Burnout Series Part 2: Beyond Tired, How Burnout is Tanking Your Hormones & Vitality

Welcome back to the Infinite Gold Podcast. Today we've got Friday Fuel, Bree and Anthony Goldner. How you doing, babe?

I'm doing good.

Solid. So today this is going to be part 2 of our burnout series. Burnout and hormones. If you listen to our last episode, if you have not, go back and listen to it. We talk about burnout and the overarching theme of burnout and why it's important to understand it and know a little thing or two about it.

Yeah, no, and understanding, uh, when you're entering burnout or when you're already in it and how to get out of it and things that affect you going into burnout.

Exactly. And if you're new to our show, On Fridays, we have our little Friday Fuel Talks, just Bri and I. On Tuesdays, we have our expert interviews, and a lot of topics we talk about is they're based off the Infinity Model that we coach on. Thank you to The Final Percent. It has to do with your personal mindset, has to do with your professional, your business, money. It has to do with your vitality, your health, and lastly, it has to do with community because community supercharges everything.

Infinite gold.

If you like the show, if the show resonates with you and you know someone who would benefit from it, make sure you share it with them, like it, review. If you have any questions, concerns, reach out to us. We're an open book. We'd be happy to help you out, answer any questions you have. So let's get started, babe. Burnout and hormones. Let's start with the main theory around hormones. And one of the things that we've learned while going down this journey is basically burnout is associated with a deregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, HPA. Basically what that means is, again, when we first read that, we're like, oh, that's a lot a lot of scientific words, right?

You're like, dumb it down for me.

Yeah, basically what that is is it's your stress response command center. For me, the way I thought about it is it's our dispatch with law enforcement. They're the ones that handle everything. And what happens is, is when you're going through burnout, or if you're in like a really, uh, further along stage of burnout, your cortisol levels don't spike as much as they should. So a little in-depth about cortisol is it's your fight or flight. So if you're in fight, your cortisol are going to spike. If you're in flight, fight, one of the two, your cortisol levels are spiking to allow you in order to either fight or flee. That's, that's what's going to happen when you're in burnout and you're in excessive burnout. Your cortisol levels aren't going to spike as high as they should.

So in a way, they're— you're not going to react in either of those ways. You're kind of just going to be like still.

You're dysregulating. You're kind of just stagnant. So if you're supposed to fight quickly, if you're supposed to flee quickly, you're not going to as much. It's the same thing with anything that happens to you in life. If, you know, a job, or if your boss says something, or you're supposed to do something right away, or if your kids are like screaming down your neck and you're supposed to do something right away, you're not, you're not regulated enough. Yeah, to handle the situation.

So I start to giggle because I think of the emoji, uh, where it's just like—

that's exactly it.

It's the lines for the eyes, the lines for the mouth, like You're just stagnant.

You're just, you're there.

Yeah. It's like robot robotic in a way.

Exactly.

You turn into a robot.

Now, one thing a lot of people think is, you know, you got hormones, you got testosterone, you got estrogen, but let's tap into the women's side of things. Like when it comes to burnout and hormones, how do those two correlate together? And why is it important for women to understand that?

Well, for one, uh, we're complicated. We're complicated AF.

Ain't that the truth?

Women. Are significantly more complex than men.

Real quick, you know what's hilarious about that is we have our group chat where we were taught, we're discussing this, and women, when, or when a guy says something like, hey, I'm tired, the woman's like, you're tired? So are you tired of me? Are you tired because of work? Are you tired because of the kids? What are you talking about? And the, in the guy's mind is I'm tired.

I'm just tired.

That's it.

Yeah, no, seriously, um, it's true. It's, it's so true.

Complex.

Yes, men are much more simplistic creatures. Usually when they say something, it's literally just that, just surface level. And even I've had to remind myself, there's days when you've just been short with me and I'm like, maybe he's tired, maybe he needs a snack, I don't know. But surface level, don't go— don't dive into it and overthink some shit because what you could be thinking is completely inaccurate.

Oh. That's really good right there. And burnout has to do with that. Stress has to do with that.

