Latest / Thrive After 45® | Life After 45, Self-Trust, Midlife Women / Stop "Powering Through" | How Midlife Women Can Heal High-Functioning Anxiety - with Shelley Martinez
Transcript
- 0:00Hello, and welcome to today's episode of Thrive after 45.
- 0:04I'm Denise Drink Walter heart whisperer, midlife mirror and mentor.
- 0:09And every week I am honored to share energy and space with inspiring guests whose stories reflect so many possibilities of thriving beyond 45.
- 0:21Together we'll uncover the whispers of the heart, the power of midlife transformation, and the wisdom that fuels expansion.
- 0:30What happens when the very thing that once ruled your life becomes the source of your deepest wisdom?
- 0:38It is an honor and a privilege to welcome Shelly Martinez to our conversation today, Shelly.
- 0:46An anxiety alchemist and that title is well earned.
- 0:51For much of her early life anxiety was a daily companion shaping her inner world from childhood well into adulthood, rather than accepting it as a life sentence.
- 1:03Shelly went searching for answers that reached far beyond.
- 1:07Surface level coping.
- 1:09That search led her into the nervous system itself and into nearly three decades of transformational work.
- 1:16Shelly is a licensed psychotherapist, life coach and certified hypnotherapist with 28 years of experience.
- 1:25And she has supported hundreds of women in learning how to tame high functioning anxiety, not just to quiet it, but to fundamentally change their relationship with it.
- 1:37What makes Shelly's work so distinctive is that she doesn't stop a relief.
- 1:42She guides women to reclaim their time, energy, and ease, and then.
- 1:47Teaches them how to transform anxiety into a superpower, a source of clarity, confidence, and inner authority.
- 1:56If you've ever felt like you looked really calm on the outside, while your nervous system is working over time on the inside, this conversation is going to open up a very powerful new doorway.
- 2:10Shelly, it is so wonderful to have you with us here today.
- 2:13I.
- 2:13Thank you.
- 2:14I am so excited to talk to you today, Denise.
- 2:17This is amazing.
- 2:18I've been just, it's like Christmas.
- 2:22I love it.
- 2:22I love it.
- 2:23Let's dive into something that really makes me wonder, what is this?
- 2:29When you reference high functioning anxiety, what is it you're referring to?
- 2:36And help us understand what that actually means.
- 2:39I'm so glad you asked me that because I think it's very misunderstood in that I, I call high functioning anxiety.
- 2:46Regular anxiety is evil twin because it's invisible and we've normalized it, but it really isn't normal.
- 2:55Hmm.
- 2:56In that, you know, we've labeled it and I'll explain more as, as kind of just the price of success.
- 3:01And this is just normal.
- 3:02And if you're a high achiever, and of course this impacts more high achieving women, you know, than it does men or other groups.
- 3:10Um.
- 3:12That it, we've kind of accepted like, well, this just must be how I am.
- 3:16Right?
- 3:16Or this is what it takes to be high achieving.
- 3:19Hmm.
- 3:19And it's absolutely not true.
- 3:22It's, in fact, it's holding us back.
- 3:24Very interesting.
- 3:25So what I think is really valuable.
- 3:30In what I heard you say, Shelly, is that we don't even recognize it as high achieving.
- 3:38Let's talk to our audience, which are women, right?
- 3:41Yeah.
- 3:41It's, well, you know, if you've got the CEO title, there's gonna be stuff that comes with that, right?
- 3:47Yeah.
- 3:47I know.
- 3:48I used to say that to myself.
- 3:50Well, you're the principal of the building.
- 3:52It's your job, so you just gotta.
- 3:55It's just what, it's just what it is.
- 3:57Denise, do it and move on.
- 3:59Right.
- 4:00Suck it up.
- 4:00BetterUp.
- 4:01Right.
- 4:02And so how on earth do we begin to pull apart so that we don't say, well, it's just part of the job.
- 4:11Just gotta do.
- 4:12And because your whole nervous system is a mess.
- 4:17Right?
- 4:17Exactly.
- 4:18Exactly.
- 4:19And it's, that's, that's the whole thing, is recognizing that this isn't.
