Episode 5
Self-Care Is Not Selfish: Cortisol, Circadian Health, and Mindset Shifts with Dr. Christine Boev
Chronic stress does not just drain your energy—it changes your physiology, disrupts your hormones, and shows up directly on your skin. When you spend your days caring for everyone around you while placing your own recovery last, high cortisol takes a measurable toll on your sleep quality, immune system, and cellular repair.
In this episode of Vibrant Second Act, Yolanda Russo sits down with mindset and health coach Dr. Christine Boev to unpack why true self-care is a non-negotiable health practice, not an indulgence. Together, they explore practical, low-cost ways to dial down the nervous system, build energetic boundaries, and align your daily habits to support glowing, resilient skin from the inside out.
Key Takeaways
- The Face As a Health Mirror: Dehydration, persistent tension, dull tone, and midlife breakouts along the jawline are direct physiological signals of elevated cortisol and nervous system burnout.
- Energy Boundaries as Self-Defense: Protecting yourself from constant negative input—whether digital doom-scrolling or draining interactions—is essential to keep your nervous system out of chronic fight-or-flight.
- Temperature Therapy & Cellular Recovery: Simple practices like evening infrared heat, Epsom salt baths, or brief cold exposure stimulate circulation, calm the central nervous system, and dramatically improve restorative deep sleep.
- The Circadian Reset: Swapping harsh bedroom LED bulbs for amber light, cutting off screens before bed, and stepping into natural morning sunlight resets your melatonin rhythm and wakes up your brain better than extra caffeine.
- Modeling Over Self-Sacrifice: Taking command of your rest, nutrition, and daily movement is not selfish—it establishes a healthy standard for your family, children, and community to follow.
Actionable Next Steps to Implement This Week
- Step Outside Before Your First Screen: Spend 5 to 10 minutes outdoors within an hour of waking to expose your eyes to natural sunlight and anchor your circadian rhythm.
- Set a Digital Curfew: Swap harsh blue lights for warm amber lamps or use blue light blocking glasses in the evening. Stop digital consumption and eating at least two hours before sleep so your brain and digestive system can fully rest.
- Claim 5 Minutes of Silence: Give yourself uninterrupted quiet time each day—whether through deep breathing, mindful walking, or a quick detox soak—to regulate your nervous system and listen to your body’s signals.
Connect with Dr. Christine Boev
- Instagram: @drchristineboev
- Website & Coaching: Vitalize Fitness
Connect with Yolanda Russo & Beauty On Command®
- Explore Online Classes & Training: beautyoncommand.com
Timestamps
00:00 - Introduction & The Cost of Stress on Your Face
03:33 - Energy Protection & Social Media Diet
06:28 - Sunlight, Circadian Health & Why Self-Care Isn't Selfish
11:13 - Facial Signs of High Cortisol & Nervous System Reset
17:46 - Quiet Time & Temperature Extremes (Sauna vs. Cryo)
27:16 - Sleep Hygiene, Melatonin & The Glymphatic System
32:07 - Morning Light & Daily Foundations
Transcript
Doctor Christine Boeff is going to coach us on our mindset, coach us on how should we take, how should we make this life beautiful and happy again?
Speaker B:I think as women, we carry a lot of stress.
Speaker B:We carry our own stress, we carry the stress of our families.
Speaker B:Oftentimes we're caring for our children and our parents all at the same time.
Speaker B:And oftentimes our needs come last, and we do wear that on our face.
Speaker B:So when you look at somebody who is well cared for, they're prioritizing their own health.
Speaker B:They're hydrating, they're sleeping.
Speaker B:They almost have a glow about them where they're radiating an essence of positivity and self care.
Speaker B:And on the other hand, you can just look at somebody and notice that their skin looks very dry.
Speaker B:They're carrying a lot of tension, especially in the forehead.
Speaker B:They're not paying attention to their intuition, which I believe as a mindset coach is extremely powerful.
Speaker B:They've got the dark circles under their eyes, and you can oftentimes simply look at somebody and tell if they are carrying a lot of stress, which is contributing to a lack of self care.
