The hidden cost of stress in menopause

00:00 Similar symptoms in perimenopause and stress. Consider causes.
06:13 Stress and caffeine contributed to high blood pressure.
07:49 Addressing sleep disturbances through lifestyle adjustments and self-awareness.
10:42 Physical symptoms of chronic stress: low energy, digestive issues, colon cancer.
14:50 Using positive tactics for more energy and productivity.
18:44 Nature offers a meditative experience through sensory presence.
20:42 Positive mindset linked to health and happiness.
25:46 Overcame doubts during menopause, now advocating possibility.
26:51 Lessons learned, improved life, coping strategies embraced.
30:38 Celebrating progress and self-care for midlife.

In this episode, you'll hear:

1. The connection between stress and physical health: We discuss the profound impact of chronic stress on our bodies, addressing the physical symptoms and the interconnectedness of thoughts, emotions, and health. Learn how to recognize the biofeedback signals and adopt proactive stress management.

2. Unveiling the power of mindset: Discover the influence of mindset on our physical health and the potential connection between beliefs and coping with menopause and life challenges. We share our personal experiences and strategies for reframing, cognitive behavioral therapy, and controlling responses to situations.

3. Embracing self-care and finding joy: We emphasize the importance of slowing down, setting boundaries, and prioritizing self-care during midlife. Find out how to listen to your intuition, reduce stress, and engage in activities that bring you joy and peace.

Stay Connected!
Amelia

• Website: https://www.thehelpfulplate.com/
• IG: https://www.instagram.com/thehelpfulplate/

Cam

• Website: https://www.camoyler.com/
• IG: https://www.instagram.com/heymomma_cam/
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@heymomma_cam

