How Your Intuition Can Help You ReLaunch Your Business

Hilary DeCesare: 00:00:00

Welcome, welcome, welcome. It is gonna be such a great show. And this is something that is near and dear to Yes. Me. And I have to say I get more comments around this, then probably 95% of what is going on in the world right now and what am I really talking about? I'm talking about? Yeah, you're gonna hear it out of my mouth. It's called that middle age and EU menopause, perimenopause. How do we handle it? How do we like continue to elevate ourselves to say that we are embracing this moment in time and I have somebody here with me that is going to light up the airwaves. This is Jolinda Johnson. She's an award winning Certified Life and holistic health coach who specializes in burnout and perimenopause. And yes, you're gonna be like burnout and perimenopause. Okay. How do they relate? Well, we're gonna go into that she's obsessed with helping changemakers and revolutionaries get back there spark another very similar thing to be Riley's, we know relaunch spark your heart. This is it. And she wants to set the world on fire. You're gonna say Hillary, you know what's going on? Are you talking about you? And I'm like, Yes, I am talking about somebody near and dear to my heart. She wants to change the narrative around perimenopause and give attention to the voices that are typically left out of the conversations in including bipoc and LBG. l sorry, l g. B. I always do that. LGB T Qi a plus. And really, it's about this this moment of when is midlife? When should we be discussing this? And you're not going to believe this? You can never discuss this too soon. Jolinda's originally from Detroit, Michigan. But she earned her BA from Columbia University in New York City, and completed her Master's of Science in Education as part of the NYC Teaching Fellows Program at pace. And here's the thing she has been living for the last 15 years in Barcelona. I mean, how cool is that? And I told her, my son Derek studied in Barcelona. And so I had the privilege of going there a few times within like an 18 month period, because a trip ended up causing me to go there, outside of Derek and then I got to see him a couple times. So I love where you currently are right now and only wish that we had done this in person.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:03:00

You're listening to the ReLaunch podcast and I'm your host, Hilary DeCesare, best selling author, speaker and transformational coach widely recognized in the worlds of neuro psychology and business launches, which cultivated the one and only three HQ method, helping midlife women. Yep, that's me to rebuild a life of purpose, possibility and inspiring business ventures. Each week, we'll be diving into the stories that brought upon the most inspirational relaunches while sharing the methods and the secrets that they learned along the way, so that you too, can have not just an ordinary relaunch, but an extraordinary relaunch.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:03:54

So Jolinda, welcome to the RE launch show. And I'm excited about all of the pertinent, absolutely informative information that you're going to be sharing today.

Jolinda Johnson: 00:04:08

Well, thank you so much for having me, Hilary. It's an absolute pleasure to be here. Well,

Hilary DeCesare: 00:04:14

it is so cool. And I love that you are mixing burnout, and perimenopause. And I want to talk about that and how you came up with those two massively important topics to people like more. But I also want to hear how did your how you know, what was this relaunch that caused your life to completely change and gives you the outcome of where you are right now sitting in Barcelona, Spain?

Jolinda Johnson: 00:04:46

Oh, goodness, I can only choose one.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:04:51

That's a really good point. There are so many launches that we go through but but give us the one that's the most impactful and the one that the audience are going Have you like at the edge of their chairs saying, Are you kidding me right now?

Jolinda Johnson: 00:05:05

Hmm. Well, I know that you wanted to focus on how I went from being a fertility coach to how I ended up specializing in burnout and perimenopause. So I could focus on that one. If you like,

Hilary DeCesare: 00:05:17

you know what, let's, that sounds like a good, I think is very relevant to everyone listening.

Jolinda Johnson: 00:05:23

Yeah. So when I finished my life coach certification in 2017, I already had my holistic health coach certification and that at the time, I thought that I wanted to help women primarily heal their relationship around food. I wasn't ready to be an entrepreneur yet. I was still very much in the mindset of you study, you get the certification, and then some magic person hires you. I didn't realize that I love the

Hilary DeCesare: 00:05:52

idea of that magic person hiring you if I do, it's like the Field of Dreams. If I do the work, somebody's gonna want me right.

