’ve always loved going for walks in the woods, but I spent years doing so without fully engaging in the environment. I would speed walk and usually spend the whole time thinking about whatever was going on in my life at that time and nothing else. Sometimes that led to problem solving, and sometimes it just led to increased cortisol in my system and circling thoughts that just spun around endlessly in my head. But in recent years I have started to engage more and more with the forest life around me. This really kicked off when I became interested in wildcrafting (gathering plant medicine in the woods), although the more I learn about this the less I am actually taking anything from the wild—it’s much more sustainable to grow it yourself unless it is an invasive species. But you do not have to actually harvest anything to get your senses fully engaged in the woods. Becoming familiar with what is growing around you (plant apps are great—I use PictureThis), knowing what is native vs invasive for example, is one way to start. For me, what really sparked my interest in learning these plants was knowing their medicinal uses and how traditional peoples worked with them. Paying attention to nuanced differences between plants requires you to slow down. No matter where you live, there are bound to be dandelions, but there are all sorts of dandelion lookalikes that most people cannot differentiate. And why would you want to? Well, if you are going to eat it you want to make sure it isn’t poisonous, so that can be motivation for sure (we don’t have to worry about over harvesting dandelions, so pick away!). Getting into the mode where you can spot it, examine it and tell the difference takes some practice, and I honestly would not have had the patience to do it if it meant lugging around old a big old book and hoping it was clear enough to tell me what was what. Again, plant apps have been a total game changer for me. I walk in the same woods behind my house almost every day of the year, and going at a slower pace is what keeps it interesting—that is when you notice how much it changes through the seasons. Those mushrooms! How many varieties? How does it compare to last year? Knowing when to harvest nettle and horsetail—there are narrow windows for some of these, and even if I am not harvesting them, I enjoy getting to know their cycles. I am getting to know them. Pine sap is another good one. You can walk past the same trees for years and years and never notice the sap. Then you read about its antiseptic properties and how it works the same way in trees—they produce the sap when they get wounded. That’s why you don’t ever want to take any unless there is so much that the excess is dripping onto the ground. The tree needs it to heal. We have a lot in common, trees and humans. Suddenly you are walking through the woods just looking for evidence of sap, and noting how many trees have ‘wounds’ and how rarely it occurs that there is a surplus of it making a puddle on the ground. So instead of taking any, maybe you just go over and put your nose right up to it and take a big breath in. Pine is what is is called an exhilarant, meaning that it lightens and lifts the mood. You can enjoy the aromatherapy benefits without taking anything from the tree. Why does this work for me? You could argue it is my special interest, and you would not be wrong. But I am convinced there is more to it than that. Slowing down in the natural world actually opens you up to more—you experience much, much more, and it is anything but boring. I think a lot of our problems actually come from being bored out of our minds and from having the wrong sensory environments. Being bored and uncomfortable is a bad combination. We spend a lot of time discussing animal welfare and whether the chickens are free range or the cows were pasture raised. But what about the human animal? Sitting in front of a screen all day is not a free range environment. Of course we are stressed! But really, I think the environment is a much bigger problem than how we are wired. My neurodivergence is not a problem when I engaging with my mind and body in a way that it evolved to do. And to make an important distinction here—nature is not actually ‘peaceful.’ It is vibrant and rich and chaotic. We describe it as calming because it brings us back to using our bodies as they were intended to be used—developing and utilizing all of the senses fully (which is something our survival used to depend on). Using our bodies as nature intended reduces the stress that comes from living unnaturally, and the chronic stress is really the problem we are trying to address (not being uniquely wired). For this reason, I am a strong believer in forest bathing (or whatever you want to call it). The woods aren’t for everyone—maybe water is more your thing. That’s fine—go take a walk on the beach or do some kayaking. Or grow some marigolds in a bucket on your back porch—whatever is accessible to you. The idea is that getting back to using our bodies in a more natural way on a regular basis is one of the best things we can do to get our nervous systems out of a rigid, hyperactive treadmill nightmare. Opening our senses to the complex beauty of the natural world gives the mind and body some much needed freedom and space, and I believe it is time well spent. Would you like these posts delivered directly to your inbox each week? Subscribe for free on Substack: arikarapson.substack.com  I know, I know, we’re all sick of COVID-19. But it’s still here, and getting reinfected is problematic. Here’s why I think it’s especially important for those of us who are neurodivergent.
