Burned Out, Overwhelmed & Still Striving? How This “Recovering Educator” Reclaimed Her Health, Peace & Power—And Helps Others Do the Same
Are You Running on Empty While Trying to Do It All? Read This.
If you’ve ever pushed yourself to the brink of burnout—juggling work, family, relationships, and the constant pressure to do more—this one’s for you.
In this inspiring episode of the Healed & Cash Flowing podcast, host Kat sits down with Naomi Hall—an educator turned stress and burnout coach who’s walked through the fire of chronic illness, job loss (twice), and toxic work environments…and came out thriving.
But not before she learned some hard-earned lessons about identity, rest, and redefining what “success” really means.
From Overachiever to Overwhelmed: Naomi’s Wake-Up Call
Naomi spent 18 years in education, climbing the ladder from teacher to administrator. Like many high achievers, she was always chasing the next degree, the next role, the next opportunity to prove herself. But underneath the gold stars and long hours was a brewing storm of chronic stress, zero work-life balance, and an identity wrapped entirely around her job title.
Then she got let go.
Twice.
Add in a battle with chronic Lyme disease, and Naomi was forced to do something high achievers rarely do: slow down.
"I Realized I Didn’t Know Who I Was Without My Job."
Her health broke down. Her confidence wavered. But in that darkness, Naomi found something else—clarity. She saw how disconnected she’d become from herself, how much she had been functioning on auto-pilot, and how many women around her were doing the same thing.
So she took all the stress management tools she had pieced together for her own survival—and built a business helping other women reclaim their peace and power.
Burnout Doesn’t Just Happen—It Builds in Silence
Whether you’re a mom, business owner, caregiver, or ambitious career woman, Naomi says burnout often sneaks in quietly:
You sacrifice sleep to get "just one more thing" done.
You start skipping meals, workouts, and downtime.
You hold your breath—literally—through stress.
You forget what rest even feels like.
Sound familiar?
Naomi doesn’t just coach people out of this cycle—she teaches them how to recognize it before it steals their joy (or their health).
The Glass vs. Plastic Ball Method for Knowing What to Drop
One of Naomi’s most powerful analogies?
“You’re juggling a lot of balls. Some are plastic—they can drop and bounce back. Others are glass—if you drop them, they shatter.”
For Naomi, sleep, health, and key relationships are always glass. That PTA cookie assignment or a perfectly polished Instagram post? Probably plastic.
Knowing the difference—and giving yourself permission to prioritize accordingly—is the difference between staying sane or spiraling.
The Symphony of Life: How to Conduct Your Own Harmony
Naomi beautifully describes life as a musical score. You’re the conductor. Your work, family, health, and creativity are all instruments.
“There are times when your business is the solo. Other times, your family needs to take center stage. But the music works because not everything is playing at full volume all the time.”
This “rhythm over balance” approach allows you to shift focus without shame—because life isn’t meant to be perfectly balanced. It’s meant to be beautifully in tune.
Stress Management Isn’t a Luxury—It’s a Lifeline
Naomi breaks stress down into 5 foundational areas:
Sleep
Movement
Nutrition
Hydration
Mindset
If you’re not sleeping, everything else suffers—from your energy and mood to your metabolism and focus. Naomi even shares that she gained weight and struggled with cravings after just one night of poor sleep due to its effect on hunger hormones like ghrelin and leptin.
Her tip? Don’t overhaul your life. Start by going to bed just two minutes earlier each night. Small, sustainable changes compound into transformation.
Breathe—It Starts There
Overwhelmed and don’t know where to start? Naomi's go-to tool is portable, free, and science-backed:
The 4-6 Breath
Inhale through your nose for 4 seconds
Exhale slowly through your mouth for 6 seconds
This simple pattern signals safety to your nervous system and brings calm to your body in moments of panic, tension, or overstimulation.
Try it right now—you’ll feel the shift immediately.
