Cultivating Resilience: Herbs & Daily Practices

Nourishing Our Nervous Systems in a Busy World

Modern life asks a lot of our nervous systems. We are constantly exposed to information, phones, social media, news, work, responsibilities, and all the other stresses of daily life. It is easy to end up feeling depleted, scattered, anxious, and disconnected.

While we can't always change what is happening around us, we can change some of the ways we interact with it. Simple daily practices, time in nature, herbs, tea, movement, and community can all become part of how we care for ourselves and build greater resilience.

For me, this isn't about finding one herb or practice that is going to fix everything. It is really about what we do every day.

Start the Day with Some Quiet Time

One of the simplest things we can do is give ourselves a little time in the morning before turning on the phone and letting the outside world in.

I like to start the day with at least 5 to 20 minutes of meditation. This could also be breathwork, prayer, stretching, or simply sitting quietly for a few minutes.

Once we pick up our phones, check the news, open our email, or start scrolling, our attention is immediately pulled outward. Taking even a few minutes for ourselves first gives us a chance to settle in and start the day from a more grounded place.

Get Some Morning Light

Getting outside in the morning is another simple practice. Natural light is an important signal for our circadian rhythm, helping regulate our sleep and wake cycle.

Try getting outside within the first hour after waking. You don't need to stare at the sun. Just being outside in natural daylight is enough.

Stretch, walk around the garden, take off your shoes and let your feet be on the earth, take a few deep breaths, or just stand outside for a while and wake up with the day.

I also like adding some kind of movement in the morning. Walking, yoga, stretching, or exercise gets the body moving and can be a great way to wake up the body and mind.

These things are simple, but that is really the point. A practice doesn't have to be complicated to become an important part of our day.

Herbal Nervines

Nervines are a broad group of herbs traditionally used to support the nervous system. Some are more relaxing, some are nourishing and restorative, and others are stimulating.

I think this distinction is important because not everyone experiencing stress needs the same thing.

Someone who is tense, anxious, and can't shut their mind off may need something very different from someone who has been under stress for years and simply feels exhausted and depleted.

Nervine Relaxants

Nervine relaxants are traditionally used to help calm tension, nervousness, restlessness, and an overly active mind.

Some of my favorites are:

Chamomile, Lemon Balm, Passionflower, Hops, Valerian, Kava, Hawthorn, and dried Skullcap.

I don't really think of these simply as "herbs for anxiety." Each plant has its own qualities and indications, and part of herbalism is learning to recognize which herb fits the person and the pattern.

Nervine Tonics & Trophorestoratives

Nervine tonics are generally used over a longer period of time when the nervous system feels worn down or depleted. In traditional Western herbalism, some of these plants are also described as trophorestoratives, meaning herbs traditionally used to nourish and restore normal function to a particular tissue or body system.

Here are a few of my favorites in a little more detail.

One of my favorite combinations, and one that has also been valued by traditional Eclectic and contemporary Western herbalists, is fresh Milky Oats and fresh Skullcap tincture.

Fresh Milky Oats (Avena sativa)

This is an herb I think about when someone has simply been running on empty for too long. Chronic stress, overwork, poor sleep, emotional strain, a history of drug use, or a long period of illness can all leave us feeling depleted.

Fresh Milky Oats has a long tradition of use as a nourishing nervine for these kinds of depleted states. It is not an herb you take once and immediately feel. It is traditionally taken consistently over a longer period of time as a nourishing nervous system tonic.

Fresh Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora)

Skullcap is traditionally considered an important herb for an exhausted or depleted nervous system, particularly when depletion is accompanied by anxiety, nervousness, tension, or insomnia.

As a bitter nervine, Skullcap also has an affinity for the digestive system. I find this especially interesting because of the close relationship between digestion and the nervous system, and the importance of being able to slow down, relax, digest, and assimilate our food.

Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera)

In Ayurveda, Ashwagandha is considered a rejuvenating rasayana and is traditionally used during periods of depletion, chronic stress, fatigue, poor sleep, anxiety, or recovery from illness. With consistent use, it is used to support resilience, vitality, healthy energy, and overall restoration.

Tulsi / Holy Basil (Ocimum tenuiflorum)

Tulsi has a long history of use in Ayurveda and is commonly used today as an adaptogenic herb. I find it especially useful because it can be calming while still feeling clear and uplifting.

It makes a wonderful daily tea and is an herb I often think about for meditation, study, mental work, or simply as a daily companion during stressful times.

Nervine Stimulants

We don't always need to calm the nervous system. Sometimes we need some stimulation, focus, and mental clarity.

Herbs and plants I think about here include:

Rosemary, Gotu Kola, Brahmi, Tea (Camellia sinensis), Yerba Mate, Guayusa, Yaupon, and Cacao.