Speaker B:And so, as a mindset coach, one of the things that I work with women primarily in is starting your day with gratitude.
Speaker B:It's the most basic thing that we can do, is to think about just the small things that I was able to wake up this morning.
Speaker B:I was able to stand on both of my feet, I can breathe with both of my lungs.
Speaker B:I'm healthy.
Speaker B:I've got all of my faculties about me.
Speaker B:And when you start your day from a place of gratitude, it's almost impossible to be angry.
Speaker B:And, Yolanda, one of the things that I think is really important is when you enter a space with other men and women, they can feel your energy, and you bring in either a positive or a negative energy to.
Speaker B:To that space.
Speaker B:And it's very contagious.
Speaker B:And so you can decide when you walk into a room, are you going to walk in and radiate positivity, confidence, gratitude, all just in your face.
Speaker B:People can tell, okay, this is somebody who knows what they're talking about.
Speaker B:They have a great sense about them.
Speaker B:And I'm going to listen to them, and I'm going to allow their positivity to radiate into my space.
Speaker B:Now, alternatively, you've got to be really careful about those people who carry a lot of negative energy.
Speaker B:And those are the people.
Speaker B:The woe is me.
Speaker B:My life is terrible.
Speaker B:Everybody's against me.
Speaker B:I'm a victim.
Speaker B:You really need to Be careful not to allow that energy to penetrate into your own space.
Speaker B:And so I talk to my clients a lot about almost putting a force shield around their energy to protect themselves.
Speaker B:So when we're working on those self care practices that they're being very careful with their own energy.
Speaker B:We're very energetic beings.
Speaker B:And it.
Speaker B:You just want to be very careful not to allow negative energy into your space.
Speaker A:Yes, go on.
Speaker A:The negative news diet and negative people diet.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:And it's, you know, you get onto the Internet and you go on to social media and it's very easy to get sucked into all of the bad things that are happening in the world right now.
Speaker B:It's a tumultuous time and it's very easy to change your own temperature in from positive to negative, from consuming all of this negative information.
Speaker B:And so that's another source where you have to protect yourself from, from being a consumer of things that aren't going to serve you.
Speaker B:And again, gratitude is always the place I come back to when I start to feel my energy shift into the negative direction.
Speaker A:I love that.
Speaker A:Yes, gratitude and positive thinking.
Speaker A:The thoughts can change your chemistry and pretty instantly.
Speaker B:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker B:And we all are allowed to get down.
Speaker B:I'm not suggesting that we're all happy and lovely all of the time, but you do want to regulate how much of that mood that you allow to be negative.
Speaker B:And then what are the tools in your toolbox?
Speaker B:What do you do when you find yourself spiraling into a place of negativity?
Speaker B:How do you bring yourself back from that place?
Speaker B:And for me, it always starts with gratitude.
Speaker B:And then I think about my goal setting and what am I doing today to move forward towards those goals?
Speaker B:You'll hear people talk about flow state or getting into a rhythm or feeling like you're in the zone.
Speaker B:And I think as women that's really important.
Speaker B:We're very productive beings.
Speaker B:We like to help people.
Speaker B:And so what is it that brings you into your zone of happiness?
Speaker B:What are the things that fulfill you?
Speaker B:What are the things that make you a productive human being?
Speaker B:And that's what drew me to health coaching.
Speaker B:There is nothing better than helping women achieve their best selves.
Speaker B:And we do that through a three tiered approach.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:You've got to nourish your body, you've got to move your body.
Speaker B:But I really focus on mindset because you can teach people how to eat and how to exercise.
Speaker B:That's pretty basic.
Speaker B:But how do you shift people's mindset so that the information that I'm providing them actually sticks.
Speaker B:And when that initial motivation kind of wears off, how do you keep moving forward to stay into that flow state so that you're feeling good, you're feeling in the zone more often than not.
Speaker A:Yes, we should always know that there will be down times.
Speaker A:And yes, we have to think and process, access all the information that come at us.
Speaker A:But there is a time when you need to take care of yourself.
Speaker A:And the self care is very important.
Speaker A:And it doesn't mean you have to go out to the park or somewhere walking for an hour.
