Herbs to Balance Your Mood and De-Stress with Sara-Chana Silverstein

Transcript for Herbs to Balance Mood and De-Stress

Dr. Cates: Hi there. I’m Dr. Trevor Cates. Welcome to The Spa Dr. Podcast. On today’s podcast, we’re talking about how to use herbs to balance your moods and de-stress. My guest is Sara-Chana Silverstein. She is author of MOODTOPIA: Tame Your Moods, De-Stress, and Find Balance Using Herbal Remedies, Aromatherapy and More. It has been number one on Amazon and receive praise from people like Deepak Chopra, Dr. Avia Romm, who actually wrote the forward for my book Clean Skin From Within and also others like Christie Brinkley many others have been saying great praise about her book. Sara-Chana is known as New York’s moodiness expert. She does workshops and lectures that show how to build emotional health. She is a master herbalist, classical homeopath, board certified lactation consultant and mother of seven children. Sara, on a regular appears on CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox news to a TV stations and is featured in lifestyle and health magazines. Also a regular podcast guest on various podcasts. In today’s interview we discuss how herbal medicine and aromatherapy can help with balancing our emotional health. And Sara-Chana shares her favorite herbs, what form to take them in and specifically how to use them. Plus she shares some other tips all to help harmonize our lives and our moods. So please enjoy this interview.

Dr. Cates: Sara, it’s great to have you all my podcast welcome.

Sara-Chana: Thank you. It’s such a pleasure to be here.

Dr. Cates: Yes. So what we were just talking before we got started about the number one thing that gets in the way of women’s success. So what is that?

Sara-Chana: I think that’s their moods. I mean people come to me for skin issues, sinus infections, inability to fall asleep, even high cholesterol. And when I start talking about their moods and their emotional health, that tends to become the focus point. So how I look at people is we have people that are happy all the time and appear to be totally together and we have to worry about them. And then we have people that really go through life tragedies and they really are falling apart and really need medications. And then there’s like the rest of us where we’re like sometimes falling apart and sometime totally together. And this middle ground is where I think most people hang out in their lives is not addressed. So in my office, no matter what kind of physical ailment we’re trying to fix, we always talk about the emotions and everyone’s always like, oh my gosh, that’s what I always want to talk about. And therapy is great. Talk therapy is great, but you tend to speak the same things over and over. And in my office it’s like, let’s get to the bottom of it and move on. So we’re very action oriented.

Dr. Cates: Right, right. Absolutely. And you feel that women tend to struggle with this more than men?

Sara-Chana: Now there can be really moody men. Like I, want to tell you, it’s so funny because I was working with a man, I had worked with this woman and she said, you gotta meet my husband. And he was like, what one of the like most complaining guys I ever met in my life. And there’s an herb called motherwart for gloominess and sadness and it’s really historically given to women. And I was like, I’m going to break every rule in the book. This guy needs motherwart. And two weeks later his wife called me and said, I don’t know what you gave to him, but he is so much better. So men can get moody. But statistically women are moodier than men. Why? Because women use both sides of their brain at the same time. So they can love their husbands and really hate their husbands. They can love their jobs and hate their jobs. They can feel content and it’s like they’re not accomplishing anything in the world. Men use one side of their brain at a time. So they’re kind of like, okay, well if you’re happy, like why are you sad? You know what I mean? If you’re sad, like why do you want to like go out to dinner? And the truth is, is that we’re using both sides of our brain to understand the world. So our emotions can be very real and overwhelming. But it doesn’t mean we stop and not do what we need to do.

Dr. Cates: Right. And you know, being, having emotions is not a bad thing, right? I mean it’s being happy, being sad, being these things instead of being flat. Yeah. I, that’s how I would prefer it.