- 4:24Normal.
- 4:25Mm-hmm.
- 4:26This isn't normal.
- 4:27And also another myth is that this is helping me to achieve and it's actually holding us back.
- 4:34Right.
- 4:35And many of us don't realize, but some of the things to look for are.
- 4:40You know, setting impossibly high standards, people pleasing, perfectionism.
- 4:44Procrastination, and then overwork.
- 4:47Taking on too much, not being able to say no.
- 4:50'cause you're afraid of letting people down and because you're just kind of running so fast, it's like everything becomes a yes because I don't even have time to think about it.
- 4:59And then later on I'm going, why did I do that?
- 5:01Ah, yes.
- 5:02You know, replaying all your conversations over and over again to nitpick and, well, I should have said that, and why did I say that?
- 5:09And checking your email five, six times before you can make yourself send it, because it's not perfect.
- 5:15You know, all of those things are signs of high functioning anxiety.
- 5:19Okay.
- 5:20Physically, you know, there's a lot of insomnia because we're exhausted, but we're wired at the same time.
- 5:26Mm-hmm.
- 5:27So we have trouble relaxing.
- 5:29We have a lot of insomnia, muscle aches, headaches, stomach stuff is really common.
- 5:36And you know, these are all things that are going on under the surface, of course, you know, on the outside.
- 5:41Mm-hmm.
- 5:41We are the go-to people, we are confident, we are calm, we are together and inside.
- 5:47It feels like our hair's on fire all the time.
- 5:49Right.
- 5:49So, you know, we're always trying to pretend we're okay and manage, manage and cope with it.
- 5:55Mm-hmm.
- 5:56Which coping actually keeps us stuck and it keeps our nervous system in that fight or flight or stress or survival mode.
- 6:04Really high functioning anxiety is your nervous system stuck in survival mode.
- 6:08Okay.
- 6:09Which is not good for you or anything you're trained to do, honestly.
- 6:14So, I mean, amazing examples.
- 6:18I, I'm sitting here as I'm listening, going.
- 6:20Yep.
- 6:21Used to do that.
- 6:22Used to do that.
- 6:23Check.
- 6:23Check.
- 6:23Yep.
- 6:24Yeah.
- 6:24Oh, me too, me too.
- 6:25Right.
- 6:26Right.
- 6:26So how do we begin to, after recognizing, start to reign it in, because like you shared when you were running on that, um, operating system.
- 6:41You're actually not doing the best you can do because you're not being the best you possible.
- 6:49So how, what is a step we need to discover to move forward after recognizing?
- 6:56Absolutely.
- 6:57So I've developed a three step framework.
- 7:00Hmm.
- 7:01And the first thing we need to do is reframe anxiety.
- 7:06We need to understand what it's here for, what its function is, how it helps us, and where it hinders us.
- 7:14Right.
- 7:14And so based on that, we, when we interpret it differently, it stops being the enemy.
- 7:20When we get curious and compassionate and kind with ourselves and with this part of ourselves, it's really critical.
- 7:27Mm-hmm.
- 7:28That's when we set the stage for change, and then we have to regulate differently.
- 7:35We have to regulate our nervous system differently, come out of that survival mode.
- 7:39Right.
- 7:40Be able to start to experience, you know, what, what are we like when we are literally calm, not just seeming calm, right?
- 7:50And confidence stems from that, you know, a stable, confident foundation.
- 7:55Right?
- 7:55And then thirdly, what we wanna do is rewire our nervous system so that calm and confidence becomes our foundation, our baseline, our habit.
- 8:05Because when you have high functioning anxiety.
- 8:08You're basically by default, are always anxious, right?
- 8:12Yeah.
- 8:12Yeah.
- 8:13And it causes so much noise and separates us from ourselves.
- 8:18Right.
- 8:19I can see that.
- 8:20Yeah, I can totally see that.
- 8:22So you two people in one body?
- 8:24Mm-hmm.
- 8:25So that itself is gonna be causing strain and stress, isn't it?
- 8:29Yes, definitely.
- 8:31Yeah.
- 8:32So.
- 8:34In your experience, what do you think the number one challenge that women face in terms of this high functioning anxiety?
