16: Why Supplements Aren’t Working: The Missing Link to Calming Your Symptoms

If you’ve been trying supplement after supplement, hoping something will finally bring your energy back, or white-knuckling your way through perimenopause thinking you just have to survive it, this conversation might change how you see everything that’s happening in your body.

In this episode, we introduce the Chakra Map of Midlife, our holistic framework that reframes menopause as not just a physical event, but a transformation of body, mind, and spirit. 

We explore how emotional and spiritual imbalances can manifest as physical symptoms, and how midlife is actually your body’s invitation to awaken to deeper purpose, authenticity, and vitality.

What You’ll Learn

• Why supplements and hormones only address one-third of what’s really going on in your body
• The hidden emotional and energetic layers of perimenopause
• How unprocessed emotions like fear, guilt, and frustration can show up as anxiety, fatigue, or physical discomfort
• How to use the chakra system as a map for healing and rebalancing during midlife
• Why your symptoms might be sacred messages guiding you toward wholeness

If this conversation resonates with you, join us (Sheri and Jen) for our upcoming Reclaim Your Aliveness in the Sacred Valley of Peru — a 9-day retreat designed to help midlife women reclaim aliveness, purpose, and reconnection with their bodies through the Chakra Map framework.  Details here: https://www.midlifewomenrising.com/peru

Find us on instagram:

Jen: @jenreimercoaching

Sheri: @sherijohnsoncoaching

Transcript

@8:08 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

If you've been trying supplement after supplement, hoping one will finally give you your energy back, or if you've been sort of white knuckling your way through perimenopause thinking, I just need to get through this.

I just need to survive this. Then what we are going to share today might completely change how you see what's happening in your body right now.

Because here's what nobody's telling you. Your hot flashes, exhaustion, loss of motivation. These are not just physical symptoms that need a physical fix.

And that's why the supplements aren't working the way you hoped they would. So today we're going to walk you through a concept that we call the chakra map of midlife.

Before you think this is too woo-woo, just stay with us because you're about to learn. What you're about to learn explains why some women sail through menopause and others suffer.

And it has nothing to do with genetics or luck. So let's begin. Okay. Hey, Jen. Hey. So let's paint a picture of what our women are feeling or what they might be feeling first.

Okay.

@9:38 - Sheri Johnson

Waking up exhausted, even after a full night's sleep.

@9:43 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Definitely. I felt all that.

@9:48 - Sheri Johnson

I had the middle of the night wake up, like two, three in the morning, wake up, lay there for two hours.

We've talked about this on the podcast before.

@9:56 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah.

@9:56 - Sheri Johnson

was my experience. I'm sure. I know. That's a lot of others. One of our clients also recently said, why am I so overwhelmed when I used to be so sharp?

Like I used to be much more efficient, much sharper, much. And that actually I felt as well in my forties, like just too many things on my plate, juggling, overwhelmed.

Mm-hmm.

@10:24 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Or anxiety over things at work or like a presentation that you didn't used to get anxious about, used to be able to handle, all that stuff.

That's the worst. Because it erodes your confidence.

@10:37 - Sheri Johnson

Yeah, totally. And I was also snippy. Like I consider myself to be a pretty, you know, you watch these shows on TV where they yell at each other.

Like people in the workplace will scream at each other. And like I just never experienced that. And that was never me.

And it wasn't the workplaces that I worked in. And suddenly. I found myself being short with my colleagues and snippy.

And then afterwards, I'd be like, oh my gosh, how did I – like that must have sounded so bitchy.

Why did I – like what set me off?

@11:14 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah, you kind of wonder like who's this person taking over my body?

@11:19 - Sheri Johnson

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I think they've also – like I think what they've tried and what we tried was a lot of supplements.

You know, knowing the people that are probably listening to this, they're not necessarily – maybe they're – maybe hormone replacement therapy and that hasn't worked.

But – and supplements. Naturopath, you go to the naturopath, you get some supplements and nothing quite – like maybe they'll help a little bit, but nothing quite does the job 100%.

You still don't feel like yourself.

