Are Your Subconscious Beliefs Hurting Your Hormone Balance?

Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast! In this episode, we're joined by Dr. Nicole Huffman to discuss how our subconscious beliefs can impact our hormone balance.

 

If you're struggling with hormonal issues, it's important to explore all potential causes - including your beliefs and mindset. As Dr. Huffman explains, our subconscious beliefs can have a powerful impact on our physical health, including our hormone balance.

 

If you're ready to dive deeper into exploring your own beliefs and how they might be impacting your health, tune in now! You'll learn valuable insights from Dr. Huffman that can help you create lasting positive change in your life.

 

In this episode, you will learn:

• How our subconscious beliefs can impact our hormone balance
• What kind of beliefs might be causing hormonal imbalances
• How to start exploring your own subconscious beliefs
• Lifestyle and diet tips for optimizing hormone health
• Methods to use for unresolved stress
• How to enhance your energy and vitality at any age
• And more!

 

So whether you're struggling with hormonal issues or just want to learn more about how our beliefs impact our health, tune in now for an enlightening conversation with Dr. Nicole Huffman.

 

If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe to the Hormone Prescription Podcast and leave us a review! We appreciate your support as we continue working to empower women everywhere to take control of their hormone health.

 

[01:19] My guest today. You're gonna love her. I know you love all my guests, but you're really gonna love her because she's gonna talk about a topic that's super important and just might the missing key. When it comes to your hormone balance, I find that women who don't achieve the hormone balance and health, that's possible for them over a 40 often neglect this step. So this is why it's super important. 

 

[02:12] Dr. Nicole Huffman is a naturopathic medical doctor and her passion is finding the root cause of her patients and balances and dis ease, not just solving the symptom picture. She believes the body has the ability to heal itself, given the correct personalized treatment plan. And after restoring the basic determinants of health, a certified neuro emotional technique practitioner, Nicole knows firsthand the dramatic effects that healing negative subconscious beliefs can have on health. She explores these and more topics related to root cause resolution approaches to health on her biweekly podcast called coffee with the docs. Welcome Dr. Nicole Huffman. 

 

[03:26] I'm so excited to ha,ve you and dive into the topic of, are your subconscious beliefs hurting your hormone balance? I, yes. Right? So I know some people are wondering why aren't they so excited, weirdly excited about this topic? Why tell everyone why you're excited about it?

 

[03:45] And I don't necessarily think it's because doctors like don't wanna help their patients with that. I think honestly, just a lot of practitioners aren't really taught how to help and especially the docs who are, you know, sort of in the more standard standard type of medicine who are helping with hormones. It's just not part of their repertoire to really deal with that side. But we know as practitioners in the functional world, that if you look at hormones and if your stress hormone cortisol is too high or which is gonna affect insulin, it's also gonna affect all of our sex hormones, which is gonna throw off the whole hormonal balance. And so it's just so important to look at that piece of the puzzle. 

 

[04:43] And I know the first thing that women say to me is like Dr. Kiran, how of my , how does my subconscious thought that runs my body have anything to do with my hormones? They're like, no, no, I've got a very menopause problem. I've got a menopause problem. I don't have a subconscious thought problem. 

 

[05:15] I think there's that quote that's like you can't solve the problem with the same brain that created it. I mean, it is one of those things where it is helpful to have a practitioner, somebody who does work with a subconscious mind sort of help you identify what belief systems you may have. And if you were talking even just about what you were just saying with menopause, like if you have a subconscious belief program, that's like, well, my mom started menopause early than I'm going to too. Well, your body listens to everything your mind says, right? 

 

[06:05] And so I do think there are little tricks and tools to kind of figuring out your own subconscious belief systems and really that's how come, you know, meditation can be so helpful because it's being aware, it's taking a step back and observing yourself, which is hard to do, you know, observing without judgment, but you can kind of start to see like, oh gosh, I always tend to think this one thing today, I was working with a patient where she had kind of figured out on her own that every time she experiences a lot of joy, something bad happens. 

 

[06:54] Yeah. I think that's super important to, to realize. I remember when I practiced regular gynecology, women used to come in and they'd be in their forties having crazy periods cuz that's what we do in our forties. And they would say, well, my mother had a hysterectomy when she was 45. So I think it's time for mine.

 

[07:16] And so you mentioned that working with someone who can help them to identify. So I know some people are thinking, whoa, who would I look for? What kind of person would I look for? Who helps people with their subconscious beliefs?

