Day after day, throughout my forty-plus years as a practicing OB/Gyn., I continue to see a common thread among the women in my practice. At some point in their adult lives all have experienced a season or seasons of feeling overwhelmed by life’s everyday demands.
Maybe you are facing a stressful situation or feeling overwhelmed with the demands of managing and meeting everyone’s schedules while trying hard to keep a healthy home and work-life balance. Your biggest stressor may be caring for aging parents while at the same time caring for young children, health issues, a looming financial-crises, or maybe trying to navigate life in an over-digitalized world. Just one of these challenges triggers your brain to release an overload of stress hormones that create, within your body, a number of physiological changes.
There is hope for every woman who has ever felt overwhelmed, overcommitted, overextended, over-expected, overworked, over-digitalized, over-controlled, and let’s not leave out two of the most important overs’— overmedicated and overprescribed. My gosh, are you now experiencing the feeling of being completely OVER IT?
So, how do you find relief and where do you begin? I’m glad you asked. The road to experiencing optimal health and balance is filled with twists and turns along the way. Health is everchanging, its fluid because life is forever changing and guess what, our hormones are everchanging too.
Step one in the process is to get in touch with who you are as a woman by learning to trust yourself. This will help you to gain intuitiveness and self-awareness when it comes to how you are really feeling physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
Step two is engaging the help of a practitioner you trust who will partner with you as you strive to balance your hormones. Whether you are 25 or 85 years old, keeping your hormones in balance has everything to do with achieving your best health outcome. Life management, mindset and stress management are also important when it comes to balancing life’s overdone challenges.
The third step to living a hope-filled life is to eat a healthy diet, exercise regularly and get plenty of sleep. Eating a nutritional diet will ensure your body has essential nutrients and will make sure it’s in hormone balance. You will enjoy glowing skin, a better mood and have a higher energy level. Your body has an incredible ability to heal and functions optimally when it is in balance. Feed your body healthy nutrients and it will flourish. Engage in some form of exercise for at least 20 minutes 5 days per week. Exercise clears your mind, keeps your heart healthy and the endorphins released when you exercise help with mental well-being. The optimum amount of sleep is 8 hours a night. Sleep reboots your hormones. It’s important to establish a consistent bedtime, turn off your electronics at least one hour before going to bed, keep your sleeping area dark and cool and release your day’s stress.
These three steps will help you to move from being in a state of overdone that eventually leads to feelings of hopelessness to living a life filled with hopefulness. When you take care of your body and strive to keep your hormones balanced, you will find your body will take care of you. Remember, there is always hope, it’s up to you to choose to embrace it.