This week we are talking about neuroendocrine science. What does that even mean? My guest Dr. Sonya Jensen is going to explain it all. I’ve known Dr. Sonya for a long time and she is doing beautiful work. She’s going to tell us what’s going on with women, especially in the United States, that we are being given the wrong signals from a very young age. It’s really inhibiting our normal hormonal physiology and it’s manifesting as disease. It’s manifesting as cysts, fibroids, endometriosis, and infertility. Then you go and add on top of it, medical interventions, which are making the situation worse, such as synthetic hormones.
Hello, World!
It’s really important for you to listen to and share this episode with every woman you know. Especially women who are raising young girls because we need to break this cycle. We need to do things differently in this country. Going forward with our younger girls, we need to help them embrace becoming women.
I am here to bring the truth to ladies. I am here to open all of our eyes and help us see that the medical system is broken. We don’t need the white coats telling us how to feel better. We need to listen to our body’s innate wisdom. It has an innate intelligence that knows what it’s doing. We need to remove those impedances and interferences and break those patterns of dysfunction. You’re on the mission with me to reclaim our health and take back control because the medical system isn’t doing it for us.
My expert guest today is going to talk about figuring out if you have little stressors and traumas, changing the narrative of your story, how to embrace your hormones, and all about feeling balanced.
In this blog post, we are going to talk about…
Growing up and the “little traumas” we may have faced.
How to figure out if you have little stressors and traumas.
Changing the narrative of your story.
The story of your hormones.
How to embrace your hormones.
Steps and tools to help you make a shift in your life.
The biggest struggles you may face while making that shift.
The type of man you desire.
All about birth control and knowing what you are signing up for when taking it.
A day in the life of a balanced woman.
About Dr. Sonya Jensen
Dr. Sonya Jensen is a naturopathic physician. She’s on a mission to change the way women understand their bodies and themselves. That’s why I connect with her so much. She believes that women are the center of their families and communities and therefore by supporting them, she is creating a ripple effect that will support the whole overall.
She wrote her book, Woman Unleashed: Release Your Story, Revive Your Hormones, Reclaim Your Freedom, and got it out to the world and I’m super excited to share it with you guys. It’s going to help you understand why your body is in hormone chaos. She talks about how the things that we experience as far back as being in our mother’s womb, create our physiology. The experiences that we have down to simple interpreting facial expressions as a toddler from our parents or our caregivers, really imprints and changes the chemical reactions that happen in our body and the resulting hormonal releases that happen. Over time these experiences create our physiology and get us into a pattern of behavior, which then even drives that pattern deeper into our psyche and into our physiology and that becomes our hormonal blueprint.
This book is super important for you to understand why you are in the place that you are right now. And more importantly, she gives you tools to get out of it. Let’s acknowledge what’s going on and then let’s figure out how to move through it, change our hormonal blueprint, and live a better, more vibrant, amazing life.
Dr. Sonya is a mother of two boys, a yoga teacher of workshop and retreat leader, a podcast there, she runs her practice with her husband, where they help their community move into a state of thriving and surviving. She believes it’s everyone’s birthright to live a happy, healthy, joyful, and abundant life. I know that can happen for you, you need to believe that’s where the shift needs to happen is you need to believe that for yourself and Dr. Sonia is going to help you figure out how to do that.
Welcome, Dr. Sonya to the Gutsy Gynecologist Podcast!
Dr. Tabatha: I’m super excited for this conversation because what you have unveiled is a big deal and I’m excited for you to talk about it. Not enough people talk about what we’re doing to the women and the girls in our country.
What prompted you to write this book?