Sara-Chana: Hundred percent as long as the person doesn’t get hijacked by their moods. So in my book MOODTOPIA, I talk about this cycle of sanity, meaning someone that’s too sad all the time. You can’t be around them. Someone that’s too depressed all the time. You can’t be around them. Like after a while it’s like, what do I do with this? So as long as we can flow through those emotions and learn something from them. So I’ve talked about in my book a story of my mother. So I come from the Hollywood Hills where there’s canyons, they’re beautiful canyons, but the roads are like this and they serve around. And there was this one corner where it was a near accident all the time. We’ve almost got killed every day of our carpooling life. My mother would say, thank God we weren’t hit today.

Sara-Chana: And my mother started getting frustrated, which is a normal emotion. Then she started getting angry and angrier and angrier. So she called the city and she said, we need a stop sign. And this was before social media. And they said, as long as you get a thousand signatures, we’ll put a stop sign there. So my mother with her anger went and got a thousand signatures and to this day there’s still a stop sign there. So taking that anger, which is an incredible energy force, like if someone’s angry or fearful or God forbid there’s a kid under a car, you get the energy to lift that up. And we can make changes as long as we know that anger is an emotion that is letting us know that something needs to be changed. Now we may not always be able to change something, but it gives you the fervor, gives you that energy to be able to make change. So when we’re too sad, the question is, what’s going on in our lives? When we’re frustrated? Like do we need to fix something? When we’re angry? Can we change the world? And that’s how I like people to look at their emotions.

Dr. Cates: Yeah, absolutely. So there are so many women on medications for treating, basically addressing moodiness. Right. And so what is it, one out of five women are on some sort of antidepressant or a psychotropic drug, right?

Sara-Chana: Yeah.

Dr. Cates: Why do you think that is?

Sara-Chana: Because usually, I mean, that’s, the stats were one out of five last time I looked at them. Most of these medications are prescribed by their GP, their general practitioner. Most of our general practitioners have between five and six minutes to spend with us. And they don’t have the hour and a half or two hours to like explore it. So what used to be normal, questions like, okay, my husband or I get so angry. I’m kidding about that one. I said it so angry that you know, I want to scream and yell. Doctors are like, oh my gosh. Well, if that’s how you’re feeling, let suppress that as opposed to saying that’s really normal. As long as you can still function in your life. This is normal.

Sara-Chana: So I use herbs in my practice because herbs are nonaddictive, they’re easy to use, they’re relatively inexpensive. Some are expensive. And you can carry them with you wherever you want to go. For instance, I travel a lot cause I’m a keynote speaker and I love traveling, but it’s really nerve wracking to get to the airport on time, go through security, make sure you remember everything. So I use an herb called skullcap. Skullcap calms the system down without making you feel tired. So what’s the blessing is that I’m not going to get exhausted from skullcap. I’m not going to yell at that security guard because they’re doing their job. Even if they’re obnoxious, I’m not going to get a racing heart or an ulcer. I’m going to stay a little more chill. So I’m not addicted to my skullcap, but it’s an herb, I know when to use it. Now I’m a mom of seven kids. I have a girl, five boys and a girl.

Sara-Chana: So before my five boys came home from school, I mean I was scared they would punch, they would yell, they would jump, they would mess up my house. So I would take a little skullcap every day. So when they were destroying my house, I would stay calmer. So that’s not an addiction. You have to know when to use these herbs and that’s what women have done for thousands of years before psychotropic drugs.

Dr. Cates: Right. And yeah, there’s so many side effects of the medications as well that you don’t have with the herbs. Right?

Sara-Chana: Right. And you can monitor your herbs more. You can, you can monitor your intake. There was a study done in hospitals where they had a pump for morphine post operative pain, which is painful. And they found that when people could hit the button to monitor their intake of morphine, they took less morphine. So we know that when people take, you know, everyday I have to take this, so I stay emotionally stable, you know, again, for people that are really having problems, we’re not going to say that psychotropic drugs are not miracle workers for some people.

