This 6-week deep dive will teach you how to create optimal mental, emotional, and soulful wellness by tapping into the healing power of medicinal herbs, seasonal food, and simple, daily ritual and meditation…
So that you can own your magic, do visionary and revolutionary things, and devote your time and energy to your creative projects and relationships —while at the same time being more present, balanced, and calm than ever before.
You’ll also learn about medicine making, from infusions to syrups and salves, so that you can walk away with the start of a personally-curated apothecary focused on supporting your unique health and wellbeing, and that will nourish and support your loved ones for months to come.
As above, so below; as without, so within...
Today is a time of turmoil, unprecedented climate chaos, polarized politics, social injustice, and mass extinction previously unseen in human history—a time called “The Great Unraveling” by ecologist Joanna Macy and “The Age of Loneliness” by herbalist Mila Prince.
We find ourselves struggling to keep our heads above water while the tides are rising, whether it’s because gentrification is pushing away our home spaces, or because the trauma of living in a materialistic culture that denies our inherent worth and the sacredness of life has worn away our reserves and or balance, or because the daily stress of our work lives and family commitments leaves us no space to cultivate the passion projects we hold in or hearts and create the lives of sacred wonder and deep connection that we envision for ourselves.
It’s a time of existential loneliness, disconnection and demoralization, which can manifest as stress and anxiety, heartbreak and depression, mental fog, desensitization of our hearts and intuitions. It can look like procrastination and flightiness, being unable to follow through with anything, even the things we care about. It can look like stuckness, isolation, being unable to sleep deeply and dream. It can damage our relationships and sap our libidos. For some of us, life can feel tasteless and smellless, and for others, it feels like a frenzied, disorienting flurry of color and busyness, all surface level, without depth, balance, or presence.
If you don’t feel like yourself, if you don’t feel like you know where to find true balance or presence, if you wonder what’s wrong with you and worry that there’s no way to “turn back the clock” or reclaim your vitality, clarity, and inner calm… you are not alone, you are not broken, and you are not incurable.
We can create a new paradigm that begins within us, realms and ways of living and being that are infused with liberation, awareness, vitality, sweetness and joy.
truly holistic healing from root to crown
The plants can help—their magic is one of deep belonging and connection, and their medicine has the ability to heal us deep at roots of the issues we face, creating pathways of vitality and clarity that enliven us from the tips of our toes to the crowns of our heads.
In this program, you’ll learn about natural botanical medicines that help with the symptoms and root causes of anxiety, depression, overwhelm, irritability, fatigue, burn-out, insomnia, and daily, chronic stress.
You'll also learn about herbs that recalibrate your hormonal flows (because cortisol, insulin, and thyroid hormone all have a huge impact on your mind and heart), give you back your energy, and help you connect to all that is sweet in the world once again-- even / especially in these turbulent times.
You’ll walk away with spiritually-inspired guidance and also practical, effective action steps, practices, and herbal recipes to start feeling better immediately and nourish long-term wellness and healing for mind and heart, body and soul.
What you’ll receive:
o 6 weeks of content-rich workshops on herbal care, practices, ritual, and medicine making focused on bringing more calm, clarity, joy, prosperity and focus into your life. The virtual classes will be recorded and available to both groups, so even if life pulls you away for a week, you won’t miss anything – and you’ll be able to go back any time you want for another listen.
o Weekly printable guidebooks with herbal monographs (they’re like “book reports” on the different herbs of the weeks we’ll be using), extra-credit readings, recipes and medicine making how-tos, a done-for-you detox meal plan and shopping list, morning rituals, and more.
o Access to my online collection of guidebooks and handouts from my other courses, such as Herbs for Long Nights (dreaming with plants… which sells out every time I offer it), the Magic of Medicinal Mushrooms, etc.
o A private session with me to dial in your herbal regime and daily practice, talk about unique situations such as the medication you’re on or pregnant, and get diamond-bright clarity on how to bring your fierce self-care to the next level. Last year, I only offered this opportunity to folks at a higher, VIP rate—this time around, seeing how transformational it was to the folks who opted for it, I’m including it for everyone. ($150 value)
o A Every Morning, Daily Ritual mini-basket that includes with a bottle of my most popular calming and rejuvenating herbal cordial for anxiety and stress, a bag of handcrafted oatstraw-cinnamon chai for your daily infusion, a Ritual French Press made of bamboo and glass (no plastic weirdness here!), a blessed-by-witches beeswax votive, and charmed honey – all perfectly curated to get your daily practice of fierce self-love and radical self-love off to an enchanted start. ($95 value)
Nature, too, supports our personal blossoming (if we have any quiet exposure to her) through her spontaneities,
through her beauty, power, and mirroring, through her dazzling variety of species and habitats, and by way of the
wind, Moon, Sun, stars, and galaxies.
