See Michelle’s Top 3 Takeaways

Before giving birth in May 2015, I developed gestational hypertension. Despite concerns that it could lead to additional health complications — such as placental abruption, premature birth, or organ damage — I delivered a healthy baby girl.

Over the next year, my blood pressure remained high, and I wasn’t able to lose weight. At a checkup, my doctor noted that Black women tend to be overweight, and he recommended increasing the dose of the hypertension medication I’d started after my daughter was born. He did not suggest lifestyle modifications, like changing my diet or exercising more.

I’m a healthcare researcher, so I knew that his statement concerning Black women was statistically correct. Based on the data, the number of higher-weight Black women is disproportionate compared with other demographic groups for reasons that aren’t entirely understood. A partial explanation is well-established, however: Body mass index overestimates obesity in Black people because it doesn’t account for differences in body composition.

Nevertheless, this didn’t necessarily apply to me — I hadn’t been hypertensive or overweight before I tried to get pregnant. I wanted to find the root cause of my hypertension and weight retention, and I wanted to focus on lifestyle changes before I treated the problem with more medication. I hoped to find another physician to partner with on this wellness journey.

 

Rising Pressure

I got pregnant in 2014, about a year after marrying my college sweetheart. I was a little underweight after my first trimester, so I started drinking protein shakes with breakfast.

Living in Chicago helped too — the city is full of great food. My husband and I ­enjoyed eating at nearby burger joints, taco bars, and pizza places. I made friends with the baker at a local doughnut shop, who always waved me in and gave me one of my favorite glazed long johns.

By the middle of my third trimester, I had gained almost 55 pounds. My blood pressure had also increased — so much so that my physician advised me to come in every other week for checkups. At the time, I didn’t think much about the condition. I felt OK and I’d been reassured that my numbers would normalize after giving birth.

People with hypertension may not experience symptoms, so the condition is not always taken seriously. But it is a genuine threat to health, known as a “silent killer.” Gestational hypertension increases blood-vessel resistance, reducing blood flow to the mother’s essential organs and the placenta. This has the potential to deprive the developing baby of necessary nutrients and oxygen.

We were lucky. Although my blood pressure remained high during the weeks leading to my due date, my baby, Sarai, was born in good health.

The Fourth Trimester

Four months after I gave birth, my healthcare provider advised that I start taking a low-dose medication to manage my blood pressure.

I was having a difficult time ­recovering physically and emotionally from childbirth. The experience had been hard on my body, and adjusting to life with a newborn was a challenge — even with the help of my mother and mother-in-law. Sarai wasn’t feeding well, and she was sleeping all day and awake all night.

At a six-week follow-up visit, I was diagnosed with postpartum depression. I started seeing a therapist on a regular basis, and she helped me learn how to prioritize my own needs while figuring out how to take care of Sarai. I began by simply making sure I was eating, showering, and getting some sleep.

By November 2015, I was starting to adjust to my new life. But my blood pressure remained high. For months I had been living in survival mode. I ate as I had during pregnancy, not thinking about sodium or macronutrients, and I felt more stressed. I lacked the capacity to focus on better nutrition or exercise.

But now that I was finding balance in other areas of my life, I felt ready to address the root causes of my high blood pressure.

I found a new doctor who was willing to focus on nutrition and exercise before increasing my medication. It was the ­motivation I needed to make a change.

Taking Back My Power

I began working with a nutritionist who recommended I reduce sodium and take a month off from eating out. To follow this advice, my husband and I became more intentional about grocery shopping. I focused on produce and meat and was mindful of food labels. On Sundays, I prepped food for the week ahead.

I also made exercise a priority. I’d been athletic as a child and young adult: I played basketball and volleyball in high school and continued with basketball through college. But fitness took a back seat after I graduated. With my health on the line, it was time to tune in to my once-active spirit. I started by attending fitness classes two or three times a week.

Although ­results came slowly and gradually, I never felt like I was sacrificing. I maintained a regular workout routine; chose whole foods over processed ones; modified portion sizes to match my nutritional needs; opted for a salad over a burger when I ate out; and ­requested one pump of syrup instead of two in my ­coffee drink.

It all took about 18 months, but I was committed. Consistency was more important than a quick fix.

By fall 2018, my blood pressure had normalized and I had lost 75 pounds.

My doctor said I could go off the meds — cold turkey. My blood pressure was stable when I saw him again a month later, and it’s remained stable ever since. Today, it’s in the range of 110–120/80, and I only see my doctor once a year for a wellness exam.

I now know what my body needs to be healthy.

Reaching and Keeping the Goal

My goals have changed since my blood pressure stabilized. In 2018, I joined Life Time, motivated by the amenities offered for children. Sarai was an active toddler by then, and I wanted her to learn how to have fun with fitness at a young age.

I started working with a personal trainer who created a routine that I can adjust as needed. I add more yoga classes during stressful times. I’ve also trained for and competed in a variety of races, including obstacle-course events and a half-marathon. I like the opportunity to modify my training and connect with other people in the fitness community.

