Why Every Woman Needs a Soft Reset
We live in a culture addicted to acceleration. Jam packed morning routines, fuller calendars, inboxes that never stop humming. “Wellness” itself has become another race — the supplements, the HIIT classes, the heated power yoga classes, the constant monitoring of steps and macros. We’re told that if we just do more, buy more, track more, we’ll finally feel like ourselves again.
And yet for many of us, especially women who are both highly sensitive and high-functioning, that relentless pace doesn’t make us stronger. It makes us brittle—like we’re doing everything right but still feel like we’re burning at both ends.
I know because I’ve lived it. For years, I mistook exhaustion for normal. I thought a foggy brain and anxious body were just the price of ambition. I thought because I looked good and because I was “doing the right things” that I was healthy. I doubled down on the very things that were depleting me: overexercise, over-caffeination, overcommitment —and most detrimental to my health, over relying on what I was told was healthy. And the world applauded it. That’s the trap: we’re rewarded for running on fumes, for ignoring the quiet voice that says, this isn’t working.
The truth is: resilience isn’t forged in acceleration. It’s forged in rhythm.
The Invisible Stressors We Ignore
When we think about stress, most of us think about the obvious pressures — deadlines, childcare, finances, big life transitions. But stress also lives in the invisible corners of our day. They are wrecking havoc on our health day in and day out. We cannot afford to ignore these stressors anymore. Without us realizing, they’re showing up in our labs, in the (big and small) symptoms we can’t place and are slowly building up in our systems, potentially causing us problems down the road.
Air: Synthetic fragrances in candles, detergents, perfumes, and room sprays are classified as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Every inhale is a small but cumulative burden on your lungs and nervous system. The World Health Organization estimates that 90% of people breathe polluted air daily — and most of that exposure happens indoors.
Light: Blue light from screens at night suppresses melatonin by up to 85%, disrupting sleep and downstream hormone balance. Even just an hour of scrolling before bed can fragment your sleep cycles and impair memory consolidation.
Exercise: High-intensity interval training (HIIT) spikes cortisol. For many women already living under chronic stress, this worsens hormonal imbalance and anxiety rather than resolving it.
Food: Processed foods and seed oils inflame the gut. Considering the gut produces 90–95% of serotonin (your feel-good neurotransmitter), every “cheap” meal is often an expensive hit to mood, clarity and your health. The expressions “you are what you eat,” and “let food be thy medicine” have been around for years for a reason.
Skin: Your skin is your body’s largest organ, yet most conventional skincare and makeup are filled with parabens, phthalates, and synthetic fragrances — chemicals linked to hormone disruption, skin irritation, and even reproductive issues. The Environmental Working Group has found that the average woman uses 12 personal care products a day containing over 160 unique ingredients. What you put on your skin doesn’t stay on the surface; it’s absorbed into your bloodstream, quietly adding to your body’s toxic load.
Individually, these inputs seem small. Together, they create a constant hum of stress that convinces your body the world is unsafe. And when your nervous system doesn’t feel safe, everything else — sleep, mood, immunity, focus — is compromised.
Why a Soft Reset?
I call this framework The Soft Reset because it isn’t about extremes. It’s not a juice cleanse. It’s not 75 Hard. It’s not another punishing challenge that sets you up to fail.
It’s about settling into yourself. It’s subtraction, not addition. A way of stripping away what corrodes your energy so you can return to what steadies you. In stripping away these health and energy suckers, you’re actually adding a lot more value to you life. You’re returning to yourself in more ways than you can imagine.
The reset is built on three non-negotiables:
Morning light and movement — step outside, get some sunshine’s, calibrate your body’s internal clock, and let your nervous system wake naturally. Side note, stop being afraid of the sun. It’s necessary to all living things and crucial to our health. Get at least 15-20 minutes of morning sun exposure a day—without SPF.
Evening wind-down — create a cue that tells your body the day is done.
The right mindset — train your lens to look for possibility, not just problems.
Around these anchors, we layer daily practices — clearing toxins, reclaiming boundaries, reconnecting with creativity. Each day builds on the one before, creating not just habits but a nervous system rhythm. By the end of a week, you’re not just “reset” — you’re living in alignment again. It feels good to be alive—like real good.
My Story, Your Story
I didn’t design this program as a thought experiment. It’s been years in the making. I’ve done my research and I’ve tried various paths. I designed it because my body gave me no choice. I’ve always been sensitive — to chemicals, to noise, to stress. Doctors dismissed it, saying I was “anxious” or “too aware” — and “she’s too young to have breast cancer.”