@11:54 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah. Yeah, and with the sleep, actually none of them helped. Or they would help for a week and then they'll and then – You

They would stop because the problem wasn't what she told me it was. It wasn't a melatonin problem.

@12:09 - Sheri Johnson

Or that's only a little part of it. And as you and I were talking earlier, it's a system. Like sometimes it's not just one thing that's gone off balance.

It's a multitude of things and there's no one root cause, one diagnosis, one thing. That's the problem. So then there's not going to be one thing that fixes it.

@12:34 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Well, and we know it's not just supplements that can fix it. So to our listener, if this sounds familiar, then this is what's really happening.

You've been told by your doctors and by society and the wellness industry at large that perimenopause is a physical symptom.

Or sorry, a physical problem. That needs a physical solution. Like most people see it that way.

@13:06 - Sheri Johnson

I did for a long time.

@13:09 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah, of course. It feels physical because the symptoms feel mostly physical.

@13:15 - Sheri Johnson

Except for maybe the rage and the snippiness and stuff like that.

@13:17 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

It feels like hormonal mood changes, but it generally feels like it's a physical problem. So we keep looking for the right supplement, the right, maybe if you're on HRT, it's the right hormone dose or the right diet.

And when that doesn't fully work, if you're like me, you just think, okay, I'm just going to push through this.

I just have to live with this.

@13:45 - Sheri Johnson

And that's the side part.

@13:47 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

I know, because that doesn't have to be that way.

@13:51 - Sheri Johnson

No, and the number of women out there who are just thinking, this is just the way my life is.

This is just age. I just have to get through this next, like, it could be 10 years. Like, perimenopause can last for 10 years, and it can extend.

Like, I know you and I both know women in their 60s and 70s who are still having hot flashes.

@14:16 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

I know. I can't imagine if that's me. Yeah, that's just not acceptable. Okay, so, dear listener, what if we were to tell you, that this belief, that this, that perimenopause, these symptoms are purely physical, that this belief is actually what's keeping you stuck in those symptoms?

@14:44 - Sheri Johnson

A novel idea.

@14:48 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Well, it is until you start thinking about it.

@14:51 - Sheri Johnson

So, yeah.

@14:53 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Have you ever noticed that your symptoms get worse during stressful times?

@14:58 - Sheri Johnson

I certainly do.

@15:01 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

And the more stress, the more hot flashes. It's almost a direct correlation. And actually, there's lots of research that shows that they are directly related.

Or that your hot flashes spike when you're anxious.

@15:17 - Sheri Johnson

Mm-hmm. I'm Like, I think I'm working just as hard now, but I don't feel burnt out because I like, I love what I'm doing.

I feel like it's purposeful and fulfilling, rewarding. Yeah.

@16:01 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

And it's like this feeling that the resistance that you're feeling against the thing you're doing now that's not fulfilling is causing stress.

And then there's also the search. You're searching and you feel like you just can't find it. So there's kind of this stress in the misalignment and in the search.

@16:27 - Sheri Johnson

Oh, that's so true. Yeah. Just the simple fact that you don't feel aligned, that by itself requires energy.

@16:41 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah. Yeah. I never thought about it that way. And especially when you can feel it in your body sometimes.

When you have resistance, if you're saying yes to something that you want to say no to, it's like if you start paying attention, you'll catch it.

Like I get a feeling of know. I don't It's like there's a conflict going on in my body. So it's like a tightness.

It's actually a physical feeling. And that is energy.

@17:11 - Sheri Johnson

Yeah. Jen, it's like if you take both your hands and push with all your might against the wall, there's nothing happening.

You can't see any movement. There's nothing happening, but there's energy being exerted.

@17:27 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

That is exactly what it feels like inside my body. That is such a great way to describe it.

@17:33 - Sheri Johnson

Oh, my goodness. Yeah. So, okay. Yeah, Jen, what I see that's happening is that, and you and I both know this, your body's not just responding to dropping estrogen.

It's responding to everything, like all the different things. It's not just one thing. As we said earlier, it's not just declining estrogen.