A Coach Who Walks Her Talk (Even When She’s Tired)
What makes Naomi’s coaching different?
She lives it. She’s been the one crying from exhaustion, dealing with panic attacks, battling physical symptoms of stress—and finding her way back to peace through breath, boundaries, and grace.
That authenticity is what makes her work powerful. She’s not preaching from a pedestal—she’s reaching across the table, offering tools she’s used to heal herself.
Want to Start Managing Your Stress—Today?
Naomi offers two powerful resources to help you take your first step:
1. Free PDF: The 5 Foundations of Stress Management
Includes bite-sized, actionable steps in each core area: movement, mindset, nutrition, sleep, and hydration.
2. 7-Day Free Trial of GrowthDay (Plus Bonus Coaching Session!)
Naomi’s favorite personal development platform—packed with daily mindset shifts, journaling tools, and training from top leaders like Brendon Burchard, Mel Robbins, and more.
Final Word: You Are the Driving Line of Your Symphony
If you’re exhausted, burned out, or constantly overwhelmed—it doesn’t mean you’re broken. It means you’re human.
You don’t have to do it all. And you definitely don’t have to do it alone.
Take a breath. Reclaim your rhythm. And remember what Naomi so passionately teaches:
“You are not what you do. You are who you are. And that identity is rooted in something that cannot be taken away.”
💡 Want to Learn from Naomi Hall? Here’s How to Connect
Naomi is a speaker and coach who focuses on stress management and burnout prevention and recovery. She helps you work with your brain rather than against it to do what you already know you need to do.
🔗 Connect with Naomi Hall:
🔹 Facebook:@naomihallfiteducator
🔹 Instagram: @naomihallfiteducato
🔹Website: www.nrhdynamic.com
Transcript
Hi, my name is Catherine Storring, you may call me Cat, and I am the host of the Healed and Cash Flowing podcast show, where I'm going to tell you exactly how I went from completely burned out, hating my business, not knowing how to show up, or how to even embrace who I really wanted to work with. I'm going to give you all the secrets, so make sure you tune in every week so you too can love your business and grow your cash flow in no time. Hello Naomi, welcome to the Healed and Cash Flowing podcast, how are you? I am great, thank you.
So good to have you, and I love that you make the time to be with us, and for those that don't know you, can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Absolutely, so I, well let me tell you, my background is 18 years in education as a teacher and administrator, so dealing with a lot of stress, burnout, my own health issues, and when I was laid off for the second time, let go, non-renewed, fired, whatever word you want to put on it, I started my own business, and like a lot of people, I was like, well, like what am I going to do? Like there's a lot of things I like and that I'm capable of, and I realized I have learned how to manage my stress through my own challenges, but I had to do it all on my own, so I wanted to provide what I didn't have, and so I am a stress and burnout coach and speaker, providing the support to high achievers that I didn't have, because high achievers, we tend to push ourselves always to the next thing, the next thing, and we tend to push ourselves to burnout, so that's how I got to where I am as a speaker and coach. That is amazing,
I have to laugh because there's so many ways to say the same thing, right? However people feel better about saying you got let go, or you got laid off, or I love what you said, not renewed, it can be fired, whatever, whatever resonates with people, right? And I love how you came for us right off the bat, overachievers, I'm like, I keep talking to you, right? Because we're so passionate about whatever we are passionate about, that we can say just one more thing, one more email, one more meeting, one more thing, and then we find ourselves there, so can you talk us through your own journey of burnout in being an overachiever? Absolutely, so yeah, like always having my next step, my next goal, my next degree, my next, next, next, and always trying to be the best at what I did, and there's, like you said, there's always something more you can do, especially when you work in education, there's always more you can do to your lesson plan, there's always more you can do to be a better teacher, and early in my career I had zero work-life balance, like none, and I got let go from that job, budget cuts and that, and I wouldn't have termed it burnout at that time, I didn't have that term terminology, but in that time I was four months out of work, because I would let go, because I was an expensive person, because I had nine years of experience, master's degree, so that meant I was also an expensive hire, so it took me a long time to find a job, and I actually found a job in pharmacy as a pharmacy tech, which a master's degree at that point, to be a pharmacy tech you need a high school degree, and so it was just kind of my step to like, okay, I've got a job, and then like, well maybe, maybe I could be a, like a pharmacist, like I could go back.