Jolinda Johnson: 00:05:58

Yeah, I mean, I'm a Virgo. I'm a former teacher, I was a teacher for 10 years. So I just It took me a while to get into the the entrepreneurial mindset. But in 2017, after doing my life coach certification, I had done a lot of that inner work that's necessary. I had also had my son two years prior in a foreign country, Spain where I still live now. But that definitely got me back in touch with my power. I had been married to someone who really enjoy convincing me that I couldn't do as much as I as I wanted, that I needed him to help figure everything out. And it was really liberating to realize that no, I was basically alone with our son for the first year and figuring everything out on my own. And anyone who's had a child knows that that's a whole big terrain to navigate.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:06:54

It sure is having three of my own I get that and I have twins so yes, it is. And it continues it you know this business of once you become an empty nester it all is you know, it's so much easier. Ha, I'm not sure I believe that when that's a different show.

Jolinda Johnson: 00:07:10

That's it. That's a different show. But I I've taught workshops on being an empty nester, even though I've not reached that yet, but yeah, it's it's definitely a part of a big part of my life. And, and so doing that all in my second language as well. I learned a lot about myself. And I thought, well, if I can do this, I definitely can summon up the courage and the confidence I need to start my own business. So when I got my life coach certification I got, well, I it wasn't a month later that I got divorced. It was a year later, but I said I wanted to separate in that same year. I felt like I jumped off a cliff. But I also knew that I was pursuing my soul's calling. And at the time that was to help women maximize their chances of conception through diet, lifestyle, and mindset. And once I got into that world, I realized that I was very good at at helping women become pregnant. I also was at the beginning of realizing that I can Channel and Channel spirit babies, which is a gift that I continue to access, although it's not part of my business now. And I really enjoyed it. But I didn't like being in the world of infertility for marketing purposes. I didn't like saying work with me, and I'll make all of your dreams come true. I also didn't like feeling as though motherhood was the be all and end all of womanhood? Because for me, there are many ways to be a woman. And it doesn't necessarily involve pregnancy. So I realized that my ideal client was changing. And so then I said, Well, this is this, this needs to go even though my ego wanted to hold on to it because I was doing well and but my intuition was saying, time to pack up and pivot. Okay, Women's Health Coach, then I'll broaden, I'll widen the neck. And in doing so, I realized that I really enjoyed working with women who were in their 40s, particularly 50, like around 50 That for me is a magical age. And to work with that age, you really have to know about perimenopause. So we're talking about three years ago that I really started looking into perimenopause from a professional perspective. I first learned about it in my early 30s. Then I had to start applying that information to my clients. I also noticed that within the perimenopausal symptoms, there was a lot of stress.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:09:54

Okay, so we got a hold on right now because you're going I mean, there's been so much that you just unpack And before we dive into that, I want to go back to your intuition you, you know, you say that you can channel there's, there's a lot there, and how how did you first because that's very higher self that's very much trying to tap into a resource that is within you help us? How did you start to really leverage your intuition and quite truthfully build that muscle out in terms of your own self to help you see that, hey, I'm not supposed to be doing all these other things I need to be doing my life's passion purpose.

Jolinda Johnson: 00:10:44

Yeah, well, I mean, I think the key to anyone who's interested in working with their intuition is to reconnect the mind and the body, which so many of us have been encouraged to lead from the neck up and ignore everything from the neck down, especially as women, we're taught to change our bodies, but never to support our bodies never to work with our bodies. And that is a huge part of receiving that information, too. Trust the signals that your body is sending. But in order to even get to that point, you need to create a space for your body to be still to feel safe. And so many of us are going from one thing to the next, you know, in the in the creation cycle of beads, you have so many of us are calling do have to have to have, because we feel so uncomfortable in the stillness in the beam. And that's the void, you know, going back to pregnancy, you need a void for that embryo, you know, to grow. And when everything is still crowded with, you know, when your attention and being pulled in a million different directions, you can't receive those messages from the higher self. And if,

Hilary DeCesare: 00:11:58

but there's also something and what you said really resonated I went to see Jay Shetty a couple days ago, and one of the things that he was talking about is, loneliness has never been at a higher state. But solitude is something that we fear being being in a solitude place being alone. And he was trying to differentiate the fact that, you know, being alone should be something that empowers us being within ourselves. And I really liked that. It was it was an interesting thought process for me to go through because we do have a tendency to overbook ourselves during the day we go, go go. And we don't give ourselves the chance to pause and to have to have that moment to reflect. And when you're when you're talking about this, how would you how would you define intuition? What it would so people listening out there because so many women have been, you know, pushing down not only talking about your, you know, the body, but also talking about like something that is innate to us that we have that we should be really harnessing I mean, this is one of my biggest things with people is I'm like, let me take where you are with your intuition. And let's 100 exit, because it is the most powerful source. But how do you define intuition?