Dr. Sonya: It’s such an important conversation that we’re not having enough of. My own personal story prompted me and the work I’ve been doing with women for so many years. Seeing the pattern that has developed, the imprints and beliefs that hold us back, and just kind of reverse engineering why women experience what they do. Why they’re getting sick, why they’re feeling like they’re not worthy of a healthy body or a joyous life, and really trying to understand the psyche of where all that begins. What I came to were these deep-rooted and embedded stories that started maybe generations before and then in the womb. And as we’re growing up, we start to learn these identities that aren’t even ours, that really frame our entire existence. From that place, it really does intersect with our physiology, which then changes our personality, which then changes the actions we’re taking for ourselves, it just takes over. So, I really think it’s time for us to take that power back, that was either taken from us, or we kind of gave, because we thought we had to so that we can really thrive in this time that we have on this earth.
Watch the video version of this interview here.
Dr. Tabatha: I completely understand what you’re saying, because I too, have been studying it and really trying to investigate and figure it out for my patients.
Growing Up & Little Traumas
Dr. Tabatha: What do you mean, what happened to you in the womb or as a child growing up, all of those little traumas? How does that shape us as women and affect our hormones and our physiology?
Dr. Sonya: I’m glad you brought up little traumas because often people think when we say trauma or stress, it has to be something huge that has happened. But when we’re in the womb, we’re gathering information from our mother’s hormones. So depending on her stress levels and how she’s experiencing life, that’s going to dictate our foundation when it comes to our hormonal blueprint.
When we come into the world, we start to observe our environment and how people are responding to us. Maybe when you were a child you were running and waving your hands in the air screaming, being yourself, and then all of a sudden you look at an adult and they’re giving you a disappointed look. That in itself is a trauma, a micro-trauma that tells you, “Hey, if you express yourself, if you use your voice, you’re going to disappoint someone.” If you disappoint someone you may feel like you’re going to get kicked out of your tribe. Then you’re not going to feel safe and feel like you belong.
This is all happening in that subconscious space. As we’re gathering this information, the brain is so intelligent that it starts to understand your environment and what feels dangerous, and what feels safe. It starts to categorize.
Now that we have these triggers in our environment, maybe it’s a smell or a facial expression that we see on somebody. It could be anything and the brains like okay, “I got you.” The amygdala starts to wake up, it starts to ask your limbic system for information about where we felt this emotion before and what did that experience feel like? It goes to your hippocampus to gather that memory, and then all of them signal your hypothalamus, which then signals your pituitary gland to release the stress hormones or the appropriate hormones to deal with that moment.
But imagine being in that moment all the time. When we’re doing the simple things in life, like making lunch for our kids, taking them to school, getting ready for a meeting in a boardroom, sitting in traffic, or maybe we’re just looking in the mirror. And we’re having all these thoughts show up. That same response is happening and then we get stuck in that state of surviving instead of thriving. So now cortisol, adrenaline, and insulin are up, and testosterone, progesterone, estrogen, these hormones that help us thrive, kind of take a backseat. The adrenals are maxed out, PMS, fibroids, endometriosis, all these different manifestations, and the symptoms have a story that started long ago.
Dr. Tabatha: It’s so important to figure out why you feel the way you do and why you behave the way you behave. The only way to change how you feel is with your behavior. That has to go back to how you’re thinking because that changes your feeling and your behavior. You laid that out so beautifully.
For women, I feel like we need to go back and start to change how we talk to our children. I see this all the time, with moms wanting to put their girls on birth control pills and damping, the signals that our bodies trying to send us and talk to us as opposed to getting in tune with them and listening to our innate wisdom.
How To Figure Out If You Have Little Stressors and Traumas
Dr. Sonya: The first step is shifting, going forward, and really working on the physical body. Then you can actually have space to unravel what needs to be unraveled. I don’t think we need to sit on our stories. I think we need to look at them, especially if there’s pain there. It’s important to look at it, understand it, understand the gifts that you received from it and even the challenges. Then you move through it instead of distracting yourself from it or just owning parts of ourselves that maybe are still lost in that pain. I think accepting that that was a part of our life is what’s going to help us move forward. Then we can start making these decisions. But really, it comes with that first decision of, “Okay, I’m ready to self discover.” That can mean I’m ready to understand what my cycle is like all month. What foods do I need to eat? What herbs do I need to take? What support do I need that’s going to support my body?