Yeah, you're in that— exactly. Now you're, now you're adding to your stress. You're adding to the burnout that you might already be in, and you're just digging yourself in a digger— in a digger—

you're digging yourself in that dig.

Hot dog, diggity dog. Digging yourself in a deeper burnout hole.

Yeah, because you're thinking something that's not even accurate.

Yeah. Yeah, no, and, and it's— you're just like making up shitty stories in your head. Yeah, ham sandwich, ham sandwich. Um, yeah, no, but like for, for women, I mean, we go through all kinds of cycles with our hormones. I mean, for those of us moms out there, we go through postpartum.

Yeah.

Um, then you get to your 40s to 50s, you start going through menopause. So there's that fluctuation, and you know and, and going through that, like, there's so much going on in your body.

Yeah.

That, like, contributes to all that. And if you're not taking care of yourself appropriately in that stage of life, it can affect your stage of burnout and whether you get— getting out of it, you know, quicker or getting— being stuck in it. Um, something I, I read actually, and in the research that we were doing with this hormones and burnout and all the things. And I was just like, wow, this is really interesting. Who would have thought? But estrogen is like a natural shock absorber for your stress. I'm like, yes, hmm, okay. So like, when it's steady, your body doesn't overreact to pressure. But when estrogen drops or it fluctuates, uh, like in postpartum or menopause I talked about, um, your stress system doesn't have that buffer anymore, which is why stress and burnout can feel overwhelming as it is.

100 times more than what it should be.

Yes, exactly. So it heightens it in a way. So, dude, it's just, it's wild. I mean, I think the, you know, and then we're one, we're like, you know, we can't tell if we're tired, we can't tell if we're hungry, you know. Have I had, you know, do I need a nap? Do I need adult conversations? Do I need a conversation with myself? Yeah, you know, we're just kind of, and am I crying? Like, why am I crying? Yeah, you know, going through all of those those shifts during those two phases of life and then like the in-between.

I was going to say the in-between, and that's what I was going to ask you to touch on.

Yeah.

So for obviously men, we have what's called a 24-hour cycle. Our cycle is literally 24 hours. It's science. It's— it is what it is. Women's is longer. It fluctuates from woman to woman, but it's, it's roughly, you know, the 21, 28 days. Yeah, somewhere around that.

But what's funny is like if you asked me what— how many days of my cycle, I couldn't tell you. Because I just like, ever again, and it kind of—

but yours isn't as bad as it used to be, right?

Yeah.

And that's, and that's what I was going to touch into, is burnout and stress. If you have that and then you tap on, you know, the time of the month, yeah, like it's going to exacerbate everything. So my question to you is, is what have you changed? And I know it's been more recent, uh, in the last couple months that has reduced the burnout, reduce the stress, which ultimately during that time, it's not as heightened. It's not as bad.

Okay.

So I know that was a long-winded question.

No, no, no. Um, so couple of things, I, a lot of which I tap into my vitality strengths.

Yeah.

So that's my sleep. That's my physical activity. So even if I'm not weightlifting, I'm going for a walk or I'm doing a bodyweight type of workout. Yep. Um, and Spending time outside.

Mm-hmm.

Is another one. And of course, like staying on top of eating a wholesome nutrient-dense diet. Mm-hmm. Um, that and the vitality pillar, like has been a huge piece for me. Um, the personal mindset that also plays a huge role in, in the burnout because what I, in times that I'm like struggling or going through the shit. I have to remind myself, this is as bad as it's ever going to be.

Correct.

This is as bad as it's going to be.

That is huge right there.

This is as bad as it's going to be. It's going to be fine. And then the night when I go to bed that night, tomorrow's a new day.

Deep down, what has that done for you? Because that's been a huge game changer for you. And I know, and I've seen it where women may think that's like voodoo craft or that it's like this whole manifestation, this whole, you know, Talking to yourself like that, how though has that changed by you just saying that this is as bad as it's going to get? How has that transitioned?

It's— that's a really good question. I'd say it's a little bit of tapping into the optimism and knowing that like not every day is going to look like this, not every day is going to be the same. And every day that you do go through something, whether you had a good day or or a rough day, those rough days only make you stronger, and it's— it builds your resilience. And to take it and build in your resilience— there's a reason I got it tattooed on my arm, to constantly remind myself of where I've come from and where I'm at now, and how much of a badass mom you are.

