Reflection Over Perfection
Your body is always listening, especially to your emotions. That tight chest, racing heart, the fatigue that lingers even after a full night’s sleep, these are signals that your emotional world is influencing your nervous system and your hormonal balance, particularly when it comes to cortisol.
Lets explore how this powerful connection works, and why embracing reflection over perfection is essential or real progress in your health journey.
The Emotional Trigger
Every emotion we experience sets off a physiological cascade. When you’re anxious, overwhelmed, angry, or even constantly self-critical, your brain perceives this as stress, and it signals the sympathetic nervous system to activate the “fight or flight” response. What ends up happening as a result is a surge in cortisol, your body’s primary stress hormone.
Cortisol helps us survive short-term stress, but when it’s elevated over time it can:
Deplete your energy
Disrupt your menstrual cycle
Suppress your thyroid
Cause blood sugar swings
Increase anxiety and mood instability
And for women, who are already navigating cyclical hormone shifts, chronic emotional stress can compound imbalances, especially in progesterone and estrogen.
When Health Habits Add to the Stress:
This is where I see many well-meaning women get stuck: in the pursuit of “doing everything right”, they unknowingly add more stress to an already taxed system.
Perfect diets, strict exercise routines, rigid supplement protocols, while rooted in good intentions, these can backfire if they’re driven by fear, shame, or perfectionism.
Perfection often becomes another stressor. And in a body already overwhelmed by emotional and hormonal imbalance, perfection is a luxury we simply cant afford.
Instead I teach a different approach: Reflection over perfection. When you pause to reflect, how did that meal make me feel? What’s my energy like after this workout? Did I truly rest last night? You create space for awareness and self-compassion. Thats where true healing begins.
Regulating the Nervous System Through Connection & Reflection:
The antidote to chronic stress and emotional dysregulation lies in activating your parasympathetic nervous system , the “rest and digest” mode, and inviting emotional safety back into the body.
Supportive tools include:
Daily nervous system check-ins, “where am I holding tension?”
Simple breathwork, inhale for 4, exhale for 8.
Cold face splashes or humming to stimulate the vagus nerve
Journaling not just habits but feelings, without judgment
Your emotions are not a distraction from your health, they are the path to healing. And the more you try to force perfection, the more you may delay progress. Healing isn’t linear, and it certainly isn’t tidy. But every moment of reflection gives you insight, softness, and space to move forward.
So next time you miss a workout, eat a cookie, or feel overwhelmed, pause and ask: what is my bod asking for right now? Can I offer myself grace instead of judgment?
Because when we choose reflection over perfection, we invite calm into our nervous system, and that when real hormonal balance has a chance to take root.