It's all the other hormones that are running because of emotions that you're feeling and unexpressed emotions, resistance that we just talked about, even things like grief that happen with changing roles, changing identities, all that stuff.

Like that all emotions are physical. You know, like when we get sad about something, there's a very physical occurrence.

You know, you get tightness in your chest, and then it moves up into your throat, and you feel like you can't speak.

And then your face gets flushed, and then there's tears, and you might get stuffy, like your nose gets stuffy and runs.

There's a physical manifestation of any emotion. So of course, stress is going to have a manifestation inside your body.

So is anxiety. How is grief or joy, for that matter? Yeah. There's stuff going on in your body all the time.

So how can we assume that that doesn't have a physical effect? Yeah.

@19:18 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

I've been saying to our clients recently, emotion, the word is, comes from like e-motion, energy in motion. That's all that an emotion is, really.

So if it's running through your body, it is just energy in motion running through your body. If it gets stuck there, then it's energy that's stuck there.

And it's almost like it's just going to sit there and shake until it can be released, until you actually feel it.

Yeah.

@19:46 - Sheri Johnson

Okay.

@19:47 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

So what we're really talking about then is that if we're only treating the physical symptoms, then you're only addressing.

seeing. So Like a third of what's actually happening. Because you need to address the emotional, the spiritual aspects as well.

Enter in the chakra map. in, yes, our new concept. We call it the chakra map of midlife. And the concept is that your body is a system.

We always talk about this. It's a system. Emotional, spiritual, and physical. And so in midlife, this system is screaming at you to rebalance.

Not just from the external physical symptoms, supplements, the typical ways that we try to relieve all the parts of menopause, but from the inside out.

Okay, so... So this little system, this little idea gives us a map for understanding all of this and how it works.

So we're going to go through some of the chakras today, and we're going to talk about why this framework helps to explain what's energetically happening during this transition and how it can help you to...

I don't want to say solve it because I don't see menopause as something to fix. How it can help you to rise during midlife, to really thrive.

Yeah, instead of this feeling that you're not suffering, but I mean, for some people it's suffering, but it's just struggling and it's not feeling energetic.

So, Sheri, let's get started.

@21:57 - Sheri Johnson

Yeah. Do you want me to describe... Try the chakra system first.

@22:02 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Oh, yes.

@22:04 - Sheri Johnson

Yeah. You me to do that? Okay. I can So before I do that, Jen, I do sense there's a bit of a delay.

Is this – how is it on your end?

@22:20 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

It's okay. It's not as bad as it was this morning.

@22:23 - Sheri Johnson

Okay. Okay. Okay. So if you're here listening to this, you probably have heard the word chakra before. You maybe even know a lot about chakras.

If you don't, let me give you a brief description, and this is my layman's terms for it. The chakras, there are actually – so we're going to talk about seven chakras, the seven main chakras that sit on the meridian between the base of our spine and the crown of our head.

So there's lots more chakras in our bodies. But what the – What these seven are, they're on the central meridian of our body and they're energy centers.

And each one is at a different point within your physical body. The whole concept originated in Asia and is used as a way to understand.

I mean, now it's being used as a way to understand. No, I don't want to say that. I forget what I said before.

@23:44 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Me too.

@23:53 - Sheri Johnson

So these energy centers within your body, our body is our energy, our entire body. These are actually energy. If you went through grade, I don't know, seven, eight, high school science, you know that our bodies are made up of little atoms, protons, neutrons.

It's all energy. And we can understand how energy works in our body by understanding these chakras. So why don't we just start walking through the chakras one by one?

And I think that they'll get the idea of how we want to align this and use it as a map of life symptoms and midlife in general.

@24:35 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah, it's kind of actually like a map of your body because each one of these chakras, energy centers, governs different organs, emotions, and psychological themes, I guess you could call them.

And when energy flows freely through them, then you feel balanced, vibrant, and connected. And when they're blocked, one or more...

If them is blocked, even if one of them is blocked, then it can show up as physical symptoms or even just an emotional imbalance or not feeling connected spiritually.

