How Burnout Dragged Me into Menopause at 32 and the Rituals That Helped Me Reclaim My Life

From Emergency Response Mode to Sovereign Living

💆🏽‍♀️ Ready to transform burnout into balance? Grab the Self Care Alchemy Toolkit and resources that make self-care simple and sustainable.

---

---

At 32, my body said "enough" in a language I couldn't ignore.

Years of treating myself like a machine that should run on fumes and willpower alone caught up with me in the form of early menopause.

The universe has a sense of humor, doesn't it?

The woman who prided herself on being ahead of every deadline was suddenly thrust into a biological timeline she never saw coming.

But here's the truth I wish someone had told me: the signs had been whispering for years.

• The 3 AM anxiety spirals.

• The bone-deep exhaustion that no amount of coffee could touch.

• The way my body felt like I was carrying invisible weights everywhere I went.

I had become a master at dismissing these signals, chalking them up to the price of ambition, the cost of being a woman who gets things done.

I was living my life like a first responder to everyone else's emergencies while my own house was quietly burning down.

Sound familiar?

My entire identity was wrapped up in being the reliable one, the one who could juggle flaming torches while riding a unicycle on a tightrope.

"Rest felt like failure. Boundaries felt selfish."

And asking for help? That wasn't even in my vocabulary.

The cost of this performance was everything I thought I was protecting.

My health crumbled.

My joy evaporated like morning dew.

I looked successful in every external measure, but inside I was running on empty, held together by sheer stubbornness and the fear of disappointing people.

The woman staring back at me in the mirror had become a stranger—sharp-edged, resentful, carrying exhaustion like a second skin.

I didn't just dislike her; I mourned for who she used to be before she learned to make herself small in service of making others comfortable.

The turning point was pretty dramatic. Second divorce. Bankruptcy. Relocating.

Those were my rock-bottom moments.

Despite that, there was a quiet determination that rose up from somewhere deeper than my racing thoughts: Something has to change, and it starts with you.

"Something has to change, and it starts with you."

That's when I discovered what radical self-care actually means.

It's not spa days, bubble baths, and face masks (though those have their place).

"It's the fierce act of choosing yourself when everything in your conditioning tells you not to."

It's revolutionary, honestly.

I started microscopically.

• Breathing—actually breathing—before I opened my laptop each morning. Three deep breaths. That's it.

• Then came the practice of spilling my thoughts onto paper before they could spiral into anxiety tornadoes.

• Water became medicine.

• Vitamins became non-negotiable.

These weren't grand gestures; they were survival tactics disguised as self-care.

Then came the part that felt like learning a foreign language: saying no.

Not "maybe later" or "let me think about it"—actual, complete sentences that honored my capacity.

Creating boundaries even when people's disappointment felt like acid in my chest.

Resting without a productivity justification attached to it.

Here's what no one tells you about healing: it's not linear, and it's not quick.

But those tiny practices? They compound.

They become a foundation strong enough to rebuild your entire life on.

"Here's what no one tells you about healing: it's not linear, and it's not quick. But those tiny practices? They compound."

Slowly—and I mean glacially slowly—I began to remember who I was underneath all the roles and responsibilities I'd collected like armor.

I stopped performing my life and started living it.

Instead of constantly proving my worth, I began allowing my inherent value to simply exist.

Today, my life looks completely different.

I run businesses that breathe instead of gasp.

I work with executive women and entrepreneurs who are tired of treating their lives like crime scenes to be managed and are ready to design them as sanctuaries instead.

I teach what I had to learn in the fire: "Your worth isn't measured by your output, and rest isn't earned—it's required."

Here's what I wish I'd had during those darkest moments: an AI-powered self-care coach who could interrupt my stress spirals before they consumed me.

Someone available 24/7 to remind me to breathe, to help me process the storm in my head, to guide me back to my center when everything felt chaotic.

That's exactly why I created S.A.M.I. AI—the burnout recovery support system I desperately needed but didn't exist.

Now I teach ambitious women not just how to heal from burnout, but how to create their own AI-powered support systems that catch them before they fall.

My story isn't special, but it is proof of something powerful: you don't have to wait for your body to stage a revolt to reclaim your life.

Burnout isn't the only story available to ambitious women.

"You don't have to wait for your body to stage a revolt to reclaim your life. Burnout isn't the only story available to ambitious women."

At any moment—this moment—you can choose differently.

You can start with one boundary, one breath, one small act of self-compassion.

That's not the end of your productivity; it's the beginning of your sovereignty.

And sister, "You deserve to be sovereign in your own life."

---

---

Coming Next: Reclaim Your Wellbeing

This story isn’t just a post—it’s the seed of my next book, Reclaim Your Wellbeing: Transforming Self-Sacrifice into Self-Care. Writing it has been both excavation and offering. It gathers the lessons I learned rebuilding myself from burnout and early menopause, alongside the practices I now teach women who are ready to stop surviving and start living with sovereignty.

I’m also stepping into a new chapter myself: seeking a literary agent who believes in this work and its power to shift how we think about women’s health, leadership, and liberation.

And here’s where you come in. I’m opening a dedicated section right here for beta readers. You’ll get early access to draft chapters, space to share your reflections, and a chance to help shape the final book before it goes out into the world.

If the story you just read resonated, if you’ve ever felt the cost of self-sacrifice in your own body, this is your invitation to walk with me as Reclaim Your Wellbeing comes alive.