17: The Hidden Energetic Blocks Behind Midlife Fatigue, Fog & Disconnection

Have you ever felt like you're just so tired of stifling  yourself?  Your voice, your intuition, your soul's desires? We definitely felt that way and it started around age 40.  If you're feeling it too, this episode will feel like a breath of fresh air in a room you didn’t realize had gone stale.

In Part 2 of our Chakra Map series, we reveal how the upper four chakras  are linked to your perimenopause symptoms, not just physically, but emotionally and energetically.  

The upper 4 chakras are the energy centers that quietly shape how you show up in your relationships, how confident you feel speaking your truth, and how deeply connected you feel to your intuition and purpose.

This is where the dots start to connect.  This is the episode where everything suddenly clicks.

Here's what you'll discover:

• Why feeling disconnected, invisible, or unheard is NOT “just midlife”…
  and how these symptoms actually point to energetic blocks you can do something about.
• The shockingly common throat chakra imbalance
  that explains why so many women “lose their voice”, sometimes both literally and emotionally, during perimenopause.
• Why brain fog, overthinking, and confusion are NOT flaws
  but signs that your third eye is trying to reorganize itself and sharpen your inner guidance.
• The real reason you might be feeling uninspired, or directionless
  — and why this is actually a doorway into a more awakened, aligned chapter of your life.
• How the heart chakra reveals unprocessed grief, loneliness, or old heartbreak
  that midlife brings back to the surface — not to punish you, but to free you.

✨ The Results You’ll Walk Away With

After listening, you’ll feel:

• A massive sense of relief (“Oh my god, this explains everything…”)
• Reconnected to your intuition and able to trust yourself again
• Clearer on what your body has been trying to tell you all along
• More energized and empowered, because now you have a map
• Validated, seen, and grounded — instead of thinking you’re the only one feeling this way
• Excited (yes, excited!) about the possibility that midlife isn’t breaking you down…it’s breaking you open.

If you are intrigued and excited about the possibilities the Chakra Map for Midlife Women can bring you, check out our upcoming retreat to Peru!  Details are here. 

Find us on instagram:

Jen: @jenreimercoaching

Sheri: @sherijohnsoncoaching

Transcript

Okay. If you're just joining us, we are in the middle of a two-part series where we're talking about the chakra map of midlife.

This is something Jen and I came up with, and the reason was that what we see is that most women going through perimenopause or menopause have been told that this is purely a physical problem that needs a physical solution.

And so they try supplement after supplement, maybe hormone replacement therapy, hoping that one of those things is finally going to get them back to being themselves.

Or the other thing we see is that they just sort of grit their teeth and try to think this is what happens at their age.

But here's the truth. Your body is a system. It's an emotional, spiritual, and physical system. And when you treat only the physical symptoms, you're only addressing one third of what's actually happening.

So in part one, last week, we talked through the first three chakras and how imbalances in these particular energy centers show up, how they manifest.

And today, we're going to dive into the upper chakras and how they're connected to some of the most frustrating perimenopause symptoms that you might be experiencing.

So if we've got you curious, then stay tuned. Hey, Jen. Hey.

@3:01 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

So if you were here for part one, welcome back. I hope you've been sitting with what we covered about the root, sacral, and solar plexus chakras.

Because what we're covering today is going to complete the picture. So if you haven't listened to part one yet,

I encourage you to go back and start there, because if you do that, what we talk about today is going to make so much more sense.

Because today we're moving into the upper four chakras, which is your heart, throat, third eye, and crown. And this is where things get really interesting.

Because while the lower three chakras are about your foundation, your creativity, and your personal power, the upper ones are about connection.

Not just connection to others, but connection to your voice, and your truth, and your intuition. And the crown is your connection to something bigger than yourself.

So let's get into it, Sher.

@4:16 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Yeah, I'm excited. Okay, where do we want to start? We're going to start. We're going to start. Well, maybe really quickly, some of the symptoms that midlife experience, midlife women experience, that are more aligned with these top four chakras.

I'm thinking things like feeling disconnected from the people around them.

@4:41 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Maybe losing that sense of, not just belonging, because we talked about that as foundational, but feeling disconnected in your relationships.

@4:53 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Yeah. Yeah. And then there's losing your voice. I see this happening all the time. Oh, yeah? Losing your voice.

Oh, literally losing their voice.

@5:09 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah.

@5:10 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Yeah. It's not – so that I wouldn't say is specifically a perimenopausal thing. It's not necessarily related to menopause.

