Leah Hadley [00:00:01]:
Welcome to Intentional Divorce Insights. I'm Leah Hadley, Certified Divorce Financial Analyst, Accredited Financial Counselor, and the founder of Intentional Divorce Solutions. I'll be your guide through the complexities of divorce, finance, and emotional wellness. Join me as we uncover practical tips and empowering insights to help you navigate your divorce with clarity and intention.
Leah Hadley [00:00:24]:
Hi there, and welcome back to Intentional Divorce Insights. I am so happy that you are here with us today. You are in the right place. We have a wonderful guest on today's episode. This is Michelle McCoy, and she is a wife, a mom, a high-functioning fatigue expert, which we're going to learn all about, and board-certified holistic functional health coach for exhausted midlife professional Christian women. She also hosts the top 1.5% globally ranked Treasured Wellness Podcast. After overcoming her own debilitating fatigue and burnout and navigating her daughter's health crisis, Michelle guides exhausted, high-achieving women tired of being dismissed with non-answers to reclaim their health naturally with God at the center. With extensive experience serving high-functioning women, she helps them restore energy and mental sharpness by addressing the true root cause of their exhaustion for a mind and body restored.
Leah Hadley [00:01:25]:
Michelle finds joy in the simple things like dark chocolate, a perfect avocado, a gorgeous sunrise or sunset, walking in the woods and watching her chickens have playtime in the backyard. Michelle, thank you so much for being with us today. Welcome.
Michelle McCoy [00:01:41]:
Oh, thank you, Leah, so much for having me. I am so excited. It's such an honor to speak with you and to help your listeners get some fatigue freedom.
Leah Hadley [00:01:50]:
Yeah, you know, divorce is honestly so challenging. And so many people are dealing with it in silence because a lot of times their family may not know, they may not have shared with friends yet. Sometimes they're wrestling with the decision of whether or not to divorce for years before they decide to move forward. And they're doing it all quietly. And one of the things, Michelle, that has just really blown my mind in doing this work— and obviously, I'm not a health professional, but I have just witnessed how this process and being in the middle of it, kind of considering whether to go forward with it, can impact a person's health. So I am so grateful that you are here to talk with us today, because I think this is such an important topic. But I said at the beginning when I was introducing you, I want to hear more about what is this high-functioning fatigue and tell me a little bit about how that may be impacting some of our listeners.
Michelle McCoy [00:02:44]:
Absolutely. You know, I didn't originally coin this. I don't know who did, but I just have started using it over the last 3 years because it— 3, 4 years— it really hits the epitome of what women are dealing with and what I myself was dealing with. And I didn't have a name for it at the time. So it's basically living in a continual state of exhaustion. And women have normalized exhaustion so thoroughly that they no longer remember what it felt like, feels like to wake up feeling actually rested, like actually having a good night's sleep and waking up with energy. You know, women are still producing, we're still leading, we're still holding everything together, we're putting out fires. And this is why nobody really, in my opinion, including us women ourselves living it, have taken it seriously because we feel like we— it's what we're supposed to be doing, right? It's what we've always done.
Michelle McCoy [00:03:45]:
You know, the women living in a state of high-functioning fatigue, they're still working and getting things done. It might be a little slower. It might be a little more cognitively frustrating because the brain fog is is a real thing. It might be at a different pace. You may have compensated more, you know, mentally as well as physically, but you're still getting it done. You're still doing it. High-functioning fatigue is not burnout yet. It's like the precursor to burnout.
Michelle McCoy [00:04:19]:
It's like the road that leads there. And, you know, it's, it's a warning. It's a warning. Your body is giving you a warning. You know, high-functioning fatigue affects women all across the world at all different levels of, you know, corporate women, CEOs, you know, founders, business owners, caretakers. And what I have found is, especially in this midlife season where we are maybe in the sandwich generation, where we might still have college-age students, we might have, you know, we might be in that caretaking role caring for our parents. You know, it's just really at the expense of our own health, high-functioning fatigue. We're just feeling foggy-brained, we're feeling exhausted, we're lacking motivation, we're lacking energy, but we're also lacking joy.
Leah Hadley [00:05:10]:
Hmm.
