How Hormones Affect Your Emotions

We know our hormones can affect our mood but did you know your emotions can affect your hormones? 

The highs and lows – we’ve all experienced them, male and female. Although, we’d argue that females have a more significant swing than most. But the challenging aspect of this topic is that our hormones can affect our mood and our emotions can affect our hormones. So what gives and how do you manage it all? 

Before we get into this topic, I think it’s fair to state that we all deal with emotional swings. Don’t feel like you’re alone in this struggle – it happens because that’s human nature. 

Today on the podcast, I want to address the hormonal implications of our mood and vice versa. But to fully understand how this happens, we need to be absolutely clear on what our hormones are. 

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what are hormones? 

Hormones have been recognized mostly for their sexual function. However, hormones are beneficial for much more than reproduction, fertility, and pleasure – our hormones roam throughout our entire body.

Technically speaking, hormones are regulatory substances produced in an organism and transported in tissue fluids such as blood or sap to stimulate specific cells or tissues into action.

More simply put – they’re the communication network of the body. 

When the body perceives or senses something – whether from our environment or our mind – it sends out a hormonal cascade to stimulate the body into action. 

The hormone itself isn’t the action mechanism – just the voice of the body. 

Clearly, hormones are just as important, but I hope this definition helps clarify how and why our emotions can have such a substantial impact on our emotions and vice versa. It also explains how we can rectify any problems. But first, you have to know, does it start with a hormonal imbalance or an emotional one? 

emotional imbalance

The thing about our hormones and emotions is they go both ways. If you feel like you’re living in the case of your emotions affecting your hormonal imbalance – or better said causing it, this is the place to start. 

Our emotions or feelings {our mind} are responsible for the state of our body – whether that is in a joyful or rested state or a stressed and chaotic one. Both situations stimulate a different hormonal response in the body, which lead to a different action. 

In the short term, this would be considered a survival mechanism. Unfortunately, when the negative emotions repeat themselves, our hormonal flow can become imbalanced, and now we can see a full-blown stress response that is more chronic. 

This can lead to many things – which you are most aware of if you find yourself here. Think problems including:

• Weight gain
• Inability to lose weight
• Sleeplessness
• Exhaustion
• Poor sexual function
• Infertility
• Depression or anxiety
• Increased inflammation
• Joint pain
• Adrenal Fatigue

5 ways to fix your emotional

If you feel like your emotions are causing a stress response, then it’s time to start dealing with your negative emotions, learning to let go and relax. In time, this will help your entire hormonal flow to regulate. Here are five ways to get your emotions back in check.  

1. Call them by name. It’s easy to pass through life without any awareness of how you’re feeling. But this leads to prolonged misery, maybe even more because you’re at a loss on how to fix it. Spend some time getting to know your emotions and call them by name. 
2. Journal. Spend 10-15 minutes a day writing. It can be anything, and everything. Start to let out your emotions.
3. Find yourself. This isn’t an easy task, because we’ve been informed of ourselves through secondary information. While this isn’t always detrimental, it does blur the vision of our real selves. Spend some time getting to know yourself and ask yourself questions – lots of them. 
4. Take inventory. How are you feeling, really? What things are filling you up and what things are holding you back? Take an inventory of your life and start to let go of what is holding you back so you can fill up on more of what’s freeing you up.  
5. Get help. I’m a firm believer that all of us could benefit from a counselor or therapist. We can’t heal ourselves – we need help. Find someone you can trust and start the process of healing. Let it out. 

It doesn’t matter where you start; whether big or small, it just matters that you start and you stick with it. If you want help asking questions, getting started, and journaling – make sure you download my free guide to help you on this journey. 

INSERT THE JOY EXPERIMENT

5 Ways to Fix your Hormones

On the other hand, your hormones could be causing your emotions to be out of whack. If even just one of your hormones isn’t firing properly, it could be leading to neurotransmitter deficiency and sleeplessness. Take some time to nourish and reset your hormones to health. Here are my top 5 ways: 

1. Intermittent Fasting. Intermittent fasting is one of the easiest and most painless ways to reset your hormones. Our hormones reset nearly every single night during deep sleep – but we have to have a deep sleep to do this. However, deep sleep only happens in the absence of food. Make sure you allow time, 12-16 hours during the evening and night to stay in a fasted state. Click here to learn more information and how to get started. 
2. Stop snacking. Snacking is one of the most overused food rules of our day. Simply put, our bodies don’t need to snack. Constant food is a detriment to our hormonal system. Give yourself a break and boost your hormones through quitting snacking. Opt instead for just 2-3 meals per day. Click here to learn more information and how to get started. 
3. Move your body. When tested, no mood-boosting, anti-anxiety drug has been able to out-perform exercise. It matters, and it can change the entire hormone cascade more quickly than about anything else. Movement doesn’t mean one 90-minute sweat session a day but just activity. Do what you love and do more of that. 
4. Incorporate more rest and self-care. As mentioned, our hormones reset during deep sleep. But outside of that we also have the option to be in two phases; sympathetic {fight or flight} and parasympathetic {rest and digest}. To maintain health, keep your body shifted towards the parasympathetic mode through resting and self-care. Make it a priority. 
5. Focus on the food. There is no denying that food is having an impact on your hormones. Like every cell in your body – they need to be nourished. Take time to feed your hormones through filling your body with healthy, wholesome food. Focus on fresh fruits and veggies and nix the gluten and dairy. 

do the reset

Don’t worry; it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. I’ve put together my top hormonal secrets in getting a quick reboot in my 5-Day Hormonal Reset. Get all the help you need to get started for life right here. 

INSERT 5-DAY HORMONAL RESET

resources

If you’re looking for more resources on hormones, check out some of my favorite products and posts:

• Flo App – Keeps track of your menstrual cycle including diet and lifestyle recommendations
• Cycle Syncing: Why You Should Try It
• The One Thing Sabotaging Your Hormones
• What Women Should Know About Their Hormones
• Is Caffeine Harming Your Hormones?
• How to Reset Your Hormones
• Natural Menstrual Products: Why I Made the Switch

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