Well, I’m pretty sure we are all fed up with COVID these days and I won’t be surprised if this post ends up being the least popular one I write all year. But I also think it could be my most important post, so I’m choosing to write it anyway. That’s my stubborn autistic fierceness coming through—speaking up about something unpopular because it matches my values. So I’m not going to apologize for that. But that doesn’t mean I’m trying to bum everyone out, either. The opposite, in fact. Think for a minute about wearing your seat belt. Cars are dangerous. There are real risks. But most of us don’t panic every time we get in a car, and most of us buckle up because it is a reasonable precaution (and we don't want to get fined) and we know seatbelts save lives. I’m hoping we can get to a point where we treat COVID precautions in a similar way—they are just an automatic response that does not have to be supercharged with stress. So let’s take a minute to look at the what the latest science is telling us about COVID risks and discuss some reasonable precautions. Despite the fact that we are hearing very little about COVID these days, there is a ton of research on it. At the moment of this writing, entering ‘COVID-19’ as a search term on Google scholar results in 4,940,000 hits. That’s a lot. It’s more than almost anyone has the time or bandwidth to read, unless you happen to be neurodivergent and it’s your special interest (I do know a clinical herbalist who spends 2 hours every day reading through it all. For real). So what is all this research telling us? Here are some of the main points: 1.) COVID hits you where you are weak, which is why we are seeing so many people who were already struggling with their health hit the hardest. I think this is really important for neurodivergent people to consider. So many of us are already struggling with migraines, gut issues, POTS, EDS, fatigue, chronic pain, etc. and we often struggle to ‘keep up’ as it is. If your joints are already giving you a lot of grief, you really don’t need COVID coming along and ratcheting it up another notch. Often people with autoimmune diseases or obesity are considered the most vulnerable, but neurodivergence is a risk factor as well. 2.) In a way, everyone has long covid. That’s because COVID-19 sticks around in your body a lot longer than the acute infection does, and leaves all sorts of messes anywhere in the body (via the ACE2 receptors) that need to be cleaned up. When scientists looked at the brains of healthy individuals a year after they had COVID, the brains were still different (or shall we say damaged?) But in someone who is pretty healthy, they may not notice that things aren’t quite the same. Think about a workplace where a boss suddenly gives everyone a little more work to do. If they are not overworked, they may be able to handle a little extra work without major issues. But if they are already overworked and close to a tipping point, that little bit of extra work may push them over the edge. So again, those of us who were already working extra hard to ‘keep up’ may be the most likely to get hit hard by COVID. 3.) COVID risks are cumulative. A Scientific American article from last month stated that “each infection is associated with a substantially increased risk of health issues like cognitive dysfunction, autoimmune disease and cardiovascular problems, even for mild infections.” I’m still processing that one. Just take a minute to let it sink in: The risks are cumulative. Each new infection greatly increases your risk of serious ongoing health issues, even if you didn’t get very sick. That’s sobering, to say the least. In light of all of these things, it is a critical time to be focused on your self-care. This could include things you can do to prevent reinfection, such as:
Here’s another thought: If you have a one-on-one appointment where you will be in close proximity with someone (like a hairstylist or a chiropractor or a massage) schedule it first thing in the morning when there are less particles in the air from the practitioner (and wear a mask). Self-Care should also include things you do to recover from an infection to minimize the risks of developing long-COVID (or to recover from it if you already have it), such as:
COVID Recovery Tea- This is a tea that would be great to take for at least the first 6 weeks after COVID, as well as other herbs that address any lingering symptoms. Taking it as easy as possible and drinking a quart of this daily can be a great way to support your body in an effort to prevent having COVID interrupt your daily life in the months to follow. Use 2 teaspoons of each herb, boil a quart of water, cover and let it sit overnight. Drink throughout the following day.
Astragalus and codonopsis are two other herbs you could look into as well, especially if you are prone to getting sick easily or already have chronic health issues. *** I realize as I write this that most of us are still burned out from the initial hyper-vigilant COVID roller coaster, so I'm going to keep advocating that we adapt a response similar to wearing a seat belt. Masking is no big deal in China, so it’s not inevitable that masking has to mean something TERRIBLE. For any of you living in a place where wearing a mask is something you are villainized for, I am truly sorry. Masking is just one piece of reasonable measures of prevention though, so see which pieces work with your life and you will already be more protected than you were before. These are just some initial starting points. If there is one big takeaway here, it’s to take it as easy is possible in these times. I know for a lot of folks, even thinking about COVID risks feels stressful and even overwhelming, but does ignoring it actually make you feel better? And doesn’t a lot of that stress come from feeling powerless? For me, knowing some tangible things I can do that will actually give me greater protection and help me recover faster eases some of my stress, and that’s why I decided to write this. I wish you all a happy, healthy and low-key summer! Take care out there, and I’ll see you next time… Further Reading What Doctors Wish Patients Knew About COVID-19 Reinfection (AMA) Is it Dangerous to Keep Getting COVID-19 (TIME) Acute and postacute sequelae associated with SARS-CoV-2 reinfection (Nature) Would you like these posts delivered directly to your inbox each week? Subscribe for free on Substack: arikarapson.substack.com   Neurodivergent people often do not feel good in their bodies, and it can be easy to believe that this is inevitable. But is it? Here are some practices to help you feel better more often.
