We talk a lot about relationships on this podcast.
But what if the relationship that needs the most healing… is the one you have with your own body?
In this episode, Kate sits down with naturopathic doctor and women’s health expert Dr. Sonya Jensen, author of Heal Your Hormones and Reclaim Yourself, to explore the powerful connection between hormonal health and the way we show up in love.
Because hormones don’t just affect your cycle.
They impact your mood.
Your libido.
Your energy.
Your patience.
Your capacity to communicate.
Your ability to feel safe, open, and connected.
And so many women are navigating burnout, anxiety, irritability, or emotional shutdown - without realizing their bodies are under chronic stress.
Together, Kate and Dr. Sonya unpack:
• how stress and over-functioning disrupt hormonal balance
• why high-achieving women are especially vulnerable to depletion
• the link between cortisol, nervous system regulation, and intimacy
• how to support your hormones naturally
• and why healing your body changes the way you relate to your partner
This conversation is both science-forward and deeply empowering.
Because when you heal your hormones, you don’t just feel better physically.
You become more present.
More grounded.
More receptive.
More you.
And that transforms your relationships.
If you’ve been feeling “off,” reactive, exhausted, or disconnected - this episode will help you understand what’s really happening beneath the surface.
Your body isn’t sabotaging your relationship.
She may just be asking for support.
About the Guest:
Dr. Sonya Jensen is a Naturopathic Physician, international speaker, author, and embodied healer who guides women to reclaim their power through hormonal wisdom, emotional depth, and ancestral healing.
From her roots in cell biology and naturopathic medicine to her practice alongside her husband, she integrates trauma-informed modalities, herbs, nutrition, hormone therapy, longevity medicine, and nervous system support to address the unseen patterns behind hormonal imbalance.
As founder of the HER Method and the HER Community, Sonya helps women decode the stories their bodies are telling—from stress, emotion, and generational trauma— to transform relationships, fertility, perimenopause, and life’s transitions. Her work has reached audiences around the world through workshops, retreats, podcasts, and stages.
Links:
https://www.drsonyajensen.com/
https://www.instagram.com/drsonyajensen
About the Host:
Kate Harlow is the founder of The Unscriptd Woman, the creator of The Expanded Love Coaching Method, and host of The New Truth podcast - ranked in the top 1.5% globally. With over 15 years of experience teaching, coaching and facilitating transformational retreats worldwide, Kate has helped hundreds of thousands of women break free from outdated relational patterns, old patriarchal ways of thinking and unspoken rules to live by.
Her infallible methods guide women to release the deeply ingrained scripts that keep them stuck- empowering women to step into their highest, most magnetic, and fully expressed selves. Through her coaching, retreats, podcast and upcoming book The Unscriptd Woman, Kate is redefining what it means to be an empowered woman in today's world, showing women how to stop waiting for permission and start creating a life and love that aligns with their deepest truth.
Known for her rare ability to see exactly where women are out of alignment with themselves, Kate offers a path back to unwavering self- trust, meaningful joy and true fulfillment. Her work is a revolution - one that liberates women from societal expectations and invites them into a life of radical authenticity, thriving relationships and unshakable self-worth.
Website: https://www.theunscriptdwoman.com/
The Immersion in Corfu, Greece April 26- May 3, 2026 https://www.theunscriptdwoman.com/the-immersion
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Dr. Sonya Jensen: So in this particular book, I created these
Speaker:three different archetypes where you can look to see where you
Speaker:sit with your hormonal identity. So are you like the anxious
Speaker:overachiever right now? Are you the silent struggler, or are
Speaker:you, you know, a perfectionist that's having to pay like a
Speaker:greater price because of that perfectionism? And once you
Speaker:start to understand where you're at, then you know what type of
Speaker:movement you need. So an anxious overachiever, if I tell her to
Speaker:do yin yoga, that's not going to go really well, because she's so
Speaker:in her mind. So she probably needs to lift weights first, to
Speaker:get grounded in her body, and then bring in a few minutes of
Speaker:shavasana, or legs up against the wall, or something that will
Speaker:give her a glimpse of what that can feel like. We know she needs
Speaker:the opposite. We know she needs a restorative and the Yin, but
Speaker:she will get there once she can access that connection with her
Speaker:body. So that's where it comes down to even understanding
Speaker:yourself, where you're at, and what type of movement is going
Speaker:to actually bring you that nourishment that you need.
Kate Harlow:Hello, beautiful. I am so excited for you to hear
Kate Harlow:this conversation with Dr Sonya, who I had on the podcast just
Kate Harlow:over a year ago. She is my naturopathic doctor in
Kate Harlow:Vancouver, and she's an incredibly powerful advocate for
Kate Harlow:women all around healing their hormones and her well, she's
Kate Harlow:actually just written her second book called heal your hormones.
Kate Harlow:Reclaim yourself. How aligned reclaim yourself? So she is a
Kate Harlow:naturopathic doctor, international speaker, author,
Kate Harlow:embodied healer, who guides women to reclaim their power
Kate Harlow:through hormonal wisdom, emotional depth and ancestral
Kate Harlow:healing. She's really the full meal deal the embodiment of
Kate Harlow:being a woman who's in alignment with what phase in life she's
Kate Harlow:in, and helping women understand their bodies on a deeper level
Kate Harlow:and their hormones and how it affects relationships. So this
Kate Harlow:conversation is so powerful, and we really unpack the impact of
Kate Harlow:where we're at in our hormonal cycles and our cycles as women
Kate Harlow:in relationships. So really, really powerful conversation.
Kate Harlow:Enjoy it. Spread it to all the women you know who need to hear
Kate Harlow:this message, and I'll see you soon.
Kate Harlow:Hello, beautiful. Welcome back to the new truth. I am so
Kate Harlow:excited for this conversation. You are here one year later.
Kate Harlow:Welcome back. Dr Sonya, has it been a year? It's been just over
Kate Harlow:a year. Because, guess what? Last year you were you were
Kate Harlow:January, 1 episode. That's right, you're right. Has been
Kate Harlow:almost a year. Yeah, and I still talk about our conversation with
Kate Harlow:many women and ask them to listen to it. It just felt like
Kate Harlow:one of those really heartfelt conversations that everyone
Kate Harlow:needs to hear. So yeah, thank you. I just didn't realize it's
Kate Harlow:been almost a year. Wow, no, over a year. Because now, okay,
Kate Harlow:not yet, because we're recording this early, but when this
Kate Harlow:releases, it will be February, and we had us. I think I feel
Kate Harlow:like it came out New Year's Day, or maybe it was New Year's Eve.
Kate Harlow:It was like right around the cusp, and it was such a powerful
Kate Harlow:conversation. So for those of you who haven't listened to our
Kate Harlow:New Year's episode last year, 2025,
Kate Harlow:New Year's, I should have checked but anyways, you can do
Kate Harlow:the research yourself. It's whatever episode comes around
Kate Harlow:the new year. And I think I feel like we called it New year, new
Kate Harlow:you, or something like that, and we talked a lot about
Kate Harlow:perimenopause and menopause, and just all of I feel like there's
Kate Harlow:so much more awareness around the hormone conversations
Kate Harlow:starting to happen. But isn't it wild that, you know, it's only
Kate Harlow:starting to happen?
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: No, and I really feel for the generation
Kate Harlow:before us, because they didn't have these voices and these
Kate Harlow:platforms to talk about these things. And I'm just so glad
Kate Harlow:we're doing it for the next generation. I feel like it's
Kate Harlow:going to be so much easier for them,
Kate Harlow:so much easier. I'm actually spreading, spreading
Kate Harlow:the news over here in Kenya, I've talked to some women that
Kate Harlow:have no idea, and just talking about, like, having
Kate Harlow:conversations about how even that thing I can't I don't know
Kate Harlow:who talked about it first, but the the conversation about how
Kate Harlow:we've been educated, I think a lot of health practitioners are
Kate Harlow:talking about it now, but how we've been educated? Well, the
Kate Harlow:health industry studied men, we probably talked about this last
Kate Harlow:time, and how women are so misunderstood and so confused
Kate Harlow:about our cyclical nature, and we're here trying to work in the
Kate Harlow:corporate world, but we're not designed to work the same every
Kate Harlow:single day. And how so many women have crazy energy levels,
Kate Harlow:and that's the conversation I often find myself in with women
Kate Harlow:just letting informing them. And it's surprising how many women
Kate Harlow:just still don't know this that like, oh yeah. They know we're
Kate Harlow:different, but yeah, they haven't heard people talk about
Kate Harlow:it yet.
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: Yeah. And you know, you just trust what the
Kate Harlow:doctor is giving you. You trust what people are telling you that
Kate Harlow:are doing the research. But when you start to realize that
Kate Harlow:research was only done on men, even when it comes to men.