But if you're getting a lot of respiratory or – Like those types of illnesses, like colds and flus or losing your voice, that is a sign that something is going on with your – with that voice chakra, with your – with that third – what am I trying to say here?

The throat chakra.

@5:44 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

With the throat chakra.

@5:46 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

I'm trying to think of the word for throat.

@5:47 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

I know, because that one's all about it's not – that one's all about trusting – that's trusting life to support you, but it's also talking – it's also related to not being able to speak your truth or being authentic.

And sometimes when women hit midlife, they start to lose their confidence, especially at work, and then that stops you from wanting to speak up or you get a little bit of anxiety from speaking up.

Yeah, and then there's also like the brain fog, which we hear from so many people. Like – Memory loss and walking into a room, forgetting why you were there.

Yeah.

@6:27 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

I just had a moment just being able to think of the word throat, throat chakra.

@6:33 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yes. Happens all the time. Yep. Still happens. And then we know that for a lot of women, they're looking for something more at this point in their life.

Okay. I've raised my children now, or their children are at least kind of in today's day, kind of in their teenage years.

And they're like, well, now what? Like, is not just what is my purpose, but what next? There's got to be more.

Yeah.

@7:03 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

This isn't the end of my, like, my purpose or my legacy, my whatever you want to call it. Hmm.

@7:15 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

So we, what we've been talking about through the last episode is that these aren't actually just random symptoms. They're your chakras, screaming for rebalancing.

Yeah. So if any of these symptoms resonate with you, like even if you've been biting your tongue instead of speaking up or feeling isolated, even when you have people all around you, then what we're going to share is going to help you understand why and more importantly, what to do about it.

All right.

@7:53 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

So let's go to the heart chakra, Sheri.

@7:56 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah.

@7:58 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Okay. I think the heart chakra is probably one of the easiest for people to understand. It's all about the heart.

It's about love. It's about compassion. It's about forgiveness. The heart center is our emotional center. So the symptoms that we feel here – actually, hang on a second.

So when the heart chakra is blocked, or what this is all about, this is, the heart chakra is really all about opening to receive love, not just to give it.

Mm-hmm. It's where we, as I said, it's where we, it's where a lot of our emotional buildup sits in the heart.

Mm-hmm. Especially certain emotions.

@8:57 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah, certain emotions, yes.

@8:59 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Because we talked last week about how shame actually sits in the womb chakra, and anger sits in the solar plexus.

Mm-hmm. So the emotions that, that are in line with the heart are things like, like love, love, passion, forgiveness.

Yeah. And if your heart chakra is Sure. I think we should.

@9:21 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Talk about the organs, though, that are related to this first.

@9:26 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Sure. Okay. Like just to get an idea of like where, like we know this sits in your heart, but it's not just about the heart.

@9:32 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

It's about the lungs. It's about the shoulders. It's about the upper middle and upper back. So if you get pain underneath your shoulder blades, it's, what other organs are in there?

Like rib cage, breast cancer, breasts. Sorry, I'm not like not breast cancer, but like breasts. Yeah. So all these organs, arms are related to heart chakra.

Mm-hmm. And so the symptoms that you get in those areas could be related or it could be your body talking to you, sending you a signal.-hmm.

Thank That there's some emotions out of alignment. Yeah.

@10:26 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

And there's so much that can happen at this chakra, Jen. Like, we sort of think about the womb as being the, like, that's where everything is happening in midlife.

But it's actually not, like, these, this heart chakra area is so impacted. So some of the things that I, that I experienced myself was that, that middle back tightness, like that upper, upper middle back tightness, the frozen shoulder.

Yep.

@11:01 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

I know people that have, like, suffered from frozen shoulder for months. Only to find out, like, yeah, only to find out, like, year later that it's related to menopause.

@11:15 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Yep. And most people don't know that.

@11:17 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yep.

@11:18 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

The other one that I don't think a lot of women realize is linked to this. It's heart palpitations. So the pounding heart, the, you know, I know, I know a lot of women who have experienced this, and they go to their doctor, and the doctor does not connect it.

They go through like EKGs and all the tests because they think something's wrong with your heart. And what that is, is actually linked to your adrenals.

@11:49 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah. So you and my husband.

@11:52 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Cortisol will make your heart pound.

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

Mm-hmm.

@11:55 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Yeah. Sorry? Even like men can get this as well. Yeah, for sure.

