It's not uncommon when I meet someone new and
I tell them that I am a homeschooling mother
of six children And I run my own business that
they very often stop with perhaps a mouth open
and say How do you juggle all of that? That's
what I want to unpack on today's episode Welcome
to health and hormones I am Rita Johnson your
host and here we talk about all things health
hormones Natural living and how to take care
of that amazing body God has given you So the
first thing I want to say when somebody asks
me how in the world do you juggle all that is
to just simply say I don't Truly and honestly,
I don't. I have a whole lot of help and a whole
lot goes into running this crazy mess of a life
that I call mine and I absolutely love it. It
fuels me, it does not deplete me, but I really
want to kind of unpack this because I think especially
as women we can look to each other and see, you
know, whether it's your neighbor across the street
or somebody you've just met and look at all that
they're doing in their life and be very overwhelmed.
Oftentimes we feel so overwhelmed in our own
season and stage of life. that instead of picturing
the things that the person in front of us doesn't
have to deal with that we do, instead we kind
of amass what they are doing and put it on top
of what we're already doing. And so because this
is our tendency, I just want to take some time
to talk about how I do juggle the many things
on my plate and how this may look different from
what you have on your plate. I think this is
really important to kind of shed some light on
this and to help us run from this attitude of
competition instead of collaboration, right?
So in the entrepreneurial world that I am in,
there's a lot of talk of how we need to really
work on helping each other, build each other
up, as opposed to just viewing each other as
competitors, right? Particularly in the Christian
entrepreneurial world, and then the Catholic
entrepreneurial world, and then you're looking
at moms that are really called to business in
the midst of raising our families. It's a very
niche upon niche group of women, and yet there
still is this tendency for competition. over
collaboration and I think the more that we can
be transparent with each other the more that
can help. Whether you are homeschooling or you
have your own business or not, I just really
want to give you a little glimpse into my life
and how I handle things because I think that
that can be so very insightful. So the first
thing I want to start off by saying and I see
this time and time again as I'm working with
women is that my level of ability to handle different
things on my plate is going to be totally different
than yours. We can kind of, I like to actually
visualize a plate and the things on the plate
as the different jobs we have as opposed to multiple
plates in the air or multiple hats on our head
because a plate we can very easily see that there's
only room for so much, right? When we think about
wearing multiple hats or having multiple plates,
it's a little more vague in terms of how can
we juggle multiple things. So if we look at a
plate, and I would say a big fat dinner plate,
For me, a large -sized dinner plate is good and
I can fill that up with different things, obviously.
You know, if I have 10 things on my dinner plate,
like a Thanksgiving meal, I'm not going to be
able to have as much of those 10 things as if
I had four things on my plate. And I think that
kind of feeds into the, you know, if we do, we
might be able to do less better than doing a
myriad of things. But that's really kind of not
my point on this. What I want to say is that
different women have different sized plates.
And there may be different things that contribute
to larger plate size. For me personally I know
that my marriage increased my plate size if you
will. Having a supportive encouraging husband
that is my biggest fan is really really powerful
for me to increase that but also There's a lot
of my journey to this place that has grown that
plate size as well. So for me personally, I've
done a lot of spiritual healing. I've done a
lot of mindset work. I've done a lot of physical
healing. I'm really dialed into foods that help
me to feel good and run at optimal energy and
foods that do not and I avoid those. I'm really
disciplined about getting in my workout but also
knowing when I need to have rest day even if
it's not something I planned. but just really
listening to my body and learning how it needs
to be supported even in this busy season of my
life. Right now I have an almost four month old
baby and my oldest is 16 and there's a lot of
monkey wrenches in my day right now that I definitely
did not have even a couple years ago. A couple
years ago my youngest was two at the time and
my oldest was 14. He wasn't working outside of
the house. I was only homeschooling one in high
school. there was multiple things that were a
lot less on my plate, even though my husband
still worked a lot of hours. So that's a big
factor for me as well. So looking at the different
size plates and remembering that we all have
a different size plate, I wanna talk a little
more about that. So how can we juggle that, right?
How do we work on supporting our mind, body,
and soul health when... Truly just taking care
of myself some days feels like a lot of work.