Kate Harlow:Menopausal research or hormones, they're looking at male rats, or
Kate Harlow:they're looking at men, because of our cyclical nature and how
Kate Harlow:quote, unquote complicated our hormones are. It's been
Kate Harlow:difficult to look at these studies, but now the
Kate Harlow:conversation is happening. Now there's more money going into
Kate Harlow:that research too, so there will be more data that will be
Kate Harlow:applicable to us women, including medication. We've been
Kate Harlow:overmedicated because of the dosing is meant for men rather
Kate Harlow:than women. So when you take into a woman's frame, her
Kate Harlow:hormones, her cyclical nature, her weight, everything should be
Kate Harlow:adjusted just like we do adjust for children when it comes to
Kate Harlow:giving them medications, but that hasn't really been done
Kate Harlow:when it comes to women. So I think creating these
Kate Harlow:conversations and having these conversations will allow women
Kate Harlow:to have more discernment and tap into that intuition again, of
Kate Harlow:like, something doesn't feel right here. So I'm really happy
Kate Harlow:remembering who we are, isn't it wild? We've just
Kate Harlow:been lost, and we're finding ourselves again, though we're on
Kate Harlow:our way back, sir, come back. Come back time. That's right,
Kate Harlow:yeah. And also the conversation about, you know, with feminism,
Kate Harlow:like Thank Thank God. Thank Goddess for my, my, my friend,
Kate Harlow:who has a PhD in goddess mythology always says, thank
Kate Harlow:Goddess. Thank Goddess for all of the women before us who did
Kate Harlow:shatter glass ceilings to for us to have rights and to be able to
Kate Harlow:be where we are today. And the next level is reclaiming what
Kate Harlow:was lost in the becoming men for a little while, strapping on Man
Kate Harlow:suits to try and to shatter glass ceilings, and now I feel
Kate Harlow:like the next level of maybe we're not even calling it
Kate Harlow:feminism, I don't know, but the next level of in is integration,
Kate Harlow:of reclaiming all the parts of us that are lost, which, I guess
Kate Harlow:that's your book, reclaim yourself, heal your hormones and
Kate Harlow:reclaim yourself.
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: Yeah, that's really what it is. It's
Kate Harlow:reclaiming those parts that have been either shut down or lost or
Kate Harlow:forgotten, that we know we have internally, and often we feel
Kate Harlow:that internal struggle, but can't put words to it, or don't
Kate Harlow:understand what's going on when we're trying to do that nine to
Kate Harlow:five every single day and trying to raise families, trying to do
Kate Harlow:it all, and yet, we're not meant to act in the way that men do,
Kate Harlow:because their hormonal story is different, their physicality is
Kate Harlow:different, their the way their brain works is so different. And
Kate Harlow:so the more we understand ourselves, the better decisions
Kate Harlow:we can make for ourselves, for our health, for mental health,
Kate Harlow:emotional and even relationship health, totally.
Kate Harlow:And then I think the Kinder we can be to
Kate Harlow:ourselves, like the more women understand. I just think of how
Kate Harlow:many women you know before even hearing this conversation, and
Kate Harlow:conversations like these, are just beating themselves up
Kate Harlow:because they're hanging by a thread, trying to keep it all
Kate Harlow:together, trying to work and raise kids and do all these 10
Kate Harlow:million things at once and and beating themselves up because
Kate Harlow:they don't have the capacity,
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: yeah, to keep up in a man's world. And, you
Kate Harlow:know, I catch myself doing that even with my husband, and maybe
Kate Harlow:there's a competitive nature there, or whatever is going on.
Kate Harlow:It could even be, you know, fasting, for example, when we
Kate Harlow:first started fasting, he would do these long fast for like,
Kate Harlow:seven days. And I'm like, why can't I do what he can do? And I
Kate Harlow:beat myself up for it, or he would do a cold plunge and do it
Kate Harlow:for longer, and he'd do all these things. And you know, when
Kate Harlow:I started to sit down with myself, I'm like, Well, I'm not
Kate Harlow:a I had just given birth at that time when we started fasting, I
Kate Harlow:was two years in postpartum and still nursing, and there's all
Kate Harlow:these things are going on in my body that's trying to reset
Kate Harlow:itself, whereas he didn't have that same experience. So of
Kate Harlow:course, it's going to be different. So I think if we stop
Kate Harlow:trying to fit ourselves into these little boxes that society
Kate Harlow:has laid out for us, and we start really bursting out of
Kate Harlow:them and understanding who we are, we can then reclaim those
Kate Harlow:parts that have been tucked away for so long.
Kate Harlow:Yes, oh my God, hallelujah. Ditch the boxes.
Kate Harlow:Ditch the script. This podcast is so much about dating and
Kate Harlow:relationships and love, but I don't talk about marriage that
Kate Harlow:much. And so I feel so happy that we're doing this episode
Kate Harlow:for all the married women that listen to the new truth and and
Kate Harlow:I love that. You so. Dr, Sonia was just telling me a story, and
Kate Harlow:she's she used the word we say we saved their marriage. And I
Kate Harlow:was like, best secret to saving your marriage. So do you want to
Kate Harlow:share that story? And we'll start there.
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: Yeah, absolutely. So this was years
Kate Harlow:ago, back in 2012 is when I really started diving into
Kate Harlow:hormone health. We had a mentorship with an OB GYN, and
Kate Harlow:we were really starting to understand how hormones do frame
Kate Harlow:everything in our health.
Kate Harlow:And we as your husband, your husband nicking
Kate Harlow:you, yeah, yes, yeah, yeah.
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: So we started. Diving in. So then naturally, we
Kate Harlow:started treating more individuals for their Hormonal
Kate Harlow:Health. So we were treating this couple, and I was working with a
Kate Harlow:woman, the wife, and he was working with her partner, and we
Kate Harlow:did our thing. We got them on hormones, we did some detoxing,
Kate Harlow:we helped support them, and all the ways that we could, we did
Kate Harlow:dive into the emotional stories. But I have to say, at that point
Kate Harlow:in my career and even in my own journey, I couldn't take women
Kate Harlow:as far as I can today because I wasn't there yet. So I took her
Kate Harlow:as far as I could and then referred her out for some
Kate Harlow:counseling. And a few months later, a friend of theirs comes
Kate Harlow:to the clinic and wants to do some IV therapy, so I'm putting
Kate Harlow:his IV in, and all of a sudden he's like, just pauses and looks
Kate Harlow:at me and he says, Do you realize the two of you saved a
Kate Harlow:marriage? And I just stopped like, Well, what do you mean
Kate Harlow:that couple that came to you, they were at the brink of
Kate Harlow:divorce, and after working with you, something shifted,
Kate Harlow:something changed in the relationship, and they were able
Kate Harlow:to find themselves and then each other again. And that is when
Kate Harlow:there was a huge light bulb that went off in my mind of, okay,
Kate Harlow:there's this huge link between our physical health, especially
Kate Harlow:our hormones, and how we feel and how we perceive our life,
Kate Harlow:how we perceive our partners how we perceive ourselves. And so if
Kate Harlow:our physical health is influenced by stress and toxins,
Kate Harlow:all these things, our relationship also will be
Kate Harlow:influenced by those same things, because those decisions and the
Kate Harlow:actions that we're taking are based off of how we feel. And so
Kate Harlow:that really changed everything for me in how I communicate with
Kate Harlow:my patients, and the things that we tap into when it comes to
Kate Harlow:their Hormonal Health always translates into their
Kate Harlow:relationships with themselves or with their children, their
Kate Harlow:partners, with a colleague, getting that voice back or that
Kate Harlow:courage back to speak up, speak up for themselves at their
Kate Harlow:workplace. So it's all so interconnected. And, yeah,
Kate Harlow:that's where that title came from. How to save a marriage.
Kate Harlow:You saved a marriage. How crazy is that?
Kate Harlow:It's like, not a therapist, not a, you know, marriage counselor,
Kate Harlow:whatever. It's so cool. And I just think, how many women,
Kate Harlow:especially like what? What age do you sit? Would you say that
Kate Harlow:our hormones affect, start to affect our relationships
Unknown:and our lives. Yeah, so it's amazing, we're always
Unknown:affected. There's actually a lot of
Unknown:Dr. Sonya Jensen: absolutely so a lot of research done on even
Unknown:like women that are on birth control pills, and how that
Unknown:changes your perception of your partner and who you attract. So
Unknown:women on birth control, we look for different traits than women
Unknown:off of birth control. So that's the initial phase.
Kate Harlow:Yeah. Can you explain the science behind
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: that a little bit? Yeah. So there's a great
Kate Harlow:book, actually called your brain on birth control, by Dr Sarah
Kate Harlow:Hill, which I would definitely put into your notes for everyone
Kate Harlow:to read. She goes into a lot of research around birth control,
Kate Harlow:and there was one experiment that they did with women on
Kate Harlow:versus off, and they would show them pictures of their partners,
Kate Harlow:for example. That was one study where they see pictures of their
Kate Harlow:partners, and there's different parts of your brain that would
Kate Harlow:light up when you saw that picture. And for the women that
Kate Harlow:were on birth control, nothing would really happen. There would
Kate Harlow:be this, like numbness in their reaction to their partners, even
Kate Harlow:though they've been with them for a while, and healthy
Kate Harlow:relationships. Whereas the women off of birth control, there
Kate Harlow:would be this change in their like emotional center and their
Kate Harlow:their center, where they feel excited. And none of that was
Kate Harlow:happening with women on birth control. The other thing they
Kate Harlow:noticed was that women on birth control look for more feminine
Kate Harlow:traits in their partners, because the change that happens
Kate Harlow:in your brain due to the type of birth control you're taking will
Kate Harlow:change your perception. Women off of birth control were
Kate Harlow:looking for features that are quote, unquote more manly and
Kate Harlow:like even the smell that they were looking for was different
Kate Harlow:than women on birth control.