@12:00 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Of course. But for women in midlife, the heart palpitations come because your cortisol levels are out of whack. Yeah.

Like you don't have estrogen and progesterone protecting you from your cortisol anymore. So the spikes, so now all the stress that you've been carrying throughout your

Your whole life now becomes unbearable and you get the heart palpitations or you get, yeah, you feel more stressed.

@12:30 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

You feel anxiety. Yep. And also going back to what we were talking about earlier, the immune system. So a lot of your lymph nodes are located in this chakra, the lungs.

So respiratory issues, flu, colds, the cough that lands in your chest that you can't get rid of. When that's carrying on, start asking yourself, okay, what feels heavy here?

What is causing me to not be able to breathe? It's not just, you know, phlegm and mucus buildup in your lungs, but what is emotionally causing you to.

Right.

@13:24 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

One of the big ones that I've seen so many times is, and this is associated with the lungs, is grief.

We hold grief in our lungs. And like, I remember one friend of mine having like, she was having, it wasn't heartburn, but she was having this feeling like something was sitting there, like at the bottom of her lungs.

And, and it was, it was about, I mean, there was a lot of stuff going on in her life at that time, but one of the, she had lost both of her parents.

She hadn't processed her grief or her guilt around how it went down. So yeah, grief comes up a lot, even if you're just holding onto grief for your youth or the life that you wish you'd had.

And now you're coming to terms with, oh my God, I'm in the second. Half of my life, and this isn't what I wanted.

@14:26 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Yeah, and then, Jen, there's also grief around the kids leaving, like the empty nest, or even just the thought of that.

Or for the women who don't have kids, there's grief around that. Wanting kids, this is like the end of the line.

So this is when you finally, finally, like when this point at which you realize, oh, this is never going to happen.

So there can be grief for both mothers and non-mothers around children not being in the house anymore, or not ever having been there in the first place.

@15:09 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah, for sure.

@15:10 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

So there's, yeah, around grief that comes up at this stage of life.

@15:19 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

So here are the opportunities. The is to think about what organs are, like if you're feeling those kinds of symptoms, to think about the organs that are there and what emotions might be coming up and allow yourself to feel those emotions.

@15:36 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Yeah. Jen, can we go back to the breasts for a minute? Because that is so, like we know how prevalent breast cancer is.

And that's when it arises is after menopause.

@15:56 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

It tends to. mean, for many women it's not, but yeah. Yeah.

@16:02 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

And what I have, what I have seen and what I have read is that breast cancer is associated with a lack of self-love and self-nurturing.

If you think about the breast. And how they are how you nurture and nourish your child. That is their primary purpose.

Breast cancer sets in when you have not been nurturing or nourishing yourself, whether that's your physical body, your emotional or your spiritual, your soul.

And I think that is so epidemic in our society, Western culture. They don't nurture themselves. I didn't even know.

Jen, I have a story here. So a few years ago, I didn't even realize what nurturing myself meant. And I went to see my sister actually also does treatalities that she uses.

And I went to see her for my first appointment ever after we had already... She... She She'd already done my Reiki attunement.

And I came into her studio or her little clinic, and she was so nurturing. I almost didn't know how to handle it.

Like what she, I didn't know how to receive it. I had never received that kind of, almost like mothering.

And you can feel that energy within the treatment itself. And I came home and was sort of processing this, and I remember telling a friend about it.

And she said, Sheri, you probably received the nurturing that you never received before. Like that's what this is. Because I didn't even know how to describe what I had experienced.

And she said, Sheri, you were nurtured. Right. And I just had never. I I had never felt that way before, or maybe just in a very long time, and I didn't even know how to receive that.

It took me some time to actually really receive that without guilt. Yeah.

@18:42 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

I have felt that on numerous occasions in my life too, especially when I've been the most worn down, not even just worn down from busyness, but worn down from my own self-criticism.

@18:58 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Yes.

@18:59 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Like I was at kind of a rock bottom at one point in my life, and I would go in to see my Chinese doctor, and he would put his hand on me, and I would immediately go, like there was something just about, same thing.

@19:13 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Yeah.

@19:13 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

The way that he like just put a hand on my shoulder or whatever it was, or just to hold my wrist to check my pulse.

And it was so. It nurturing and I couldn't wait to go back every week. It brings me to tears.

I felt it too after your wedding. Remember I came home from South Africa. It was like this long trip and then it was Christmas and it was all crazy.