Jolinda Johnson: 00:13:27

I define it. There's an excellent book called The intuitive way by penny Pierce. And I really liked her definition, which is direct knowing it's direct knowing based on your body signals based on messages from your higher self. It's not logical thinking. So it's, it might not make sense, but it feels right. And that's something that I started living by, several years ago. And if it feels right in my body, even if it doesn't make sense in my mind, I go with it. If I sense that feeling of expansion. I know that it's a yes. Even if I don't know why or how I surrender, that. I surrender the why in the hell, I start following the energy. And it never lets me down.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:14:27

That's really true. It is an energy and when you think about Intuit intuition, and your thinking about, you know, you've got intuition that some people have a knowing sense. Some people have, you know, in the head that knowing I just know some people have the Oh, I just feel it. I feel it, I feel it. And some people have the sense and I always think about the feeling of the heart. The feeling is is there a lot of people have it in the heart. Some people have it in the gut, right? It's just a gut and then the the overall All it was a sense that I had I get when I know something is like I am on fire with like, this is a heightened level of my intuition. I feel it because I get a tingling sense that just shoots throughout my body all the way down to my toes. Where do you know you're on with your intuition? Where do you get it? Where do you feel it?

Jolinda Johnson: 00:15:25

My heart space, there's a lot of energy in my heart space. And I would say that when when something is wrong, I feel a very tight contraction in my chest and my gut. So I had a really difficult conversation with my partner on Sunday. And I, my logical mind was thinking, yeah, just give it Give it, give it space, maybe even my ego mind was saying, Maybe this isn't the relationship for you. Maybe you should just walk away. And my whole body just thinking of me, you know, maybe this isn't the relationship for you. My whole body was like, Are you sure about that tensed up. And as soon as we came back to the table and started talking, everything relax. As soon as I heard his voice, everything relaxed. Now, when I think about situations, in the past, when something has been wrong, my whole body is tensed up. And even when my mind was saying you should, you should be enjoying this, you should, you're good at this, you should be happy that the body always knows. And that's why it's so important. If you want to develop your intuition, you have to rebuild that trust in your body because it doesn't lie.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:17:00

Oh, that is so true. You have to first you know, rebuild the trust. But also by starting with small incremental steps to it, right. People have maybe had a bad relationship with their intuition. Maybe they thought it was wrong. Maybe they Oh, I listened to my intuition. And you know, this happened. Well, a lot of times, I always say, you know, it's not the intuition that was wrong. It was your interpretation of what happened, right? Yeah. And so I do find it fascinating. We have to take a quick break right now, but when we come back, we are going to further discuss this topic, but also we are going to be jumping in I mean, literally into perimenopause, what this means how you're going to be able to help yourself because I think that that is one of the biggest things we look elsewhere. Help yourself. So everyone, stay tuned. And when we come back, we will jump right in to that. This episode is brought to you by my very own labor of love my most recent book relaunch. This book is a collection of my stories, other stories and is a motivational guide to living a new three h q lifestyle, sparking your heart to ignite your life. It's available for purchase via Amazon, get ready to try on the three h q method that I've been using for years throughout my entire life, reaching the next level in all areas, both professionally and personally. Get your copy today at www dot the relaunch book.com. So excited to be back. I've got Jolinda Johnson with me and we are about to dive into burnout and perimenopause. And you might be like say what like how do those relate? Well, we've been leaning into if you have if you didn't hear the last time, but you have to go back intuition building up your intuition and that direct knowing, which is what the intuition is all about. And it was in the intuitive way book that Jolinda describes it from and Jolinda so I am fascinated and I'm sure other people are trying to figure out how are you combining burnout and helping people with burnout, and perimenopause. Tell us about how those two interrelate and what you're doing to help people.