 

[07:37] I mean, so one of the practices, modalities I use to help my patients with their emotional, I don't even really wanna call it emotional work. I feel like the word emotional just gets such a bad reputation. But if we look at it as sort of solving unresolved stress, right? Like we know that if there is stress in the body, that's unresolved, it's gonna cause and balances. Right? So if we look at it that way, the modality I like to use is something called neuro emotional technique. So I do know that you can look for different practitioners, not everybody practices the exact same, but you know, if that's a resource and then I would say there are so many other different types of ways to access that area and kind of the subconscious brain and figure out how to create more balance. 

 

[08:39] And EFT, emotional freedom technique. That's a pretty widely used technique. Now there's a lot of different practitioners in that. One of my fellow colleagues does hypnosis work. That's another really powerful way to access the subconscious brain. So I, you know, a lot of it is dealing with somebody that you trust, right? So if you have a functional practitioner like yourself, or if you're wor somebody who's working with me and they wanna dive deeper and it's not something that I wanna do or tackle fully on my own, then I've got some people that I recommend as well. But there's just so many different ways to access it that I don't know. 

 

[09:51] Yeah. I think those are all great techniques. And I love that you mentioned meditation first because I find for a lot of people they're just so busy that they're not aware of the conversations going on in the background, in their mind. That is the content of the subconscious mind.

 

[10:44] Absolutely. I mean, what I learned back in the day was that our subconscious brain runs about 98% of the show. So that seems like a pretty decently high percentage. So we might wanna understand a little bit more about what our subconscious mind is saying then. And also we have to understand that it's not bad. This isn't like a bad or good, or we have to get those thoughts out. Our subconscious brain is constantly trying to keep us safe. 

 

[11:37] You know, as you're talking, Maslow's hierarchy of needs popped into my head. Mm-hmm because I was thinking about the fact that we are neurologically wired for safety, right? Mm-hmm reptilian brain keep us safe at all costs, but we have this need for self-actualization

 

[11:59] can go. Exactly contrary. I, I always tell the women, I work with that part of your health problems is that you're not doing what you wanna do in all areas of your life. There's usually some what I call spiritual constipation or creative constipation.

 

[12:18] That. And you've got to do the things that you came here to do in order to free up that energy. So it's, it's no longer stuck, which is along Maslow's hierarchy of needs. But like you're talking about our subconscious is programed to keep us safe. So most of us have safety beliefs running in the background. Oh, you can't quit your job because then you'll be homeless and destitute. Oh, you can't, you know, you can't this, you have to that. What are your thoughts about that?

 

[12:49] I completely agree. I feel like a lot of my patients too, I'll see them. They're tired. Right? Fatigue is such a complaint. And it's like, well, okay, are, are they actually tired? Cuz their body doesn't have energy maybe, but are they also tired? Because nothing is really that inspiring to them right now. Right. They they're in a job where they're like you were saying like, I love them spiritually constipated. They don't have that relationship with the diviner whatever. Or they aren't in a job that's super fulfilling. They feel like they're doing the same thing every day. They're you know? Right. I mean, you're, you're not gonna be this inspired, energetic person. Sometimes if the life stuff isn't necessarily together, now there can be somebody, another person who's doing all those same things.

 

[13:57] It's so true. It's like, how's your marriage? How are your relationships? How's your job? You know, the whole time at you're at work. Are you thinking if I have to do this one thing again, I'm gonna stick a fork in my eye. you know, your body hears that 

 

[14:12] yep, absolutely. And to the point where you should sort of be careful about certain things that you're saying, I mean, no doubt. So I just feel like the first step really is as simple as just being aware. Right. And then I think there's a million steps you can take after that.

 

[14:31] Awesome. So let's dive a little deeper into this issue of hormone balance and subconscious beliefs. So maybe everybody listening's thinking, okay, I get it. My subconscious beliefs are, are part running part of the show, but what hormones are being affected, can you help everybody understand

 

[14:50] That? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm gonna break it down from more of just like a stress component. Right. Okay. I mean we know like I was kind of saying earlier, like if your cortisol is off, right, you're having some underlying stress. And when I say underlying stress is, you know, sometimes I have patients and I'm sure you do too. Who are like, yeah, nothing really stressful is going on in my life though. So why do I have low testosterone? Why do I have low progesterone? And I'm like, all right, let's take a step back. 

 

[15:43] And when your body is stressed, it's not thinking, Hey, now's a great time to have a baby. Or now's a really great time to get my reproductive system in order, right? When the body's stressed, it's number one, objective is survival, that's it? And so our progesterone levels are low. Our testosterone levels are low that can affect our estrogen, our D H G a levels. And then we might start having like some really wonky periods might skip a period. Maybe we have really heavy bleeds because our estrogen is way outta control and we don't have the progesterone reserves to balance it either. 

