Ep 36: Presence Over Perfection: A Midlife Anti-Burnout Strategy

In this episode of Reset Recharge, Dr. Komal Patil-Sisodia shares her personal experiences with burnout and emphasizes the importance of being present and pausing. She discusses how striving for perfection can lead to deep mental and physical exhaustion, especially for midlife women. Dr. Patil-Sisodia dives into the concept of the burnout-inactivity trap, where chronic burnout reduces physical activity, further exacerbating physical decline. She outlines effective strategies for breaking this cycle, including consistent moderate physical activity and prioritizing quality sleep. The episode concludes with actionable tips on integrating more movement, connection, and genuine rest into daily life to combat burnout.

Connect with me:

TikTok

Instagram

Eastside Menopause & Metabolism

Audio Stamps:

00:00 Introduction and Apology for Delay

01:16 The Importance of Being Present

01:30 A Personal Story of Burnout

03:42 The Burnout-Inactivity Trap

05:39 The Power of Movement

08:01 Prioritizing Rest and Recovery

11:02 Actionable Tips for Presence

13:02 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Thanks for listening. Find more info about Reset Recharge on the website or Instagram.

Transcript

Dr. Komal Patil-Sisodia 0:00

Welcome to Reset Recharge, the podcast where women's health takes center stage. I'm your host, Dr. Komal Patil-Sisodia, a triple board certified endocrinologist and women's health expert. This show is all about empowering you with the knowledge to understand your metabolic health, navigate hormonal changes, and feel confident in the conversations you're having with your healthcare provider. Whether you're managing symptoms, exploring treatment options, or just want to feel more in tune with your body, you're in the right place. As a physician, my goal is to educate on this podcast. The content shared here is for informational purposes only and should not replace personalized medical advice. If something we discuss resonates with you, please talk to your healthcare provider at your next visit. Now let's dive in and help you reset, recharge, and take control of your health. Hi everyone. Welcome back to Reset Recharge. I'm your host, Dr. Komal Patil-Sisodia, and I'm so happy to be posting an episode this week. To be completely honest, I was on vacation and didn't get things geared up and ready to go. So this episode is a little late because I forgot to post it last week. When I realized I had slipped up on Monday, I actually realized that it all happened for a good reason. I was actively being present with my family while I was on vacation and I realized that I wanted to talk about how important it was to be present and pause. I'll start with a story that might sound familiar to some of you. Earlier this year. I actually took a vacation with my family. I was tired and burned out because of a lot of stuff that was going on at work, and I found that I was not able to detach from work because I was so stressed out and so burned out. I was thinking about work all the time, and in order to stop thinking about work, I wasn't sleeping while I was just reading on my Kindle, I think I was buffering with my Kindle books just to see if I could detach my mind from work. And in doing that. I was physically present on this trip, but mentally I was just not there, and that was not fair to my husband or my son or to me. And the result of trying to rest but not really doing it in the healthiest way while I was still running on fumes, ended up being a disaster. I got hurt in the middle of the trip because I had not been moving my body as much because I wasn't well rested. My husband's son and I were out walking during this trip and it started to rain. I didn't realize there was a metal grate on the road my foot caught the metal grate in the rain and I fell on my back. It was a big wake up call, i'm very lucky that I did not actually break anything. I realized that I just had not been paying attention to my surroundings and had not been present at all on this trip. Luckily I wasn't hurt badly. I was sore for a few days. Nothing that a little ibuprofen and Tylenol didn't fix. But I realized that I needed to snap out of whatever funk I was in. I don't know that I did the greatest job on that trip, but I went into this vacation last week thinking I can't do what I did back in the spring. I need to be more present for myself and for my family. This story's important because it shows the pattern that traps so many midlife women. We are conditioned to strive for perfection, and we have this relentless drive that keeps us from being truly present for our own wellbeing. So not only are we not engaging with our families. And our friends, but we're not paying attention to what's happening in our own bodies. And that is a recipe for disaster. There is this burnout, inactivity trap that happens. Confirmed by studies that look at what happens to women when we are mentally exhausted. And what's interesting is that we fall into this burnout inactivity trap, and there is science that confirms it can be dangerous to prioritize perfection over being present. When we are chronically pushing ourselves to the brink, we actually end up creating this feedback loop known as the burnout, inactivity, trap, and research that. Research that is specifically focused on midlife women shows a clear and powerful link between mental exhaustion and physical decline. Higher burnout is associated with decrease is associated with a significant reduction in physical activity. Specifically, it will lead to fewer daily steps and less moderate to vigorous physical activity. And this is key. It is the deep exhaustion that comes with burnout and not just general stress that will stop us from moving, right? We all have some degree of stress in our daily lives, but that's not keeping us from doing things that are keeping us well. But it's when you're truly, deeply exhausted from being burned out, that that actually starts to have a very profound effect on your physical capabilities and function. Burnout doesn't just make us feel mentally tired. It actually makes our bodies less capable over time because we're not as motivated to move our bodies, and when we're not moving, we're losing. There's a saying use it or lose it, move it or lose it. We have to be moving our bodies in order to stay healthy, and this cycle shows that it's critical for both your physical and mental health. When you are constantly busy or trying to achieve perfection, you lose awareness of your body's signals. You stop moving and then the cycle accelerates and perpetuates. So the good news is that movement can be a powerful intervention. There are studies that show physical activity can help reduce burnout symptoms and improve your overall health