What Your Period is Telling You About Your Fertility Health with Sarah Byrne

"How much more powerful do you feel as a woman who understands her menstrual cycle?”

Topics Discussed:

🦩 The power of listening to your feminine intuition.

🦩 The contribution of the pill to infertility and general health.

🦩 Don’t ignore your gut, mental, and reproductive health.

Did you know you become empowered when you understand and become in tune with your menstrual cycle? Listening to your feminine intuition and giving your body what it needs is an empowering experience for any woman.

In this episode of the Finding Fertility podcast, we speak with Sarah Byrne, a menstrual cycle coach, speaker, and podcaster. She teaches women how to harness the power of their natural energy cycles to avoid overwhelm and burnout and to become more productive and create more success in their lives and businesses.

Listen in to learn the importance of connecting with your body and setting boundaries when it comes to your mental health. You will also learn the importance of being gentle with yourself and focusing on the tangible things in your fertility journey.

“As a parent, you have to be the best of you, and if you’re being triggered and you will be triggered, you need to have a support network around you.”

Episode Highlights:

• [1:25] How Sarah teaches businesswomen to harness the power of their natural energy cycles.
• [2:14] She shares her menstrual journey and how it led her to what she does now.
• [6:45] How we’re suppressed from listening to our bodies plus the dangers of the pill.
• [19:48] Sarah on how she was impacted by the pill plus her pregnancy and post-pregnancy struggles.
• [27:33] The importance of having a support network with you as a parent for your mental health.
• [34:28] How to connect with your body, set boundaries, and tune in to your mental well-being.

Connect with Sarah:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamsarahbyrne/
• Website: https://www.sarahbyrnewellness.com/

Listen here: What Your Period is Telling You About Your Fertility Health with Sarah Byrne

🌺 Download your FREE Guide: Top 3 Steps to Maximise Your Fertility That Your Doctor Isn't Talking About

🦩 Get Steps Closer to Getting & Staying Pregnant with EIGHT FREE DAYS within the Fertility Formula

Full Transcript: 

0:01
Hello beautiful and welcome to finding fertility. I'm your host Monica Cox from finding fertility.co And I created this podcast to help get you to start thinking outside of the box and realise that your infertility might have nothing to do with your lady bits rooted in functional medicine and personal experience. Finding fertility is all about looking at the whole body and finding the root cause of your infertility. Finding fertility does not diagnose, prescribe or treat any issues of infertility. But what we do is take a holistic approach and improve your diet and your lifestyle to get you steps closer to creating your dream family. Just by being here with me listening to this podcast, you're already going down the right path to making your dreams come true. Let's do this together. Happy Friday. Oh, welcome back to another episode of finding fertility. I'm here with Sarah today. I'm super excited to have her on. She is an American expat in Britain, which I used to be. But I'm really excited to have you on today. So welcome.

1:16
Oh, thank you so much for having me. It's such an honour.

1:20
Yes, well tell us a little bit about what you do. Okay, so

1:25
I'm a menstrual cycle coach or a period coach, whatever you want to call me. But I basically teach women business owners how to harness the power of their natural energy cycles to avoid overwhelm and burnout and to become more productive and create more success in their lives and their businesses.

1:43
Yeah, it's so amazing. I know that all of my colleagues around me mention their menstrual cycles now and like, how they're so much more creative during ovulation and, you know, a little bit flat during the period. And I'm like, Yeah, that's like the same thing as being like super horny when you're trying to conceive during around ovulation and not wanting to be touched when you're on your period. It's the same thing. It's the same flow. How did you get here? What's your story?

2:13
Got is a story. So I've always had I was a late bloomer. So I think I must have started my cycle when I was 15 1415. And I always pretty much from the get go had really bad menstrual cramps, and I get migraines, and it was just not a very nice time in my month. So instead of going onto birth control when I was around 19, I think I went to my gynaecologist at my university and my two options were birth control or have a baby and I was like, a sophomore at university. My god. Yeah, no, and I wasn't sexually active at the time. So I was like, I don't really want to go on birth control. Like it just didn't fit, right. I didn't didn't feel good. So I go on naproxen sodium, and then as my body would get used to that dosage, it would, I would have to up the dosage. So I did eventually get on birth control and it never really worked very well. So fast forward a couple of years. Six, seven years I came off of it had my daughter and then when I tried to go back on the birth control, it just didn't I mean, I ended up being sick on it. I had I was irritable, I had mood swings, bloating, all of the side effects that you could have. I had, I then got the Mirena coil it pretty sure gave me PMDD and I was also have I had undiagnosed postnatal depression as well. So there was a lot of hormone stuff going on anyway, and and I had an episode woke up the next day was completely fine and rang my doctor on the Monday and said, this has to come out. I can't handle this anymore. There has got to be a better way of managing my menstrual cycle and my hormones and Google Health.

