Our nervous system evolved to help us fully experience and interact with the world around us, giving us the gifts of touch, taste, and smell. It also keeps us safe, alerting us to potential dangers in our environment. Yet, as the stresses of daily life pile up and threaten to overtake us, our nervous system can become stuck in fight-or-flight, leading to anxiety, overwhelm, and sleepless nights. As in so many things, the plants are here for us, helping to calm our minds, relax our tense muscles, and ease us into rest.
In this class we’ll dive into how to work with nervines; herbs that calm and nourish the nervous system. We’ll also discuss how we can develop daily rituals and practices that can help us cultivate a feeling of peace and well-being. A calming guided meditation, a relaxing herbal tea to sip, nervine herbs to try, and snacks will be included!
About the instructor:
Ali is an herbalist, forager, and land-tender living on the traditional territory of the Lenape people in what is now called Sussex County, New Jersey. She has been foraging and studying herbal medicine more formally for a decade, studying at the Herbal Academy of New England and completing the Vitalist Herbal Practitioner program with Sajah Popham at the School of Evolutionary Herbalism. Her approach to herbal medicine is to look at the whole person, not just at an issue or illness, to find paths of healing. Her specialty is working with nourishing, abundant wild plants, and her passion is empowering people to work with the herbs that grow right outside their doors.