09/18/2025
NEW BLOG: The Weight of Holding It All: How Chronic Stress Shows Up in a Woman's Body
Maria didn’t notice it at first.
The tightness in her chest. The way her jaw clenched as she answered yet another late-night email. The fact that her left eye twitched every time someone asked her what was for dinner.
“I’m just tired,” she kept saying. “It’s just a busy season.” But the season never ended.
Maria was the reliable one. The one people called when they needed something, anything. She was raising two kids, managing a growing team at work, attending church leadership meetings, helping her aging parents navigate doctor’s visits, and checking in on friends who were struggling.
She was everyone’s go-to. But she had nowhere to go for herself.
The pressure was constant, like a drumbeat just beneath her skin. She lived by her color-coded calendar and told herself she’d rest after this next deadline, or once the kids were out of school, or when things settled down.
But they never did. She started waking up exhausted, even after 8 hours of sleep. Her face lost its glow. Her stomach hurt after almost every meal. Her cycle changed. Her anxiety heightened. And yet, she pushed through, like many women do — not because she was superhuman, but because she thought she didn’t have a choice.
Read Further:
Maria didn’t notice it at first.The tightness in her chest. The way her jaw clenched as she answered yet another late-night email. The fact that her left eye twitched every time someone asked her what was for dinner.“I’m just tired,” she kept saying. “It’s just a busy season.”But the s...