- 8:43And then you've given some ideas, but how do you help them overcome it?
- 8:48I know the three steps is very powerful, very powerful.
- 8:51Well, and And broad.
- 8:53Yeah.
- 8:53Yeah, yeah.
- 8:54In in this context, right?
- 8:55But yeah, I think the number one challenge is for women to recognize.
- 9:00That this is anxiety and they don't have to stay here.
- 9:04We have these myths that we all kind of, I don't know, have adopted somehow from the air or the culture that say, you know, I'll just power on through it and it'll get better, which it doesn't.
- 9:17It can't.
- 9:18I mean, that's the definition of insanity, right?
- 9:20Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result and coping with it actually teaches us to stay in it because coping with it is about getting through the moment, powering through, and, and don't get me wrong, it serves a purpose.
- 9:35It helps temporarily.
- 9:38It restores a sense of control and order and helps us to get through these moments and manage.
- 9:45But what, uh, it's doing on the backside is it's telling our nervous system that we're only okay if we're in control.
- 9:53Hmm, that it's dangerous out here and we've gotta be hypervigilant and managing it all the time, otherwise, something bad is gonna happen.
- 10:01So it just, it's like you had a leaky boat and you just kept bailing the water with the coping instead of patching the hole, which is healing, right?
- 10:11If you patch the hole, it stops filling up all the time.
- 10:15Right.
- 10:15Yeah.
- 10:16Yeah.
- 10:17And so for us to recognize that we've, we've been fed, aligned, basically about this.
- 10:22Mm-hmm.
- 10:23And this notion, secondly, that, well, I'm just an anxious person, which is what I thought about myself for a while, because I was anxious since I was a child.
- 10:31I have a memory in kindergarten of my teacher telling me I was gonna get ulcers, and I had no idea what that meant, but it sounded really bad.
- 10:41Right.
- 10:42But it also convinced me like, okay, how I am not only is not normal, but it's a problem for people and I need to stuff it.
- 10:50I need to push it down and, and so then it became high functioning anxiety where it was there.
- 10:55But boy, nobody knew.
- 10:56Nobody knew.
- 10:58Yeah.
- 10:59Yeah.
- 10:59And and anxiety is a feeling.
- 11:01It's not a personality trait.
- 11:03There are people who respond habit wise with anxiety.
- 11:07Yeah.
- 11:07But they're not really anxious people.
- 11:10We don't have an anxiety problem.
- 11:12We have a nervous system stuck in survival mode.
- 11:17Hmm.
- 11:17And I think those are the biggest things to work through are these beliefs that block us in from getting, getting change and getting help.
- 11:26And it couples with the issue of a lot of the, um, work out there.
- 11:31The advice really just works on the surface.
- 11:34Yeah.
- 11:34So it doesn't work very well for a lot of us.
- 11:37Mm-hmm.
- 11:38You know, it addresses symptoms on the surface, but it doesn't deal with what's coming up underneath.
- 11:43Right.
- 11:43And I know for myself and many of my clients that just, you know, things would work for a week or maybe not at all or a month, and then we'd be right back where we started.
- 11:54Yeah.
- 11:54Yeah.
- 11:55S you know, getting at the root cause.
- 11:58And Isn't that interesting?
- 11:59Thank you for sharing that, Shelly, because I, I can put my hand up.
- 12:04I, I know my audience can put their hand up.
- 12:08When we say, can you remember a time when somebody said something to you that really.
- 12:17You can't erase it from your memory bank because it impacted not just what you heard, but it, it, it, it landed, the seed was planted and then you, without even really realizing it, like kindergarten, what?
- 12:33You're five, four or five?
- 12:35Yeah.
- 12:36Huge.
- 12:38I am sure that teacher meant no harm, specifically.
- 12:42Oh, yeah.
- 12:42By saying that.
- 12:43But it doesn't matter, right?
- 12:45One person can make a difference in another's life and one sentence can take such a hit on another person.
- 12:54Right?
- 12:55Absolutely.
- 12:56Think about that.
- 12:58I can think of, I used to tell students in a classroom, you know, they'd, I'd ask them, so in, let's think back, you know, grade two, uh, that math test, do you remember what you got on a math test and what?