4:12
So funny, okay. It's that love hate relationship. Right. But I tell you, it's changed a lot of people's lives.

4:18
Yeah, so I discovered the Red School, which is a teaching platform here in the UK. And I discovered menstrual cycle awareness. My daughter is 10. So she was probably about six or seven. So about six or seven years ago, I discovered it, and I've never looked back.

4:36
Mm hmm. And it's crazy how, um, I don't know if you're on Tik Tok. But I went viral recently, almost 3 million views on a post about ovulation. And it was just a fluke. I didn't mean to be controversial, but I was just stating there's a trend going around how never had the sex talk but I have blah, blah talk and it just popped into my head. When I was a youth, I saw more dicks than I saw vaginas in sex ed, I did not know about ovulation until it came to trying to conceive and then you become a PhD level of ovulation when that happens. And we know nothing about our hormones or how it works. And so I just stated that and how you can really only get pregnant, like three to seven days out of the month during ovulation. Right? The amount of people that thought I was misinformation in them was insane. And the arguments in the comment section, it was just off the chain. And I am just like, this is the problem. Right? Like, this is the problem. And people were like teen pregnancy rates. I'm like, No, we need to teach our children, how it all works, and how to stay safe. When you teach kids how to drive a car. You teach them everything about driving a car and wear your fucking seatbelt all the time. Right? You don't say you can get pregnant at any time. So were a fucking condom like that. It doesn't work. And like, it's so it's not just about the pregnancies. It's About Us women. And I think a lot of people dealing with fertility issues, can really feel this too. If they would have known about this in their teens, they might have not given a fuck, but at least they would have been educated. And when it came time to make decisions for themselves, they could have had a better option or been better informed, informed.

6:45
You said it right. You've hit the nail on the head 99% of the women that I speak to when we talk about menstrual cycles and awareness and things like that. They all say that they wish they had had better education. I don't even remember my sex ed class. Like I think I wasn't even there like fine, fair enough. I only got have learned but anyway, I mean, I'm from Louisiana. So God only knows what they taught us. But there isn't any education. We're taught to view our menstrual cycle as that one week of the month that we bleed, we're taught that is a pain, we are taught that it is an inconvenience. We're taught that it is our light in life to bear. We're taught that pain is what women have to deal with. And we don't talk about it ever. Yeah. And so if you're not having the conversations and the education within those conversations, I mean, like, Jesus. Exactly. Why don't they just teach women about their bodies? Oh, that's right. We're too complicated.

7:57
Yeah, I think there's many reasons but my favourite go to now is like conspiracy theory that we have so much fucking power as women like we literally first life, right? Yes. And I think that back in the day when things started to shift into these dark ages that they knew, they knew how much power we had over them. And they knew that our sexuality could be used for good and bad, and they just suppress the shit out of us. And I

8:33
think that's a conspiracy theory. I think that's like, because I think there are so many women, women who, you know, we are all told, when we're born, we have an innate knowledge of our bodies, and what our bodies are saying, and that language within ourselves, we know what our bodies need. And we are taught to not listen to that. Exactly. So when women start to tune into that, and to remember that, oh, my gosh, how much more I mean, I know empowered. It's such a word that's banded around, but how much more powerful Do you feel as a woman who understands her menstrual cycle?

9:11
Exactly, I just got the chills when you're talking. Absolutely. And it's the whole intuition thing, that when you're taught these things, and you're listening to your body, you're able to use that in every realm of your life. Right? Like it's not just about knowing your period, knowing your fertility, when it's like those gut feeling the butterfly feeling like we all have them, but because we are so not in tune with the natural flow for us. We don't listen and I can look back at my fertility journey, and I knew every step where I needed to go, and the times I didn't listen, or took the doctor's advice, created financial hardship heartache He sucked up a shitload of my time. And yeah, like, it is a really big lesson to learn to just tune into yourself and follow your intuition.

