[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Real Medicine, real lives. I'm Dr. Yasser Sambal and together we're showing medical expertise in a human way.
Hello everybody, and welcome to Real Medicine, real lives. I'm Dr. Yasser Sambal and on this program we're going to bring cutting edge science with everyday solutions that keeps you thriving in your body, in your mind, and in your mission.
Have you been hustling towards big goals lately but feel like your health is slipping through the cracks?
Stay tuned. Today we have a really special guest who's an expert who wrote a book on this that's helped hundreds of people achieving entrepreneurs replace burnout with sustainable energy.
Jen Godet is a human performance specialist, a formal physical therapist, and a master transformation and success strategist. She guides leaders who feel overwhelmed, depleted and stuck to re energize their bodies and reignite their motivation so they can scale success without sacrificing well being.
Jen, thank you for joining us today.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: I'm really excited to be here. Thanks for having me.
[00:00:58] Speaker A: I'm really excited to talk about this because I think a lot of us, even myself as a successful professional, can really relate to this topic quite a bit.
So I think let's get started. And you know, I think what I like to talk about, you know, my, my motto is always like, and a lot of people say, you know what, I'll just rest when I die. That's usually the way things go.
So give us an idea why that's really not a good philosophy to just keep pushing through and rest sometime later.
[00:01:26] Speaker B: Well, that's a great question.
I had that philosophy as well until it got to the point that personally could not keep going forward, needed to have something different happen.
So let's just get honest, like real honest success at the cost of your health is not actually successful, is basically survival with a shiny filter. We're sold this hustle culture. It's a lie.
We are told that burnout is a badge of honor, especially in healthcare. I mean, I was in healthcare for 20 years. It's not, it's basically a slow leak that's pretty much going to eventually take us out.
So I really want to, I was going to share a couple of stories about this, but I think the most, the most pressing one is I was there and, and this is why I wrote my book because so many times as a mom, as a, as a, I was in health care, as a health care professional, as someone who's managing a practice doing all of these things, I literally was on stage all of the time taking care of Everyone else. And people talk about being on the back burner.
I wasn't even on the burner. I'd fallen off and was splattered across the floor. I literally, at 2am would be in my closet sobbing because I had chronic pain. I wasn't taking care of myself. I wasn't eating properly.
I almost lost my marriage. There were so many things that were going wrong, but to everyone else, I was everybody's life goals. They saw me and they went, man, I want to be you. You're working with the most amazing athletes and professionals, and you're doing this thing and you're living this life.
But there was nothing left in the tank. And so, you know, it almost cost me not only my physical health, but mental, social relationships, all of the things. And so it's really important that yes, maybe, maybe we think we can rest when we die, but the reality is we live every day, we only die once, and we miss out on the most important parts of life when we're hustling through everything else. It's so incredibly important that we take care of ourselves, because the reality is we. We've only got one body, folks.
We've got one body. We have to take care of it.
[00:03:40] Speaker A: That makes complete sense, actually.
So give us maybe some idea. You said you had to change things in your life to get to this point and figure out the burnout. So what do you think? Some things that people can set as success rules, whether it's family time, sleep, some sort of fun activity to kind of mitigate this burnout.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: Yeah. So, I mean, first thing you have to do is be really brutally honest about what you are and are not doing. I did not do that. I'm going to be the first to say, healthcare professionals, we're the worst at this until we have a problem or until it gets really bad. And so it's really hard to look in the mirror and say, okay, I say I'm doing these things. I'm telling my patients to rest and recover. But the reality was, the first thing I needed to do was sleep. I lived for decades believing I could get three hours of sleep and I'd be fine because I felt energized. But the reality is, is our body eventually breaks down. That happened for me when I was in my early 40s. And so if. If you're doing your life assessment and you're feeling burned out and you're feeling like you've got no gas in the tank, the first thing to think about is, am I getting enough sleep and stop lying to yourself. We're not built to get three hours of sleep every night from here to kingdom come, or five there. You know, the first thing is let's start adding 15 minutes a night and start to decrease that sleep depth. But the thing with a sleep debt is that's our recovery time. And if we're not giving our brain and our bodies enough time and space to actually recover, it kind of cascades into everything else. So the very first thing that I would start with, honestly Dr. Sombol, is sleep and making sure that I'm getting that in. And we do that. It's hard, but we have to be disciplined in some area.
So if your definition of success isn't including rest, everything else is not going to function appropriately.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: That makes perfect sense. And actually myself, just to tell you the story about me, I mean, I, for some reason I can't sleep more than five hours a night if I really tried. And I find myself waking up at, no matter what time I sleep at 6am or 7am even on the weekends.
And you know, even in the middle of the night, I find myself waking up at like 4 in the morning just out of nowhere. And I just can't sleep for a while and I gotta find, find a way to get back to sleep. And I, I think that leads to me being chronically tired, to be honest.
So, so besides sleep, you know, I mean, I think other things. What, what other daily boundary do you think you set for yourself? Just from personal experience or other, you know, other things that you may recommend for people that would lead to, you know, making a big difference in this burnout phase?
[00:06:22] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Let me tell you, let me tell you about one of my clients. She actually is in the dental practice, owns her own practice. And she's a rock star. She continually grew. Our practice is very, very prominent, very well respected in the industry. Everything was going amazing.
