Hello and welcome back to your Healthy Success podcast.
We are looking at part 2 of sex hormones and how you can avoid burnout in today's episode.
We're gonna cover signs and symptoms of burnout, or early warning signs actually, and three things that you can be doing to stay healthier.
So let's get into it.
The other day, I read a social media post from a friend of mine who's also an online entrepreneur. She was basically saying that she had been out of the scene for a while because, essentially, she was burnt out.
She had been pushing and pushing so the money was good, enrolling a ton of clients, working with amazing people, but she was physically draining herself.
And I read that, and my heart just went out to her because I don't want that for her, I don't want that for you, I don't want that for anybody.
In the entrepreneurial journey, it can be really common because there are parts of being an entrepreneur that are really exciting, super rewarding, often times challenging is when you feel like you've got to keep pushing and driving and go and go and go and go at the expense of our well-being.
And that makes no sense to me, makes no sense to me. And I've learned this firsthand myself.
So there is a short chapter of my life where I really was the one who had to take care of everything in my lifeā€”my business, my household, my familyā€”and it was exhausting.
So even though I was super successful with it from the outside, so my daughter was good, we were living in a beautiful place, my business was growing and thriving, and I was able to do all kinds of incredible things and provide opportunities for us, all these things that should have felt like, "Ah, okay, this is feeling good.
I feel happy about this," I felt exhausted. I was exhausted, like, what is going on?
I've worked hard to get to where I am, and should I feel happier or something other than exhausted? And I did not know about the sex hormones, I did not know about the divine feminine and masculine, which were totally out of balance within me.
So did you know that when women feel overwhelmed, stressed because they're handling everything, they're taking care of it all, they tend to feel overwhelmed, stressed, and maybe not sleep very well at night? And that's because their female hormones have become depleted, and relative to that, their male hormones are either higher or they're at the level that they were at.
But because it's a relative thing, if the positive female hormones, which are stress-reducing in women, are lower, the more masculine side will be expressed through the sex hormones, but also the defined masculine, but it's not actually so divine.
It's sort of like when we're able to be in our healthy balance of the divine feminine and the divine masculine, it's so incredibly powerful. So men and women, we have both, and in different ratios, proportions, everyone is unique, right? So I acknowledge that.
But you know, when you're called to just do the hard thing and be the one that everyone else counts on, instead of carving out that time for the self-care, the nourishment, which is why you hear that a lot, but let's go a little bit deeper. It's because it replenishes the female hormones, right? So it starts to restore that balance.
So when we feel, as a woman, when you feel nurtured and cared for and that someone else is providing something that you would enjoy or need, it actually is a boost to the female hormones so that they lower stress within women. Which is fascinating, I did not know this.
Being super competent and accomplished, that's amazing, and as long as we take that time into those activities or be in that relaxed state where we can restore the balance, it's good.
That means that the divine masculine has been expressed, and also the divine feminine has been nourished and is expressed. So the other fascinating thingā€”there's so many examples of, you know, when things are out of balance, but I picked one for women's hormones and then one for the masculine hormones.
So did you know that if a man is angry and expresses it, that's the key is if he expresses the anger, that his male sex hormone, the testosterone, is relatively lower than where it ideally is? Isn't that fascinating? I did not know this a bunch of years ago, and I find it so fascinating.
And that's because the emotional expression part of us, men and women, is connected with estrogen. And so yes, men have estrogen as well, and they obviously have emotions too, but it's navigating them kind of differently.
And so when the testosterone is low and when a man gets kind of overemotional, irritability leading to the anger, it can lead to, well, some really not so great things.
So the way a man handles that, you know, if he's really quick to jump right to the expression in the anger, we know that the testosterone reserves are low. Maybe they've been depleted by poor nutrition, environmental toxicity, stress
, and when we're talking about the sexual energy, in fact, when we're talking about any energy in our body, that includes the physical and the emotional energy, when we're talking about it from the perspective of the divine masculine and the divine feminine, it's so much more than what we've been taught about how hormones work, and really not talked about, at all.