I was already contemplating going back to school, and then like spending time there, I was like, no, no way, but it was just such a difficult time, because I realized I had tied so much of my identity to what I did as a job career, that I didn't know who I was without that, and so that leads to burnout, because you just throw yourself into it, because it's who you are, but then when you don't have it, you don't have anything, and so I really had to work on that, and as a Christian, my idea, and there was also the kind of that guilt of as a Christian, my identity should be in who I am in Christ, and I had to go back to that, and, and really build from the foundation of my faith, of this is who I am, that does not ever change, and that goes for everybody, whatever faith, or even if you don't have faith, you have to have your identity, and something that doesn't change, and can't be taken away from you, because a job can be taken away, and then can going back into education, starting my doctoral process, and that I'm working on moving into administration, because someone had spoken that to me, like spoken life into me, of like, you know you could be an administrator, right, and I was like, I could, like that just hadn't crossed my mind, so stepping into that, going back into the world of education, because that's just the core of who I am, I am an educator, that's just, that, that can't be taken away from me, that, that is who I am, I am an educator, and so going back into that world, I like, I am one of those people, I love teenagers, I like people, I know most people are like, oh my goodness, they're, they're like the most terrifying, I'm like, no, I love them, love them, they're brutally honest, but they're kids in big bodies, trying to figure out how this world works, so I love working with them, so I went back into the world of education, and struggled with toxic work environments multiple times, being lied about, being, oh, backstabbing, manipulation, you name it, like a couple different situations, just super, super toxic, having to leave both, left one, I just, I said, like, I'm done, here's my letter of resignation, I'm, I'm done, the other one, I found a new job, and that was when I was let go a second time, that was in 2022, and a friend called me, and, and through this whole process, I was figuring out how to balance work and life, and one, like, two things that really were huge in that, or one, that entire time.
I was battling chronic Lyme disease, so super sick, and of no choice of my own, so many things just being taken off my plate, because I just couldn't, I couldn't, like, I didn't have a choice physically, mentally, emotionally, I just had to, like, do what was bare minimum, what, what I could, and then also working on my doctorate, while working full-time, while sick, I had to figure out, as an educator, how to get my work done at work, I couldn't take it home, because at home, I had to sit down and work on coursework, write my dissertation, do my research, all of that, so it really forced me to become very effective with my time at work, and using my planning periods of, like, I have this time, and I have to use it well, so really learning time management to help me with juggling everything, and stress management, and so when I was let go, again, realizing, like, this is, this is who I am, I'm a recovering educator, and I can help people who are like me, who are always looking for the next goal, the next step, the next achievement, a little bit more, do a little bit better, you know, rise to the top, but you can do it in a way that's healthy, you can do it in a way that.
I know some people push back at the word balance, because it's actually not a balanced life, it's figuring out what, where to let the seesaw teeter, and where to bring it back up, and when you're coming too far out of balance, so sometimes harmony is a better word for it, we want this beautiful symphony going with this driving line of the rhythm underneath it, and then these different beautiful lines that come, and go, and rise, and fall, making this beautiful piece of music in our lives, but we get to conduct it, we get to decide when this line rises, and when it comes back down, and when the next one comes up, and when all of it kind of decrescendos down to a place of restful peace, and to make a beautiful piece of music, you have to have all of that, and there are times when all of it rises, like, to that forte, and you just have this beautiful crescendo, and it's like everything's going all at once, but it comes back down after that, it doesn't stay there, so sometimes a better description is the harmony of a beautiful piece of music.