Midlife Mommas IG: https://www.instagram.com/midlife.mommas/

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Transcript

0:05

Yikes, Amelia. We better run for cover. Hi. I'm Cam, Holistic health coach, mom to 2 humans and 4 pets. Hi. I'm Amelia, Laboratory scientist by day and food scientist by night. Welcome to our show. Join us as we share our holistic approach to life after 50. You can expect real life stories with a dash of humor and a ton of truth. If it happens in midlife, we're going to talk about it. So hit that subscribe button and follow along. We're the Midlife Mommas. Absolutely. Run for cover from what, you may ask? And we're talking about stress. Run for cover when you feel that stress ball in your body. Oh my gosh. And today is a very stressful day in my life. I was just telling Amelia we had a leak, which flooded the the basement laundry room, and it's one of those days. So I need some help. Can you help me? I will try. So, actually, this kinda started we were talking about the hidden cost of stress because probably a couple of weeks ago, I told Cam that I felt like stress had been literally killing me as I began to kind of untangle from some of my chronic stress. And I was, like, amazed at how much how much I had improved my health when I didn't feel that low level chronic stress. So we're gonna unpack that a little bit today. Yeah. And I think I'm reading a book, and that's where the hidden cost of stress, that's the tagline. The book is called when your body says no, the hidden cost of stress. And so that's kind of like it was life and the book and all of these things kind of coming together. And we've talked about it numerous times that multitasking is a big fat lie, and we we should stop it immediately. Yeah. Absolutely. And, I mean, I think that some of the things we're gonna talk about today are actual physical symptoms, and this will go nicely with, compared to our talk we had with Jessica last week about, perimenopause, and just kinda something that some of the symptoms that she experienced. But stress symptoms and menopause symptoms can look eerily similar. So if you're at this phase of life, think about what might be causing some of this stuff, because this is real. And I think I still think we need to rewire our thinking as far as, you know, it's a badge of honor doing everything and handling it all and being the super wife and the super mom and the super employee and all the things when in reality, what's what's the cost? We're we're paying the cost. Our body is paying the cost. That's what I'd like to say. Yeah. Absolutely, Cam. And I feel like it's such a cultural expectation. You know, when we talk about stepping back from those obligations and shoulds, because we talk about the shoulds, we think we might be failing ourselves or someone else, and nothing could be further from the truth. You might be failing yourself because your health will go down the toilet. Like, that's what I think. Exactly. Instead of keeping up the societal norm or whatever whatever it is, making it look all shiny on the outside. We've talked about this before growing up in with Southern mommas, like everything looks great on the outside, but on the inside, maybe rotten to the core. And so that's what stress does. Does. Yeah. And, I mean, I think that it's even it's especially poignant in today's era of social media where you, like, not only is it shiny on the outside, but that's what people are, like, whitewashing their lives. They're just showing you the highlight reels. And if you're not careful, you will digest that stuff and actually internalize it. And then comes that negative thought pattern of, well, I'm not like that. I'm not that good. So I feel like there's just so many nuances to this subject. And one of the other facets that we have written down is one other thing that does this is you cannot get If you can't get past the past, if you have, had a failure or a misstep or a miscommunicate, whatever, if you can't get over that, you're like reliving this trauma constantly. 100%. And this is perfect timing. So yesterday, after we recorded with Jessica, I went and had acupuncture done. And so when we have unprocessed emotions, we store them physically in our body. And the process of acupuncture or massage or anything like that has the ability to remove or move those emotions, and she was putting needles in, I think it was in my neck side, and I had tears in my eyes. And I was like, oh, okay. And, anyway, it was about emotion. We were talking about my kids, going to visit my kids, and then going to see my mommas all of this. And it was just, like, really perfect timing to let those emotions go. You know? Yeah. And, Cam, you said something about emotions are meant to be in motion and there's some what are they called if they get stuck? Ain't there a different word? I don't know. That mean, we can get literally, like, physical knots in your body. Like, do you hold your stress in your shoulder? And this is what I'm learning, Amelia. Like like, in the neck area is more about control. Anything on your back is more about your past, which is why that's why I'm telling you this story. It was, you know, past being triggered by past events. Yeah. Is your back like, your left side is your feminine and your right side is your masculine. And so, I mean, our bodies are amazingly smart, and we're not smart sometimes when we are not in touch with ourselves, but our bodies are giving us literally clues about where we're holding the stress. But here's another example. Women tend to hold their stress in their hips. That is that's where their emotions are. And what do we create right around their hips? We create life. We create babies. And so Absolutely. Yeah. All of the physical is also connected to the emotional. But you're right. Emotions should be in motion, and we get them stuck, and then we replay them in our mind. And, you know, if we keep doing that, if we keep ruminating in negativity, we actually can cause disease in our body. That's shocking. Yes. And I believe that wholeheartedly. And that's kinda what was the genesis of this episode because it's taken me months of time, but I would say probably close to a year ago, I went to the doctor just for a checkup, and my blood pressure was on the high end of mommas. And I was just so surprised, like, what's up with that? And she was like, well, go pee. Sometimes when you have to pee, your blood pressure's high. And I was like, alright. Whatever. And it came down, but I think all of the chronic stress was just, like and I I was caffeinated because I always am first thing in the morning. But, I think that was a a telltale sign that I hadn't really realized. And she told me to start taking coq10 and curcumin, which I did. I'm not discounting the benefit of supplements that will help you physically. But what I'm saying is if you don't help yourself with your attitude and how you approach life, all of the supplements and all that stuff, you might as well just be wasting your money. Like, you've got to address the problem. 