Episode 6: Using Ayurveda to Holistically Manage Menopause with Whitney Erwin

Have you ever wondered where all the information is for women navigating the huge life transition that is menopause?

As women we’re fully prepped in our younger years for the onset of puberty and the arrival of our menstrual cycles, but there’s little to no societal preparation for menopause, leaving women in the dark about the unsettling physical symptoms it brings and with no solution to alleviate them.

In this episode my guest, holistic women’s health expert, Whitney Erwin shares how to embrace rather than fear this big life change and how preparing for menopause ahead of time can reduce its negative impact and ease the transition.

Episode highlights:

• A breakdown of what to expect and a definition of exactly what perimenopause is
• Understanding the difference between perimenopause and menopause
• How Ayurveda works, what it is and how Whitney uses it to help her clients
• Reframing menopause from a transition to dread to a rite of passage
• What happens to your body during menopause
• The role nutrition plays in exacerbating unwanted symptoms
• How to prepare for menopause ahead of time
• Using Ayurveda to boost your self-confidence
• Ayurvedic self-care practices you can do at home, including Abhyanga (self-massage)
• The importance of a morning self-care routine to set yourself up for a good day

It’s crucial to have more conversations around women’s health and what to expect physically and emotionally during menopause, so I hope this conversation has given you some tools that will help.

Book a FREE Breakthrough session with Whitney here.

Visit Whitney’s website www.fourseasonsharmony.com

Connect with Whitney on Instagram @whitney_fourseasonsharmony 

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Inside you'll find 21 practical, actionable stress reduction strategies to help you get your groove back. Buy the PDF guide here.

If you know you want more from your life or career but you're totally stuck about where to start, I invite you to book a complimentary strategy call with me here.

We'll uncover what's holding you back from the goals you want to achieve and you'll leave the call with actionable steps to get you moving in the right direction.

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Transcript

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Emma O'Brien: Hi folks welcome to episode 6 of the second season of the lemons and pineapples. Podcast my guest today is whitney, Irwin. And we're talking about using Ayurveda to holistically manage menopause 1st bit about my guest. Whitney is a clinical herbalist and has been the full-time practitioner and owner of 4 seasons, harmony, holistic health, healing, and Ayurveda. Since 2015

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Emma O'Brien: she applies holistic health and natural medicine to help women with chronic hormonal imbalances to reduce pain, restore balance and vibrant energy and live a long, healthy life. Whitney provides compassionate listening skills, individually customized treatments based on each client's unique needs, customized clinical herbal recommendations, mind-body, healing and teaching clients, practical self-care tools to live in optimum, health, welcome to the podcast, whitney.

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Whitney Erwin: Thank you so much for having me, Emma. I'm really grateful to be here.

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Emma O'Brien: I'm excited for this. I think this is a conversation that we need to have collectively as women. It's a conversation that's not had enough. So we're gonna be talking about using Ayurveda to manage menopause. And

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Emma O'Brien: as we've said, menopause isn't something that's openly discussed. I was thinking as I was prepping for this podcast when you are

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Emma O'Brien: a young

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Emma O'Brien: girl approaching your teens, there's lots of conversations about periods. What's coming with puberty, our mother's prepper, you know if we're fortunate enough to have mothers. Our mothers prep us for all of these things, and then we get to my age, which is 43.

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Emma O'Brien: Nobody talks to you about menopause, and frankly, I'm I'm I'm looking forward to this conversation to be enlightened, cause I'm in complete denial about it. I don't know when to expect it. I don't know. Am I in perimenopause already? I know nothing about it, and the only conversations I really have with my friends, who are a little bit older than me is the fact that quite a lot of the time they feel rage.

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Emma O'Brien: That's as far as the conversation goes.

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Emma O'Brien: so can you kick us off by just sharing what the difference between perimenopause and menopause is.