She reached out to me, literally. She was about to have a breakdown because she was a mother. She had a couple of children who were no longer toddlers, they were now in school. And she felt like she was missing out on everything in life.
And the reality is she was quietly unraveling. I felt that to the core of my being because that was my story too.
And the first few things that we did was we implemented an end of day shutdown.
What is that, Jen? When we are done with work, whatever that is for the day, and if you know, whatever that definition is, whatever that time is, we literally would shut down all the electronic devices. But we also had a journal and Anything that was on, on her mind, she would write down. And she would just write it and write it and write it and write it. We call that brain dumping. And so she would do that and leave it at work. Why do we do this? Because when we put the pen to paper and we literally write down all the things that are going through our mind, our brain, it signals our brain to say, oh, it's on paper, it'll be there tomorrow. I don't have to continue to perseverate on it and think about it and think about it and think about it. And then, so we did that. She left that part at work and then would go home. A couple of the other things that we did was we made sure that the last hour of the day before she intended to go to sleep was completely digitally shut down. You hear it? No green, no, no blue screens, no screen time an hour before bed.
There's science behind that. So we as entrepreneurs always like to be checking our phones and doing all the things. So that was the second thing we implemented, and not only for her, but also for her children. So what did that mean? That meant an hour before bedtime for the kids, there were no TVs on, there was nothing happening. So it forced presence her present with her children and it gave her more joy and satisfaction because she was actually fully present in the moment and then she wasn't digitally connected right before bed. And we also implemented that brain dump right before bed.
Why? Because what do we do, a lot of us, especially as high performers, is the minute we lay down, our brain doesn't turn off. So just writing everything that you're thinking about and leaving it in a notebook at the side of the bed over the course of about seven to 10 days, your brain recognizes that and it helps us to shut our brain down. That's part, that became part of her non negotiable evening routine.
So those couple of things, married with absolutely no work, or thinking about work, or being plugged in on Sundays, literally allowed her the spaciousness in her mind in order to be able to focus on the things that mattered most. And you know what the funny thing is, her health improved just by doing these things. Because maybe she wasn't getting more sleep, she was getting more quality sleep. She was getting that quality time with her family. And so she wasn't turning to other things to fill that need, like, you know, junk food and some of the other things that were happening. So her health improved and then her performance improved at work and her business flourished even more because she Set those impactful boundaries and those non negotiables.
So those are a couple of really easy things that we can put in our calendar and we just have to do it.
[00:09:53] Speaker A: That's great information.
So would you say, you know, I mean, how would you tell a leader, for example, to model that kind of behavior so that, you know, their team is even more successful?
Or, you know, the notion that if I slow down now, I'm going to fall behind, so I just can't afford to slow down, so I got to keep going. I mean, it's interesting that you brought up that point. We have a little bit of time before we go to commercial. But you know, me as a healthcare professional and somebody in private practice, you know, I'm constantly on call because for my practice or, you know, for the ER or whatever when somebody's not covering me. So for somebody like me, I can't always just turn it off when I go home because I have to go home and finish other things or make get paged in the middle of the night or whatnot. So kind of put that all together and what would you recommend in that situation?
[00:10:42] Speaker B: Right, so this is truly about being honest about what you can and you cannot do. Maybe you are on call and so you can't turn the phone all the way off, but what you can do is you can put in the other room. So it keeps you from being distracted by other things, but you'll still hear it, you know, and are attuned to it. And the reality is, when we set those impactful boundaries and we put that container, we are forced to be more effective and efficient within that container. And it's a shift, we start to realize, oh, these are the most important things. And here are some things that are really not driving results for our clients, for our patients, for our teams. And so we got very intentional about our time and what we're going to do during our workday so that we can actually take that unplugged time when we set it. And so it looks a little bit different for everybody else. And I've worked with a ton of clients in health care, so we've always found a plan that works. But the reality is, is when you put everything into a container and you say, work happens here, patient care happens here, notes happen at this time, and it might be at an off hour. I used to do clinical notes after my daughter went to sleep, you know, from home. So, like, there's things that we do, but we have it in a container. If we honor those containers, it forces us to be more effective and efficient during those times. And so it really, the answer is you need to just start, you need to decide one thing that you're going to set a boundary for and what do I need to happen so that I can actually unpack, unplug during this time, or maybe it's the gym or whatever it is that we're determining that we want to do. But we have to ask ourselves what needs to be true for that to happen and then just put that plan in place and execute.
[00:12:19] Speaker A: Great. Jen, this has been really powerful to start this segment so far. So where can people find you or connect with you to learn more about how to build successful lifestyles?
[00:12:31] Speaker B: Yeah. Easiest way to reach me, honestly, is on LinkedIn. I'm on LinkedIn. I love DMs, and I answer them myself, not a bot.
Or they can hit my website jenngoadecoaching.com and my last name is spelled G A U D E T. Great.
[00:12:46] Speaker A: All right, everybody hang tight. We're going to come back and talk to Jen for a little bit more about more stress and all these things related to burnout. And so just hang tight for a minute. We'll be back. Stick with us. We'll be right back with more real stories, real breakthroughs and real lives transformed.
