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In this episode I’m joined by my new friend, Naomi Watts, to discuss her book Dare I Say It- Everything I Wish I’d Known About Menopause. We cover spiritual shakedowns, navigating hormones and the surprising gifts of menopause.

You’ll learn:

  • What every woman (and the men who love them) need to know about menopause
  • The advice Naomi and I wish we could have given our younger selves
  • The hidden blessings we found while navigating hormonal changes
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disclaimer

This podcast is intended to educate, inspire, and support you on your personal journey towards inner peace. I am not a psychologist or a medical doctor and do not offer any professional health or medical advice. If you are suffering from any psychological or medical conditions, please seek help from a qualified health professional.

dear gabby #244 Jan 27, 2025 emotional wellbeing

spirituality, hormones and the strength of women with naomi watts

[00:00:00] The following podcast is a dear media production.

Hey there. Welcome to dear Gabby. I'm your host, Gabby Bernstein. And if you landed here, it is absolutely no accident. It means that you're ready to feel good and manifest a life beyond your wildest dreams. Let's get started.

Welcome back. Welcome back to Dear Gabby, my friends. Today I have such a great episode for you. It is a beautiful conversation with my new friend, Naomi Watts, and we talk about some very important stuff, which I'll get into. And I'm just sitting here in my ISO booth, just thinking about the last few weeks and boy, oh boy, it has been.

A whirlwind. I hit the stage, and I hit the TV shows, and I hit the road with my new book, Self Help, This is Your Chance to Change Your Life. I've received incredible reviews from folks just coming up to [00:01:00] me saying that two days of reading this book was more than two years of therapy.

Now, of course, This book is about a therapy, so it's not taking anything away from therapy, but that they had big aha moments and just experiences from people saying that in a one minute of the four step check in process from self help, they experienced changes that they'd never felt in their life.

It's really beautiful to just see the book in people's hands and just witness their experiences. And one of my Amazon reviewers said this is required reading for anyone looking to really heal. So it's just kind of amazing to see this, you know, writing a book is A journey. It's a bit of a journey. And then the part that's the most fun is just witnessing it out in the world in people's hands and witnessing the shifts that people experience live in the room or in their reviews on Amazon and doing the work.

And what's cool about this is that. You know, a lot of people think that self help is hard and that the changes that we want to make in our life are going to [00:02:00] be a struggle. And it's not necessarily easy, but it doesn't have to be hard. I want to really point that out. It doesn't have to be a struggle. And what I've been going out on the road promising, like a really big promise.

I've been proclaiming this promise, standing behind this promise, swearing behind this promise, is that When you spend one minute a day with the four step check in process inside my book, Self Help, just one minute a day, that I promise people if in 30 days they do one minute a day of the four steps, they will change their life.

So I'm going to promise that to you right now. If you open the book and you practice the four step check in process inside Self Help for one minute a day for 30 days, you will radically change your life. You will experience yourself in a totally different way. You'll notice more compassion come through for yourself.

You'll feel calmer. You'll feel more connected to every part of who you are. It's a [00:03:00] promise. I can swear by this. I can stand by this. I'm going to challenge you to do it. I'm going to challenge you to do one check in a day for 30 days. It's my challenge. I genuinely can sit here in my ISO booth, looking at the microphone, knowing that you're listening proudly and confidently and boldly.

It's also based on a therapy. The book is based on a therapy that is a profound therapy that really changed my life. And so what I've done is I've made that therapy a self help practice. So it's a science backed therapy called Internal Family Systems. And it's, it's based on this beautiful principle that I share inside the book.

And you can learn it in an easy and digestible way. And you can do one minute a day for 30 days. And the method in this book is. That I write about got me through one of the most difficult periods of my life. And that was around April of 2024 when the [00:04:00] earth started to shatter underneath me and I began to go through this journey of perimenopause.

And that topic of this journey is what I talk about today on the show. Very boldly. We talk about hormones and the most important messages that women need to hear. And I have my new friend, Naomi Watts, joining me, talking about her new book.

And she's with me on the episode really bravely and courageously and boldly speaking about how to live through The experience of perimenopause and menopause and how we too, both, both of us share experience of how we did it with grace and how we did it with ease and we share the most important advice that we would ever give our younger selves.