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Whitney Erwin: Yeah, absolutely. I agree with you that it is, not a topic that is well conversed about. And I think that's really to the detriment of everyone's health. And so the more conversations we have, I think, the better for all women. And so the perimenopause is essentially the transition that's leading up to menopause, which is the cessation of your monthly menstrual cycle. So you have no more bleeding.

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Whitney Erwin: You have to go by the textbook definition up to 12 months without any bleeding to technically be in menopause.

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Whitney Erwin: So the term pyramid of pause is kind of thrown loosey around, meaning like there can be various interpretations. But my understanding and the way that I practice is that generally, you know, around 30 hormones do start to shift in the unique anatomy of a woman's body, and then that is going to start to change over the years until the full blown onset of menopause.

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Whitney Erwin: So there's some perspectives that say it's like 4 to 8 years is especially like the high pyramid apostle time. I think a lot of women don't even realize that it's going on if there's no issues for for many, many years. But sometimes there can be just full blown things that start to go abroad, and then that's when women start looking for answers. And they realize like.

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Whitney Erwin: Oh, yeah, I may may have had irregular periods now for several years. Or suddenly I have this extra weekend, I don't know why, and I was never like this for the past 20 years.

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Whitney Erwin: And so they're in that merit perimenopause time and their bodies changing. But it's not quite yet to that menopause state.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah. And I. But a again, with that, it's when, when is when does it happen? What kind of symptoms are we talking? And we talk irregular periods. I guess, is one. But that's also it's a difficult one, isn't it? Because that can be something that fluctuates with stress levels. And

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Emma O'Brien: yeah, it kind of adds a whole layer of anxiety about the aging process, doesn't it?

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Whitney Erwin: Yes, and we're going to talk more about Ayurvedic medicine. And in that very natural and old holistic health philosophy there's no negative connotation around menopause.

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Whitney Erwin: So that's 1 of my my big overarching messages, is it? Doesn't have to be something scary or horrible. But unfortunately it often is for so many women, and I just have streams of women coming in for support around. Usually the debilitating symptoms, like hot flashes, is probably the number. One thing that I see, and oftentimes, like all day and all night. And suddenly, you know, there's then there's insomnia vaginal dryness is a big one. Like unexplained ways.

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Whitney Erwin: weight gain. And like all the usual things, not working anymore. It's like I'm exercising regularly. I think I'm meeting well, but still nothing is changing. And then there's like very specific things depending on different constitutional types. And so there might be just overarching dryness. With some women. And there's like super dry skin, they might feel really spacey and lightheaded.

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Whitney Erwin: Anxiety and depression are really common things to escalate and perimenopause as well, and I mean, on average. Most of them go through menopause at 51. And you know, if you were to go through 40 that's considered to like early onset, that is more unusual. So usually your forties are like the juicy paramin. Pause time.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah.

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Emma O'Brien: dear, sorry I interrupted you with my my my enthusiastic celebration of it.

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Whitney Erwin: Yes, no. I I actually hope that we can get to the point. Culturally, we do celebrate and honor it for this

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Whitney Erwin: amazing and significant rite of passage, and you know I mentioned some of the physical changes and a little bit emotionally. But it's just as much of this whole mind, body, spirit transition for women. And so it can be actually this time of great empowerment. And I also see so usually, people reach out to me in clinical practice like when things aren't going well, or they just want more support to prepare themselves.

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Whitney Erwin: Another huge motivation is to support their daughters or sisters and other women in their life, like, okay, I saw somebody in my family. Maybe it's their mother, grandmother, and they did not do well, you know, around that time, like, I just never want to be like that. Right? I just want to be as healthy as possible. And so I think the more we have these conversations, the more we support other women, then we can really reclaim that this is such a beautiful and incredible and empowering rite of passage.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah. And I love that. You've reframed it like that because it is. I've been starting to think about it and just think, oh, you know this aging thing is not that great? And then we've got this menopause coming, which I'm guess my head in the sand about entirely cause I would like to stave it off for as long as possible.