I like to add that part.

Thanks, babe. Thanks for being my cheerleader and my rock.

Always.

Um, yeah, no, and you make— you make life easier, and I couldn't do that without you. But, um, yeah, to building the resilience pieces, I think one, as moms, we're like naturally born resilient. And some moms out there don't think that they are resilient, but it's— if you think about it, especially as stay-at-home moms, but all moms across the board, you wake up every day, you're taking care of your humans, you're working or taking care of your household, like, and you're doing it every day. You do it over and over again, 24/7, 365. Yeah, 24/7, 365. We have the resilience to get up and keep going every time. Like, there are some days that are harder than others, and you're just like, what the F am I doing right now? I've thought it countless times. I know I'm not the only one.

Men go through the exact same thing. Our, our main job is to protect, to protect and to provide.

Yeah.

And we do it day in and day out. Yeah, but tapping into that resilience, tapping into that perseverance is everything.

Yeah, and, and the more resilience we build up, it's because we showed up. We continue to show up.

Yeah, do the work.

You continue to do the work. You continue to show up. You show up for yourself, and in turn you're showing up for everybody, everybody else around you. So really, like the, the rough days, don't look at them as like a negative thing to like chalk up on the board. Chalk them up as, I learned something today, learning experiences, and it's only an experience that's going to make me stronger and it's going to make me better. Like learning to look at the silver lining no matter what. Like, and then it also teaches you to focus on the good things and the things that you did accomplish.

The gratitude of things.

Yeah, exactly. And practicing gratitude, that's been—

I mean, that's been huge for me, is practicing gratitude. One of the things that a lot of people don't realize and don't correlate is, again, it has to do with the cortisol levels. And for men, this— the cortisol levels for the men, it hits us even harder because of the two main factors that we're here for. We're here to protect and to provide. And a lot of times is we get so pigeonholed into that, that we're so stressed about that and we're so trying to do all these things and our stress levels are through the roof. And because our stress levels are through the roof, because we're burnt out, our cortisol levels have been up constantly because that's what happens when you're burnt out and you're stressed. Your cortisol levels are peaked too long, but it's kind of like when something is peaked for too long, it eventually— it eventually starts dropping and then it doesn't go up as high as it's supposed to go. And that's why if you see a lot of men, or if you're in this position where something happens and you have like no reaction to it, like something that should— like you should have a reaction to, you have like zero. Yeah, whether it's one way or another, like zero feelings. Yeah, if you have that, that means you've been burnt out and you've been stressed for way too long, whether or not it's with your family, whether or not it's for your— with your business. You've been red zone for so long, your cortisol levels are no longer jumping. And that's why you and I talk about it a lot, and you already mentioned it in this call, is vitality. Your health is everything, and the way you work out, the way you meditate, the way you practice gratitude, the way you do those things, what it does is it takes that high cortisol level that you could be at 24/7. And again, this is going for both men and women, but it hits men harder when it comes to the work. If you bring that cortisol level down, Throughout the day and more times than what you're doing right now, that'll prolong everything. Your testosterone levels drop because your cortisol levels are so high because you're burnt out so much because you're stressed so much. That's why unfortunately, and luckily I haven't hit that stage, but without giving you guys the wrong word, it's called andropause and that's the menopause. But for the men's side of things, men, there is, it's a menopause. Yeah. It's a manopause. No, it's andropause. And what it is is basically it happens to men later on in life as well, and that's because our cortisol levels or stress has been so high that our testosterone levels are dropping. Everything is dropping, and people are unfortunately go— getting into that phase of life way too soon. Yeah, and a lot of those reasons is because you're putting so much baggage on yourself, so much stressors on yourself, so much this, so much that.

Stress management.

Stress management is at a negative. It's at an all-time low. Yeah. And because of that, we're having all of these long-term effects later on down the road.

Well, the— and it in turn like goes back into your health. It affects your health, everything.