Oh my god, that's so beautiful, and I can tell you're an educator, because the way you had that analogy was beautiful, thank you so much, and I'm like, I almost wanted to stop you, I'm like, don't speed bump right through that identity outside of what you do, because you said it can be taken away, so I just wanted people to take that for a moment, you are not what you do, you are who you are, and I love how beautiful you said it, who, whatever it is, if it's your faith, how do you call, some people call, have different names for God, and God, he's okay, he knows who he is, so he can take all the names, that's all right, but where is your identity rooted in, and once your identity is rooted outside of what you do, something that is unmovable, then no matter what happens around you, you're always going to be okay, yes, yeah, it's that, it's that solid foundation, I know who I am, and I know what I'm called to do, and you can take so many things away from me, but if I know who I am, I have the stability, and like in the storms of life, like the waves will crash, all those things will happen, but I have the stability, because I know who I am.
Yeah, and I love that, even though, and it's funny, because I have been in pharmacy tech, and it's not fun at all, it's chaotic, and you're always ringing more than you're doing anything else, which is not fun, but anyway, it's a step, it's a step, but what I love, that even though you're an educator, you're using your skills in another setting, because you're still an educator, it's just that you're doing, you're teaching something else, and I love that we have, life is this evolution of us uncovering, not discovering, because it's already there, it's uncovering who we have been all along, and all those lessons, all those jobs, all those reorganizations, were part of our process, so we can uncover the version of what we were called to do, because in those, and correct me if I'm wrong, did you pick up some skills while you were teaching, that you're using in your business today?
Absolutely, absolutely, like I don't have a degree in business, like it was never my dream to become a business owner, but the skills I learned as an educator, like you learn so much in education of time management, and speaking, and let me tell you, like give me a room full of teenagers, I can keep them engaged, like I, that's one of the most difficult audiences to speak to, and keep their attention, I can tell you, I can stand up in front of a classroom of however many teenagers, and I can keep them engaged, so give me a room full of adults.
I'm like, all right, I got you, yeah, I'm like, if you want to play on your phones and make me feel like I'm in a classroom of teenagers, go for it, I got you, you know, so yes, definitely, I learned skills there, that I've been able to apply in the business realm, and now this is stretching me in different ways, and things that I didn't bring there, that I'm like, oh, like this is a different world, but I still have skills that I can apply. Yeah, so we have an audience that's predominantly female, and of a certain age, and many of them are juggling different things, like motherhood, their wives, they are grandmothers sometimes, and they have a business, or they have a career, and you mentioned this beautiful orchestra that is made of so many instruments, which can be a standing for all the things that we have going on, so how we as a women who are nurtured and caretakers, and love for everyone to be okay, and I have been there myself, where I have put everybody else, and at the end, put somebody else, and I was never on the list, so if you can help them and me sometimes, because we still go back and forth, how do we know which instrument takes the solo, and let others be quiet, or take a back seat, so we can shine in that area, because sometimes it's so hard to choose, that we want to do them all at once, but how do we recognize that this area of my life needs to be center stage now?
Let me go back a little bit on what you asked first, to the not putting yourself on the list, and you are the driving line of your symphony, which means you have to be okay, you have to take care of yourself, and so number one is you've got to be getting sleep, like that is number one, and you say, but I don't have so much to do, I can't sleep, you'll be more effective, you will get more done, you will be a nicer person, if you're getting the sleep that you need, so that's number one, prioritize your sleep, and then exercise, nutrition, hydration, mindset, take care of you, so that you can take care of other people, and then when you're trying to figure out which line do I emphasize, which one do I focus on right now, I talk about sometimes the glass, and the plastic balls, or plates, this kind of depends on what analogy you want to go with, and let's just go with juggling today, I can't juggle to save my life, I can juggle like the activities in my life, when it comes to balls, I have no skill, but when you're juggling, you don't really want to drop the balls, but at some point, you get too many, and something has to go, something has to fall, my encouragement is which balls are glass, which balls are plastic, because the plastic ones can fall, and they're not going to break, you'll be able to pick them up at a later time, the glass ones are the ones that are going to shatter, and will have irreparable damage when they fall, that's your relationships with your family, your spouse, your children, those things, and for each of us, it's going to be a little bit different, but you have to decide what are the glass balls juggling right now, that if I drop them, there's going to be irreparable damage.