--Bill Plotkin
"Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World"
Join us.
Sweet Serenity is offered in 2 different forms
so that you can choose the path that works best for you:
The Live Group Option
Monday evenings in Berkeley, CA starting September 25th, 6-7:30PM
$345
The Virtual Group option
Tuesdays starting September 19th,
10am-11:30 AM PST
$295
Here's what we’ll cover in this six week intensive...
week one: soothing our stress and adaptingto these wild times with deep immune tonics
Stress is the root cause of many other challenges we experience in our minds and hearts, especially anxiety, depression, overwhelm, and sleep issues. New science shows us that stress (and diet) has the power to “turn on” and “turn off” genetic markers for long-term, serious health challenges in mindy and body. It also causes inflammation, which can catalyze or exacerbate the other imbalances in our bodies and minds.
Tackling many of our lifestyle stressors (work stress, lack of sleep, new baby, lack of exercise, food choices) can take weeks or months to course correct and transform. The Deep Immune Tonics that we’ll be working with this week can immediately turn down the body’s volume dial on stress, while providing balance and inner stability to actually make the changes we need to make over the long-term.
9 Herbs of the week: Ashwaganda, Shatavari, Holy Basil, American Ginseng, Siberian Ginseng, Astragalus, Reishi, Schisandra, and Rhodiola
week two: crafting a daily ritual for maximum sanity & soul
Creating a daily infusion: the missing link in that will ensure you’re getting the missing phytonutrients that can lead to anxiety, depression, and seasonal depression.
A sweet, whole-hearted meditation technique to still your mind, connect you to your heart, and create spaciousness within so you can really own your magic and throw yourself into your projects with abandon.
Crafting a morning ritual of magic, inspiration, and wellness to ground and center you everyday.. PLUS A collection of my favorite morning herbal teas for energy and focus, coffee-brew-ins, and plant-based super-food smoothie recipes, evening night-caps to help you get a good night’s sleep, and information on other plant medicines, flower essences, and nature-based meditations.
Reclaiming your energy: growing through fatigue into vitality and purpose, every day.
9 Herbs of the Week: Oatstraw, Nettle, Dandelion, Burdock, Red Raspberry Leaf, Red Clover, Linden Blossom, Marshmallow, and Turmeric.
week three: nourishing deep sleep & banishing anxiety with calming nervine herbs.
Insomnia, anxiety and overwhelm often have a similar root cause: our nervous systems are constantly on high-alert (or too frequently stimulated). Nervine herbs soothe, balance, and relax the nervous system, bringing true healing to our hearts and easing our minds from tension and worry.
I’ll teach you “the Quickie:” a profound instant-anxiety-interrupt technique that shifts your nervous system back into “rest, digest, and connect” mode instead of “fight or flight” in a minute or two, whether you’re stuck in traffic on the Bay Bridge, reading the headlines of the New York Times, or about to sit down and have tea with your ex.
9 Anti-Anxiety & Sleep-Promoting herbs of the week: Lemon Balm, Valerian, Passionflower, California Poppy, Chamomile, Scullcap, Lavender, Calendula, and Kava Kava Root.
week four: the plants on your plate, seasons and cycles
A simple spring detox plan that will help you uncover hidden food sensitivities, restore blood sugar balance, shed a couple of pounds, and stabilize your mood.
Eat Your Herbs: a collection of springtime weeds n’ greens recipes to bring your medicine out of the garden and the fields and into your kitchen.
Working with the seasons, the moon, and the rhythm of your own cycles to nourish daily joy, clarity, and a gentle mood all year round (nix seasonal depression in the bud!)
Medicine Making: herbal-infused vinegars for deep tonifying, detoxification, remineralization and nourishment on all levels.
week five: Heart-Healing in the Age of Loneliness
This week we’ll cover heart-healing herbs for depression, heartbreak, and loss: Mimosa Bark, Motherwort, Hawthorn, Rose, St John’s Wort, Borage, Damiana, and Cocao.
Medicine Making: Infused herbal oils and how an ancient self-love practice of herbal body oiling can help restore balance and nourish daily calm, presence, and grace.
week six: creating your personal apothecary for heart & body, mind & soul
Bringing it all together into a personal apothecary that meets your unique needs and the needs and desires of your family, one that is truly healing and helps you connect to joy, beauty, and sweetness again-- and that can help you when you find yourself slipping back into sorrow, depression, worry, stress, and apathy.
Staying strong: how to stay in balance in the weeks and months ahead.
Here's what we’ll cover in this four week guided journey...
week 1: Pull the plug on the stress response and chill the F*ck OUt.
Stress is the root cause of many other challenges we experience in our minds and hearts, especially anxiety, depression, overwhelm, and sleep issues. New science shows us that stress (and diet) has the power to “turn on” and “turn off” genetic markers for long-term, serious health challenges in mindy and body. It also causes inflammation, which can catalyze or exacerbate the other imbalances in our bodies and minds.