Kate Harlow:So I've heard that piece about smell before, that
Kate Harlow:when you're actually okay, I want to say furtively, but I
Kate Harlow:don't think that's a word, compatible with someone when
Kate Harlow:you're compatible for till, like your your sperm and eggs are
Kate Harlow:compatible. Like something about the pheromones, yeah, when you
Kate Harlow:love the smell of someone, but if you're on birth control, it
Kate Harlow:distorts your ability to smell. Yes, when you are not. So you
Kate Harlow:kind of discernment if this is at because they see this is what
Kate Harlow:the study was. I think my friend told me this it where you're,
Kate Harlow:what's the word? Is it like, not vertical, but like you're more
Kate Harlow:compatible for me,
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: compatible, yeah? Compatibility.
Kate Harlow:Mean, I kind of like vertebral I think we should
Kate Harlow:just make that a word. I mean, who decides what words are?
Kate Harlow:You're more affordable with someone if you, if you, if you
Kate Harlow:love the smell of them, not cologne, not you know, but like
Kate Harlow:their flower, you know, their soap or whatever, but, but
Kate Harlow:actually they're raw, rugged smell. But then, if you're on
Kate Harlow:birth control, it distorts it.
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: It distorts it. And so there are women that
Kate Harlow:will come off of birth control, example, Exhibit A right here
Kate Harlow:where my whole perception on my ex husband changed when I went
Kate Harlow:off of birth control. I can stand his smell. And so I know
Kate Harlow:that as like and of one experiment on myself, that that
Kate Harlow:is absolutely true, and it does take away that discernment, so
Kate Harlow:you make different choices. However, internally, when
Kate Harlow:conception is happening, the egg itself releases chemicals to
Kate Harlow:test the sperm, so the sperm often will not pass the test if
Kate Harlow:there isn't that connection with the pheromones, because that is
Kate Harlow:the test of like, Will this be a good mate? Will this be a good
Kate Harlow:father? Will this be someone that can provide security and
Kate Harlow:all those things and all that's happening chemically, and if we
Kate Harlow:don't, when we're on birth control, that gets a bit shunted
Kate Harlow:unfortunately. Yeah, wow. Yeah. So to go back to your question
Kate Harlow:of like, when the hormones shift? I would say, throughout
Kate Harlow:our seasons of life, there's moments where they're changing.
Kate Harlow:So that's one change that happens when we're younger, when
Kate Harlow:we're making those decisions around birth control, and then
Kate Harlow:if you decide to have children, there's going to be changes in
Kate Harlow:your hormones. And then come perimenopause from, you know,
Kate Harlow:age 35 up, where hormones are drastically changing, there's
Kate Harlow:going to be lots of changes in how you perceive yourself, life
Kate Harlow:your partner, because there's such a decline in the hormones
Kate Harlow:and even divorce rates, I've seen to go up between ages of 45
Kate Harlow:to 55 and it's mostly women initiating them in that age
Kate Harlow:range. And so you have to kind of question like, well, what's
Kate Harlow:happening at that time? Are women just finding their voices
Kate Harlow:at that time? Are they starting to understand, after raising
Kate Harlow:their kids, all of a sudden now they're having to create a new
Kate Harlow:relationship with their partner, that maybe they were all just so
Kate Harlow:engrossed in their children's lives that they had forgotten
Kate Harlow:themselves. So there's many nuances and layers, I think, to
Kate Harlow:all of it, but there's a huge connection between how a woman
Kate Harlow:feels in her body and the changes she's going through
Kate Harlow:hormonally that will influence her decisions about her
Kate Harlow:relationship, right?
Kate Harlow:And like you and I were talking about before we hit
Kate Harlow:record. How you know, even if the decision ends up, even if
Kate Harlow:you do do all the things to try and save your marriage, which
Kate Harlow:you know, okay, marriage counselors often are like, You
Kate Harlow:need to listen more to him. You need to change more to make this
Kate Harlow:work, rather than like, heal thyself. And then, you know,
Kate Harlow:come home to thyself as the new truth is about in every episode,
Kate Harlow:and fall in love with yourself, and then bring that version of
Kate Harlow:yourself to your relationship and see what happens. But even
Kate Harlow:for women who end up deciding, okay, this relationship is still
Kate Harlow:out of alignment, once our hormones are imbalanced, once
Kate Harlow:our body is healed and they're they have a healthy relationship
Kate Harlow:within you leave with so much I imagine you leave with so much
Kate Harlow:more peace and certainty that you made the right decision when
Kate Harlow:you, when you make the decision from that healthy, clear place,
Kate Harlow:like you got that couple to that ended up having a new
Kate Harlow:relationship and a complete turnaround. Like, either that's,
Kate Harlow:that's the benefit is, like you heal yourself, and then either
Kate Harlow:way, you win, because you either have a completely brand new
Kate Harlow:relationship with your partner, who you might at the in the
Kate Harlow:moment, not even want to look at right, or you leave with
Kate Harlow:confidence and clarity, absolutely.
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: And I'm sure many of the women that are
Kate Harlow:listening have had that experience of even different
Kate Harlow:times of their cycle, where all of a sudden you were super
Kate Harlow:attracted to your partner, and then now you can't even stand
Kate Harlow:him chewing beside you, or him breathing too loud or eating and
Kate Harlow:the spoon hitting that bowl. You know, there's these like little
Kate Harlow:things that start to happen, and you're just like, why am I with
Kate Harlow:him? And you start to question yourself and your decisions. And
Kate Harlow:then all of a sudden you bleed, and you're like, Oh my God.
Kate Harlow:You're like, Oh my God, he's amazing. And I can't, you know,
Kate Harlow:do life without him, and it's total turnaround. So when you
Kate Harlow:start to notice that there's these ebbs and flows and how you
Kate Harlow:feel, even about yourself when you're looking the mirror, and
Kate Harlow:also your partner, you start to see, okay, there's a huge
Kate Harlow:influence that these changes are having. So that pause, that
Kate Harlow:power of the pause, where you can have discernment, creates
Kate Harlow:certainty, so you can make those right decisions of what you
Kate Harlow:need, right?
Kate Harlow:Yeah, oh my gosh. Okay, so, so what if you were to
Kate Harlow:boil down the secret? What is the secret? I.
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: So the secret, I think, is what you said is
Kate Harlow:heal thyself. And that is nuanced in its way. Well, what
Kate Harlow:does that actually mean? Like, how do I heal thyself? So one
Kate Harlow:thing that I created was the hormonal hierarchy of healing.
Kate Harlow:And so in this little pyramid, the physical body is at the
Kate Harlow:foundation of it. So when you're not feeling well, when you're
Kate Harlow:feeling tired, when you're groggy, when you have brain fog,
Kate Harlow:when your libido is really low because of vaginal dryness or
Kate Harlow:there's pain when you're having intercourse because of a fibroid
Kate Harlow:or a cyst or whatever it might be, inflammation when you're
Kate Harlow:gaining weight around your belly, and you know you're
Kate Harlow:having to be intimate with your partner. You're not feeling
Kate Harlow:good, you're not going to be present. So when you start to
Kate Harlow:look at the physicality of how you're feeling in your body and
Kate Harlow:start to nourish yourself, start to treat these things, whether
Kate Harlow:it's through, looking at testing for your hormones or your gut or
Kate Harlow:your immune system, whatever your body needs at that time,
Kate Harlow:and bringing in tools to help support that. So I have these
Kate Harlow:like 5m that I always go through with my patients. The first one
Kate Harlow:is meals. So looking at nourishment like, how am I
Kate Harlow:nourishing myself? Is what I'm eating nourishing me or
Kate Harlow:depleting me? Then there's mindset.
Kate Harlow:We gotta write them down a little bit more. Okay,
Kate Harlow:nourishing. So how do we know if something is nourishing us?
Kate Harlow:Like, do you, do you have your go to things? Or do you think
Kate Harlow:it's intuitive individual what? What's your
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: I think it's all of that. So okay, looking at
Kate Harlow:your relationship with food, first understanding why we make
Kate Harlow:the choices we do. Am I distracting? Am I in pain? Am I
Kate Harlow:comforting, or am I craving? You know, really starting to discern
Kate Harlow:between all of that and understanding why we're making
Kate Harlow:the choices. How do I feel in my body when I make that choice? Do
Kate Harlow:I feel bloated afterwards? Do I feel tired now, or do I feel
Kate Harlow:energized by the food that I'm taking in. So that'll be your
Kate Harlow:first clue. And then there might be
Kate Harlow:fasting has helped me with that so much. Being able
Kate Harlow:to have the like noticing that the habitual, like wanting to
Kate Harlow:eat because, yes, to fill time, because it's the time we're
Kate Harlow:trained to eat, or because there's boredom, or because
Kate Harlow:there's like, just the habitual things, but also having more
Kate Harlow:breaks in my eating. I'm noticing lately that I'm more
Kate Harlow:attuned to something that I had these, these protein balls.