Welcome to Real Medicine real lives. I'm Dr. Yasser Sambal, and together we're showing medical expertise in a human way.
Welcome back, everybody. If you're just joining us, I'm Dr. Yasser Sombal. We're on Real Medicine Realize. And I'm here with Jen Godey, human performance coach, author and secret weapon for entrepreneurs who look successful on the outside but feel exhausted on the inside. I'm sure a lot of us can relate to this. So in this segment, we're going to unpack the sneaky signs of burnout that masquerade as just life and the microhabits that reverse them before they steal your spark. Jen, welcome back.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: Thanks.
I'm super excited about this. This is my most favorite topic to talk about is what are the warning signs?
[00:13:48] Speaker A: Right. So let's dive right into it. So tell us, how does somebody differentiate between burnout and just normal feeling tired?
[00:13:57] Speaker B: Right. So it's very different. And I'm going to start by saying a lot of us are doing a lot of things.
And when we're doing the things that we are passionate about and have purpose and we are focused on and seeing those results, we're able to do so much and not ever feel burned out. It's when we're doing the things that don't feel like we're connected to them or they're a part of who we are or that we're accepting, excited to be doing them, but they feel more like an obligation when we actually start to feel that deep drain and that burnout. So what might it feel like if you're waking up completely exhausted, but you just had eight or nine hours of sleep, if you're snapping at your kids and you're calling it just busy season, you're not fine. You're not fine. You're fried.
So let's talk a little bit about what burnout might look like. It doesn't always look like collapse. It doesn't always look like I just can't do one other thing. That's when we let it get too far.
Sometimes it looks like, man, I really don't want to get up and go to work tomorrow morning, or I don't want to get up and do the thing in the next morning, and we're having that dread the day before.
It also might look like I'm more irritable or I don't feel like myself.
And when we're having those emotions, when we're having those emotions of, I feel obligated to do this thing. I really don't want to do this thing. I think I want to throw up a little bit before I have to go say or do this other activity. It's a sign for us to say, wait a minute, our body's telling us. Press pause. Something's not aligned here. Something's not right here. Maybe I need rest. Maybe I need to step away and actually have a vacation. Maybe I need to take a break and do an up leveling to myself here or into something else, because it's those little things. The man, I said yes to this, but I really don't want to. And you know, it's really funny and happens in life.
We are all obligated. We feel obligated to do certain things. And I noticed this at the holidays the most, right? There's all these parties. We feel like we need to say, especially as an entrepreneur, you feel like you need to go to different things, you need to have something for a client, you need to do the family things. But if you say yes to something, whether it's a party, whether it's spending time with someone, whether it's a client, and you find you're checking your watch or checking your phone for what time it is, frequently, that's a clear indication that you should have said no to that, that one thing. Because when we are checked out and not 100% present, we're not in alignment with where we're going. And so the more that we find ourselves checked out, those are other hidden clues that we are burning out or burned out, that we're not doing what we need to be doing or we're not seeing the impact we're looking to have in whatever career, profession, or personal endeavor that we're doing. And so when you start to notice those things, that irritability, I'm checking the watch all the time, or I'm just dreading the next day, Pay attention to those signs, that brain fog, that not lack of restful sleep, and listen to your body and say, okay, my body's telling me something. It's not telling me to push through.
That's what our mind says, and that's what we say as high performers. Listen, I am one. I get it. We lie to ourselves all the time. It's not telling us to push through, because pushing through doesn't prove any strength.
What it proofs is that we've normalized, neglecting ourselves and our own needs. And the reality is our cup is empty. And if we have an empty cup, we're not pouring anything good into any other human being that we're interacting with. We can only pour from a cup that's overflowing. If we honestly want to be having the impact we want to have in.
[00:17:32] Speaker A: The world, that's great. I mean, I'm glad you brought, you know, you brought up the early warning signs like morning fog. Just dreading things on Sunday night. Oh, I got to go back to work tomorrow, you know, et cetera. Or I got to go to this party.
Been there, done that, million times. So, yeah, I mean, I completely get it. So how do you say when people decide, I'm just gonna push through this because I have no choice? I mean, how does that not only just hurt our bodies, but also our mood?
[00:17:59] Speaker B: Yeah. So think about this. I'm going to use a workout reference. I was in sports medicine. Sorry, folks. I use a lot of gym references. Worked with athletes for 20 years, and I work with high performers. So when we're in the gym and we're working out, if we don't take rest days, what happens if we go and we're doing, you know, the same strength workout Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, our body is going to break down. We are going to tear muscle, we are going to tear tendons. We are going to have overuse injuries.
And what does that look like in our daily lives, if we are ignoring those signs, if we're got that brain fog, if we're waking up not rested, if we're dreading the next day and we keep pushing through, that grows and grows and grows and our body is going to make it so that we can't stop paying attention, like stop ignoring the signs.
And in my case, I mean, I'm a physical therapist. I was working like I had chronic pain, chronic pain to the point where I couldn't demonstrate some of the things I needed to do. And of course, being a health care provider, I didn't go to the doctor, I didn't treat it because I know what I'm supposed to do. I just had other preferences. I wanted to push through, muscle through. I wanted to be the top of my career. I loved that I was successful, I loved my lifestyle.