Jolinda Johnson: 00:19:45

So I started noticing going back to when I said that I cast a wider net and started focusing on a different type of clients. I started noticing that all of my clients had a similar set of symptoms related to chronic stress. So for me burnout, even though the World Health Organization says that we should only use it in an occupational context, in other words, when we're talking about work. For me, burnout is chronic stress without recovery. So a lot of us especially my clients, who are high achievers, reach midlife not even realizing how stressed they are, because chronic stress has become the baseline for a lot of us. I was

Hilary DeCesare: 00:20:32

gonna say first off, what how are you defining midlife?

Jolinda Johnson: 00:20:38

I like to start mid life at 4040 to 65. But some people started at 35. perimenopause technically starts at 35 With the decline in progesterone. But I think one of the things that we need to remember is that we're at very different points in our lives. Some of us, for me, for example, I have an eight year old son, I'll be 41 this year. And I find myself at this interesting intersection. I have a new partner. We could have a technically, you know, we could have a baby. But hmm, I really enjoy being the mother of an older child.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:21:28

Oh, yeah, I'm a woman. I was I'm a woman that had got remarried. And there was a blip in the radar where we're like, would we want to have a baby and I swear to God, I think it was the next day, my husband, now he's my husband, he went in and got a vasectomy. Like, okay. I think that that was probably the smartest thing he ever did. Or we would have a right now we have about a seven or eight year old running around as well. So I get that

Jolinda Johnson: 00:21:59

some of us choice. Some of us, at this age, are still wanting to have our first and some of us even at 45, I had a client who chose to have a baby through a double donor, an egg donor and a sperm donor. Because that's how loudly she heard the call to become a mother.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:22:26

Totally I'm sure that are going through this right now. And they froze eggs and my sister in law had twins at 46.

Jolinda Johnson: 00:22:35

Yeah, so definitely, it can be depending on your relationship with with motherhood. I think that that changes things between the years of 40 and 50. But for me personally, I am definitely in a time where I like focusing on myself. I mean that the energy of perimenopause is really different from that of the if you think of the archetypes, maiden mother, Crone, there's a fourth one between mother and Crone, which is the sorceress. And that's really the energy of perimenopause. Because we're taking all of these things that we've learned and we're, we're not quite to the crone era, but we're reclaiming a lot of the energy that we've given out. And that's it. I'm not trying to put a happy face on the perimenopause symptoms that for a lot of us are very disruptive, especially to the profession.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:23:35

I think it's so important for people that are listening to understand perimenopause, menopause, tell us that

Jolinda Johnson: 00:23:43

perimenopause is the lead up. So it's that 10 To on average, 10 years of lead up to menopause, which is your final bleed. So when we talk about perimenopause, if you are in your 40s Since the average age of menopause is 51, you're typically

Hilary DeCesare: 00:24:08

average age is 51. But it goes up to one.

Jolinda Johnson: 00:24:11

So early menopause is 40 to 45. Yep. But average menopause is 45 to 55. Okay,

Hilary DeCesare: 00:24:25

please tell me For God's sake, I'm almost there. I'm now fall ready.

Jolinda Johnson: 00:24:36

But I have people who say, I just turned 50. Do you think I could be in perimenopause? Yeah, it probably started about 10 years ago. But the thing is, a lot of us are just taught about hot flashes and our period stopping and that's about it. And we're not taught about how The first sign for example is, so there are four major stages. And the first stage, if you are tracking your cycle, you'll notice that it shortens by two days. And that's not usually something that causes any alarm because they just have a shorter cycle. It's it's consistently shorter. Okay. And that's the first sign that things are changing and that yeah,

Hilary DeCesare: 00:25:27

like a heck of a good stage.

Jolinda Johnson: 00:25:32

Because the menstrual cycle itself is changing a little bit, but around the same time, a lot of people notice changes to their mood. So and going back to how that relates to stress, when we have chronically high cortisol levels cortisol. So

Hilary DeCesare: 00:25:53

before we go into that, I want to hit those because this is what happened. So excited about all these different things. It was your cycle shortened by two days, what's the second?

Jolinda Johnson: 00:26:04

Yeah, so the second is when estrogen start surging? Uh huh. And that's when you'll notice, worst PMS worse emotional and physical symptoms of PMS. So more mood swings, things like sore breasts, water retention, cramping, if that's whatever you have experienced in your 30s, it will tend to ramp up in your 40s. So this is why it's important.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:26:31

Listening to this in their 30s they're like really, this is and then those that are now in their 50s and they're like Been there done that okay. Okay, so what is what stage three.

