An Interview with Rebecca Wilson on Hormone Health and Wellness

Tell us a bit about yourself and your background, and how it relates to health?

Hello, I’m Rebecca. I have been on a journey of internal discovery for over two decades. It has been a multifaceted and intertwined experience of traversing through internal beliefs, stories, patterns, energetic, and emotional experiences that shifted the health and wellness of my body on a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual level. After experiencing some life-changing events that created significant stress upon my system, I chose to embark on a path of radically reclaiming my energy, vitality, and radiance. I strongly believe that there is a better way to feel and live, which led me on this journey of unraveling from the normalized conditions of culture, collective, and society, and paving my own way through embodiment, somatic healing, nervous system regulation, remineralization, and deeply honoring my feminine nature.

What inspired you to pay more attention to your hormone health and make it a part of your routine?

Throughout the journey of womanhood, I believe that many of us, as women, are not given the full understanding or education around our cycles and our hormones. This was definitely true for me. From a young age, I experienced hormonal imbalance, something which I now know to be natural as we traverse through the shift into puberty. However, back then I was very much guided down a path by medical institutions to take the contraceptive pill, thereby shutting down my cycles and my body’s wisdom. After some years on this, I had what I would call an awakening from deep within my womb. My body asked me to stop taking the pill and to spend time clearing and releasing all the toxins from this and environmental toxins too. This was a great time of rebalancing my body, eliminating stressors, and clearing out these endocrine-disrupting toxins from my system. This journey really led me to make it a priority to honor my cycles and my hormones within my daily self-care routine.

What specific hormones or hormone-related issues do you focus on in your health routine, and why?

My personal journey has been one of supporting the balance of estrogen and progesterone due to many environmental stressors, diet stressors, lifestyle stressors, and emotionally dysregulating experiences in my early life. My body held onto a lot of tension and stress. This had an impact on my progesterone levels, so I made this a focus to destress my body and begin to balance estrogen and progesterone levels. This has allowed me to have much more easeful, regular, and relatively pain-free cycles.

Could you share your daily or weekly health and hormone-balancing routine with us?

I take care and honor my hormones and cyclical rhythm on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. It’s something that offers me the opportunity to feel deeply nourished as I traverse the shorter cycles each month and the greater cycles of womanhood. Within my hormone care routine, I explore practices such as lymphatic massage and drainage, body brushing, castor oil packs, morning sunlight in my eyes, movement, meditation, breathwork, herbal remedies, and tinctures to support my cycle. I consume nutrient-dense food and ensure to get adequate amounts of minerals and vitamins from my diet.

What does it typically involve?

My extended routine may have me receiving bodywork treatments, lymphatic body massage, craniosacral therapy, self-womb and breast massage, kidney massage, and adrenal nourishing practices. Embodiment and self-care practices are integral to my routine.

How do you stay informed about the latest developments and research related to hormone health?

I am constantly taking in new information; it’s such a passion of mine. I read articles and studies. I am part of a network of practitioners through my work as an RCP practitioner, embodiment coach, cyclical living guide, and coaching women in remineralization of this.

Are there particular foods or dietary choices that you find helpful in maintaining hormone balance?

For myself, I choose to have a varied diet of nutrient-dense whole foods, which includes a broad range of fruits, vegetables, animal proteins, and high-quality fats. My personal choice is to avoid as much as possible refined and processed foods. I find that when I live like this, my body is in great harmony and my hormones are balanced.

What role does physical activity and exercise play in your hormone health routine?

I have been consistently strength training for three years. Prior to this, I also participated in Pilates, yoga, and more bodyweight training. As I needed to build up my strength, I found it pivotal and absolutely essential to strength train and build muscle. Building muscle supports me to balance blood sugar, improve insulin resistance, balance hormones, and allows my body to endure healthy stress, which helped me grow and expand. It’s also incredibly essential for women as it supports bone density for later in life. I also walk daily out in nature near my home, and the combination of walking in nature and the more intense physical exercise of strength training four times a week supports my body to be in an optimal state.

Can you describe any stress-reduction techniques or practices you use to manage cortisol levels and stress-related hormones?

Waking up in the morning and coming downstairs first thing to step outside, placing my feet on the earth, and receiving the morning light in my eyes, on my skin, and on my face is incredible for supporting cortisol balance and hormonal regulation. I have found that balancing my circadian rhythms has improved my quality of sleep and therefore my quality of life. I also choose to eat within 30 to 60 minutes of waking to help balance cortisol and take my body away from any state of stress. This, I find, allows me to have a grounded, relaxed system that moves through the day in a resourced way.

Do you have any favorite supplements or natural remedies that you incorporate into your hormone health routine?

I love making my own herbal remedies and tinctures, and I’m often brewing up something in my kitchen, whether it be herbal tea mixtures for warm, comforting drinks or herbal remedies in tincture form to support digestive health, lymphatic drainage, hormones, and fertility. I usually have something in preparation or stored in the cupboard.

How do you address sleep and its impact on hormones in your daily life?

I am an early-to-bed, early-to-rise kind of woman. I love winding down at around 8:30 pm in the evening. That might involve some breathwork, meditation, or sitting in stillness and quiet. In the summer months, it’s nice to spend the final moments outside taking in the sunset or the evening light. I may read a book or spend some time with my partner and my family. I like to be in bed by around 9 to 9:30 pm and asleep shortly after. I love waking in the morning nice and early, but not too early as I am a woman who loves her sleep. I like to get anywhere between 8 to 10 hours. I find prioritizing sleep and particularly staying away from artificial light and blue light in the mornings and evenings has had a great impact on my ability to get a full, deep, restful night’s sleep.

Have you encountered any specific challenges or setbacks in maintaining hormone balance, and how have you overcome them?

After being on the contraceptive pill for nearly nine years in my 20s, I really was challenged with detoxing my body from the synthetic hormones. I spent many years supporting my body, endocrine system, lymphatic system, digestion, and hormones to find a place of balance. What I realized through this time is that my body is highly sensitive and really did not enjoy taking in synthetic contraceptives.

Are there any specific lifestyle changes you’ve made to improve your hormone health that you’d like to share with our readers?

I guess with age we all change and our priorities shift. I definitely live a different life to what I did in my late teens and early 20s. Now I prioritize good rest, sleep, nourishment, time in nature, a healthy lifestyle, connection with friends, my family, and my community, local shopping at farmers' markets, and truly embracing the seasons of nature. Allowing myself to rest when needed and be in action when the energy calls for it, tracking my cycle, and moving with my own internal rhythm has been, and will continue to be, pivotal in me deeply honoring my body and my feminine energy.

What advice would you give to someone who is just starting to explore hormone health and wants to establish a balanced routine?

A piece of advice that I believe is universally available to everyone and completely free is to wake in the morning, step outside and get the morning light on your skin, in your eyes, and on your face. Place your bare feet on the ground, the earth, or the grass, and take a few deep breaths to welcome in the day. Allow yourself to regulate the transition from your sleep into waking. I believe that we all need a completely individual journey of support when balancing our bodies as we have all had our own unique life experiences that have impacted us in our own unique ways. I also believe that this journey is multifaceted and when approached from a place of honoring the multifaceted needs of being a woman, we are better able to support ourselves and feel more integrated and whole.

What are your future goals and aspirations regarding your hormone health journey?

My future goals are to continue to honor my body, my cyclical essence, and my feminine nature to live a balanced, calm, rooted, and resourced life filled with nature, connection, community, nourishment, love, and joy. I believe that these are the foundations for optimal hormonal balance.