But the reality is I broke down. I literally had moments where I could not work.
And so that's what we want to avoid. We want to make sure that we're paying attention and that we're doing the things that are going to give us the rest and the restoration. And guess what folks, that means fun. It means what brings you joy. And I don't mean like, oh, playing with my kids brings me joy. Because the reality is, yes, that does too. But we have to have something that's just for us, that fills our cup, that we literally pepper into our day because some of us are health care providers and parents and taking care of other people. And we can't stop doing those things because we still have to provide for the family. And maybe we're a business owner, we have to take care of our teams. However, what we can do is we can work for 50 minutes, 55 minutes and build in a 5 minute respite every single hour. And what do we do with that? Well, if I'm feeling real tense and stressed out, I'm going to do a breathing technique. Maybe I'm going to do two or three minutes of box breathing. That's inhale four, hold four, exhale four, hold four or another regenerative breathing technique that's going to lower that anxiety level.
If I'm feeling drained, I'm going to do a movement minute. I might do squats, I might run in place and that will help up level my energy. And when we do this periodically throughout our day, what we're doing is those draining activities that we can't get out of. The things that maybe are obligations that we still have to do because of where we are in life or what our responsibilities are. What we're doing is we're surrounding those activities with things that are going to re energize our mind and body and fuel us. And so I have an action item. If you're, if you're feeling this and you're feeling this burnout to the core and you're thinking, gosh, I have to, I take care of the kids, I have to provide for the family, I'm a business owner, whatever that is, think about where do you have, even if it's two minutes, two to five minutes in each hour that you can take an action that's going to either limit your stress, bring it down, maybe it's going outside and just taking a couple of deep breaths, looking in the sunshine, or doing a dance party to your favorite song when nobody's looking. So you can get that energy up. What can you do? Create a menu for yourself to pull from that's going to kind of fill your cup a little bit, A little bit, a little bit throughout the day so that when it's time to shut down and go to your family life or whatever that looks like for you, you're able to still have some gas in the tank.
[00:21:48] Speaker A: That is really, really great insight. Honestly. I mean, I think I don't know a single person that probably can't relate to what you're saying, whether a busy professional, a parent.
I mean, clearly that really hits all of us at home a lot. And so you mentioned something. So what would have been if you had to tell somebody one thing to do, just one daily habit to protect their energy, what would it be?
[00:22:15] Speaker B: Well, if you're starting and you don't know where to start, because this is the truth. A lot of people, when I start coaching them, they have no idea what will bring them energy. They have no idea what they need because they've lost themselves in the roles that they play. Whether it's mom, dad, whether it's your healthcare practitioner, business owner, whatever roles you're playing, you've forgotten what that is. So the first place, if you have no idea where to start, is to start with a first in the morning check in. This doesn't have to take long. I do this every single day myself. My clients do this. When you first open your eyes and you're awake, it's the best time to do this. Do a check in with yourself.
How am I feeling?
Scan your body. Do I feel tension?
What do I feel when I first wake up?
And for me I'm like, why am I here? I Give gratitude. I'm above the ground, I'm not six feet under, so that's a win. So I give gratitude. I'm grateful for this day. Check in. Are you grateful for this day? What is that that you're grateful for?
Think about at least three things that you're grateful for so you can tune into that. The second thing that I do in my check in as I say, what is the one thing that I want to do today that's aligned with my purpose? I believe my purpose is to maximize impact and help people to live better lives.
So what am I going to do today that's going to be in alignment with that? And I make a commitment that I will do this one thing. Maybe it's I'm going to smile at the first person I see.
It could be that simple. Or maybe it's I'm going to be extra present with my grandchildren this morning. Whatever that is for you. What is the one thing that's going to tune into that? So how am I feeling? Check in. Gratitude. Why am I here? What is my purpose? Was the one thing I'm going to do today towards that.
And then the fourth one is the most important question. How am I going to have fun today? Which you may be thinking, man, this is woo, this is crazy. But let me tell you, if you don't think about having fun and inserting that into something that you do, you're doing it wrong. We're here to live life and experience life. We live life every day and we only die once. So that simple 60 seconds, it takes about 60 seconds. It's simple. 60 second check in is really good because it gets us in that positive mental attitude which keeps us motivated. It sparks that little motivation for us to get up and start that day even if we're feeling really drained.
[00:24:41] Speaker A: That's great. That is really fantastic information. And I think, I mean I myself, once we walk away from the show, I'm going to try to figure out a list for myself and implement some of this into my daily life.
Okay, Jen, can you just let us know maybe the viewers before we go to commercial. You know where people can download this burnout checklist or let us know, let us know your book's name and how people can get a hold of it. Maybe to read it.
[00:25:07] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. So I have an international best selling book. It's available on Amazon. You can get to get to it from my website. It's called Over My Dead Body the Art of Saying no.
And you can find
[email protected] or you can find it on Amazon by searching the title and my name. It literally has a step by step guide of how to set boundaries, how to reclaim your life, your time, your energy, energy and even bonus, it tells you how to say. It teaches you how to say no in a way that really builds relationships instead of breaking them down, which is one of the hardest things for us to do.
[00:25:39] Speaker A: Great. Thank you so much. All right, everybody, hang tight. We're going to be back to talk to Jen Moore about this whole burnout thing and more information.
