Glow in The Chaos: When Hormones Hijack Your Life

[00:00:00] Welcome to Glow in the Chaos, the space where we find light, peace, and a little bit of humor inside life's messiest moments. I'm Alyssa, and today we're going to talk about hormones. [00:00:12] Yep, the invisible forces that can make us cry at a pumpkin commercial, reorganize our whole house at 9pm or stare at the wall wondering why we suddenly hate everyone, including ourselves. [00:00:25] If you've ever had a week where you woke up and thought, why do I feel like a completely different person? [00:00:31] This episode is for you. [00:00:34] Let's just be honest. Hormonal shifts can make you feel like your body has its own secret agenda. [00:00:39] One day you're motivated, productive, and grounded, and the next, you're googling. Do I have a personality disorder or am I just PMSing? It's not dramatic. It's not overreacting. It's super real. [00:00:53] And if you've ever sat there thinking, I swear, where something is wrong with me, I want to start by saying, nothing is wrong with you. Your body is talking. [00:01:05] Here's the thing no one told us growing up. Our hormones are not just about periods or pregnancies. They affect everything. [00:01:14] Your mood, your motivation, your patience, your sleep, your appetite, your energy, your stress tolerance. [00:01:23] And for some of us, especially women dealing with chronic illness, pots, mom, life trauma, stress, adrenal fatigue, or just living, hormones can swing harder than a toddler at a birthday pinata. [00:01:39] You can be completely fine at 9am, overwhelmed by noon, crying at 3pm and rage cleaning by 6. It happens more than we talk about. [00:01:50] Some days I am waking up and I am in the absolute best mood. Like high energy, happy, cheerful, excited. And then just out of nowhere, I feel like a brick wall has just hit me. And I'm moody and angry and every little thing irritates me. And I have absolutely no idea what has set me off. [00:02:15] I have no idea what's changed. [00:02:18] But it's super, super frustrating because I feel like I'm so up and down, nothing is ever just level anymore. And I 100% think it has to do with my hormones. [00:02:32] Which brings me to my next point. It's not you. It's your hormones. [00:02:37] This is where I want you to breathe, because this part matters. [00:02:41] You are not crazy. You are not lazy, you are not broken, you are not inconsistent, and you are not too much. If you get anything out of my podcast, I hope that you take those sentences and ingrain them in your head. Because all the time we are just beating ourselves up with, we're not enough, we're lazy, we're not getting enough done. We just. [00:03:06] We're. We're angry and we're snippy. Like, what's wrong with us? But we need to realize that we are feeding ourselves these negative thoughts and this negative energy. That is just not the case. Like, there is something going on. I promise you, it is not in your head. And we need to get to the bottom of it so that we can be living our absolute best lives for not just ourselves, but everybody around us as well. [00:03:32] Your body is doing something very specific. It's trying to communicate. Hormones are messengers. Little chemical texts your body sends out saying, hey, I'm overwhelmed. Hey, I need rest. [00:03:44] Hey, you're doing too much. Hey, something feels unsafe. Hey, please slow down. [00:03:51] But society conditions us to ignore those messages, push through, hustle, pretend everything's fine. And then we wonder why we hit a wall every single month. [00:04:03] I feel like all of my 20s I spent being so proud of myself for being such a hustler. Like, always on the go, always busy getting stuff done, doing so, so much, never resting, like, overachiever. [00:04:19] And then. So when I finally hit that wall going into my 30s and I felt like I couldn't even hardly get up off the couch, I felt like I completely and totally lost my identity. And I think that a lot of my listeners can relate to this. But what we have to realize is we haven't lost our identity. We're just. [00:04:39] I think a lot of us have pushed ourselves to the point of exhaustion. And I feel like our society and our culture really, like, really glorifies that. Like, it makes it seem like that is what we are supposed to do. That is the only way that we are successful. That is just simply not the case. [00:05:00] Let's normalize some things real quick. Feeling like your personality changes depending on the week. Sudden anxiety for no reason. [00:05:09] Fatigue that doesn't match your schedule. Random irritability, like, why does everyone breathe so loudly today? That one gets me crying at things that wouldn't normally phase you. This has been like an everyday occurrence for me lately. Growing up, I was not a crier. I never have been a crier. And lately, little tiny things are making me cry for absolutely no reason. And it's frustrating, but we need to normalize. That overwhelm that hits hard out of nowhere. [00:05:42] That brain fog where you walk into a room and forget why you're alive. This is also my day to day. I own a restaurant, and literally from