Speaker A:But if you could ground yourself with walking on the freshly cut grass for five minutes or stand there, just breathe, that will be enough of the grounding that comes from the mother earth to align you or realign you again.
Speaker A:So breathing and being outdoors or even just going window shopping, just something for yourself to satisfy your senses and satisfy your need for taking care of yourself.
Speaker A:That would be a tip that I would give you as well.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:And also getting into the sunlight, there's a lot of really good data about being in the sunlight and how that impacts the receptors in your eyes and how that tells your brain that you know you're in a positive state.
Speaker B:It almost brings about a sense of euphoria.
Speaker B:So I live in the Northeastern United States.
Speaker B:We don't get as much sunlight as I would like to.
Speaker B:But being outdoors, getting your circadian rhythms in check, opening the windows in the morning, closing the blinds at night, all of those things will really help.
Speaker B:And Yolanda, one of the things I think women struggle with is they feel selfish when they are trying to prioritize self care.
Speaker B:And what I tell my clients is it's selfish not to.
Speaker B:The best thing that you can do for your family and those people who look up to you and depend on you is be a role model for self care.
Speaker B:How do you model what it looks like to take control of your health and wellness, to put some boundaries around your sleep and rest, some boundaries around nutrition, saying no thank you to alcohol and doing the things that fill you up.
Speaker B:I have teenagers, they watch everything that I do and they watch me go to the gym and they watch me eat healthy.
Speaker B:And just by virtue of being a good role model, they have incorporated these practices into their lives without me having to say a word.
Speaker B:They just do it.
Speaker B:So self care is not selfish.
Speaker B:And that's the important point for women.
Speaker A:That's beautiful that you teach your children by example, but your friends must be noticing as well.
Speaker A:I consider self care as self love.
Speaker A:If you can't love yourself, you certainly don't have enough love to give away.
Speaker A:So if you want to be good to yourself and just know you're going to be good to everyone around you.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:And you're going to be a better version of yourself if you give yourself what you need to optimize your whole being.
Speaker B:When I wake up in the morning, I always start with gratitude.
Speaker B:And then how can I be the best version of myself today so that I can be of service to others?
Speaker B:I believe that I was put on this planet to role model and to be a servant to other people while showing how I can take care of myself.
Speaker B:And again, going back to the what your face looks like and what your skin looks like.
Speaker B:Do you look like you haven't slept all night?
Speaker B:Do you have the dark circles under your eyes?
Speaker B:Are you very dehydrated and parched?
Speaker B:Those are the things that show up whether you realize it or not.
Speaker B:I can look at somebody and tell if they're taking care of themselves or not.
Speaker B:And again, as women we are dehydrated, we are sleep deprived and we are nutritionally deprived because as a society we just don't tend to move towards things that are healthy for us because they're not convenient.
Speaker B:And so again, looking at somebody, you can tell right off the bat, are they taking care of themselves.
Speaker B:And some people love that whole victim mentality, right?
Speaker B:Like oh, woe is me.
Speaker B:I just take care of everybody else and I neglect myself.
Speaker B:You're doing nobody a favor.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:You're not role modeling.
Speaker B:That's not how you want to take care of yourself.
Speaker A:Yeah, some people just like to be in this space, to feel that way.
Speaker A:But that's why when they come across people like yourself or me, because my facial clinic is very different.
Speaker A:You come, you come for a facial rejuvenation, but you learn about your whole body and how does this affect your skin?
Speaker A:And if I do see dark circles or the skin that is so dull looking, so deprived of happy chemicals, I do talk about this.
Speaker A:We don't talk about the creams.
Speaker A:We talk about the inner beauty, the balance, and then we go on to the rest of it.
Speaker A:And sometimes even if people are negative or the victim personality that changes once they understand that this affects their looks.
Speaker A:So that might be.
Speaker A:The physical appearance is more important for many than the inner health.
Speaker A:So when the face changes after the hour of the work out, they understand that they need to improve their self care and self love.
Speaker B:Yeah, I mean evolutionarily we're drawn to each other through appearance and we attract those who are Similar to us.