Michelle McCoy [00:05:10]:
And we keep pushing through. And so this is the kicker about high-functioning fatigue, Leah. Women aren't intentionally trying to put themselves last. They're not like waking up every day saying, I'm gonna put myself last today. Like, it's just that life takes over. And we do what we've always done. And we rise to the occasion, whatever occasion is there that is presented to us that day, because life will keep on lifing.
Leah Hadley [00:05:38]:
Isn't that the truth?
Michelle McCoy [00:05:39]:
Right? Whether, whether we want to or not. And for the woman who is, like, to your point of going through a divorce, thinking about whether this is the right next step for her, a separation, whatever is going on in her life that is so, so powerfully packed, emotionally driven. She's in the middle of a fire. I call it a fire or a fiery trial. And basically, she's waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Leah Hadley [00:06:07]:
Mm-hmm.
Michelle McCoy [00:06:08]:
And that was me, not going through a divorce situation, but just with the stress of our life that led me to my fatigue crisis. I was literally waiting for the other shoe to drop. I was waiting for that phone call. I would actually, like, my heart would stop when the phone would ring for a second. You know, we get so where we're perched on high alert. And you might even— some of your listeners might even resonate with this feeling of humming, where your body is like humming in this constant stress state.
Leah Hadley [00:06:40]:
Mm.
Michelle McCoy [00:06:40]:
And that's, that's nowhere to stay. And if you, if you weren't dealing with high-functioning fatigue, Before you're going into this separation divorce situation, chances are you are in it now. You're in the middle of the fire because constantly and consistently high stress levels lead to more brain fog, more fatigue, more inflammation in the brain and body. So our bodies are brilliantly designed, Leah, and everything is connected. And so when one system is affected, For example, like the nervous system, when you feel like you're in fight, flight, or freeze, everything is affected as well. The body is struggling in all other areas. So it's like this domino effect.
Leah Hadley [00:07:28]:
Well, that's such an important point, right? Because so often we are dealing with stress of daily life anyway, right? And then you add on this additional stressor, this like fight, flight, whatever, and all of a sudden everything feels bigger than it ever felt before, right?
Michelle McCoy [00:07:46]:
That's exactly right. And you literally feel like, what's next? Like, I can't deal with one more thing, like all of these things that play through our mind. And, and so we— it kind of creates a perfect environment for the whole body, the body as a whole, because it's all connected, to start struggling in ways that might even surprise women. And so let me just share a client testimony, because this was a, a very real life situation where this woman was exhausted. She was mentally drained. She could not drop the belly bloating. She felt consistently bloated. She was not sleeping well, but she loved her 4-mile walk.
Michelle McCoy [00:08:28]:
Why? Because it was mental health for her. She was going through a huge fire of her own, and she was so stressed. That was her break. Like, that was her checkout time. That was her me time.
Leah Hadley [00:08:39]:
Yeah.
Michelle McCoy [00:08:40]:
And it was a great me time choice. But for her, because of what she was going through, it was stressing her body even more physically. And so when she paused on the intensity of the exercise— so many women are so surprised when I actually say, no, less is more.
Leah Hadley [00:08:58]:
Yeah.
Michelle McCoy [00:08:59]:
Believe it or not, less is more. You do not have to, you know, count macros and, you know, run on the treadmill for 45 minutes. Like, less is more. Because if you are struggling with high-functioning fatigue, we must address movement, I call it fun, healthy movement, we must address it differently from what we've always been told. So when she paused on that and she took 1 week to stretch, just stretch, and then she would do a mile walk, not 4 miles, 1 mile, steady pace, she was so excited and surprised at what happened. 3 things happened, Leah. She gained more energy, gained more energy that was more sustained through the day. She had a very physical, physically physical job.
Leah Hadley [00:09:41]:
Yeah.
Michelle McCoy [00:09:44]:
Again, demanding job. Her brain was firing better, like firing on all cylinders. She was thinking clearer, and her belly stopped being bloated every afternoon. So why? Why, when you do less, why would you get so many amazing benefits? Right.
Leah Hadley [00:10:02]:
Yeah.
Michelle McCoy [00:10:04]:
She stopped what was causing additional stress to her body. Her body was already maxed out, taxed out, depleted. She stopped that extra stress. And, and again, I just can't stress enough, enough how everything is beautifully connected. And we need to learn to listen to what our body is actually telling us.