Sara-Chana: But for the average person, they can have good days and bad days. Like there was an herb called motherwart is for hormonal moodiness. Like who’s not a little overboard or moody? Some women need to take motherwort before their cycle, during their cycle and after their cycle, basically all month. Or some people will say, you know, like two days before my cycle, I am grumpy, I’m mean to my husband, I mean to my kids. So you can take some motherwort and it’ll even that reaction. How’s that not a good thing?

Dr. Cates: Right. So what are your, you mentioned a couple of herbs, what are your favorite herbs and do you think that they should be taken individually? Or do you like combination formulas?

Sara-Chana: So let’s talk about herbs for a moment. And I did bring some herbs so we could show. So herbs are beautiful. You see, this one’s a marshmallow and it’s a beautiful purple color and this is some marigold or calendula and it’s a beautiful yellow color.

Sara-Chana: So when we make herbal medicine, I like it best in tincture form. Tincture form is in these brown glass bottles. You can get two ounce bottles. If you travel a lot, you can get a one ounce and keep it in your backpack or your purse or you know, your luggage. And how we make an herb. Is we take this beautiful herb, we pour grain alcohol over it. We let it sit for six to eight weeks and then we strain it out and we get a tincture that looks like this. Why do I like it in tincture better than capsule form? Because in capsule form, plants lose their essential oils and they start to break down very quickly. Think about parsley in the fridge. You get parsley, it’s gorgeous it’s green. A couple of days later it turns a little yellowish white and you throw it away because you don’t want to use it anymore.

Sara-Chana: So it’s the same thing with plants. So certain plants are okay in capsules, but most plants are better in tincture form. So your question, I just wanted to explain to you, and I want to show you, we can use berries. Here’s some berries. We can use flowering tops, we can use bark. Here I’ve got some astragalus, it’s in a bark form and different parts of the plant have different actions. Like let’s take dandelion. Dandelion is a plant that everybody puts poisoner on if it’s in their lawn, like we don’t want dandelion, but the leaf is for swelling. If you have swollen legs or water retention, the root is for kidney stones or gall bladder stones. So and the flowers we actually make into an oil and you can use it in a massage and it helps with tense muscles. So we as herbalists know that one plant can have five different actions that we can make it into.

Sara-Chana: Like give me four plants and I’ll make you 15 medications, which is amazing. So when it comes to emotions, there are a lot of wonderful herbalists that do make combinations and they’re great. But if you can’t afford that and you can’t find an herbalist in my book MOODTOPIA, I speak about each herb individually. So you can start and you ask me my favorite herbs, which is motherwart and skullcap. That’s why I bring them up right away, who’s not a little hormonally grumpy and who is not a little bit nervous. So I love those herbs. So if you want to start individually, you can take an herb one to three times a day for three weeks and reevaluate and see how you’re feeling. Am I a little less stressed? It’s not like feeling stoned. This is not like doing drugs or you know, even having a cup of coffee, which gives you a boost. It’s kind of an underlying, like, I got this, I can cope, I can handle this. And I think that that’s what women are really looking for. Can I handle going to my kid’s PTA? Can I handle going out to dinner with my husband’s friends who I hate? Can I handle see my mother-in-law or, or a cousin? And sometimes that agitation is too much and then you’re not yourself.

Dr. Cates: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that there is so much power in nature and in plants that we underutilize and so I love that you’re talking about this and how easy it is to actually make a tincture and how people forget or they’ll say, oh, well, I just can’t afford natural medicine. But there’s certainly a lot that people can do. And a lot of answer answers that are in nature that are affordable and easy. Right?