if I don't show up to the PTA meeting with perfectly made cookies, not a big deal, like I can stop and pick up Walmart cookies, and everyone's going to be fine, if I miss my child's recital, that can have irreparable damage, I've got to decide what's glass, what's plastic, and plastic, it can fall for a little bit, I can let that go, but those glass ones, I've got to make sure I take care of them, and that maybe we need to slow down a little bit so that I really can focus on those glass ones, because not everyone gets to have, nor deserves the same amount of attention from me, and there are other times when it is your business that is the glass ball, and you have those conversations with your family, with your children saying, you know, right now, mom, grandma needs to focus on this, so that we can do this, so that I can have time for this with you, and you have those serious conversations to bring them into what's going on in your business, and why you're doing what you're doing for a time, because there are times when we're kind of full out in our business, when like it's launch season right now, like I've got to be running social media, I've got to be getting these posts up, I've got to do this, I have to do that, like this is a must do right now, so it's really looking at those things, and making sure that the priorities in your life understand why, why is mom, why is grandma focusing on this right now, why am I not getting quite as much of attention, and sometimes what you'll find is your family's like, oh okay, well what can I do, how can I contribute to that, how can I support you, and that often takes some of that stress off, because like, well can I take on something to help with that, yes, could you make dinner, yes, could you clean the bathroom, you know the nitty-gritty of life, could you pick up the dry cleaning, could you put in a load of laundry, you know, and delegating those tasks, and that delegation becomes easier when we have those open conversations about why you need help, and then being willing to ask for help, so many of us are like, I can do it all, I'm superwoman, I have to do it all, because I see these other people on social media that looks like they do it all, no they don't, they do not do it all, they have help, they have VAs, they have maybe someone who comes in and cleans their house, they maybe they order like blue apron, you know, one of those food services, things like that, you know, they're getting help in different ways, you just don't see it, so no one is wonder woman doing everything, so that's really a lot of what it takes is glass versus plastic, and having open conversation with your glass priority people, when you need to prioritize other things, because your business is glass, like you need to keep your business running, but you also need to keep your health, you need to keep your relationships, and so when there has to be that shift, having those conversations and delegating. It's key, as you were talking.
I remember a couple things that I wish I had done better, but that I do better now, is I define my own priority list, because if you don't define it, others will define it for you, and most of the time, if not all the time, the priorities are, by coincidence, really well aligned with their priorities, and it looks like your priorities are not even on the list, and if they are, they are very low, so prior making your own list first, so you know what's glass, and what's plastic, it's huge, and then one thing that I realized, because you said I love the harmony, sometimes in the business, sometimes it's something else that people might not want it to be a priority, it's having a timeline, it's saying this is going to be a priority for 30 minutes, or I'm launching, so it's two weeks, and then they know after two weeks, I get that back, after two weeks, everything's going to go back to my normal, and that way you can honor them, because some people, I notice, they want to know what's happening, sometimes it's not so much of give me, give me attention, it's like I know you're doing that, you love it, it's important to you, when are you coming back? Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and I love that you mentioned priorities, because this is something I do with my clients.