We talk about hormone replacement therapy and what that's meant to us. I talk about how I got my sex drive back and how I feel so back into my body and how I've never felt sexier in at least 20 years. I haven't felt sexier than I do right now. And how this epic [00:05:00] shakedown was a spiritual shakedown really became the catalyst for my greatest breakthrough.

And so if you're a woman that's Um, going through perimenopause or if you're like really a woman in your 30s to 50s, you must listen to this. If you're a woman in your 20s, you must listen to this. If you're a man who loves a woman, you must listen to this. Really at any stage of the female development, this is a absolute must listen.

I wish that I would, I was in my 20s. I'd heard this. I wish that when I was in my 30s, I heard this. I wish that when I was 40, I heard this because I didn't have this information and it hit me over the head. really, really hard. And so I'm going to, this, this is an episode that will change your life. And the four step practice in my book Self Help is also something that really served me through that perimenopause period.

That was my spiritual work and then the medicated path and some of the physical and emotional things that we both did, Naomi and I talk about in this episode. So if you are ready to have a Radical deep dive inward to understanding your hormones, [00:06:00] understanding your life experience as it relates to your hormonal journey, then this episode is something I do not want you to miss.

If you want to know the absolute most important piece of advice that I would give myself, then you're absolutely going to want to hear this. And you're also going to want to hear all about Naomi Watts's new book, Dare I Say It. It's amazing. You're going to want to listen all the way through to the end.

I love you guys. I'm so proud that you're here. Enjoy the show. And if you're reading Self Help, let me know. Leave an Amazon review. Let me know how it's going. I want to hear what your experience is. I really, really hope this book is serving you. And if you're not reading it, go to DearGabby.com/self help.

I give away three free meditations, self guided meditations when you listen to the book or read the book. So go to DearGabby.com/selfhelp to get the book today and get your free meditation. three free guided self help meditations. You are going to love this. Enjoy. Hi, how are you? [00:07:00] Where are you right now?

Are you in New York City? Yeah. Nice. Congratulations. Book's out. Book day two. Woo! Still standing. Still standing. But yeah, it's, it's quite a thing, this book tour. And even though, you know, we've done Press Junkets before, I guess it's been a while. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I have a lot to talk to you about, but we don't really need that much time anyway.

So we'll, we'll dive right in now. I just launched a book two weeks ago. I know that, I know, I know you're, I know your energy right now. So go girl. I'm glad, I'm glad you know my state of mind. I know it, like, very intimately in this moment. Actually, I'm only two weeks out of it, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna be in you.

Thank you. I'm gonna be in the calm energy for you for that moment of two weeks later, because that feels better. It really does. Thank you. I just have to start by saying thank you because to quote someone that said something in your book, 2024 was when my wheels came off, when the wheels came off for me.

And [00:08:00] it was, and you, I'll just, I got to start with this. You were such a huge part of my recovery and I call it recovery because it was the greatest shakedown of my life. My story is so similar to yours. But I just want to say that when you came out with the article in the Times, it was the first time my husband forwarded it to me, and it was the first time that I actually felt seen by him in that chaos.

Right. Thank you. I'm glad to hear that, that, you know, this work that I've been doing is not just for myself. It's, it's hopefully connecting others with, you know, their suffering and stories as well. And you shouldn't have to suffer and you shouldn't have to feel alone. I went through a long period of time not knowing.

A who I was suddenly when it was going to end, if it would end, it was a reckoning. And [00:09:00] I, it turned into something really positive that I'm really, really proud of, but I went through good. Amount of time by myself feeling at sea, uneducated, not having a community, not having been understood by doctors or not consistently and feeling very scared.

Yeah. I think that perimenopause and menopause is an inner shakedown. It's a, it's an existential crisis truly. And some of us like you and myself experience it in really big ways. My girlfriend said to me, Gabby, you get the tsunamis when it comes to these hormonal things. This was one of my hormonal tsunamis.

I want it for both of us to tell a bit about what that experience was because I know that so much, so many of my listeners. Maybe they're probably like 30 to 50, maybe 25 to 50. So they're right in this range. And many of them maybe are like myself and you where they're going through perimodopause in their [00:10:00] thirties and don't realize it.

