Beyond Wellness Culture | Women Over 40, Nervous System Regulation, Burnout, Listen to Your Body

Dr. Brook Sheehan | Chiropractor, Functional Health + Holistic Health Practitioner, Creator of bodyOS: Whole-Body Healing
  • 5.0 (66)
  • Alternative Health
  • Updated Weekly

Are you exhausted from trends, protocols, supplements, and routines that worked for a while… until they didn’t? Does managing your health feel like a full-time mental job instead of something that supports your life? Do symptoms send you into a spiral... ChatGPT’ing, overthinking, and wondering what you missed or how to make it all work? I’m so glad you’re here. This podcast is for women who are ready to detox from health obsession and step into a calmer, more sustainable way of caring for their bodies, one that fits real life, restores peace, and rebuilds trust instead of pressure. This podcast helps you move away from fear-based health decisions and into confidence, clarity, and steady understanding without tracking every metric, chasing every trend, or feeling like you’re never doing enough. I’m Dr. Brook, a chiropractor, wife, and mom who lived inside wellness culture longer than I care to admit. I wasn’t careless with my health; I was hyper-focused on it. My thoughts revolved around food, supplements, routines, optimization, and doing everything “right” until health became something I managed instead of something that supported my life. What I learned, personally and professionally, is that the body doesn’t heal through perfect rituals. It heals when it feels safe, when it’s listened to, and when it’s trusted. God designed the body with wisdom, and it speaks in whispers... not fear, not force, and not performance. When I finally paused long enough to listen, I could hear the whispers, and everything changed — and that shift now shapes how I help women move from overwhelm to trust, from striving to peace, and from control to connection. If you’re ready for health that fits your life, not the other way around…If you want to release the pressure to always do more…If you want to understand what your body is asking for without panic or spiraling…And return to health that supports your faith, family, and life… Beyond Wellness Culture is for you. This is where we step out of wellness burnout and learn how to understand the body in a new way, rebuilding a steady, faith-anchored relationship with the body you live in. Take a breath, close the tabs, and let’s talk about health without the spiral. ✨ Connect with Dr. Brook Sheehan: Website → www.drbrooksheehan.com ** Disclaimer: The information shared on Beyond Wellness Culture is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. Always consult your qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, lifestyle, or treatment plan.

  1. 1d ago

    65: Doing Everything Right but Still Unfulfilled? How to Know When You’ve Outgrown Your Life ft. Katie Pulsifer

    What happens when the life you worked so hard to build looks good on paper, but no longer feels right? Katie Pulsifer knows that feeling well. For years, she did what so many high-achieving women learn to do: follow the rules, be dependable, take care of everyone else, and keep pushing forward. Then in her mid-40s, the life she had built started unraveling. Her marriage ended. Her corporate career no longer felt right. And for the first time, she had to ask herself a question she had spent years avoiding: What do I actually want? In this episode, Katie joins Dr. Brook for an honest conversation about what happens when you outgrow a life that once made sense. They talk about the messy middle between knowing something needs to change and actually knowing what comes next, why capable women can become disconnected from their own needs, and what your body may be trying to tell you when you keep overriding what you feel. Katie also shares a different way to think about legacy, one built through the small choices you make while you are still here, like resting, speaking honestly, asking for what you need, and changing patterns you do not want to pass down. And if you have ever caught yourself thinking, “I should be further along by now,” this conversation may help you question whether that thought is even true. In this episode, you’ll hear: What it feels like to outgrow a life you once worked hard to buildWhy the “messy middle” can last longer than we expectHow high-achieving women learn to suppress what they actually needThe connection between emotional stress and what shows up in the bodyWhy asking for help is not a failure of capabilityWhat changes when you begin trusting your yeses and your noesHow rest, healing, and honesty can become part of your living legacyWhy wanting more does not mean you are ungratefulHow gratitude can sometimes become a way of silencing your own desiresWhat to do with the thought, “I should be further along”One simple question that can help you find clarity when life feels overwhelming Sometimes reducing overwhelm does not start with doing less. It starts with getting honest about why you are doing what you are doing in the first place. And asking: Do I still like my reasons? CONNECT WITH KATIE Website: katiepulsifercoaching.com Substack: You Are Golden by Katie Pulsifer LinkedIn: Katie Pulsifer Instagram: @katiepulsifer Facebook: Katie Pulsifer ✨ Your body has been trying to tell you something. Find out what it's saying with the free 30-second Body Signal Decoder Assessment. Pick your signal, get your personalized guide straight to your inbox, and finally start making sense of what's going on inside. Get it here: os.drbrooksheehan.com/decoder 🎧 And if you caught the mention of the Talk to Me, Body affirmation card deck during the episode, here's where to grab yours. 63 scripture-anchored cards to help you trust the body God designed for you. Get yours here: drbrooksheehan.com/talk-to-me-body/ 📱 Come say hi on Instagram: @drbrooksheehan ⭐ If this episode spoke to you, would you take a second to leave a five-star review on Apple or Spotify? It helps more women find this show. And more women learning to listen to their bodies is exactly why I do this.