100%. We just talked about this in Move the Dial Wednesday. Like, you cannot if you have a crappy diet and you're taking 8 zillion supplements, like, you're putting the Band Aid on poo. Like, literally, you gotta get the base right first and then fill in the gaps. So I a 100% agree with you on that. Also perimenopause, I just wanna say that one of the consequences of menopause and losing our estrogen is, our lipid panel, our cholesterol is going to change, and our blood pressure is going to change. But how do we counteract that with our diet, with our mindset, and with our nutrition? And it can be reversed. So. Very cool. And one of the other things I experienced, actually a couple of things, but sleep disturbances, I had to kind of unpack. Once I, started taking my bio identical hormones, I'm taking magnesium, like, all of the things that we tell people to do, You know, I remove I I try. I don't always turn off the television an hour before bedtime, but removing others, you know, handheld screens, not thinking about work. So, a lot of the things we've told our listeners to do in our sleep talks, I've done. But still, I was having sleep disturbances, and I realized because I really paid attention to my biofeedback cam, if I thought about something stressful, I could feel my heart rate begin to increase. And that's not conducive to a restful sleep period. So I began to really pay attention to what my signs were, and, you know, we've talked about this before, and it's become such a pillar of health for me is that sleep thing. I mean, that is a real big deal for me. And I I'd like to, like, really shine a light on the story you just said. Your thoughts caused your body to physically react. So we can't separate we can't just put our thoughts and our emotions in one bucket and our health in another bucket. They are intertwined like a spider web. Yeah. And just going back to what you were saying about emotions getting stuck and with relation to emotions around maybe past experience. I had a little bit of the opposite experience with my I went to a family reunion last weekend, and it brought back memories of my childhood which were happy. And so, what I found this week and part of this journey of destressing is that for a little bit of time, I can divert my thoughts away from whatever that stressful thing is. It's not strict avoidance because I will have to address that thing, whether it's a work email or my child is having trouble or whatever. I have to address it, but I can remove my thoughts from that and go to this happy place. And we talked about it and people tease about, you know, go to your happy place. I think you can construct a place of comfort and peace in your mind. And it's 100%. It it works. Yeah. I'm working with a vocal coach right now and she calls them your go go boots. So she just did a TED Talk, which is really cool, and she put on her go go boots. Did she physically put them on? No. But these were boots from the eighties that she when she wore those, she felt it. You know what that means. You know. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So we all have go go boots or a situation or a happy memory that we can take ourselves back to there instantly. We can get out of the the drudge or the negativity of the past and take us ourselves to another. Our minds are amazing, and, like, we have this gift, and let's use it to promote our health rather than getting stuck in yucky past thoughts that you can't change? Like, what literally, what can you do about it? Yeah. Exactly. I just wanna mention a couple of other things that that happened to me when I was noticing a fair amount of of chronic stress. Low energy is 1 because I'm super high energy in general. And then the other thing, that I experienced personally was some digestive issues, Cam. And I've always thought that, you know and we talk we should be talking about this at our age. I mean, I know, you know, sex and poo are the 2 things, you know, nice southern women don't talk about. But, you know, colon cancer is on the rise. I have had a colonoscopy this year. I'm proud to say I had 0 polyps, so good for me. But, you know, if you are stressed, your body is going to divert that blood flow away from, you know, your digestion, and so there is no peaceful digestion. So I wanna say if you're carrying around a lot of chronic stress and you're feeling that racing heart, chances are you might have some digestive issues. It might be stopped up or it might be, you know, a little out of control on the other side. Yeah. And if it's stopped up, we're not, like, getting rid of the toxins, so we need it to flow. That's for sure. I I work with a lot of school teachers and I hear it all the time. And, yes, I was a school teacher. If one little thing messed up the morning, then you couldn't use the restroom then you weren't going that day or, you know, and it was horrible. Your stomach felt like a rock. So it happened to you too? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I don't have the, like, constraint. Like, I'm not in the classroom where I can't get away from, like, the what I what I need to do. But just, you know, and I find it with hydration. This completely off subject, but hydration, because it's summer now, that affects my bathroom schedule. But absolutely, you can divert that. Like, mentally, you can divert it because we're made to do that. Like, we're made once that once you you dump adrenaline or cortisol and you're, like, fleeing danger, you're not gonna have that urge. Let me just tell you. No. No. You're supposed to be running, not pooping. Right. Exactly. Exactly. And then the other thing, if you have loose bowels, let's just say that that I chronically, you're not absorbing nutrients. So that's another concern. So we just need it to be look up the Bristol stool chart. Yeah. And look at it every single day and see where you are because that is another way to get biofeedback, like what's happening with your digestion. Yeah. And I mean, you know, anxiety or irritability might be also a clue that you're having some chronic stress. I've experienced both of those. I haven't always been able to pinpoint my anxiety to stress because I'm so tied to performance that I just want everything to be great. But when I really feel it is when I think I'm humming along and then something happens and my I'm just blown. Like, I'm so angry and just can't cope. I'm like, okay. There's something wrong. This was a small thing. And cognitively, I know this isn't a correct response, but that's another piece of biofeedback for me. It's like, what is going on that I can't handle this small change? Yeah, I like that. And so how do you get out of it? What's your, do you put your go go boots on? What do you do? Well, in those situations, Cam, a lot of the time it's fatigue. So it traces back to it's like a vicious cycle of stress inducing sleep disturbances and that, you know, causes some of these other symptoms. So a lot of times I'm like, all right, girlfriend, you need to take a step back and you need to like completely decompress and detach from not from life, obviously, but from stressful stuff. Yeah. You whatever it is that fills your bucket again. Right. It goes to an yeah. I agree with that. My one of my signs is I get a stomachache. If Cam upset or nervous or uncomfortable, literally, I get a gut feeling, and it's in my gut. That's one. And then the other one is busy behind my eyes, which I would describe as a very busy brain, like, think overthinking. Too much thinking going on. So my one of my ways to unplug is literally take put my phone down because I work on my phone and it drives me crazy. I put my phone down and I usually go sit outside for a few minutes and or I love it. Or check on my tadpoles because they really are bringing me joy, and I'm seeing baby feet start to emerge, and that's what I do. I just go check out. I love that. And, you know, Cam, what I've noticed this week is I've really employed a lot of these tactics, is I have more energy. I've gotten more done this week. I'm not I'm tired. We're recording on a Friday afternoon, so I'm tired from the week, but I don't feel so completely, empty. And I think that when you when you spend less energy with worry and anxiety and stress, you do have more energy. So it's a positive cycle. And I'm feeling great, and I love it, and I just want to continue it. But I know that there's a lot of ways we can overcome this. Right? Oh, 100%. I would say getting outside is my number one way, but let's say let's talk about supplements for a minute. Like, what are your go to's when it comes to overcoming this? Like, how do you support your body? Yeah. Great question. Magnesium is my number one. I do up my magnesium when I'm feeling stressed. In fact, I take it at least twice a day, sometimes 3 times if I'm feeling stressed. I also use an adaptogen blend. I don't typically vary that dosage. I don't know why. It doesn't really make sense, but my adaptogen, I think, has like, ashwagandha, rhodiola. There might be it might be have some lemon balm. And and, Cam, I do have, in addition to what I take daily every day, I actually have another one that's called stress support that I actually I have one of those with me every day because I have a little supplement thing that I take to work for my midday. And if I'm feeling more stressed, I have, like, that backup right there that I can take. Mhmm. That's how I have something called stress balance, and I think rhodiola, holy basil, very similar. Mhmm. And it's not daily, but it's as needed. And yeah. And if I know I'm walking into a really busy week, that's like I put I put it in the front of the supplements, like, remember this? Yeah. Remember this one? Like, yeah. Lately, I've been taking extra magnesium just to help with my husband's out of town right now. I haven't been sleeping as like, falling asleep on the couch is not a good thing. So I've been taking extra magnesium the last couple days. So the thing about it is what we're saying is you don't have to take the same amount every single day. Right. Be your own expert on this. Be your experiment of 1. And if you need extra support, adaptogens and magnesium are your best friends. It's okay. Yeah. Absolutely. I'm a I'm a big believer in that stuff. Yeah. And you don't don't worry about, like, overdoing it. Right. Now if you take the wrong kind of magnesium, you're going to be in the bathroom, But I'm a fan of glycinate, and glycinate is very bioavailable and you your body which means your body can use it, which is the whole purpose of taking a supplement so your body can actually use it. So, anyway, hopefully, that's helpful to you. Magnesium and adaptogens for sure. Absolutely. And this next one is a, is a method I know you use, which is meditation. Yeah. And I really miss it if I don't do it. If something gets me off my a game in the morning, like the dog barking or something, it's yeah. I noticed a difference for sure. What about you? Yeah. I mean, I have a devotional time in the morning. I was gonna ask you, if you're, like, with your leak Mhmm. Is there any time where you stop and because you are stressed and you think, I need to have some centering or meditation time, or is it evening, but it's, you know, busier, I guess, in the hands here. And so what I love to do is go sit on my deck in this really comfortable chair and it faces sunrise. And I take my phone because I, like, guided meditations. That's just where I am right now. I don't do it on my own. And that's, like, morning light and coffee and meditation. I don't