Apparently, my body thought I wasn’t. Seventeen years ago, at 23 years old, I was weeks away from receiving my master’s degree in broadcast journalism at the nation’s top journalism school. I had a job lined up in New York at one of the top television networks and was fulfilling my dream of becoming a well-known on-camera news anchor. I had worked my ass off for this, but had to put a pause on all of it, to heal my body.
In retrospect, I am thankful I had this moment because it was a major turning point — for the better. My body gave me a very clear sign that something had to change.
Breast cancer does not run in my family. I went through the whole treatment process, and in the meantime, tried to figure out — why me. I went down deep, deep rabbit holes of what causes cancers because doctors had no answer for this question. They just deemed it on bad luck, but I don’t buy that. It was my lifestyle. I had just finished six years of school (college and graduate school) and was always stressed working to be the best in my class, trying to plan my next move toward fulfilling my goals, doing HIIT and Bikram yoga most days and binge drinking on weekends (Thursday-Saturday, and sometimes a random Tuesday). I also was on a no-carb diet, supplementing it with protein bars, replacing milk for non-dairy options like almond and soy —ugh I am cringing as I write this.
The crazy thing is that now that I look back I always felt a little guilty for my choices — like I was never doing anything right. Even though it’s what all high-achievers were doing at the time. I thought my guilt was just my complex of “never being good enough” but now that I have distance from that time in my life and clarity — my body and soul we’re giving me subtle clues that some of my decisions we’re not aligned with me. Remember: just because it’s working for someone else right now, doesn’t mean it works for you.
Also while there is no-one-size-fits all lifestyle, I will tell you that none of the toxins/stressors I detail in The Soft Reset over the next few articles, work for anyone. They are detrimental to human health, especially women.
I’ve learned that sensitivity isn’t weakness. It’s information. It’s a nervous system calibrated like a fine instrument, picking up signals others miss.
And here’s the part no one tells you: what stabilizes a sensitive system doesn’t just help sensitive women. It helps everyone.
The practices I share here are the ones I had to distill out of years of trial and error — things gentle enough to regulate me, but powerful enough to transform me. If they could ground a body like mine, I believe they can ground yours too.
The Science of Rhythm
Neuroscience tells us that the nervous system thrives on predictability. Your brainstem, the oldest part of your brain, is constantly asking: Am I safe? Every micro-decision — what you eat, what products you use, what you breathe, how you move — answers that question.
Predictable light cues regulate your circadian rhythm and lower inflammation.
Consistent rituals before bed tell your parasympathetic system (rest-and-repair mode) to activate.
Gratitude practices release dopamine and serotonin, shifting perception and buffering stress.
Gentle movement reduces stored cortisol and rebalances hormones like leptin and insulin.
· Clean skincare and beauty products reduce toxic load by avoiding chemicals like parabens, phthalates, and synthetic fragrances, which can accumulate in the body and disrupt hormonal balance.
When you layer these practices into a rhythm, you’re not just “doing wellness.” You’re rewiring your biology to choose calm instead of chaos.
This Isn’t About Perfection
I want to be clear: a soft reset isn’t about becoming a different person overnight. It’s not about a flawless morning routine or rigid food rules. It’s about noticing — what drains you, what steadies you — and choosing differently, one small shift at a time. We’re women, we’re intuitive and we have it in us, not only to be honest with ourselves but to also find those answers within. You just have to want to go there.
And if you fall out of rhythm? That’s part of it. The reset is always waiting. You can come back tomorrow, next week, next year. That’s what makes it soft — it forgives you, it reminds you.
Your First Reflection
As you read this, I invite you to pause and ask yourself:
Where am I carrying invisible stress?
What feels heavier than it should?
What one small subtraction could make space for me to feel more like myself?
What is one daily product that I am using that I know I could probably find a better, cleaner alternative?
Don’t think you’ll find a better alternative? I’m up for the challenge I have found countless of substitutes for home products, skincare, makeup, clothing — you name it—that I think are better than their mainstream (toxic) counterparts. I should also say, I’m known to be “particular” or “bougie” among my friends and family, so I have a very high standard. I will not recommend shit. I also can recommend products across any budget.
Write it down. Name it. The act of noticing is the beginning of your reset.
Final Word
The Soft Reset is not about doing more. It’s about feeling more like yourself.
In the weeks ahead, I’ll walk you through each anchor and each daily reset. Together, we’ll clear the noise and rebuild a foundation of calm, clarity, and strength.
✨ To begin, download the free 7-Day Reset PDF — a simple kickstart to bring you back to center.
Because here’s the truth: you don’t need to chase balance. You need to return to it.
If your body has been whispering, this is your sign to listen. The reset is yours, whenever you’re ready.