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Emma O'Brien: But we, we told, aren't we in the Western culture that it's going to be awful? You're going to have brittle bones. You're gonna have no sex drive. You're gonna be angry. You're going to be emotional, and it is not looked at

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Emma O'Brien: as anything other than

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Emma O'Brien: bad and something to dread.

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Emma O'Brien: So

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Emma O'Brien: it's great that we're reframing it. And to take us from the dread into something more positive. Can you share a little bit about what Ayurveda is, and then we're going to get into how women can more holistically manage menopausal symptoms without just being put on a prescription for Hrt.

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Whitney Erwin: Yes, and that is a very common kind of like one. Size fits all narrow. Okay, that is one option that's great, that there's so so many other ones as well. And yeah, so telling a little bit more about Ariova. And what do I mean when I throw out that term so it is by a lot of scholars considered to be one of the oldest healing systems in the world, and it does date back at least 5,000 years to historical written texts.

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Whitney Erwin: and it's considered to be where all forms of modern medicine came out of, or all forms of medicine general, and so it's universal. It is accessible to everybody. It literally translates and Sanskrit to the science of life and longevity. And so this is a blueprint for vibrant health and wellness. And it's also the sister healing science to Yoga. So this has been practiced, like, you know, successfully, and stayed intact

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Whitney Erwin: for for many thousands of years, but it's also considered to be way beyond anything written so like an oral lineage. Teachings like it was traditionally passed on from teacher to student. It's said to go back at least 40,000 years.

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Emma O'Brien: Wow, okay. So we and and I enjoy this cause. I've I've recently, in the last 18 months been working with a shaman, and I've got into shamanic journeying and plant medicine.

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Emma O'Brien: and we've in our scientific, very patriarchal world. We've lost touch with the

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Emma O'Brien: innate and old schools of healing that are still very relevant. And actually, I think sometimes a lot gentler and a lot more useful. So I think it's it's wonderful that we're still tapping

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Emma O'Brien: this ancient science really.

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Whitney Erwin: Yes, absolutely. And there's lots of energy healing and rayaki. That also is included in aurubatic medicine. You know, and it also includes, the original text and references on surgery. So kind of like everything you can think of under the sun with fields of medicine. But it's absolutely considering the subtle body. And I I see a lot of aura practitioners that have shamanic practices as well.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah, I can imagine I'm very excited. So as we're we're recording this, by the time this goes out I'll have done it. But on Saturday. I'm going to do a soul retrieval course with

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Emma O'Brien: the shaman.

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Emma O'Brien: So I'm looking forward to retrieving my own bits of soul and also learning more about how I could possibly use it to help my clients as well. The more I've delved into

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Emma O'Brien: the more natural healing modalities.

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Emma O'Brien: the the more I lean on on that, because it works. It's I think

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Emma O'Brien: the trouble with it is is it's not a fast

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Emma O'Brien: solution, like popping a pill.

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Emma O'Brien: And Ayurveda is a way of life, I imagine, for people, once they start to use the practices.

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Emma O'Brien: So without me drifting off into plant medicine because I can get could get very tripped up with talking about that.

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Emma O'Brien: How? How do you use Ayurveda specifically to help women who are navigating the hormonal changes and the life changes and the physical changes of perimenopause and and menopause.

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Whitney Erwin: Oh, yes, I find it to be

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Whitney Erwin: so incredibly beneficial and relevant to all women, but especially when we're looking at optimal support for pyramid and pause, and then going with hopefully the highest trajectory of How can this be? A really smooth and healthy and vibrant time of life? And so it's a natural transition that eventually the body is is not going into.