So, you know, I had my night sweats. I had my brain fog. I had my anxiety. I had my gastro issues. And you talk about all of this in the book. And, you know, for me, I was blessed that 2024 was my shakedown. So you were there. Mary Claire Haver was there. But you didn't have you or Mary Claire at that time. So just tell me about it.

Yeah. I mean, and I also had the panic of trying to create a family. So these things were colliding and escalating my panic and it brought up so much turmoil. But yes, once I had my kids. Which, mercifully, I was able to, despite the fact that I wasn't a candidate for IVF and other things weren't working, Clomid and IUIs and such.

I did manage to get pregnant eventually, 38 and 40, and then straight after those two babies, I went into hardcore symptoms. And then, you know, When my doctor had already said before I got pregnant at 36, you were close to [00:11:00] menopause, then it started really making sense. Like I really had to do something about it.

What could I do that could help me through these endless nights of sweating through the bed and, you know, having a pile of t shirts to, or. Towels to change through the night, but yeah, when you can't sleep, all kinds of things go wrong in the next day, whether that's your memory, can't finish a sentence, you can't remember someone's name, whether it's depression, anxiety, all of those things come out of losing sleep.

And so I had to get, I was really. Adamant that I get some kind of treatment and my doctor was very knowledgeable and just went through the list of options with me and very open. So I was lucky. They have no information. Yeah. They not, they don't have the information and they're scared because of previous studies going wrong and all of that, which I go deeply into in the book, [00:12:00] but they, so that, and they have such a short amount of time to treat you.

So. quite often they'll either gatekeep or give you just a sleeping pill or an antidepressant, which may or may not work for you for a certain time. But, you know, we, we need, we need to be heard and we need to have our doctors understand what our symptoms are. I actually was having symptoms for a decade before I really took ownership of it and started to get the support I needed.

And it was. Really, when the shakedown started to happen, it was really only when I started having the hot flashes that I took, I was like, Oh wow, I'm in perimenopause. Prior to that, I was like, I'm 44 years old. What is this? We didn't have the information, but really it was when I was 35 going through this.

Right. Right. See, that's what people don't realize. They say, Oh, your fertility changes after 35, but they don't say, and you may experience X, Y, and Z and so on. Did you ever have a conversation with your mother or? Nothing. No conversation with my mother. [00:13:00] No, I was having nice. I was having all of it. I had fertility issues.

I mean, I, I conceived with IVF and then I had to do IUI. I had my first child at 39 and then I did a whole bunch of IVF, but for another pregnancy that, that unfortunately did not carry on, but I realized all the while that I'm doing all that treatment. I was in perimenopause. I was taking whatever eggs I had left and just Pushing them out.

Yes. So very much the same as I read your book and the whole time I was like, this is me. This is my story. And I'm, I gotta say, I'm going to shout this book from the rooftops. I'm going to be your biggest publicist for this book because first of all, you're on the cover and you've got. This megaphone with flames coming off of it.

I wore my red shirt for you today. Oh, thank you. Fire. Spread the fire. The fire coming out of the megaphone, which to me is such a beautiful image and metaphor for who you are in this world right now because you're taking the flames and you are [00:14:00] alchemizing them. through this book. And I just got to say thank you.

So, you know, you're giving the, you're giving the world a heads up. That's what this book is doing. Well, I think the, the world is already hearing us. There's collectively, it's been a lot of things coming, voices coming together. And it's not just, Us women, it's doctors are listening, studies will now take place and, and better funding, better research.

It's, it's all working in our favor, still slow, not fast enough, but, and there's plenty more to do. But I think the more we identify what our issues are and talk about them with each other and our doctors, the, the, the faster this will go.

This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Wow, this year is already moving fast. I mean, it's almost February, my friends, and I actually love this moment in the year because we're just a month in and some time has passed and we're beginning to [00:15:00] settle in, but we also still have plenty of time left to accomplish the big things that we want on our to do list.

So, if you're really trying to figure out what you want, your story to be in 2025, and you need some support and help, I'm going to suggest that therapy is the best next step. And BetterHelp, a long standing sponsor of this show, is the perfect place to begin or even change your therapeutic journey.

