“It’s a time when your body won’t let you lie to it anymore” — Dr. Kristy Kiel, ND said last Friday when asked about midlife.
Ugh, cringe. She has no idea how much I felt that statement on a deeper level last weekend.
Working from 6pm to 2am, then getting up at 7am to go to ND school was no big deal when I was in my 20s.
Now, a speaking gig at a two-day conference wears me out for two days!
If you’ve been following me on Instagram (@drjanninekrause), you’ll see I’ve been posting about a new HRV device I’m checking out from Elonga, a health tech company based in Prague, CZ.
I knew that not getting a good night’s sleep had an impact on me, but the drop in my readiness score and the uptick in my body stress was eye-opening.
Being “on”, interacting with colleagues and speaking isn’t something I thought wore me out. I thought it gave me more energy and fueled me, since I’ve always seen myself as a people person.
With this recent HRV trial, and looking back at old Whoop data from the other HRV device I used to wear, I’ve realized that heavy practice and travel days are harder for me to recover from.
On my 2.5-hour drive back from Madison, WI on Saturday night, I replayed my entire weekend in my head and asked myself what I’m missing when it comes to conferences, speaking, and seeing clients.
I saw clients right up until I left for the drive down to the conference, then cruised right into a meetup with colleagues within minutes of checking into the hotel.
That meeting went late, followed by a walking date in the morning after my workout, then straight into the conference.
You’re likely seeing a pattern here, I didn’t give myself even a minute of downtime except for sleep, which was rough thanks to being on a floor with a bachelorette party a few doors down. (Karma payback for loud nights of partying with my friends in my early 20s, I’m sure.)
I know I’m not the only one who overbooks themselves this way.
And maybe you’re not prone to overbooking yourself, yet you know you need more time between things but you don’t give it to yourself.
I can’t lie to myself anymore: I need longer breaks, I need to keep my mornings slow to think and work out, and I need to shut my brain off long before 8pm.
Where might you be lying to yourself?
Schedules, overbooking, and overcommitting are just one area of life where many of us struggle.
I bring this up because the fallout from doing this over and over again is what many people come to me complaining about and I see it in myself, too.
Fatigue, anxiety, worry, fear, frustration, and overwhelm are often signs your body doesn’t like something you’re repeatedly doing. And that repetition impacts your organs and accelerates decline with age.
This Thursday, I’m diving deeper into the connection between emotions and organs in my workshop (I fixed the link, by the way), and I hope you’ll join me.
I’m not perfect. I certainly don’t have it all figured out but I’m working to make these connections for myself in hopes of helping all of you at the same time.
Join me to discover the links I’ve made between East Asian approaches to emotions, energy, and aging.
If you can’t make it live, there’s always a replay available when you register.
Here’s to being honest with yourself,
Dr. J
PS: I have a workshop coming up Thursday the 30th 7:30p CST/5:30p PST – Not Just In Your Head: The Emotions-Aging Connection – RSVP for a replay!