Leah Hadley [00:10:27]:
That's so true. You know, I did— I struggled with my weight my whole life. And several years ago, I did like a very high-intensity workout program. And every time I would go, first of all, I would be completely depleted at the end of it. But I was also injuring myself. I was literally physically like getting injured. So it was like so counterproductive and ridiculous.
Leah Hadley [00:10:47]:
Yes.
Leah Hadley [00:10:47]:
But I felt like I was doing something. Like, really what I was doing was like punishing my body. Um, and now I work out with a personal trainer who has, you know, really helped me understand what works for me, what doesn't work for me, how to protect my joints and things like that. And it's such a beautiful experience. And I've been getting stronger and feeling positive. But it's so interesting, right? Both working out, right? But 2 extremely different experiences on how it's impacted my physical health, my mental health. I mean, just to your point, it really makes such a huge difference.
Michelle McCoy [00:11:20]:
Yeah, it really does. And see this, there's so much noise in women's wellness, so much noise. And we just need to quiet the noise. And like, what does my body need? What is my body telling me? Because our bodies will speak to us. talks to us all day long, right? Are we listening? That's the question.
Leah Hadley [00:11:39]:
Yeah.
Michelle McCoy [00:11:39]:
It starts out with a whisper, and then it gets a little louder, starts using its inside voice, and then it starts using its outside voice and starts screaming. And, you know, when we just continue to stay on autopilot and we just brush off our body's signals, symptoms, all of that, we just brush it off because we are so in the fire, we're so driven, it really does affect us later on too, not just in that moment, but years down the road. And, you know, this is something that is so— it sounds so simplistic, Leah, you know, listen to your body. Okay, but what does that really mean?
Leah Hadley [00:12:19]:
Right.
Leah Hadley [00:12:19]:
That was my next question.
Michelle McCoy [00:12:22]:
Well, that's right where I was headed. What does that really mean? Yes. You know, and it's really just checking in with yourself, you know, like, okay, what— for example, there was a day a couple of weeks ago where I had pushed really hard and I worked 4 nights every night that week, like in a row.
Leah Hadley [00:12:39]:
Mm-hmm.
Michelle McCoy [00:12:40]:
And the next morning I woke up, I think it was a Friday morning, and I was like, I wanted to walk. I love to power walk in the morning, especially when it's cool out in the morning, but I just physically didn't have it in me. So Instead of pushing through and doing it anyway, I just took a second, literally a second. And I'm like, okay, what would feel really good to me right now? And the answer just came very quickly. This is not like crazy. It's just like stretching. I wanted to stretch. So I just put on some worship music.
Michelle McCoy [00:13:09]:
I went upstairs, went on my mat, and I stretched for 15 minutes. And it was amazing. Like, that's exactly what I needed. Now, could I have pushed through a power walk? Sure, absolutely. I could have gone for a walk and just strolled and that would've been okay too. But I was listening intentionally to what my body was needing after 4 nights of working till 9:00 PM, starting my day at 8:30. Like, it was just, it was like, I just need to stretch. Number one, when you sit at your desk for a long time too, right?
Leah Hadley [00:13:42]:
Yeah.
Michelle McCoy [00:13:42]:
So that's what I needed. And then later that day, I was able to go for a stroll around the neighborhood and just to get my head clear from, again, another day of work. So, you know, there are ebbs and flows in life and in business and in what we're doing. And so just taking a moment to listen and check in, like, what would feel really good? Do I want water with lemon or do I want herbal tea? Like, do I, you know, what sounds good right now? You know?
Leah Hadley [00:14:12]:
So for a lot of women, I know that they've been under stress for a long time and Over time, it's almost like their body stops kind of communicating with them about how to recover from that stress. What does that mean in terms of, like, what support does she need? How does she get started? What do you think?
Michelle McCoy [00:14:34]:
I love this question, Leah, because you're absolutely right. The, the body just starts going on autopilot, right? It's like, it's not so much the Energizer Bunny, it's just autopilot. Like, you're just surviving, you're just getting through your day. And that's, that's on top of the extra emotional and mental stress, right?
Leah Hadley [00:14:55]:
Right.
