Welcome to Milestone Moments, the show where we explore the journeys that lead to success.
I'm Sheila Slick, your host and founder of Five Milestones. In every episode, we will bring you
insights from the minds of entrepreneurs, leaders, and experts who will share not just their expertise
but the milestone moments that have reshaped their journeys and led to significant achievements.
So if you're looking for motivation, you're in the right place. Subscribe now and discover the
milestones that mark the path to success.
Welcome to another episode of Milestone Moments in Business and Leadership. I'm Sheila Slick,
your host. And today, my special guest is Dr. Patricia Petralba. Dr. Petralba is founder of
Thrive Life Center, an integrative medicine wellness center in Tucson, Arizona, and is the
head coach of Revive and Thrive Program, serving women globally. She is a board certified physician,
trained in family medicine from the University of Pittsburgh and a graduate of integrative medicine
fellowship from the University of Arizona. She is passionate about sharing her knowledge that
transforms lives in a holistic and sustainable way so that highly ambitious women can perform
without the burnout and feel fulfilled in all areas of their life. Welcome to the show, Dr.
Petralba. Hi, Sheila. I'm excited to be here. Thank you for joining me today. Can you tell us
about a specific moment or an experience that led you down this career path? Specific moments,
I mean, I feel like it's a stack of multiple ones, but the most impactful moment would be maybe when
I graduated medical school and completely burned out. You know, here I am wanting to find the
holy grail of how to heal people, hopefully cancer because it runs very high in my family.
Yeah, I felt like I didn't have the knowledge, the embodiment, how to really help people in a
more deeper way. Like I could diagnose, give you a diagnosis. I could write orders for labs and
imaging and give you prescription. But after that, it's like, did we really heal you or did we
just minimize the symptom? Did we get to the root cause? So that was kind of the moment where I'm
like, I'm not even feeling alive myself with what I know. So there's got to be a different path.
Yeah. So why do you think so many people, specifically women, they struggle with burnout,
their health, and what are some of the symptoms that can help you identify, am I burnt out?
Yeah, great question. So burnout can be very insidious, you know, especially if you're a
highly driven woman. It can be as simple as you're irritable, it's hard for you to sleep or maintain
sleep, and then hard to lose weight. You don't feel turned on as much with your relationships
or even with life. And then certainly, you know, it can show up in the body where
the hormones act up, whether that's PMS, infertility, or a very hard menopause.
And I think, you know, it's multifactorial why women tend to burn out. But one of it is
we operate in a system where we don't lean on and trust how we're made. What I mean by that is we,
by biology, how we are designed is to be cyclical, seasonal, compared to male biology,
which is very linear. Like they can just go, go, go, go, go. Unlike us, we have like from
menarche, menstrual, pregnancy, menopause, and we shift so much. Even within one cycle of our
menstrual cycle, we have our menstruation, when we feel our energy drops, we feel a bit of increase
of energy in our luteal phase, sorry, follicular, and then ovulation peak. We feel like, oh my gosh,
I'm so beautiful, I can do 10 million things. And then we go down to luteal, which is the drop of
the hormones, or when we're pregnant, and we need to slow down. What happens is we tend to compare
or have this pressure on us to perform similar to our male co-workers, co-founders, whatever.
And women needs that pause. Women needs that up and down cycling. And so basically, I think we just
operate in a man's biology, time, and energy management, and that just doesn't work out.
So the moment we can really embrace how we're made, we shine, you know, like without guilt or shame,
with saying, I'm having a hot flash right now, need to step out, maybe drop everything. Because
I know when I really listen to my body, I can create even more than most of you guys.
I'm curious. So you're basing it almost on a gender right now. How about age? Does that have an
influence? Is burnout based on what you're doing, your activities? Or is it that these hormones,
I know they change throughout your life and your ages, and you have these stages. So would you say
you're more prone physically just because you're at a specific point in your life?
I think it can encompass at all ages. It's still... So burning out is essentially, you are
giving more output than recovery. Because stress is not a bad thing. But chronic, sustained stress
without recovery, that's when you burn out. So whatever how your mindset is around,
the guilt, the shame, or the expectations to not stop could be your driving force on why you're
burning out. So whether it's you can't even celebrate the harvest after summer season in
your business, like, wow, I made a lot of cash in this season, instead of celebrating the harvest
on fall, you still want to keep reproducing that spring and summer. So simple answer is,
it's, I don't think it's age based. I think it's a lot of it is mindset. And your ability
to really listen to what your body and mind needs. So that was my next question. How do we
prevent it and identify it? Right? We need to identify it and prevent.
Yeah, I mean, I have many frameworks how to be more conscious before it actually happens.
