Discover Your Stress Personality and Herbal Healing Solutions

# Discover Your Stress Personality and Herbal Healing Solutions
### Dr. Erin Stokes, ND — Rancho La Puerta

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## Welcome & Introduction

**Dr. Erin Stokes:**
I'm so glad you're here today. Thank you for joining me for "Discovering Your Stress Personality and Herbal Healing Solutions."

I'm Erin Stokes. I'm a naturopathic doctor. I had a private practice for many years, and then through teaching as an instructor at Southwest Acupuncture College and through speaking, I realized that my passion — as much as I love working with people one-on-one — is education. So I started working as Director of Education and Medical Director, and what I love to do more than anything is empower people with both knowledge and inspiration.

Knowledge is power. If we have the knowledge, we can change our lives. But knowledge without inspiration is kind of meh. You can know all kinds of things. I actually heard someone say in my Latin dance fusion class that they were there because they were starting to feel overloaded with information. So how do we translate knowledge into inspiration — into real, lasting change? That's what I'm all about.

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## About WishGarden Herbs

I'm delighted to be here with WishGarden Herbs this week. Many of you got to meet Danny and Catherine last night. For those of you who weren't there, or if you're just curious about WishGarden Herbs and what we're all about — one of the reasons we're here is that we're rooted in many of the same ideas as Rancho La Puerta. We have a long history — not quite as long as the ranch — as a women-founded, family-run, Colorado-born-and-grown business. Those of you who met Catherine last night heard how it started in a closet full of herbs and is now the number one selling liquid herbal blends brand in the country.

Why does that matter? Because I believe in the power of plants — and plants can change your life. Through nutrition and through herbal medicine.

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## Reframing Stress: Not All Bad

So when we talk about stress, there's a universal stress response. We've all experienced the fight-or-flight response. But first — let's reframe stress a little bit. Is all stress bad?

*(Audience responses)*

Exactly — it can feel like excitement. Isn't excitement a kind of stress? The flip side of stress. It can also keep you safe.

Can you give me an example? *(Audience: "A bear in the woods.")* Yes — if your stress response is activated, it gives you the energy to run from the bear. Absolutely. Our stress response, much like our inflammatory response, is *intended to protect us*. Every one of us can think of times when our stress response did exactly that.

I had a situation recently where I was driving through my college town and a young adult pulled right out in front of me. I hit the brakes — and that's your stress response coming into action.

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## The Problem with Modern Stress

The challenge in modern times: have you ever watched an animal get stressed and then just shake it off? Dogs do this — they get super stressed and then they literally shake it off. I see a lot of nodding heads.

That's what we don't do. We don't shake it off. We go into fight-or-flight over and over and over again, and our bodies start to get really depleted. That stress response that's meant to protect us can, over time, lead to elevated cortisol, sleeplessness, and a whole range of health issues.

Here's the empowering part: you can actually say to yourself, *I don't want this to be in charge.* It's really the reptilian part of our brain, and it is intended to protect us — but I have the power to choose something different.

That's where the soft belly breathing we did earlier comes in — one of your secret superpowers. That kind of breathing activates your **vagus nerve**, which can actually shift you fairly quickly from sympathetic fight-or-flight mode into parasympathetic rest-and-digest mode. If anyone wants to talk more about that after class, let's do it.

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## Your Personal Stress Blueprint

You also have the power to understand your own individual stress response. We all go into fight-or-flight, we've all experienced an amygdala hijack — but what makes us unique is our **personal stress blueprint**.

This has to do with our past, our physiology, the way we're wired. Some of it is outside our conscious awareness. But we each experience ongoing stress in our own individual way.

**Physical:** For some people, stress goes straight to the body — tension in the neck and shoulders, digestive issues, tension headaches. *(Raise your hand if that sounds like you.)* I actually invited everyone to drop their shoulders earlier for exactly this reason. We walk around ready to go.

**Emotional:** For others, stress immediately triggers a fear state — worry, catastrophic thinking. What if this, what if that, what if this? That protective mechanism can run away from us.

**Mental:** Have you ever been so stressed you almost can't function? You're having a hard time getting work done because you just can't concentrate? I see a lot of nods on that one.

**Sleep:** And then there's rest — difficulty falling asleep, or difficulty staying asleep. Sleep is often one of the most significant manifestations of stress.