- 13:12And I said, do you remember when somebody hurt your feelings by some?
- 13:16Oh yeah.
- 13:17I remember what they wore.
- 13:18I remember what they Right.
- 13:20And so we carry these pieces and so what you're referring to, if I'm understanding properly, is that we need to heal those parts of us that have been hurt and damaged.
- 13:35Beyond thinking about, well, it's the other person's fault.
- 13:40It's going into that healing mode and really being at one with, I'm gonna be okay, and this is where it might be stemming from, right?
- 13:49Yes.
- 13:49No, absolutely.
- 13:51Absolutely.
- 13:52And especially those early experiences because those go straight into our subconscious.
- 13:58You know, and they become rules because our subconscious doesn't have any ability to filter and say, well, you know, you were probably driving your teacher nuts, but she didn't mean anything negative by this.
- 14:11Yeah, yeah.
- 14:11You know, and you were, you know, driving her nuts temporarily.
- 14:14She didn't dislike you, she wasn't saying how you were, wasn't okay.
- 14:18That kind of thing.
- 14:20Your subconscious doesn't have the ability, it takes it at everything.
- 14:23At face value.
- 14:23Face value.
- 14:25Yes.
- 14:25You know, and that forms so many of the rules that we live by.
- 14:29Our subconscious runs about 95% of our life.
- 14:33What we think, feel, say, do, decide, believe, on and on, and on and on.
- 14:38And yet we rarely think about it.
- 14:40Right.
- 14:40And so that's where the rewiring comes in, is really healing those parts of ourselves so that we can have a new narrative.
- 14:48Mm-hmm.
- 14:49Absolutely.
- 14:50And deserving of such.
- 14:53Oh, you bet, right?
- 14:54Absolutely.
- 14:56Absolutely.
- 14:57Mm-hmm.
- 14:58We are all, all deserving of that and, and need to recognize that at any moment.
- 15:04Any moment.
- 15:05Yeah, we are doing the best we can do right then.
- 15:08And it may not be the best we can ever do, but in that moment, that was the best we had.
- 15:14And that's okay.
- 15:15Yeah, because we're human.
- 15:17Yeah.
- 15:18And it's okay to wanna, you know, shift and change and grow where we can.
- 15:22And to do that, we need that kindness, curiosity, and compassion.
- 15:26Those are big foundations for my work because without that, nothing shifts.
- 15:31If, if being mean to ourselves worked, we'd be perfect by now.
- 15:34Right.
- 15:36Thank you for that.
- 15:38Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 15:40And isn't it something that we as humans and in particular women, the self chat, the self, you know.
- 15:51Conversation that we have inside of our thoughts.
- 15:56The majority of it is not positive and uplifting.
- 15:59It's all about you should have.
- 16:02Could have.
- 16:02Would have.
- 16:03Why all the, yeah, negative.
- 16:06So I love the work that you do because you help rewire.
- 16:10That.
- 16:12Right?
- 16:13Yeah, absolutely.
- 16:14That's the goal.
- 16:15'cause we, our brain literally has a negativity bias, which makes sense.
- 16:20If you think about it from evolutionary terms.
- 16:22If there's a hundred berries that I, I like this will bring back, but there's a hundred berry bushes out in the forest that we collect from.
- 16:29Right?
- 16:30Okay.
- 16:30Mm-hmm.
- 16:30But one of the pest snakes under it, we need to remember which one had snakes under it.
- 16:35Got it.
- 16:36When we go out, right?
- 16:37Yep.
- 16:38And in modern day times, unfortunately, some of these strategies that make a lot of sense when you look way back, don't service here and now.
- 16:46So that, and that's analogous to a hundred people told me good things.
- 16:51Mm-hmm.
- 16:52And one person told me something critical and I focus on the critical person.
- 16:56Right.
- 16:57Yeah.
- 16:58You know, because we, we haven't adjusted the way we need to, and, and there are ways to help our mind and our subconscious and our nervous system to adjust and overcome some of that bias for sure.
- 17:11To make calm a bias, to make compassion for ourselves, the bias and the habit.