10:12
Because it's so against the grain of what we're taught. We're taught to ignore anything that our body tells us, particularly as girls, like, I can't speak of what they teach boys. But as women, they teach us to not listen to anything that our body is saying. You don't even know when you're hungry versus when you're thirsty. You know, I had a really interesting conversation with a dietitian or nutritionist the other day. And it's like, it has come to completely different feelings. But we don't even know because every time we think, Oh, will I go drink some water? If you're hungry, drink water. And it's like, well, no, like, you know, when you're hungry, and you're thirsty, but we don't anymore, because we're taught not to. Yeah. And I just find that so incredibly frustrating as a woman, and as a mother. I'm a mother of a daughter, I find that so incredibly frustrating that she will never be well, she will be because I will teach her jority of her friends will never be taught to listen to their bodies. Yeah, to know me to narrow it down. That's what we do. Mm hmm.

11:21
Yeah, exactly. And I think that's like the first step. And for many of us dealing with fertility issues, we, we all had warning signs, right? Even if it was when you were a teen, and your periods were regular, that was a warning sign, but you just got put on the birth control pill. And so you weren't an in the pill, you know, let's not go down that rabbit hole, but that shit fucks you up, it can really, really mess with so many different areas of your body. And I was actually at a book launch with this beautiful OBGYN who wrote a beautiful book about vaginas. And she basically sat there and said, Well, you, you don't need your menstrual shedding. So that's fine. That's the pills fine. You know, she was so for the pill. You don't need the shedding. And I'm just sitting there going like, get you might not need the shedding. I understand where you're thinking now. You don't necessarily need to shed that lining every month. But it's about the process that gets you to that shedding. That's so important to your mental and emotional health, your gut health, your vagus nerve, like everything is so important. And then that bloodline shedding is just the outcome of those days.

12:38
Well, it's a cleanse. Yeah, right. Like you get through all of that. And it's a cleanse each month. I mean, that's how I view might be just, I whatever I've gone through that month with the stress, the heartache, the love the laughter, like all of it, it's an emotional cleanse for me. And I feel so much lighter after my sight after my bleed, because that's how I view it. And you can view your bleed in whatever way that you want. For me. It's a cathartic release. It's a cleanse. But yeah, I'm not quite sure I agree with that. But yeah,

13:13
and it was really weird because I got called out because the the host knew who I was, and someone had mentioned more or doesn't, you know, the pill cause infertility and he was like, well, the pill cause infertility. You know, we have a epidemic on our hands and one woman likes Sunday. She's like, well, fertility rates are on the decline. And then I got called out and I didn't want to make it into something that it didn't need to be but yeah, I just stood my ground like, look, I agree with you might not be your cleanse. But the pill basically, is a bandaid. So women aren't able to listen to their bodies. And we are now like one out of every third woman is getting an autoimmune issue. And I think a lot of that has to happen is happening because we're not listening to our bodies. We're constantly on the go pushing ourselves. We're just taking medication to numb our bodies down. And then oh, we want to have a baby. Oh, shit. It's not happening. It's like this big flux ship. Right? Ball of disaster.

14:22
Yeah. And again, I think you know, the pill is a great invention when it came out, but it hasn't been reformulated in the 60 odd years. It's been around like, I'm sure it could be much better.

 14:33
Have you watched the documentary? The business of the pill?

 14:38
No, it is on my list. I think he's come out again. Is it on? Netflix?

 14:43
No, I don't think so. I think they're doing one more free viewing. I just saw it in my inbox. By time this airs it will be done but for anyone we'll put the link to the where you can go watch it. Yeah, I mean, I know a lot about the pill of like, the holistic side of stuff, but what they what I learned is the shakiness of the industry of how they actually got the pill through. And how they literally went to Puerto Rico and they only tested it on like 104 women or something really low, five died. One was a suicide. And they just lied their way through to pass it through. And women in the 60s, were really trying to be like, Hey, this is really fucking us up. This is not the liberating thing that everyone's saying that it is. And they basically in those time, you could go to like the hearing, they escorted him out. And I think Bernie Sanders got the transcripts finally released after so many years, but it's just very eye opening of how shady these drug companies are. And there's a really big influencer on Tik Tok right now that does makeup. Mikayla. I think her name is and she's documenting her journey of getting off the pill. And it's, I'm so proud of her because she's going to really help a lot of women because she has this amazing life. Right? Like, she's meeting Rihanna, she's engaged. She has this career she always wanted. And she was depressed. She's like, I'm fucking depressed all the time. She's like, I don't get it. And like she was listening to her intuition. And she just was like, it's the pill. It's the pill get off the pill that she finally has. And yeah, it's pretty amazing.