Sara-Chana: Absolutely. I mean in the beginning I think it’s hard to ask my clients to make their own medicine because it is intimidating. I have one herbalist who I live in Brooklyn, New York, so not so much grows. I mean we have a lot of it’s a concrete jungle. But I have a herbalist that lives in, you know, a beautiful area and she takes a walk with her clients through her herb garden and chosen the herbs. I sit there on my phone, I’m like, this looks like, cause I don’t have that luxury. And people at first are intimidated. So that’s why I say start with buying a tincture and you can buy them on Amazon, you can buy them online. They’re so easy. And then you can take them as needed. Or if I have a client that’s like, I’m stressed out, Sara-Chana, like I don’t want to go on psychotropic drugs, but I’m screaming at everybody.

Sara-Chana: My nerves are shattered and I’m frustrated all day long. Like I really like, I’m not coping well. So I would say for instance, that might be an herb called valerian. The herb medicine valium was made from the herb valerian. So I would say pop that in your purse, take valerian three times a day for three days and get back to me. Don’t expect it to be a miracle. It’s not like tomorrow, all your problems are going to disappear. You need to know that it needs to get into your system and your body needs to stop getting used to having these little freak outs. And usually my clients after a week or two are like, I don’t know if like life changed or the world energy changed. And I’m like, no, none of those things change by the way, but I’m coping better and that’s my goal. My goal with herbs is to function at the peak that you can function with your normal emotions. Cause you said who wants to be flat, you don’t want to be flat, but you don’t also want to be like boing, boing boing. This is like too exhausting.

Dr. Cates: Right. I know, that the up and down for sure is exhausting and, and to be able to have something that you know, helps you avoid those big ups and downs for sure is important. Let’s talk about some of the safety concerns. I mean, you know, of course if people are going to make their own, there’s some safety concerns about that. Also taking herbs and dosing more is not always better, right?

Sara-Chana: Correct. Moderation. You know, like even if you’re on a diet, you know, and you’re eating like, you know, 15 bananas, I don’t think that’s going to be so great. So there are certain suppliers that I trust and I always want to have a master herbalists. I’m a master herbalist, which means I’ve done a lot, a lot of schooling and you always want a master herbalist overseeing the herbs because let’s say we’re getting a plant called cava. Cava helps with muscle tension and helps you sleep. And it’s a root. And let’s say the company I work with gets, gets the bundle of cava and says, you know what, this is too dry. It doesn’t have enough essential oils in it. I’m not going to buy it. That company that said that cava over is going to sell it to someone else. They’re not going to go home and burn it. They’re going to make their profit. So when you work with a company that has a master herbalist, they’re going to make sure that the top notch herbs are being used. And that’s very important.

Sara-Chana: The second thing you need to know is that all of these herbal plants in America, I buy herbs in America. I don’t buy them overseas. They’re very regulated. The FDA is in there all the time. They are not a non-regulated industry. They just don’t, the FDA doesn’t say, oh, this is approved for sleep because that’s not the research that they do. But most herbalists have a chemist working full time checking for lead, pesticides and anything that’s not supposed to be in that plant. And there are regulatory organizations. There’s an organization called the American Botanical Council where they will get products online and tell you and do research to make sure the product is what it says it is. So when you work with real herbalists, real botanists, we are regulating and making sure that the plant are what they are. And so to begin with, you read my book, MOODTOPIA or other amazing books out there on the market. If you can afford it, you work with an herbalist, you start slowly and you make sure that you’re working with the top notch company. I don’t know if you want me to mention companies, I don’t represent anybody but myself.

Dr. Cates: Oh yeah, go ahead. I don’t represent any either, so yeah.

Sara-Chana: My three top companies and there’s more is herbpharm, H. E. R. B. P. H. A. R. M. they are at Whole Foods across the US. My second favorite is my teacher, is Herbalist & Alchemists and they have a wonderful website. You can buy herbs through there. And then the third one I would recommend is Wish Garden Herbs and they also have herbs all over Whole Foods these days and on the internet. These are three companies that are regulated and they use good quality and they know how to process their herbs.

Dr. Cates: Great, great. I know Gaia Herbs is another one. Gaia is also, yes. Yeah. That’s another one that I’ll send people into the health food store to pick up cause its there. And then also Wise Woman Herbals is another one.