Kate Harlow:They're like dates and nuts, and I don't know, something I got
Kate Harlow:here in Kenya, and they're really clean and simple made,
Kate Harlow:and they taste really good. But I every time I ate them, I was
Kate Harlow:in the shower. I had one, and then I was just noticing how
Kate Harlow:bloated I was and how much pain my how much my stomach hurt, and
Kate Harlow:I muscle tested, and it was like, Nope, I knew it was that.
Kate Harlow:And I think because I have a little bit more spaciousness
Kate Harlow:now, because I do intermittent fasting, yeah, I can feel when
Kate Harlow:something is I'm sensitive to it,
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: yeah, because then it's not your normal. There
Kate Harlow:might be women out there that are eating throughout the day,
Kate Harlow:maybe six meals a day, and constantly snacking and feeling
Kate Harlow:bloated all the time, but that's just their become their normal,
Kate Harlow:and they don't know what different can feel like. So
Kate Harlow:bringing in like fasting or just time restricted eating, or just
Kate Harlow:having like the two to three meals a day and no snacking,
Kate Harlow:simple things like that, can create that space that you were
Kate Harlow:speaking of. So you can have discernment around, okay, that's
Kate Harlow:really healthy, and yet I'm reacting to it. So there's
Kate Harlow:something in there that my body's not loving at this
Kate Harlow:moment. So then we can do further investigation too. You
Kate Harlow:can do a food sensitivity test. You can test your microbiome.
Kate Harlow:You can test for parasites, fungus, whatever it might be,
Kate Harlow:you can go down that route if needed. When it comes to this
Kate Harlow:confusion and this noise around food as well, because when we're
Kate Harlow:in it, it's really hard to discern. So sometimes we need
Kate Harlow:some form of testing to tell us like, this is what your body is
Kate Harlow:reacting to. So let's work on it from this perspective and then
Kate Harlow:create some change.
Kate Harlow:Yeah, totally love that. Okay, meals, that's the
Kate Harlow:first one.
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: That's the first one, yes, and the second
Kate Harlow:one mindset is one of them. So looking at the belief system
Kate Harlow:around essentially everything, but more so about yourself, you
Kate Harlow:know, where, where am I allowing somebody else to narrate my
Kate Harlow:story? What beliefs am I carrying from the ancestors
Kate Harlow:before? So a lot of what I speak to is stress and generational
Kate Harlow:trauma and the stories that we carry, not just the trauma, but
Kate Harlow:also the wisdom. And so tapping into, you know, when I'm walking
Kate Harlow:through life, is it the culture, the society, the the shoulds
Kate Harlow:that are navigating my choices, or is this choice actually mine?
Kate Harlow:So that creates some more room for you to start accessing that
Kate Harlow:intuition and understanding what that even feels like. Because
Kate Harlow:when you say intuition to. Somebody, they may not even know
Kate Harlow:what that means. And the way I relate that those two things
Kate Harlow:together and that physicality is when your body is whispering to
Kate Harlow:you, it's it's your soul whispering saying, like, hey,
Kate Harlow:there's some things we need to do that's a little bit
Kate Harlow:different. When it starts to scream at you that's through
Kate Harlow:those bigger symptoms, so we don't want to get there, and
Kate Harlow:when we do get there, that means it's a huge sign that we haven't
Kate Harlow:been listening. So to change the mindset around what success is,
Kate Harlow:changing the mindset around who I'm supposed to be or how I'm
Kate Harlow:supposed to behave. And this doesn't happen overnight. It's a
Kate Harlow:journey that we go on. But even those like little things of
Kate Harlow:making, maybe having a reaction in the moment, but asking
Kate Harlow:yourself, like, Where does this reaction actually come from? Is
Kate Harlow:it my own? Is it something that was learned and it was modeled
Kate Harlow:to me? Is it how I'm supposed to react? So those simple questions
Kate Harlow:can start to change our mindset around the choices that we're
Kate Harlow:making.
Kate Harlow:And I bet there's so much mindset confusion now
Kate Harlow:with all the mixed messaging because of the information age
Kate Harlow:and like technology, like all of these places, all of these
Kate Harlow:amazing at, you know, the the blessing and the curse, like all
Kate Harlow:these amazing places where we have so access to so much
Kate Harlow:information now about health, but then there's like, this
Kate Harlow:trend and that trend and this trend and that trend. So I
Kate Harlow:imagine that feeds the mindset stuff. It's like, oh, that's
Kate Harlow:that thing is bad, this thing is good. But like, okay, kale is
Kate Harlow:really good one week and then the next week, oh, it's super
Kate Harlow:bad for you.
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: I know it's like those videos that people
Kate Harlow:put up of like eating healthy, and then they're here something
Kate Harlow:now they got to not eat the eggs and not eat the kale. Yeah, I
Kate Harlow:know it's confusing out there. There's a lot of noise, and
Kate Harlow:that's why I think this conversation is so important. Is
Kate Harlow:to understand thyself so that you can have discernment for you
Kate Harlow:and what works for you. Because everybody is in a different
Kate Harlow:season of their life. Everybody has different stressors that
Kate Harlow:will influence their choices and their body. And I think it's so
Kate Harlow:important to understand yourself, so you can make those
Kate Harlow:choices and you can gather information, but then you can
Kate Harlow:discern through it, and not just you can try different things.
Kate Harlow:It's kind of like what I said before the end of one experiment
Kate Harlow:of yourself, you can experiment with different things. Like,
Kate Harlow:does this actually sit well? Not because somebody told me, but
Kate Harlow:because it actually feels well in my body, and I'm getting the
Kate Harlow:results that I actually want?
Kate Harlow:Yeah, I feel like that's where I'm at now, which
Kate Harlow:is like, for years, I had digestive issues. And you and
Kate Harlow:you know that. I think everyone who listens to the new truth
Kate Harlow:knows that intermittent fasting has helped me so much, has been
Kate Harlow:so significant in my healing. But not just intermittent
Kate Harlow:fasting also, well, learning about eating for hormones and
Kate Harlow:also eating pain like I did, that spaciousness has allowed me
Kate Harlow:to listen more to my body, and there's just and maybe because
Kate Harlow:my life also where where I live, and that I don't even have calls
Kate Harlow:till 3pm every day. So I'm I have so much spaciousness built
Kate Harlow:into my life now versus when I lived in North America, I just
Kate Harlow:am so much more attuned to myself and my body. And so I've
Kate Harlow:noticed, like I shared with you, I'm even trying eating meat now,
Kate Harlow:and I haven't eat meat in like, 25 years, and I I'm adding that
Kate Harlow:back in, and I'm noticing a significant difference in how I
Kate Harlow:feel, and that was huge for me to do. But I'm, I'm at the point
Kate Harlow:where I I just, I love my body so much, and I just And because
Kate Harlow:the more I love my body, the more my body feels good. And I'm
Kate Harlow:now addicted to that, instead of what most women and what I used
Kate Harlow:to be addicted to punishing my body, now I'm addicted to
Kate Harlow:healing my body and loving my body and learning more about
Kate Harlow:her, and she's always communicating. And it's amazing
Kate Harlow:how good I feel better than ever. And I'm 44 Yeah, and I
Kate Harlow:don't have not knock on wood, but I haven't felt any
Kate Harlow:perimenopause, like all that, like, I just feel amazing,
Kate Harlow:better than I've ever felt.
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: Yeah, yeah. And I think what you said was so
Kate Harlow:important is like you've tuned in, like you've tuned into that
Kate Harlow:voice and you're hearing her. And I think the greatest gift we
Kate Harlow:can also give ourselves is flexibility in the mind. Because
Kate Harlow:when we're flexible, we can change. We can be in that flow
Kate Harlow:and not be so rigid. Of, you know, being someone okay, I'm
Kate Harlow:vegan or I'm vegetarian, I'm not going to change and when, which,
Kate Harlow:you know, we were just talking about before getting on the
Kate Harlow:call. I was vegetarian for 15 years, and then started eating
Kate Harlow:meat, because a my youngest kind of brought that on to the
Kate Harlow:family. He wanted meat, and so we started experimenting
Unknown:with that. But then my body's talking about his teeth.
Unknown:Dr. Sonya Jensen: Talk about literally born with canines
Unknown:ready, ready to get in there.
Kate Harlow:He's like, I'm a carnivore, and I'm here to bring
Kate Harlow:it back to the family.
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: I know there was no way he was going to be a
Kate Harlow:vegetarian, and so that too. It's like, I really had to check
Kate Harlow:in with myself. I'm like, What am I teaching him? So here we
Kate Harlow:are a family of vegetarians. So my husband and I, and even my
Kate Harlow:oldest son, like the vegetarian lifestyle, and here he is
Kate Harlow:wanting to eat meat. So do I force him to fit into our box,
Kate Harlow:or do I help him explore what his body is speaking to him? And
Kate Harlow:so that was a really big lesson for me in being flexible. And so
Kate Harlow:if we're flexible with with everything, with every belief
Kate Harlow:that we have, but we just don't hold on to it so tightly, we
Kate Harlow:wouldn't have the conflicts that we have in the world, especially
Kate Harlow:within and it would just create so much more clarity, so much
Kate Harlow:more confidence and so much more connection.