And that's why one of the biggest things that we've done is, is we've created our burnout quiz. We've created a burnout guide that goes along with it. We've created a one-pager that goes along with it, an energy map that goes along with it. You can get all of this inside of our link in this podcast episode. You can get it on our Instagram. It's all free for you. We have a men's side of and a women's side of it. And we're helping you and we're trying to get you out of that burnout, out of that stress. Trust us, we've been there. We were burnt out. We've been burnt out multiple times and we've learned and we've taken tactics and tools to help us to reduce those stress levels.

Yeah. Yep. No, I, again, that's the vitality piece for me. I'm going to keep going back at this because it's so, so incredibly important. We actually were just talking about this, uh, on the Vital Vitality call with Dr. Eileen Gallagher, um, about how a lot of our pain and our discomforts in our body comes from stress. Yep, it does. It comes from stress, it comes from burnout, it comes from traumatic things that have happened to us in our life that we haven't uncovered and discovered and realized. Like 'Your back pain?' Well, no, it's— you're carrying stress or traumas from your past.

That's so good.

And you're not addressing it. So stretching can help with something like that. I mean, just— this is just something minor to try, but, you know, like stretching and getting active and working out, those kinds of things. So a, a big thing for me, and I'm always— I'm going to preach this because I believe in it fully: practice more in your— invite your vitality.

And that's so true. And you— again, it's not a one-size-fits-all type of thing. No, you need to find out what works for you, but you need to find it.

Like, find something.

Stop just sitting around thinking that something's just gonna happen or that you're gonna change.

Or, or here's a thought: you reach out to Anthony or I because we can help you.

Exactly.

You don't— again, this is, this is the part where we encourage you to not do it alone. No, that's what the Infinite Goldner community is for. That's what The Final Percent community is for. We are here to help so that way you don't have to try to figure out all the things. And when you don't have all the answers, get a mentor, get a coach, someone that can help guide you, help guide you in making whatever shifts and change, changing the things that you're looking to fix in life.

Yeah. One of the biggest things that people, again, and we talked about in the first episode, is this whole idea of balance. And we're going to talk about it a lot. And we're going to talk about in the next two episodes that are on burnout as well. Is there's no such thing as balance. You need to have harmonious alignment. That's the biggest thing right there is you need to have harmony and you need to be aligned in whatever it is you're doing. If you're focusing on work, focus on work. Stop stressing about home life. Stop stressing about something else. I know it's hard. I know it's on your mind, but you need to let it go. If you're at home, you need to try to let go of the stressors and the stuff with work. Yes, it's hard. It's not easy, but you gotta let it go because if you're constantly thinking about both sides of the spectrum, 24/7, again, your stress levels, your burnout is going to be through the roof. It's inevitable. Unfortunately, that's why certain people act upon certain things because they've stressed themselves out so much. They haven't asked for help. They haven't done certain things. Ask for help, get the help, reduce the stress and everything you're going through.

Got to be where your feet are.

Yeah. Be where your feet are. Be more present. One thing that I know we've kind of alluded to, and that's, so you're burnt out, you're stressed. Again, I know we talked about in the first episode, let's talk about it again. What are like a couple tactics and tools that you do that you've noticed that it's relaxed your hormone levels? It really is relaxed a lot of things when you realize that you're in a heightened state.

Well, at nighttime, instead of doing my journaling in the beginning of the day, I've actually been doing it now at night before bed. Um, not to say that I'm like super hyped up before bed, but at times, like my brain might be. My brain might be— my brain's kind of burnt out.

Yeah.

So putting pen to paper and doing the brain dump— I'll reiterate that— doing a brain dump before bed and kind of going through, uh, what went well, what do I need to work on, and what am I grateful for, and kind of laying all those things out and doing a brain dump. Um, that's one of the big ones for me.

I love it.

Yeah.

And then for me, my biggest one has just been, uh, meditating. And I'm not good at it. I am not the best at it. I don't claim to be the best at it. It's hard. My brain is still going while I'm meditating. But what I've done is I've told myself, okay, the next 5 minutes, 10 minutes, we're not listening to music. We're not listening to anything. We're not doing anything. And we're just sitting or standing or walking. And that's it. Like nothing else. And I've tried to focus on not focusing on anything else. It's, it sounds weird.

Where do you meditate?