Jolinda Johnson: 00:26:42

So stage three is when estrogen is fluctuating. So throughout the all of the stages, progesterone is declining, but estrogen is is the variable. So you go from estrogen surging, because it's trying to basically get those last follicles to mature and the eggs to release, but then it starts fluctuating, so you'll have highs and lows. So that's when your cycle can become really erratic. So one cycle will be 19 days, then a cycle will be 30 days, then a cycle will be as short as 12. Where's all this coming? I don't know, when my periods coming. Used to be reliable. I have no idea surprise, and also really heavy periods, especially if you have fibroids that a lot of us have fibroids. We don't even realize that we have fibroids, but that's when because fibroids get larger with increased estrogen. They can become even more problematic during perimenopause and then estrogen eventually declines. Okay, so that's step four.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:27:47

It declines.

Jolinda Johnson: 00:27:51

Right? And so it's just plummeting. It's, it's declining? Yes, that's when your periods will become further and further apart. So more than 60 days, from one cycle to the next, you could go six months, eight months. But until you cross that 12 month mark, you can't say that you're officially post menopausal and terrible to hear. But either the it depends on you know, so this is the low estrogen face. And this is where people will notice things like everything drying up. So dry skin, dry eyes, itchy ears, recurring UTIs the need to get up three or four times a night because you need to go the bathroom stress incontinence. A lot of things that people don't even realize are associated with estrogen within the brain. So the brain fog, the short term memory, the cognitive decline the what was that thing past me that thing that I used to write? Oh, write a pen. Like these simple words that we should not be grasping for but we just can't like that. thingamajig you find yourself saying,

Hilary DeCesare: 00:29:10

Joe, Linda, isn't it great being a woman? I'm like, Oh, yes. Power right there. I'm like, oh, what can is there? What what supplements do you recommend during this time that you're like, these are absolutely the ones that you need to be

Jolinda Johnson: 00:29:29

taking? Well, I think supplements are different for for everyone. I I think a lot of it depends on the severity of your symptoms, and also your access to care. And not all of us have a functional version available. Not all of us can work with a naturopath. Some of us mood is a big thing. I'm actually giving a talk at the end of the month about perimenopause and mental health. Because a lot of us notice changes to our mood, even years before we notice major changes to our cycle. And we feel like I'm losing my mind, I'm coming undone. But really what it is, is, we might need to consider medication for the first time. Before going back on medication, I bring this up because I am one of the people who didn't take medication. For 12 years, I took an antidepressant in my 20s. And then I stopped. And two years ago, I noticed that things were getting a lot more difficult even though I was doing the same thing, supporting myself with diet, supporting myself with lifestyle. I'm a life coach. So I know how important it is to either meditate all the things that you know, the mindfulness, but it was becoming so difficult just to get to baseline every day. And I realized that a good day was How have I successfully beat off or either the intrusive thoughts like Have I been able to successfully keep those at bay? As opposed to? Am I just not having them? And that was when I was like, I'm having to I, why am I why am I choosing to struggle. And that's something that a lot of us in midlife have to have to reckon with. Like, I no longer need to prove myself through my struggle, I no longer have to prove myself through how much I can handle on my own. This is my time to get support. So that might be in the form of menopause, home hormone therapy, it might be in the form of medication, it might be in the form of cognitive behavioral therapy, it might be in the form of supplements, like you know, I mean, I basic ones that I take CO q 10. Resveratrol, I do not do well on by text, also known as Chasteberry. But that's a great one for