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The thing that I feel really proud of you for is this, this being in the public eye, being in Hollywood, and then having the courage and the bravery to speak for the unspeakable. And what is it that you, I read in the book that, that, that the men would call women in Hollywood, like unf kable or something.

What was it? Yeah. That was it. I remember, you know, being told, cause I came, my real launching thing was Mulholland drive at, in my third, early thirties. And I was told that you better put your foot on the metal, you know, pedal to the gas, whatever that analogy is and work, work, work, because it's [00:20:00] all going to be done at 40.

And I was like, really, why? Aren't there always stories to tell? Well, you can't really play a leading lady when you're, yeah, I'm like, what? Unf kable. Oh my God. And then I went away and thought about it and I thought, what does unf kable mean? Oh, when you can't reproduce any longer. That's when apparently you're no longer wanted or worth something, which is absurd.

It's absolute. Look at the lineup of women driving stories this year in, in the, in the films that we're seeing Nicole Kidman, Nicole Kidman everywhere. Exactly. But in baby girl, probably the most sexually totally just movie of our time right now. And to me more, you know, frontlining this fantastic subject of, of aging, Pamela Anderson.

I mean, the list goes on. It is our time. It is our time. It's our time. We're living longer and [00:21:00] aging is living. Yeah. So let's not shy away from it. You know, that brings me to, to talking, I want to go right in with some HRT conversation too, because you speak so openly about every angle of your journey, but also just Educating the reader so much about the information that we never would get and the information about getting on hormones and taking the stigma and the shame away from it.

And there's such a huge shame thing. I'm on my patch. I'm all patched up and I'm on some of my estrogen and my progesterone and it took me about six months to get to the right dose, a high dose of estrogen because I'm, I got nothing left, like nothing. Right. But I want to have a sex drive and I haven't had a sex drive for so long.

And the shame of that and just never speaking about that. And then all of a sudden to have those hormones back in my body and be like, you know, wow, you know, whoa, I'm a woman again, you know, that we can be as sexual as we were when we were 20 now. Yeah. If I could simplify the, you know, the messaging in [00:22:00] the book is it's, it's really that one thing and that this is not the end.

There's so much more life ahead of us, and there's so many more things to enjoy. We just have to get a little organized and educated. We need to communicate what's going on with our bodies, whether that's with our partner for in the bedroom or with our doctors bringing in our list of symptoms, our questions, and you know, so.

Communicate, educate and hydrate. That's, that's the other thing. And hydrate. Yeah. All of it's in the book. So we have limited time together, but I could talk to you for five days, which is how I feel about you right now. And it's such, I'm so passionate about it. We have to become like the CEO of our own health when we go through this, this kind of situation and really do a lot of research.

But the book gives us that, which is such a gift. And there's something else in the book that I really appreciated was. When you spoke about this with your children, because I had to share with my son, my six year old, it was in front of my husband and my son's nanny. [00:23:00] And I was like, you keep saying mommy's brain is broken.

And I was like, that's not, you know, mommy's brain isn't broken. But mommy's been having hormonal upheavals and it's creating chaos in her brain. But the good news is mommy got help. And they looked at me cross eyed like, why are you saying this to a six year old? And I was like, go f k yourself. I'm teaching my child what women go through.

And you did the same. Can you tell me about your experience with that? Yes. So my kids had heard me and by the way, fantastic. What you did. I like gold stars all the way. I think the more we bring everyone in the household into this conversation, the easier it's going to go for all of us takes away the stigma, the shame.

And most times I find. For people who are on the outside of something they don't understand, once they're brought into the truth of what's going on, they want to help really. I mean, even you're a six year old will want to understand it and we're giving them, we're empowering them with the information.

Otherwise [00:24:00] people are just going to jump to conclusions and make things up and misinterpret. And you just don't want that. It's going to make it much more difficult to bear with my kids. I asked them after having, you know, Months of zooms, trying to develop my company stripes beauty and talking about all the pain points from scalp to vag and menopause, menopause, menopause, perimenopause, you know, all of that.

And I eventually thought, I wonder what they think, what, what, what do they think I'm doing? And I asked, one of them said, isn't it when old ladies die? And I just went, no, no. Okay. What about you? And the other one was a little closer and said, isn't it when you wet the bed, mommy, and because obviously I shared the beds and drenched through the sheets.