Stick with us. We'll be right back with more real stories, real breakthroughs, and real lives transformed.
Welcome to Real Medicine real lives. I'm Dr. Yasser Sombal, and together we're showing medical expertise in a human way.
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Welcome back, everybody, to Real Medicine, Real Lives. We're here with Jen Godet.
Earlier, we've learned about burnout and how it sneaks up on you. Now we're going to flip the script on stress and Jen's going to teach us what she tells her clients. That stress can actually be an ally, not your enemy, if you know how to channel it. So let's dive into some simple rhythms, mindset shifts and even laughter hacks that turn draining tension into sustainable drive. Jen, welcome back.
[00:27:05] Speaker B: Thanks. I'm ready.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: All right.
I like the way this is kind of transitioned because I've actually used the line to people that anger can be a very productive tool if you use it correctly. And it can be very productive and not destructive if you know how to channel that anger and use it to what you need to get done. So tell us, what is the helpful stride of stress and how do we tap into that and make it beneficial to us?
[00:27:30] Speaker B: Yeah. So let's start with why do we have stress to begin with? Right. Well, stress is our body's reaction that is designed to keep us safe. So back in prehistoric times when we were just trying to survive, if a saber toothed tiger came running at us, stress kicked in. That's the fight or flight response. And it diverted all of our blood in circulation from our guts to our extremities so we could run like heck and get out of the way and survive and live another day.
So the actual stress response is helpful. It fuels us so that we can survive.
Now where does it turn into? Not so much of an ally is when we're dealing with chronic stress and we're not having that outlet. We're not when we're living in that fight or flight stage and not getting into that kind of rest and digest. Okay, so what we need isn't less stress.
It's actually smarter recovery. So let me give you another example. If you're an athlete, think about, you know, we're in the United States, it's about to be football season, you're Sunday, your athletes are there. Do you think they're at a 0 out of 10 in stress level? No. They are hyped up. They have to be having that performance stress level in that 4 to 6 out of 10 range that they can be up for the game. And they use those nerves. Like for some of them, it's nerves. They're nervous. For some of them, it's, oh my goodness, what happens if I don't succeed? Like, they take that and they turn that mental stress and strain that we all have. We all have inner critics, we all have things that happen that stress us out. But they take that and they fuel it. They channel it. If you watch them, they're like pumped up. They're moving their bodies before they go out onto the field.
That's using that stress as fuel. Okay, we have to get up for the game. What does this look like? In our daily life, we pump ourselves up so that we can get to work and so that we can serve. Like in healthcare, it's really important. We're face to face with clients. If we're 0 out of 10 on the stress scale, we're not getting out of bed.
So we want to use that stress to fuel our success.
But we also have to have an outlet.
So stress is natural. We're not designed to be in go mode 24 7. So we have to have recovery built in our schedule. So that same athlete, those pros at the end of the game, do you think they stay at that high level of being up for the game? No.
They have an outlet that's physical in nature. They go and they recover. Maybe it's a recovery meal, Maybe they take a nap. Every athlete's a little bit different with how they come down from that, but they use that stress to get their physical activity done, to push through limits that most humans can't even push through and then they recover.
So I'm going to challenge you to think about where you're stressed out or where you're having stress. And let's look at it a little bit differently. Okay. I have this anxiety. I'm. I need a release for it. So there's two different ways we can release that high level of stress. Maybe anxiety is like a 8, 9 and 10 on the stress scale out of 10 if you want to just put a simple scale to it. And so if you're the kind of person that when you're there, you have this nervous energy, go for a walk outdoors in the fresh air. If you've got kids and you're like, yeah, that's fine, but I got kids, great, take them with you, Take them with you. Get outdoors and move. Burn that energy off and allow yourself to get into stress. And I mean rest and digest mode.
So we want to make sure that we're able to eliminate that. If we're the kind of person where we're super stressed and super tense, but we just need to breathe, then find an activity that's repetitive nature. It could also be a walk, but it's at a slow pace and it's meditative. It might also be doing prayer or yoga or something that's very slow and intentional so that you're bringing yourself down. But figure out what that is for you and how you're going to use that fuel to get you to, through, to and through your recovery so that you can reset that clock. Because when we do that, that's how we're utilizing stress as fuel really, in order to get through our days.
[00:31:46] Speaker A: So that's great. Going back to your point when you talked about, you know, journaling things, for example, going to sleep. So how is it, for example, identifying your stressors and being loud about it and speaking it out, how does that help you?
[00:32:00] Speaker B: Well, we have to be aware. So I'm a coach and one of the most important things we know when we think about behavior is that if we're not aware of something, then we can't even begin the process to change our behavior or to change, change our mindset. And so by speaking out what that is and being aware of what that is and sharing that with another person, what we're doing is we're having self awareness and we're actually speaking it into existence as this is what it is. I recognize it for what it is. And what I would rather have happen would be.
And so what you're doing is you're calling it out.
It's natural for us to call this out. Call it out, know what it is. If you've got, if you're feeling, if you're feeling anxiety, if you're feeling, you know, burnout or any of these things, recognize it, be aware of it, and then ask yourself, great, who am I going to share this with and have somebody to bounce this off for? This is why people reach out to me as a coach. Like, it's really hard for us to see this. I have a coach, I actually have multiple coaches.