Kate Harlow:Yeah, so true. And if only, my God, every parent
Kate Harlow:was like that. Think of how many parents are like, You need to be
Kate Harlow:more like. I think of human design, like all the little
Kate Harlow:projectors out there that only parents are like, go play
Kate Harlow:outside. You need to play more like. This is me as a kid. I'm
Kate Harlow:like, I'm tired.
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: Yeah, I know it's a hard one, because we do
Kate Harlow:it to ourselves so much, and then we project it out to the
Kate Harlow:kids. So I have to check in so much with myself. I'm like, am I
Kate Harlow:passing especially when I'm doing the generational trauma
Kate Harlow:work, it's, you know, really at the forefront of my mind. I'm
Kate Harlow:like, What am I passing down and and they're going to have their
Kate Harlow:own story too, that they'll probably need to heal as they
Kate Harlow:age. But that's it.
Kate Harlow:Yeah, like to all the parents out there, because I
Kate Harlow:also hear this, the thing with conscious moms now, like, once
Kate Harlow:they wake up to their own stuff, then they feel this, like extra
Kate Harlow:moms already have, like, not good enough, you know, not a
Kate Harlow:good enough mom. And then on top of it, now you have to, like,
Kate Harlow:give them the perfect childhood so you don't traumatize them,
Kate Harlow:which is not the human experience, like we're supposed
Kate Harlow:to. It's part of it. It's part of the do you do your best,
Kate Harlow:whatever that is.
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: Yeah, that's right, yeah, because that
Kate Harlow:adversity is also what's going to allow them to grow, whatever
Kate Harlow:that adversity may be for them. Yeah. So mindset,
Kate Harlow:if you give them a perfect childhood, that's not
Kate Harlow:setting them up for real life.
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: It's not No, no, not at all. We talk about
Kate Harlow:that often where they don't have enough stress, but maybe, but
Kate Harlow:that's our perception. I mean, who knows what's going on
Kate Harlow:internally for them and their story? Yeah, yeah. So that's
Kate Harlow:where that mindset piece comes in. Yeah. So the next one that
Kate Harlow:where you know where we want to travel to is like the morning
Kate Harlow:and evening ritual. So this is something so simple that can
Kate Harlow:support women in creating space like you said. You don't have
Kate Harlow:calls until you're it's 3pm for you, so you can bring in more
Kate Harlow:rituals. But when we don't have time, it's really hard to do
Kate Harlow:that. So this could just be simply breathing in the morning.
Kate Harlow:This could be a cup of tea at nighttime or a simple walk. So
Kate Harlow:these like little rituals that are just yours give you that
Kate Harlow:empowerment of time, and also it starts to tell you that you're
Kate Harlow:important, that you are worth it, that you are important
Kate Harlow:enough to take this time out, even if it's just five minutes
Kate Harlow:to reset your nervous system, because that nervous system is
Kate Harlow:everything, because if we don't, what women do often is we step
Kate Harlow:into resentment. And so I didn't get time to do this. I wasn't
Kate Harlow:able to do this for myself. I'm sacrificing for my family. I'm
Kate Harlow:sacrificing for work, and that does not put us in a mood for
Kate Harlow:connection with our partners or connection with ourselves. So if
Kate Harlow:we have these little rituals that can bring us back and help
Kate Harlow:ground us, we are showing up in our relationship so much
Kate Harlow:differently.
Kate Harlow:Do you have any suggestions? I hear a lot of
Kate Harlow:women, and probably this is mostly coming from women in
Kate Harlow:their 40s and 50s, so probably perimenopause, menopausal, with
Kate Harlow:women that have sleep issues. Really common nowadays. Any
Kate Harlow:suggestions for rituals before bed, and also, I imagine too,
Kate Harlow:the energetically unnaturalness of sharing a bed, even though
Kate Harlow:we're told, like, if you don't share a bed, there's something
Kate Harlow:wrong with your relationship, but it means but, but like that,
Kate Harlow:I sleep so much I'm single, sovereign, and I sleep so much
Kate Harlow:better when I'm by myself.
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: Yeah, yeah. I think there's definitely
Kate Harlow:something to that, because especially if you are a bit of a
Kate Harlow:light sleeper, or you're like, tuned into noises, tune into
Kate Harlow:movement, that's going to play a huge role. And that age group
Kate Harlow:that you are speaking to there is that hormonal piece. So as
Kate Harlow:progesterone declines, that actually changes your sleep
Kate Harlow:pattern. And so it's either harder to fall asleep, or women
Kate Harlow:are falling asleep, but then getting up in the middle of the
Kate Harlow:night, between one and three, usually around 3am and having a
Kate Harlow:hard time falling back asleep. And so one of my light bulb
Kate Harlow:would go out and say, well, we need to test her progesterone
Kate Harlow:and make sure she's getting progesterone or some sort of
Kate Harlow:support to help her on the hormonal front before bed. And
Kate Harlow:in terms of rituals, I would say. Day, all day, we're revved
Kate Harlow:up. You know, most of us, unless you're weaving in tools
Kate Harlow:throughout the day to help us feel grounded, but we're in this
Kate Harlow:state of survival a lot, where cortisol is running high when
Kate Harlow:we're trying to just get through the day, and that could just be
Kate Harlow:sitting in traffic or meeting a deadline, or picking up the kids
Kate Harlow:and taking them to their activities when we're in that
Kate Harlow:heightened state, it's really hard for the body and the mind
Kate Harlow:to come down from that in the evening. So bringing in rituals,
Kate Harlow:whether it's like a warm cup of, you know, golden milk with some
Kate Harlow:like turmeric and some herbs in there to help support your body.
Kate Harlow:Oiling, I feel is really great. It's an Ayurvedic ritual where
Kate Harlow:you take sesame oil and you're heating it up, and you're oiling
Kate Harlow:your hands, so the palms of your hands, the soles of your feet,
Kate Harlow:the back of your neck, right before bed, putting a little bit
Kate Harlow:in your belly button. It just helps.
Kate Harlow:Right when you say, warming it, where? How like it,
Kate Harlow:just in your hands. Or how do you warm it?
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: You could just do it in your hands, or I like
Kate Harlow:to put it on the stovetop a little bit, warm it up and then
Kate Harlow:cool it down just slightly, so it's not burning my hands like
Kate Harlow:you pour the oil in a pot, yeah, oh my gosh. Okay.
Kate Harlow:Someone told me to put, someone told me to put, sorry for
Kate Harlow:cutting off. Someone told me sesame oil on organic cold
Kate Harlow:pressed sesame oil on the bottom of my feet and my nostrils when
Kate Harlow:I fly. And I always tell my clients to do that when they're
Kate Harlow:coming to Greece or to Kenya. I'm like, Yeah, with the sesame
Kate Harlow:oil, put it on the bottom of your feet and in your nose, and
Kate Harlow:in your nostrils, it's to protect your immune system,
Kate Harlow:right?
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: Yeah, because the mucus membranes there, so
Kate Harlow:it's protecting that. And then on the bottom soles of your
Kate Harlow:feet, it's just grounding. And if you put it in your belly
Kate Harlow:button, so the nerves kind of end up there. It's helping to
Kate Harlow:ground you then too. And in Ayurveda, they also use um ghee
Kate Harlow:in the belly button, and that's supposed to be very nourishing
Kate Harlow:and warming for the body, and especially for women, depending
Kate Harlow:on season of life and season we're in, like we want to bring
Kate Harlow:more warmth, according to Chinese medicine and Ayurveda,
Kate Harlow:into our system. So that's where that warm tea and that warm like
Kate Harlow:self massage can be really helpful.
Kate Harlow:Yeah, like, I need a sweater just dropped, yeah,
Kate Harlow:warmth. Okay, wait, okay. Wait, okay, say that again. I'm sorry.
Kate Harlow:I just got slightly distracted by this pattern. I'm really into
Kate Harlow:this content, too. So you're saying the warmth, like, when
Kate Harlow:we're in our 40s, plus, like, warmth is really important,
Kate Harlow:yeah.
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: So in Ayurveda, there's three
Kate Harlow:different stages of a woman's life. So the way I relate to it,
Kate Harlow:like, the first stage is your curiosity phase, and then you
Kate Harlow:get into your vitality phase, and then your wise woman phase.