I like stop making a to-do list, because our to-do list is just minutiae, and it's, you know, it's just this long list that like we never get through, it transfers from day to day, list to list, there's stuff that's been on 20 to-do lists of yours that you still haven't done, but when you set your daily top three priorities, those are your big things that must get done that day, when you focus on the priorities, the to-do's get done, yeah, but when you look at three things, that's a lot less overwhelming than that list of 20 things, and I am one of those people that loves being able to check the things off, oh my goodness, I'm like, oh, I could just scratch that out, and that, and that, so I get it, but it gets very overwhelming, and I try to be really honest about like, I'm the stress expert, yet I'm in a season right now where I'm kind of stressed, so I was like doing some self-evaluation today of like, okay, there are signs that I'm stressed right now, like very clear signs, so why am I stressed, and I was like, so my signs of stress, I'm having night terrors, that's a very clear sign to me, I'm waking up in the middle of the night panicked, that's a very clear sign that I, I have stress, headaches, heartburn, I also get like esophageal spasms, they're so painful, and so I have some very physical signs that I have stress, so I had to look back and be like, okay, so why am I stressed, and I was like, I am not doing a good job of prioritizing, and I'm not doing a good job of managing my mindset, so I have a lot of things swirling in my head that I have not put down on paper, and that's one of the really important things that I also teach is, it's called closing loops, and so we often try to hold our list in our head of all these things that we need to do, people we need to talk to, all of this stuff, and our brain can only hold so many pieces of information in short-term memory before it starts losing things, but if we just take a moment, and it doesn't, it can be on a scrap of paper that you just write those things down, the act of taking the, the thought from your brain to paper frees up your brain and closes the loop, so that your brain can do what it's supposed to do in problem solving and all of that, it frees your brain to do its job, and so I haven't been doing a good job of getting those things onto paper, I'm like.
I try to be really honest about sharing that side of like, I don't do this right all the time, I do still get stressed, but the thing is, I notice it now a whole lot sooner before it gets really, really bad, I'm like, oh, okay, yeah, this is out of balance, I need to take care of it, rather than, so I notice the whispers of my body now, rather than waiting for it to scream at me, and it can be any numerous type of health issue for people, people actually land in the hospital with legitimate health concerns that are generated from stress, that's the starting point of the health issue that landed them in the hospital, and it can be migraines, it can be high blood pressure, all kinds of different things, for me, when I'm in extreme stress, I end up with plantar fasciitis, and it will not resolve until I resolve the stress.
Wow, the body is beautiful, the body is such a beautiful thing, and you know what, I have begun to understand that what makes us a better coach is that our own journey, it's in the thing that we coach, and because of that, we then can create content, we can create solutions for them, for the things that we're figuring out, like we are our own guinea pigs, which is amazing, so you don't have to have disclaimers, like I'm gonna tell you some myself, let's see if it works, and then it works, and you can, you have anecdotal information, like this works if I did it, I just went through that, so I think the audience or clients really appreciate when we are human, and we let them know, listen, I might be have a business on this, I've been doing this for, you know, a quadrillion years, I still have my days, and this is where I go, these are, this is how I said, reset my course again, and figured out how to get back in line, and I think it makes it easier for them, and because you know, I don't know about you, but it's so easy for me to go into blame mode.
I can't believe it, you're supposed to be better, you're supposed to be more ahead of this, you're doing this yet again, well, I'm human, everybody's human. Yeah, and I think people really are wanting to see us be real people, and I think I was looking at something about social media, and just kind of the shift going into 2025 is away from that perfection, into being a real person, and showing the reality of your journey, and I've always tried to show that, and people have really appreciated that, I'm like, listen, this doesn't work, don't do this, I tried it, it doesn't work, this is like, and I show up after my workout, sweaty, no makeup, my hair is a mess, you know, I'm like, this is who I am, this is when I have time to talk to you, this is a reality, every now and then I'm like, hey, here I am, makeup and hair all done, and everything, so I think it's, you're right, it's really important to show our journey, and that we are the guinea pigs for it, and right now, I'm in a process of just really looking at supplementation for stress management, and using myself as the guinea pig for that, and looking at companies that I can partner with, because one.