- 17:17Oh, thank you.
- 17:18That, and that's my goal for that.
- 17:19Thank you for that work.
- 17:21It is so needed.
- 17:23So needed in, in the world we live in today, we've got, excuse me, so many exterior.
- 17:30Negative forces at work that are beyond our control, but we are consuming it in a way that I don't think is always very healthy because we don't see the light at the end of the tunnel concept.
- 17:42We see the dark and gloomy.
- 17:45So your work is so valuable in so many ways, so many levels.
- 17:51Thank you for all of it.
- 17:53Um, yeah.
- 17:54I'm really passionate about it because mm-hmm.
- 17:56You know, I was, I was there.
- 17:58I get it.
- 17:58Yeah.
- 17:59Yeah.
- 17:59And I know, I believe that women are going to heal and change the world, and especially those of us who have, you know, passed that point of 45.
- 18:10So we're not as focused on raising little kids that need their milk cord for them.
- 18:14Right.
- 18:15We're more settled within our career, within our lives, but that's when things really open up to us possibilities.
- 18:21And it's like, wait a minute.
- 18:23What do I really wanna do with this?
- 18:25Right?
- 18:25What do I really wanna be doing?
- 18:27And, and not that we didn't wanna have our career and our family, of course, all of those things, but I think there's time that's freed up for us.
- 18:34Yeah.
- 18:35At this stage in our life, there's time, there's energy that allows so much possibility.
- 18:40And if we're gonna heal the world and change it in positive ways, which I believe women will, we need to not be weighed down with all our emotional baggage, all the old stuff.
- 18:50Yeah.
- 18:51So that's my mission, is to help as many women as possible to be able to put those things down.
- 18:57Mm-hmm.
- 18:58So that they can go and live a juicy life, whatever that means for them.
- 19:02Absolutely.
- 19:03And, and it's the whole context of our show, isn't it?
- 19:06It's, this is for you, for you, by you because of you.
- 19:10And I love how you shared, you know, you're at a different, um.
- 19:14At a different part in your timeline of life.
- 19:18So it doesn't mean that what you've done prior is not okay or not right?
- 19:22It was absolutely in alignment with where you were on the trajectory of that timeline.
- 19:27Yeah.
- 19:28Yeah, yeah.
- 19:28Totally.
- 19:30But we're also allowed to change our minds in terms of our focus and you know, giving ourselves permission or even the ability to ask the question.
- 19:39Yeah.
- 19:39Because so often we don't ask questions'cause we're so busy we're in that, you know, kind of hamster wheel sort of life.
- 19:45Exactly.
- 19:46Yeah.
- 19:47The door is opening for possibilities through your lens of curiosity, which I absolutely love.
- 19:53I think life is so beautiful when we come through it, um, via the lens of curiosity instead of what should I or oh, my expectations are, right.
- 20:06When we create that curiosity lens, it, it lightens the load just by thinking that way, doesn't it?
- 20:13Yeah.
- 20:14Absolutely.
- 20:15Absolutely.
- 20:16And that's why I think your work too is so important because there's so much potential for us here.
- 20:21Yeah.
- 20:22You know, at this point in our lives.
- 20:24Mm-hmm.
- 20:25Yeah, there is.
- 20:26And when we are grounded and centered in our new way of being with the calm, clarity mindset, subconscious work, we have a nicer opportunity to move with more fluidity, don't we?
- 20:44Oh, absolutely, absolutely unencumbered.
- 20:47Yeah.
- 20:48You know, think of it like all that old junk kind of, yeah.
- 20:52This idea of a, a red wagon, you know, the red wagons with the black and white wheels that many of us had as kids.
- 20:58Yeah.
- 20:58I feel like when stuff goes wrong in our lives, which inevitably does, it's, you know, we all have stuff.
- 21:04Right.
- 21:05Then it puts rocks in those wagon.
- 21:08And it's hard to pull those wagons.
- 21:10It's harder and harder and harder to get'em places.
- 21:12And so if we can take the rocks out, boy, you know, to quote Dr.
- 21:18Seuss, all the places we will go.
- 21:22Yeah, yeah.
- 21:24And why not, right?
