Episode #38: High Sensitivity, Women’s Health, and the Cost of “Powering Through” with Maria Saucedo

Navigating overstimulation as a highly sensitive person and learning to work with our cyclical energy instead of constantly pushing past our limits.

Welcome back to The Happy HSP Podcast. I’m your host Kimberly Marshall, and today I’m joined by PhD student and women’s health advocate Maria Saucedo. Together, we explore the nuances of overstimulation, what happens when we consistently cross our personal thresholds, and the constant pressure as HSPs to fit in and “power through.” 

We also dive into women’s health, cyclical energy, and how science and lived experience blend to shape our lives. So, if you’ve ever wondered why you react so strongly after being pushed past your limits, or you’ve been afraid that your sensitivity was the symptom of a mental health disorder, then this episode is for you.

I hope you enjoy it!

Kim: Maria, thank you so much for joining me today. It’s so great to see you.

Maria: So great to see you too. Thank you for having me.

Kim: Yeah. My first question for you is how you found out you were highly sensitive and what that journey looked like to your discovery in that?

Maria: Well, that’s a very good question. It wasn’t long ago. It was maybe three years ago. I’d say I’m 31, so I was think 27 when I figured it out and always been very, I’ve always had my routine, so I always went to bed early and I was always had a system that worked for me without even knowing. And a couple of years ago, me and my partner moved in together and we had very different routines.

So, for me, it’s essential to go to bed early and to sleep enough, and he’s a person that goes to bed much later. And so, when we moved in together, I started to go to bed later and later and later, and I realized that I started to react in ways that I didn’t recognize in myself to put it in that way. And really the lack, not lack of personal space, but adapting to live with him brought a version of me that I had never dealt with before.

And I started to think that there was something wrong with me because I’ve always been a person that spends a lot of time on their own and respect all these routines and everything. And so, this shift in my personal life really changed everything. And I remember I was talking to my therapist, and I had already Googled everything. Am I a bit autistic? Am I a bit, do I have ADHD? And then I came to bipolar disorder, which I really thought I was because I remember that the rage that I would feel when I couldn’t sleep enough or all this type of situations.

So, I remember I was talking to my therapist and I was very desperate, and I asked her, do you think I’m bipolar or something of the sort? And she looked at me with all the kindness in her eyes and her heart, and she said, have you ever heard the term highly sensitive person? I had never heard it before, ever. And that’s how I discovered that I was a highly sensitive person and I was not bipolar. I just was overdoing and overpassing my threshold and that that’s why I was reacting in such ways.

Kim: Wow. So really quick, because I have such a personal experience that matches this. When I was discovering my high sensitivity because my family thought I had bipolar disorder, it ran in my family, and I share this again with kindness and open heart. Obviously people that do struggle with bipolar, I have all the empathy in the world. It ran in my family, and I had an aunt who suffered really badly with it, but I just remember feeling really scared about it because I had seen that.

And I remember when I was figuring out about my high sensitivity, my mom was taking me to all the doctors trying to get them to diagnose me. And for me personally, there’s just a fear about that. Something wrong or off. Yeah. But back to you, I just wanted to share that and just kind of connect our path because it was just so similar to mine. You must’ve felt so much relief in that moment.

Maria: Yes. You have no idea. I remember I bought the book from Dr. Elain Aaron, and I remember the questions at the beginning, and I was Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And I went through the pages, and it was because I’ve always been a bit different growing up, and I guess I thought I was introverted, but I’m not really shy. I always knew there was something, but I could never pinpoint it. And the moment I read that book and I started researching more about it and everything made sense, and for me, that really changed because then I realized there was nothing wrong with me, which I believed it was for a big portion of my life. So, I think, yeah, it was a huge, huge relief.

Kim: So, what changed for you after that? What did that shift, that new understanding? How would you describe that?

Maria: Many things. First, I would say that it really helped me realize or be a bit more in touch with myself and dive deep and know those limits. Because I think for us, for HSPs, those limits are key. Once you overpass them, then there’s no idea what could happen or the person that you turn into once those limits, once we crossed them.