Michelle McCoy [00:14:56]:
Of potentially going through a divorce or separation or whatever your fire is in the season. So our body's system, our stress system was designed to handle a crisis and then recover. But the problem is we're not recovering. We're staying in this fight, flight, or freeze, this stress system state longer than we should be. And the body can simply not heal and recover properly if it doesn't feel safe.
Leah Hadley [00:15:28]:
Hmm.
Michelle McCoy [00:15:28]:
The body must feel safe. And over time, when the body never gets the signal that it's safe to recover, it stops waiting for that signal. And it just continues on autopilot. So it's like living in survival mode, right? So that is where stress becomes your new normal. Everybody's stressed. Isn't everybody stressed? I'm stressed. You're stressed. You know, everybody— you greet somebody, you're like, how are you doing? Oh, girl, I'm so stressed.
Michelle McCoy [00:15:59]:
Like, right? Or I'm so busy. Right?
Leah Hadley [00:16:01]:
Right.
Michelle McCoy [00:16:01]:
These default words. And it's not like it's not true, but that doesn't need to be our new normal. We don't want that to be our new normal.
Leah Hadley [00:16:09]:
Right.
Michelle McCoy [00:16:10]:
And everything starts kind of quietly shifting and breaking down. All those systems are connected, right? So it's just exhausted from not feeling safe. The body needs to feel safe in order to heal and recover. And I have found in the work that I've done with women, professional women, over 40 is that they specifically have 4 specific identity mindsets that they adopt, whether they know they're adopting them or not. They just adopt these mindsets. And the first one is perfectionist.
Leah Hadley [00:16:45]:
Hello.
Michelle McCoy [00:16:46]:
I've been there. We place these unrealistic expectations on ourselves all the time, right? So that, that's a mindset. And then the second one is people pleaser. I'm going to raise my hand to all 4. So this is where we're not setting boundaries. We are especially not setting boundaries around our self-needs, our self-care. Like, we actually have fear of rejection. We want validation from others.
Michelle McCoy [00:17:21]:
And then there's the push-througher, and that's where we're getting it done. We are smiling on the outside, but we're crying a little bit on the inside, right? Yeah. And then the perfectionist— protectionist. Protection. This is where we are really controlling. We are trying to control the situation, control our environment. We struggle with trust. We don't delegate well.
Michelle McCoy [00:17:46]:
It is really hard for us to show vulnerability.
Leah Hadley [00:17:48]:
And I'll tell you what, for people who are going through a divorce who identify with that protectionist identity, That's a tough place to be. Because so much is out of your control, right?
Michelle McCoy [00:18:00]:
It really, really is. It truly is. And I'll add a little caveat to that too, because there's all these life situations that affect that. So let's say adult children. Oh my goodness. I remember saying I would rather have 5 kids under the age of 5 right now than to be dealing with adult children stressors that we were dealing with at the time.
Leah Hadley [00:18:23]:
Yeah. Yeah.
Michelle McCoy [00:18:24]:
And so like, we all have these life stages that we are going through where we want to protect, we want to cover up, and we want to just— it's not selfish at all. It's literally protecting. We are protecting. And so keeping these mindsets keep us sad, sick, and stuck, really not free at all. But once we identify which mindset we keep putting on, and I was all 4. And just full transparency, the, the one that I still struggle with as a business owner is the push-througher.
Leah Hadley [00:19:03]:
Okay.
Michelle McCoy [00:19:04]:
Just, yeah, just push through.
Leah Hadley [00:19:06]:
I get it.
Michelle McCoy [00:19:08]:
We have deadlines, you know, and if you're the only one, you know, if you don't have a team or you don't have a team member to do XYZ or whatever, like, that's it. Like, you got to get it done, right? But there has to be balance. There has to be harmony, not so much balance, but harmony to help our body have harmony as well. So once we identify which mindset, we can start to shift our mindset around that particular one. So for example, I see perfectionists a lot in high-achieving women who have had a lifetime of diet mentality.
Leah Hadley [00:19:40]:
Mm-hmm.
Michelle McCoy [00:19:40]:
Like they're excelling at their career, they're excelling at their business, they're climbing that corporate ladder, leading teams. And by the time they hit midlife season, you know, 40+, they have tried all the diets. They've tried everything that is thrown out there. And those times of like counting and tracking and deprivation and all of this, they feel that they must follow every single diet perfectly or it won't work.