- 21:27Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 21:29You've got this.
- 21:29Precious and wildlife do it.
- 21:32Yeah.
- 21:32Nothing to lose.
- 21:34Everything to gain.
- 21:35Mm-hmm.
- 21:36Absolutely.
- 21:36Mm-hmm.
- 21:37Absolutely.
- 21:39Is there any, I know we've touched on so much, but is there anything you would love to leave our audience with as we get ready to close this conversation?
- 21:51Well, uh, two things.
- 21:53Mm-hmm.
- 21:53First off, I want them to know that however long, however much they've struggled in their anxiety, it is never, ever too late to change.
- 22:03That can be shifted no matter what, no matter where you're at.
- 22:08Thank you.
- 22:08And if other things have not worked so well for you, you're not broken.
- 22:13It doesn't mean that you're broken.
- 22:15Because, you know, I know I felt that way for a very long time.
- 22:19Mm-hmm.
- 22:19You know, there must be something wrong with me.
- 22:20And that's not really the case because you just need to come at it at a different angle.
- 22:26And, um, also wanted to offer your audience a free mini class with, it's got four really good relaxation tools to help you in the moment.
- 22:37Three of them work in under a minute to bring more common confidence to your life because once you're calm.
- 22:43Confidence follows.
- 22:45You know, we always think, oh, well I'll get, I'll get confidence somehow.
- 22:48But no, you've gotta be, you've gotta feel calm first.
- 22:51Mm-hmm.
- 22:52You have to soothe the body before you can soothe the mind.
- 22:55Always, always, always, always.
- 22:57Or at least at the same time.
- 22:59Mm-hmm.
- 22:59And so, um, it's got some of my favorite really easy, really powerful tools to get started on this journey for anyone who's interested in doing that.
- 23:10Wonderful, and we will have all this information in the show notes.
- 23:13So make sure you check out the show notes and how to contact Shelly, um, to have deeper conversation.
- 23:19And I am so honored to have shared this time with you.
- 23:24I just love the work that you do, and I'm so grateful that unfortunately, your life.
- 23:31Took you to the point that you had to really understand the depths of the anxiety that you experienced, but I always believe there's a purpose and a reason for everything, and I think it was meant to be so that you could come out and do the beautiful work that you do now, supporting people to.
- 23:51Be high functioning without that extra anxiety and to become calm and confident and very clear on who you are as a person first, and the job secondary and the relationship secondary, but relationship to self is, is pivotal.
- 24:07So it's everything.
- 24:09Absolutely.
- 24:10Mm-hmm.
- 24:10Once you get that done, then you discover, and thank you for your compassion towards me, but it really, that's the point where it becomes a superpower.
- 24:18Yes, is when you've healed it and rewired it, and it's something that works for you instead of against you.
- 24:25Mm.
- 24:26Which is amazing and it's wonderful to see in folks.
- 24:30Yeah.
- 24:31And thank you for leading the way in that.
- 24:34Thank you.
- 24:36It has been such a joy to talk with you, Denise.
- 24:38You too.
- 24:40You too.
- 24:41So again, we'll have all the information in the show notes.
- 24:43Make sure you check it out.
- 24:45Get that free resource.
- 24:46Oh my gosh.
- 24:47I can't wait to get my hands on it.
- 24:48I know that for sure.
- 24:50I'm so excited.
- 24:52Before we close, I do want to share something gently.
- 24:57I am currently stewarding the.
- 24:59Early formation of a live in-person experience called Ignite the Inner Uprising, and it's being created for women in midlife who feel the quiet pull towards something more truthful, more embodied, more their own.
- 25:18It isn't an event I'm rushing.
- 25:21Or loudly promoting.
- 25:22It's just being built slowly with care and very deep respect for the women in midlife who it's meant to serve.
- 25:30So if your body leaned in at any point today during our conversation, if something here resonated beyond words, just know this, that there will be a place to gather for now.
- 25:46Simply stay connected.
- 25:48Follow, like, share.
- 25:50Give us your reviews so more women can find us.
- 25:55And when the timing is right, you will hear more about Ignite the inner uprising.
- 26:02Have an incredible day.