When was the last time you felt good in your body? Can you remember? Has it been a while? Being in pain tends to be much more memorable, and even if you don’t live with chronic pain, you may be living with chronic sensory discomfort, anxiety or a heightened sense of threat. But thanks to neuroplasticity, the more often the brain gets these unpleasant sensations, the stronger those pathways get reinforced in the body. This is why it is so important to actively counter those painful/uncomfortable signals—you don’t want them taking up any more real estate in your body than they already do! One way to do this is through meditation. This is a very specific kind of meditation where you try to remember a time that you felt really good in your body. You bring that memory to mind, and then you try to really feel that memory in your body. What were the smells? What did it look like? What were the textures? For me, I love to recall being in the Burren in Ireland. I have Irish roots, and there is no other place on earth I feel quite so at home. It is a strikingly unique place—unusual formations of rocks as far as the eye can see, and a stunning array of wild flowers bursting out of those rocks, as diverse and unexpected as you can possibly imagine. It is a wide, open place, a wild place, but also a subtle place. Tiny little details you have to be looking for or you would miss entirely. It anchors you deeply to a forgotten past, a past that predates humanity. It is vast. It is profound. My two most memorable trips to the Burren were the ones when I went there as soon as got off the airplane. Airplanes are hard for me. I am a bit claustrophobic and I have chemical and sound sensitivities and I can’t sit still or sleep on a plane. On one of those trips, we had been preparing for takeoff from JFK and something prevented us from leaving the ground for what felt like an eternity. The engines were going full force, and the smell of exhaust filled the plane and gave me a vicious migraine. I started to have a panic attack because I could not get out and it seemed insane that we were all having to breathe that in for so long. But of course, the plane did finally take off, and it did eventually land in Shannon, Ireland. From there, it’s just over half an hour to the Burren. And suddenly I was free! Just get out of the car…step into the Burren…and get lost there for as long as you please. This is not just your everyday kind of free, but the deep freedom of the soul when it suddenly finds itself in the best place on earth. What a contrast. There is a meditation practice called Tonglen that reminds me of this Burren experience. There are different ways of doing Tonglen, but perhaps the most common is to think of the pain of others as you inhale and send out compassion/lovingkindness in your exhale. Your breathing becomes a type of filter that transforms the suffering into something beautiful. As someone who has trouble shifting gears, I find Tonglen a challenging practice and can often not do more than 3 complete breaths. I just can’t get my brain to do that transformative work so quickly. But I do think that’s all the more reason to practice it—that tendency to ‘get stuck’ in a certain head space is part of what can prolong pain and discomfort in my life. So sometimes I will imagine the horrible feeling of being stuck on the airplane on my inhale, and then being in the Burren on my exhale. That meditation is about practicing shifting gears. But if I just want to meditate on feeling good in my body, I may focus solely on conjuring up the memory of what it felt like to be in the Burren. I may imagine that the forcefield of energy around me is made up of the Burren, so that I am in fact bringing the Burren with me everywhere I go. It is my strength, my power, my hidden magic. If these kinds of meditations are new to you, no worries! It isn’t something you have to do for a long time. Even if you can just take 5 minutes, it can be enough. What is most important is that you are really able to conjure up what it felt like in your body when you felt really good. You find that moment, and you savor it. Over time, it gets easier to return to that place, for it to really feel like you rather than an isolated memory. So find your moment, relive it, and embrace it as often as possible. Neuroplasticity may be responsible for reinforcing our pain and discomfort over time, but it’s a two way street. Remember how it feels to feel good, and the desirable pathways will get reinforced instead. Would you like these posts delivered directly to your inbox each week? Subscribe for free on Substack: arikarapson.substack.com  Neurodivergent people often find themselves stuck in a state of chronic stress. Here are some thoughts on why this happens and what you can do to get unstuck.