@25:13 - Sheri Johnson

Yeah. So, okay.

@25:16 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

So now let's get into what they are. So let's start with the root chakra. Let's start at the bottom.

@25:24 - Sheri Johnson

Okay. So the root chakra is the first chakra and it's at the base of the spine is where it's located.

So it's associated with those parts of the body from the hips, pelvic region, actually right down to your feet.

And so the physical symptoms, when this is flowing, you will feel all of, you know, your lower part of your body is going to feel good.

stage. let's If it's blocked, you're going to feel symptoms like hip pain, like even in your legs. So leg pain or joint pain around the knees.

You also might feel anxiety, insomnia actually comes from here. So we're going to actually, let's talk a bit more about the symptoms in a second and how they link.

But the first chakra, so just to take a step back, the first chakra is also the first one to develop.

So if you think about an infant first born, an infant is born kind of as a blank slate. It's only concerned about survival.

Its own, it has her, its own safety, security, and survival. It wants to eat. It wants to be changed.

When it's wet, it needs to be comforted, all of, like, just pure instinctual survival. And what it requires in order to survive is belonging.

It needs, an infant needs her parents or a community or people, adults around her to survive. So the first chakra is really about stability.

It's about security. And it's about belonging. And this is why belonging, this human need to belong, is so hardwired because it begins the moment we come out of the womb.

We need to belong in order to survive.

@27:56 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah. So if this chakra is... Flowing, then you will feel safe and stable, like your feet are on the ground, like things aren't shifting underneath you.

@28:14 - Sheri Johnson

And if it's not, if the chakra is blocked, you're going to feel unstable, ungrounded, or maybe a lack of belonging, like not sure where you belong, uncertainty.

@28:30 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Okay. So Sheri, you had an example of a symptom you were feeling that sort of brought this together, like the physical symptom you were feeling, how it was connected with the emotions you were feeling, and how it was connected to this chakra.

I think you should share that. Yeah, yes.

@28:50 - Sheri Johnson

Okay. So I, a few years ago, I think this was about four years ago, I went to a conference for a network marketing company.

Thank That I was distributing the products for, and there was a leadership conference that I went to in San Diego, and my husband came with me, and actually, he didn't come to the conference itself, though.

So I went to the conference on my own, and within the team that I was on, this was a group of mothers, and a lot of, like, for a lot of them, a big reason why they had come together was because they were all mothers.

And the product that we were distributing, they were using with their kids, and so they all had this camaraderie, this thing in common, and I didn't.

I don't have kids. So I felt like I didn't belong.

@29:44 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Right.

@29:45 - Sheri Johnson

So I arrive at this conference, and I feel like it felt like being in high school to me, where I felt like I was back in high school and just didn't belong to the popular club.

That's how I felt. I'd walk in. And I felt this instability, this uncertainty of who do I belong with?

Who am I going to connect with? There was so much uncertainty there. And this occurred for the whole three days of the conference.

I was continuously in this state where I felt this instability, this not knowing where I belonged. I felt this insecurity.

And the very next day, I was walking down the street in Palm Springs with my husband. The conference was over.

And like that, I could barely walk. My hip pain, like something happened to my hips that was so painful.

I started limping for the next two nights. I couldn't, I couldn't like sleep because I couldn't find a comfortable position.

And A couple of days later, we got, you know, we woke up to get on the plane to come home and literally on the plane ride, it was like I got on the plane, I could barely walk.

I got off the plane and I was fine. Like the pain was gone.

@31:19 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Okay. Which is crazy in itself. So you didn't, you didn't do any, like you didn't injure yourself or anything.

@31:25 - Sheri Johnson

You didn't actually do anything to it. Like nothing, nothing that I can think of. No, it was just a few years ago.

@31:33 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

would have been like, what? But now I know that this is perfectly normal. Like as soon as you knew you were going home to stability.

@31:41 - Sheri Johnson

Right. The pain went home to, to the people, to my tribe, to my home, to stability. And it was like, it just took a few hours on the plane and I could literally feel it getting better.

was like, what? is going on? So it, and it wasn't. Of course, I didn't know this right away. I was, you know, it's only upon looking back.

