The emerging research about the human microbiome is changing our view of human biology. We have just begun to study the intense diverse communities of bacteria, fungi, and viruses that live in and on the human body and to understand how they shape our health. Since Earth’s beginning, the most successful, numerous, diverse, and ubiquitous organisms on the planet have been microbes, particularly bacteria. Every creature on this planet has evolved within this microbial soup and humankind is no exception. Microbes have always lived in and on us. As a result, our physiology has evolved to rely on them to influence physiological functions that have not been encoded within the human genome.

I have been on a big “DIY swap” kick lately. It all started with a growing interest in leading a more sustainable lifestyle, which for me, meant finding ways to eliminate single-use and non-recyclable packaging. The DIY aspect of this project was born out of necessity. I knew the easiest way to avoid purchasing products packaged unsustainably was to just make them myself. There were some growing pains of course. I will be the first to admit that I am not always the best at planning ahead, so adjusting from simply buying an item in a store to carving out the time to make the product did not always go smoothly. However, since I have embraced the process, I’m finding it deeply gratifying to craft my own products, especially my own body-care products.

Massage oils are one of the easiest DIY preparations to craft, which is especially helpful when you consider the host of health benefits that a massage has to offer. While commonly associated with relieving tight or sore muscles, its benefits reach much deeper than that. Massage helps improve blood flow and circulation, bringing fresh oxygenated blood to the body while pushing toxins out of our tissues. Massage is also a great way to ease our over-active minds, offering us the opportunity to breathe deeply, let go, and just be.

I have been looking for more ways to incorporate green tea into my daily life as summer gets into full swing. Not only are teas like green sencha and matcha nourishing antioxidant sources, they are also amazing additions to any DIY skin care routine. I tend to have dry, sometimes red and irritated skin, especially in the summer after spending hours outdoors in the sun. I’m a gardening and hiking nut and a general outdoor enthusiast, so you can imagine just how much sun my cheeks are getting every day. Green tea has been a wonderful way to soothe my skin and offer it some much-needed relief.

When co-writing my first book, Root and Nourish, with Jennifer Kurdyla, this adaptogenic risotto was one recipe that we knew had to make the cut. It’s everything that this book was meant to embody: a focus on women’s health and the nourishing, tasty, beneficial ways that meals can be enjoyed time and time again. This risotto is a savory take on creamy comfort food, as well as being a fresh take on a traditional family meal with a healthy dose of adaptogens. The shiitake mushrooms deliver an adaptogenic boost by enhancing cognitive function and providing a feeling of wellbeing that supports us when we are overwhelmed or need to overcome deficiencies.*

My grandbaby is now officially a toddler: talking up a storm, climbing everything, and making all day every day an adventure. I am realizing that this little sweetie might very well be the last baby in our family for a long time, so I am being extra conscious to appreciate every moment of development and growth. Last week my son stopped by to pick up a few more jars of homemade diaper balm to take home with him, and I made a mental note that I’d better start infusing some more olive oil because they’ll need another batch of ointment before this little one is potty trained. As we were waving our boy out the door, my husband asked me, “How much diaper salve do you suppose you’ve made in your life?” Three children, a grandchild, and a lot of friends’ babies later, I can’t even begin to guess. Gallons upon gallons I suppose.

When I was having my children, folks used to say that women forget the pain of childbirth and also the pain that can accompany the first days or weeks of nursing a newborn. Having had and nursed three children, I will attest that this “halo effect,” as it is sometimes called, is not true, at least for me. My youngest child is 30 years old, and I still remember those long, hard hours of labor and the first tender days of nursing my babies. Yes, those memories are colored by the beautiful remembrance of the enormous wash of love and protectiveness I felt for those brand-new little beings, but to this day I still cringe when I remember the sensation of a days-old baby latching on to nurse, and how nipples that started out tender quickly became painfully sore from the near-constant attention of a new infant with super-suckle powers. I said it then, and it still holds true: a baby-safe nipple cream is a lifesaver.

I remember the first time I ate a bagel. It was 1982 and I was teenager from the mountains of Oregon on her first trip to the East Coast. I saw Amadeus on Broadway, I ate Cuban food for the first time, and I went to a wonderful outdoor marketplace that was populated by a fascinating mix of locals, Amish farmers, and Orthodox Jewish craftspeople. While the farmers hosted an auction of horse-pulled buggies and farm equipment outside, I wandered the home-goods end of the event, where I discovered a man making handmade bagels. He had a steaming pot of water at his elbow, and a big catering oven at his rear, and was hand-forming rings of wheat dough as he chatted to passersby. I got sucked in by the smell and bought a perfect bagel accompanied with a side of herby cream cheese. And then there were arias, and the heavens opened, and a great light shown down… which is to say, it was amazing!

Blending botanical perfumes using essential oils is one of the beautiful ways that we can incorporate pure oils into our daily lives. There’s nothing quite like blending a favorite floral aroma with a little spice or a little citrusy zest and grounding it with a rooty, earthy scent. But there are many ways that perfume blending can go awry! Just because we love the aroma of lavender, and geranium, and vanilla doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll love the three together. To keep aromatic perfume blends balanced, there are a couple of essential oil categories we need to keep in mind. As we say in the Herbal Academy’s Natural Perfumery Course, “Although training one’s nose to distinguish subtle nuances of scent takes years, there is always value in improving one’s scent awareness. One can identify note, fragrance intensity, fragrance category, and eventually, the subtle difference within a fragrance category.”

Lately I have been thinking a lot about how to reduce the presence of plastic in my life. With the recyclability of plastics becoming more and more of a question mark, and a disheartening one at that, the place that I keep arriving at is to just try as hard as I can to remove plastics from the equation altogether. The kitchen was the first place I started with my sustainability makeover. I slowly began to change my shopping habits so that I would wind up with less leftover single-use plastics at the end of the week. It wasn’t easy but it was incredibly liberating; it eased my conscience a bit to know that I was able to take steps toward a greener lifestyle. As my interest in living more sustainably snowballed, I began seeing problems everywhere I looked in my house, particularly with my cleaning products, and especially with my bathroom cleansers.

There has been a lot of talk about self-care lately, and with good reason. With this last year weighing heavily on many of us, there is a renewed focus on the ways in which we can offer ourselves some TLC. One of my favorite ways of having a quiet moment with myself this time of year is to go on long walks and hikes. Nothing brings me a sense of calm more than adventuring outside with my pup. Unfortunately, my feet do not seem to feel that same serenity after a long walk, and recently my attention was brought to one area of my body that I routinely neglect—my feet!