If you are neurodivergent, you may feel like you are always stuck in a heightened state of threat. You may even think this is part of your wiring and that there’s nothing you can do about it. I’m not really crazy about using metaphors comparing humans to machines, but since talking about our ‘wiring’ seems to click for so many people, I’m going to go with it for now. But rather than thinking of it as your wiring, I prefer to think of it as your ‘default settings.’ Settings is the key word here. As anyone with a phone or a laptop can tell you, settings can always be tweaked. But since humans are much more complex than machines, it can be harder to figure out how to adjust your internal settings. Especially if you have alexithymia (which co-occurs frequently with neurodivergence), meaning that interpreting the signals coming from within you is an ongoing challenge. Having a clearer understanding of what is really going on inside your body can help demystify some of this, so let’s see if we can sort some of it out. Try visualizing for a moment a sound mixing board, such as those used by musicians when recording (see image above). These boards are filled with sliders, so you can adjust the mix of the overall sound in a variety of ways. Boost the bass a bit, bring down those high frequencies a tad, enhance those background vocals so they pop, etc. Your body’s internal settings have some similarities. You will hear people talking about things like ‘hormonal balance,’ for instance, and may have pictured balanced hormones as nice, neat, steady lines. But your hormones actually rely on a constant state of fluctuation to work properly! A snapshot of what your hormones are doing at any given moment would look more like a sound mixing board with the sliders all in different places. Consider the hormone insulin, for example. Every time you eat something, insulin levels are going to rise. Ok, simple enough. But did you know that when insulin is being released, growth hormone cannot be released? Insulin and growth hormone take turns (or they are supposed to, anyhow). Growth hormone is what is responsible for a lot of repair work that happens in the body. It goes to places where there is inflammation and starts fixing the problem. This is why constant grazing throughout the day can lead to excess inflammation—if your insulin is always being released, repair work is being suppressed in the body. Good to know! Now let’s look for a moment at stress hormones. Like insulin, stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline are considered especially critical for our survival. They get released when the body thinks we are under threat. If we have the adrenaline to run at top speed and escape from a predator, it can save our life. Unfortunately in the modern world, our threat response often gets triggered by things that are not actually life threatening, and this creates some problems. Because our bodies are always going to prioritize survival, it will release high amounts of those hormones at the expense of other hormones that are seen as less critical. Reproductive hormones, for example, are not ‘critical.’ If reproduction can’t happen this month, it can always happen next month. We have decades to procreate, and maybe only minutes to escape from this tiger… So when our stress hormones are constantly getting released, it uses up the raw materials that make the other hormones that we need for the day-to-day maintenance of our bodies. Rest and repair? That can wait. So can digestion. And so on… You don’t really need a super complex understanding of all the hormones in your body to get the idea here. To me, just the concept of the slider adjusting levels has been helpful. When I notice that my stress response has been activated, I ask myself “Am I really in danger right now?” And fortunately, the answer is usually no. I then visualize my internal sound board of hormones and imagine the stress slider being cranked up all the way to the top. I then visualize gently bringing the level down. As I imagine that slider going down, I then imagine my rest-and-repair slider going up. I think part of why this visualization has helped me so much is that I used to feel like things were completely on or completely off. More like a light switch than a slider. If you have alexithymia, it can feel like all or nothing, because things don't register until they are REALLY cranked up or bottomed out. For anyone who feels fine one minute, and really angry or overwhelmed the next, the same principle is often at work here. The steps in between are just not registering. It can be really hard to calm down the stress response if we think it is all or nothing. But if we train ourselves to start thinking of small steps it becomes a little easier. What would help me get one notch calmer right now? That’s going to be something simpler to solve than trying to go from being completely activated to completely calm in one fell swoop. Starting to notice those little notches can also help you recognize when things are starting to escalate. And wow…it is so much easier to de-escalate before you are fully activated than to try to calm down once you’re in full-on meltdown mode. You can also think of those little incremental notches on a metronome (yes, I am full of music metaphors today as I do have a background in music). When you just slow down or speed up one notch, you almost don’t even notice it, but over time those little notches add up and make a huge difference! To summarize, there are two things you can do to get started right now in adjusting your ‘default settings.’ The first is to recognize when you are having a stress response and to visualize your stress slider going down and your rest-and-repair slider going up. Just take a minute to imagine it, and remind yourself that if your stress levels are cranked up, other important things that need to happen in your body are going to be put on hold. Do you want to digest your lunch? Ok then, your stress slider needs to come down. The second thing you can try when you feel your stress response being activated is to ask yourself “What would help me get one notch calmer right now?” It might be putting on some relaxing music, getting a few minutes of fresh air outside, taking a walk, or taking some deep breaths. If you are successful and time allows, you could go through multiple rounds of this until you really are feeling pretty calm. Bonus points if you are able to identify the moment your stress response gets activated and can intervene before you are completely amped up! It’s ok if at first you are only able to identify that moment in hind site. You think back on what happened and recognize That Moment when things started to escalate. Reflecting on past episodes really will help you get better at intervening earlier on in the future. In my next post I will discuss another technique for shifting gears that is all about cultivating the ability to feel good in your body. Feeling good in the body! Yes! I think we could all use more of that…. Would you like these posts delivered directly to your inbox each week? Subscribe for free on Substack: arikarapson.substack.com  Neurodivergent people often do not feel good in their bodies, and it can be easy to believe that this is inevitable. But is it? Here are some practices to help you feel better more often.