The first thing I’m noticing the first two weeks of my cycle, is I love my husband then all of a sudden I ovulate and I could care less about him. If those things are happening and you’re finding something that switches inside of you, then there’s some pattern that needs to be unraveled. So taking that first step of seeking help and seeking that knowledge is going to give you space to open up and start to understand your hormonal blueprint because everyone’s story is going to be so unique and different.
It can feel scary to unravel things. We all have a story. We’ve built an identity and a life on that story almost because it gave us this framework. That framework now is known and familiar. What we have to understand is, if we don’t give ourselves that time, the body will start to show us. We’re going to start creating cysts, fibroids, and discomfort. This is because our soul is trying to whisper all of these signs to us.
It doesn’t have to be hard. It can be these little things that we do. It could be gratitude every day, looking at ourselves in the mirror and saying “You are worth it,” whether you believe it or not. You’re taking that step to say “Hey, yes, you are important.” It could be a cup of tea that you have by yourself for a few minutes. It’s the little simple things that you do. Keep telling yourself and reinforce that you are worth it. Then you’ll seek the right help, you’ll get the guidance, and then that is where the journey begins.
Dr. Tabatha: I think to acknowledge what you’ve been through and that you don’t want to be there anymore. You’re tired of feeling the way you’re feeling and just make a choice that you’re going to do things differently. And that requires acting differently.
Practicing gratitude was a major shift for me. As soon as you’re awake in the morning and before you get out of bed start listing five things you are grateful for. Repeat this as you go to sleep at night. It shifted my energy from negative to positive and that changes your physiology.
I would love for women to embrace the idea that stuff happens and let’s change the narrative.
Dr. Sonya’s Book “Woman Unleashed”
Change the Narrative
Dr. Tabatha: How do we shift and change the narrative instead of getting caught up in the micro-trauma memories of those moments?
Dr. Sonya: I think self-awareness really is key. Educating ourselves on the fact that, that does have such a huge influence on who we are today. So when we have those moments show up in our life take a pause.
Viktor Frankl talks a lot about the pause between stimulus and response. That is where our true freedom lies. We have a microsecond to make a decision. So we’re either going to react or we’re going to respond. If we can strengthen that space in between, we then can ask a question.
So notice, I’m having this reaction. Who does this belong to? Where have I felt this before? Is this actually mine? Is there truth to this reaction? How I respond will determine what’s coming next. Do I want that?
So seeding these questions in ourselves gives us this moment to observe ourselves rather than getting caught up in the emotion. Then we can use that emotion for information. We can use anger as fuel for action, we can use grief to understand love even more deeply, we can use sadness to understand what we feel like we’re lacking or where we feel stuck. We can use it as an opportunity, rather than it taking control over us.
Which I understand, when you’re hormonal, when things are happening, and for some women, it might be in the PMS period, perimenopause, or menopause and you’re just feeling like you have no control over those pause moments and thoughts. So, then it really is checking out your physiology and looking at where your hormones are sitting so you can support yourself and can dive a little bit deeper.
Dr. Tabatha: It’s so important to recognize that by not doing that work and acknowledging all that, that’s how you got into hormone imbalance in the first place, right?
Story of Your Hormones
Dr. Sonya: That story starts, like I said, in the womb, and even in our grandmother’s womb. When we’re growing in our mother’s ovaries, and when all of that is existing, the imprints are already being embedded. So to understand that story and the blueprint has already started long before. So people might think, “Well, okay, then I can’t do anything about it.” But yes, we can. We can change how we’re responding to that imprint.
Then as we come out, we are again, navigating our environment according to the signals we’re getting from it. So when we’re having that first surge of DHEA, at around between three and six years old, if we’re under a lot of stress, we know that DHEA and cortisol have an inverse relationship. So if there’s a lot of cortisol surging through you, maybe because of a stressful environment, your first foundation of DHEA is going to be low.