And I was trying to see everybody and those trips home were always crazy for me because I was trying to fit all kinds of visiting in.

@19:45 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

And then I got shingles. Yep, I remember that.

@19:48 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

On Christmas Day and had to go to the hospital on Christmas Day. And then it was your wedding on the 28th and the day after.

And so there was so much buildup and I was so exhausted that, and even like from work before. And then I had a facial the day after your wedding.

@20:08 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

And I actually cried on that table.

@20:11 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

And I was like, because I felt so nurtured finally. Yeah. So just moving on here, I want to say two things.

One is... We would never advocate for not going to your doctor if you feel a lump in your breast or something like that.

What we are suggesting is that when you have a physical ailment, it's an invitation to ask yourself what your body is trying to tell you.

And when you start to release the emotions, it can support all the physical things that you're doing so they are more effective.

Yep.

@20:50 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

I feel like we could say so much more on this, Jen. Let's move on to the throat chakra. Yeah.

So this one is all about expression. So within the throat chakra is your throat itself, but also your mouth, and it's also your ears.

So this one is all about your voice, your voice box that's in your throat. you. out. It's about expressing yourself, expressing your voice, your opinions, your thoughts, and also being heard or feeling heard.

@21:38 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah.

@21:39 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Yeah.

@21:40 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

It's also about not just truth, but trusting. Authenticity.

@21:48 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Authenticity, like speaking your authentic voice.

@21:50 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

But trusting, like this is about trusting the universe has your back. That also, that sits in your throat as well.

Yeah. So other organs in there, thyroid issues, also throat chakra, neck, like how many people have kinks in their neck?

I do right now. I haven't been able to get rid of it. I haven't figured out what the emotion is attached, but often like stiff neck is like, what direction?

Are you looking? Are you facing the right way? If you can't turn your neck, and I'm turning my neck right now, even though our listeners can't see it, but if you can't turn it, it's a sign that you're being rigid.

So there's, or being inflexible about the direction you're, what you're facing, literally what you're facing, your face.

@22:51 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

And yeah, those are all like, again, it goes back to the language we use, Jen? I know.

@22:58 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Like what you're facing in your life is what, like part of your throat chakra. You know, we didn't talk about this yesterday, but like some of the issues in the root chakra is like irritable bowel and other issues.

Down there. And literally, I don't even want to say this word online, but a runny tummy or diarrhea is literally being scared shitless about something.

@23:37 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

So that language evolved for a reason. Yeah.

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

So, cause those kinds of issues are like, you can't stomach, like you're trying to, you, you, there's so much fear coming that's being released from you.

So anyway, back to the throat, sorry, that two chakras that we shouldn't be talking about in the same paragraph.

@24:00 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Well, and, and some of the, let's like, let's just talk about the language that comes up for the throat chakra.

There's the, you know, you and I have talked about cold sores because we both get cold sores. And that's about, you know, what are you beating yourself up about?

What did you say that you regret? What did you, what have you not done that You're beating yourself up about something.

And it literally looks like you've been beaten up when you have a cold sore. That's true.

@24:28 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

And that's also about a fear of being intimate or you don't, like, you literally don't want someone to kiss you or to come near you.

Yeah. So, and like most people or many people might not want to if you've got a cold sore. So it physically keeps people away.

Yep.

@24:47 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

There's, um. That's not necessarily a menopause symptom, but.

@24:51 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Right.

@24:52 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

But it's just, we just, like, we're sort of showing you how you're, how language can give you a clue as to what's going on emotionally.

Even, you know, canker sores. What are you biting your tongue about? What are you not expressing?

@25:08 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah. Teeth issues here too. Mm-hmm.

@25:13 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Tongue.

@25:14 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Um.

@25:16 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Yeah. I do find that for midlife women, women, this is a big. . Like we, this is the period of time when you start to find your voice, you know, like the hormonal shift, the drop in estrogen, the drop in oxytocin, the nurturing hormones allows that part of you to rise that maybe begins to speak your truth.

Truth. And when you don't, it becomes a problem. That throat chakra gets blocked. It becomes even more of a problem.

@25:54 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

I was going to say, Mindy Peltz talks about this, about how when you turn 13 or 12, like when you go into puberty, your brain starts to, like girls' brains start to think in a more relational fashion.

So, um, boys will continue to, like, if you ask them, if you ask kids what they want to eat, this was a study that was done.