  2. Sep 24

    64: Burnout or a Sign It’s Time to Let Go? How to Find Your Next Right Step ft. Melissa Wilkinson

    What happens when the life you worked so hard to build no longer feels like where God is asking you to stay? Melissa Wilkinson knows that tension well. She has walked away from a six-figure corporate career, built a successful direct sales business, stepped away from that too, worked in ministry, experienced burnout, and repeatedly found herself asking God the same question: What is my next right step? In this episode, Melissa joins Dr. Brook for a conversation about purpose, burnout, big dreams, obedience, and what happens when God’s plan looks different from the one you carefully mapped out. They talk about the pressure women carry to manage every role well, why accomplishment does not always mean alignment, and how creating enough space to evaluate your life can help you recognize what needs your attention without immediately trying to fix everything. Melissa also shares the process she uses to help women dream again, especially when they have spent so much time being a wife, mom, leader, business owner, caregiver, or everything to everyone else that they no longer know what they want. And if the thought of figuring out your purpose feels like one more thing to add to your list, Melissa offers a simpler place to begin: Ask God to show you the next right step. In this episode, you’ll hear: Why Melissa walked away from a successful career even when things looked good on paperHow burnout became part of her journey toward greater alignmentWhy accomplishment and purpose are not always the same thingWhat to do when you have spent so much time caring for everyone else that you have forgotten how to dreamWhy Melissa starts with a life evaluation before setting new goalsHow to dream without turning your dreams into another source of pressureWhy some unanswered dreams may make more sense when you look back laterHow prayer changes the way you approach vision boards, goals, and plansWhy you do not need the entire roadmap before taking actionA simple prayer for asking God to reveal your next right stepDr. Brook also connects Melissa’s story back to the four pillars of health: physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental. Because health is not only about finding the next solution for a symptom. Sometimes the deeper work is noticing where you have been pushing, controlling, carrying too much, or staying attached to something God may be asking you to release.  CONNECT WITH MELISSA  Website: anchoredwithpurpose.com Podcast: Anchored with Purpose Podcast Book: Anchored with Purpose Faith Journal Instagram: @melissajwilkinson FREE Life Evaluation Unplugged: An Anchored with Purpose Retreat The Bible App:  From Lent to Lifestyle: Building a Daily Faith Practice that LastsThe Life Evaluation Reset✨ Your body has been trying to tell you something. Find out what it's saying with the free 30-second Body Signal Decoder Assessment. Pick your signal, get your personalized guide straight to your inbox, and finally start making sense of what's going on inside. Get it here: os.drbrooksheehan.com/decoder 🎧 And if you caught the mention of the Talk to Me, Body affirmation card deck during the episode, here's where to grab yours. 63 scripture-anchored cards to help you trust the body God designed for you. Get yours here: drbrooksheehan.com/talk-to-me-body/ 📱 Come say hi on Instagram: @drbrooksheehan ⭐ If this episode spoke to you, would you take a second to leave a five-star review on Apple or Spotify? It helps more women find this show. And more women learning to listen to their bodies is exactly why I do this.