When was the last time you felt good in your body? Can you remember? Has it been a while? Being in pain tends to be much more memorable, and even if you don’t live with chronic pain, you may be living with chronic sensory discomfort, anxiety or a heightened sense of threat. But thanks to neuroplasticity, the more often the brain gets these unpleasant sensations, the stronger those pathways get reinforced in the body. This is why it is so important to actively counter those painful/uncomfortable signals—you don’t want them taking up any more real estate in your body than they already do! One way to do this is through meditation. This is a very specific kind of mediation where you try to remember a time that you felt really good in your body. You bring that memory to mind, and then you try to really feel that memory in your body. What were the smells? What did it look like? What were the textures? For me, I love to recall being in the Burren in Ireland. I have Irish roots, and there is no other place on earth I feel quite so at home. It is a strikingly unique place—unusual formations of rocks as far as the eye can see, and a stunning array of wild flowers bursting out of those rocks, as diverse and unexpected as you can possibly imagine. It is a wide, open place, a wild place, but also a subtle place. Tiny little details you have to be looking for or you would miss entirely. It anchors you deeply to a forgotten past, a past that predates humanity. It is vast. It is profound. My two most memorable trips to the Burren were the ones when I went there as soon as got off the airplane. Airplanes are hard for me. I am a bit claustrophobic and I have chemical and sound sensitivities and I can’t sit still or sleep on a plane. On one of those trips, we had been preparing for takeoff from JFK and something prevented us from leaving the ground for what felt like an eternity. The engines were going full force, and the smell of exhaust filled the plane and gave me a vicious migraine. I started to have a panic attack because I could not get out and it seemed insane that we were all having to breathe that in for so long. But of course, the plane did finally take off, and it did eventually land in Shannon, Ireland. From there, it’s just over half an hour to the Burren. And suddenly I was free! Just get out of the car…step into the Burren…and get lost there for as long as you please. This is not just your everyday kind of free, but the deep freedom of the soul when it suddenly finds itself in the best place on earth. What a contrast. There is a meditation practice called Tonglen that reminds me of this Burren experience. There are different ways of doing Tonglen, but perhaps the most common is to think of the pain of others as you inhale and send out compassion/lovingkindness in your exhale. Your breathing becomes a type of filter that transforms the suffering into something beautiful. As someone who has trouble shifting gears, I find Tonglen a challenging practice and can often not do more than 3 complete breaths. I just can’t get my brain to do that transformative work so quickly. But I do think that’s all the more reason to practice it—that tendency to ‘get stuck’ in a certain head space is part of what can prolong pain and discomfort in my life. So sometimes I will imagine the horrible feeling of being stuck on the airplane on my inhale, and then being in the Burren on my exhale. That meditation is about practicing shifting gears. But if I just want to meditate on feeling good in my body, I may focus solely on conjuring up the memory of what it felt like to be in the Burren. I may imagine that the forcefield of energy around me is made up of the Burren, so that I am in fact bringing the Burren with me everywhere I go. It is my strength, my power, my hidden magic. If these kinds of meditations are new to you, no worries! It isn’t something you have to do for a long time. Even if you can just take 5 minutes, it can be enough. What is most important is that you are really able to conjure up what it felt like in your body when you felt really good. You find that moment, and you savor it. Over time, it gets easier to return to that place, for it to really feel like you rather than an isolated memory. So find your moment, relive it, and embrace it as often as possible. Neuroplasticity may be responsible for reinforcing our pain and discomfort over time, but it’s a two way street. Remember how it feels to feel good, and the desirable pathways will get reinforced instead. Would you like these posts delivered directly to your inbox each week? Subscribe for free on Substack: arikarapson.substack.com  Being neurodivergent often means living with higher levels of pain. Why? There are many reasons. We are much more prone to hyper mobility and/or EDS, meaning we get injured more easily.