Rosemary, Gotu Kola, and Brahmi also have long traditions of use for supporting memory and mental clarity and today are often described as nootropics.

Again, it comes back to looking at the person. If someone is already overstimulated, drinking more caffeine may not be particularly helpful. If someone is sluggish and foggy, a little stimulation may be exactly what they need.

Tea as a Daily Practice

Tea is one of my favorite ways to work with plants because it naturally asks us to slow down.

You have to boil the water, prepare the herbs or tea leaves, let them steep, and then actually sit down and drink them.

Some of my favorite herbal teas for everyday nervous system support include Tulsi, Lemon Balm, Chamomile, Rose, Passionflower, and Hawthorn flower and leaf.

I especially like Hawthorn when there is an emotional component to stress. In my own way of working with Hawthorn, I often think of it as helping bring someone out of their head and back toward the heart, gently smoothing out some of the rough edges.

Think heartbreak. Even though heartbreak is an emotional experience, we can feel it throughout the body. This is one of those places where I really love Hawthorn flower and leaf as an ally for the emotional heart.

Then there is "tea" made from Camellia sinensis, including Green Tea and Oolong. These teas naturally contain both caffeine and L-theanine. Research on L-theanine, particularly in combination with caffeine, suggests it may support attention and a state of relaxed alertness.

For me, though, there is another part of tea that is just as important: the practice of making and drinking it.

Gongfu Tea

Gongfu tea, or Gong Fu Cha, is an essential part of my daily practice.

Gongfu can be translated simply as "brewing tea with skill." It involves using a small teapot or gaiwan, a small lidded brewing vessel, with a relatively concentrated amount of tea and brewing the leaves through multiple short infusions served in small cups.

I especially enjoy brewing Pu'erh and Oolong teas this way. Higher quality teas can reveal many different layers of aroma, flavor, mouthfeel, and sensory experience over multiple infusions.

The practice itself requires you to slow down. You warm the pot, prepare the leaves, pour the water, wait, pour the tea, and sit with each infusion.

For me, it becomes a practice of patience, meditation, and intention. I can sit quietly with tea in the morning and give myself some time before getting pulled into everything that needs to happen that day.

Tea is also a wonderful way to connect with other people. I find it to be a great alternative to gathering around alcohol. It allows for stimulating conversation and connection while still being present with one another.

Sitting around a tea table gives us a reason to slow down and spend time together. Sometimes tea is quiet and contemplative. Other times it becomes a space for conversation, laughter, and community.

If you are a coffee drinker and find that coffee leaves you feeling overstimulated or jittery, experimenting with tea may be worth trying. Tea still contains caffeine, and the amount varies widely depending on the tea and how it is brewed, but it offers a different experience than coffee for many people.

Beyond the Herbs

As much as I love herbs, they work best when they are part of a larger way of taking care of ourselves.

Meditation, walking in the woods, hiking, gardening, foraging, and simply spending more time outside are all things I try to make part of my own life.

Gardening is especially important to me. There is something grounding about putting your hands in the soil, tending plants, and growing some of your own food and medicine.

Foraging creates another kind of relationship with the landscape. We begin learning what grows around us, following the seasons and their harvests, and creating a deeper relationship with the land and its abundance. There is truly nothing quite like foraging for some of your own food and medicine. To me, it is also a wonderful practice of self reliance.

Our Media Diet

Then we have the world of media.

We can now consume news and social media from the moment we wake up until the moment we go to bed. Sometimes one of the simplest things we can do for ourselves is turn it off.

We don't need to know everything that is happening everywhere all the time. For most of human history, people lived in much smaller communities where the majority of the information they encountered was connected to their immediate surroundings. Today we can watch a flood across the globe, a volcano erupt thousands of miles away, and an endless stream of war, violence, disaster, and political conflict, all before breakfast.

Being informed is important, but constantly exposing ourselves to everything happening in the world is something entirely different.

Social media adds another layer to this. It can be a wonderful tool for connection, but excessive social media use has also been associated with poorer mental health outcomes, particularly among adolescents and young adults.

So instead, maybe we put some of that energy back into ourselves and the people around us. Get to know our neighbors. Share food. Share skills. Give someone a ride. Grow some medicine. Spend time with people we care about.

I think there is a lot of value in becoming both more self reliant and more community oriented. Those two things can go hand in hand.

Cultivating Resilience

We can't remove stress from our lives, and that isn't really the goal. For me, cultivating resilience is about creating a strong foundation so we can better meet whatever life brings our way.

Herbs can be an important part of that, but so can the way we live, the time we spend outside, the people we surround ourselves with, and the simple practices that keep us connected to ourselves and the world around us.