So then I just thought, well, gosh, this is something, this is an opportunity to bring them into the story, have them [00:25:00] understand better what's going on with my body, which may affect, affect my mood. You know, and then again, I encourage every woman to tell them so that, you know, they're not on the outside of it and, and on their back foot, you know, like mom's having a bad day.

I didn't sleep last night because guess what? My hormones, just like yours, although they're in a very different place, are, are not doing well. They're kind of. Going to rock bottom and yours are going like that. I mean, that's another conversation where the two, the surging and the plummeting collides. So you might want to like, just give me a moment or give me to, till the end of the day till I can speak to that in my best mind, you know, and I think, I think they understand better.

It gives them. It gives them, you know, a chance to at least understand where you are. And also prepare for their future and, and to know, and for my [00:26:00] son to know when his wife goes through this. Yeah. Yeah. Or whatever. I mean, really it taught that education piece. in sex ed, you know, when they're talking about the hormonal journey, journey, this is the beginning and this is the end and all of these things happen in between and it's all normal.

It's all going to happen to, you know, at least when you're talking about women and it's going to start to come out, it's going to start to begin to have that kind of conversation where it's going to be much more. It is now it's happening right here, right now in this conversation. I feel that there is a lot of.

Blessings of going through this journey as well for me, I can, I'm going to keep sharing my story just so people know that this is something that they're not alone in. But I realized that the blessing for me was I had no more to give when I went through when I, now that I'm going through this. And so what that's done for me is it's accelerated my spiritual practice.

It's accelerated my personal development and it's accelerated my boundaries. Yeah, I'd love to hear from you what [00:27:00] that what the no more shits to give means to you. Yeah. I say this all the time. With getting older comes a level of confidence you've through everything you've experienced the ups and downs.

That's as in failures and you know how to recover, you, you expect that, you know, even though you might be having a fantastic time at one point, it's, it's not forever and it's going to come down. So you, you ride the wave and you recognize the patterns and you know how to get over things much easier. And so you don't care about the little things as much.

You just like, ah, They didn't call back or, you know, whatever it was. They were, they, they didn't give me the time of day at that, but they didn't look me in the eye, you know, you just, you just, they don't care. You don't take everything on. So personally, you're much kinder to yourself and yeah. I, I don't have time for it.

You don't have any energy for it. Yeah. Exactly.[00:28:00]

Today's podcast is sponsored by MidiHealth and I felt that it was so important to have MidiHealth as a sponsor today given the fact that we're talking about menopause and perimenopause and my conversation with Naomi just led us right into this conversation about MidiHealth. When the symptoms begin to hit us, the majority of us don't know what's happening and that was me as I shared on this episode and it was also Naomi.

So. so much for joining me. We're not prepared. We don't know what the hell is going on. And we're freaking out. And oftentimes our doctors have no clue how to treat menopause and perimenopause because they just were not given the education. They had one hour of menopause training in school. So when I tell you ladies, this is so important and men that love you ladies, this is where MidiHealth comes in.

And God, I love them and I'm so proud that they are going to be our sponsor today on the show. The experts at MidiHealth understand exactly what you're experiencing. And even more importantly, They know how to help you. Midi clinicians are menopause experts dedicated to [00:29:00] providing safe, effective FDA approved solutions.

And if you're like me and you're a woman over 40 and you're having hot flashes, brain fog, or even if you're in your thirties, having this mood swings, weight gain. Then you need to stop and get the support immediately because all these symptoms can be connected to hormonal changes and there is help. You just need a doctor who knows what they're talking about, which is why I strongly urge you to reach out to MIDI health when you're ready to schedule a virtual visit now.

to discuss your symptoms and health background in depth. And I promise you, you'll come out of this experience feeling heard, cared for, and with a plan to start feeling better. You deserve to feel great. Book your virtual visit today and join midi. com. Let's join midi. com. I swear by this brand that I am so thrilled that they are a sponsor of the show.

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How are you feeling now? Because I, I, I feel great now. I want to know, how do you feel now that you, you know, [00:33:00] patched up and on this now I'm on the gel, but I kind of do miss the patch and I've, you know, I've moved around different methods of delivery like four or five times now. And I might go back to the patch because I forget to put the gel on sometimes.