 

[16:39] How, when you have higher amounts of cortisol, your oxytocin go down and when your cortisol is higher, your insulin goes higher. So we're talking about just one hormone that can really start throwing off the balance of so many different things and oxytocin for those of you just need a little refresher. I mean, that's the hormone of safety and of love and connection. And if you're not feeling that way, maybe one of your subconscious belief systems is I deserve to be alone, or I'm never gonna find a partner or whatever it might be around love. Maybe your oxytocin levels are lower than we'd like them, and that's gonna upset your sex hormones as well. Does that make sense?

 

[17:20] Absolutely. And I love how you linked it so clearly to what you said earlier, solving unresolved stress and even these low levels of stress and, and just, you know, being at work and thinking negative thoughts about your job or your coworkers or your boss or your being at home and thinking negative thoughts about your partner or current world conditions. Yes. Thinking negative thoughts about I, I went down that negative pathway. I have to admit it with certain life events recently. It took me a minute to get myself together. 

 

[18:22] So we talked about some methods that you use and recommend to help solve unresolved stress. And I know some people are listening now and they're thinking, oh, you mean my body's listening to that rampage. That goes on my, in my head when I drive in traffic every day. yes. So what are some steps that you might give people today who are now realizing? Ooh, I didn't know that this was affecting my hormones and I have unresolved stress that they could start using.

 

[19:02] Absolutely. I mean, like we sort of talked about just calming the brain, slowing down, listening to what some of those thoughts that we might be saying in our head, you know, one of the things I really like to do, I don't know if you ever looked at the book. Gosh it's so it's old called the artist's way. She talks a lot about doing morning pages. So you literally wake up and you're just writing three pages every morning, even if it's not, you know, anything really exciting. It's just that idea of kind of getting that subconscious brain, those thoughts out onto the page. 

 

[19:53] Like I mentioned before, Dr. Joe Des Benza. I just, sometimes it's nice to hear somebody else's voice guiding you into certain things, and then you feel like you have some direction instead of I feel like I hear so many people say, I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing or thinking about. It's like, well, nothing supposed to be thinking about nothing and that's really hard to do. So I do find like guide meditations can be really helpful. And if you're somebody who is interested in sort of working with somebody, you know, whether it's somebody like me or another practitioner who does neuro emotional technique, I think that can be really helpful just to have somebody else help you out a little bit to see mm-hmm , you know, what some of those thoughts might be.

 

[20:43] Maybe that's your relationship. Maybe that's your career path. Maybe that's where you're living or who you're surrounding yourself by your friendships. Right? Because it's everything around that comprises your health, not just what you're eating, what supplements you're taking. And if you're curious about how it is affecting your health, I'm sure, you know, if they're working with you or if they're working with, you know, another practitioner like myself actually measuring your hormones, I think is great. Whether you're doing it with something like a Dutch test or a serum, uh, you know, maybe day 19 through 22 of your cycle, something like that.

 

[21:35] I mean, the world stuff is huge right now for people. And I've been finding that even just helping and doing some emotional work with people around what's going on in the world and, you know, getting rid of, not getting rid of, but maybe lessening that voice of I'm. I can't be happy cuz I'm not in control. Right. Because there's so much going on. That's not in our control and really there is any ways. And so how can you find joy despite of that? And at, and I think also, I mean, I noticed my own stuff, just moving to, I live in a ranch now in Colorado and it's beautiful and there's, you know, it's a lot more manual labor than I've done in quite some time in my hormones shifted significantly. And again, it was a good stress. I love where I live and I love the change, but it was such a drastic change on my body that even good stresses can throw off your hormones too. So I think a lot of it is just taking stock instead of just, okay, well I'm this age. So now my hormones do this. It's like, it doesn't have to necessarily be like that. It's more, how can we look at our life as a whole and what maybe other things that just start changing for women around their forties.

 

[22:49] Yes. I love that. You said it doesn't have to be that way. I hope everybody heard that you can take matters into your own hands. And I'm wondering not all physicians, most regular docs and, and not all naturopaths, like you are really talk about subconscious beliefs affecting hormones and health. So how did you come to know this and become more interested in this as an aspect of your patient's health that you needed to help them with?

 

[23:19] Absolutely. I would say quite reluctantly my mentor had suggested that I take a course on neuro emotional techniques. So I could also help my patients with, we call it the triad of health. So there's how are things affecting a patient chemically, structurally or emotionally? And I was like, eh, I don't think I really wanna get into the emotional side of my patients. And he's like, uh, I think, I think you should go take this course. And you know, when your mentor tells you to do something and you're like, okay, fine. so I was having horrible seasonal allergies.