They asked boys and girls what they want to eat when they were 10. boys they could they They And then when they were in puberty and before they hit puberty, the girls and the boys did both the same thing.

I want to eat candy right now or whatever it was. Once they hit puberty, the boys continued to say what they wanted to eat, but the girls said, well, what does everybody else want?

And what's available? And what do you want? And they started to think in terms of how does my response affect everybody else around me and how is it affected by everyone else around me?

ACTION ITEM: Find Mindy Peltz study on puberty/relational thinking; link in show notes - WATCH

@26:53 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

So fascinating. I know it is.

@26:56 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

It's so interesting. So we'd have to link up that study. I'd have to find it. But anyway, so Mindy Peltz talks about that.

And then she says, when our estrogen declines and starts to fluctuate in midlife, we start to let go of that relational perspective on life.

So So we start saying what we want to eat. So we start saying what we really want and it's easier to be more authentic.

However, many of us have been conditioned to please everybody else. So suddenly you've got your body screaming at you to be more authentic because this estrogen is dropping and you're not thinking so relational anymore.

You're starting to be, your body is encouraging you to start thinking about yourself and prioritizing yourself more. But there's still this conflict because you have this societal conditioning and some conditioning that has come from your childhood that is still sitting in your subconscious that is telling you, no, no, no, no, no, You want to be more authentic, but no, no, that's not safe.

So you're going to keep pleasing everybody else and making sure that everybody else is okay. And that creates, that's why like this feels like such a conflict for some women when you hit this phase of life, because

Because the inner conflict has become bigger. Like you've always, your soul has always told you to be authentic. So there's always been that fight.

However, now it's an even bigger fight because your body's actually telling you to be authentic too.

@28:37 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Right. Yeah. And then when you're, yeah.

@28:41 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

And then when you don't do it, you feel symptoms. have like thyroid issues are huge in midlife. And that's like blood sugar issues.

We already know about blood sugar issues and cortisol and how insulin cortisol balance is so important in midlife. But thyroid issues also tend to show up.

@29:01 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Yeah. And they, and there's waking, there's sleep issues, temperature issues like that. It's involved in so many different processes in our body.

So thyroid is going to cause all kinds of, all kinds of issues. Yeah.

@29:18 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

And again, your doctor won't tell you. But it's a problem unless it's a big enough problem for a prescription, right?

So I took my lab results from the doctor who told me, there's nothing wrong with you. And I'm like, well, there's something wrong with me because I'm exhausted and all these things were happening.

And so I took it to my naturopath and she said, yeah, your thyroid function isn't at the point where you would need a prescription for it, but it is a little bit low.

Hence, feeling blood sugar issues. I can no longer take caffeine as well. Sleep issues. All the, what else was it related to that?

Like the blood sugar issues that wake you up in the middle of the night. So, and the hot flashes are related to that as well.

So, yeah. And how I've been. It's a big problem. haven't.

@30:17 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Yeah.

@30:18 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

And so I haven't had to ever get medication. And what I've been practicing is listening to my body. Like I've done lots of things with my diet to help support it and, and also learned to stop people pleasing so that I express my opinion.

ACTION ITEM: Email Shannon re: guest spot on thyroid - WATCH

@30:39 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Yeah. Yeah. We're going to have to get my friend Shannon on the podcast to talk about thyroid because she is an expert in that.

@30:47 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

And I'll also experience all those things.

@30:49 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

And that's so many women actually do. Like they, they have to go to their, they have to bring their lab results to a naturopath to get their naturopath to say, yes, these results are low because the standards in the Western medical system are not low enough.

So are we ready to move on to the third eye?

@31:10 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah. think the last thing I want to say about that one is like some of these, some of the stems from a fear of being too much, like taking up too much space.

I'm too much. I don't want to be, I want to be, I want to be. I low maintenance. I want to be easy.

I don't want to be too overbearing, which is what we're told to be as women, like, or as girls, we're told to be kind and don't take up too much space and be a good girl and dah, dah, dah.

So those kinds of things that you've been programmed in childhood are going to come out.

@31:47 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Women or girls, girls were taught to be small. Men were taught to be big.

@31:55 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Physically, not everyone, but yes, many. Yeah.

@31:59 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Well, yes, in general, like women are supposed to have smaller bodies. Men are supposed to expand their bodies. It's supposed to get big physically, emotionally, spiritually, like all of it.

Women are taught to shrink. Men are taught to expand.