Kate Harlow:And Ayurveda, it's there's constitutions that we have,
Kate Harlow:vata, pitta and kapha, which have certain traits to them. And
Kate Harlow:in perimenopause and menopause, we're in our vata state. Vata is
Kate Harlow:quite cold. So vata requires warmth. So that's where, you
Kate Harlow:know, women will start to experience changes in their
Kate Harlow:joints. Maybe they're a little bit creaky, or their temperature
Kate Harlow:is dysregulated because of hot flashes and night sweats. And so
Kate Harlow:you might think it's counter intuitive to bring more warmth
Kate Harlow:in when they're already feeling really hot, but what that the
Kate Harlow:warmth is doing is actually bringing nourishment to your
Kate Harlow:nerves and bringing more grounding into your nervous
Kate Harlow:system, which will then translate into your cortisol,
Kate Harlow:coming down into your nervous system feeling more regulated,
Kate Harlow:into all the regulation that we need for our mindset as well. So
Kate Harlow:bringing warmth in in the evening can be really important.
Kate Harlow:And the other thing something so simple, just putting your legs
Kate Harlow:up against the wall for five minutes, just that yoga pose,
Kate Harlow:will help to also calm the system down as well. So those
Kate Harlow:are, I would say, those are the muscles before bed that can be
Kate Harlow:so simple, done in a few minutes and any woman can access
Kate Harlow:and what legs up the wall before bed. What it's
Kate Harlow:calming is that the main benefit, yeah,
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: like the blood flow is coming down, you're
Kate Harlow:draining. And it's really calming for the nervous system.
Kate Harlow:It's a restorative
Unknown:yoga pose, yeah, yeah.
Kate Harlow:I love legs up the wall. Just, actually just did it
Kate Harlow:my in class on Saturday. Okay, so we've got meals mindset and
Kate Harlow:morning and evening rituals,
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: yes, and then movement. And I would say that's
Kate Harlow:the medicine for me. Every morning, no matter what I have
Kate Harlow:to do some form of movement to get into my body and out of my
Kate Harlow:mind. And this could be even in the evening too, for women doing
Kate Harlow:some yoga poses just to get the blood flowing a little bit, but
Kate Harlow:movement, I think, has so many benefits. In terms of
Kate Harlow:hormonally, you're increasing your testosterone in the
Kate Harlow:morning. You're ramping up the cortisol the way it needs to to
Kate Harlow:get you more energized for your day, get you motivated, bring
Kate Harlow:that dopamine level up in your brain so it just helps your
Kate Harlow:brain and your body feel. Really good. And so dancing, walking,
Kate Harlow:running, whatever type of movement fuels you, is so
Kate Harlow:important to embody every single day.
Kate Harlow:And so what fuels you, what kind of movement?
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: Yeah, so I grew up dancing, and I actually
Kate Harlow:just started my master's in Kathak, which is, it's a
Kate Harlow:classical Indian dance, and it was one that I wasn't allowed to
Kate Harlow:do when I was young. There's this stigma around it in my
Kate Harlow:culture, anyways, in the Punjabi culture around Kathak, and it's
Kate Harlow:very feminine, so it's been an interesting journey for me to go
Kate Harlow:from very masculine dances that I was doing and teaching to all
Kate Harlow:of a sudden I would do hip hop as well, and
Kate Harlow:what you were teaching dance? Yes, I did not
Kate Harlow:know this,
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: not recently. This was, this was in my youth,
Kate Harlow:I used to teach dance, yeah, oh my gosh, that's amazing. A
Kate Harlow:dancer from a very young age, and I feel like that it's the
Kate Harlow:one time you know, everyone has that one thing that helps you
Kate Harlow:not forget the world, but gets you so connected to source and
Kate Harlow:to yourself, like dancing has always been that thing for me.
Kate Harlow:And I feel like I lost that for several years, and just this
Kate Harlow:last year, I something in me woke up and I was like, I need
Kate Harlow:this in my life again. And I found a teacher, and now I'm
Kate Harlow:doing my training as a student. Amazing.
Kate Harlow:Wait, so you're gonna teach by August when I
Kate Harlow:come home, are you guys over
Unknown:private class? Yeah, yeah. I don't even know what
Unknown:this dance
Kate Harlow:is, but it sounds amazing. And, you know, I
Kate Harlow:actually think all women there's, like, certain dances,
Kate Harlow:if we allow ourselves to grow it through the discomfort of, like,
Kate Harlow:the stories in our mind, the only can't dance, I have two
Kate Harlow:left feet. Blah, blah. Like, you know, if we go back in in time,
Kate Harlow:yeah, everybody could move and make and sing a chant. And, you
Kate Harlow:know, it's just these stories we carry from being shut down at
Kate Harlow:different times in our childhood that we we think we can't do
Kate Harlow:something. And I, honestly, I think all Maybe humans, but
Kate Harlow:definitely women. Yeah, I don't want to say should love that
Kate Harlow:word, but at least, at least explore different types of
Kate Harlow:dance.
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: It's such a movement, yeah,
Kate Harlow:or even, like five rhythms, or ecstatic dance, or
Kate Harlow:something with that doesn't have. Some people don't like
Kate Harlow:choreography because then they get in their head. But there's
Kate Harlow:so many types,
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: yeah, there's so much freedom in movement, and
Kate Harlow:there's so much connection that happens with your body. With
Kate Harlow:movement too, you start to really tune into those signals
Kate Harlow:that we were talking about in the beginning. Like that your
Kate Harlow:intuition that you can access it more deeply when you're tuned in
Kate Harlow:to your physical form. Yeah, and
Kate Harlow:movement, what's flute, that's feminine, that's
Kate Harlow:not like so rich, because a lot of women do, I'm actually
Kate Harlow:starting to do add weight training, because I've always
Kate Harlow:done, like, pilates, family, Pilates, yoga, dance, like,
Kate Harlow:those are the things that I've always loved. And so now I'm
Kate Harlow:also adding weight training and stuff. I think it's important
Kate Harlow:that I've heard it's important, which I'm sure you'll talk
Kate Harlow:about, but, but I think for so many women who live in their
Kate Harlow:masculine and live in their heads and have these busy lives
Kate Harlow:and busy schedules, the medicine that comes from moving in a non
Kate Harlow:linear way,
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: yes, yeah. And I think what you said there is
Kate Harlow:really important. So in this particular book, I created these
Kate Harlow:three different archetypes where you can look to see where you
Kate Harlow:sit with your hormonal identity. So are you like the anxious
Kate Harlow:overachiever right now? Are you the silent struggler, or are
Kate Harlow:you, you know, a perfectionist that's having to pay like a
Kate Harlow:greater price because of that perfectionism, and once you
Kate Harlow:start to understand where you're at, then you know what type of
Kate Harlow:movement you need. So an anxious overachiever, if I tell her to
Kate Harlow:do yin yoga, that's not going to go really well, because she's so
Kate Harlow:in her mind. So she probably needs to lift weights first, to
Kate Harlow:get grounded in her body, and then bring in a few minutes of
Kate Harlow:shavasana, or legs up against the wall or something that will
Kate Harlow:give her a glimpse of what that can feel like. We know she needs
Kate Harlow:the opposite. We know she needs a restorative and the Yin, but
Kate Harlow:she will get there once she can access that connection with her
Kate Harlow:body. So that's where it comes down to even understanding
Kate Harlow:yourself, where you're at, and what type of movement is going
Kate Harlow:to actually bring you that nourishment that you need.
Kate Harlow:It's like the the weight training is, I got
Kate Harlow:goosebumps, and you're sharing that it's the gateway, like the
Kate Harlow:gateway the door. So then, then she can keep going deeper,
Kate Harlow:instead of trying to force yourself to do something that's
Kate Harlow:so opposing to how your patterns are currently
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: structured, yeah, because that in itself
Kate Harlow:creates fear, that in itself will create stress, and that's
Kate Harlow:the opposite of what we want. To do.
Kate Harlow:Yeah, right, right. What are the other ones? Can you
Kate Harlow:say the last? Dr Sonia just wrote an amazing book. So we
Kate Harlow:will tell you more about that they don't even know yet, that
Kate Harlow:you Oh, that's right. In the book,
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: the last one is Mojo, and that's where the
Kate Harlow:relationship piece comes in. And I do think the quality of our
Kate Harlow:life is so dependent on the quality of our relationships,
Kate Harlow:and especially that relationship with self. So having those
Kate Harlow:moments to yourself, like having prompts to journal, or having
Kate Harlow:exercises to do with your partner or alone to help you
Kate Harlow:tune into that there's a story I share in the book. It's a Sufi
Kate Harlow:teaching about the heart and how, if you tune it, or if you
Kate Harlow:look at a couple, for example, that's fighting, maybe, and
Kate Harlow:they're really loud, and they're speaking loud to each other,
Kate Harlow:it's because their hearts are so far apart, and the loudness is
Kate Harlow:trying to make up that distance. And so when you're in tune with
Kate Harlow:yourself or with others. Just a whisper is enough. Just silence
Kate Harlow:can be enough, because you can tap into the energy of yourself
Kate Harlow:and the other person. And so when you start to understand how
Kate Harlow:you are relating to you, how you're relating to food, how
Kate Harlow:you're relating to others, it can have a massive
Kate Harlow:transformation on those relationships, because then
Kate Harlow:you're coming to them with that softness, with that knowing of
Kate Harlow:what you need to do for yourself first so you can show up for the
Kate Harlow:other
Kate Harlow:that's so beautiful. And God, I just think
Kate Harlow:about how many couples, it's heartbreaking. Because I always
Kate Harlow:say this like nobody gave us some relationship manual. How
Kate Harlow:insane we learned so many ridiculous things. Has anyone
Kate Harlow:changed what we learned in school? Like we learned so many
Kate Harlow:insane things in school that we never use. And how many couples,
Kate Harlow:you know care about each other and love each other but have no
Kate Harlow:idea how to drop into their hearts, like, if you're not as
Kate Harlow:you're saying, nourishing your heart and getting to and healing
Kate Harlow:your own body, and you're just in your patterns. And so if your
Kate Harlow:partner, if you have 20 years of resentments built up, or even
Kate Harlow:five years the resentments built up, and you don't know how to
Kate Harlow:communicate vulnerably, and you don't know how to be in the
Kate Harlow:silence without it being guarded, or without it being
Kate Harlow:distant, you know, like, how many or fighting, like, how many
Kate Harlow:people are just relating from their protection, and don't know
Kate Harlow:how to actually move through stuff from the heart. And I just
Kate Harlow:love all of that, because the more, the more you feel, the
Kate Harlow:more you feel good, and I want to find a better word than good,
Kate Harlow:the more your body is thriving, the easier it'll be to be in
Kate Harlow:your heart with everyone.