Sara-Chana: Yeah, absolutely. I’m with you. 100% those are great herbs. And there’s about another fifteen more that are processed well. But you know, when we have a limited time, I try to like give ones that people could get easily.

Dr. Cates: Yeah. So those are some of my favorites too. Great. Yes. So of course, uh, you know, it’s easier to go in and get those they’re not, you know tinctures are not expensive. Um, and they some taste better than others. So I mean that’s sometimes, that’s one of the reasons why I recommend capsules for certain herbs because the taste is just a little too intense for people and they just won’t take them if they are in tincture.

Sara-Chana: Yes. So that’s a very good question. So what I do is, and I don’t have my shot glass in front of me, but you take like a shot glass. You put a little bit of grape juice in the shot glass, you pick up your herbs. I’m down at like vodka. So I tell my clients all the time about the importance of taking bitters. Now it used to be, there’s an Italian herbalist who said his mother, who was also an herbalist said that the average person used to eat 120 different vegetables for a year because they would eat with the seasons. And in the winter time there was a lot of bitter herbs and even in the summer, and the spring, now we’re lucky if we eat five vegetables, you know like onions, garlic, lettuce, broccoli, maybe string beans. I mean the average person is like maybe six vegetables. If they’re lucky, maybe to go to a restaurant they’ll get seven.

Sara-Chana: So we’re very locked into non-bitter herbs. Bitters are important because it stimulates the digestive juices in our stomach and it stimulates our liver to work better. So I explained to my clients at the herbs are bitter because you need bitter in your life. So if you take a shot of bitter and you can mix it with a little honey, I don’t care, it’s going to only help you. So when I explain to my clients the importance of bitters and how they’re lacking bitters and how bitters will help the liver as I’m repeating myself, because the liver is what gets rid of pesticides, dust, stress, it’s our filter and the bitters help that liver function. Then my clients handle the bitterness. I’ve got to get over it. We’re talking one second.

Dr. Cates: Right. And so what you’re talking about too is some of the root causes, addressing some of the root causes behind a lot of health issues including skin issues. So like digestive issues and other things that can be underlying moodiness as well as skin issues, which you know I focus a lot on.

Sara-Chana: Right. Well whenever we have a client with a skin issue, we know that their liver is not working up to par and the liver is where, especially our estrogens transition in that liver. So we as herbalists don’t believe in liver cleanses. We don’t like to use that word because the liver is there to cleanse. We want to support the liver and doing what it needs to so that it functions at its peak. So it can break down pesticides and other things that we have. But yes, skin is very much associated with liver congestion and digestive issues. And that’s where our bitters come in. Most of our herbs that help with our emotions are bitter tasting, and that’s going to help stimulate our digestion and make us feel better.

Dr. Cates: Yeah, absolutely. And you mentioned that the liver helps with hormone metabolism as well, right? Absolutely, yeah. And skink, yeah, absolutely.

Sara-Chana: And it converts some of our hormones so that our hormones are in a balance in our body. Because I’m sure you talk all the time about, very often, often our skin challenges are associated with our hormone or disorder. So we want to organize our hormones so that our skin stays clear.

Dr. Cates: Right. So we’ve been talking a lot about herbs to take orally through the, you know, the tinctures and things. But there are also essential oils and essential oils are different and they’re made differently, right? So explain to people what the differences.

Sara-Chana: So an essential oil is different. And I, I mean, I know all the essential women are going to send me emails afterwards, but I don’t feel they’re gonna help you as deeply as herbs because herbs you’re ingesting, they’re going into your bloodstream, you’re going through your digestive track. And most essential oils are only through our olfactory, which is through our nasal passages. But I love essential oils. When you take an herb or a berry, you’re putting tincs you’re putting grain alcohol or glyceride over it, and you’re actually taking the byproduct of the earth. With an essential oil it’s a very different system. This is peppermint that I have here, and you actually distill it and you get the essential oil, hence essential oils out of the plant. And it’s very, very potent. And you need only a little to get the action. But let me tell you how I use essential oils because I have found that people that are really depressed and almost going to go on medication, they can take herbs like an herb, like Rhodiola, and it can get them out of that funk and they don’t need medications. I haven’t seen, and I don’t use essential oils that way, but let me tell you how I use essential oils.