Leah Hadley [00:20:11]:
Right.
Michelle McCoy [00:20:11]:
And that's just their— maybe that's their nature. Like, I'm just— I'm all or nothing.
Leah Hadley [00:20:17]:
Yes.
Michelle McCoy [00:20:17]:
But then when they go off the diet, they tend to all gain all the weight back plus some. Why? Well, for one, there's no perfection. There's only progress. And being so strict and limiting, you know, it actually sends the brain a message that it's starving. Again, everything's connected. And so when women come to me, they're not counting calories or macros. They're not measuring their food, weighing their food out, or weighing daily.
Leah Hadley [00:20:45]:
Mm-hmm.
Michelle McCoy [00:20:45]:
We are changing the relationship with food because it's so important to do that, because then it shifts how we are looking at food. You know, food is a beautiful gift and it's necessary. It's fuel. So we just need to shift that mindset that we have. And I'll tell you another client story. She said recently that one of the nutrition plans— I work very individually. I don't do one size fits all at all. It's really what each woman needs.
Michelle McCoy [00:21:17]:
We devised a plan that fit her busy lifestyle as a CEO. She felt so much better and she felt like the plan was doable for her in her busy, crazy life that she lived. She would leave the house at like 5:30 in the morning, you know, and she felt like the sustainability of that was so vital to her and she never felt deprived. So physically, it supported her really well, but also mentally and emotionally, it supported her because we can't compartmentalize wellness, right?
Leah Hadley [00:21:50]:
Right.
Michelle McCoy [00:21:50]:
We have to take that whole person approach, body, mind, spirit, because it's all connected.
Leah Hadley [00:21:56]:
Yeah, absolutely. I think one of the things that I know I personally struggled with, um, when I was just trying to take care of— better care of myself on my own and dealing with life stresses was that there was just so much information about do this for your sleep, do this for your diet, do this for your— it's like, yes, you want to take care of all aspects, but I think you're right, it's so easy to get stuck in that kind of like perfectionist mindset. And then you're constantly reinforcing this feeling of failure, right? Because if you're setting yourself up that perfection is the standard, then failure is inevitable because perfection is not a thing, right? And so—
Michelle McCoy [00:22:34]:
It's not.
Leah Hadley [00:22:35]:
Yeah. So you're setting yourself up for that situation. So I'm wondering, Michelle, for people who are just feeling the overwhelm of like all of it, like where, where do I start? Like what is the one, maybe one or two things that like really, if this is what I focused on, Then I would feel so much better.
Michelle McCoy [00:22:57]:
Well, there's so much there I could unpack. It's really— yeah, it's not about doing all of these things, right? But life is so complicated and challenging enough. And again, women's wellness is so loud and vying for our attention. There's so much biohacking. Do this, do that.
Leah Hadley [00:23:16]:
Right.
Michelle McCoy [00:23:17]:
It's just like, okay, wait a minute. The body was brilliantly designed. Let's check in with what I need, because it doesn't matter what everybody else is doing. It's not going to work if it's not what my body needs. Right. So taking care of yourself should not feel like a have to. This should not be another box to check. We're great box checkers, aren't we?
Leah Hadley [00:23:37]:
Yeah.
Michelle McCoy [00:23:38]:
I will write things out on my to-do list even if I've already done it, just so I can cross it off. It's just, you know, but we want to look at it as a, I want to, I get to, I get to take care of myself. So I love acronyms. And I came up with this a little while ago, several months ago. And it's, it's just 2 easy words to remember, POP to SOS.
Leah Hadley [00:24:07]:
Okay.
Michelle McCoy [00:24:07]:
It's, it's so silly. I used to be a teacher. So, you know, it's just Silly is fun. But you want to POP, pause on purpose, so that you can stop, observe, and surrender.
Leah Hadley [00:24:20]:
Hmm, that's powerful.
Michelle McCoy [00:24:23]:
You— again, it's like just quieting the noise. What does my body need? What is my body saying it needs right now? So we want to pause on purpose for a purpose. You're not just tired. It's not something you just have to live with. Your body is slower to repair because you're not pausing, you're not stopping, you're just in this go mode all the time. And you— we've normalized it. But instead, let's normalize the true rhythms of rest that God has designed us to need instead of normalizing exhaustion.