And after it happened again, probably about a year later, it happened again. And it was when we were moving in from our home of, at the time, I think it was like our home of 10 years, and moving into our Airbnb.

We had two weeks notice. I had to pack up a whole bunch of stuff, move into our Airbnb. It wasn't even finished.

Like it was still being constructed. And I didn't know how long we were going to need to stay there.

There's a whole backstory to this that I won't care for the sake of time. But again, I felt that instability, that uncertainty about, like literally, I was being uprooted, as you said earlier.

And this is the root show. We're talking about, I was uprooted from my home and moved into another home and not sure when I was going to be able to go back to my home.

So it, it was. And the hip pain returned. The hip pain returned. So this time I called the doctor and said, what the heck is going on?

And he said, oh, it's bursitis. And there's nothing you can really do about it. It's just inflammation. And then it went away.

Like as quickly as it arrived, it just disappeared. And it's in hindsight that I could really see the pattern.

This wasn't like, yes, there was a physical manifestation of this, but it wasn't directly caused by anything. It is related to menopause.

Like we know that joint pain is a symptom of menopause because our body carries more inflammation. Cortisol plays a big role in that.

And. And. And. Thank And the emotional aspect, like those feelings of not sure, that uncertainty, that not sure where I belong, being uprooted, that really, in hindsight, I could see that those patterns were directly related.

The pain went away as soon as I felt stable again.

@34:22 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

And I know that there's tons of women out there that get like bursitis in the shoulder, frozen shoulder, and same thing.

Like it comes, it stays around for a while, and then suddenly it goes. And there's like, doctors are like, no, there's no cure, but it often, it's emotionally related.

Okay, let's move to the next we should remember to talk about the frozen shoulder when we get up to the heart chakra.

Okay, so next chakra is the sacral chakra, which is related to pleasure, sensuality, creativity, because this is where we create life.

We create projects, ideas, all comes from our womb chakra, which is this also called the sacral chakra. And the sacrum is that bone that goes across your lower back.

So this is also related to low back pain. So Sher, what are some of the symptoms on this one, that this one is blocked or out of balance?

@35:27 - Sheri Johnson

So the ones directly related to perimenopause and menopause are loss of libido and vaginal dryness. Then there's UTIs, so more frequent UTIs or even the onset of them, like in your 40s.

Women experience that.

@35:44 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah. Yep.

@35:46 - Sheri Johnson

Not relate. Well, it could be related or not related. But before you hit menopause, some of the earlier in life, earlier phases of life symptoms, endometriosis, which can last throughout life.

Heavy periods, menstrual cramps, PMS, all those kinds of symptoms that relate directly to the uterus, those are all symptoms.

So problems with the uterus, the ovaries, ectopic pregnancies even, fibroids, cervical cancers, cervical ovarian cancers. Actually, cervical cancer is a bit of a conundrum that might be related to the sacral chakra or the root chakra.

@36:41 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

And then there's also kidney stuff too, like bladder, kidney stuff, adrenals.

@36:48 - Sheri Johnson

Adrenals are within the chakra too.

@36:51 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

So the emotions associated with this chakra, this is where we hold on to shame. Guilt about desire or pleasure.

Like guilt about not only pleasure, like if you've had any sort of religious trauma around pleasure, pleasure, and also the guilt around wanting.

Like we are told that we shouldn't want many people anyways, not everybody, but we're not supposed to want things.

We're supposed to need things. Yes. And so there are some women out there who feel guilty about wanting more.

I want more out of my life.

@37:34 - Sheri Johnson

Oh, but I should be grateful for the children I have, or I should be grateful for this beautiful life I have, but actually they want more when it comes to midlife.

They also might not even be able to admit that they have needs.

@37:53 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

We talk about that all the time, because if we can't admit we have needs, then we try to do everything ourselves.

And we end up crazy busy.

@38:04 - Sheri Johnson

Yeah. And the thing that I want to add, Jen, to this one around, this is maybe more about the spiritual, but the sacral chakra is really where it's the seat of self-worth.