 

[24:14] Right? So there's a hundred people in the class and he starts doing neuro emotional work on me. And it's very quick, right? A lot of our patients say it's like six years of therapy in 30 seconds. It's not a long drawn out thing. It's not talk therapy. And so using applied kinesiology or muscle testing, he, my allergy point turned out to be emotional allergy point is just a reflex point on the body that we used for applied kinesiology or muscle testing. And it turned out, it went back to when my parents had gotten divorced when I was 11. 

 

[25:06] So I was like, wow, this is embarrassing. And I was so exhausted from it that actually at the lunch break of the seminar, I went, took a nap in my car. And within three days my seasonal allergies were completely gone. I mean, completely gone. This was something that I had struggled with my whole life. And so that was all I needed to learn more, to dig more. I was still a medical student. I got certified in this technique while in med school. And I use it with my patients, um, almost every day. And it's not just allergies, right? 

 

[26:01] And so we start using this applied kinesiology in ways of accessing the subconscious mind and applied kinesiology or muscle testing, isn't the only way to use that. It's just how I learned this one technique. And it was such a game changer for me. And now I live in a, I mean, I live in a ranch with horses. I couldn't even touch a horse before. So for me it was so profound that I knew there had to be something more to this. And you know, some people will be like, well, don't you think it's just the placebo effect. 

 

[26:45] And I love using things like homeopathy and flower essences, and other things for people who might not wanna do a lot of the standard emotional work. There are so many different ways you can access it using these different energetic remedies. And the people don't even have to believe in it or be open to it because you'll see how their body changes. But I will have to say is that if someone isn't open to it, there's another belief system there, right? Because again, it's just the subconscious brain trying to keep them safe. So that was sort of my own, I guess, initiation into this world.

 

[27:22] A great story. I love it. Yes. Emotional component, the intangibles like Dr. Marisa calls them your thoughts, your feelings, your beliefs, super powerful for your health. It reminds me of a technique. A friend of mine performs called site K, which was developed by Bruce Lipton, where they do use the different energy work to reverse test your beliefs and your feelings and thoughts. And then to reverse the kind of energy that's run, you're running your body's running on that.

 

[28:10] You do have to be open to it. That's kinda why I love homeopathy is because I do feel like homeopathy and flowers and sometimes can access a point where if they're a little skeptical, it gets them more open to being able to look at other things. But I just find, and I'm sure you have these people too, when you're miserable enough or you're really ready to look for a change in your health. You sort of don't care how crazy something looks and yeah. And I always feel like a lot of people will say like, oh gosh, energy medicine. It's so woo, woo. And I'm like, energy medicine is the future man. So get on board . I mean, it's just, it uses quantum physics and it uses things that are way more scientific than most of us can even comprehend.

 

[29:14] Yes. And I just wanna reiterate what you're saying that it is scientifically proven. I just read a wonderful book about it called tuning the human biofield. And she goes through all the science and why all of these methods are basically validated and the, the energy body and the energy work. And, and she also talks about why mainstream medicine doesn't accept it. 

 

[29:45] So yeah. I love this quote that you shared from Nelson Mandela. I hadn't heard this one. There is no passion to be found in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. And I'm wondering if you can share what that means to you and how this infuses the work that you do with your patients.

 

[30:04] All I know is that I, when I go into something, I kind of go all in. And so if there tends to be spaces where I'm like, ah, it just feels like we need a change or we need to infuse some more joy. Like when this whole pandemic thing first started happening, I was like, all right, I gotta find an outdoor sport. That something that's brings me joy because you know, that's just me. I can't sit inside my house all day. Right. Mm-hmm and I'm, and I wasn't gonna do that anyways, besides the point. But so I sort of landed into horseback riding as a way of, and it was perfect.

 

[30:52] I mean, we went trail rides, we did all these outdoors things and now I live on a ranch. I mean, it was just, so I just find that for me personally, I think that we are all capable of so much if we sort of step outside of our comfort zones. And one of my favorite questions is like, what can I do now that will bring me more joy? Or what can I start soon that will bring more joy and creativity. And for me at the time was getting involved with horses now for somebody else that might be, you know, painting, or it might be, I just think fear, fear, which also can, you know, is a subconscious brain, prevents a lot of people from doing things that they might really love doing.

 

[31:53] I so agree. And so many women seems like when they get to menopause, perimenopause is coming and then menopause and they're like, I just wanna retire and they've given up, why do you think this is that so many of us just give up?