But when you have someone, a human, and P.S. it's not our spouse, it can never be our spouse. It's not somebody who really loves us because they're not going to be honest with us. They're going to say the thing that they want to help us, that they think they're helping us. But a lot of times they enable the behavior. So you need somebody who's going to be brutally honest and be your mirror and call it out to you so that you get that awareness and you can work through and have that accountability to shift into the okay, this is something that causes me stress. What am I going to do to release it and helps you kind of mitigate through that behavioral change? Because that is really what we are talking about here. When we are turning stress into fuel, we are changing the behavior. Instead of making stress a negative, we are shifting it to a positive mindset and we are utilizing it in a different way. And it doesn't happen overnight. We don't just. It doesn't just we think it and it happens. We speak it to someone else and then we replace that with what is the next action? What am I going to do instead? Am I going to perseverate on. I'm stressed out, I'm stressed out. That's only going to make it worse. No, we're going to break the cycle. I call it a pattern interrupt and we're going to lean on someone else. Another human being can be chatgpt. If you're like really introverted and want something else, but you need an accountability partner that'll help you to shift that thinking and shift into this is the activity I'm going to do to reduce.
[00:34:23] Speaker A: My stress, that's great. And I completely agree with you. I mean, I went through a tough transition in my life a few years ago and it made me actually seek professional help and I wanted somebody to talk to outside of family. And friends, because they are always going to tell you what you want to hear, but sometimes they don't tell you what you need to hear. And I think, you know, here I am five or six years later, I continue to do it even though I'm better, but, but I just continue to do it because I feel like it gives me peace of mind and it helps me, you know, have some clarity on things when I talk about it. So I completely agree with you.
So that's maybe one thing you talked about, but what about other things? For example, finding, you know, I had a friend that tells me if you can turn the music on and sing, it's still a good day. Right. So how does music or laughing or you know, things that generate chemicals in your body that make you feel good and kind of over overcome stress.
[00:35:16] Speaker B: Yeah. So we've already talked about getting outside. Vitamin fresh air. Sunshine and movement are excellent because they produce all those feel good chemicals as well. Well, but laughter, laughter is literally the best medicine because if we're perseverating or we keep thinking in this loop pattern and we're in this stress pattern, all we need to do is find something that gives us that deep belly laugh. Because laughter also produces the same results.
And so for me personally, I like ridiculous kitten videos or puppy videos or like babies laughing. Babies laughing always makes me laugh. But think about what is it that you could do that can get that laughter response?
For me, tickling my grandson and him just giggling, that always creates laughter. Well, the good thing about laughter is you're increasing your breath rate. You're getting that feel good. You're getting that shift in your mindset which is kind of like that pattern interrupt. It's pressing that reset button so that you can decrease the stress level and continue to move forward. So when you feel that stress, call it out, acknowledge it, be aware of it. Pattern interrupt. Press pause. Your body wants you to have a reset. So what are you going to do? Maybe I'm going to watch videos of babies laughing or what that would be for you? Or maybe I'm going to dance like nobody's looking. That's my other secret power. I love music, so I dance like I'm up in the club when nobody can see. And it always makes me feel amazing because it's movement and it's, it's, it's literally a reset button for you. You know, stepping outside. No phone, no noise, two minutes, just you. Air sunshine can be your game changer. Pick that thing and commit today. If you take no other action when you start feeling really burned out or really stressed out, pick that thing that's going to help shift your mood and re energize you. Have you laughing, change your, change your physiology or your space in order to change your psychology and enjoy the benefits.
[00:37:20] Speaker A: Jen, that was, that was fantastic. I mean, really. I mean, so just to kind of remind people who may have joined us late, where can they find you to grab, you know, information about you and maybe speak with you if they need it?
[00:37:32] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. My website is jengodaycoaching.com, j e n g a u d e t coaching dot com. You can reach me there. My book is there. You can scroll down. It's all about setting boundaries and finding the joy in your life. But LinkedIn is a really good place. LinkedIn and Facebook. I'm on both of those social medias and I actually respond to my DMs, not a robot.
So those are great places to catch me as well.
I am more than happy to have a conversation because this is, this is important. And when we shift our stress and use it as fuel, we're able to do amazing things in the world and truly reclaim our time and energy.
[00:38:10] Speaker A: Thank you. All right, everybody, hang on. We're still going to talk more with Jen about this whole, this whole burnout topic. I think this is amazing information, so don't go anywhere. We'll be right back after this commercial. Stick with us. We'll be right back with more real stories, real breakthroughs and real lives transformed.
Welcome to Real Medicine real lives. I'm Dr. Yasser Sombal and together we're still showing medical expertise in a human way.
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Okay guys, we're back on our last segment here today with Jen Go Day. And this is probably going to be the most life saving conversation yet. Your body whispers long before it screams. But in our busy world, those whispers get drowned out. Jen is here to teach us 5 minute body scan habits that catches trouble early and keeps high performers on their game.
All right, Jen, let's dive right into this so you know people.