And I will say that the longer you've put off
taking care of yourself, the more work it's going
to feel like, especially as you get started.
It tends to be the clients that have neglected
themselves the most have the hardest time adapting
their life to add things in that are going to
fuel and help them. Like working out, like taking
time to have spiritual reading or prayer time
in the morning, like time to do something that
is leisurely that just fills their soul. So really
when we're looking at this, how am I going to
balance adding something else in? The first thing
I encourage women to do is to pray about it.
Ask the Lord, is there something that I'm carrying
right now that you're calling me to lay down?
Sometimes it is the stress of being a perfectionist
in the kitchen trying to only feed our people
the most perfect, amazing food. Sometimes it's
cooking every single thing from scratch. Sometimes
it's a need to control to a point where we don't
let our husband help us or our children help
us. Whatever that is for you, it may also be
something more intangible. It might be grief
that you haven't processed through. It might
be unforgiveness you're holding. onto in your
heart. And then the next step I think is to reframe
whatever is the hardest thing for you to imagine
in somebody else's life. So often what we can
do is we'll look again looking at our neighbor
looking at a woman we just met and we think to
ourselves well I could never and there is something
usually really specific that we feel like I could
never and when we get to that place we oftentimes
we almost see that person as someone we can no
longer relate to, right? So for example, I have
a dear friend who lives most of her year out
of the country. And so I could very easily think
to myself, well gosh, I could never, and something
about her lifestyle, something about the way
they've chosen to raise their family, as if it
is unsurmountable. And then I... change her ever
so slightly from being a human that I can learn
and grow with to somebody that does something
that is so beyond possible in my thoughts that
we can no longer connect. We can no longer collaborate
and grow from each other and listen to each other
even if I'm at a different place in life than
she is. I think often times when we think how
does somebody do something or how do you juggle
it all, we look at the very tangible things.
We look at their day -to -day, how are they homeschooling,
running a business, having time to work out,
cultivating a faith life in a family, which is
a big stress on its own. And how do they get
dinner on the table? How do they do these things
in their everyday life? And when you get to that
place, I just want you to pause and take a deep
breath. Anytime we feel overwhelmed, we feel
anxious, worried, worked up, or that competitive
spirit starts to sink in. Just take a deep breath.
Invite the Lord's grace into that moment and
ask him what he's calling you to learn from that
experience of encountering another human being
that's so overwhelming to you. Because oftentimes
what I see is that's his invitation to us to
really double down on our own healing journey.
It may be in the way of incorporating exercise
into your every week. It may be learning how
to get a little bit better at getting dinner
on the table instead of buying it from somewhere.
It may be just being a little more mindful of
those thoughts that you need to hold captive
that are really causing you to or allowing you
to sabotage your own health journey. Wherever
you are right now friend. I just invite you to
not be overwhelmed by the women in your life
that are doing what the Lord has called them
to because the Amazing incredible thing is the
Lord has called you too much as well And the
more that we can really focus on healing mind
body and soul the more the Lord can speak into
us in that season So I just really invite you
when you Get overwhelmed by somebody else's schedule
or day. Take a deep breath and say, come Holy
Spirit and ask the Lord to show you what it is
about this person's life that is convicting you
in your own journey. Be mindful friend that you
don't have to do this alone. If you'd like to
walk alongside of someone that can help you to
identify what are those next steps in your health
journey that can really help move you forward
in this pursuit of mind body and soul health,
I invite you to schedule a free discovery call
with me. I would love to chat about what's been
going on with you and how we can support you
in your health journey. Always remember that
your health is a balancing act. Health is really
made up of all these small choices we are making
every day. If we don't start here with these
small intentional steps, the rest doesn't matter.
I want you to remember that health is your body's
way of saying thank you for how you're treating
me. Thank you so much. It causes us to slow down
and listen if things are not working well. And
if we don't listen, it will start to yell. And
that's when we really start to get closer to
advanced disease. For some of this, it can happen
when our hormones are off or we can't take it
anymore. Others, it happens when we're trying
to conceive and we just hit a wall and we're
so frustrated that this is continuing to be where
we are at. For other people, it might be through
excess weight gain or chronic pain. All of these
things are ways that our body is saying, enough,
I need some help. I need some support.