- Today, I am trying mushrooms.
But not those types of mushrooms.
I'm taking a mushroom extract called reishi For 30 days.
(whimsical xylophone music)
I have anxiety.
Most people run on
a tempo of this. (slapping)
My tempo is like-- (slapping)
And I also know that my internal rhythm
can come into the room before I can and turn people off.
And I don't want to be that way.
A couple months ago, I read about ashwagandha
helping with anxiety.
Now, ashwagandha is another Ayurvedic herb
and oh my god, y'all, it made me feel even crazier.
My palms were sweaty,
I felt, like, very jumpy.
And that's when I kind of took a step back
and I was like, okay, so maybe I need help
from a professional.
And naturopath or somebody who actually
works with these herbs to kind of guide me.
- Hello, my name is Amrit-Sadhana,
I am a holistic health and anxiety coach.
We have parasympathetic nervous system
and our sympathetic nervous system.
The sympathetic nervous system is your fight or flight,
and then there's your parasympathetic nervous system,
and that's your rest and digest.
And that's where we should be living most of the time.
When you're in that, you feel relaxed,
you feel grounded in yourself.
And when you're not, you feel anxious.
So we live in a world where we're mostly living
in the sympathetic nervous system
and not the parasympathetic nervous system.
So, taking herbs, exercising, meditating
will actually have a huge impact
on your overall health and wellnesses.
So, adaptogens are herbs which have
a nonspecific nervous system response.
And they help you to adapt to different stressors.
So, just in the mushroom family,
there's reishi, cordyceps, chaga.
Reishi, it's known as the queen of plants
in Chinese medicine.
It has astounding antioxidant levels.
When we have anxiety, your adrenaline's pumping
more regularly, your adrenals start to get fatigued.
So if you take an herb like reishi,
it's gonna actually support your adrenal system,
and then it's also gonna help you with your anxiety.
It's gonna have that calming effect on your nervous system.
- So, Amrit-Sadhana and I are going
to buy the ingredients, and then we're gonna
come back here and make my first latte.
I think it's gonna be easy.
Hope it's gonna be easy, 'cause I'm gonna have
to do this for the next 30 days.
In two weeks, we're gonna have a check-in
to see how I'm feeling.
So hopefully, I have the discipline to keep this going.
No new food challenge would be complete
without going grocery shopping, so,
Amrit-Sadhana and I are going grocery shopping.
(laughs)
Where are we starting?
- We're gonna start at the door
because the dates are at the door.
- We spent around about $108 for nut milk,
cardamom, two reishi packets,
which should last me 30 days,
and ghee, which I didn't have.
(cash register dings) So, up front,
it was an investment.
Which is something to note,
because a lot of these trends, I find, super interesting
and fascinating, but I just worry about
the price point isn't as accessible to everyone.
- Absolutely.
- Which I take issue with.
And also, going into an experience like this,
a challenge like this, with a critical mind,
but an open heart, is kind of like my stance.
- Or if you order online, if you shop direct
through some of these companies,
it can be much more cost effective,
but the thing is, is you take a little bit each day
and so they last you a long time.
So, if you break it down in that way, it's not as daunting.
- For anyone who's watching at home, who's like,
This new habit's expensive!
These are just some crazy LA girls
runnin' around with their credit cards!
- I'm from Portland!
(laughing)
Hii, welcome! - Hello!
We say welcome as if this is your kitchen.
- Yeah, this is totally my kitchen.
- This is a set. (laughing)
How did you develop this recipe?
- Some people's bodies don't metabolize caffeine very well.
And when I was just drinking a cup of coffee
with, like, half and half or nut milk in it,
I was getting that, like, really quick rush.
So I started looking into different alternatives
and one of those was adding fat to my coffee.
And it's a really great vehicle to get these herbs
into your diet without having to drink
a cup full of bitter, gross, herbs by themselves.
- So they are bitter and gross by themselves.
- Not all of 'em, reishi, it has a tendency
to be a more bitter herb.
- Yeah, but we're making this tasty.
- But we're gonna make it tasty.
- And mindful, 'cause this is a part of the process.
- When I get up in the morning, I get ready
and then I head into the kitchen.
And I just kinda check in with my body
and see what feels good.
And as I make it, sometimes I'll put on meditation music,
I breathe really, like, consciously, and awarely.
Is awarely a word?
(cat meows)
For me, pouring it into, like, a really beautiful mug
and taking that first moment to, like,
take that sip and taste it and feel my breath,
feel my body's reaction to it,
is something that I look forward to every day.
- By doing all this, you're setting the tone for your day.
- For your entire day.
- These are our mugs to choose from.
There are four ladies on set today,
so I thought we would make four lattes.
- Beautiful, so if you're making this just for yourself,
you would about a half of a cup.
Pour that coffee up in there.
Now, let's do one date in this and see how it is.
The date adds iron and minerals
and just the perfect amount of sweetness,
and there's the fiber in it,
so you're not gonna get a sugar rush from it.
Ghee is butter that's been heated up
so all the fat solids are gone
and you're just left with the really good fat.
All of the casein and lactose has been removed
in the process, so it's dairy-free.
The reason we use ghee in our latte
is because all adaptogens are fat soluble.
If you're not mixing them with some sort of fat,
you're not taking advantage
of all of the amazing benefits that they have to offer you.
Like, if you ever go to an Ayurvedic retreat,
you start your morning by drinking
a cup of ghee every morning.
And what it does, is it just, like,
pulls everything out of your body
and gets things going.
(popping)
(laughing)
But since you've never done this before,
I would start with a teaspoon of ghee
and work your way up.
And then cardamom.
A, it's delicious.
It's also really good for your digestion
and a little gently cooling to the system.
Also, it lowers the acidity of the coffee.
Then the actual mushroom.
