Do cravings, fatigue, or hormonal shifts have you feeling like a stranger in your body?
In this episode, I'm joined by Sema Özpekmezci for a grounded, compassionate conversation about chronic illness, women's health, perimenopause, hormones, and what it really means to listen to your body.
We explore how midlife changes can feel confusing and how symptoms like cravings, energy dips, mood shifts, and inflammation can become invitations into deeper self-understanding.
Sema also shares a powerful way to think about your hormones as the "CEO" of your body and why food, stress, blood sugar, sleep, and nervous system regulation all play a role in helping you feel balanced again.
Inside this episode, we explore:
🔹 Why perimenopause symptoms, cravings, and inflammation may be body signals, not personal failures
🔹 How hormones, stress, cortisol, and the nervous system influence women's health
🔹 Why chocolate cravings and blood sugar patterns can reveal what your body actually needs
🔹 How to respond to your changing body with curiosity, compassion, and practical support
My hope is that this conversation helps you stop fighting your body and start listening to it. Because your body isn't broken. It's speaking.
💗 If you want to keep exploring this connection between the nervous system, embodiment, and women's health, come practice with me: https://www.brettlarkin.com/ffy?utm_medium=social&utm_source=podcast&utm_campaign=ffy
GUEST EXPERT: Sema Özpekmezci | @semaozpekmezci
Sema is a certified Clinical Nutritional Therapist and Functional Medicine Health Coach. She is a Yoga and Mindfulness Trainer and yoga/meditation enthusiast. She believes that nutrition, mind, and spirit are inextricably linked to our health and overall well-being and spreading and explaining this is her life's purpose.
Connect with Sema and find her programs here → https://www.semaozpekmezci.com/
FREE Practice: Somatic Exercises to Reduce Cortisol & Get Out of Freeze Response | Full Body Somatic Yoga Flow
Relevant Blog: Yoga Teacher Training as a Mid-Life Wellness Sabbatical: Why More Women Are Using YTT to Reset Their Nervous System (Not Change Careers)
Relevant to Today's Episode:
🐍 Kundalini 200-hour YTT
📚 Healing with Somatic Yoga Book
✨ Yoga for Self Mastery
💖 Uplifted Membership
💫 Somatic Certification
🎧 Also Listen to:
#366 – Is Trauma Actually In Your Hips? The Impact of Stress on Hip & Pelvic Health with Dr. Brianne Grogan
#369 – Nervous System Masterclass with Kristin Leal
#384 – Do Less, Heal More: 7 Invitations to Resolve Trauma from Organic Intelligence
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