16:37
Yeah. And that in itself is a journey. Right? Like, I think I think so many people just think, oh, I'll just stop the pill. I mean, I know I did. I was like, yeah, so take anymore, fine, whatever, like, great. And I didn't take the pill for as long as many women do. They take the pill quite a long time. I think I only was on it for four or five years. So you know, in the scheme of life, it wasn't very long. But so many just think, Oh, you can just come off. It's fine. And there is an actual protocol, I think that you do need to sort of follow. Yeah, he can't just quit cold turkey should we say?

17:15
I mean, that's what how I feel about these drug regimes with fertility treatment to, you know, like, yeah, everyone just downplays what the drugs are actually doing to you. And they're just like, Okay, well, I'll just jump into another psychologist, jump into another treatment, I'll get my period. And that's fine. I'm good to go. And I'm sitting there going like, No, listen, your body has literally been hijacked for a month, and then on the pill, you're talking years. Yeah. Like you really need to give it time to heal and, and relearn what to fucking do itself, because it's been suppressed so long.

17:54
And I think part of that is we are such an instant gratification society, we want it done and we want it done now. So if you're telling me that I've got to wait five years for my body to heal before I can try for a baby on my own, or whatever it is. Well, no, I don't want that. I want it now. I want to be pregnant now. Like the girl from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I bought it now. I want it now. Daddy. Yeah. And you know, and that is how we are we've been conditioned to click Buy and Amazon delivers it the next day. Or oh, I want to look at this and you can find it on Tik Tok or Amazon like, Yeah, I do. I do think it's an interesting, an interesting conditioning that we've gone through.

18:41
Yeah, I mean, another good conspiracy, you know. And I truly don't believe it, it was there was this mastermind and this is how it's gonna play out. I think people just were individually going, Oh, well, we can make money off of this. And this can happen. And it doesn't matter about that. We don't know the long long term effects and whatever, and it just compounds. So yeah, like, I do think the pill has contributed to a lot of women's issues with fertility, and just with health, right, like, let's just take the fertility part out of it. You're dealing with autoimmune issues, thyroid issues, mental and emotional health issues. And, you know, let's just prescribe you another pill Hill, some antidepressants, or here's this and those quick fixes. And it is it does take I don't know why did what do you think I know you said you had like an incident. And then the next day you wanted the coil removed? What do you think that aha moment was inside of you?

19:48
I think I always there was that nickel inside of me that knew that there was a better way and I had resisted the pill for a really long time. And then I just think that I was just done postnatal depression I have a child who cried all the time. I hated living in the country that I was in. I ranked my grandmother and I was like that day. I'm leaving. I'm leaving Audrey with my husband. I'm divorcing him. I'm going away. I'm no good for any of them. She hates me. He hates me. And my grandmother is like, she's now 80 Odd the time she'd have been 70. Odd. She's like, well, that's a real great phone call. Thanks for that, because I can do so much here in Louisiana while you're in. I'm just not going to tell your grandfather. We've had this conversation. Okay. Okay. Bye. You know, and I think I just woke up. And I remember being so incredibly angry and so incredibly distraught, because I didn't know what to do the night before. And I woke up the next day, and it was like, I was a complete like, it was the Twilight Zone. I was a completely different person. And I remember thinking to myself, it's the coil. Yeah, it is got it has got to be the coil. Like there is no, there is no other reason for it. Like, I'm not bipolar. is got to be the coil. And and it was a ticket out. And I've never looked back. I mean, I'm still a bit crazy. But it's not to do with hormonal birth control.

