How to Support Your Nervous System with Spagyrics

How to Support Your Nervous System with Spagyrics

If you’re like most people these days, stress isn’t an occasional visitor—it’s a constant companion. Whether it’s financial pressure, family responsibilities, or simply keeping up with the modern world, there’s no shortage of things to worry about. 

Left unchecked, this fast-paced lifestyle can take a serious toll on your health. 

We hear it time and time again: people seeking support for nervous system challenges such as fatigue, anxiety, and sleeplessness. Thankfully, we can turn to herbal spagyrics to help nurture our nervous system into a calmer and more centered place.*

Why is the Nervous System Important?

Your nervous system is essential for coordinating and regulating nearly all bodily functions. Understanding the sympathetic and parasympathetic pathways of your involuntary nervous system provides valuable insight into how stress affects your health.

The sympathetic nervous system (aka “fight-or-flight”) is like your inner emergency alarm. When you sense danger—real or imagined—it triggers:

  • Elevated heart rate and blood pressure

  • Impaired digestion and blood flow to organs

  • A sense of unease and fear

In contrast, activation of the parasympathetic nervous system (or “rest-and-digest”) allows you to rest, recover, and feel safe. It supports:

  • Improved digestion, immunity, and detoxification

  • A calm, steady heart rate

  • Stable mood, sleep, and metabolism

It’s clearly desirable to live in this restful state as much as possible. But since your body can’t tell the difference between real danger and daily stress, things like overwork or emotional strain can keep you stuck in “fight or flight.” This is how constant stress leads to poor health.

What Are Nervines?

There are many herbs that relax, nourish, and support your nervous system. The herbs that affect your nervous system are called nervines, and they fall into four different categories:

Nervine Stimulants

Stimulants activate the sympathetic nervous system by triggering the release of stress hormones. These often contain caffeine and are overrepresented in our modern lifestyle.

Examples of nervine stimulants are: Coffee, Maté, and Green or Black Tea.

Nervine Relaxants

Relaxant herbs calm and soothe the nervous system, bringing ease to the mind and body. Nervine relaxants tend to be only gently relaxing, so you can take them during the day and remain alert. Many relaxing nervines also have carminative and bitter properties, helping to ease stress-induced digestive upset.

Examples of relaxant nervines are: Blue Vervain, Wood Betony, Lavender, and Chamomile. 

Nervine Hypnotics

These are very relaxing—in fact, they’re the type of herb that can put you to sleep. Which is great for occasional sleeplessness. But for most of us, they might be too strong for consistent or daytime use. 

Examples of nervine hypnotics are: California Poppy, Hops, and Valerian. 

Nervine Nutritives or Trophorestoratives

While they are usually not noticeably calming or sedating, these herbs strengthen, tone, and restore the nervous system. This group of nervines is helpful after long periods of stress, burnout, or addiction. These gentle, nourishing nervines can benefit nearly everyone in today’s world.

Examples of nervine nutritives are: Milky Oats, St. John’s Wort, and Reishi mushroom.

Our Top 5 Favorite Herbal Nervines 

Milky Oats (Avena sativa)

If you’re the kind of person who’s been stressed so long that you now feel exhausted or even burned out, then Milky Oats is the herb for you.

Non-sedating Milky Oats are a valuable trophorestorative nervine herb. They’re mineral-rich and soothing, nourishing and hydrating—perfect for dry or tense tissue states. Over time, they can repair your depleted nervous system, allowing you to maintain healthy energy levels.*

Our Milky Oats Spagyric Tincture is one of our best-selling products, probably because it’s the perfect antidote to modern hustle culture.*

Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata)

Blue Vervain is an excellent herb for people who tend toward overworking, overthinking, and overwhelm. If you carry stress in your neck, head, and jaw and experience headaches as a result, this herb can offer significant support. Considered a nervine relaxant, Blue Vervain is cooling and bitter. It soothes fiery emotions, such as anger and irritability, that often precede headaches.

Try taking our Blue Vervain Spagyric Tincture in small, frequent doses to help you relax and release unhelpful tension.*

Wood Betony (Stachys officinalis)

If you’re the kind of person who gets stomachaches when overwhelmed or who tends to feel spaced-out and ungrounded during challenging times, try Wood Betony. Many people carry stress in their gut, which makes sense considering your gut has as many nerve cells as your spine. According to herbalist Matthew Wood, Wood Betony has a strong affinity for the solar plexus, or enteric nervous system.*

Our Wood Betony Spagyric Tincture and Essence offer calming, grounding, and soothing nervous system support.*

Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora)

If you find yourself lying awake at night listening to every little sound or if your eye twitches maddeningly during times of stress, then Skullcap might offer you support. This mint family herb is a valuable nervine, offering trophorestorative, hypnotic, and antispasmodic properties. This means Skullcap eases physical and psychological tension, working gently in the moment and cumulatively over time.*

We craft Skullcap into a spagyric tincture and a spagyric essence to support you in relaxing and rebuilding your nervous system.

Chamomile (Matricaria recutita)

If you’re the kind of person who finds yourself with an upset stomach after getting upset or angry, try Chamomile to settle down and soothe gas, bloating, and indigestion. Delicious and gentle, this sunny yellow flower is an ideal herb for fussy children (of all ages) in the mood for a tantrum. 

Chamomile is an aromatic bitter, meaning it’s cooling, drying, and beautifully balancing with warming aromatic volatile oils. This makes it especially effective for bloating and gas. The flowers have a mild mucilage and are actually slightly moistening as well. So Chamomile is one of those all-around, well-balanced herbs that can suit so many people. Our Chamomile spagyric tincture or essence are beneficial for your digestive and nervous systems. 

Daily Calm Spagyric Formula

Our Daily Calm is masterfully formulated with these 5 herbs (plus California Poppy and Holy Basil) to provide you with nervous system support every day. 

These nervine herbs work together to immediately soothe and release physical, psychological, and emotional tension while rebuilding nerve tissue and restoring balance over time.* 

Prioritizing the Health of Your Nervous System is Essential Self-Care

As much as we love herbs and have seen the powerful results they can have on improving health, herbs alone can’t solve every problem! Making important lifestyle shifts, especially when it comes to stress, is essential for restoring your nervous system.

In your quest to find optimal health and balance in today’s busy world, consider ways you can nourish your nervous system on a daily basis. Try reducing your screen time, getting enough sleep, maybe cutting out one of those extra cups of afternoon coffee, or trying some nervine herbal spagyrics. These small changes can gently guide you back to a calm, centered state of being so you can better handle your daily load.

Choosing rest, nourishment, and respect for your nervous system isn’t weakness—it’s a brave step toward a life that feels grounded, clear, and truly your own. 

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