So, for me, that made me very aware of it. Then I think it was also a lot of acceptance because it was, as I mentioned, growing up, it was like, there’s something wrong, or I never liked parties, or that’s another thing. Growing up as a teenager, when parties started to become a thing, I hated going. I stopped telling my parents that there were parties from someone at school, and I remember they would figure out still because of the moms of the people in my school, and they would be like, why didn’t you tell us that there was a party?

I was like, because I didn’t want to go. And they would force me to go, yes. And they forced me to go because they think it was wrong that I didn’t want to go to a party. But for me, the music, the overcrowded, I’ve never been a person to go to clubs or shopping centers as well. I remember I would feel physically ill, I would start sweating and all these type of situations, I thought I was a bit claustrophobic, but not really, because when I was under claustrophobic conditions, which was not a similar situation as a shopping center, I was okay.

So it was like these mixed messages that I had and they didn’t make sense. So, I think for me, that was it. It led me to really accept myself and to know that there was nothing wrong, but rather that I’m quite special. And I think that change of perspective was, to answer your question, was what really changed for me, the acceptance.

Kim: Gosh, I relate so much to what you said and that threshold that you mentioned. I always liken that to the monster when I pass that threshold, especially before we know we have limits and stuff. I just turned into this monster that I don’t even recognize, and it’s we’re not honoring our needs in the moment. And that’s really the long and short of it. There’s no good or bad, it’s just, yeah, we need to honor our needs.

Maria: Exactly. Yeah. I remember just before I figured it out, I spent a week a day, some people very kind invited me on a skiing trip, and I ended up sleeping with two other people in the same room. And for the whole week I didn’t have my personal space and I didn’t notice. And when I came back home, I had a panic attack that I remember I couldn’t sleep. It was 1:00 AM I had to go for a walk, and I was just really crying in the park as if something very bad had happened.

But it was just that for a week I didn’t have that personal space, and I was not comfortable, and there were not very close people. So, it was a whole situation that really overpassed that threshold for me. And I came back and I really couldn’t explain it, but I ended up having the panic attack and the park because I had to leave. I had to walk. It was all this accumulated energy that I had to release somehow. And those were the times that I was like, this is a bipolar thing. I was not necessarily a monster, but I couldn’t even control myself. I couldn’t stop crying, I couldn’t do anything. And it was very frustrating.

Kim: Yeah, you had to release, gosh, I feel like we live the same life as you’re talking. I can just relate. And I just really appreciate you sharing these things because I feel like it’s something so many of us go through that we just can’t always put words to, and you’re just explaining it so eloquently and beautifully. And yeah, I just thank you for sharing all of this.

Same thing. I went on a trip with my best friend and one of her friends who I wasn’t really familiar with, and we all shared a hotel room, and just by the end, I was just so done because we’re always on, we’re constantly trying to understand where everyone’s coming from, and we’re putting so much emotional effort in being there for others, and they don’t always take the same care with us. And yeah, it’s just this energy that accumulates and yeah, it’s not an ideal environment for us all the time.

Maria: Yeah, exactly.

Kim: Yeah. So tell me about your work now. Do you work specifically with highly sensitive people and you do a lot in women’s health?

Maria: Yeah, it’s interesting. Well, not that I am not really aware of. Basically, my background is a bit different, but then I recently started, not recently at the beginning of the year, the project with women and education, women’s education, but originally I am finishing my PhD in biomedicine. I study disease, which is not necessarily women’s disease. I study mitochondria and metabolic disease. But at halfway there I realized I really didn’t want to do this, and I realized that my passion was women’s and women’s health and the lack of education that there is regarding our cycles and disease, which is where I sort of come in.

But before we even talk about disease, I realize that there’s a lot of, well, this lack of education that needs to be covered, what’s really happening at a physiological level and how does that look on our lives? And yeah, turns out that’s what I really want to do. So, at the moment writing my thesis, hopefully finishing by the end of February, and then moving on with the project with the women’s project.

Kim: And what are you studying in your thesis? I’m so interested to learn.

Maria: Mitochondria mitochondrial disease, which I will, I don’t know your scientific background, but everyone remembers or knows mitochondria as the powerhouse of the cell. So, basically what I study is what happens when there’s a problem with mitochondria. And so, because mitochondria give us or give ourselves most of the energy that they need to carry on all the functions in our body. So, what happens when there’s a problem with them and what happens at a metabolic level that adapts?