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: Yeah, absolutely, yeah. And like,
Kate Harlow:imagine the world and how different it would be when we're
Kate Harlow:not in that reactive space or just trying to survive or trying
Kate Harlow:to overpower and it really does go back to looking within again.
Kate Harlow:It's like looking at that inner child, looking at those
Kate Harlow:patterns, looking at the generational stuff that's been
Kate Harlow:passed, and understanding that that is not you, and that you do
Kate Harlow:have a choice in every second of the day to choose differently,
Kate Harlow:but when we're in stuck in those patterns. It's really difficult
Kate Harlow:to do that. So these conversations and these tools
Kate Harlow:and they can just create opportunity for you to
Kate Harlow:understand yourself a little bit more deeply. So then the next
Kate Harlow:time, because we're still human, we're still having that
Kate Harlow:emotional, human experience, we can respond instead of react,
Kate Harlow:and we can learn from every single one, because it's not
Kate Harlow:going to be perfect. What's not meant to be perfect, we wouldn't
Kate Harlow:grow if it was. But you can just give yourself permission have
Kate Harlow:more grace for yourself, then you will have grace for the
Kate Harlow:other. It's like that. It's the yoga one of the call it a rule,
Kate Harlow:but just a philosophy of Ahimsa, of non violence, and that's if
Kate Harlow:you're violent towards yourself, if you are thinking that you're
Kate Harlow:not enough, if you're believing into that that same will show up
Kate Harlow:with the other. And so the more you love yourself, the more you
Kate Harlow:reclaim yourself, the more you can do for those in front of
Kate Harlow:you.
Kate Harlow:Is so true. One of my favorite things to do I
Kate Harlow:always talk about is when I'm in my Uber I mean, I take a lot of
Kate Harlow:Ubers here, like to the gym every day, yeah, and, and, I
Kate Harlow:mean, Kenyans are so open hearted, but I do this
Kate Harlow:everywhere I go, that occasionally there's someone who
Kate Harlow:seems guarded, seems closed, seems like they're not
Kate Harlow:interested in a conversation, but I just get Curious and ask
Kate Harlow:questions, and keep asking questions, and then they crack
Kate Harlow:every time they crack, and then there's so much beauty inside of
Kate Harlow:everyone. And it's like to be able to be and I know it's
Kate Harlow:because I'm living in my heart and feel good in my body. So
Kate Harlow:then that ripple effect goes it gets spread every. Where I go,
Kate Harlow:and I think, yeah, imagine the world like that, of people,
Kate Harlow:because everyone God, especially in North America. But, I mean,
Kate Harlow:everywhere, really, but definitely in that Western Go,
Kate Harlow:go, go, do, do, do, hustle, grind, pace, where everyone is
Kate Harlow:slotting time. I mean, I even do this when I even do this when I
Kate Harlow:go to Vancouver, I'm like, oh God. And then I'll squeeze you
Kate Harlow:in here and squeeze you in there and and it's just like, how,
Kate Harlow:what? How does it just like you I just get, like, swept up in
Kate Harlow:the energy of over scheduling, over busyness, slotting things
Kate Harlow:in, and then we're mostly, it's so it's so much more challenging
Kate Harlow:to be where you are because you're already like, Oh, I got
Kate Harlow:to get to this next thing, and I got to get out there, and I got
Kate Harlow:that meeting over there, and I meeting over there, and I got
Kate Harlow:that thing over there, and then, you know how exhausting that is
Kate Harlow:and how all the like layers of the stuff that's happening
Kate Harlow:inside when we're living like that,
Unknown:yeah, and that's how we treat each other from that
Unknown:Dr. Sonya Jensen: place, I know, and that's why those little
Unknown:moments in between are so important I find so my boys play
Unknown:sports, so week, nights, weekends are really about taking
Unknown:them here and there. And it's those moments in the car and
Unknown:that in between where I can close my eyes and I can take a
Unknown:deep breath. It's the morning ritual that I have that keeps me
Unknown:going for the day, keeps me grounded so that I can show up
Unknown:differently, because if I'm exhausted, then I'm not going to
Unknown:respond to them the way I really want to, and that's going to
Unknown:create drifts in our relationship. And so I think it
Unknown:is those micro moments, especially when we're in a
Unknown:season of our life where there's busyness, and bringing those in
Unknown:can make a huge difference in how we're operating,
Kate Harlow:for sure. And your spouse, if it seems like the
Kate Harlow:spouse gets everything gets taken out on them, like, if
Kate Harlow:you're feeling shitty in your life, it's like they're the ones
Kate Harlow:who get the worst of it. And your kids, because your kids are
Kate Harlow:like, little narcissists, for lack of a better word, like
Kate Harlow:officially. But kids are supposed to be, they're self
Kate Harlow:centered, right? Because the healthy place to be, we're all
Kate Harlow:self centered in the beginning, and then we get taught to be
Kate Harlow:selfless or selfish or whatever. But like, kids need a lot,
Kate Harlow:right? So they're because they're not sovereign, they're
Kate Harlow:not on their own. They don't have choice yet. They're,
Kate Harlow:they're, you know, and so they're taking, and so it's easy
Kate Harlow:to snap on them or take our stuff out on them, and then your
Kate Harlow:spouse is the one usually most in most relationships gets like
Kate Harlow:the worst of the worst,
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: the leftovers, the leftover energy, the Yeah,
Kate Harlow:the the resentment, the everything that you're feeling
Kate Harlow:that's been like banked all day, because that often is the safe
Kate Harlow:space to feel all of that. And so when you can reflect that
Kate Harlow:back to one another and have that understanding of like,
Kate Harlow:Okay, where am I in my season? So our last conversation we had,
Kate Harlow:we had, we talked a lot about like women in their cycle, and
Kate Harlow:what kind of conversations to have when, because of our
Kate Harlow:hormonal story and even a season of life. So if you are busy with
Kate Harlow:kids, if you are still in your career, and you're doing all
Kate Harlow:this to have these set aside times in the week to have
Kate Harlow:conversations. So in the book, I actually create some exercises
Kate Harlow:that couples can do to understand that about each
Kate Harlow:other, where they are in their season, what percentage they're
Kate Harlow:actually able to give in that day or in that moment? And like
Kate Harlow:I said, we're still working on it. I mean, you teach what you
Kate Harlow:have to learn, right? So we're in that busy season. My husband
Kate Harlow:and I, we have a clinic together. We're raising kids
Kate Harlow:together, and sometimes it feels like we're doing side by side
Kate Harlow:life, instead of, like, really integrated. So we have to take
Kate Harlow:those pause moments. We have to take those micro moments to be
Kate Harlow:able to do that and have that understanding of what the other
Kate Harlow:is going through. Like I'm going to perimenopause. Men go through
Kate Harlow:andropause. Their hormones change as well. So understanding
Kate Harlow:that their testosterone is changing, their capacity to
Kate Harlow:manage and resilience to deal with stress is changing as well.
Kate Harlow:So if both of you are changing, both of you are navigating
Kate Harlow:stressors from the past and patterns, there has to be some
Kate Harlow:grace for each other.
Kate Harlow:God, I've never heard that term andropod, yeah.
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: So you know their hormones start to decline,
Kate Harlow:starting age 25 just as ours do like testosterone, for example,
Kate Harlow:will slowly decline. Theirs doesn't decline as drastically
Kate Harlow:as ours does, and they have a 24 hour cycle, whereas we have that
Kate Harlow:monthly cycle. So they're replenishing pretty quickly. But
Kate Harlow:looking at our world today, and from the foods to the other
Kate Harlow:stressors to stresses they carry in their mindset and their
Kate Harlow:beliefs that fuels how much testosterone they have. So we
Kate Harlow:kind of live in a world that where there's more estrogen
Kate Harlow:dominance because of food, pesticides, plastics,
Kate Harlow:environmental things, and so they're not going into this
Kate Harlow:later phase of life as balanced as they would have maybe 50. 30
Kate Harlow:years ago, sperm count has gone down by 50% like there's so much
Kate Harlow:that their body is also navigating and fighting. So now
Kate Harlow:imagine both people going through that, but not being able
Kate Harlow:to put language to it or understanding it's going to
Kate Harlow:create difficulty in a relationship, because now we're
Kate Harlow:being reactive because we're tired, maybe not getting enough
Kate Harlow:sleep, so then we're not intimate with each other. So
Kate Harlow:there's like, disconnect. All of that can show up because
Kate Harlow:physically, we're just not feeling like ourselves anymore.