There have been studies done on Holocaust victims and their children being born with adrenal insufficiency. So again, understanding that story about yourself kind of gives us more grace so that we know that, “Okay, this is why I feel this way, there’s nothing wrong with me, this is just the communication that’s happening and I just need to change that communication in my hormones.”
Then as we’re moving through those first few years before our period and before puberty. Understanding that there are different hormones that play there before even your estrogen and progesterone start to rise. And like you were saying, with birth control, once a woman has her first period, that first moment, it takes up to 12 years for ovulation to regulate itself. So, if you throw birth control in the picture, now, you’ve already taken that wisdom away that you were speaking to.
A good friend of mine, her little girl had her first period, and I took it upon myself to make sure I Face Timed her. And I said, “Look how amazing your body is, look how powerful you are.” I really think changing the narrative that we are planting in young women’s minds is also going to help that story of their hormones as we age because so many things are going to influence it as you know.
Dr. Tabatha: So without a doubt, if we are empowering our girls, as soon as they start having their periods, wouldn’t you agree that their hormones are more likely to be in balance? That they’ll be less likely to have cramping, pain, and PMS? All of these issues that are so often associated with young girls in their periods happen because I think that is them fighting against what’s naturally supposed to be happening, as opposed to embracing it and figuring out how to thrive with it. Right?
How to Embrace Your Hormones
Dr. Sonya: Yeah, I love that. We really start it ourselves because I think we all fight it. That’s just the conditioning of our culture. If we moved with the rhythm of our cycle, I think everything would be so different. But the environment, culture, and the society we live in are more of that patriarchal society, which doesn’t really understand how to move with a rhythm of a woman.
So if we were moving with a rhythm of a woman, then her first two weeks of her cycle would be when she’d be working more or doing all the actionable things. Then during the luteal phase and during her period, she’s really slowing down and being more internal and we’re not really given that opportunity. But if we can teach young women to listen to that and that you don’t have to expect yourself to have the same amount of energy throughout the month or the same abilities throughout the month. Then we’re giving them more grace towards themselves and understanding that, “Oh, I’m cramping” and they can ask themselves, “What was it this month that influenced my body? Am I not getting enough magnesium? Am I not eating well? Was my gut not working well? What can I do to shift that?” It’s so empowering to give them that information.
Dr. Tabatha: Let’s pass on this knowledge and not let girls get caught up in this anymore. I have young kids as well. I have a daughter and a stepdaughter who are 11 and this is all ahead of them. I want them to learn how to embrace it, not go on the birth control pill to try to suppress the symptoms and go down the path of leaky gut and vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
Photo by: Sai De Silva
Steps and Tools to Make That Shift
Dr. Sonya: I have pause moments in each chapter. They include a visualization, you can listen to our meditation, and there are some yoga sets that you can use to get anchored into your body. There are other exercises you can use to self-discover a story that is yours and then utilize those tools to move through them. Then start again and ask the different questions that we spoke about in the beginning. Where did this come from? How is it serving me now? What is it that I’m attached to?
There’s also a questionnaire that helps you figure out where you sit in the triangle of disconnect. Are you the Duchess, Diva, or Damsel? How are we operating in our world today? Where’s that operating system? Where was it born? How can we utilize the strengths of each one of those archetypes so that we can move forward? Again, not negating what we’ve learned, who we are, and parts of ourselves, but utilizing it in a way where it’s really going to help momentum forward.
Dr. Tabatha: Where do you see with your patients the biggest obstacle? Where do women get stuck in this process?
Biggest Struggles
Dr. Sonya: One big thing is if they don’t have the support from their family. So this is where I try to recreate communities. I have a group of women that I’m taking through the book so that they don’t feel alone. They understand that there is this common theme and thread that weaves between all of us women and our stories may manifest differently. But really, there’s such a commonality there that you are not alone.
It also brings up all those beliefs like, “Oh, maybe I’m not worth living that life that I was meant to live or I don’t have the resources.” So I would say that is the biggest obstacle because we’re so used to putting everyone else before ourselves.