  3. Sep 17

    63: 3 Nervous System Regulation Practices Nobody Talks About

    You have had that day. Nothing catastrophic happened, but by 4pm you are done. A text irritates you out of nowhere. You said yes to something you did not want to do. You pushed through hunger for the third time this week. In this episode Dr. Brook shares three nervous system strategies that go past the usual advice of breathwork and grounding, because those tools can calm your body for a moment without ever reaching what is actually underneath the stress. The first strategy is saying the thing, which means naming what is really bothering you, even just to yourself or in an honest, unsanitized prayer, instead of deciding it is too small to count. The second is closing an open loop, because unresolved decisions and unanswered messages keep pulling on your mental energy even while you rest. The third is responding to the quiet signal before it becomes a loud one, learning to notice hunger, tension, or the need for a pause and actually honoring it instead of overriding it. This is not about adding another routine to optimize your mornings or another rule to follow. It is about building a relationship with your body so it learns that when it speaks, you respond. Your body is communicating constantly. This episode is an invitation to stop managing stress from fear and start listening from trust. Grab the Body Signal Decoder in the link below for a guided walkthrough of the bodyOS framework and what your stress signals might be communicating. ✨ Your body has been trying to tell you something. Find out what it's saying with the free 30-second Body Signal Decoder Assessment. Pick your signal, get your personalized guide straight to your inbox, and finally start making sense of what's going on inside. Get it here: os.drbrooksheehan.com/decoder 🎧 And if you caught the mention of the Talk to Me, Body affirmation card deck during the episode, here's where to grab yours. 63 scripture-anchored cards to help you trust the body God designed for you. Get yours here: drbrooksheehan.com/talk-to-me-body/ 📱 Come say hi on Instagram: @drbrooksheehan ⭐ If this episode spoke to you, would you take a second to leave a five-star review on Apple or Spotify? It helps more women find this show. And more women learning to listen to their bodies is exactly why I do this.

  4. Sep 10

    62: The Overlooked Environmental Trigger Behind Brain Fog and Fatigue ft. Ariana Thacker

    You can be doing everything right and still not feel like yourself. That's the conversation Dr. Brook has with Ariana Thacker, a chemical engineer, venture capitalist, and founder of MoldCo, a health tech platform built after her own health crashed from hidden mold exposure. Ariana shares what her recovery actually looked like, from unexplained brain fog and hair loss to gut issues and fatigue, and how she eventually traced it back to mold hiding in her HVAC system. They talk about the environmental signs worth paying attention to, like musty smells, past water damage, and high indoor humidity, and why anxiety, irritability, and disrupted sleep can be part of the body's response to mold, not just a mental health issue on its own. Ariana walks through the three questions MoldCo helps answer: am I being exposed, is it affecting my biomarkers, and how do I get better, along with affordable testing options and where to start. This episode isn't about adding one more thing to fear or fix. It's about giving your body's signals a fair, curious look instead of jumping to panic or ignoring them altogether. Ariana also busts a few common myths about mold treatment and shares what actually helped her get her life back, including a simple daily question that shifted her whole outlook. If your environment has ever felt like the missing piece in your health story, this episode is worth the listen.  You can connect with Ariana and learn more about MoldCo at moldco.com, where you can create an account, order the home test, or access their free guide and symptoms tool. You can also reach the team directly at support@moldco.com, or follow along on Instagram at @themoldcompany and on Twitter/X at @m0ldilocks. ✨ Your body has been trying to tell you something. Find out what it's saying with the free 30-second Body Signal Decoder Assessment. Pick your signal, get your personalized guide straight to your inbox, and finally start making sense of what's going on inside. Get it here: os.drbrooksheehan.com/decoder 🎧 And if you caught the mention of the Talk to Me, Body affirmation card deck during the episode, here's where to grab yours. 63 scripture-anchored cards to help you trust the body God designed for you. Get yours here: drbrooksheehan.com/talk-to-me-body/ 📱 Come say hi on Instagram: @drbrooksheehan ⭐ If this episode spoke to you, would you take a second to leave a five-star review on Apple or Spotify? It helps more women find this show. And more women learning to listen to their bodies is exactly why I do this.