So for me it's literally wherever. So like if I'm at work, I'll literally just pull over. I'll, I'll just park or I'll go outside and I'll, I'll let Thor out to, to go pee. And I just, I'm not thinking about anything else. That's my time. Those couple of minutes of not thinking about anything else. And that's been something that's helped me rejuvenate in a, in a sense and not always be in go mode. Or for example, when I get off work, I'll sit in the, I'll sit in the car and I'll just sit in the car for a couple minutes. Mm-hmm. So I'll bring things in and I just sit in the car for a couple minutes and that's it. Okay. I don't come in.

Cause I was like, I don't envision you sitting in the middle of the, in the middle of the office or in the beanbag.

No.

With your legs all crossed, you know?

No, it's no. Oh, it's like, I don't either. And that's what I mean by meditation and med— it looks different for everybody. Yeah. So yeah, you think that this, it's this woo woo where you, you know, um, you don't need to be in the yoga studio.

You don't have to have fingers.

See, I could, I could do it. And you're just sitting here. If you're watching this, you can see what I'm doing. If you're listening, you're not, but you don't have to be like this where you're in this position. Cause I can't do that. Especially now I'm just thinking about how uncomfortable I am. You literally could just sit here right now. You could just take 5 minutes and just, just be quiet. Just close your eyes. Don't think about anything. And sometimes you don't even have to close your eyes again. Especially because sometimes if you're at work and you can't close your eyes, you just, yeah, just keep them open and just, and just relax.

Focus on one thing. Like, if you have to keep your— if you have to have your eyes open for your meditation visualization, focus on some— focus on something.

So there is a practice, and I can't remember which book it was from we read, and I was thinking about the other day, is you think of a rose petal and you think of the petals falling off of the rose. Yeah, you're thinking of the center point of it. That's a way to meditate because you're so focused now on that that you're not focusing on anything else because you're watching on the—

watching the gradual light fall and the, uh, not unveiling, but the—

yeah. And then eventually you get to the point of you don't need that, but that's something that can help you if your mind is always racing and you can't meditate yourself. You just try to think of something like that. Mm.

So you can get visual in that way.

Mm-hmm. Exactly.

Got it. Okay. That's cool. I've never tried that before, but that's something to think about. It's a thought. Give it a shot, people.

Give it a shot, people. So final 3 golden nuggets on burnout and hormones. What would you say number 1 would be?

You go first.

So for one, for me, it's, uh, knowing whether or not you're getting heightened by something that is supposed to heighten you. So if there's something that's supposed to scare you, if there's some, yeah, if there's something that's supposed to make you go wonder about something and it has zero effect on you, that's something to think about. That means you're getting too calloused. That means you're getting too burnt out. You're too stressed so much and your cortisol levels are actually lower because you're not getting that spike.

That's good. Dude, that was so good. You like wiped my brain. You wiped my brain away. I was getting too relaxed here.

I think the biggest one that you've already mentioned, yes, is vitality. Is you, you really need to make sure, make sure you're working out, make sure you're going for walks, make sure you're following your nutrition, whether or not you're on some woo-woo diet or you're just checking your calories and making sure that you're within alignment. Yeah. And you're getting your, your sleep, because sleep is what's going to reduce your cortisol levels. If you're always awake, unfortunately, you know, shift work like myself. I know my cortisol levels are shot usually during dawn shift when I'm living that life of days and dawns. Um, but knowing what helps you reduce that is what you need.

Yeah.

So your health.

Yeah. Uh, and I think for the third golden nugget, and I kind of mentioned it already in here is, um, the, the mindset of this is as bad as it's going to be.

So good.

Um, because if that's as bad as it's going to be, then you know the next day is only looking up.

Correct. Love it. There is your burnout on hormones and tactics and tools from Bri and Anthony on the Infinite Goldner Podcast. Stay tuned for the next two Friday Fuels. Again, we're going to be touching on burnout, and eventually we're gonna have a webinar here in a couple weeks, so stand by for that. Again, click the link in the bio to get your own burnout and guide both the men's and women's section. Follow us, like us, review it. Instagram. Have any questions, concerns, reach out to us. We love you guys, and we'll see you on the next one.

Later.