I mean, I hear this all the time from patients, family members, etc. All these kind of my minor complaints all the time. You know, things that, obviously, I'm a cardiologist, so I don't have the answer for them. And some of the things I'm like, well, this just seems normal to me. So tell us how certain things like a stomach ache, a joint pain, things like that may be a trigger that you're burnt out and you're stressed.
[00:39:57] Speaker B: Yeah. So first things first.
It's about trends. If you wake up one day and you've got a stomachache, you might not think too much about it, but if you find that you're having a stomachache every day, before you do a certain activity or before you do a certain thing, there's a trend.
So when we think about scanning our body, really what we're doing is we're getting in tune and listening to our body cues. Sometimes they're feelings. We talked about the irritability earlier. We talked about not feeling rested when we first wake up. And those are signs of maybe burnout or chronic stress.
But it's when we start to have trends, and when we do our scan and we start to notice on a regular basis that certain symptoms are occurring, we can ignore it. And I'm going to use an example. Right. I'm a physical therapist by trade. I retired in 2017. But one of the most common things I saw was rotator cuff tear in athletes, overhead athletes. Why?
Because athletes push through the pain and we want to keep performing and. Oh, it's nothing. I'm just sore from a workout. I'm just sore from a workout. Yeah. So we're ignoring the little signs. Oh, it's a little discomfort when I do this is a little discomfort. Well, if I'm having a little discomfort for a week or two, that's not normal in our muscles. Like, having a pain that is not going away after a few days, that's something to take notice of physically in our body. And the same thing occurs, like if we treat it or we catch it when it's just inflammation in our shoulder, for example, if we catch it when it's just inflammation and it's just irritation or tendonitis, what do we do? Well, we avoid overhead activity so we can rest it, allow the inflammation to go out. There's different treatments that we can do.
We go to our therapist, we go to our chiropractor, we go to our. Like there's treatments for that so that we can restore normal before we resume. But what often happens is we don't take those actions. We don't figure out and get to the root cause. And then all of a sudden, we now have a rotator cuff tear, and maybe it's a complete tear. And the only treatment is surgery. Nobody wants that, especially not an athlete. So I encourage you every day, and some people do this in the morning and some people do this in the evening. But I really want to encourage you to get in tune with your physical body, because stress leaves clues.
Some of the things we have is a lot of people have acid reflux.
They are indigestion. Like, they feel that. And if you're feeling that and you're feeling that day after day after day after day, and you're like popping Tums or whatever it is, stop.
You have a problem. That's your body giving you clues that there's something wrong. It could be stress or it could be something medically wrong. If it's going on and it's a trend and you're noticing this in your body scan day after day after day after day, you must pay attention to it. Because what happens is our body will break down.
Our body will break down. If we don't listen to the little. Hey, hey, 10 times it's telling us it's tapping on us on the shoulder, then it's going to knock us out, it's going to punch us in the face, and we're going to be down and out for the counts.
So when you do your body scan, what you want to do is you want to just kind of close your eyes. It's really easy if you close your eyes and you take a couple deep breaths to focus on your body. And then what I love to do is I love to start from my toes, and just where am I feeling tight from my toes, my feet, my calves, all the way progressively up my body, my low back, my neck, my. My shoulders. And I notice. This is about noticing, do I have tension anywhere? Do I have tightness anywhere? Do I have pain anywhere?
And getting curious about that and just tracking it, right? So if I have. If I have tension in my neck for 11 days straight, hey, that's my body telling me there's something wrong and maybe I'm carrying stress there. So we want to be paying attention to those aches, those pains, the little things. When we do our body scan throughout, and when we see a trend where it's continuing and it's been five, six, seven days, it's time to say, okay, something is causing this. And get to the root cause. It's very important because that can save your life. Let's be honest, a lot of times we ignore little things. Oh, my feet are swelling. My feet are swelling at the end of the day every day. That's just normal.
No, it really isn't normal for us to have swollen feet every single day and pain every single day. There's something else going on. It might be medical, it might be.
There's a lot of different causes and I'm not going to go into all of that, but there's something wrong. If we have a trend where this is continuing to happen and if we address it, and Dr. Sambal, you and I have talked about this on my TV show. If we address it early, we're able to correct it or keep it from progressing. And it could, it could be the difference between, you know, life and death in a lot of cases.
[00:44:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I agree. So, so give us an example. You know, a tiny symptom that could, if you actually recognize it, could prevent, you know, a bigger health problem. On the same token, now that you brought that up and I mentioned, you know, how people ask me about non specific things, I mean, how do you, how do you bring that up to a healthcare provider without feeling silly and actually maybe being taken seriously?
[00:45:18] Speaker B: Well, you know, I'm, I'm gonna use, I'm gonna use brain fog as an example. And I'm in this stage of life.
Any women who are in perimenopause or menopause, like brain fog is one of the symptoms. And so we're like, we're going through a lot of changes and not noticing it and not scanning in.
You may think it's not that big of a deal, but if you don't take care of some of these things, you may have, you may be waiting and you may get to the point where you can't remember things. You may think you have other issues than what you do. And so, you know, personally, when I, when I, when I think about what, what to pay attention to is anything that is out of the norm or it, you know, pain is not normal, I'm just gonna be real. Pain is not normal. Anything that's out of the norm, it's not just an annoyance, it's a communication.