So whenever we're feeling a, I see self-worth as kind of something that can grow or atrophy. It's like a muscle.

And if we allow it to atrophy, then this is where that's going to show up is in problems in this area, in the womb chakra.

@38:38 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Okay.

@38:41 - Sheri Johnson

That's where guilt comes from. Guilt and shame are very much related to what we're go forth in that guilt is us telling our true selves that we don't deserve something.

We don't get to have more, we're not worthy of having more. do do to to to to to do you.

It doesn't really matter whether it's time, freedom, money, energy, whatever.

@39:08 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

That's not actually guilt. That's feeling like a bad person. Because guilt is about, guilt happens when you go against your values.

@39:18 - Sheri Johnson

Yeah, so now that's a whole other conversation. So the way that Brene Brown describes the difference between guilt and shame based on her research is that guilt arises when we feel like we've done something bad or we don't deserve something.

Shame arises when we feel like a bad person. And I think there's both here in the sacral chakra.

@39:53 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah, okay. Okay, so the spiritual opportunity here is... To reclaim your sensuality, reclaim your needs, desire, desire, yeah. And when that happens, then you start to, your symptoms start to subside.

Yeah, I know this because it's happened to me. And we talk about how to do that in our upcoming retreat, which we will talk about later.

But so we're not going to get into all the steps to shift that right now. Let's go on to the third one.

So the solar plexus is the next chakra. And this one's about power and confidence.

@40:52 - Sheri Johnson

Mm-hmm. This one is the one that, so it's in the center of. that, in Really the center of your body.

It's the center of your, like, just sitting underneath of your ribs, right?

@41:07 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah, kind of between your ribs and your belly button. Yeah.

@41:12 - Sheri Johnson

This one is big for me because I have, like, the symptoms are digestive issues is one of the biggest symptoms.

@41:18 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

And I have been having digestive issues for ages. So this is, and I know it comes from a fear of being powerful.

Like I've, we were, we were always told to be nice girls. Don't be powerful. That's not nice. And, or like, don't be bossy.

Don't take control. Like, don't take, don't be powerful. And women are generally told not to be powerful. Like we give our power to men quite often.

@41:48 - Sheri Johnson

That's what society says. Mm-hmm. Well, and the other one that's interesting here, because we were just talking about this is frustration.

And this frustration. Frustration, if you think about what frustration is or when that arises, it comes when you're trying to control something that you can't control.

So you get frustrated with technology because you can't control it. It does its own thing. You get frustrated with a person who can't control another person, but we will try.

And then we get frustrated because they're not doing what we want them to do. We get frustrated with – I get frustrated with a dog sometimes because he just doesn't understand me.

He doesn't know what I want him to do. And so that is a lack of power. When you won't let go of that, trying that need to control, you will become frustrated.

And that actually is giving away your power.

@42:48 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah. And this is where perfectionism sits. So perfectionism is one of what we call midlife coping strategies. So it's a behavioral pattern that is.

That's It's about control. So if you know that you're a perfectionist, your solar plexus is probably either blocked, not flowing as it should.

And you may also have other stuff going on with that. Digestive issues, irritable bowel syndrome, all those things that are like problems with the colon, all of those sit with this energy center.

@43:29 - Sheri Johnson

Well, also the gallbladder, the gallbladder and the liver. Is the liver, I forget, is the liver within the solar plexus?

@43:39 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

I think so. Yeah. the liver right under your rib cage.

@43:45 - Sheri Johnson

Yeah. I'm thinking of somebody right now who is very much a perfectionist. Like, outward appearance and everything about life, like, needs to appear perfect.

@43:58 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Mm-hmm. And...

@44:00 - Sheri Johnson

And also has digestive issues, gallbladder issues, like gallstones, that sort of thing. And yeah, I just, I find that so interesting that you can actually, actually, I think of more than one person who, think of anybody who has gallbladder issues, gallstones, or digestive issues.

Have a look at where are they on that perfectionism scale? Like, do they like life to be perfect? Do they like, like, things to be just so?