  5. Sep 3

    61: The Bagel Test That Proved Food Isn't the Enemy ft. Cassandra McKenney

    Dr. Brook Sheehan sits down with Cassandra McKenney, a fitness coach and registered nurse whose fourteen-year health journey took her from a controlled, obsessive relationship with food and exercise to a place of genuine peace in her body. Cassandra opens up about the eating disorder that began in middle school, the years-long binge and restrict cycle that followed, and how chasing the "right" protocol, the right supplement, the right test, and the right coach never actually gave her what she was searching for. What did change everything was recognizing that the fear driving her behavior, not the food itself, was the real problem. The conversation gets specific and practical. Cassandra explains why her body would react differently to the exact same food on different days, and how that pattern led her to stop trusting food sensitivity tests and start paying attention to her nervous system instead. When the body senses threat, blood moves away from digestion, so a meal eaten in a state of fear will almost always feel worse than the same meal eaten at ease. She walks through the story of a client who avoided bread and carbs for years, only to discover that eating the very food she feared left her with more energy and a stronger workout, not the disaster she expected. Brook and Cassandra also talk honestly about where the line sits between stewardship and obsession. Culture pushes women toward extremes in both directions, either total restriction or total permissiveness, and neither one is peace. The episode makes the case that healing doesn't start with more information or more discipline. It starts with getting curious about what's actually driving the fear underneath the behavior, and being willing to ask for help instead of trying to white-knuckle it alone. Cassandra shares where listeners can find her and her own podcast, and closes with an invitation that echoes throughout this whole conversation: the noise, the rules, and the constant search for certainty aren't the answer. Relationship, trust, and support are. You can find Cassandra on Instagram and TikTok at @cmckfit, and listen to her podcast, Dumbbells & Discipleship, on Spotify, YouTube, and soon Apple Podcasts. ✨ Your body has been trying to tell you something. Find out what it's saying with the free 30-second Body Signal Decoder Assessment. Pick your signal, get your personalized guide straight to your inbox, and finally start making sense of what's going on inside. Get it here: os.drbrooksheehan.com/decoder 🎧 And if you caught the mention of the Talk to Me, Body affirmation card deck during the episode, here's where to grab yours. 63 scripture-anchored cards to help you trust the body God designed for you. Get yours here: drbrooksheehan.com/talk-to-me-body/ 📱 Come say hi on Instagram: @drbrooksheehan ⭐ If this episode spoke to you, would you take a second to leave a five-star review on Apple or Spotify? It helps more women find this show. And more women learning to listen to their bodies is exactly why I do this.

  6. Aug 27

    60: Refusing to Rest Might Be Costing You Your Healing

    This episode closes out the four-part Body Theology series with the topic Dr. Brook has found hardest to live out herself: rest. For weeks this series has built the case that the body was designed with intention, and this final piece asks whether we actually believe it. If optimization without reverence can slide into idolatry, then rest is the practice that proves whether that belief is real or just something we say. Dr. Brook walks through the biblical foundation for rest, starting in Genesis with God resting not from exhaustion but to establish a rhythm, and moving into Exodus, where the Sabbath command carries the same weight as the commands against stealing and murder. She unpacks the manna story as a picture of provision: rest was never something to be earned after the tasks were finished, it was built into the design from the start. From there the conversation turns personal. Dr. Brook shares her own resistance to stopping, the discomfort that shows up when she tries to sit still without producing anything, and how she has come to recognize that discomfort as information rather than a flaw to push past. Rest, she explains, is not simply sleep. It is nervous system regulation, the body downshifting out of fight, flight, or freeze and into a state where deep repair can actually happen. Using the bodyOS framework of pause, connect, ask, and adjust, she offers a way to explore what fear might be surfacing around rest across the physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental pillars, and invites listeners to protect one small pocket of unproductive time this week the same way they would protect any appointment. The episode closes with an invitation to the Body Signal Decoder, a free tool to help identify what the body may be communicating and how to begin responding to it with curiosity instead of control. ✨ Your body has been trying to tell you something. Find out what it's saying with the free 30-second Body Signal Decoder Assessment. Pick your signal, get your personalized guide straight to your inbox, and finally start making sense of what's going on inside. Get it here: os.drbrooksheehan.com/decoder 🎧 And if you caught the mention of the Talk to Me, Body affirmation card deck during the episode, here's where to grab yours. 63 scripture-anchored cards to help you trust the body God designed for you. Get yours here: drbrooksheehan.com/talk-to-me-body/ 📱 Come say hi on Instagram: @drbrooksheehan ⭐ If this episode spoke to you, would you take a second to leave a five-star review on Apple or Spotify? It helps more women find this show. And more women learning to listen to their bodies is exactly why I do this.