Dr. Tabatha: I completely agree. I think that we feel like we’re the only ones. But as I was reading your book and I saw you talking about your life at 13 and you were miserable and hated your life. I felt the same way and had those same types of moments. And I just thought, “I wonder how many women out there can relate to this?”
We need to share our stories more and lift each other up and realize that we’re all going through it, even though it’s manifesting differently, we’re all feeling the same experience, right?
Dr. Sonya: Absolutely. I think what we’ve been taught is to compare and compete. We were compared when we were young, or just the imprint is there, and we forget that vulnerability really is our superpower and that that is the connector and women are meant to connect.
Oxytocin is the hormone of connection and love and that is the ultimate healer for the world. I think the world has been put into this space of such disconnect that we have forgotten that every individual on this planet is connected. The more connected we feel with ourselves, the greater ability we have to see the gifts in each other and see them as ourselves as well. Then we want to lift each other up instead of our insecurities, ego, or stories wanting to climb over the top of somebody.
I heard Brene Brown talking the other day and she was talking about how she describes the inner flame to her kids. She gets them to cup their hand and she says, “This is your flame that you have to protect and you want to surround yourself with people that won’t want to turn that flame off. When there’s wind they cup it for you to protect it.” That’s who we want to be around and that’s what we want to exude into the world so we get that in return. I really think that’s what’s going to move everything forward.
Dr. Tabatha: Yeah, without a doubt. I love the idea of teaching our children this, especially our girls because like you said, we are so competitive and we’re so judgmental toward ourselves and toward each other.
I grew up with such judgmental friends and it’s ingrained into me to this day that I judge every little piece of me when I look in the mirror. You have to mindfully go and undo all of that crap every single day. It gets easier and less often, but it’s still there.
Dr. Sonya: Absolutely. I shared on my Instagram the other day that I have such a challenge receiving. So as I’ve been receiving all this amazing feedback and women sharing their stories, it’s still so hard for me to open my heart up to actually take that in. For so long I had protected my heart. I understand that part of mem and I’m really trying to say thank you, instead of deflecting everything that comes my way. It takes effort every day.
Dr. Tabatha: I remember my ex-husband would get so angry that I wouldn’t accept compliments. I always deflected and like you said, it’s so important and I hope everyone hears you. To this day, you wrote the book and you still have issues. We’re a work in progress, but it’s worth doing, right?
Dr. Sonya: You learn so much about yourself and it gives you hope every single time. Comparison and judgment take hope and faith away and when that’s taken away, what are we left with? It instills more and more of that old pattern. There’s so much I’m carrying that I don’t have to carry and it’s a journey. There’s no such thing as perfection.
Dr. Tabatha: Some women don’t necessarily want to go deep. It’s hard and a lot of work, but I want women to understand that you can’t heal a body you hate.
Dr. Sonya: Yeah, it’s that relationship with yourself. You see this especially when it comes to food. How you digest life is how you digest your food. If you’re not able to digest this life that you’ve created, you’re not going to be able to digest or give yourself nourishment with the nutrients that you’re trying to even if you do all the right things. There will always be that voice behind you saying something else. It’s important to understand where that’s coming from.
Dr. Tabatha: I see that all the time. We do gut-healing work, detox, or intermittent fasting, but if you have thoughts and old belief patterns stuck on repeat things will not shift or they’ll shift for a moment and they’ll go right back.
I talked about how long-term hormone balance is not something that you’re going to get by giving hormones, it’s by doing the bigger work, wouldn’t you agree?
Working On Your Hormones
Dr. Sonya: Yeah and it’s always changing. Your story is always evolving and changing as you age and as life shifts. So I think another misconception is, once you balance them, they’re balanced. Yeah, but really, that’s just the starting point. Now you understand what balanced feels like so when you aren’t feeling balanced you know what that feels like.
Dr. Tabatha: Different seasons of your life are going to require different behaviors and needs.