And, you know, I think it's really important to say here that in women especially, we have a lot of symptoms, that a lot of times we're afraid to go to the doctor and share.
You know, we have like gut issues or whatever that is. And a lot of times, it could be the change in life or whatever. And what we have traditionally been told is that's nothing.
It's not a very big deal. And so we stop wanting to bring it up. I'm here to tell you that you are the person who is your greatest asset to advocate for yourself.
And as a woman and a prior healthcare provider, one of the things that I had a lot of internal intestinal issues like, like reflux and stuff, it was guilt.
I literally had guilt if I took care of myself instead of spending extra time with my. My child or spending extra hours at the clinic. Like, guilt can eat you alive. And so when. When you go to your physician, if you're having, I don't know, reflux or any of these symptoms, and it's out of the norm for you, you have to be very direct.
Write it down. I write. I will write things down because it's uncomfortable for me to talk, to talk about certain things. Like, I was a healthcare provider. I should be everything. I should know everything. Like, we're the worst patients. But I would write down the things and the trends. You know, I never had this until this point in time. What can I do about it, and how can I address it? And if they brush us off, it's saying, listen, you're my trusted provider. Who can I go to if not you?
What are the resources that I have? And it's up to us to advocate. So I think it's really important we body scan, we keep tabs on that. And when we see something that's ongoing, that's out of the ordinary, we have to say, this is out of the ordinary. I'm going to give you another example. I have very low blood pressure all the time.
I don't feel pain the same way other people do. So I was on the soccer field and I blew my ACL and as an adult, and I didn't feel pain.
And I had surgery, and I, like, I didn't feel pain after, but I had a blood clot. Well, what was my only symptom? My blood pressure was through the roof. I'm always cold. I was really hot. I went to the emergency room, and they're like, it's nothing. Your blood pressure is normal. It was like 120 over or something. But my. My blood pressure runs in the 89 to 90 range, and I know that. So I had to articulate. No, there was something very wrong.
And so we got to the end of it. But you have to articulate what's normal for you. And if you don't know what that is, then it's very hard for us to articulate that to our healthcare professionals. I hope that answers your question.
[00:48:48] Speaker A: Oh, that's great actually. And it makes sense. And so just to re emphasize what you're saying is basically you are your biggest advocate. And so regardless of how silly it is, regardless of how, you know, stupid you may think it is, or you think somebody's going to take it, if it's concerning to you, you need to make sure you get to the bottom it and get the answers that you need.
So, so just on that same notion, how does somebody pause for a second and say, you know, I got to recognize what's going on without feeling guilty about taking a step back and slowing down?
[00:49:22] Speaker B: Yeah. So it's not something that's easy for any of us who are feeling that kind of guilt.
But the reality is, is we have no reason to feel guilt over taking care of ourselves because if we don't pause and take care of ourselves, if something happens to us, we can't be good for anyone else. So the reality is, if we ignore these little symptoms or if we feel guilty and we don't want to take that time for ourselves, what happens if all of a sudden I didn't go to that ER because I was having these symptoms and I threw that clot, I would be dead.
A clot is a, it's a life threatening situation. I was hospitalized for days after finding that because it was, I had other complications as well. But, you know, we cannot allow that feeling of guilt or what if to get in our way because we have to look at who am I here for. I'm here for my children, I'm here for my patients, I'm here for my team members, I'm here for other people and I'm no good to anyone if I go down. And so if you're feeling guilt, it is definitely something to work through. Seek a professional. There's different ways to do this. You can do this through coaching, you can do this through therapy. There's different things that you can do to work through guilt depending on whether it's trauma based or it's, you're a high performer like me and everything is always my fault.
You know that health is not a luxury. Health is strategic. It's necessary. And in order for us to show up in every, every way in life, for everything that we do, for every role and for every person, we must take care of ourselves first.
[00:50:59] Speaker A: Jen, thank you so much. I mean, this was really, really a great topic. And like I said at the beginning, this, this really resonated with me, even as an individual and as a busy professional. So.
But thank you so much for explaining all this and just to kind of remind anybody, I mean, obviously, clearly a daily body scan is really, really important and they should definitely reach out to you on your LinkedIn. You know, you mentioned that you answer those, answer those messages directly.
I'm for sure going to buy your book and check it out and read it myself. So I'm excited to get into this. So thank you so much for joining us today.
[00:51:34] Speaker B: Absolutely. Thank you.
[00:51:36] Speaker A: All right, everybody. So from redefining success or spotting hitting burnout or harnessing stress chemistry to honoring the body's quiet signals, today's conversation reminds us that peak performance and vibrant health are not opposites, they're actually partners.
So if you heard one idea that lit a spark today, write it down, schedule it, repeat it tomorrow. Small, consistent moves are much better than, you know, trying to make massive overhauls over time. But small, consistent moves add up over time. A heartfelt thank you to Jen for sharing science, fact, strategies and hard won wisdom that empower us to thrive without trade offs. And to you, our viewers, your health is the greatest part of your asset in your portfolio. Guard it, grow it, and never apologize for prioritizing it. I'm Dr. Yasser Sombol. This is real medicine, real lives. Until we meet again. Listen to your body, keep leading with purpose, and remember, real medicine lives in the daily choices we make. Stay well, stay curious, and we'll see you next time.