 21:23
Yeah, yeah. But yeah. Now looking back at your journey of having your daughter, do you think that there was some warning signs before your pregnancy or maybe even during your pregnancy, that you could have better supported in a holistic way, like now all the knowledge you have now, because I know a lot of time with fertility, it's very much just get pregnant, just get pregnant, I'll do anything to get pregnant. But my big message is that pregnancy is so impactful on your body. So whatever issues you're dealing with, your body is not going to be able to deal with them anymore, because it's growing a baby, so you're going to get sicker. And then those are when you have the complications with your labour, and postnatal, which is such a trying time. So I like I have beautiful, happy babies. And it was still hard as fuck, right? Like, yeah, when you're dealing with issues, like hormonal issues, thyroid issues, anything going on that just can't like it just makes it even worse. So is there anything that you can maybe shine a light on for our listeners?

22:31
It's funny, because I was probably the healthiest I had been when we got pregnant. I got pregnant within a month. I was very Taipei, if I don't get pregnant by June, we're waiting a year because I was a teacher. I was like, I can't leave my kids in the middle of a term like, come on. Of course you can. And we started trying in April, and I was pregnant by the May. So I was pregnant incredibly quickly. But then I was sick the entire time. So I was constantly nauseous. I had spotting halfway through my pregnancy. I had her a week early, I was in labour for four days. Um, so nothing about my labour or nothing about my pregnancy was comfortable. I never enjoyed it. I never, I was exhausted. I was sick all the time. So I don't know if how extremely healthy I was. And then I just put a stop to all of that and was literally just managing what I could get in which literally was Cheerios, so I wasn't nourishing my body in any way. And then I had really bad I had mental health challenges before. Um, but then once I had Audrey and she had reflux, and she cried all the time, and I was on my own in the UK, and it was January, and it was dark, and it snowed and it was horrendous, and I never would do it again. And she's great now, but she really wasn't Ben. Um, I think I think you're right. I think I just was in such a bad place during my pregnancy. For whatever reason, I couldn't pinpoint one thing that once I had her, it just all kind of imploded. And it never got any better. I mean, it did eventually, but it took years and I only realised when the pandemic happened that I had undiagnosed postnatal depression, because I was having therapy at the time and she was like, everything you're describing, is what someone with postnatal depression would describe. And so, you know, to discover you had postnatal depression with your kid is eight is lying. Okay, that's so yeah, I couldn't pinpoint one thing, but I did not have a very comfortable pregnancy at all, or Labour or delivery. or eight years

24:52
after that. Yeah. So let's just like focus on the mental and emotional part, right? You know, because I feel like everyone doesn't realise how important that actually is. So, you know, with fertility issues, you can take some time and start really investigating that because when you are because I, I didn't realise how much more work I had to do after I had my kid I don't my kids, but my second one especially, and I don't know if you found this is that there are triggers for your past trauma that you didn't know you had.

25:29
Oh, my dad, my kid is literally like a trigger.

 25:33
Yeah, in human form. And no one talked about that. And like, you I'm coming from a BA Honours Degree in early education and Childhood Studies. I worked with kids for 20 years, I thought I was gonna have this parenting thing fucking down. Oh, yeah. And no, my first one is much like his father, he did, I was just happy bliss with him. My second one is like the spirit of me. And the triggers that came up that were so deep and unknown. And so that's why being on about mental health is that if you're able to do it before you have children in release those, it makes the trials of parenthood that much easier.

 26:18
Absolutely. I mean, I have always been one for therapy, and talk therapy and counselling, and all of that kind of stuff. I do feel that we all have traumas as children, you just do regardless of if you had the most amazing upbringing. We all have traumas. My daughter, Audrey, the Apple didn't fall off the tree. We laugh, it's still on it. And yeah, we are so similar. And I see lots of things in her that I was like, with anxiety, for example. And I'm really keen to give her strategies now as a 10 year old with hypnotherapy and therapy and counselling and all these other things, because I don't want her to be me as a 16 year old. Yeah, you know, I want her to have the strategies. And I think if you can do that for yourself, that is the best gift you can give yourself as a parent, you have to be the best version of you. And if you are being triggered, and you will be by your children, there's nothing wrong in that there's no shame that you need to have a support network around you. I wasn't lucky in the sense. I mean, I was lucky I had my husband, but that is it here. You know, I didn't have my family. In the UK, his mother lived further away. And so it was a very dark period for a long time.