know. It's really nice. And when I don't do it, I miss it. Yeah. And I think we could almost consider, you mentioned this a few minutes ago, was getting outside or getting in nature. That can be meditative. You know, if you if you can get outside and listen to the birds or the trees if the wind is blowing, even traffic, like, if you just stop, if you go outside and literally listen to everything around you and you feel the air on your skin, whether that's heat or it's wind, if you can really be present with all of your senses, maybe you smell flowers, or maybe you smell dog poo, or maybe you smell truck exhaust. It doesn't matter. It doesn't all have to be pleasant. It's just the act of being present, and I think that can be meditative as well. 100%. And that would also, like, take you out of the ruminating past thoughts, like, be present. You want shared, Amelia. It was notice a color. No. Do you remember that? Yeah. A therapist had told me that years ago, and it was, like, 54321, and it was, like, 5 things you can see, 4 things you can hear, 3 things you can smell, 2 things you can touch, and I guess the last one would be taste. But, yeah, but it but it's a process, and it actually when you engage all your senses and pay attention, you really can't do anything else. You know, you're just there doing those things. Yeah. I think that's great. Because, really, the past, we can't do anything about it. We've already said that. And if it's causing your body stress internally, and you don't even know, like you know how I always say sugar makes you rest from the inside out? Right. Well, rust, excuse me. Stress does the same thing. So we we don't know the consequences of stress, but we if we're running on constant cortisol and constant adrenaline and we're not ever not getting out of that, we're never going into the parasympathetic side of our nervous system, the rest, digest, calm side, we're we're going to have some kind of illness or disease come up. 100%. And and, you know, Cam, running on that chronic stress, I got not worried because that kinda defeats this whole exercise, doesn't it? But I'm like, what if there is a tie? I I'm 56. I do not want to wake up one day and think I'm healthy and have a tumor somewhere, or you know what I mean? Like, that that I may have contributing contributed because I wasn't didn't have that healthy mindset. I just think there's such a strong connection between your thoughts and the weight and your health and your body. I just can't discount the idea that I need to think positively. And when I do, this week, I have been genuinely happy. I mean, I can be joyful in many situations. I can find joy, but happiness, we tend to think of as more circumstantial. But this week, I've really been able to be like, you know what? I'm so grateful, and it's just easier when I don't feel stressed. 100%. In the book, when your body says no, is all about that. It is talking about cancers and other things, ALS and whatever, but it all the emotional tie to it, creating the physical. And, actually, I watched his name's Bruce Lipton. I saw an excellent reel today on Instagram. And his book is the biology of belief, and it's called epigenetics. And literally, our family loads gives us our genes, but our lifestyle and our attitude and our mental, that's what loads the genes. It's like loading the gun. So I 100% believe that our mindset controls our physical health more than our genes, more than our genes, which is like, you know, takes a minute. Let it sink in. Yeah, I agree with you. It's profound. It seems simple, but when you start to live the life that makes it better, that, you know, kinda reduces the stress and you really take ownership and, authority over it. It's not easy. It does take practice every day for me. 100%. I do wanna quote one study from the book because it just was so impactful. There are 2 studies and they had very similar results. Women had lumps in their breasts and they were going in for biopsies. So they didn't know if it was cancer or not. They just knew they had a lump. With 94% accuracy, the psychologists were able to determine who had cancer and who did not based on their mindset and all of the things that we're talking about. That that's powerful. It's totally powerful. And in recent years, I've heard many, I don't know if they're professionals or gurus or whatever, talk about manifesting. And I was really reticent to really buy into that because it did sound kinda woo woo, but I think there's a certain amount of truth to that. You know, can we manifest anything we want? And maybe not. Maybe you're not gonna manifest that, you know, half a $1,000,000 salary next year. I don't know. Maybe you can. If you can, please let me know how you did it. But I think certain things, you can. I made some, goals when I turned 50. I still have the notebook that I wrote it in, and a lot of that stuff has come true. And I wasn't even a 1000 per percent committed, but I created something in my mind to say, this is what I'm working towards. And I think 8 out of 10 of them I've actually achieved. And it's your mind is so powerful. Yeah. What would what if you the 2 remaining that are still undone or whatever. What if you went in, like, a 100% and you just knew it was gonna happen? What do you think would happen? I don't I'm sure it would. Like and I need to pull out, like, that's been almost 7 years ago, so I need to pull that out. I just remember thinking to myself, the last time I looked at was probably 3 years ago, and I think I am shocked. Like, I'm really shocked that all of this has come to pass. It was things like international travel. Like, I'm not a very well traveled person, but I've been in the last, like, 3 years. I've been to Costa Rica. I've been to Spain a couple of times. Seems like I've been somewhere. And I'm like, it's not like I, like, set like, on this day, I'm going. It just happened. I love that. It's woo woo and I love it. It is it is a little bit woo woo. But, you know, I'm like living proof and I'm a little bit of a skeptic. One of the other things that we and this is basically exactly what we're talking about is reframing. And my therapist actually called it. She was like she introduced the idea of, I think it's cognitive behavioral therapy, which is a woo not a woo woo. That's like a psychologist term. And she was like, I hate to use this with people, but so many of my clients ask. And she's like, that's what we do. Like, that is literally what we're doing. And so the idea that an action or an act or a situation occurs, and but then the behavior, your response to it, you think you can't control it, but you can. And then that, of course, influences the outcome. And just it's a thought. 