@44:35 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah. How it should be.

@44:37 - Sheri Johnson

worried about appearances?

@44:38 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah. Yeah. And the high standards, too. Like, I never realized I was a perfectionist until I understood that perfectionism isn't about details necessarily.

It can be. But it's about having high standards. And I prided myself in my quality of my work, the striving for excellence all the time.

perfectionist. perfectionist. I'm I'm I'm So that can cause that form of control of everything, benefits as frustration when it isn't perfect and ends up sitting in your gut.

So all the women who get digestive issues in perimenopause, this is part of the solution. Yeah. So the emotions share that are associated with this are like self-doubt, over-responsibility.

Self-doubt's a big one because that's, I mean, that's directly related to confidence. And so if you have that inner critic, the constant imposter syndrome, that's solar plexus energy.

@45:53 - Sheri Johnson

Yep. So for the. This one, the opportunity, and it's a little bit paradoxical because you gain back, like speaking about the frustration and the control, you actually gain, you take your power back when you let go of the control.

We think that power comes from control, but it's actually when you let go of whatever it is that you're trying to control that you actually have no control about.

@46:28 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Over.

@46:29 - Sheri Johnson

You take your power back because you stop being a victim of that external thing. That's so true. I hate that that's true.

to the internal.

@46:41 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

know.

@46:44 - Sheri Johnson

Yeah.

@46:44 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

I'm thinking back to when I was like earlier today when I was so frustrated with the tech and it was because I like, well, I had no control over it.

It was your internet signal. And yeah. Mm-hmm.

@46:58 - Sheri Johnson

Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. And it's when you try to control it that you can't. And when you let it go, you actually take your power back.

That's when you can change how you feel.

@47:06 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Otherwise, you're just staying in frustration.

@47:09 - Sheri Johnson

Yeah.

@47:09 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

That's acceptance.

@47:12 - Sheri Johnson

Okay.

@47:14 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

All right. So those are the three we're going to talk about today. We are going to do the next four in our next episode, but I want to just close this out with just talking about what becomes possible when you start treating your body as an entire system that includes emotions, energy, as well as the physical, and you see it as completely integrated.

@47:41 - Sheri Johnson

The possibilities are endless.

@47:44 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

I know. So like for me here, so what I've been doing is I've been trying to fix my gut issues for ages and I keep trying another supplement.

I'll try this probiotic. I'm going to try that thing. And it's like this endless saga, really, about finding what is the fix.

When I know, I have known for ages that my gut problems are emotional. It's a pattern in my nervous system that started many years ago.

Like I've had, my issues started when I was a teenager.

@48:27 - Sheri Johnson

Oh, I never knew that.

@48:30 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And when I was in my 30s, like I felt nauseous daily, every day.

@48:37 - Sheri Johnson

And until it was the norm.

@48:40 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

And then I went to a Chinese doctor, like a TCM, and he said, you should never feel nauseous. And I went, what?

I'm not, like, this is my, this is daily for me. And he said, you should never feel nauseous. And he helped me to start getting through it.

And he had a very, also integrated, um. Um, Experience where like he used needles and he used some herbs and he also helped me understand the emotions behind.

This is where I learned most of this stuff is to understand the emotions behind my issues. Yeah. My body gets a little bit better.

It gets a little bit better. So the opportunity is to actually start to thrive, not just survive perimenopause, but thrive.

Do you want to go ahead? Sure.

@50:03 - Sheri Johnson

Yeah, I just wanted to add that it's time, like now is the time to take stock of some of these chronic issues.

We all, like everybody I talk to has something chronic that's been bugging them, whether it's low back pain, or hip pain, or gut issues, or something else.

Um, there, there's things that we just start to like, assume is normal. And those are the things like you should feel perfect, like you should feel good all the time.

And if you don't, that's a signal that something is going on. And if it's chronic, I would venture to say that there's definitely an emotional connection there.

There's something you're not letting go of. Yeah.

@50:50 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

And there probably is a physical thing that, like that doctors can identify. Like with my gut issues, I know that, that wheat, gluten.

And dairy, make it worse.