I've talked with a few people here who say they're resting better this week than they do in their day-to-day lives. And I was actually talking with Sonal earlier about how some people who come from very busy places like Manhattan need a readjustment period — it can feel almost too quiet because they're so used to the noise. That's a kind of stress recalibration in itself.

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## What If You're All of the Above?

Whenever I talk about stress personalities — and I've covered this on a couple of podcasts — people always ask: *"What if I'm all of them?"*

The great news is that in the realm of herbal medicine, there's an herb for that. There truly is.

If you're manifesting stress in multiple ways, this is a great time to lean on a category of herbs called **adaptogens**. The two main categories we're going to talk about today are **nervines** and **adaptogens**.

A **nervine** supports and nourishes the nervous system. A simple, useful definition. There are different kinds, including musculoskeletal nervines — Catherine, who's joining us in the back, can speak to those.

An **adaptogen** is an herb that helps the body adapt to stress over time. Adaptogens come from traditions all over the world — ashwagandha and holy basil from Ayurvedic medicine, ginseng from traditional Chinese and Korean medicine. There are adaptogens from practically every culture on earth.

One thing I find really interesting: many adaptogens grow in tough environments. It's as if they've developed their own resilient stress response — and that quality then helps us adapt better too.

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## Holy Basil & Deep Stress

Just as we each have a different personality and a different way of responding to stress, plants have a lot of personality too. Take **holy basil**, for example.

Who knows holy basil? *(Hands go up.)* What's the other name for it? **Tulsi.** If you've had tulsi tea, you've had holy basil.

Holy basil's botanical name is *Ocimum sanctum* — and *sanctum* is a nod to the "holy." It is actually planted in temples throughout India because it is so highly revered.

Holy basil is one of the herbs in our **Deep Stress** formula. If you feel like you're manifesting stress in multiple ways — physically, emotionally, mentally, with sleep — Deep Stress is a tincture you can really lean on daily. It's a beautiful blend of adaptogens to help the body adapt to stress over time, including holy basil, which also has a genuinely uplifting quality. Holy basil really lifts the spirit.

Deep Stress also has nervines in it to support the nervous system in the moment. I love that it provides both calm right now and builds resilience over time.

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## Bringing Peace Home

Going full circle to where we started: how do we bring this feeling — whatever word resonates for you, whether it's peace, inner calm, or simply being present — back home? Back to California, Massachusetts, Colorado, Atlanta, New York, wherever you're from?

Plants can help with that. Deep Stress is a great place to start if you're experiencing multiple kinds of stress, because it addresses the nervous system in the moment while adaptogens like ashwagandha and holy basil build your foundation over time.

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## Your Stress Blueprint Is Unique

You have a completely unique stress blueprint. You might say, "I mostly manifest stress physically, and I have a hard time sleeping." In that case, you'd want to think about musculoskeletal nervines — something like **Serious Relaxer**, which Catherine talked about last night, including its key herbs Wood Betony and Valerian. And you'd also want to think about sleep support.

But our stress patterns aren't fixed. Just like everything else, we're evolving and changing. Have you ever taken a personality assessment — Myers-Briggs, for instance — and gotten ENFJ, and then a few years later it shifted? Or done an Ayurvedic consultation and been told you were vata-pitta, then later found yourself more pitta-vata? We are dynamic, fluid beings. Our stress response will evolve and shift over time.

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## Other Tools: Blood Sugar & Breathing

In addition to herbal allies, there are other practical tools. I noticed some people here are wearing continuous glucose monitors — keeping blood glucose levels stable is actually one of the most important things you can do for stress resilience. When blood sugar drops, the body triggers a stress response. Who's ever been hangry? *(I was basically there yesterday when I got off the plane — I tried to keep the angry part of hangry at bay.)*

Stable blood sugar, quality breathing, good nutrition — these are acts of kindness toward yourself. And you can lean on herbal allies alongside all of them.

I've been a naturopathic doctor for almost 25 years, and I've known and loved WishGarden Herbs for over 20. What I genuinely appreciate is the uniqueness of these blends. As a clinician, I've rarely seen herbs brought together the way they are here.