Leah Hadley [00:24:59]:
Yeah.
Michelle McCoy [00:24:59]:
We don't want to normalize exhaustion. It's not your lot in life. It not just menopause. You don't have to wait until you're on the other side of menopause to feel better, to feel good, to feel good in your skin, to sleep well, to have joy again and energy again. So when we pause on purpose, it really helps us to take check. Where am I? What am I doing right now? What do I need? And I love that we can model this to our children, our grandchildren, our youth group, whoever we are also leading, because we like to lead. And so model this, take this and model this. So I want to walk you and your listeners through the midday reset.
Michelle McCoy [00:25:44]:
It's just a simple midday reset. This will help you pause on purpose, okay, to SOS—
Leah Hadley [00:25:50]:
SOS.
Michelle McCoy [00:25:50]:
Stop, observe, and surrender. So the midday reset, you want to get up, you want to relocate. If you've been sitting at your desk for hours, you want to get up out of your chair, relocate, leave your office, If possible, step outside, even better. And then engage your breath. Take some deep, full breaths. Big inhale through your nose, exhale through your mouth. Do that several times. You want to feel your belly expand.
Michelle McCoy [00:26:18]:
And that is, you know, think of a baby and how they belly breathe. You know, think of that. Keep it— again, we're keeping this super simple. You guys have heard this before, but, you know, bringing it back to the basics. Yeah. Makes such a difference. And then you want to stretch, move your body. That doesn't mean you have to plop on the floor, right? You don't have to.
Michelle McCoy [00:26:37]:
Like, depending on where you are at that moment, you might not be able to, but you can stretch, you can move your body, you can twist, you can do what feels right, feels good. Your neck is probably stiff. And then you want to eat something. A lot of women are still telling me that they are working through lunch, not eating lunch, grabbing a yogurt, calling it good. Or just skipping, and then they're like ravenous by the time they get home, you know, or they come down into their kitchen. So eat a protein snack. Women are very, very low in protein. So we want to be sure that protein is, you know, higher, that we are trying again, not counting a bunch of stuff, but just think, am I having protein at every meal? Keep it simple.
Leah Hadley [00:27:19]:
Mm-hmm.
Michelle McCoy [00:27:20]:
And then T, you transform your mindset. Okay, you're just transforming your mindset. So any thoughts that you had going through, swirling through that day before you paused on purpose, shift it, shift it, transform your mindset. We are our own best— worst enemy, I should say. We would never speak to our daughters, our granddaughters, our sisters, our coworkers, our friends, our team members the way we speak to ourselves. So we need to shift that mindset and start showing ourselves some love, right? Some TLC, for sure. But pausing on purpose will literally help bring your nervous system back into harmony. So it sounds simplistic, but it's doing mighty work inside.
Michelle McCoy [00:28:07]:
We are healing from the inside out.
Leah Hadley [00:28:09]:
Absolutely. Even just pausing to breathe, I mean, that is in and of itself is huge. I always am reminding people who are preparing for their meetings with their attorneys or headed into mediation or what have you, just to remember the, like, the basic things of, like, taking a deep breath, standing up and removing yourself from the situation if necessary, and giving yourself some perspective to come back. So I think that is so beautiful and so simple, and I absolutely love it, Michelle. I think people can apply it in a number of different ways as they're going through this process to just really come back to themselves.
Leah Hadley [00:28:45]:
Yeah.
Leah Hadley [00:28:46]:
and to take care of themselves. And I know for our listeners that so many of you are taking care of so many other people. One of the things that Michelle started talking about at the beginning was, you know, a lot of you are in the sandwich generation. You're caring for parents, you're caring for, you know, maybe kids, maybe adult kids, but regardless, it's still that demand on your mental capacity, right? Your mental load.
Michelle McCoy [00:29:08]:
Yes.
Leah Hadley [00:29:08]:
And so there's only so much of you to go around. And if you're not pausing, and you're not making sure that you're taking care of yourself, I'll say what I said at the beginning, I've been amazed at the physical health implications that I've seen of the divorce process on people over the years. And to know that there are simple things that you can do to really protect yourself from ending up in a space like that is hugely valuable. So thank you so much for sharing that.