We are more prone to migraines, allergies, GI problems and can be so highly sensitive that everyday things like background fans, fluorescent lighting or someone’s aftershave can literally cause us pain. But our heightened sensitivity can also be a problem when it comes to pharmaceuticals. We are more prone to experiencing negative side effects, especially those of us who are autistic. This has led many to explore alternative strategies for dealing with chronic pain (myself included!). In this article, I will discuss how chronic pain is addressed from the standpoint of holistic herbalism. Approaching chronic pain holistically means viewing the situation from multiple angles for a highly nuanced and focused strategy that is tailored to each individuals unique presentation. While I'm going to give an overview here of all of the layers that are considered when it comes to chronic pain, keep in mind that a clinical herbalist (which I am training to be) customizes a plan that is appropriate for each person they work with. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to pain. A lot of these strategies take time to have their greatest impact--but within a month most people see results and they get better over time. Of course, many are skeptical that it's worth the effort. For anyone with a high level of pain that has persisted for a number of years, there can be doubt about how effective herbs can be for 'real pain.' But keep in mind that the holistic approach gets to the actual sources of the pain (which is largely not how pharmaceuticals work) and without the nasty side effects. That's part of the reason it takes longer--pain is complex and there is a lot to address. Ideally we don't just want to numb the pain--we want systemic repair work to happen that gets the whole body working better. That takes time. Keep in mind too that in pain lasting longer than 3-6 months, the original cause of the pain is no longer the main driver. This is because the more frequently a nerve pain signal goes off, the stronger/more entrenched the signal gets, even if the original ‘injury’ is recovering. This is how we can get stuck in chronic pain even when the original problem has gotten better. Because of this phenomenon, part of the protocol needs to address the over-sensitization of the nervous system (a common feature in neurodivergence), as well as out of control inflammation and the root causes of the pain. Fortunately, there are a number of interventions that can help with both the origin of the pain and the spinoff pain that can follow. Here is a summary of some holistic strategies I am learning about as a student through CommonWealth Holistic Herbalism for chronic pain: 1.) Address excess inflammation
3.) Release tension - Tension can be the primary driver of pain, but even if it is not, almost everyone with chronic pain will have some tension as a secondary response to the pain. The body can tense up to protect an area of injury, so sometimes it can be hard to release the tension we are carrying as it can make us feel too vulnerable. If you take something highly relaxing, remind yourself that releasing tension will allow detritus to be carried out and fresh blood and nutrients to get in where they are needed. Supports:
 Stress is often amplified for those of us who are neurodivergent due to having more vulnerable nervous systems. Here are some herbs that can help you build more resilience to life’s stressors over time.
Anybody feeling stressed out? I’m just going to assume that’s a yes. It’s great if you can actually reduce your stress load, but we all know that isn’t always possible. In fact, as I’m writing this, I’m just coming out of a 9 day period of intense stress that was completely unavoidable that had me totally bent out of whack. Thankfully I’m on the other side of it now. And thankfully I had a lot of herbs on hand to help me ride out the storm... In my last post I covered nervine herbs that are helpful in times of acute stress. Today, I want to look at a group of herbs called adaptogens. These herbs may or may not have an immediate effect, but will help you build your capacity to manage stress better over time. A lot of the more famous adaptogens are not ones I am going to discuss today. Many of them can be very stimulating and it can be highly tempting to take them in order to be more productive when what you should really be doing is resting. That may be fine in an emergency situation (let’s say your best friend is getting married in another country and you have to rally so hard to have the energy to get through the wedding weekend), but as an ongoing strategy it will only lead to burnout, which many neurodivergent people are already dealing with. Instead, I am going to focus on the more gentle and restorative adaptogens that are also the most safe and beneficial. So let’s get started. Tulsi - (Ocimum sanctum, O. tenuiflorum) If you read my last post, you may remember that tulsi made it on that list as well. With tulsi, you do get both immediate relief and long-term benefits. This is a fabulous herb to go with if stress gets you craving things like sugar, alcohol, or compulsive use of drugs or alcohol. Or even if you are trying to cut back on something like cannabis and are having a hard time. Try tulsi if anxiety tends to constantly weigh you down and you need a little lift. Or if stress tends to go to your gut and you tend to need some extra digestive support. Almost everyone likes the smell and taste, and it blends really well with other herbs that maybe don’t taste as great but you are taking for medicinal reasons. Tulsi will make it all a little nicer! Think of tulsi if you are prone to getting stuck, which can be a common feature of autism, but can also be a feature of depression or simply tension in the muscles. Tulsi is safe for almost anyone of any age, but if you are on medications that lower blood sugar, be aware that tulsi can amplify those effects, so be sure to monitor carefully under the supervision of a doctor. Ashwaghanda -Withania somnifera I highly recommend ashwaghanda if you are in perimenopause and especially if stress has a tendency to disrupt your sleep. This herb is all about cycles (menstrual, circadian, etc.) and helps you get back into our natural rhythms. If you are allergic to nightshades though, you probably won’t be able to work with it. Ashwaghanda will help build up your parasympathetic nervous system, making it a strong ally for recovering from many kinds of illness, as well as burnout. If you tend to be depleted and exhausted, ashwaghanda can help. Ongoing autoimmune or chronic health issues can also be a place where ashwaghanda shines (and are times when more stimulating adaptogens would be absolutely contraindicated). Astragalus - Astragalus membranaceus If stress has a tendency to make you prone to getting sick all the time, astragalus is definitely one to consider. It will boost your immune system and help you ward off infections better, especially viral infections. This works both for prevention and if you are recovering from an illness (COVID, for example). A few words of caution though--it is NOT advised to take astragalus during the acute phase of an illness, or while you are on any kind of immune suppressing medications. Astragalus works best if you do a long, slow decoction. It is fantastic to add to things like bone broth that you will be simmering for many, many hours. If that isn’t realistic for you and a tincture is the only realistic way you can take it, look for (or make) a double extraction. Some of the benefits are extracted in water, others in alcohol, so with a double extraction you will get more full spectrum medicine. This still is not likely to be as effective as a long decoction, but it is absolutely better than not getting any astragalus at all! Licorice - Glycyrrhiza glabra So are you a lover or a hater of licorice? I totally love the taste of licorice, but there are plenty of folks who just can’t stand it. If you are one of those, I wouldn’t try working with it every day. You are just not likely to stick with it. This is another one of those herbs that works great in a formula, and just makes all the other herbs blend together really nicely. But it does a lot on its own too. Licorice is helpful when stress has led to adrenal exhaustion. For that reason, it is another herb that’s appropriate when approaching menopause, because that’s when the adrenals actually start producing estrogen instead of the ovaries. If you’ve already been under a lot of stress and suddenly your adrenals have a whole new job to do that they’ve never done before, they might get cranky! Licorice can help. It is particularly suitable for folks with a dry constitution--prone to constipation, dry coughs, eczema and psoriasis, etc. It does raise blood pressure, but for those of us with EDS and/or POTS, that can actually be a good thing! If you already have high blood pressure though, just stick with using it only in formulas and not by itself. You can also get DGL licorice so that your blood pressure won’t be affected, but keep in mind that using it this way will primarily help GI issues (heartburn, ulcers, etc.) and will not give you the full spectrum of benefits that you may be seeking from an adaptogenic herb. Reishi - Ganoderma lucidum Reishi has been calling to me lately. That’s a good sign--if you start craving a particular herb (or fungi in this case!) or it’s coming to your mind or attention a lot, take notice and consider getting together :). I think it is a very precious medicine for neurodivergent humans, particularly for calming over-reactive responses in the body and nervous system. It is THE best thing for when you haven’t slept and are feeling what I call ‘crazy brain.’ Like tulsi, I do think it has some immediate effects that you notice right away, in addition to help build and restore your adrenal function over time and your capacity to rest, digest and repair. You do have to work for it to get the best results. It gets quite potent when you do a very long, slow decoction over a number of hours (or you simply decoct the same slices multiple times). The taste is kind of terrible though, FYI, but in a way I have come to love. There are other options that are beneficial, just to a lesser extent. You can get it as a tincture, but again, get the double extraction. If you go for capsules, make sure you get the whole fruiting body (not the mycelium alone). And do be sure to buy slices rather than the whole mushroom. Unless you have a really good hacksaw and want to spend hours slicing it all up. Seriously, that is how hard they are and there are no shortcuts here. If that all sounds like too much work, the one herb that is somewhat comparable is angelica. It is not technically considered an adaptogen, but I am not the only one who thinks maybe it should be. Both reishi and angelica fill me with a sense of equanimity that makes me feel strong and capable and sane when things around me are insane. Highly recommended! Reishi is considered extremely safe, but if you take a lot of medications you should talk to your doctor. A potential concern here would be blood thinners (they are the most problematic in terms of herbal interactions). Not that long ago, they used to say not to use reishi if you had an autoimmune condition, but more recently it has been clarified that it is immunomodulating rather than immunostimulating, so it is not a problem. It will lower your blood sugar, so pay attention if you are diabetic. Of course, adaptogens are only going to be one part of your toolbox for handling stress, but they can be quite powerful, especially when you are just feeling so overwhelmed and stressed out that you just want to crawl into bed and hide under the covers. Or whatever. Times are stressful, and we all need support. Herbs (and fungi!) are here to help! Note: This is not medical advice. I am a neurodivergent coach, educator and holistic herbalist, and I do not diagnose or treat any condition. The information here is for educational purposes only and to share my own experiences as an autistic woman. Would you like these posts delivered directly to your inbox each week? Subscribe for free on Substack: arikarapson.substack.com  Being neurodivergent often means having a more sensitive/vulnerable nervous system. Here are some herbs you can turn to in times of acute stress to take a bit of the edge off.