  7. Aug 20

    59: Is Your Body a Machine or a Temple?

    In part three of the Body Theology series, Dr. Brook Sheehan takes us back to Leviticus to look at something most of us have never studied closely: the internal organs God asked the Israelites to set apart in their offerings. Not the visible parts. Not the parts anyone could evaluate from the outside. The kidneys, the liver, the hidden fat and connective tissue. This detail alone says something about how your body has always been regarded, inside and out, as sacred rather than incidental. This episode draws out the difference between two vocabularies we live inside of. Wellness culture speaks in machine language: optimize, upgrade, hack, fix. Scripture speaks in temple language: honor, steward, dwell. A machine gets managed and replaced. A temple gets cared for and revered. Dr. Sheehan traces this thread through Psalm 139, where God is described as forming your kidneys, your innermost self, while you were still in the womb, and through Jeremiah, where God is described as testing the kidneys and the heart. Across three different books of the Bible, the same pattern shows up. God has always cared about what is hidden, not just what is visible. There's also a cultural contrast worth sitting with. Surrounding nations used the liver for divination, searching it for hidden omens. Israel's instruction was different: offer that same organ back to God instead of trying to extract secret meaning from it. That distinction matters for how we relate to our own bodies today. Your body was never meant to be decoded like it's hiding a message you have to dig for. It was meant to be listened to, the way you listen to something you already trust. This episode also names the real villain in all of this, and it isn't wellness culture itself. It's fear. Fear of the body failing. Fear of not doing enough. Fear that shows up looking responsible, disciplined, even healthy, while quietly driving every decision. The invitation here isn't to stop caring about your health. It's to notice whether that care is coming from a place of wisdom or a place of fear. Dr. Sheehan walks through how this shows up practically using the bodyOS framework: pause and notice where you've been treating your body like a machine part instead of sacred territory, connect by offering gratitude to the organs doing quiet, constant work on your behalf, ask across the physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental pillars what your body might be communicating, and adjust by replacing machine language with temple language in how you talk to and about yourself. This is also the theological soil that the Talk to Me, Body card deck grew out of, a resource built to help you experience your body in a new way, anchored in scripture rather than fear. One episode remains in this series, and next week's conversation turns to something even harder to practice than gratitude: rest. ✨ Your body has been trying to tell you something. Find out what it's saying with the free 30-second Body Signal Decoder Assessment. Pick your signal, get your personalized guide straight to your inbox, and finally start making sense of what's going on inside. Get it here: os.drbrooksheehan.com/decoder 🎧 And if you caught the mention of the Talk to Me, Body affirmation card deck during the episode, here's where to grab yours. 63 scripture-anchored cards to help you trust the body God designed for you. Get yours here: drbrooksheehan.com/talk-to-me-body/ 📱 Come say hi on Instagram: @drbrooksheehan ⭐ If this episode spoke to you, would you take a second to leave a five-star review on Apple or Spotify? It helps more women find this show. And more women learning to listen to their bodies is exactly why I do this.