@51:04 - Sheri Johnson

And I also know that I still have problems when I don't eat those things. Yeah.

@51:10 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

And so there's like, it's a mix. Like it's so integrated. And like some of these things that I have been able to emotionally resolve have led to me feeling so much better.

Like, yes, I still have gut issues, but I sleep so much better. When I started sleeping through the night, I would wake up going, oh my God, I slept through the night and like a sense of joy returned.

I didn't realize how depressed I was because I was so exhausted and how then that was leading to my brain fog.

And then suddenly I started being able to think again without having to read the paragraph three times over. And everything.

Everything just started to fall back into place. I started getting my sense of humor back again.

@52:06 - Sheri Johnson

Yeah.

@52:08 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

And feeling like me.

@52:11 - Sheri Johnson

That's the thing I hear everybody say. I just don't feel like myself.

@52:16 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah. And it's possible to feel like yourself again.

@52:20 - Sheri Johnson

Yeah. More quickly than you realize.

@52:22 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Like, yes, some of these things take work if they're really deep-seated emotional-physical problems. And there's also the opportunity to start feeling good very quickly, particularly if you can relieve some of it.

@52:39 - Sheri Johnson

Yeah. Yeah. And maybe, Jen, let's just acknowledge that our listeners are doing the work. Like, they've been busting their butts trying to get their bodies back in balance.

You know, seeing the naturopath and doing the workouts and Looking at their diet or their supplements. And so we acknowledge that.

@53:05 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

And probably also share doing the personal work.

@53:08 - Sheri Johnson

Yeah. Yeah. So I want to recognize that we're not saying you're not doing that. That we acknowledge that most of our listeners are doing that.

But what if we took it a step further and looked at it from this whole system, holistic approach, instead of trying to knock off the individual symptoms?

Mm-hmm.

@53:42 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

And when you start to take that systemic approach, you can accelerate the progress. So it might sound like a lot of work to do this.

And we know that you're probably already exhausted. And by redirecting your energy towards this systematic view, you can accelerate it all without it feeling like more work.

@54:12 - Sheri Johnson

Yeah. So Jen, let's wrap this up.

@54:18 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah. Okay. So if what we shared today is resonating with you, and if you're kind of starting to feel tired of these Band-Aid solutions and you're ready to address what's really happening, from this holistic mind-body-spirit approach, then we have something for you.

We are going to Peru. I couldn't wait for you to say it. I know. I was like, what is the right way to say this?

Because we're so excited about it. We are hosting a retreat in the Sacred Valley of Peru. It is a nine-day.

It So, hang on, I want to get, I want to get my right language. It is a nine-day retreat.

Hang on. It is a nine-day, we're calling it a sacred journey because it's in the sacred valley, to reclaim your aliveness.

So, I think you should talk about this, Sheri.

@55:39 - Sheri Johnson

So, we are going on a sacred journey through the sacred valley of Peru. Machu Picchu is in that valley.

We're going to retreat. We are going to take this chakra map for midlife women a hundred steps further. So that you can feel more alive, more like yourself, so that you get your energy and your body back.

And we're going to do that all in a nine-day journey. And it's coming up. We're going to, so you can find more details at midlifewomenrising.com slash Peru.

We'll link that up in the show notes. And we are taking registrations for that now. We only have 10 spots, and two of those are already gone.

So you're going to want to jump on this fast. Okay. And if you happen to listen to this when we have already filled it, then that link in the show notes is going to take you to a wait list for our next one.

So don't worry.

@56:57 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Okay. So last thing I want to say. Okay. to our listeners is that you don't have to struggle through this transition.

You don't have to lose yourself in midlife. It's just your body and your energy system guiding you towards something more.

And we hope we invite you to discover that with us. You can't get there by only treating one piece of the puzzle.

You need all three. So thank you for listening. Don't forget to listen to our next episode where we will finish talking about the four other chakras.

And if this resonated with you, please share it with a friend. We would love for our message to reach more women.

So share the episode with a friend, like it, review it, and subscribe. And we'll see you next time. Bye.