One of my favorite formula is called the log formula. So first is, we need to know how to
listen to check in to scan our own energy from mind, body, spirit, so deeply listening to
the messages that our mind body spirit is actually expressing. So for a woman, it could
be like, like what I was saying, like the sleep, the hormones, like if you really check in,
what does that mean? Because the symptoms aren't the problem, they're actually trying to be the
solution. So that this ease is the communication to you to evaluate your own energy. So,
that's the L, the log formula. L is listening, always objectivity. So meaning, how can I be
objective, finding out the root cause of what I'm going through. So even with business, right? Like,
I can't just rely on intuition and listening. How can I measure it? So for a physical health,
you want to be able to measure it. So that's the L. And then the L is listening. So,
you want labs. For business, you want the numbers or the metrics and whatever statistics that you
need. And it will help you clarify what is. And then V is vulnerability. Like you have to have
a muscle of vulnerability to really feel what you need to feel. What I mean by that, a lot of people
want to just skip to the solution. Like, I just want to feel better. I just don't want to be
depressed. Like you feeling happy without really digesting, why did you get depressed in the first
place and detoxify those tears and maybe journal it out or maybe dance it out, whatever it is that
you actually needed to feel whatever you need to feel. The vulnerability will help you get to the
last, which is E, the inner visionary, like a CEO will always see the best case scenario.
So you being the CEO of your body, if you had the diagnosis of hypertension, cancer,
whatever, menopause that's so terrible or whatever is happening in your business,
if you're able to go through L O V, you can really see the vision in the best case scenario. So
that's kind of how I would prevent burnout. Like that's like usually my framework.
So you use frameworks. What else do you use? What are other strategies or solutions that you
provide your clients? I would say it's case to case. But that's one, like my framework is
mind, body, spirit. And then the love framework, it could be also conscious and unconscious mind
because we operate from a 90% subconscious mindset. And so how can we release all those
subconscious programming? And this is where, you know, how a woman recognizes like, oh my gosh,
I'm so tired, but I can't say no. I just can't say no to this client, even though you're not
enjoying it anymore, but you're so wired to being a people pleaser. And so even though you're
conscious of that already, but your subconscious is still in control, then sometimes we do a
different type of exercises, how to rewire the brain and really exercise the muscle of boundaries.
So this is what you mean when you describe a natural and sustainable way of healing.
One of it. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. That's what I was trying to get to in the question. I don't know
if I framed it correctly. So it was, what are some of the strategies you use, you know, when you
describe that you help them with their health and the burnout and healing in a natural and
sustainable way? Yes. So I mean, as long as you know what the root cause is, and you're willing
to work through it, you change the fruit, because that's how sustainable is like you, you start from
the root before it even becomes like you change the whole system. So do you offer specific
programs? Do you have books or are you one to one? So I do group, I do like self-paced courses for
the online. Like now I'm running my 14 day self-love challenge, which is like a journaling
challenge and meditation challenge to activate the highest frequency of healing, which is love.
So those are 14 days. I also have like a group coaching called Healing Academy, where we go
through the thriving life framework, the mind, body, spirit medicine. And yes, absolutely. I
work one-on-one, which is kind of majority of who I serve, like CEOs to high performing women,
like really wants to deepen their understanding, how can they perform better in all areas of their
life. Interesting. So what is your next milestone? Great question. I feel like an expansion of a
second brick and mortar. We're in the process of, I'm going to retire my husband from his practice
and he'll join me. We're going to be like not just marketed on women, but also for men. He's also
a holistic provider. So we're excited about that. Like we're on our way to me absorbing him, hiring
him. Make sure you don't stress him out or you'll have the proper techniques. So where can my
listeners learn more about the programs that you offer? Because they are global. So I'm imagining
you do have a lot that are online. Yeah. So people can find me in my website, thrivewithdrpatricia.com
or in my Facebook group, The Thriving Woman, where I host free online retreats around every
month, every two months. I don't hold back. Even if it's free, I go deep. So yeah, they can join
my free community. Can you offer my listeners one specific tip so they can implement, take action
right away? I think it's immersing ourselves in the five elements. Meaning with nature, because
we're surrounded with artificial air, artificial light, artificial ground, processed water, meaning
not in natural containers. Again, because we are made of nature. So we're surrounded by
because we are made of nature. And even if it's like just after one client, you step out,
have some sunlight, ground your feet, drink a live water. Sometimes that's enough. Just
reconnecting what you're made of will really help you feel more alive, productive, and happy.
So what are the five elements? Can you repeat them? Air, light, water, earth, metals. So that's why
minerals are also very good to make sure that's part of your diet. Got it. Well, thank you so
much for joining me today. Thank you. It's so nice to be here. And thank you to all of the listeners
for joining in on another episode of Milestone Moments in Business and Leadership.