Speaker B:So you're going to attract people who are more positive, more uplifting, more grateful if you exist in that space as well.
Speaker B:And I go back to energy.
Speaker B:I feel like your energy is so something that you can control and we forget about it.
Speaker B:It's almost like a superpower.
Speaker B:You can harness that energy inside of you and you can control whether it's positive or it's negative.
Speaker B:And if you're in a down state, you've got to figure out what works for you to jump out of that negative state and into a positive state.
Speaker B:And for me, it's always exercise.
Speaker B:If I'm feeling down, if, you know, my mood is depressed, if I can just go for a walk with my dog, I'm going to feel like a new person.
Speaker B:Unfortunately, a lot of people will turn to food, they will turn to technology, they will turn to alcohol when they are feeling down, and that is only going to bring them down more.
Speaker B:Think about your face and alcohol and how dehydrating it is.
Speaker B:It is a depressant.
Speaker B:And so there's no upside to over consuming alcohol when it comes to dealing with an energetic being who's trying to be as balanced as possible.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Since we are all different.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:It's very hard to advise on each individual what, what's best.
Speaker A:So we can just give examples.
Speaker A:But definitely the.
Speaker A:The outdoors is my thing.
Speaker A:I would just want to go out.
Speaker A:Even if I have window shopping.
Speaker A:I just need to go out and come back and be very different.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:And I think that's one of the things that we forget about, is just being outdoors in nature.
Speaker B:I particularly love to be around water.
Speaker B:I'm.
Speaker B:Aquarius is my zodiac sign.
Speaker A:That's why water.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:We live on a lake, and I'm looking out at the water right now and it's super calming.
Speaker B:But even if you.
Speaker B:You're not by water, you can just go, know, walk to a river or a pond and just sit there and spend some time in nature.
Speaker B:Do some deep breathing.
Speaker B:That is going to relax your sympathetic nervous system.
Speaker B:So we're not always in this flight or fight state.
Speaker B:So one of the things that I teach a lot about is cortisol.
Speaker B:And cortisol is a hormone that's secreted by your adrenal glands, and it's our stress hormone, and it is crushing us as women.
Speaker B:We are existing in a state of hypercortisol because of the way that we eat, the fact that we're stressed, the fact that we're not sleeping enough, and cortisol makes our Immune system not work as well.
Speaker B:It causes us to hold on to fat and it basically is just.
Speaker B:It crushes our health.
Speaker B:And so thinking about basic, simple things that you can do to just calm down your central nervous system, but deep breathing, going outside, I'm a big fan of essential oils.
Speaker B:And just the smell and the texture and the vibration that how it changes your energy is really, really powerful.
Speaker B:So simple things that really can change the channel in terms of your energy and your mood.
Speaker B:It doesn't have to be sophisticated, it doesn't have to be complicated, but you do need do it.
Speaker A:Yes, we are on the subject of cortisol.
Speaker A:When I see clients breaking out adult acne, essentially breaking out on the neck and on the jawline and having hot flashes and all that, that is definitely the cortisol, isn't it?
Speaker B:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker B:And we again, we underestimate how powerful the role of hypercortisolemia is.
Speaker B:But adult acne, I'm sure you see it a lot.
Speaker B:It is the result of that.
Speaker B:It is the result of our hormonal fluctuations and then stress, right when you're stressed, you're going to end up with a big pimple on your face.
Speaker B:If you're somebody who gets the cold sores around their mouth, those all stress manifests itself right on your face.
Speaker B:So you can see it in situations like that where you're breaking out in various ways that you normally wouldn't, but directly as a result of high stress and high cortisol levels and then.
Speaker B:And again, you're at higher risk for getting sick.
Speaker B:So your immune system is very depressed when your cortisol levels are chronically high and nobody has time to get sick.
Speaker A:Nobody has time.
Speaker A:And it doesn't feel good when you're not feeling well because then you get depressed over that as well.
Speaker A:So yes, sometimes it's good to go out and get a treatment, treatment of any sort.
Speaker A:Massage, facial, or even go to the sauna or cryotherapy.