Tackling many of our lifestyle stressors (work stress, lack of sleep, lack of exercise, living through global pandemics) can take weeks or months to course correct and transform. The practices and breathwork that we’ll be working with this week can immediately turn down the body’s volume dial on stress, while providing balance and inner connection to love and pleasure so that we can actually make the changes we need to make, and experience long-term peace, presence, and joy.
Guest Expert: Alexandra Solomon, Anxiety-free, Supportive Intimacy + Partnership in Times of Stress.
week 2: (RE)Building a foundation of inner safety, love + Belonging
This week, we’ll build on the practices from week one that will empower you to shed stress, banish anxiety, and connect back into your essential nature. We’ll also use meditation and breathwork to build a strong foundation of safety, love, and belonging, which is the “silver bullet” to your primal brain freaking out and enables you to experience unshakeable balance and confidence.
Plant Wisdom: kava, passionflower, california poppy, hops, CBD, skullcap, lobelia, and lavender.
Guest Expert: Rebecca Ferrar, the Wild Witch of the West, Working with the Bright Shadow to Ease Anxiety (plus some good news, astrology-wise, coming up).
WEEK 3: Nourishing the Nervous system with Fierce self-care + Daily PLeasure Practices
Fierce self-care and pleasure, coming back into the senses as an antidote to tension and fear, how pleasure can help you release cortisol and nourish the nervous system on a deep and profound level.
Learn a simple and effective daily practice that will ground and center you in clarity and connection…. in 10 minutes a day , you’ll create a space for celebration / gratitude that feels genuine and authentic instead of saccharine and hokey; clear fear, irritability, and sorrow: and honor your holy desires…yes, even in the midst of everything that’s going on.
Guest Expert: Melissa Kelly, Gently Releasing Trauma and Upleveling Your Pandemic Experience through Mindfulness + NLP.
WEEK 4: ADAPTING TO THESE WILD TIMES WITH ADAPTOGENIC IMMUNE TONICS + BADASS BREATHWORK.
Understanding the felt-sense and reconnecting to your body through sacral-area / womb breathwork, to release stuck energy and bring you back into balance.
Plant Wisdom: Ashwaganda, Shatavari, Holy Basil, Astragaulus, Siberian Ginseng, Reishi, Chaga, and Rhodiola
Moving forward: integrating the work for true transformation and lasting balance, wholeheartedness, and presence.
Own your magic.
Show up for the things that matter most.
Soulfully. Aligned with nature.
Wholehearted
About your guide...
Riyana Rose is a Certified Western Herbalist, Counselor, and all-around witchy woman. She's taught and sees clients in the SF Bay Area, and internationally, for over 15 years.
Some of the beautiful organizations she's been privileged to work with include Reclaiming, the Institute of Urban Homestead, the Revolutionary Living Institute, Homestead Apothecary, Ohlone School of Herbal Studies, the Biofuel Oasis, Earth Activist Training, and Petaluma Bounty.
She thinks of herself as a mystical witch, and adores experiential, ecstatic, direct experience of the Divine and guiding others to get there, too, through the tools she teaches and the rituals she helps create. She is devoted to teaching about connection to nature through our relationships with the green ones, animals, and the fey, and utilizing ritual technologies such as aspecting, trance, and devotion that empower us move out of our minds and into direct connection with spirit.
In her private practice, she works extensively with issues of the heart and womb, including anxiety, depression, grief, loss, infertility, and pregnancy and postpartum challenges, helping women to live soulfully and express themselves as authors of their own lives and creative works.
When not writing, reading, or playing with witches in the woods, she can be found in Alameda CA, where she lives with her husband, daughter, and two very furry cats.
Coming? You can register for the
Berkeley Program here,
and the Online Program here.
Questions? Drop me a note at riyana@newmoon apothecary and I’ll get back to you ASAP.
F.A.Q.
This isn’t the best time for me. When will you be offering this course again?
I'm planning to offer a postpartum-mama's version sometime this summer in Oakland or Berkeley... so wait for that! Otherwise, my schedule is quite full through the rest of 2018 and the beginning of 2019. Certainly if there’s a big enough response, I’ll do everything in my power to offer it again, but at the moment this is the only spot in my calendar for this course.
Will the virtual group sessions be recorded? What if take the live class and have to miss one?
Yes, they’ll be recorded. Anyone who misses a live class can catch the virtual class recording of the lecture.
Do you offer refunds?
I’m happy to offer you a 100% back, no questions asked refund for the first week of the program. (I know it can be hard to dip your toe into something new with a new person).
What if I have other questions?
Please contact us! Drop us an email at riyana@newmoonapothecary, and either me or my assistant will get back to you, lickety-split.