@32:15 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah. It infuriates me, actually. Because now I'm trying to unlearn all of that. Okay. Yeah. Next one. Bye. Third eye.

So third eye, Sheri, we know this, is about intuition, clarity, wisdom, and like think about it, clarity. We see clearly with our eyes.

@32:35 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Yep. So it's called the third eye for the reason.

@32:39 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

The third eye sits in sort of not quite in the middle of the forehead, but in between your eyebrows.

And so it is related to organs in like around your eyes, your brain. What else? Yeah. Okay. So symptoms, well, the biggest symptom around this one in midlife is fog.

Yeah.

@33:14 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Brain fog. I hear that one a lot. Overthinking. Overwhelming. And you know what?

@33:23 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

It doesn't matter who I'm talking to. If they're midlife women, they complain about overthinking and ruminating. Every single one, it doesn't matter what room I'm in, they talk about ruminating.

And Sheri, I think we should just talk about brain fog for a second because I suffered with brain fog for quite a long time without calling it that.

I didn't know what, I was like, what is brain fog? What does that mean? So for me at work, it meant I had a hard time focusing, which isn't even specific enough.

It's more like I would have to read stuff. I kept thinking I was such a slow reader. I was doing my PhD at the time.

So I kept thinking I'm such a slow reader and I was so embarrassed about it because it was taking me so long to read these very dry academic articles.

And then I realized it's because I'm reading paragraphs like over and over again because I can't keep the focus or I can't, I'd read.

Read it without actually digesting it. And I still find that sometimes even when I'm reading interesting material. So it's an inability to kind of process and digest what you're taking in.

@34:39 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

It's also the things that make us feel like we're going crazy. You know, like I made a pot of coffee the other day and I forgot to put the basket in.

So like, so it didn't make the coffee properly. And I was talking to somebody on the phone on a call the other day and she said the same thing.

She's like, yeah, I made coffee and forgot to put the cup there.

@35:03 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

So she must have had like a Keurig or something. Forgot to put the cup. So the coffee's all over the counter.

@35:09 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

It's those things, you know, I find, I find these in weird places, you know, find something in the fridge that has no business being in the fridge.

It's those things that you're like, oh my God. Oh, and the other thing that I have been doing a lot, which is actually really scary, is leaving the gas stove on.

And so I think that I've taken it off, you know, like I've burned, I don't know how many pots in the last little while.

I've done a few too. think I've turned it off and I haven't. And so it's these, like, I'm like, oh my gosh, like, am I heading towards dementia?

Like, what is going on? Why am I just, I'm not sharp? I'm doing these, like, silly things that make me feel like I don't know what's going on.

Yeah. That's all related to the third eye.

@36:03 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

I know. And it gets so embarrassing too. Like, when you forget something, when you forget people, like, I used to be so good with names and faces.

@36:12 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Yep. And I'm not as good at that anymore.

@36:14 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

And I forget, like, things like, even when I'm talking to you, like, to somebody, I'll forget. And I'm Um...

A conversation that we had already had. And I'll be like, what is wrong with me? And so, yeah, these are all related.

That's probably the biggest complaint for midlife women. And then, of course, the sleep disruption too is also related to third eye, among other things, which is the two, like wake up at one o'clock, ruminating, thinking, spiraling for hours.

@36:51 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

And this, just to kind of touch on where this kind of blockage of the third eye comes from, is our continuous, this one's also about trust.

Like it's this continuous, not trusting our intuition and being disconnected from what we know to be true and ignoring our intuition in favor of analytics.

What somebody else's opinion is. This is where all this stuff comes up. The people pleasing, the overthinking, the overanalyzing.

That is so important.

@37:33 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Like a lot of people say they're not intuitive or they've lost touch with their intuition. And part of that is because we're so busy that we lose touch with our intuition.

But what you're saying is so important in that it's that we override it for so long that it becomes that we don't trust it anymore.

So we don't listen to it. And that's when it becomes quiet because we've stopped because we've been overriding it.

And I can think of so many times when I'll do something and go, I knew I shouldn't have done that.

I knew I shouldn't have gone to that or I knew I shouldn't have, whatever, and hadn't listened.

@38:16 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

I do, now I listen to it.

@38:19 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

But when I was younger, I didn't listen to it. Because I'd just be on a mission to get something done.

@38:26 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

And then I could have saved a whole bunch of time or something like that.

@38:29 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

So that is, I mean, that is what the third eye is all about, is intuition.