Speaker A:That's the latest.
Speaker A:That's cryo.
Speaker A:Yeah, cryotherapy.
Speaker A:You walk into this -200 box and it's really cold, but it's only three minutes.
Speaker A:So anything that can shock the body and just shake you up will bring you back into balance.
Speaker A:So whatever works for you, that's good there.
Speaker A:Also energy tools that I recommend, there are energy tools that stimulate the body, body's energy to recover from it.
Speaker A:As you said earlier, we're all intuitive, but we don't use that because we don't think we have that because most of the Time when we're stressed, we are in our heads, and that's why we don't use the body senses to recognize the threat or recognize the imminent discomfort or a person who is not really aligning with us.
Speaker A:So that's what we would probably do to adjust that.
Speaker A:What else can we do to get ourselves more in alignment with our intuition?
Speaker B:So the biggest thing that we can do is to have some quiet time, which is probably the most difficult for busy women.
Speaker B:But if you cannot possibly pay attention to your intuition, if you are constantly stimulating by your phone, your computer, your family, the noise.
Speaker B:So if it's possible at all to find 5, 10 minutes just to sit and be quiet and breathe and listen to what your intuition is saying.
Speaker B:We all have an intuition.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Some of us are able to tap into it better than others because we recognize and we're quiet.
Speaker B:You mentioned cryo and saunas.
Speaker B:I'm a huge proponent of temperature extremes, and one of my daily rituals is before I go to bed, we have a sauna in our basement.
Speaker B:It's an infrared sauna.
Speaker B:And I go down there and I tell everybody, all right.
Speaker B:Like, this is literally what I say.
Speaker B:Unless the house is on fire, do not bother me.
Speaker B:And I take some quiet time where I do my meditation, I do my gratitude, and I just sit there, and I'm just quiet.
Speaker B:And so many powerful signals will come to you in that time of quiet.
Speaker B:But it's a luxury that we do not afford ourselves as women because we're so busy taking care of everybody else that we don't give ourselves that gift of time.
Speaker B:But if there's, like, one thing that I would encourage your audience to really think about is giving yourself five minutes of dedicated, uninterrupted quiet time to breathe to.
Speaker B:You don't even have to.
Speaker B:You know, people say meditate, and it's overwhelming.
Speaker B:Just close your eyes and breathe and just pay attention to the signals that the universe is sending to you.
Speaker B:Because if we keep ignoring them, we're going to miss some big moments in our life that are potentially going to change things for us.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:Some of us would not have the sauna or infrared in our homes, but there are blankets.
Speaker A:Infrared blankets were detox blankets that I have, and that's what I do at night.
Speaker A:It heats up the whole body.
Speaker A:It sweats you out, and you just relax to it because our cells need to be energized.
Speaker A:So whichever way you do this, you just need to give the time to yourself without feeling guilty that you are doing it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Even a cold Plunge.
Speaker B:The lake right now is very cold.
Speaker B:You can just jump in there for three minutes.
Speaker B:And what it does at a cellular level is so powerful.
Speaker B:And then in turn, it helps our mental health as well, because it's going to help that sympathetic nervous system.
Speaker B:Just relax a little bit.
Speaker B:It.
Speaker B:I've done cryotherapy several times.
Speaker B:It's three minutes.
Speaker B:It's quick, it's not comfortable.
Speaker B:But if you can figure out how to breathe through those three minutes, it tends to.
Speaker B:You tend to get used to it.
Speaker B:And again, incredibly powerful at a cellular level to help your immune system, to help your nervous system, and also talk about what's great for your skin.
Speaker B:The sauna and the cryo is amazing for your skin as a detoxifier to get rid of all of the environmental things that we come in contact with every day.
Speaker B:So there's lots of strategies that you can use to just get that glow back inside of you.
Speaker A:Inside of you.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:I was listening to this one doctor who was talking about the extreme temperatures, and he said either sauna or cryo, whichever shocks your body, it's fine, whatever you like.
Speaker A:But I have to tell you and the audience when.
Speaker A:When I do the cryo and when I do this too late in the day, I will have hard time sleeping because my endorphins are so high, because I feel so alert.