Kate Harlow:God, people just don't know what they don't know,
Kate Harlow:and then they blame their partner. It's the easiest thing
Kate Harlow:to do for all the I think, of all the men that like, I've
Kate Harlow:asked so many men, like, what do you want in relationship? Yeah,
Kate Harlow:and they're like, I just want her to be happy. I just want her
Kate Harlow:to be happy. Meanwhile, it's like, nothing I ever do is
Kate Harlow:enough. She's like, you're not doing enough. I want more. I
Kate Harlow:need more. Yeah, and it's just like, everyone just feels like
Kate Harlow:shit, and then they're
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: I know it's the easiest thing to do, yeah,
Kate Harlow:it's harder to access all of this or to, like, mulch away the
Kate Harlow:stories and the beliefs and everything and so if you're on
Kate Harlow:the same page, it can be so much more helpful to support each
Kate Harlow:other as you're navigating it.
Kate Harlow:So Wow. Okay, this guy, this these conversations
Kate Harlow:are always so good, but we're gonna do one at least once a
Kate Harlow:year. Yeah. So your book that has just come out or is coming
Kate Harlow:out on the 22nd of February, so this episode, I think, is coming
Kate Harlow:on the 17th, so it'll be out on the 22nd heal your hormones,
Kate Harlow:reclaim yourself. Tell us about the book. Tell us about your
Kate Harlow:journey with the book. Anything, anything you want to share.
Kate Harlow:Yeah, like I was sharing.
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: I think we teach what we need to learn
Kate Harlow:ourselves and being in practice and being in front of women and
Kate Harlow:holding their hands and crying with them and understanding
Kate Harlow:these transitions and how difficult they can be. The first
Kate Harlow:chapter, I share a story of a woman, and the first thing she
Kate Harlow:said to me when she walked in one day was, you saved my life.
Kate Harlow:I'm now going from like, marriage to
Unknown:life, your lips surgeon and a relationship miracle.
Unknown:Dr. Sonya Jensen: When it was this, like, eye opener, of like,
Unknown:you know, you just never know how you're going to impact
Unknown:somebody's day or life or decisions and choices. And I
Unknown:just kept getting mirrored back the same kind of archetype in
Unknown:front of me, like a woman that's in that sandwich generation
Unknown:taking care of elderly parents that are aging and young
Unknown:children, but still working and, you know, just being spread so
Unknown:thin and still wanting to feel good, wanting the energy to do
Unknown:life, but doesn't know how to access it. And so I myself,
Unknown:found myself in that same place of like, feeling drained and
Unknown:burnt out and doing all the things. So I'm like, something
Unknown:needs to shift here. So as I started doing my own work and
Unknown:work with the patients, I'm like, this needs to be shared
Unknown:out. We're not talking enough about the amount of stressors we
Unknown:carry, the amount of traumas we carry, the amount all of that
Unknown:impacts every part of our life, not just one. And so if we can
Unknown:first understand ourselves, we can heal all these parts. We can
Unknown:heal our hormones, we can heal our relationships. We can
Unknown:release the old stories that are still tugging away at us. So the
Unknown:first part of the book kind of goes into the science of
Unknown:emotions, the science of hormones and relationships, and
Unknown:how all of that is interconnected. And then the
Unknown:second part of the book is something called the her method.
Unknown:So hormones, emotions and relationships, and that's all of
Unknown:those things that we were talking about in terms of what
Unknown:to do in your everyday life, what to do, what questions to
Unknown:ask when it comes to your health, what testing to get done
Unknown:so that you can start to implement things very quickly
Kate Harlow:and understand yourself. And I even think I do
Kate Harlow:encourage women to once they understand their bodies, their
Kate Harlow:cycles, their rhythms, their needs, to share that with their
Kate Harlow:partner too, so they understand like men don't understand us
Kate Harlow:either, like we don't understand ourselves. So then for sure,
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: oh for sure, yeah, just communicating that
Kate Harlow:piece is huge in relationships. Yeah, we got a woman just last
Kate Harlow:week. She was like, you know, this part of my cycle, I was
Kate Harlow:feeling a little bit irritable, and it was her boyfriend that
Kate Harlow:was like, oh, okay, this is you're in your luteal phase, so
Kate Harlow:that's probably why you're reacting to me. So even that,
Kate Harlow:you know, a woman can take that in two ways, of like, Oh, don't
Kate Harlow:tell me where I am. But she was like, Yeah, you're right. I
Kate Harlow:didn't put the two and two together, and then that opened
Kate Harlow:up a whole conversation about other things for them, amazing.
Kate Harlow:It is amazing because, yeah, the more we know,
Kate Harlow:the more we can share my last partner, Patricio, who I've
Kate Harlow:talked lots about on the podcast, he because I would
Kate Harlow:teach him all the things I learned from Dr Mindy's book.
Kate Harlow:He. And fast, like a girl, so eating from hormones, yeah. So
Kate Harlow:he was like, my love your it's your premenstrual week. We got
Kate Harlow:to get some potatoes and sweet potatoes in. We got to feed
Kate Harlow:progesterone. And he was so, yeah, it was like, at first he I
Kate Harlow:would try and tell him things like this, and he would be like,
Kate Harlow:what? And he thought it was weird. But then eventually he he
Kate Harlow:got on board, and it was so cute, and then, and it's
Kate Harlow:amazing, because, you know, good men want to support us. They
Kate Harlow:want to understand us. They don't understand us. We're from,
Kate Harlow:you know, they're from Mars. We're from Venus. They don't
Kate Harlow:understand us, especially if we don't understand ourselves.
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: Yeah, those create so much peace in your
Kate Harlow:inner being and also your relationships too.
Kate Harlow:Yeah, yeah, exactly. Oh my gosh, it's
Kate Harlow:amazing. So heal your hormones, reclaim yourself. We'll link
Kate Harlow:everything below this episode in the show notes. But any like
Kate Harlow:websites you want to talk about, where to get the book, how
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: you can get a heal your hormones, book.com,
Kate Harlow:and you can also follow me on Instagram. My handle is Dr Sonia
Kate Harlow:Jensen, and there's more information there as well.
Kate Harlow:Amazing.
Kate Harlow:And so any final, final words about coming back to
Kate Harlow:marriage and your you know your journey with your husband, your
Kate Harlow:all the, all the marriages you've saved and lives you've
Kate Harlow:saved. I love it. Saving your marriage any final, yeah,
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: I think just knowing that everything's
Kate Harlow:temporary, you know that reaction that you're having, the
Kate Harlow:feeling that you're having, the story that we might be carrying,
Kate Harlow:everything is temporary, even life is temporary. And so if we
Kate Harlow:can look at it from that bigger perspective. I think we can make
Kate Harlow:different choices that help us really enjoy the moment that we
Kate Harlow:do have on this earth.
Kate Harlow:Epic, so beautiful. You're so special. I love you so
Kate Harlow:much. You are so special. I saw many naturopaths over the years,
Kate Harlow:and like no none stuck until I met you. I mean, I don't live in
Kate Harlow:Vancouver anymore, but and now you're my friend, and I love you
Kate Harlow:dearly. I think that your work and who you are, and your
Kate Harlow:essence and what you bring to the world and to women is so
Kate Harlow:special and so unique, and everyone can feel it in this
Kate Harlow:episode and in our other conversation, you care so much,
Kate Harlow:and you're so connected to what you're doing and the impact
Kate Harlow:you're making, and it's incredible. And I love you, and
Kate Harlow:I'm so happy to share you with everyone here and to all the
Kate Harlow:women listening spread this episode to every woman you know
Kate Harlow:who is, whether you're married or in a relationship or even
Kate Harlow:want to be one in one one day, God, we need to know this to
Kate Harlow:have healthy relationships.
Kate Harlow:Dr. Sonya Jensen: Yeah, thank you. Thank you, and I love you,
Kate Harlow:and all the work that you're doing and giving this kind of
Kate Harlow:work a voice which is so important, and being that voice
Kate Harlow:for other women to to step into their power and to themselves.
Kate Harlow:So thank you beautiful.
Kate Harlow:Thank you so much my love. So go, grab heal your
Kate Harlow:hormones, reclaim yourself, give it to every woman you know. For
Kate Harlow:valen, no, Valentine's Day has already happened. What's the
Kate Harlow:next holiday? Easter? Yeah, for their birthday, whatever. Get
Kate Harlow:together, you know, and and, yeah, spread the word. Thank you
Kate Harlow:so much, and we'll see you at the same time next year. This is
Kate Harlow:our annual episode.
Unknown:Love you. Me too.