And I wasn't sure I was going to say this, but — my son turns 19 today. He's a fall equinox baby. The first WishGarden tincture I used was *Postpartum Baby Blues*. And I think there's so much power in having a formula that actually acknowledges that major hormonal dip that happens after you have a baby. WishGarden was born out of the midwifery tradition — and that roots everything they do.

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## The WishGarden Tinctures: Emotional Ally, Liquid Bliss & More

When I first encountered WishGarden, I was struck by the names alone: *Liquid Bliss*, *Emotional Ally*, *Serious Relaxer*. These are unique combinations of herbs that come together as a team for a specific purpose — whether that's in-the-moment support or long-term building.

**Emotional Ally** is one of the best in-the-moment formulas I've come across, and it's genuinely helped me through challenging times. It's exactly what it says on the bottle — a big herbal hug. It has nervines that help soothe overwhelm, grief, worry, and sadness. This is one people keep in their bag or backpack, and when life just feels like a little much, they reach for it.

One of the key herbs in Emotional Ally is **Motherwort** — botanical name *Leonurus cardiaca*, which translates to "lion-hearted." It is a women's ally in so many ways, working on multiple levels: as a cardiotonic, a heart tonic, and truly as a heart opener.

**Liquid Bliss** is a formula I associate with the person who, under stress, withdraws and disconnects. Nobody really wants to revisit the pandemic, but during that time many of us pulled inward — and some of those connections and that sense of community never fully bounced back. I've noticed as a practitioner that we're more digitally connected than ever, but in some ways more genuinely disconnected than ever.

I'm actually a big supporter of JOMO — joy of missing out. Sometimes you need to miss out. But we are fundamentally connected beings, and we need community in whatever form that takes. And interestingly, one branch of the vagus nerve, when activated through soft belly breathing, connects to the part of the brain responsible for *social engagement* and connection. When people are in chronic sympathetic mode, they can start to feel like it's just them against the world — and they pull back further.

Liquid Bliss is a mood elevator and a heart opener. It contains **hawthorn**, which helps open the heart and supports that feeling of connection. One of my early teachers told me about hawthorn and the "doctrine of signatures" — how a plant's appearance in nature tells you something about how it works in the body.

Hawthorn is a beautiful tree. In fall, its small white flowers turn into berries used in botanical medicine. But it also has serious spikes on its branches. My teacher said: *"It's all about opening the heart with protection."* And that's what the plant is telling you. With Liquid Bliss, you can open your heart — and still find protection within yourself.

Liquid Bliss lifts mood, increases the sense of connection, and is actually our most popular tincture for adding to mocktails. It's a wonderful one to take before yoga, before a dinner party, any time you want to step into that more open, connected energy.

**Serious Relaxer** is seriously relaxing. *(Some of you saw Danny take a full dose on stage last night — he's a brave man, and you could literally watch his shoulders drop away from his ears.)* Serious Relaxer contains musculoskeletal nervines and is especially good for the person who carries stress physically in their body.

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## Skullcap & Finding the Right Plant for You

If you know you have a plant ally that works for you — for example, **skullcap** is really excellent for what I'd call frazzled nerves. It's a nervine that's especially well-suited for that feeling of being overstimulated, like you've had way too much coffee even when you haven't. The literature describes it in almost exactly those terms, over and over. The plants are unique beings, and they can really match up to the individual.

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## How Long to Take These Formulas

For a tonic formula like **Deep Stress**, you'd ideally take it daily over a period of time, because that's how adaptogens work — building stress resilience gradually. That said, if you've taken Deep Stress for a couple of months and want to see how you're doing without it, I think that's always a good idea. I actually went through a period of taking **Sleepy Nights** — a beautiful, simple blend of skullcap, passionflower, and hops, three herbs, no sedating herbs, no melatonin — and then deliberately took a break to check in with myself.

As with most things in naturopathic medicine: it depends. It's individual. But I do believe in your body's innate ability to heal, and I think it's healthy to periodically see how you're doing on your own.

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## Closing

I want to wrap up and thank all of you, because I know people have classes to get to. We have **Liquid Bliss, Emotional Ally, Serious Relaxer, and Deep Stress** up front for you to try. Please come up and chat with us about which one might be right for you — we'd love to help you find your match.

Thank you all so much for being here. I appreciate you.

*(Applause)*