  8. Aug 13

    58: The Hidden Idolatry of Biohacking Culture

    In part two of this four part Body Theology series, Dr. Brook Sheehan takes on a word that shapes so much of modern wellness culture: biohacking. She's honest about her own fifteen year journey through it, from complete disconnection from her body to full blown wellness zealotry, and what she found in the middle ground once she came out the other side. This episode isn't an attack on supplements, wearables, or trackers. Those aren't the villain. What Brook is naming is something subtler, the moment care for the body quietly shifts into control, and control quietly shifts into idolatry. She walks through what that promise of certainty actually offers, why early wins from optimization feel so convincing, and why the body eventually stops responding to the same tricks, not as a failure, but as a signal. Drawing from Psalm 139, 1 Corinthians, Romans, and Colossians, Brook explores the difference between honoring the body as a temple and managing it like a machine that's never quite good enough, and she asks the question underneath every wearable, every supplement stack, every protocol: am I reaching for this from wisdom or reacting from fear? She shares a story from a client whose morning routine had quietly become more trustworthy to her than her own faith, and what it looked like to let that go. The episode closes with a practical rhythm anyone can use when data and body seem to disagree, pause, connect, ask, adjust, drawn from the bodyOS framework Brook teaches throughout the show. This isn't about abandoning wellness. It's about noticing when discipline has turned into performance, and finding your way back to reverence instead of control, and peace instead of certainty. ✨ Your body has been trying to tell you something. Find out what it's saying with the free 30-second Body Signal Decoder Assessment. Pick your signal, get your personalized guide straight to your inbox, and finally start making sense of what's going on inside. Get it here: os.drbrooksheehan.com/decoder 🎧 And if you caught the mention of the Talk to Me, Body affirmation card deck during the episode, here's where to grab yours. 63 scripture-anchored cards to help you trust the body God designed for you. Get yours here: drbrooksheehan.com/talk-to-me-body/ 📱 Come say hi on Instagram: @drbrooksheehan ⭐ If this episode spoke to you, would you take a second to leave a five-star review on Apple or Spotify? It helps more women find this show. And more women learning to listen to their bodies is exactly why I do this.

See All (65)

5
out of 5
66 Ratings

About

Are you exhausted from trends, protocols, supplements, and routines that worked for a while… until they didn’t? Does managing your health feel like a full-time mental job instead of something that supports your life? Do symptoms send you into a spiral... ChatGPT’ing, overthinking, and wondering what you missed or how to make it all work? I’m so glad you’re here. This podcast is for women who are ready to detox from health obsession and step into a calmer, more sustainable way of caring for their bodies, one that fits real life, restores peace, and rebuilds trust instead of pressure. This podcast helps you move away from fear-based health decisions and into confidence, clarity, and steady understanding without tracking every metric, chasing every trend, or feeling like you’re never doing enough. I’m Dr. Brook, a chiropractor, wife, and mom who lived inside wellness culture longer than I care to admit. I wasn’t careless with my health; I was hyper-focused on it. My thoughts revolved around food, supplements, routines, optimization, and doing everything “right” until health became something I managed instead of something that supported my life. What I learned, personally and professionally, is that the body doesn’t heal through perfect rituals. It heals when it feels safe, when it’s listened to, and when it’s trusted. God designed the body with wisdom, and it speaks in whispers... not fear, not force, and not performance. When I finally paused long enough to listen, I could hear the whispers, and everything changed — and that shift now shapes how I help women move from overwhelm to trust, from striving to peace, and from control to connection. If you’re ready for health that fits your life, not the other way around…If you want to release the pressure to always do more…If you want to understand what your body is asking for without panic or spiraling…And return to health that supports your faith, family, and life… Beyond Wellness Culture is for you. This is where we step out of wellness burnout and learn how to understand the body in a new way, rebuilding a steady, faith-anchored relationship with the body you live in. Take a breath, close the tabs, and let’s talk about health without the spiral. ✨ Connect with Dr. Brook Sheehan: Website → www.drbrooksheehan.com ** Disclaimer: The information shared on Beyond Wellness Culture is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. Always consult your qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, lifestyle, or treatment plan.

Information

You Might Also Like