[32:12] I feel like part of it is what we've been taught or told about menopause, right? I mean, it's this horrible thing. And we go through and we feel terrible and we lose our sex drive and blah, blah, blah. Right. I just feel like a lot of it is the stories that we've been told or things that have been passed down. So again, changing those belief patterns and changing those thoughts. And also I'm sure there is a component of just when you're some of your hormones go down, there are some things that change. 

 

[33:04] You know, just different things like that. I think there's so many ways we can change and work with our physiology. That's changing to still lead these really bold and beautiful lives. But a lot of it, I think is just women are taught that there's nothing they can do. This is just something they have to go through. And I'm so glad that there are more doctors like you who are starting to show that this isn't some, we just don't have to do this. And it doesn't have to be horrible. There's so many ways that we can work with our bodies to make it wonderful.

 

[33:37] Yeah. As you were talking, I was thinking, I totally blame hormones, but then as you were talking longer, I was like, well, I totally blame doctors. because we're not doing a good job of telling women. You don't have to suffer this way. There is a better way and we can help you. But it really is in my opinion, hormones and doctor's fault. Absolutely.

 

[34:05] And I do think when your hormones change, I mean, there's no doubt. There's a lot that changes in our energy and our vitality, but I do also feel like there are ways to enhance that if that makes sense.

 

[34:18] Yes, absolutely. What are some of your favorite ways? I know you talked about testing. I, we, we always are about tests don't guess, but for women who are kind of, definitely in their forties, fifties, what are some lifestyle changes that you pretty universally recommend women make that you find help them?

 

[34:39] Yeah. I think part of it again, is finding some sort of passion and joy, right? A lot of these women either have kids and they haven't really done a lot for themselves lately. So finding, you know, something that brings them joy and them passion because that's gonna ignite a whole lot of things. I also think that women's bodies are just genuinely not as insulin sensitive anymore. So I do recommend a lot of dietary changes, whether that looks more like a Brianna talks about like a keto green or just a more low carb, higher fat approach to life, maybe adding in some more fasting. I think women who are in menopause do really well with fasting and they seem to feel a lot better. 

 

[35:59] Yes. I agree with all of that. And some the, just the small things that you've mentioned have, can have powerful impacts. So whether you're not, you're a woman who's resourced to get the high level tests that we mentioned earlier or not. These are things that you can start doing in your life pretty quickly and inexpensively. I love your podcast coffee with the docs, and I know I'm gonna be on a guest on there soon. And I'm wondering if you can share you've you've done a lot of episodes. What are some of your most memorable guests and topics and takeaways from interviewing all those doctors?

 

[36:40] Oh, what a fun question. Let's see. One of the favorites that just pops into my mind right away was interviewing Todd white. Who's the CEO of dry farm wines. We were chatting for almost 45 minutes before we even started talking about wine. It was so funny. He was talking so much about living a purposeful life and how you eat and fasting and meditation and how it's an integral part of his company. I just found it to be super fascinating, sort of like we were just talking about like incorporating everything, not just, oh, this supplement, oh, this biodentical progesterone. 

 

[37:41] And I just felt like that was a really, really amazing episode too. And it's one of our more recent ones that we just, so I think a lot of it though, and I have to say, we always ask every guest two questions. So I'll ask you and you are on ours, but one of them is what is your latest biohack? And it's funny, some people are like, I hate that word. And I'm like, that's fine. , what's something that makes your life easier. And you know what a lot of people said while we were recording during these last two years, a lot of people said the sun. 

 

[38:44] Yeah. I love that. As you were saying it, I'm thinking, yeah. I'll sign up for that more sun, more nature, more beach, more being outdoors.

 

[39:07] awesome. Well, I am so glad to have you on today and to talk on this topic of how our subconscious beliefs affect our hormones. I know that everybody's gotten a lot out of it and I'd love that you mentioned joy many, many times. I always take notes on some of the, the insightful things my guests say, and you said, what can I do now? That will bring me more joy. And so I want to leave everyone with that. And I want you to think when we get off the podcast, what can you do now that could bring you more joy, because if you move towards joy, you're moving towards hormone balance. 

 

[40:01] Yeah. Thank you. So I'm pretty active on Instagram. Mine is Dr. Nicole N M D like naturopathic medical doctor. Uh, my website is Dr. Nicole Huffman, H U F F M a N. And that's as I'm not on like the talks and all those things yet. So just kind of sticking with the one and then our podcast, which we have episodes that come out every two weeks. Sometimes we'll have one come out weekly and that's coffee with the docs. 

 

[40:35] Yes, definitely. Look Dr. Nicole up, check out her podcast, visit her on Instagram, check out her website. Thank you so much for being with us today, Nicole, and keep up the awesome work that you're doing.

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