Hilary DeCesare: 00:32:11

actually recently have started taking that. And one of the things that I noticed that you know, and I'm I'm into mind, everything, I mean, I'm like the biggest you know, I do all of it. And I couldn't control my massive hot flashes and things like that. So I started it and I'm very much a homeopath in terms of I have something called i i might be butchering the name but Leiden factor five and it means that basically I get blood clots so I can't take hormones. And so I try a lot of the homeopathic and I know that one of the ones that I have sworn by I've recommended in time because it did again personal experience. I'm not a doctor I don't have any idea. I know that it worked for me was um Dr. Northrup Amana. Chris. Yeah. Christine is like she I think she wrote that. It looks like the Bible. And it's like, you know, love menopause. Yeah. And it's this huge book, everyone. It's like, you know, I thought all I need to get reference. Yeah, it showed up and it looked like my grandfather's orthopedic dictionary. When I got it. I'm like, you know, Warren Piece times five. I'm like, Oh, my God, that was so long. But I started taking these drops. I tried the pill form, and I didn't like it. But the drops I take morning and night, and then I added vytex. And yeah, I mean, I'm knocking on wood right now. I won't do it too louder. Josh, our, our audio guy will kill me because it'll be too loud. But it is a lifesaver to me. I literally, I'm I'm so happy. I'm so pleased with the results. It takes time. It took me six weeks. And if I ever run out, I immediately realized why I'm taking it. So I think that there are so many you have to it's a trial and error, right? And now I really want to ask you so something that I find interesting and for people that our you know, going through it and as you're starting to say there's a lot of stress around it. And again, the averages My goodness, you know, I have always been like, you know, an overachiever. But this is ridiculous. I'm like at the end of the spectrum and I'm still going strong. You know, I'm like, my poor husband's like, Is this ever gonna end oh my god either saying it doesn't and here we are again. And just recently though, I have to say they did find something a somewhat of a mass and we've been doing biopsies and they've recommended hysterectomy. We're in the process of you know, when we talk to one doctor, I'm talking to another doctor right now. But what is your thought on a lot of people you know, we've got Angelina Jolie who when she found I doubt she had the DNA the cell of breast cancer or was it ovarian might have been something else. But she knows breast cancer she took, you know, she went and had, you know, total mastectomy double. What do you recommend in terms what's happening around? Because it seems like everybody I talked to now that I'm opening up, you know, hey, this is what's going on with me. They're saying, Well, yeah, I had one. I've already had one. Oh, I had one. But what what's your thought around that? Or do you have any thoughts around that?

Jolinda Johnson: 00:35:33

And hysterectomy? Yeah,

Hilary DeCesare: 00:35:35

like, you know, this whole like, and what and what that really can mean for people?

Jolinda Johnson: 00:35:39

Well, I think that there are a lot of different options available. Now. Aside from a total hysterectomy. I mean, a total hysterectomy also involves the removal of the ovaries, which is an oophorectomy. And I've I've been shocked talking to women who have had a total hysterectomy, with their ovaries removed as well, and not been offered hormonal therapy afterwards. Because that once you have your ovaries removed, you go right into menopause, it's you know, you don't have the 10 year transition, it's a 24 hour, bam, you're in menopause, with all of the severe symptoms. So that's concerning. But also, we know that when you remove the uterus, even when you leave the ovaries, you're probably going to notice a difference in, for example, orgasm, incontinence, these things, it's more than just a bad used to be thought of, they'll just take it out. It's not you don't want to have kids just take it out. But we know that it's actually connected to a lot more in the body now in the support of the pelvic floor. So I always advocate for keeping as much as you can. But of course, everyone has a different set of circumstances. And so yeah, but it you know,

Hilary DeCesare: 00:37:00

there's a lot always unpack, but we have to take another quick break. And I know we've been you know, kind of skirting the issue of stress and burnout. But I promise everyone, we're going there. We're going to take this to that next level. So everyone stay tuned, we'll be right back. This episode is brought to you by my very own labor of love my most recent book relaunch. This book is a collection of my stories, other stories and is a motivational guide to living a new three h q lifestyle, sparking your heart to ignite your life. It's available for purchase via Amazon, get ready to try on the three h q method that I've been using for years, throughout my entire life, reaching the next level in all areas, both professionally and personally. Get your copy today at www dot the relaunch book.com Welcome back. And I have Joe Linda Johnson, we have been talking all things perimenopause going into menopause. And on the break, Jolina says, you know, and some people don't have hot flashes leading up and then they get 10 years of them once you're done. I'm like, Oh, thank God, that's not going to be me. So we are back and I was about to I was thinking of the conversation around stress. And I started to think about burnout, I was going to say the Bo, we're going to be going into Bo and I'm like, No, we're not going into b We're going into burn out we're going to understand what is it, how to avoid it, what you can do. So this is a very lively conversation that we're having. And Joe, Linda, thank you again, for giving us you know, so much of these, you know, we go through it a lot of times people are in it right now. And we just don't know. And you got to know what you don't know. And so help me understand and everyone listening, how how is stress leading to burnout. And I do love what you said about burnout is chronic stress without recovery, chronic stress without recovery, and you said people think of burnout in the office work. But you're saying Hold on, hold on everyone. I got something more to say. So let's hear it.