And it's nice having the patch. You know, you don't have to do it every, every single day, but I, I feel good. I feel like my energy is good. Yeah. I'm not, I occasionally I'll have a sudden sweat in the night, which takes me by surprise. I take my progesterone as well, which is very helpful. So yeah. So you're feeling like you're having restful sleep.

Yeah, it's better. I'm more careful with my diet. I don't, I just try to stay away from, you know, too much sugar, but I do have a sweet tooth now and again. I, I still like a glass of wine now and again. And I, Yeah. I feel better. I just, I feel an exercise [00:34:00] is really my big thing. I have to exercise to keep muscle is so hard for me now, even with hormone replacement, I have to do weight bearing, weightlifting, and it's not as fun as jumping around in the classes that I used to do.

I love all that, but it's really important. Bone health is absolutely my priority to stay strong. Yeah. I found that some of the key things that we can leave folks and you cover all this so beautifully in the book, but if you're on estrogen, you have to have the progesterone or these balances. You, you outline the questions to ask your doctors and how to communicate with your doctors about this kind of medication.

You take away the shame and the stigma of all of it, which is so major. Debunk the the studies that ruined our mother's lives because they weren't true. But yeah, I mean just the physical stuff like the food and the exercise are all excellent, but I have, you know, found that without getting those hormonal balances, it the other stuff wasn't enough for me.

It had to be the whole [00:35:00] package. The biggest thing I think is if you go to your doctor, and you can speak to this too, and you say to your doctor, I think I'm having these symptoms, and they gaslight you, find another doctor. Yes, I, I would say, first of all, for those of us that don't, you know, have the access to a longer appointment, then, then come in prepared.

Make your list of questions about, and, and your symptoms. Read up on it. There's some fantastic stuff to read out there. The New York Times piece written by Susan Dominus, uh, a few years ago, very detailed. It breaks down all of the risks and benefits of HIV. Mary Claire Haver wrote the Fortis book. She saved my life during this time.

I studied everything that she did and she was right there when I needed her. And so this book, your book, Mary Claire Haver's books. How do you feel about things like Winona and MidiHealth and some of these other ways to get access to this type of treatment? Yeah, I mean, I think more is [00:36:00] more in this, in this category because women have really been left out and we, we need to be able to have the treatment that we deserve.

We shouldn't have to suffer. And I think that has been the case that women have just, they expect to suffer. Because we're so used to it and it shouldn't be the case. So there's so many wonderful opportunities now to, to get the treatment that you deserve, whether it's MediHealth or HerMD or Alloy or EverNow.

There's just a great litany of, of wonderful places to go, but you also should be able to get help. From your own gynecologist and that, you know, it doesn't even need to be a hugely long appointment. You can just get yourself, you know, if your doctor thinks it's safe for you based on your medical history on HRT, if that's what you, it's safe for you.

If you understand the risk and benefit and the doctor explains it to [00:37:00] you, then you can just do that with your gynecologist. Yeah. Yeah. And you've, you've spoken really bravely and I think this is a nice place to, to wind down the conversation is a little bit about just women advocating for ourselves.

You talked about in the book how you were, there was a film you were in and, and you had to ride a motorbike and that you were riding the motorbike even when you were newly pregnant, but you didn't want to tell anyone that you were pregnant and the fear of.

The fear of saying that you were pregnant and that you were compromised in any physical way was greater than this fear of riding the motorbike. And it's just such a beautiful time for us as women to start to advocate and to speak for ourselves and to say what we need. Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm an actor and when you trust a director so wholeheartedly like I did, you, you want to give yourself over and, and deliver.

To help their vision get up there on the, on the screen. So I w I was being my bravest self, but I also was making a baby and I'd had [00:38:00] miscarriages and, and I was filled with fear about doing something I knew I wasn't very good at, so I, I was brave to a point and then once I felt that baby move inside of me, it was like a real, real thing and I was like, okay.

No more. I'm going to do it my way and I'm going to look after myself and, and I felt safe enough to say to David, David Cronenberg, I've got a baby inside of me and the baby's like cooking. Mm hmm. So here's where I want to kind of close this, this dialogue. Can you share just some of the maybe spiritual awakening or surprising shifts that you experience as a result of going through this journey?