@38:35 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Yeah. Yeah. So the last one, the crown chakra. Do you want do this one, Jen?

@38:46 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah, I love this one because in a meditation, it feels so good to connect your crown chakra with spirit and to just imagine light pouring in your crown chakra.

So it's one of my favorites. It is all about connection to spirit, to meaning of life, purpose. And connection to nature.

@39:11 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Hmm.

@39:13 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Hmm. Hmm. Nature is spirit.

@39:15 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Like nature is the divine. Oh, yes.

@39:19 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yes. I hadn't thought about

@39:21 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Which is also an epidemic in our world, our disconnection from nature. Like, think of how many people are sitting up in their condos in the city and barely touch a blade of grass.

Like, we're disconnected from our food sources. We have no idea where our food comes from. I didn't even know.

You know, the first time I saw Brussels sprouts on a stem, I was like, oh, that's how they grow?

Like, we have no idea. What our food looks like when it's growing out of the ground. We don't know what parts, you know, Mike and I were talking about this, about where on the cow is this cut of beef coming from.

Mm-hmm.

@40:07 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yep. Not that we don't know that anymore. I saw, I bought fresh ginger the other day from the market, like locally grown ginger.

I had no idea. Yeah. It wasn't. And it came with all the stems, which looked like grass, sort of like a blade grass, like a switchgrass, maybe.

Apparently, you can eat the stems, too. And the ginger, I almost didn't have to peel it. Like, it was so soft.

Because it was so And had none of that. Because it was so fresh. And I was like, oh, is this how ginger grows?

We are so disconnected.

@40:52 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

From nature.

@40:53 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

And I have to say, like, I love it when Leigh and I go, when my daughter and I go into the forest and we look at mushrooms and we find berries and pick them and eat them.

And it's just so, there's something completely different about eating a berry that you found in the forest than buying it from the grocery store.

@41:13 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Well, and you know what I find so fascinating and frustrating? I, like, we have lots of berries. Around where we live, like I live in the country, I live in, you know, in forest land.

And so there's tons of berries, raspberries, wild strawberries, blackberries, all the things. And so I pick them, and I bring them home.

And I'm like, to my husband, like, try these, look at these, I got these from the forest. And he will look at them and go, I'm not eating those.

You just pick those from the forest? That is so sad. I know, as though there is something better about, like, cultivated berries that grow in a field, and they're sprayed with pesticides and all the things.

Those are somehow better. And he's, I mean, I'm training him. He lives with me, so he's got to put up with us.

But it always shocks me that he, that he's sort of like, oh, well, I don't know where that came from.

So I don't think I'm, I don't try. It's almost like he doesn't trust it.

@42:28 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Right. I know. I love teaching my kid to like, to find stuff in the forest to eat. Obviously we're careful, but, and she tastes it.

She's like, mom, that's so good. Oh yeah. It's like she recognizes how much better it tastes at age seven.

@42:45 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Yeah. Okay. Anyway, on with the crown chakra.

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

Um, so the symptoms here are more spiritual naturally. Like it's about, I like this exit existential anxiety. This can feel like that, like a low grade feeling of anxiety without knowing what it is.

@43:08 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Mm-hmm. Which is actually, yeah. And, and there's actually a physical reason for that as well. If you're low on magnesium and your progesterone is low, which often happens.

and, and, and, and In perimenopause, menopause, that can cause that low-grade anxiety and we'll take supplements, but then it's still there.

So it's a perfect example of where there's a physical path, and yet it might not resolve itself with supplements.

Or it comes back.

@43:46 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Like I have a supplement I take for like a calming supplement, which is, it's GABA, which is what progesterone, you need progesterone in your body to make GABA.

And GABA helps calm cortisol. And I'll take GABA, but it doesn't fix, it doesn't fix it. But I'd have to keep, like I keep, I don't just take it every day.

take it when I feel a little, I know I've had kind of an anxious day or, but you, so you always have to take it.

It's not that the supplement resolves it. band-aid.

@44:19 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Yeah. So the better solution would.

@44:21 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

It to actually resolve my anxiety. Yeah. Which I'm doing, of course. The other symptoms for this one are the feeling of not knowing what to do next.

Some people are retiring already around this age. They don't know what's next. Or they feel like their career, it's time to bring their career to a close, but they don't know what to do next.

So they continue to just do it and just say, okay, well, I'll just do it for a couple more years.