Michelle McCoy [00:29:33]:
You're welcome. Absolutely.
Leah Hadley [00:29:35]:
Yeah.
Michelle McCoy [00:29:35]:
And I've seen it too, over the 12 years of working with professional women. I work mostly with females. A lot of times I get their husbands as well through nutrition, but I do work predominantly with females, and they're all driven. They're all go-getters. They're all high achievers, and they struggle with putting the oxygen mask on themselves. They struggle pausing.
Leah Hadley [00:29:56]:
Absolutely.
Michelle McCoy [00:29:57]:
They feel like it's lazy. It's not lazy. Your body was designed to rest. So a really simple— even simpler than this midday reset— is every time you go to the bathroom, Don't leave that bathroom till you've done 3 rounds of deep breathing. Keep it simple.
Leah Hadley [00:30:12]:
Oh, yes, I love that.
Michelle McCoy [00:30:14]:
It's breathe on the potty, right? Like, just keep it simple. Just keep it simple. Because oftentimes, like, you feel like, well, that's— I don't have time for that. Like, I hear this a lot. I barely have time to go to the bathroom. You know, especially my professional nurses, you know, hospital workers, all of that. And I get it. But while you're there, like, kill two birds with one stone.
Michelle McCoy [00:30:38]:
That's such a bad expression. But, you know, do your deep breathing, and that will help so much to regulate your nervous system and bring it back into harmony for the next thing that you can— you have to do.
Leah Hadley [00:30:50]:
Excellent. Michelle, I so appreciate you taking the time to be with us today and to share your wisdom. I know there are so many people out there who are just struggling with the situation. And so I so value what you shared today. I know you have a free resource on your website. I was wondering if you could tell our listeners about that.
Michelle McCoy [00:31:09]:
Yeah, absolutely. I created a blueprint for female executives and business owners, and I called it 3 Reasons You're Still Exhausted. And this just breaks down into more detail high-functioning fatigue and how it really is impacting your health and your life. And so you can go to, uh, treasuredwellness.com and you Actually, I'm going to share the link with you, Leah, so that you can put it in your show notes as well. But that's just a very simple free resource that you can grab. And then also go to Treasured Wellness, the podcast, and you can reach out to me there. You can listen, hang on, hang out in my community. And then, of course, I love to hear from you all.
Michelle McCoy [00:31:54]:
So if you ever want to send me an email, It's just very simple, michelle@treasuredwellness.com. And I answer all the emails. It's not a team member, it's me. So I would love to have a conversation with you.
Leah Hadley [00:32:07]:
Oh, fantastic. Thank you so much. We will be sure to include all of those resources down below in the show notes. Again, Michelle, thank you so much. Are there any final words you'd like to share with our audience?
Michelle McCoy [00:32:19]:
Yes. And thank you. Thank you, Leah, for this opportunity. I just want all of your listeners to know that you are your own best advocate for your health, no matter what is going on in your life, no matter what struggle, hardship, stressor is going on in your life. You are your own best advocate. Sadly, we might not have people tell us to take a break. So let me be the person to tell you that you owe it to yourself. You deserve it to take a break, take a mini reset, right? Like pop, pop, pause on purpose because you are your own best advocate.
Michelle McCoy [00:32:52]:
And, you know, God created you to do amazing things. And it might not feel like it right now while you're in the fire, but it's still there. It hasn't gone anywhere. You have a purpose. You were created on purpose, so for a purpose. So just remember that you are your own best advocate and you are worth caring for.
Leah Hadley [00:33:13]:
What a beautiful reminder. You are absolutely worthy of that pause and to take good care of yourself. Michelle, thank you so much. Again, for your wisdom, for sharing so many valuable thoughts and ideas with our listeners today. And for our listeners, thank you so much for joining us today, and we will see you next week.
Leah Hadley [00:33:31]:
Thank you for joining me on Intentional Divorce Insights. It's a privilege to share this time with you. I hope each episode offers valuable guidance to navigate your journey. If you find our content helpful, please leave a review to help others discover the benefits of intentional decision-making in divorce. Until next time, take care and continue to embrace your path with intention.