Just the, the miracles of it all for you. Yeah, I think really leaning into the community. I, I've felt so, since I said, okay, I'm done with carrying this secret, This is just too exhausting. I'm going to share my story now. Hope you can handle it. Hope you stick around. It's something [00:39:00] very freeing about that, identifying what it is, naming it, and then just going, this is what it is.

And, and it's been incredibly. It's more than soothing healing. And I found I've gathered this great community of women who all share the same version of the same story. And so those friendships that I've made or carried through have just have been everything to me and will continue to be. I've had women stop me on the street recently.

And say, and I go, Oh God, I haven't got my lipstick on. I'm, you know, hopefully they don't ask for a selfie and then they're not, they don't want to selfie. They want to just say, thank you for giving me the language to speak to my husband or my partner, or it really has made a difference. And, you know, with tears in their eyes and that is so meaningful.

That makes me feel like I've really done something that I can be [00:40:00] proud of. So it's been, it's been really. Gratifying, but you know, if I had been able to have a chance to do it all over, I would say, you know, from, to the younger generation, you know, who are, you know, the millennials, I'll be going into menopause now or soon, I would say, I do a little list at the end of the book, the five T's, I would say, find your teachers, you know, People you trust that can guide you, honor timelines or look at them, but don't panic about them.

Don't fear them. They are there to just know, and you can change, you can change the timeline as you go. I'm a late bloomer pretty much on everything except menopause. Find your tribe, tell your truth with yourself, with your, those around you and be tender, be kind to your [00:41:00] tenderness, beautiful, beautiful.

That was my last question actually, what would you tell your younger self and you answered it for me, so thank you. I'm, I'm just really proud of you and I'm, I'm grateful for you and I'm gonna shout this book from the rooftops, dare I say it, everyone go get your copy immediately. Even if you're that millennial you were just speaking of you think this isn't around the corner.

It's knocking at your door With a lot of love and compassion your elders are telling you You have a heads up because because you can get ahead of it with with prepare preparing yourself with education not be thrust into it and go, what happened? What is happening? You know, I've lost myself, you know, you don't have to panic it now.

Even with hormones, you can get ahead of it with hormones. You can have the privilege and the, the gift of the hormones earlier because that's the, that's the, that's the conversation today. So, yeah, I just. I just feel like if anyone is [00:42:00] thinking that they might, you know, here it is, if your periods are irregular, if you're sweating at all at night, if you have out, have un, unnormal rage, if you've got brain fog, if you have gut issues, if you have TMJ, if you have frozen shoulder, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're a great indicators, if you have all of those or just one.

Or just one or depression or anxiety or just so many symptoms that get educated on what these symptoms are. Read this book, read dare I say it immediately and don't walk, run, get your fingertips to your keyboard, go to Amazon. And I really want people to buy this book because it's, it's, it's a beautiful story of recognizing yourself.

As a woman in your story, and I'm just really grateful for you and other women's, you know, stories as well. Other women's story. Lots of my friends telling their stories, funny things, painful things. It's not all pain by the way. And I sometimes the best way to address pain points is with [00:43:00] humor so that.

you feel less alone. We all want to feel like we're part of something, right? So yeah, and I think we can kind of end on that note. It's like with, with this information brings us so much grace. Like my hair is thicker than ever. My sex drive is better than when I was in my twenties. Like I'm stronger and more muscular than ever before.

I'm eating better muscles. My muscles are seriously here and we should work out together. So, so So I just think that this is actually a new beginning. It's, it's becoming new. It's not the end. It's the, it's a new beginning and that there's so much that we can do and you just have to educate yourself. And this book is doing that.

Well, God bless you. May you get this message out to as many women as possible. Thank you. Thank you so much. Great to talk.

If you made it to the end of this episode, that means you're truly committed to miracles. I'm really proud of you. [00:44:00] If you want to get more Gabby, tune in every Monday for a new episode. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss any of the guidance or special bonus episodes. Your experience at this show means a lot to me.

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Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode. Hi there, Gabby here. This podcast is intended to educate, inspire, and support you on your personal journey towards inner peace.

I'm not a psychologist or a medical doctor and do not offer any professional health or medical advice. If you are suffering from a psychological or medical condition, [00:45:00] please seek help from a qualified health professional.