Dr. Sonya: I think another important piece is to communicate your season to your family, especially your partner. That way they have an understanding of where you’re at in your season so they can support you. We’re often in our own world, but if we share that with our partners the easier the flow in that relationship can be.
Dr. Tabatha: I love that you mentioned not being interested in having sex right now because our testosterone isn’t at the same level all month as a man is. If we can get in tune with that and really support our relationship during that time and not feel guilty that we’re not in the mood, right?
Dr. Sonya:
That’s right. I had a woman explain that me that right after her period she is totally into it and then all of a sudden she isn’t and it’s affecting her relationship. Well, that’s normal and what’s supposed to happen. What’s lacking is communication with your partner.
The Type of Man You Desire
Dr. Sonya: There was a study where half of the women didn’t have birth control, and the other half was on birth control. When they would see a picture of their partner or somebody that they were attracted to, there’s a part of your brain that’s going to get signaled and aroused. There are going to be changes in the rhythm of your brain. When they studied these women, they saw that the women without birth control saw those normal changes and patterns happening. But the women on birth control didn’t see any change. They started to notice that women on birth control will choose partners that are a little bit more Yin, they have more of that Yin feminine energy and quality. Whereas women off of birth control choose men that are a bit more Yang, more steady, and just have different qualities.
So imagine, you’re in your 20s, you’re on birth control, you might be going to school, or you might be working and this is the time you’re really seeking out a partner. And yet, if you’re on birth control, it may actually change who you may have chosen, if you weren’t, and that’s a story that I dealt with.
I share that in the book, too, that as soon as I came off of birth control, the pheromones changed, everything shifted. How I was seeing myself shifted, and I was like, “Who am I with?” It just changed my whole reality. However, not to say that’s going to happen with everyone, but knowing that is important so you can question some of the things that are showing up in your mind.
Dr. Tabatha: I think it’s so important for women to realize, this literally changes how you feel about yourself, how you feel about people around you, and how you function in the world.
I remember having a patient who just had maybe her third baby, she went back on her birth control pill, and she wanted to divorce and leave her husband. She couldn’t stand him at all. She kept chalking it up to postpartum depression, but she didn’t know how to not hate him. I said to her, “Let’s just go off of the pill for a little bit, let’s just see, maybe that will change something.” I will never forget that as soon as she came off of that pill she loved her husband. She felt guilty and wanted to repair everything she had done the past couple of months. She was attracted to him and wanted to have sex with him. That’s how much her physiology changed. It suppresses your testosterone and your natural hormones. It gives sense, these warped signals to women. I’m thankful for the birth control pill. That’s how I went to medical school and how I became successful. But it would have been really helpful to have some informed consent to know what I was signing up for because I wouldn’t have been on it so long and I wouldn’t have had my patients on them for so long.
Birth Control…What You’re Signing Up For
Dr. Sonya: I mentioned in there even the studies that are done on women in quotation marks actually are done on men. There was a big study that was done about heart disease and menopause and there was not one woman that was in that study. So understanding that when you’re walking into your medical doctor’s office, even they don’t have the actual knowledge about your body that you should have.
So taking that self-responsibility and taking time to empower yourself is so important. Now we’re kind of living in that age of knowledge and information that it really is at our fingertips. It can feel confusing, but just take the time to understand yourself so then you can ask the right questions and you can get informed consent. That is necessary because if you’re on a pill that’s depleting your magnesium, your zinc is creating dysbiosis and you’re going to be running around trying to fix your gut, but the culprit is that little pill that you’re taking every day. So if you know that, then you can do other things to support your body while you’re on it. It really is about being able to understand yourself so you can make the right decision for yourself.
Dr. Tabatha: Yeah, and unfortunately, you’re probably not going to get informed consent from your conventional doctor. You know, birth control pills were days away from being available as an over-the-counter medication like Tylenol, which thank God didn’t happen. But that is how flippantly the medical system sees birth control pills. They don’t see the damage that it causes.
I had a moment this morning where I was like, “Why did I become a doctor?” I became a doctor to save people from other doctors. And I thought, “That’s crazy.” But that’s how I feel. The word needs to get out. People need to know what they’re signing up for when they go into their doctor’s office.
