I am Dr. Julie Taw, a physician and mother with 25 years of experience helping busy women feel better through a holistic, functional, and mind-body lens. My perspective comes from both clinical experience and my own journey as a busy working mom navigating health issues.
Every day I see high-functioning women who do so much for others yet feel depleted and not like themselves. Their days are packed with responsibilities to both family and work. When they do get a quiet moment, they are exhausted. Despite that exhaustion, they still may have trouble sleeping. They wake during the night. Their PMS feels worse. They are more irritable, their energy is low, and they just don’t feel like themselves anymore.
Caring for so many women with this same story has taught me how much women take on—and how capable they are. Pushing hard through exhaustion has become normalized. Women often ask what else they should add to their lifestyle to feel better. They may also blame themselves for not being able to handle it all. But we all have a limit. When the demands of life repeatedly exceed our capacity for recovery, it will eventually take a toll on the body.
When Demand Exceeds Recovery
I meet many of these women in burnout. Burnout happens when the demands of our lives exceed our ability to recover. It can be easy to miss. Women may still be high-functioning on the outside. But inside, they feel depleted. They go through the motions and no longer feel like themselves.
We easily understand how physical demands can wear us down, but mental and emotional demands can have the same effect. Stress helps us meet a challenge. However, when chronic stress is not balanced by equal recovery, it can negatively impact sleep, mood, and hormones.
The brain’s stress and reproductive systems are in constant communication. When the brain perceives ongoing strain or inadequate resources, reproductive signaling can change, which may affect the menstrual cycle and symptoms. Stress can also disrupt sleep and circadian rhythms, further influencing reproductive hormones and menstrual function.
This relationship works in both directions. Estrogen and progesterone also influence mood, resilience, sleep, and nervous-system regulation. This can become especially noticeable during perimenopause, when shifting hormones may change how we experience and respond to stress.
Our capacity is not fixed: it shifts across the menstrual cycle through different stages of life.
Understanding this physiology matters, but the answer is not to eliminate stress. Instead, we can pay attention to the balance between the demands on our bodies and our opportunities for recovery. Sometimes creating more recovery is not always about adding another healthy habit. Rather it means looking at what we are carrying and asking what can be released.
Boundaries Are a Health Practice
We usually think about boundaries in the context of relationships, but boundaries also protect our time, energy, sleep, and capacity for recovery. I have come to think of boundaries as a health practice.
That might mean deciding the last email or household task can wait until tomorrow rather than sacrificing sleep. It might mean saying no to something nonessential—not because you couldn’t squeeze it in, but because doing so would leave no margin in your day. It might mean asking your partner to handle school pickup and dinner when you’re running late, instead of rushing from work and trying to do both.
Boundaries do not eliminate stress. They create room for recovery. They reduce some of the constant demand on the nervous system and give the body a chance to shift out of stress mode.
But setting boundaries requires something deeper than knowing we need more rest. We have to believe that what our body is telling us deserves our attention.
From Self-Care to Self-Honor
As a busy, working mom, I spent years putting the needs of everyone else before my own. It took my own health issues to make me realize that I needed to pay attention to myself, too. I knew I needed better self-care, but I already felt overloaded, and adding another item to my schedule felt overwhelming.
What helped me was shifting from self-care to self-honor.
Self-care asks, “What can I do for myself?” Self-honor asks, “What does my body need from me right now?”
One day it may be exercise. Another day it may be rest. It might be calling a friend, eating a nourishing meal, getting to bed earlier, asking for help, or saying no. Women are often extraordinarily good at honoring their commitments to everyone else. What would it look like to give the signals from our own bodies that same respect?
For me, self-honor also means reconnecting with my why. Taking care of myself wasn’t about putting my needs above everyone else’s. I began to understand that when I feel better—when I sleep well, nourish myself, move my body, and create space to recover—I show up differently for the people I love. I have more energy, patience, and presence. Taking care of my health allows me to bring more of my best self to my children, my family, and the work that matters to me.
Honor Your Rhythms
Self-honor begins with listening. And one of the things we can begin to listen for is rhythm.
Our bodies are not static. We live in rhythms.
There is a daily rhythm: our sleep-wake cycle, energy, hunger, and cortisol follow patterns throughout the day. There is a monthly rhythm for women who menstruate: as estrogen and progesterone shift across the cycle, they influence energy, mood, sleep, appetite, and stress tolerance. Our routines and needs may also shift with the seasons. And there are larger life-cycle rhythms, including perimenopause and menopause, when hormonal changes can again shift sleep, mood, energy, and our capacity to handle stress.
Honoring these rhythms means paying attention rather than expecting ourselves to feel and perform exactly the same way every day. It may mean adjusting how we move, rest, nourish ourselves, or structure our commitments based on what our bodies are telling us.
Seed cycling can be one gentle, rhythm-based practice within this approach—using different seeds during different phases of the menstrual cycle as a way to intentionally support and connect with the body’s changing needs.
The goal is not to control the body. It is to listen more closely and work with it, rather than continually asking it to override its own signals.
Sometimes supporting your body means adding something nourishing. And sometimes it means finally putting something down.
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While this blog discusses health topics, it is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always consult your doctor or other qualified healthcare provider regarding any question you might have regarding your health.
About the Author
Dr. Julie Taw is a board-certified physician with more than 25 years of experience helping women feel better through a holistic, functional, and mind-body approach. She looks beyond symptoms to understand how stress, hormones, lifestyle, and the nervous system interact to shape health and well-being. Through her practice and podcast, Medicine with Meaning, she helps people make practical, sustainable changes that support greater clarity, energy, and ease.
Some other articles on a related topic you may like to explore:
Turning Your Cycle into a Performance Engine by Chloe Sachs
Cyclically Embodied Work: Finding Meaning in Work through Cyclical Living by Alice Pfeiff
What the 28-Day Cycle Knows That the 24-Hour Clock Forgot by Terry Chang