And so it's like a loss of direction or even just spiritual fatigue, like fatigue from being misaligned from what your soul truly wants, which also comes from people-pleasing and all the relational stuff we've had to do throughout our life.

@45:18 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Yeah. Ignoring your- It's linked to your intuition, too. I mean, your intuition is telling you what your soul wants you to do.

@45:28 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

And we ignore that.

@45:29 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

And it makes us feel unfulfilled. Yeah, we feel empty, unfulfilled. Yeah.

@45:42 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

So I think just for like opportunity for this one is to really just surrender control and allow yourself to ponder those, like give yourself the space to ponder those questions.

@46:02 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Yep. What is next? What do I really want?

@46:06 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Not what everybody else wants. Yes.

@46:11 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Okay. So wrapping this up. We've just walked through today four chakras. Last week we walked through. So all seven chakras, this is the complete map of your energetic, your emotional, spiritual, physical body.

And we hope that you're really starting to see how interconnected everything is. So your exhaustion isn't just about hormones, your, that feeling of being disconnected that we just talked about isn't, isn't about life circumstances.

It's your system calling out for a rebalancing, maybe for a recalibration, for a reset. And here's what I know, both of us know this, right, Jen?

Working with so many women in midlife, you can kind of understand this intellectually, and maybe you even start doing some practices at home.

You know, we've, we've sort of given you the first step in that, which is just to notice and make these connections.

That's the first step. But the real... The transformation, the kind that actually rewires your nervous system and allows you to sort of tap into your true authentic self, your identity at the root, that doesn't actually happen in your living room between Zoom calls or while listening to a podcast as much as we hope that our podcast is helping you to transform.

Because, right, Jen, you listen to the episode and you get inspired. This happens to me all the time. And maybe you try a few things, but then life happens.

And all those demands, they come flooding back and you're in the same environment. So, of course, it's kind of like the addict who can't, like, they go to rehab and they give up the addiction and they come back into the same environment and all those same triggers.

And they just, you know, they come back to their addiction.

@48:25 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Unless they get help afterwards. But yeah.

@48:29 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Yeah. And even then it's really hard. So if you're doing this all in the same environment as all these triggers are, all of these things that have caused you to be this way in the first place to experience the symptoms, to experience the busyness and demands of life, you're in the same environment with the same triggers and the same patterns.

So a podcast can inspire you and we hope that it is, but there's more that you can do. So the real transformation happens when you step out of that daily life.

When you give your nervous system a chance to actually reset, not just for an hour or half an hour podcast, but for days.

And talking about that connection with nature. And the divine, when you're surrounded by that nature, maybe, you know, what we're getting to, the ancient sacred sites, a community of women on the same journey, that is when you can really transform.

@49:41 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

Yeah, because that's when you're actually feeling it instead of just trying to think your way into a transformation.

@49:50 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Exactly. And that is exactly why we are inviting you to join us in Peru this March. We have a retreat coming up.

It's a nine-day sacred journey in Peru's Sacred Valley. And it is specifically designed by us. We're using our chakra map for midlife women.

And it's women in their 40s, 50s, maybe even 60s who are ready to really start. Thriving. So this isn't a vacation.

It's not a trip. It's, it's not a workshop. It's a retreat. It's an opportunity to really hone in on some of these concepts that we've talked about on your physical symptoms, your emotional, spiritual, and make a complete transformation, a complete recalibration of your whole system.

Mm-hmm.

@50:51 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

So if we've got you curious about that, you can go to midlifewomenrising.com slash Peru.

@50:57 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

We'll link that up in the show notes to get more details. And we're coming up on the deadline to join.

So yeah, click that link and check it out and join us.

@51:11 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

All right. So the last thing we want to say is if this chakra map was intriguing for you, if it was helpful.

All right. right. All Let us know. Follow us on Instagram and send us a DM or share these episodes with a friend.

It helps us get our message out.

@51:33 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Yes, and invite one of them to Peru with us.

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

So we'll see you in the next episode. Thanks so much for listening.

ACTION ITEM: Edit episode: remove addict metaphor; send to Sheri - WATCH

@51:47 - Sheri Johnson (Sheri Johnson)

Okay, I'm downloading right now. Okay, I have stopped Audacity.

@51:52 - Jennifer Reimer (virtuousradicals.com)

I'm going to ask, I want to ask Robbo to, I don't think we should keep that part in about the addict because what you've, the metaphor there is that the addict has gone away, recalibrated, and then gone back home and