27:48
And sometimes you don't even know that those are the triggers. Like you. Yeah, I have no idea aware. And this is like just a breach the awareness and sometimes it's hard until you are triggered and sometimes only your fucking kids can trigger you that way. But, you know, we always do in my coaching like a trauma line. And I I'm really honest with my trauma line, because I don't have big traumas, you know, so it's like, here's a really good visualisation of someone who did grew up in a house, happy household, guess my parents are alcoholics, but they were functioning alcoholics. But here's how these traumas can impact your life. And here's where you can do and see your timeline, and just start exploring those things. And then you go a little bit deeper and deeper and deeper as you go. But I do think it's, and I think a lot of the time for women who are doing all the right physical things is their, their block, right? It's also,

28:51
I think, sometimes you can be in the middle of a trigger and go, Oh my gosh, this is why I'm triggered. I've discovered that recently, I was like, adjust, adjust want her to do what I said she's not doing I just want to control the situation because that's my biggest trigger. If I can't control something, it's like, oh, my gosh, all hands on deck. And you can't control a 10 year old like Newsflash, somebody didn't tell me this. It's worth it in the parenting manual. Do you mean I can't control until she moves out the house? Come on. And so sometimes you can be in the middle of this, like, I mean, we have arguments now and go, Oh my gosh, this is why I'm doing this. This is why I sound like my grandmother. Yeah. Yeah. You know, but it is the awareness and I do think that we are getting much more as a society of round the awareness and I think women are getting much better at taking that support that they need back for themselves.

29:52
Yeah, exactly. And you can really empower yourself during this time when you're struggling with anything fertility issues and for The issues I see, I feel like they come with the whole Kooten. What is it the cooling battle? Or what's that term? Oh, no idea. Kitten caboodle. Yes, kidding. That's it. They just come with everything right anxiety, depression, physical symptoms, you know, diagnose autoimmune issues. So it's really just bringing that awareness and start focusing on the things that you can control and finding those ways finding that support. Because even if you have your family and friends around you sometimes they might not even get it.

30:38
Yeah, right. Like very personal journey. Yeah.

30:42
And if you start talking about hypnosis, emotional freedom, tapping crystals, like manifestation, like any of these things that you're exploring, and you're digging into, they're like, you fucking freak. What are even knowing your cycle? And having my friend said to me about the P, M, D, D, or whatever? Yeah. Like, I think I have that. I'm like, No, I think you have inflammation girl. I was like, that's just a diagnosis that they want to put on you. So you feel like you have a Get Out of Jail Free card? Well, I have this diagnosis. So that's what's wrong with me. I'm like, No, you have mental and emotional stressors. Right now you're eating the wrong foods for your body. And it's caught that your period is your fifth vital sign, fucking listen to it.

31:34
Yeah. And that's the thing, isn't it? People just ignore it. And they ignore their gut health, and they ignore their mental health and they ignore, you wouldn't ignore heart attack. And you wouldn't ignore stroke. So why do you ignore incredibly painful periods, or incredibly volatile mood swings or gas? You know, like, why are you going to ignore gas? Let's be honest, or, you know, and I

31:59
did this for years. I'm not judging anyone, because I ignored a lot of shit for a really

32:03
long time. We all do, because we don't know any different because we don't talk about it. And I think that is the beauty of podcasts like this one, you know, bringing out the taboo subjects talking about stuff and going actually, hey, girlfriend, that ain't normal. Really isn't normal. You should check that shit out. Yeah, because you just don't know. Yeah, I spent years thinking having painful periods. Like I were having painful periods wasn't actually a thing. And I was overdramatic, and I was overreacting because my grandmother who raised me, did not have painful periods. And so she was like, such a drama queen. No, I'm literally in bed because I can't move. Because that's how bad they are. But I thought in my head, well, they must not be as bad as I making them. outspeed Yeah, she don't talk about it.