Jolinda Johnson: 00:39:25

Yeah. Well, I think the the thing about burnout is a lot of us. If we are first of all, if we're happy especially talking to the entrepreneurs out there, you know, the biggest predictor of burnout among entrepreneurs is obsessive passion and fixed mindset. So I'll do anything to make this work. And I have to make this work. And the lines get blurred really fast and I always like to think of it as, there's a fable about a little girl with red shoes, who either, she's told that she needs to take off the red shoes she doesn't want to. And eventually, the red shoes get to have a life of their own, and they consume her. And you know, the thing that she wants to love is the thing that destroys her basically, a lot of us with our businesses, we love them so much. And also our sense of self worth, if we haven't done that work is very much tied to our productivity. And we don't realize when we need to say, Enough. We don't realize when we need to say, my body needs rest. I mean, even you know, I'm someone who specializes in burnout. And this is the first year in my, this is fixed in the six years. Yeah. My first year this No, no seven, seven years that I've been working for myself when I'm truly prioritizing. Sleep. And yes, yeah,

Hilary DeCesare: 00:41:00

I knew I'd asleep it changes everything.

Jolinda Johnson: 00:41:04

Yeah, it does. And, and the thing is, is prioritizing sleep means not working with people, as many people in California, for example, because I'm no longer taking calls at 9pm My time, or not working with so many people in Australia, because I'm not waking up at five to be on calls. But these are things that I did earlier my business when I you know, what's your timezone? I'll adapt, I'll adapt, I'll make it work. And we get distracted, when it's something that we love. We get distracted, when you know, from the warning signs of burnout, we get distracted, when it's something that we feel so passionate about. And a lot of us have this myth in our heads that if I'm enjoying it, it's not stressful. And that's not true, either. If it's if it's a chant state of change, it's a state of stress for the body. A lot of us do not give our bodies enough time to adapt, because we're so disconnected from our bodies, you know, so it's like the mind is the jockey. And there's something called thinking brain override. So those of us who are high achievers who are also very good storytellers, will tell ourselves a story that completely overrides our body signals. This is I've got to get it done. There's no other option. Only I can do it. Push, push, push, push, push. And that's when we get in trouble. You know, I, I worked so hard for this, I had love my clients. And that can all be true. But at the same time, your body needs to sleep, your body needs to take a break your body needs to, you know, speaking of intuition, you're not going to have access to your intuition. If you don't give yourself that whitespace a lot of people see whitespace in our calendar, especially as entrepreneurs, and it's like I'm failing because I'm not locked out. But you want to hear something,

Hilary DeCesare: 00:42:52

you want to hear something funny. My first coaching consulting business, it was it was called consulting, then now it's called coaching was named whitespace. Ink I NK, the whitespace. And that was over. That was over 20 years ago, I've been doing this that long. And it's so interesting to hear that because we have to give ourself whitespace we have to give ourselves the ability to literally erase the board. And just be and just be present. And, you know, when you talk about this, you know, this whole concept of, you know, we're going going going going stress is chronic stress, for sure. I mean, we all have it, the cortisol is called we are constantly in fight flight, fear mode, you know, freeze, we're constantly doing it on alert. Yeah, we are. I mean, I just heard the other day that you know, 5050 types of massive fears that are now now 500 phobias. And I wouldn't even question really 500 I think like 5000 I mean, you know, there's fear of everything. And now and so, I What can people do? Specifically? If they have started to realize, wait a second, she's talking about me?

Jolinda Johnson: 00:44:12

Yeah. First of all, look at your, how are you supporting your, your body in terms of diet, movement and sleep, the foundation? Start there. So how can you support your, your your body in this, especially if you're in perimenopause, because one of the things that's happening in perimenopause is we're losing our hormonal buffer. You know, we can't get away with as many things and if you're in this stage of life, you could probably realize, oh, I can't get by on just six hours of sleep. I can't go out and drink and be okay the next day. I can't.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:44:49

Is it isn't that true? As I have over the last few weeks, I've I've pushed it and challenged it again. It's so true resilience

Jolinda Johnson: 00:44:58

goes down. Right. So are you are you eating enough protein? This is a big one. Because protein supports muscle growth, which is another thing that we're losing

Hilary DeCesare: 00:45:11

what's the best type of protein that you recommend?