Sara-Chana: So let’s say you have a child that’s not sleeping but doesn’t want to go to sleep, and it’s hard for them to fall asleep. So with every time you give them a bath, you put in one or two drops of the essential oil, then you wrap a towel around them and you’ve got one or two drops. Let’s just use lavender because it’s so common. Everybody knows it helps to sleep. Then when you put pajamas on, you put one or two drops on the pajama, and then on their pillowcase, you put one or two drops. What happens is, is the subconscious of the child will begin to associate that smell with sleep. So the melatonin’s going to kick in a lot easier because there’s that association. We also know that if your grandmother always baked apple pie and you smell an apple pie, you think about her immediately.

Sara-Chana: I hiked the canyons in in the summers, I lived in LA in the winters, I live in New York. I know it’s backwards. I know that, but I hiked this one Canyon and at this one place that I hiked there is this pine smell that reminds me of when I was in camp, when I was eight years old in a horse camp. So smell makes an amazing association with memories. So let’s say you’re nervous of public speaking, so you’re going to take an oil. Let’s say you’re going to take ylang ylang. That’s a very essential oil. It’s very invigorating. You’re going to take a couple drops, put in the palm of your hand or on a tissue, breath it in and say, I can public speak even though I hate it. I can do it. Breathe it in again. Yeah, I got this. Are you brainwashing yourself? Of course you are.

Sara-Chana: What’s going to happen is you’re going to associate that ylang ylang with the benefit of, I got this, I can do it. So I tell my clients all the time, you pick an essential oil that you resonate with, like in MOODTOPIA. I do have a chapter on aromatherapy and I’ll say these are uplifting, these are calming, these are invigorating. So out of those lists, you can take an oil and start bringing it into your life to create a new habit. For instance, you have trouble waking up in the morning. Yeah, that’s me. You can do a grapefruit, which is an invigorating smell or a lemon or an orange, so you can have right by your bed. Grapefruit breath it in, I still want to stay in bed, breath it in. I still want to stay in bed, but what it’s going to do is it’s going to perk your brain up because if it’s a little bit of a stimulant, it’s an uplifting smell.

Sara-Chana: You could put that in your car in the morning when you’re driving to work, so you could use grapefruit, lemon, or orange to give you that boost in the morning. When you come back from work if you’ve got a long commute and you’re just so hyped up and so nervous, you could smell an essential oil like sandalwood, which is calming and soothing and thought provoking. So I like people to not cure their emotional health, other aromoatherapists are going to say other things, but the essential oils are here to hold our hand, create those memories and give us that comforting feeling cause smells give us comfort as long as they’re beautiful smells.

Dr. Cates: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I’m a big fan of essential oils for aroma therapy and you know, I love the way that you talk about and incorporate it into your self care. And we use essential oils in The Spa Dr. Skincare products and it’s, it’s like a people associate that smell like, I’ll run into my girlfriends, like you just put your products on, didn’t you? I can smell them, you know, like, and it’s amazing. It’s, I mean, people recognize these sense, right. And I think it really can be incorporated into helping us with feeling more balanced, feeling, you know, helping with some of that moodiness. But you know, using both herbs in both ways is, it’s fantastic. I love the way that you’ve described it, thank you so much.