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Whitney Erwin: Conceive life. And eventually the ovaries are gonna reduce their production of special like estrogen and progesterone. And then saying, Okay, it's not time to make a baby anymore. So I think, really reclaiming that idea. That's okay. And it is a massive shift, though, for the women's body, and so leading up to that time does make a huge difference as far as the trajectory of

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Whitney Erwin: how smooth it will go or not. And nutrition, for example, is highly valued and ayurvedic medicine. And there's a big emphasis on being conscious about what you take into your body. So not just literally, your your diet with food that is very important, but also like your emotions, your environment, who you're surrounding with.

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Whitney Erwin: and if you happen to not have enough support for a long period of time, which, unfortunately, is very common and, like modern Western life, and, like the busy busy. Go, go, go. So if you wear out your adrenal organs. And there's this, you know, lower metabolic functioning. Then you're setting yourself up to be depleted before your body goes through that massive transition.

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Whitney Erwin: And so I really look at bringing in aurubic tools and the opposite approach. Okay, how can we bring in the most supportive foods and medicines and herbs. To support your unique Ariab type.

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Whitney Erwin: and also with all the general knowledge of like kind of preparing for what we know is coming. And so your your adrenal organs are going to be able to take on that reproductive functioning very well, and and not start off in a place that is, you know, already burned out or exhausted, and and then also psychologically, just really be prepared where you might feel like

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Whitney Erwin: a more of a burning invitation to focus on spiritual practices or be less engaged with the world.

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Whitney Erwin: and you might really feel like you need to step into your life purpose more like if that's really not ticking for you, you might need to make some massive lifestyle changes, or you might just feel very restless. So yeah, so there's so much. And that's a little bit of what I do with my momentum.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah. And I love this idea of

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Emma O'Brien: pre prep pre preparing for what's coming by. And really it's it comes back to practicing self care now

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Emma O'Brien: rather than practicing self-care when we're broken, which is what a lot of people end up doing is. And I know I coach people who come to me because they're fed up. They're burnt out, and they're overwhelmed.

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Emma O'Brien: And it's kind of pulling all the pieces back together.

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Emma O'Brien: And what I hear from what you're saying is, actually, if we can not get to that stage by by caring for the earthly vehicle more respectfully.

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Emma O'Brien: Now, when you're 40, even when you're 30,

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Emma O'Brien: it makes the transition

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Emma O'Brien: much much easier, because I think if you're already going into menopause in a state of burnout where you're already anxious, you're already not sleeping. Well, you're already overwrought, adding those hormonal changes on. Sounds like it's a complete catastrophe. Really.

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Whitney Erwin: That's exactly right.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah.

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Whitney Erwin: And I I feel like you know. Aye, Beta does hold space to respect the like divine feminine form, and in all respects, which for me was a like lacking and a lot of other healthcare approaches. And one reason why I love ariada so much, I feel like it has included these. Yeah, very in depth

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Whitney Erwin: and supported protocols for women's health for thousands of years. And it wasn't like left off the map, you know. It's just like like male, only medical models or research that didn't include women. So for me, that was just so refreshing to come home to and like everything just made so much sense, and then it was so much more than that as well. It was like, Okay, I feel more whole. I can even love that. I'm a woman, and I know how to take care of myself, so that it increased my self-confidence as well.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah. And I think that said, just talk to me a little bit more about using Ayurveda for for boosting self confidence.

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Whitney Erwin: Yes. Well, I I think that if we're, we're struggling, with something that is out of balance, and you know ari does all about balance and harmony, and it's kind of like health is your natural birth, right? That's your constitution. And so when we're out of that place, that's something situational, temporary. We can look at. It's not like who you are, and we want to look at bringing support out of that.

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Whitney Erwin: But if you've been in the like health and balance place. Oh, my sweater! I love having animals join in so then it feels so derailing, and I find like, if you've been having, like vaginal dryness or hot flashes for years and years, and no resolution and nothing's working, I mean, it's so demoralizing, and your self esteem and confidence just starts to tank down.