32:53
Yeah, yeah, you get gaslit. So what were your top steps to taking control over your periods? When you finally found the light, you found the course? What were the like the top three things that you can say to women that really helped change your journey, I think

33:13
in just connecting with my body, I think was the real big one. So I started teaching yoga around this time as well. I remember actually getting the coil removed and then lying on my studio floor because I had a studio at the time with cramps because you had cramps after it gets taken out. And I remember, like, it felt so amazing to me when I could tell what side I was ovulating on because I could feel the pain, the cramping around that that ovary and so just taking five minutes a day to tune into my breathing, my mental health, my physical health, my what's the word? How did I sleep, that kind of thing where I was in my cycle, in doing that a few months, five months, six months really gives you a good picture as to where you're going to be at any given time. So that was really, really instrumental. And just taking setting a lot of boundaries and starting to take care of my own mental health because I think as a mom, in a country that's not her own, like it was really difficult. It can be difficult if you're in your own country, three doors down from your mama like it doesn't really matter where you are. But taking that time to make sure that I was taken care of and that I felt my best really then impacted so much more on my family and how happy they were and again, that was instrumental in because I was paying attention to my cycles. I was then able to pay attention to the subtle nuances of my mental health. So again, just that tuning in was really really helpful. And third I don't really know I think I probably did a lot better When I could take time out and slow down a lot more, and again, that's where the boundaries came in. But I've tried to be really, really conscious of my evenings and what I'm doing on evenings. Because I work in a primary school during the day, I am forward facing with lots of kids all the time. And whilst I am really excitable and extroverted, and a manifesting generator, I do still need to really take time to rest as well. And so again, being able to notice my energy levels, because of being able to tune into my body, making sure that I've got those boundaries in place around rest has also been really instrumental in keeping me happy and healthy.

35:42
Yeah, those are great tips and really hard to do when you're typing.

35:49
I think I think generator like that has been some of the biggest and I didn't do this overnight, like, can I absolutely be honest, I'm still working on it. Like, yeah, I do. I've been doing this for seven plus years. And there will be times when I go weeks without not having a boundary around rest. And I'm like, I'm really tired. Yeah. You know, and so I think it's really important to also say one step at a time, do not look at the whole picture. You know, like with the fertility journey, I presume it's very similar. You want to look at the whole picture and be like in result, baby. But you have to take it step by step, don't you? Because the whole picture is huge. Yeah, there's so many little steps in between, and there's so many falling downs and getting back ups and falling over and getting back up. But you know, you have to be you have to be really gentle with yourself in that, I

36:45
think, yeah, 100%. I mean, we, the way finding fertility works is you look at the small goals. Yes, pregnancy is the ultimate goal. But if that is what you're focusing on, you feel like you're failing every single month. So we readjust the goals and focus on the things that we can are tangible, your moods, your sleep, your gut health, your skin, health, you know, energy, everything like that, where once you start putting things into place, like you know, you actually start seeing results very quickly. And then the more you see the results, the more you want to do it, and then you fall off the waggon you feel like shit, and then you go okay, I agree. It just lets go. You know what to do. Yeah, just life. And that's just being a human.

37:34
Yeah. And again, being able to get back up. That is gold. Yeah. Right. You know, getting back up Dusting yourself off and going again. Wow. Amazing. For sure.

37:45
Well, thank you so much for coming on and talking. I always enjoy your company. Please let us our listeners know where they can find you.

 37:55
So I'm over on Instagram at I am Sarah. So SAR, a haitch. Burn bees. And boy, why R and E. And I'm over there quite a lot. I do have a website called Sarah burn wellness.com. So you can head over there and see any of my blog posts. And yeah, that's pretty much it. And I do have a podcast. Can I talk about my pod? Of course you can. Also I've also got podcast, which is how I met Monica because she's she's a guest on my podcast as well. And it is called Sarah explains it all. And we talk about loads of taboo subjects, which I love. And you can find us over on anchor or Spotify and quite a few other places. But

38:40
ya know, I'd love to be on your podcast. And I think it's a really good place to hang out and just feel that woman energetic vibe. And yeah, it'd be able to listen in on all those taboo subjects that you want to know about and you want to be informed about. So yeah, I'm super excited that you put that out into the world. So thank you so much for joining us and

 39:01
next time hopefully so much.

39:05
Thank you once again for tuning in to the finding fertility podcast. If you're loving this podcast please leave us a rating and review and let us know how this podcast is supporting you to get steps closer to creating your dream family. I hope you have a beautiful weekend and we will see you next Friday for another episode of the finding fertility podcast.

Let's Do This Together 💚

Monica

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Anything written or said about health and diet are my opinions, that I have formed over the years, through trial and error, study, reading, listening and observing. What worked for me may not work for you. I am not a doctor, nutritionist or dietician and all medical advice should be gotten from a qualified professional. Product recommendations are based on what I used during my infertility journey or wish I had.