Sara-Chana: And I love the sense of what was, I mean you’re the skin expert, but we know is rose oil helps with that reddening of the skin and it helps with, you know, broken blood vessels. We know that. So essential oils can tighten, can moisturize, can relax hundred percent and you are the expert. And believe me, I love to take my moisturizer and put a little rose oil and moisturizing in my face. It’s amazing. I was just commenting about emotional health, but you’re right, when I go to put on my moisturizer in the morning and at night, if there’s a gorgeous essential oil in there, it’s that comfort. It’s like, okay, start the day, breath that in. I can do it. Or at night, oh, chill out. I can be the real me. So I agree. So skin and essential oils, top notch. I mean, I’m a fan of them. I’m just not as proficient as you are in them. That’s the difference.

Dr. Cates: Yep, absolutely. Well, Sara it’s been so great having you on today. Can you tell everybody how they can find you, learn more about you and where they can get your book.

Sara-Chana: Sure. So my website is moodtopiabook.com or you can just Google, my name Sara-Chana That’s S A R A C H A N A. And I do have a last name Silverstein. So Sara-Chana is kind of like Betty Lou or Mary Jane and my book is on Amazon. And I got accolades from Deepak Chopra loved my book, Mayim Bialik, Christie Brinkley who also wrote a book on beauty and how to keep your skin together. And people really love my book because it’s very easy to read. I have a lot of very inexpensive tips in there. It’s not a book where you have to change your life. You know, like you read these self help books, you’re like, Oh yeah, if only I could do that. So I just want to say one thing I know we have to close, but there’s something called random acts of kindness or RAK and studies, show that when you do a random act of kindness that’s holding the door open for someone, telling someone they look beautiful if you can tell they’re having a hard day. Not only does the person feel better, but your cortisol levels reduce and your blood pressure reduces. So as a person that’s trying to be more in control of their mood, besides the herbs, I have a lot of tips in MOODTOPIA about random acts of kindness. And if you’re having a horrible day, you know, you got a flat tire, you got a parking ticket, they lost your clothes at the cleaners, like those days where everything falls apart, right? Besides taking some herbs to pull yourself together, doing random acts of kindness because the person you’re helping doesn’t mind whether you’re in a good or bad mood, they just wants that door open for them. So I have a lot of tips like this that make people feel better and feel more in control of their moods.

Dr. Cates: That’s great. That’s fantastic. I, you know, I think that it’s such a great way to shift into more of a positive mindset when you have gratitude or appreciation or you do these random acts of kindness, I think is such a great way to shift our mood and you know, we’re all in this together, right? We’re all on this planet together while we’re here. So we might as well be nice to each other.

Sara-Chana: Absolutely. And you know, bad things do happen to good people. People lose their jobs, people break up. So, you know, even if we want to be like totally positive and be gracious, like some days it’s like, oh crap, I can’t handle this. It’s too hard. So I think acknowledging that, which I do in the book is that like when you’re having a bad run of luck or just a bad month instead of just moping and instead of falling into that black cloud, there are things, herbs, essential oils, random acts of kindness. You know, there’s so many things to try to help you get out of the funk when you go through hard times. And I think everybody does.

Dr. Cates: Absolutely. Again, thank you so much for coming on the show today. Thank you.

Sara-Chana: Thank you so much. This was great. Thank you.

Dr. Cates: I hope you enjoyed this interview today with Sara-Chana Silverstein and got some great tips on specific herbs, both tinctures and aromatherapy that you could start incorporating to help balance your moods and distress. To learn more about her, you can go to thespadr.com, go to the podcast page with her interview and you’ll find all the information and links there. And while you’re there I invite you to join The Spa Dr. Community so you don’t miss any of our upcoming shows and information. And if you haven’t gotten your customized skin report yet, you can go to theskinquiz.com find out what information your skin is trying to tell you about your health and what you can do about it. Find out if you’re an Amber, Olivia, Sage, Emmett or Heath skin type. So it has to do with the root causes behind them to really help you address those. And also you can find The Spa Dr. on social media and join us there on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. Join the conversation there and I’ll see you next time on The Spa Dr. Podcast.