(blender whirring)
- [Devin] Wow.
This is really nice.
- [Amrit-Sadhana] Thank you.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
- Oh, that's good.
That's really good. - Isn't it so yummy?
- I really thought that I was going to taste the mushrooms.
It tastes like you're eating dirt.
So I'm very happy to report that this doesn't taste weird.
This seems pretty easy.
I feel like I'm gonna be able to do this.
- And one last thing I wanted to teach you is,
you said you meditated every day,
and so something I would like to challenge you
to add to your meditation is for a minute
to three minutes before your normal meditation,
doing left nostril breathing.
Plug your right nostril and you just inhale
and exhale slowly.
(breathing)
Through your left nostril.
- It's like this sensation
of kind of just dropping into your vagina.
- Yes!
- Thank you so much! - You're welcome!
Thank you!
- Mm, and we'll be checking in with you in two weeks.
- Perfect. - To see how it's going.
All right, the month starts now.
(clicks tongue)
It is the first day of my mushroom challenge.
Listen, cats. (meowing)
Oh my god.
I'm blocking cats.
First day of my mushroom challenge
and I am le tired.
Hopefully, this drink gives me that
little kick in the pants,
so I can get my day started.
(meowing) (splashing)
Oh, I'm making a mess.
There she is.
Tastes delicious.
Get off of the counter.
Day three of making the mushroom drink.
I was about to walk out the door
and I realized I forgot to add the reishi powder.
♪ Which is the whole point of this thing ♪
It's kinda hard to gauge whether or not
this reishi mushroom thing is actually helping.
But I will say, Tuesday this week, my first day,
I was super groggy, but every day this week
was a little easier.
I had more energy, I was not as anxious or grumpy
around the afternoon, so maybe it's working?
(blender groaning)
Drink's ready.
It is officially been over a week
I have been doing this reishi stuff.
I think I feel a difference.
It's still pretty early, but I will say
the reishi has a really, like, calming effect,
and this is how I really know.
On Sunday, I didn't have a reishi latte
because I was going to brunch and stuff.
So I decided to have a tea latte at night
and oh my god, y'all, this put me out.
It was wonderful.
With a little a little nut milk
and some decaffeinated tea, damn,
I had like the best sleep of my life.
It even has, it features, like, a little sleeping person.
I feel pretty grounded.
There's still a lot I have to do in a day,
but I don't feel like I am overwhelmed as easily,
which is a really nice feeling.
So, first week has been a success.
Hey.
- Hii!
- [Devin] How are you?
- I'm good, how are you?
- I'm good, I'm very good.
Reishi's been definitely helping.
It doesn't slow me down, like weed or like CBD.
It definitely makes me feel less scattered.
- It is the reason I love these amazing,
functional herbs, mushrooms, adaptogens.
They're subtle, but they're also very powerful.
And when you allow them to build in your system
like you did, you now have this beautiful tool
to help you ground into your body,
then change your relationship with your anxiety.
When you're more connected into your body,
you become more sensitive because you're living
from a place of your body and not letting your mind
control your feelings and your emotions.
- I felt felt the reishi effects from the first week.
And I also experimented
with making like a tea latte at night.
- Perfect.
- I got the best sleep ever.
Reishi gave me a ritual to kind of, like, ground myself.
Even when I didn't have time to make it
and meditate and, like, think sweet thoughts,
I would drink it and I'd be like,
hah, I'm at work, I am present, I am happy,
I'm grounded, I'm here.
- Practice, ritual, whatever you wanna call it,
is truly everything in helping you
to live a more balanced and anxietyless life.
We live habitually, we do so much without intention,
and when you take a moment to have intention for yourself,
you are curating a deeper self-love,
(applause) which therefore will permeate
into your whole being and allow you
to live that more grounded, connected life.
'Cause when you're connected into your heart,
and you're feeling that, that's when that anxiety
really does melt away.
- Thank you so much!
- All right. (smooches)
Thank you.
- Look at that beautiful weekend latte!
Look at this Saturday morning.
Look at that cat.
I made a mess.
My reishi mushroom situation just blew up all over me.
But I'm not feeling anxious about it!
It has officially been almost a month.
Reishi has been absolutely helping me.
For the past two weeks, I've had bronchitis and the flu.
And I've been on steroids,
I've been on all this kind of medication.
I find that when I drink my reishi drink in the morning,
it helps me feel grounded and not so jittery
because the steroids make you feel like--
So, I'm making my drink.
Same recipe as always, because it works.
Technically, the challenge is over,
the month is done, and I haven't really been
drinking the lattes.
I definitely feel a difference.
So, we makin' it.
It's time.
Here we go.
Today is an example of a day where I feel pretty stressed.
I got stuff goin' on (door slams)
with my family in Atlanta.
Oh, and I forgot to put on sunscreen.
Okay, well, my foundation has sunscreen on.
And it looks like it's gonna rain,
but you should still wear sunscreen.
This is my brain right now.
I could really use a little bit of grounding,
energy, just something that puts my feet on the ground,
that makes me feel like I am competent.
So I made my mushroom latte drink.
I'm gonna drink this drink with the intention
of I'm going to do my best to work with what I have
and not judge myself anymore.
All right, let's get to work.
When I initially started this video,
I definitely thought I was only gonna
be doing this for a month.
And then life happened and things got crazy
and here we are.
It's the seventh week of the mushroom journey.
Incorporating adaptogens into my diet
and into my life has been so incredibly helpful.
I'm not sayin' that you shouldn't take medication,
medication is vital for a lot of people.
But if you're looking to supplement
your medication journey or to try something else,
highly recommend it.
And this is a Ladylike try that I'm definitely
gonna be keeping in my schedule from here on out.
(warm electronic music)
(whooshes) (creaks)