I believe in their product, I've tested it, I know how it works for me, but then also, I believe in the company, and how they run their company, because I want to be with companies that are ethical, and that take care of their clients, and really care about them, so like, if you take care of me as someone who's testing your company, and not a loyal customer yet, I know you'll take care of my clients. That is so beautiful, and I love how you're looking at even going further, extending, like an arm that extends beyond what you do, it's like, okay, who else can I partner with, because there's so many biohacking, you know, I think he got such a bad rap before, it's just people did not understand that biohacking is, how do you get a leg up, how you have, it's almost like a shortcut that works, why not set yourself up for success, and supplements, it's a beautiful, it's a beautiful field that can give us that leg up when we need it.
Yeah, absolutely, because I'm like, there are things out there that really can help with, because there's so many people, when they're struggling with stress, they're struggling with anxiety, they're struggling with sleep, they're struggling with focus, and there are supplements that help with those, so I'm like, okay, which ones are effective, which ones are cleanly and ethically produced, which ones am I willing to try, and do they work, do they not work, I tried one that like, it was super effective for my focus, however, I didn't like how they ran their company, I was like, okay, I'm just not going to go there, I don't want to be part of that, so I'm looking at some others, and I'm like, okay, is this one effective, is it not, I'm like, I do like how they produce their products, I like how they're treating me as a client, now I need to decide whether or not I like the product, so yeah, it's, there's room for more at the table, this is what I learned in business, so often in organizations, the higher you get up to the top, the fewer there are, right, like, that's just, that, that is the pyramid, you know, oftentimes we call network marketing pyramid schemes, like, well, actually, those aren't, but anyway, a regular organization, the higher you get, the fewer there are, but when you're dealing with entrepreneurs, there's room for all of us, there's room for more, like, let's work together, and I'm working on a collaboration with another woman I just met through a networking event, and so excited to work together with her, because we work in a similar space, but we have slightly different ways of approaching it, and so putting our expertise together allows us to help more people, so there's always room for more. Yeah, that is so good, so as you're doing all these amazing things, and you're getting deeper into your business, what are you seeing, are there any trends that you're seeing that people struggle with the most, are you seeing that people are open to getting help when it comes to stress management? Trends, I would say the biggest thing that people struggle with, that they're also very resistant to working on, which I also was resistant to working on, is sleep.
I think people don't realize how important sleep is, that that's just foundational and vital, and it actually is easier to work on than you think, like, it's much easier to work on than you think of, I just tell people, I'm like, listen, what time did you go to bed last night? I'm not asking you to go from like four hours of sleep a night straight to eight, like that, that's impossible, that works against your brain, but what time did you go to bed last night? Let's say it was midnight that you went to bed, well, can you go to bed two minutes earlier tonight? And people are like, oh yeah, sure, so what I'm doing is I'm helping you work with your brain rather than against your brain, so we want a challenge that your brain sees as doable, because when you do it, your brain sees success, you get a hit of dopamine and it wants to do it again, so you do that for a week, and then the next week you go to bed two minutes earlier than that, and the next week two minutes earlier than that, and eventually you've gone to bed a half hour earlier than you were, and you start to notice differences in your cognition, in brain fog, in your energy, in your afternoon slump, in your recall and things like that, and even weight loss, because when we're not getting enough sleep, it affects our cortisol, it affects our stress, it affects our mood, it affects our weight, there's so many things that it affects, and let me just give you a quick example of the weight loss piece.
So I normally get about seven to seven and a half hours of sleep. I'm working on getting to eight. That's amazing, that's incredible.
Yeah, I've had to work really, really hard on it, and I didn't realize what a big difference it made for me, but it's huge, and so this fall I had something going on, and so I had a night where I got less sleep, I think it was like six hours of sleep, which doesn't sound bad, because a lot of people are like, oh, that's all I ever get. Like, yes, but you don't know how good you could feel if you got more.