How do women figure out that they even have all these little stressors and traumas, that they’ve created these thought patterns and behaviors that change their physiology? Is it something you need to go through, unpack, and deal with? Or do you just need to start shifting, and making changes going forward?
What Does a Typical Day Look Like For a Balanced Woman?
Dr. Sonya: My morning is so important to me, it’s my non-negotiable. I think we all need a non-negotiable, depending on again, what stage you’re at. If you have a young infant that might not be a reality for you, but maybe it’s just having two seconds to yourself in the bathroom.
I wake up in the morning and have a gratitude practice. I put my feet on the ground and I get settled into the earth. I drink some water and I have a morning class. Sometimes it’s a HIIT or yoga and sometimes it’s just sitting and meditating. It depends on where I am in my cycle and what energy I have.
I am an intermittent faster so I don’t eat right away. I get the kids ready, get the day going and get myself settled. I then have a cup of tea by myself. That is my moment to ground into myself. Then I go through my day. I don’t usually start eating until 11 or 12. Some days it’s not until 2, depending on where I’m at in my cycle. Even with my diet, I will change it based on where I am at in my cycle. In the first half of my cycle, I follow more of a Keto diet. Whereas in the second half of my cycle I have healthier carbs. Another thing that I do is a lot of sauna time and cold showers. Then throughout the day, I take my supplements.
Dr. Tabatha: You sound like me. The first couple of hours is about filling my cup and giving me what I need. That includes moving my body, getting in touch with God, having a shower with my husband, things like that. Then be intentional throughout your day and take that time.
Like you, I love intermittent fasting, but it does matter where I’m at in my cycle. It makes a difference. Now that I live this way it’s easier than before. I always felt like I was fighting and struggling and now it’s innate. I’m tunned in and it’s easy. I eat when I’m hungry and I no longer grab food for comfort and go on the sugar roller coaster ride. It’s amazing when you get in tune with your body’s innate wisdom, how beautiful life can flow.
Dr. Sonya: We’re so rigid and trying to be a certain way all the time that it takes the shame away. Give yourself grace and understand that our libido isn’t going to be high throughout the whole month. Know that your hormones or appetite are going to change throughout the month and it makes it more simple and easy.
Dr. Tabatha:
Exactly. I’m gonna be honest with you, I eat gluten-free Oreos the day before my period almost every month. I got over that shame because I realized that’s something that I like one day a month and it’s not impacting me because I feel amazing the rest of the month. Releasing that hurtful emotion set me free and I think if women can figure that out, they’ll be so much better off.
Tell Me How My Audience Can Connect With You
Dr. Sonya:
You can find Woman Unleashed on our website. You also can find me at Dr. Sonya Jensen. All of my social media channels are Dr. Sonya Jensen as well.
Dr. Tabatha:
Awesome. All those links are in the show notes.
To Wrap It Up
Dr. Tabatha: I hope you got so much out of that. I love talking to Dr. Sonya, she has really taken the time to do the research and understand what we’re going through as women. She’s been taking care of patients for a very long time. She saw this in her practice and she knew there was something to it. So she went and she figured it all out.
Her book, Woman Unleashed is amazing. And I really hope that you’ll read it because the more that we can start to understand ourselves and understand how we, as women, got to this point, we’re going to make so much more headway. I love that she has figured out how micro stressors, mini traumas, and experiences throughout our lives really do create this hormonal blueprint that we’re experiencing.
Her book is really helpful because she helps you get through that process, heal, and change. I would invite you to read the book and even do the group with her. She runs a six-week book group where she takes women through the book. She teaches them how to gain control and change that blueprint.
Please let me know what else you want to hear about because I’m here for you. I do this for you. We’re all in it together, rising each other up, sharing our stories, our struggles, our difficulties, so that we can learn from each other. I’m excited that you’re taking the time to learn more about your body, your mental, emotional, and spiritual health