I love being active with Sarai, who is now 10. We like to throw the football or shoot hoops together, and I’ll run alongside while she bikes.

Nutrition is an important part of our lives, and my husband and I have ­incorporated the phrase “nutrient-dense foods” into the family vocabulary. I hope my journey ­teaches Sarai she has the power to take control of her physical, mental, and spiritual health.

I’m also preparing to return to medical school. I hope to join an emerging field of physician nutrition specialists who work with patients with chronic disease. My dream is to run my own team and conduct research that incorporates nutrition. I want to help more patients learn how to improve their health outcomes through manageable lifestyle adjustments — like I was able to do for myself.

Michelle’s Top 3 Takeaways

1. Take control of your health. “I was waiting on doctors to cure me, until I realized I had to partner with my doctor and help myself,” says Michelle.

2. Take hypertension seriously. “What starts with obesity and hypertension becomes cardiac disease, then kidney disease, [and this can] lead to death. Try to prevent that early on.”

3. Make small changes over time. We often expect a quick snapback after birth, she notes. Huge change is not realistic. Reach the goal, then keep the goal.

This article originally appeared as “Easing the Pressure” in the the July/August 2025 issue of Experience Life.

The dishes are piled up, the bills are overdue, and you’re stewing over a spat with your partner. Your phone’s pinging nonstop: texts, headlines, spam. You haven’t exercised in days, and you don’t know when you’ll next have time.

Many of us feel the weight of everyday overwhelm. But if we try to overhaul our lives all at once — relationships, finances, and spiritual outlook — we’re likely to end up feeling even more defeated and distant from the relief we’re seeking. Then we blame ourselves.

“When our results fall short of our expectations, the inner critic finds an opening and steps on stage,” writes behavior scientist BJ Fogg, PhD, in Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything.

The problem isn’t our desire for change; it’s the scale of change we’re pursuing. Fogg’s book shows readers, step by step, how to get around that impasse and improve their lives by focusing on tiny changes.

“You could scold yourself down the path of change,” writes Fogg, who founded Stanford University’s Behavior Design Lab. “Or you could make your life easier. You could start tiny.”

Taking small, intentional actions reminds us that we still have some agency and control, an important antidote to overwhelm.

“It boosts your mental health. It boosts how you’re able to show up and provide for other people,” explains home-organizing expert Shira Gill, ­author of LifeStyled: Your Guide to a More Organized and Intentional Life.

The next time you feel bogged down, try one of these strategies. Each can remind you there is something positive you can do in the moment, no matter how helpless you might feel.

As Fogg notes, “Feeling successful offers an antidote to the go-big-or-go-home culture, and a new lens through which to see yourself.”

During winter, our bodies want to hibernate. We sleep more, eat more comfort foods, and spend more time indoors. Come spring, when nature awakens, so do we. We might need less sleep and feel energized to give the house a good cleaning.

Yet for some of us, the pendulum swings too far: Spring energy turns into agitation, moodiness, irritability, and insomnia.

We might think of having seasonal affective disorder (SAD) solely as being tired, sluggish, and depressed during the winter. But feeling wired and restless in spring is the other side of the coin, and it can happen anytime after about mid-February.

Spring SAD is a state of physiological overactivation. The return of more daylight signals the body and brain to become more active, and some of us are extra sensitive to these signals.

The symptoms of springtime SAD are usually mild, but they can become severe. Suicide rates are higher in spring. A low mood coupled with agitated energy can be a difficult combination.

In the framework of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), spring anxiety indicates stagnation in the liver, a blockage of vital energy that can occur with the seasonal transition.

TCM emphasizes the importance of the liver’s role in detoxification. If that function is sluggish after a winter of overindulging and ­underactivity, the liver may be unable to handle the extra metabolic energy that spring demands. It’s like a stream that becomes clogged with debris during the winter: When spring rains come, the stream is obstructed. If this blockage continues, it causes problems upstream. In the body, that could mean moodiness or agitation. Energy, like water, is meant to flow.

There is good news for those of us who deal with spring SAD, though: When we make small adjustments to align ourselves with these natural cycles, it allows us to work with our sensitivities rather than against them. Reclaim your flow with these strategies.

( 1 )

ADJUST YOUR DIET.

As warmer weather returns, our bodies require different foods to stay in balance.

• Receive what nature offers in springtime: delicate sprouts, herbs, and leafy greens. Bitter greens, like dandelion and arugula, are especially good for stimulating the liver.
• Drink plenty of room-­temperature water throughout the day. Water is cleansing — even more so when citrus is added.
• Eat plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits, and limit animal protein, especially red meat. According to TCM, meat is heating for the body. If you’re already overactivated, highly concentrated proteins add fuel to the fire.
• Minimize spicy foods, like hot peppers, which are too stimulating, as well as greasy, deep-fried foods, which add to stagnation.
• Keep regular mealtimes.
• Eat moderately, neither fasting nor indulging. This takes pressure off your liver and digestive tract so you can adjust to the change in your metabolism.
• Relax after eating.

( 2 )

COMMIT TO MOVEMENT.