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Whitney Erwin: And so when you you can latch onto something that like does work, you feel like is safe is based on natural approaches. It's not just a new age fad. Then you start to feel like, okay, I can build my life in a really purposeful way. I can take care of myself and take care of my family. And I think there's something nourishing, too, about, you know truthful knowledge and

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Whitney Erwin: ancient teachings where it's almost like, I know you're like thirsty for it, and it's meeting your your needs on a spiritual level, too.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah, I I think that's the thing. That's the thing I have found, the the older I've got. And going down this shamanic path is really

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Emma O'Brien: having a spiritual practice, whatever that looks like for you is

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Emma O'Brien: game changing for mindset. It's game changing for self-acceptance.

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Emma O'Brien: And I think when

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Emma O'Brien: when your self acceptance is

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Emma O'Brien: at a good, a good level. Your confidence also can, but you're not so easily thrown off by external

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Emma O'Brien: things.

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Whitney Erwin: yes, and one classic, a beta practice that I fall in love with and I still, do you know, like 10 years later is we call a banga, and that translates to massage and Sanskrit. And it's generally referring to like self massage that you do every day. It's is like the number one lifestyle recommendation for her balance. And this is really important at all stages of a woman's life for her balance, but especially

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Whitney Erwin: and menopause, because we produce estrogen and our skin tissue and so that is one of those incredible preventative measures that you can do but also like when I'm feeling extra depleted. And I'm like, Okay, I've been doing this practice for a long time. I feel like I've got my life back. I feel very vibrant and healthy like, you know. I'm 39, but I don't fear menopause at all. I feel like I've got the tools and knowledge. I you know but, you know, find

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Whitney Erwin: like traveling somewhere. Come back, and I'm like crashing, and I'm exhausted like. The 1st thing I want to do is like cause. I know what to do when I'm starting to get to that depleted place. And I didn't have those tools when I was younger like and in college, and then I would just stay there longer. And then that was like this vicious cycle, those, you know, spiraling. So so now I feel like I can nip things in the bud. I know what to do. And I'm like, Okay, I don't fear like uncertainty as much, or I don't fear challenges in the same way I used to.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah. And I think that's really powerful, is.

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Emma O'Brien: there's a few there's so much in there that you've said is being able to be in touch with your body and your your self enough to know when you are

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Emma O'Brien: being depleted, when your energy levels are dropping, when you're not feeling 100%. So you can catch that before it ends up being full blown burnout before it ends up being complete. Adrenal fatigue that takes months and months and months to recover from. I think that's really really powerful.

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Emma O'Brien: Could you share with us, Whitney, before we, before we wrap up, and for anybody who is listening who can't see the podcast I have a dog on my lap. So

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Emma O'Brien: an invader?

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Emma O'Brien: what other holistic tools can women

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Emma O'Brien: do themselves at home?

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Emma O'Brien: Obviously, if they if they want to reach out for you, for for your I, Evada, we're going to talk about how people can get in touch with you. But for holistic tools, for women

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Emma O'Brien: kind of self-care stuff at home. What can you suggest that home things people can do to support themselves through the transition of perimenopause and menopause.

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Whitney Erwin: Yes, yeah, wonderful question. And i i i feel like starting with some kind of self massage with whole organic

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Whitney Erwin: or wild crafted oils you can just start by oiling the soles of your feet at night before you go to sleep. And there's thousands of nerve endings there. So it's, you know, incredibly restorative. And you're also gonna provide that like deep grounding nourishment to your body and

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Whitney Erwin: anything that can get you out of the stress response as a whole, I think, is very helpful, and some of my other favorite Ayurvedic tools are like ayurvedic herbs, so ones that are known to be hormonal normalizers, also ones that are adaptogens really good for increasing your body. Systemic resistance to stress.

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Whitney Erwin: Shitaburi is a classic one for menopause, and like women in India, for example, just eat that throughout their whole lifespan. In general, it's an asparagus family. So just having that in your system for years and years before you go through. Menopause will absolutely help, you know, and warm, moist, oily foods, having lots of nourishing, healthy fats. So just like looking at your diet, and like checking in with yourself like, how do you feel after eating? Do I feel really supported and nourished or not?