Speaker B:So I've never done cryo closer to bedtime.
Speaker B:But there's actually some really good research about doing the infrared sauna before you go to bed and how it increases the AM of deep sleep that you get.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:So I'm a big fan of tracking my sleep.
Speaker B:I use an Oura ring O U R A and it tracks all of your sleep stages.
Speaker B:And when I go into the sauna right before bed, I'm usually in there for about 30 minutes and then I rinse off and I go to bed.
Speaker B:My deep sleep is significantly better than if I do not do the sauna.
Speaker A:Oh, I wholly believe in that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I think the cryo is more of a mood booster than the sauna.
Speaker A:I think so.
Speaker A:And it was five o' clock that last week that happened.
Speaker A:Five o'.
Speaker A:Clock.
Speaker A:I thought, I have enough time before I go to bed.
Speaker A:But no, it just gives you so much energy.
Speaker A:I was like, okay, I need to do this in the morning.
Speaker B:It's almost like having an espresso before you go to bed.
Speaker B:You probably don't want to do that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:But it was amazing.
Speaker A:Like, the cryo is amazing.
Speaker A:It's something new that we are being introduced to.
Speaker B:From.
Speaker A:It comes from Norway.
Speaker A:Norway.
Speaker A:And I was always impressed with these people who jump into the pool, ice the water.
Speaker A:I'm like, ah.
Speaker A:But I tried it and it's not that uncomfortable.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:Your body gets adjusted after a couple seconds.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, you just commit to it.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Three minutes and it's over.
Speaker B:And, boy, does it help in terms of metabolic health and mental health?
Speaker B:It really does.
Speaker B:All of it.
Speaker B:Definitely.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:You don't.
Speaker B:You just stand there.
Speaker B:You don't really need any physicality about you, so you don't have to be a fit person to do either of those.
Speaker B:But I highly recommend them if you have access to any extreme temperature therapies.
Speaker B:They're very, very beneficial for any aches and pains, even.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker A:Very good.
Speaker A:So with the infrared and other therapies, our cells are definitely rainbow colors.
Speaker A:They need the rainbow of colors in it, and that red or other colors replenish the missing links.
Speaker A:And that's why we become more radiant, healthier in that.
Speaker A:So I'll be talking more about the energy tool that I'm using, and it's amazing as well.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So, yes, the goal is to have our minds clear.
Speaker A:And if you need to retreat into your basement and just spend some time by yourself, do that.
Speaker A:Put your digital equipment all upstairs and just go.
Speaker A:And just spend some time indoor downstairs or sometimes the bath.
Speaker A:Do you ever go and take Epsom salt bath?
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:So I do a lot of heavy weightlifting as part of my physical regimen.
Speaker B:And one of my favorite things to do is soak in an Epsom salt bath.
Speaker B:I'll do two cups of Epsom salt and one cup of baking soda, along with some essential oils.
Speaker B:And I'll make it as hot as I can stand it and soak in there for about 20 minutes.
Speaker B:This is another practice that my children have adopted, especially my son, who also likes to work out.
Speaker B:He's like, I'm going to take an Epsom salt bath because it does wonders for relieving muscle tension and soreness.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker A:And stress.
Speaker A:And you sleep like a baby afterwards.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, sleep is so important, and we could talk for another hour about sleep.
Speaker B:But we also, as women, we've got to prioritize sleep.
Speaker B:We've got to put some boundaries around sleep and making sure that, you know, we're going to bed around the same time every night, waking up around the same time every night and trying to do that digital detox about two hours before we go to bed.
Speaker B:We are going to be happier humans if we are well rested.
Speaker B:I Don't believe in getting four to five hours of sleep a night.
Speaker B:I don't think there's any good that comes of that.
Speaker B:I know there's people who can and that's wonderful for them, but for the most part we need seven to nine hours of sleep every night.
Speaker B:And we need to get good quality sleep versus, you know, what they call junk sleep, which is that light, you know, wakeable state.