Jolinda Johnson: 00:45:16

The protein that you like yeah, you know, but if you if you can, free range organic is always best in terms of animal products. You know, so lean chicken, turkey fish, I eat more fish I'm also you know, in the Mediterranean so I fish

Hilary DeCesare: 00:45:35

all you have the best I tried to do a Mediterranean diet and you know, i Although I did have an amazing salmon the other day, but I mean, nothing is like Barcelona, nothing.

Jolinda Johnson: 00:45:49

Yeah, I eat fish every day of the week. But, you know, low Mercury fish. Also,

Hilary DeCesare: 00:45:55

that's why she looks the way she looks Jolanda you are glowing right now, literally, like, you are just one beautiful woman. If you're not watching this, go check it out everybody. Yes, I get the sleep I really can respect that. I also find some people are having not as sleep full types, more restless types and nights. I find I hit

Jolinda Johnson: 00:46:20

on me as a big thing with perimenopause as well. Because when progesterone goes down, then you know our sleep tends to get interrupted. But also that's either when cortisol is high when our stress levels are high, that also drives down progesterone. So you get a double whammy, you know, your body's naturally producing less, but then cortisol, the progesterone, you do have high cortisol is making that even more difficult to access. But we might do. I do

Hilary DeCesare: 00:46:47

find for the women that are having those night flashes or those you know, flashes, night sweats, night sweats, you know, that woke me up. And so I must sound sleeper I hit the pillow. And I'm like, lights out until the morning. But the sweats were causing me to wake up. And so that's why I really needed to find some solutions. Because

Jolinda Johnson: 00:47:07

there's other things. You can think of practical ways to lower the temperature in your bedroom. Sleep without pajamas, or in very light pajamas.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:47:19

Isn't that crazy? Well, you just said I was always I loved it warm and snuggly. I am now like honey turn that you know, Tom, he's like, yes. Because he's like I you know, he's like a polar bear. He loves it freezing. And now I'm like, it can't be cold enough. Just bring it on. So yeah, there is something to be said there decrease making

Jolinda Johnson: 00:47:36

cold a cool shower before bed also helps.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:47:42

I can't I can't do those hot baths anymore. It's too much.

Jolinda Johnson: 00:47:46

But wait. And then in terms of movement,

Hilary DeCesare: 00:47:48

okay, give us give us one movement. And then I got to make sure that everyone knows where to connect with you. So what would a movement be? What can they do?

Jolinda Johnson: 00:47:57

Strength training, if you're not doing strength training, then bring that into your life. Because if you are in a state of chronic stress, the high impact stuff is not going to do you any favors. But strength training can be low impact, and can help you to build that muscle that will also help to regulate your estrogen levels. And since we're naturally losing muscle as we age, it can also be later on, you know, prevent falls. Give us more independence later in life. But we have to build that foundation slowly but surely build the foundation so that when you get to either 60 Plus, for example, you're not thinking oh, it's never too late, but never too much different. If you're already 20 years into this routine and not thinking oh my gosh, crisis. What do I do that?

Hilary DeCesare: 00:48:49

That's a bit I love that tip like, start now. Start now because you know what you will thank yourself. How can people get in touch with you if they want to hear more about helping themselves with burnout and perimenopause.

Jolinda Johnson: 00:49:04

So, my Instagram page, Coach Jolinda, I'm there every day. And my website Julie Johnson johnson.com. I work with individuals and I also do groups and I will have a new course coming out next month called the build hormones which is all about helping midlife women feel beautiful and empowered in their changing body. Right about that, that

Hilary DeCesare: 00:49:34

kind of well. We'll have all of this in the show notes as well. And it's been such a pleasure having you here and as we wrap up. I want to make sure that everyone knows that there's also the power in making sure that you are with like minded like energy women, and you can do that our relaunch retreat is coming up spaces are going fast. Sold out last year, it'll sell out this year. It's in beautiful Boulder, Colorado may 18, to the 21st. And then you'll get you can go to the relaunch.com to go ahead and find out more about it because it all ties together. This is so important the power of women, the power to be around the energy of us all is so critical. So again, for now, it is relaunch time. Go ahead and make a difference and make today the day that you're going to relaunch into your next best life. We'll see you next week, everyone. Thanks again.