Regular exercise can help absorb some of spring’s manic energy. Make it something you can enjoy without becoming compulsive or overly competitive.

• Aim for 30 to 45 minutes three to five times per week.
• Spend time in nature and in the company of others when you can.

( 3 )

EMPHASIZE ROUTINE.

A regular routine stabilizes your autonomic nervous system and the hormones that support it.

• Aim to wake up and go to bed at the same times each day.
• Set aside 30 to 45 minutes for a relaxed bedtime routine. Set the lights low, turn off the computer or TV, read something calming, and take a cool shower or bath.
• Even if you work a lot, you can maintain a healthy work schedule. Take regular breaks, ideally every one and a half to two hours. Your stress-response system has a daily rhythm of its own — a time to be “on” and a time to be “off.”

( 4 )

TAKE EXTRA CARE.

If your regular routine isn’t cutting it, try adding these measures.

• A 20-minute nap
• A massage
• A tai chi or yoga class
• Five to 10 minutes of a calming breath practice
• Magnesium l-threonate or l-theanine before bed
• Calming herbs, like passionflower, chamomile, or rhodiola

Finally, remember that you can wait this out. As with all natural cycles, the overactivation of spring will pass, and you’ll find your rhythm again.

This article originally appeared as “Spring Anxiety” in the May/June 2025 issue of Experience Life.

Have you ever spent countless hours in front of your computer forgetting to eat, drink, stretch, or go to the bathroom? Or zoned out during a stressful conversation? Or opened TikTok to scroll for a minute — and been shocked when an hour had passed?

These are all mild forms of dissociation, explains trauma therapist Jane McCampbell, MA, LMFT, CPCC, RMFT. Loosely defined, dissociation means leaving your body behind while your mind goes elsewhere. “All of us dissociate to a certain extent,” she says.

In its mildest form, dissociation (sometimes called disembodiment) can help us manage and minimize stress, including the stress of boredom. But during extreme, traumatic events — such as accidents, injury, and sudden loss — we can experience more significant detachment. And later on, we may have trouble reconnecting with our bodies and emotions even when we really want to.

Complicating matters, we live in a culture that tends to prioritize the intelligence of the head over that of the body. Many of us spend our days hunched over screens, commuting in cars, glued to our phones — barely noticing our bodies at all. “Our culture takes that to be the normal state,” says renowned embodiment practitioner Philip Shepherd.

Psychologist and relationship expert Michaela Boehm, author of The Wild Woman’s Way: Reconnect to Your Body’s Wisdom, describes the journey of embodiment as “the process of becoming alive to the signals of our bodies.”

“Thriving means we are connected with all the faculties of our body,” she says, “including pleasure, including aliveness, vitality, extra energy.

“Our regulated systems benefit as well, such as our heartbeat and blood pressure. We move away from being reactive to ­being responsive.”

The benefits of being more in sync with our bodies’ needs are legion. Yet for many of us, this remains a challenge.

Whether we disconnect because of day-to-day stressors or more deep-seated issues, like posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the result is often the same: We’re missing out on the full range of sensation, emotion, and experience that’s available to us as humans.

Yet no matter how distant from ourselves we might become, embodiment experts believe it is possible to find our way back to our bodies, one small step at a time.

Why We Leave

There are many reasons we disconnect from our cor­poreal selves. For starters, relentless ads, social media posts, and narratives about “ideal” bodies can leave us feeling that our own bodies don’t measure up.

“The cultural mirrors all around us are constantly telling us, in both obvious and covert ways, that there is a right way to have a body — and it is something other than yours,” writes psychologist, researcher, and embodiment expert Hillary L. McBride, PhD, in The Wisdom of Your Body: Finding Healing, Wholeness, and Connection Through Embodied Living.

Perhaps you grew up with a form of religious indoctrination and you still feel as though your sexual impulses are impure or untrustworthy. Or — like me — you live with chronic illness or disability and have internalized notions that your body is somehow less than. If you’ve experienced discrimination or aggression based on your skin color, sexual orientation, or gender expression, you might feel unsafe in your body.

Another reason we might habitually check out is because we once experienced something that was so frightening or painful that we left our bodies. Even if the event occurred long ago, such experiences leave an impression, explains trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk, MD.

“Trauma is not just an event that took place sometime in the past,” he writes in his book The Body Keeps the Score. “It is also the imprint left by that experience on mind, brain, and body.”

Whether you experience chronic stress and over­whelm (“small-t” trauma) or catastrophic and life-­threatening events (“big-T” trauma), the body reacts the same way: with heightened blood pressure; faster pulse; shallow, fast breathing; and narrowed focus. This is the body in survival mode, ready for fight, flight, or freeze.

“If we’re not able to go back into the thriving aspect of our nervous system, very often the information is stored not only in the fascia but in particular movement or tension patterns — and from there, then, of course, into the emotions and into the mind,” says Boehm. “In embodiment practices and somatic therapies, we’re essentially supporting the body in doing what the body does best, which is de-escalate and regulate.”

This allows us to spend more time thriving, rather than just surviving — even as the world around us continues to present its challenges.