related quality of life. So what kind of movement actually gives you the biggest anti burnout boost? It's not usually the hyper intense workouts, but a combination of just being consistent and doing some sort of moderate physical activity. Let's talk about that sweet spot for protection. The most protective benefits against burnout were shown in people who engaged in at least 25 minutes of modest to vigorous exercise per day, combined with an additional 30 to 60 minutes of light intensity activity per day. That specific combination was associated with a 62% lower risk of burnout, moderate activity, which raises the heart rate where you can hold a conversation. Includes things like brisk walking, cycling, dancing, or swimming. Light activity, which can be woven throughout your day, is stuff like slow walking, standing up to stretch, or doing light chores. Interestingly, aerobic exercise, even just a quick 30 minute cardio session, was found to significantly improve recovery, for mood tiredness, motivation in mentally exhausted individuals was found to improve recovery. What's also interesting is the power of aerobic exercise. The data shows that even a 30 minute cardio session, like a brisk walk or cycling, could improve recovery for mood, tiredness, and motivation in people who are feeling mentally exhausted. Consistency trumps intensity. You have to remember the goal is not perfection, it's just moving your body. If you can't fit one 30 minute session in your day, you can break it up into three 10 minute walks. It still counts, and it's always better to move every day for 15 minutes than save up for one huge workout that never actually happens on the weekend. It is always better to move every day for 15 minutes than try and save up all that time and do a big workout on the weekends. More often than not, those workouts don't happen and we end up perpetuating that cycle of physical inactivity. If movement is your physical reset, then rest and pause are kind of like the mental and emotional recharge that needs to happen. And this is the practice of presence. To be more present, prioritize your sleep. Sleep is the absolute cornerstone of recovery and it has so many protective effects against burnout, and it's actually pretty profound. So there is a dose response effect for sleep. Which means that each additional hour of quality nightly sleep is associated with significantly lower odds of burnout, For midlife women, the risk of burnout caused by sleep problems is even higher than in younger populations. Consistent quality sleep around seven to nine hours per night is a non-negotiable health intervention for this stage of life. For me, it's hard to get to that seven hours. I usually wake up at around six and a half, but I'm doing the best that I can and there's a lot of great information about how to improve your sleep hygiene, how to determine whether your sleep issues are due to the hormonal decline in menopause versus other health issues. I highly recommend looking into that if sleep is a problem for you. The second part of resting and pausing is just embracing true recovery. Rest isn't just about sleep, it is the quality of your non-work time. A good friend of mine who is also my coach, Amanda Sabicer, said to me that you get to choose when your work day ends or when the work for the day ends. For me, that was kind of an eye-opening thing because my. To-do list just goes on forever. It wasn't until she said that to me that I had this realization that, oh my gosh, I actually need to stop working. At some point, we get into the habit of just working until bedtime going to sleep, and then getting up the next morning and doing it all over again. But for true recovery, you have to actually detach mentally and physically from work and the endless to-do list. And that means putting down your phone, closing your laptop, and trying to do some activities that are not work related, that are actually low effort and things that you enjoy. The other thing that really helps is making social connections. There's a lot of data around the importance of friendships for midlife women, but I also think that connecting with our families is equally important, and when you have poor work life balance. Where you are not able to disconnect from work and engage with your family, that is a significant precursor to burnout. It's been shown that people who have a poor work life balance are more susceptible to burnout. That's why choosing to pause and be present is really important, focusing on the moment rather than the task list, is an evidence-based method to protect your health. So here's your actionable reset planning presence over planning. As we head into the high pressure end of your season, use this time for your own personal reset. Tip number one is be present in your body. Choose 25 daily, 25 minute movements. So as we head into the high pressure end of the year use this time for your own personal reset. Number one, be present in your body. Moving 25 minutes a day is more important than wrapping all of your presence perfectly. And when you move, you become more aware of what's happening in your body, and you catch those burnout signals before they lead to injury or collapse. Number two, choose connection and healing. Slow down, be present, not perfect with your family and friends. Let go of the need to have everything perfect. For the holidays. Focus on the genuine joy of being there. The healing comes from letting go of that control and accepting what it is. On my vacation that I took recently there were a few snafus. Our flight, to our destination was delayed several hours, and I think we traveled for 24 hours before we got to where we were going to be. We just kind of reset our plans a little bit, took some time to rest and it actually ended up being a better thing because we learned to roll with the punches. We weren't stressed about our plans. That was such a gift for me. Especially because I tend to be one of those people who is go, go, go. From my experience from earlier this year and my most recent trip, a few lessons that can be learned are giving yourself the gift of presence. It is the most powerful anti burnout strategy that you have, if I compare my vacation earlier this year to the one that I just took, it's a no brainer. I came back, still burned out from the first vacation. This one is the one that I felt. The most deeply rested from in a very, very long time. So I hope you all are able to give yourselves the gift of presence. It's really the most powerful anti burnout strategy that you have. Thank you for joining me today on Reset Recharge I will look forward to seeing you on the next one. Thank you for joining me. I'll see you on the next one. And until then, I wish you all a happy holiday season with your family and a wonderful entry into 2026.