100%. Menopause we can't control the thing, but we can control how we react to the thing. Is that what she was talking about? Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And it's powerful. Like, you have a choice. Do you want to raise your cortisol and cause inflammation in your body or do you wanna choose something else? And, you know, Cam, for years, I was convinced I couldn't do it. You know, my husband and I would talk and I was like, I just can't. I'm not rational. Like, I don't understand. I think this was probably in my late forties, early fifties when I was really struggling with the menopause, with the, you know, estrogen roller coaster, and I really believed I couldn't. And I don't really know how I started doing it other than us talking like this every single week and telling other people. It just kind of happened. So I'd like for our listeners to know that this is possible. Don't stop believing in yourself. My cat's meowie. Did you hear him? It's adorable. Absolutely. He's trying to jump up here. But don't you think, Cam, that you can, even if you're in a tough spot now that you just gotta keep believing in yourself? 100%. My forties were a bunch of poo, let me tell you. I mean, I quit teaching in 2009. Yeah. That was one thing. And then I went through a really yucky divorce and over exercised and ended my decade with a hysterectomy and menopause. It was really a bunch of poo. Yeah. But today, I mean, looking back, okay, so there were so many lessons during that time period. And here I am 55, and life is so much better. And I appreciate what happened, so I can appreciate today. I'm not like there are many times in my forties where I'd be stuck in the past. Like, I can't believe that happened, and what should I have said, or what could I have done, all of that self, cam it didn't serve me at all. So then I would go to the gym to get out of my mind, to get in my body. That was how I coped through this situation. And then also I worked with a therapist. And so, like, all of those things, I finally just said, it yeah. Let let's just stop that. Now there's still more stuff. I mean, that's why I was crying at acupuncture yesterday. I'm just uncovering the next onion layer. So But all that's good. And, I mean, I I have often owned journal for, you know, 10 years, and I haven't in a while, but there are entries that I remember where I'm like, there's all of this pause this talk about positive thoughts and how. Like, I don't understand how. Mhmm. So I was really questioning, and I went through a really big slump of, like, this is impossible. I just am not that person. And, of course, I came through it just like everybody else does, but you have to try. You cannot stop believing that it's possible. I felt exactly the same way about meditation, and I I think I'm about a year in, and I'm not perfect, and I don't like, whatever, levitate. Like, I don't do that. You know, I'm not floating around in my house, but I can't tell you how much better my brain feels when I menopause it. There's less, I don't know, busy thoughts or overthinking. It's just more it's just calmer. And that's a good thing. I mean, you know, we talked about it with Jessica, we talk about it all the time, the midlife awakening. It's not a time to multitask, it's not a time to do more. I think our lives, just talking to you, we're plenty busy and we have lots of fun, but this overdoing that such a cultural norm is such a crop of crock of crap. Like, that's not necessary, and it's not healthy. A 100%. I was invited to go hiking yesterday, but I've already done, like, 2 social events this week, and I said, nope. I'm good. I'm like, I I just put a boundary out like cam Amelia does. I said, no. No. Thank you. And then I sent her a funny meme Yeah. That I had done enough. And she goes, oh, I get this. Yeah. You know, and I'm just the opposite. Like, I've been working this week. I got a, invitation to go to the US Open this weekend, which by the time this is aired, you know, that's long gone. But I'm super excited. I haven't seen this friend in a number of weeks and probably, like, 2 months. And so I'm excited. So you have to give what your body needs, whether that's social or a little bit more solitude or what the walk in the woods or reading a book, you'll know. I think, you know, you're you're into intuition. You'll know what you need. Yeah. You just have to slow down enough to pay attention. So tomorrow is my self care day. There are no humans at my house, just animals, and it's just gonna be really good. I love that because I know that it's gonna by the time Monday rolls around and Dan gets back and, you know, like, you'll be like, I'm so glad I took that day for myself. Yeah. Because I was gonna jam it in, and it's like an hour drive to where we were going. And then I was like, no, that's just I don't wanna do that. I have a lot coming up in the next 2 weeks, and I'm like, nope. I'm gonna stay home. Thank you, though. Yeah. And you were proactive about managing your stress, knowing you've got a lot coming up. Why jam it all in now and induce stress and then, you know, it just it compounds. 100%. And I'll be packing extra magnesium and extra stress balance with me when I have my next 2 weeks coming up. Well, I'm so proud of you. I'm proud of me Yeah. Because this has been a long journey, and I just hope our listeners, you know, will take stock and pay attention to those physical signs that you may be overextended or overstressed and really believe in yourself that you can make a change. Thanks for listening today. You can find us on Instagram @midlife.mommas For all of our other contact info, check out the show description below, and we will talk to you next week.