Speaker B:So if you want to look good and you want your skin to glow, you have to get some high quality rest.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:When we were very young, the teenagers, we probably didn't have enough sleep because we always went to sleep at midnight.
Speaker A:But it was okay, the body was still sleeping supporting us.
Speaker A:The energy in our cells was pretty sufficient to recover quickly.
Speaker A:But as we age our cells, our body needs our self care, needs the input.
Speaker A:So yes, going to sleep at least at 10 o' clock would be perfect for the body to recover.
Speaker A:If you go to sleep at midnight, you're just going to miss that important cycle of sleep and you're gonna sleep very light.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:So one thing that, what I hear is that many people need the TV in the bedroom and they need that on to fall asleep.
Speaker A:And I say this is wrong and you don't need it.
Speaker A:You just feel that you do need that.
Speaker A:But if you do, then, and there are solutions for that too.
Speaker A:You can buy yourself orange tinted glasses, sunglasses.
Speaker A:Well, it's glasses, orange tinted glasses.
Speaker A:And those will decrease the blue light so that melatonin can be released from the body and that's when you can sleep peacefully.
Speaker B:The other thing you can do, apart from the, the blue light blocking glasses, is we've changed all of the light bulbs in our bedroom to amber light bulbs.
Speaker B:They're very inexpensive, but the LED lights are very toxic as your brain is trying to shut down and go to sleep.
Speaker B:So that's a very simple thing that you can do.
Speaker B:The other thing is when you're in deep sleep, we have this system, it's called our glymphatic system and it actually cleanses the cerebral spinal fluid in our brain.
Speaker B:It can only do that when we're in deep sleep.
Speaker B:And so we want to make sure that we have that opportunity because lack of sleep is also associated with Alzheimer's disease and dementia and nobody wants to deal with that.
Speaker B:So that's just another reason to really prioritize sleep.
Speaker B:So our brain gets that cleansing that it needs needs.
Speaker B:We get, you know, that nice downtime.
Speaker B:Our digestive system should be fully rested.
Speaker B:That's why I tell my clients, do not eat two hours before you go to bed so that your digestive system can actually rest.
Speaker B:And then when you wake up in the morning, you've got to just stand up immediately.
Speaker B:Another thing that I tell my clients is the snooze button is the devil.
Speaker B:The last thing you want to do is set five alarms and hit your snooze button over and over again.
Speaker B:Because what's happening is you're cycling in and out of that junk sleep and you're going to be more tired.
Speaker B:So if you can just get yourself upright immediately, that's the best way to get your day started.
Speaker B:And then if you can, even as a bonus, get yourself upright, get outside and be like looking towards the sun.
Speaker B:That's gonna really wake your brain up.
Speaker B:Better than coffee or espresso.
Speaker A:That's true.
Speaker B:Look at the sun.
Speaker B:You know, not in a way that'll damage your eyes, but like get those light receptors in your eyes activated.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:That's so true.
Speaker A:And if you have to use if, if you have to snooze your alarm clock, that means you are tired, you didn't have enough sleep.
Speaker B:Sleep.
Speaker A:That means go to bed earlier.
Speaker A:That's just how simple it is.
Speaker A:And yes, perfect.
Speaker A:So thank you so much and we are going to go to your Instagram and please share that with me and I'll share that with you.
Speaker A:Like each other.
Speaker A:So this way we can share with our friends and maybe, maybe we can just make an impact on one person who needs some direction into self care and self love.
Speaker A:There are so many things that we need women in this new world to do to, to be that.
Speaker A:We need to be so alert, so ready to serve, but we can't if we are not taking care of ourselves first.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:And they're so basic that you don't need to, you know, invest in anything expensive and fancy.
Speaker B:You need to sleep, you need to nourish your body, you need to manage your stress and you move your body.
Speaker B:And if you do those things, you will feel better and you'll be able to tell by your face that you're promoting self care and you're taking care of yourself.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:And being social is another thing.
Speaker A:Just go out with your girlfriends and find something that you can talk about other than the stresses of politics or others.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Okay, so thank you so much, Dr. Christine.
Speaker A:And we're going to be looking at your Instagram and maybe we can speak to you again on a different subject.