There are two main categories of herbs I want to discuss as a support for dealing with stress, so I’m going to divide this post into two parts. The first group are called nervines, and they are for acute situations when you are feeling stressed out and are trying to calm down. The second group are called adaptogens, and they help build your body’s capacity to handle stress better over time. I will focus on nervines today and on adaptogens in part two. I’d also like to state up front that ideally, you want to be working with herbs that match your personal constitution. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all herb for stress that works for everyone, or even for all neurodivergent people. For example, if you are that person that is always freezing and reaching for that extra sweater, you don’t want to be taking an herb that is just going to make you more cold. You need to warm up! And since people feel stress differently in their bodies, you want to select your herbs based on your personal experience of stress. But since we can’t do that kind of customization in an article like this, I’m going to stick with some very safe herbs that still tend to be highly effective for a broad range of people. Chamomile (Matricaria recutita) Have you ever wondered why chamomile is always around? It’s because it is helpful for so many things, is super safe and works for just about anyone’s constitution (unless you’re allergic). But this can make it seem so ordinary and ho-hum that it’s easy to overlook it as a potent helper—and then we spend way too much money and create a huge eco footprint to try some exotic herb from the other side of the world instead. Rethink that strategy! To really get the full benefits of chamomile, you will want to make a very strong infusion with a good quality herb and steep it for at least 30 minutes. That will unleash its stronger muscle relaxing properties, soothe the nervous system, and even relieve the pain of menstrual cramps or digestive upset. Use multiple tea bags if you have them, and if this strategy works for you, consider buying it in bulk as it will save you a lot of money and the loose herb will be even more effective. This is a particularly great herb for people who get really tense when they are stressed out. A great choice for children too! Rose Petals (Rosa canina, R. multiflora, R. rugosa ) Rose is a wonderful herb to turn to if stress leaves you feeling vulnerable and unprotected and just wanting to curl up on ball on your bed and shut out the world. Call on its thorns as a shield from all harm! That’s what the little critters do when they take shelter under a rose bush. The smell alone can help bring about an instant shift in the body. Because of its soothing and anti-inflammatory effect, it is also a great choice when stress is contributing to systemic inflammation in the body (or spirit) that is agitated and wearing you down. It has a drying effect that is helpful for anyone who is on the damp side (carrying around a bit of extra water perhaps, which can also show up as thing like looser stools or leaky gut). Consider pairing with hawthorn if you have heightened sensitivity and/or get heart palpitations when stressed. Linden leaves and flowers (Tilia americana & cordata) If you get hot and agitated when you are stressed out, give linden a try. Like rose, it has a lovely floral scent that can be instantly soothing. Almost everyone thinks it tastes food too. For those with ADHD, it will help even out the side effects from things like Ritalin and Adderal. Since stress can also contribute to autoimmune flare-ups and snacking on less than ideal comfort food, it’s good to know that linden also supports those with the nerve pain associated with things like fibromyalgia and MS as well as the pain that can come from eating foods that are not ideal for your body. Linden is moistening, and the longer you infuse it, the more moistening it will get (you can even infuse it overnight!). If you physically run dry, or have nerves that are hot and frazzled, linden will help. This is another good choice for the kiddos. Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum, O. tenuiflorum) Warming, drying and oh so relaxing, tulsi is the herb of choice when stress leads to sugar cravings or compulsive use of drugs and alcohol. Tulsi is also an adaptogen, so we will discuss it more in Part 2, but just be aware that those benefits are going to be cumulative and you will not be ‘cured’ by drinking a single cup of it. It does have some immediate effects though and is often associated with just generally lifting the mood and releasing anxiety. The taste and smell are very appealing to most people (kind of like a sweet and spicy basil, which it is related to). It also has some digestive actions that can be helpful when stresses impacting digestion. Tulsi is safe for almost anyone of any age, but if you are on medications that lower blood sugar, be aware that tulsi can amplify those effects, so be sure to monitor carefully under the supervision of a doctor. *** This is not an exhaustive list of nerviness by any means. If stress gives you insomnia, definitely check out my article “Herbs the Support Better Sleep.” Just enter the title into the search bar on my blog and it will get you right to it. And keep in mind that while these are all teas you can get immediate benefit from, you will get other cumulative benefits over time and with larger quantities. If you really want to do a deep dive into finding your herbal allies, consider spending a lot of time with one of these herbs for a month. Try having a quart of tea of your chosen herb every day—that’s four cups. I have one of those carafes that fits a quart of liquid and it stays hot all day (you can even make it the night before, then put in a thermos to carry with you all day instead of water). And keep in mind that tea does not have to be hot—that’s good to remember as the warmer months approach. When it gets really hot, I like mixing certain teas (lemon balm would be an excellent one to look into when it’s hot and you’re stressed out) with some club soda and serving with ice. So refreshing! And if tea is not your thing, you could also try tinctures. You can carry a little bottle around with you everywhere you go and just take a dropperful maybe 3x/day or so. They cost more than tea, but they are super convenient and they are also super easy to make yourself if you are so inclined. I have said it before and I will say it again—herbs are a lot like people. Even if on paper they check all the right boxes, you may not necessarily have chemistry with everything you try out. So do your research, keep experimenting, and in time you will find your herbal allies. Here’s to building more resilience in these challenging and stressful times with the help of our herbal partners! Note: This is not medical advice. I am a neurodivergent coach, educator and holistic herbalist, and I do not diagnose or treat any condition. The information here is for educational purposes only and to share my own experiences as an autistic woman. Would you like these posts delivered directly to your inbox each week? Subscribe for free on Substack: arikarapson.substack.com |