You know, even in my medical education, we did not get taught any of this. This has been my own curiosity about, well, wait a minute, you know, why do women respond to stress differently? Why do men respond to stress differently? Why is there more burnout, you know, and where is that coming from?
So there are some key steps to take into our healing so that the divine feminine and divine masculine can be in a beautiful dance within us.
And so you know, you've heard of a lot of different ways to nurture yourself and take care of yourself, right? So let's look at it from the hormone perspective, because it's so much more powerful than what we've even talked about before.
Because in our modern world, so often, we're so taught to just suppress and suppress and suppress our stress or push through it, right? And it's so easy to do because we have so many responsibilities.
So whether you're a mom or not, we all have responsibilities. Whether it's work or school, or maybe you're still in high school, or you know, so many different responsibilities, and it's so easy to just kind of keep pushing and driving, but then there's a cost.
And that's what we're talking about is the cost of that. So let's look at it from a hormone perspective. So when you suppress, suppress, suppress the stress, it leads to depletion of the female hormones, and that means that the divine feminine isn't expressed as it could be.
And what happens to the divine masculine is, when it's kind of really depleted or suppressed or repressed, is the irritability to anger, and so instead of just expressing what's going on and being able to be in a healthier, more relaxed state.
I'm gonna share about this in a second, there's a little twist to it, it leads to the expression of the more negative side of the divine masculine, which leads to some of the outcomes that we see when men are not expressing the divine masculine.
So what are three things that you can be doing? So the first thing is... it sounds really easy, but you know, the first thing is to actually make it a priority. So this means that you're valuing yourself, valuing your well-being, and valuing your body's capacity to heal and regenerate.
Because when we're in the go, go, go mode, there's not a lot of time for healing and regenerating. So it's when we're in a relaxed state that that happens.
And so one of the things that I did when I was in my intense phase of being the one doing it all, was I got used to this fast-paced living. You know, everything was done quickly, and I was always on the go, and I felt uncomfortable just slowing down.
I felt really uncomfortable, I felt restless, and it was almost like, you know, this uncomfortableness in my body. And so I had to learn to just be with that, and it's fascinating because in the times when I've had the greatest clarity, when I've had the greatest insights, have been when I've just been in a more relaxed state.
So slowing down was actually really helpful for that.
And then the second thing is to actually make a time for self-care. So not only do you prioritize it, you actually make a time for self-care, and this is key, because if you're like, "Well, I'll do that tomorrow, I'll do that next week," and then next week comes and then the next week comes, and it never happens, you're really not prioritizing it. And I've been there too.
I have been there where I felt so guilty about taking time for myself, even when I was feeling so exhausted. And so that's a key point here is, if you're feeling guilty about taking time for yourself, that's a red flag. That's a big red flag because it means that you're putting other people ahead of you.
And I love the analogy of the oxygen mask on the airplane, you know, put the oxygen mask on yourself first before you help others. And so when I would teach that and tell that to other people, it's like, "Yeah, I get it," but I wasn't actually doing it myself.
And so it's like, okay, if you're feeling guilty about taking time for yourself, remember the oxygen mask. So, you know, if you have kids, it's like, well, if something happens to you, what's gonna happen to them? So making a time for self-care is key.
And then the third thing is to actually have a balance of activities, okay? So what this means is that you're not just doing the hard-driving, hard-pushing activities all the time. So you're actually doing activities that help you to relax, that help you to feel nourished, that help you to feel cared for, and this is a whole piece about the divine feminine.
It's really getting connected with that and recognizing that it's not about doing, doing, doing, but it's actually about being and receiving and enjoying the beautiful life that you've been given.
And so these three things, prioritizing it, making time for self-care, and having a balance of activities, are really key to avoid burnout, to avoid the depletion of the hormones, and to really bring you into a healthier balance of the divine feminine and divine masculine.
So I'd love to hear from you:
- What are some of your favorite self-care practices?
- What are some things that you do to really nurture yourself and to bring you into that relaxed state?
- And if you have any questions about this, I'd love to hear from you as well.
So, I hope that this has been helpful for you, and I look forward to connecting with you in the next episode. Take care.