second to second, I feel like I forget what I'm doing. I will leave one room, go in the back to get something. And I have absolutely no idea what I was going back there for. So then I'll start something different, a different project and do the same thing with that project. And it's just a vicious cycle, just keeps going and going. The brain frog fog. See, brain frog. I say that almost every time. So I think I'm just going to call it brain frog. Brain frog from now on. So when you listen to chronic illness, it's not brain fog or. I'm sorry, when you listen to glow in the chaos, it is no longer brain fog. Here we refer to it as brain frog. [00:06:27] Anyway, okay, so these are all signs of hormonal imbalance, shifts, or your nervous system, like completely being taxed. You're not losing your mind. Your body is just literally doing its job and it's asking for support. [00:06:43] So how do we support our body when our hormones are super, super loud? [00:06:47] I want to share a few gentle things I've learned. Nothing extreme. Nothing diet, culture, Y just real, doable tools. [00:06:55] Honor the season you're in. Our cycles have phases, energy phases, rest phases, reflective phases. You're not supposed to feel the same every day. [00:07:06] Create micro rest moments. So like even two to three minutes of deep breathing, grounding, or just stepping away, that can completely reset your nervous system. [00:07:16] Feed your hormones, not punish yourself. [00:07:19] Simple things help, like protein in the morning, healthy fats, minerals. You do not need perfection. [00:07:28] Keep a hormone journal. Track your mood, your sleep symptoms. You'll start being able to see the patterns that make you feel less random and it'll make you more self aware. And then you'll realize that these hormones and these patterns in my cycle are actually normal. And they do coincide with different symptoms or different things that are going on. [00:07:53] And it won't make you feel so off the rails. [00:07:56] Less hustle, more listening. [00:07:59] Productivity is not your worth. Listen to that again. Okay. Productivity is not your worth. Rest is not failure. Gentle is powerful. [00:08:12] Okay, so I'm also going to tie my faith into this because y' all that have listened to me for a little bit know that my faith is a huge important thing. [00:08:24] I'm diving head first back into surrendering and I want to share that with anybody who wants to listen. [00:08:31] So this is one of the things I keep coming back to. God designed your body with rhythms. Hormones aren't a curse. They're a communication. So they're reminders to slow down, to pay attention, to care for yourself the way that he cares for you. You are allowed to be soft. You are allowed to rest. And. And you are allowed to heal in cycles. [00:08:57] Another thing that is so, so super helpful, I feel like, is journaling. Like, it's really allowed me to get things that are going on in my mind that don't make sense, that I literally cannot get the words out of my mouth to explain them. I've been able to get them out and put them on paper and just simply the, The. The process of those thoughts coming out of my brain are so soothing. [00:09:23] So here's a good journal prompt for you or a couple of them. What is my body asking for this week and how can I honor that? [00:09:32] Where have I been pushing myself when my hormones are asking me to rest? [00:09:38] So I really hope that this resonates with you. This is something that is so, so important. I am. [00:09:45] I have always had hormonal issues. I have polycystic ovarian syndrome. [00:09:49] I had issues with infertility and miscarriage. I have always struggled with my hormones and that has definitely not gotten better as I've aged, unfortunately. I wish that I could, like, be here to give you some, like, clarity moment, telling you that just keep holding on because as you get older, it will get better. It has not done that for me yet. Yet. But I think that that hope is out there. And I feel like the more and more that we get to know our bodies and know our hormonal cycles, the more that we can truly take control and help to heal our bodies from the inside out and just really know our bodies. That is so important to know your body. [00:10:37] If this episode made you feel seen, please take a moment to speak some kindness over yourself. You're doing the best you can in a body that's navigating so much. Seen silently. Hormonal chaos does not mean you're failing. It means you're human. [00:10:51] Thank you for spending a few moments with me today. And as always, I hope you can find more tools, journal pages and supportive resources. Resources. Excuse me. At Glow in the Chaos. I love you guys. And as always, if you have anything that you would like to talk about, please comment on this or drop me a message. If you just need somebody to vent to. If you're really, really feeling this episode, please know that you are heard and seen and you have a community here at Glow in the Chaos. So again, I love you guys and I'll talk to you in the next episode. [00:11:35] Until then, please remember to keep glowing in the chaos.