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Whitney Erwin: And looking at any kind of self like body work as well, or you know, schedule something where you can get like, are you eating massages or treatments? So Marma points or self acup pressure points are incredibly beneficial. And like, there's 1 here that's great for hot flashes. The Li 4 point. And if you are working some of those, and you can activate deep healing within yourself.

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Whitney Erwin: And also looking at routine, I feel like it's very Aya vatic in the healthiest of ways. I mean what? What works for you so like having, like the morning time, is especially renowned in Arizona, called the Dina Charia, and just like, have something you're doing for self care before you're out the door. So like a morning walk. Yeah, I see this very universally an open minded like any kind of meditation practice. It could just be

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Whitney Erwin: walking meditation, having yourself massage and oiling practices. So you're starting off the day with mindfulness and nourishment. You're out of the stress response.

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Whitney Erwin: And then you go into work right? Or then, whatever happens, you have that home, please to come back to. And it's also like you're checking off so many self care boxes. So no matter what happens in that day, you don't in the day, looking back like, Oh, I need that now, like in this, in this deprivation state.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah, i i i think that's so important. You shared such valuable information. But it is. It is

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Emma O'Brien: tending to self

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Emma O'Brien: 1st at the start of the day. And that's the it sets you up for for a much better day. It's it's something that is

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Emma O'Brien: a topic that comes up

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Emma O'Brien: often here in the podcast it's something I talk about as well is, it's just so important to set the tone for your day in the morning. And like, I say, to have a have a routine, and you can kind of you know what's happening. So, Whitney, this has been a really really wonderful conversation. Thank you for being here and sharing your wisdom with the with me and with the listeners.

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Emma O'Brien: You have a free breakthrough session available for people. Could you just share a little bit more about that, and how people can go about booking that with you.

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Whitney Erwin: Yeah, absolutely. So that's something that's available to anybody on the planet. I do virtual consultations nationally and internationally. And you can hop into the classes and programs. Page on my website at 4 seasons, harmony.com. And you'll see there's a brief application process.

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Whitney Erwin: And all of those responses are kept confidential. And I have some ongoing free classes as well. So you're welcome to just follow up for some deeper one on one support. If you're feeling like you don't, you don't have enough that is established in your life to receive more for that solid foundation and women's health and getting you feeling better so I'm very happy to answer questions as well. So reach out anytime

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Whitney Erwin: and I'm so deeply honored that you invited me. I love your work, Emma, and I've been yeah diving into it even more so recently, like preferring for a time together and supporting women from getting out of burnout and healthy boundaries. So again, thank you so so much for having me.

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Emma O'Brien: Oh, thank you for for being here with me. This has been a great conversation. I've learned a lot, I'm sure the women that I'm sure there will be a lot of women out there like me, who are just blinkered about the about menopause and

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Emma O'Brien: blinkered, and just not knowing what to expect cause like we said at the beginning, nobody really, nobody talks you about it, nobody prepares you for it. So thank you for your honesty and for for sharing with us. I'm gonna pop the links to your website in the show notes. I'll also pop the links to your socials as well. And folks, if you're listening, and you're going through menopause, and you're struggling, you're in perimenopause.

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Emma O'Brien: or even not quite yet. And you're thinking, actually, I really like the idea of pre prepping for this cause. I'm liking the idea of pre prepping for this. Please reach out to Whitney. She's an expert, and as you've heard today. So, Whitney, thank you again for joining me.

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Whitney Erwin: My sincere pleasure. Thank you to everyone for listening.

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Emma O'Brien: Thank you for being with us today, folks as always. If you wanna reach out, please hop over to Instagram at Emma O'brien coach and pop me a message. Let me know how you enjoyed the episode, and I will see you again same time next week bye, for now.