Because sometimes the disease is so bad that unfortunately patients die, but when they don’t die, something happens in their body that makes them adapt to it. And that’s what we try to study to be able to find a cure, which it’s in a process. But if I could put an example, which is I think everyone is familiar with when we exercise, we haven’t exercised for a while, we were on holiday, and then we come back and we go for a 5K run, and what happens the next day, the body really hurts.

And that’s because there’s a lot of lactic acid in our bodies. And the reason why there’s lactic acid is because it’s a byproduct of another pathway. It really doesn’t matter. The thing is that because mitochondria are not able to produce that energy, then there’s other pathways that try to produce that energy, which this would be glycolysis, but it can’t produce as much energy as mitochondria can produce. So because it’s an overdrive, one of the byproducts is lactic acid. And so that’s why we have a lot of lactic acid after running.

Just imagine that these patients, because they’re not producing enough energy in their mitochondria, they have to put other pathways in overdrive, and they produce a lot of lactic acid, what you would feel after not exercising and then going for a run the next day. These patients have every day. So for example, this is an adaptation that it’s well known, well studied, they have lactic acidosis, but we try to study what other things are happening, not just compensating through this pathway, but what other things are changed.

Kim: Right. Very interesting. And is your focus more the biological sense only, or are you guys also studying the mind in terms of thoughts and disease and health? I read there’s a connection there.

Maria: Yes, there is. Is. Sorry, I interrupted you. I thought you were done. There is, but we don’t. The thing with science, I am very interested in that personal interest, and I’m really into thoughts and epigenetics and all this relationship between our mental state with our physical symptoms, but we focus very core. It’s called bioenergetics, what I do. So, it’s very core that we don’t really take a look into that.

Kim: Right. And I’m sure there’s just so many different pieces to this puzzle and they all connect in some way, but it sounds like you’re focusing on one specific area.

Maria: Yes, yes. And, also most of these are, there’s a lot of patients that are born with it. So that’s a thing that when we talk about the mental state and thoughts and the influence, for example, in cancer or in immune diseases or all these type of situations, then there’s really a clear connection between the environment and what’s triggering the disease. But in these particular mitochondrial diseases, you are sort of born with the mutations.

And so, there’s really not, even if you develop them later in time, there is a possibility that you have a healthy life until, let’s say you’re 40 or 45, you were already born with those mutations. They just multiplied until they reached a threshold when they presented the disease. So that is the thing that really, in the type of disease that I’m involved or that I study, there’s really not that, or at least not that I know that anyone studies it because it’s as clear the connection as with other diseases.

Kim: Sure. So, how does this tie into the women’s portion of your studies and focus?

Maria: Well, it does and it doesn’t. It doesn’t because as I mentioned, what I’m interested is in disease for the PhD, I ended up studying mitochondrial disease. But for my master’s, I studied disease in general. And what I’m interested in is the molecular mechanism, what’s happening in the body that it’s leading to those symptoms.

And so, when we talk about women’s disease, there’s not enough research, there’s not enough studies, and there’s all of these situations. So, I really wanted to get into it. And for example, my mom, she struggled with endometriosis all her life and there was nothing to do. There’s a lot of, I keep hearing from my friends how they are struggling with polycystic ovary disorder or also endometriosis or all those situations. And the only thing that you hear is that they go to the gynecologist, they’re sent back with a pill and that’s it. And I started to get very angry about it.

Kim: How are all these women so sick all of a sudden and we’re just masking all of this with medication, there’s something else going on.

Maria: Yes, and also, the medication is not even proper medication for those conditions. Right. Because again, there’s no studies. But I realized that before even talking about disease, because you mentioned these things and a lot of people are not even aware because yeah, we don’t talk about it. And that’s the connection because we don’t talk about these things. We’re just expected to carry on. You would hear a lot of now testimonials of, yeah, once I even went to school with girls that once per month because of the pain, they couldn’t go to class. And you keep hearing about it and what happens? We just go on with our lives because we have to. And I think that the health part and everything that we go through, we just don’t talk enough about it. And then the connection is that, well, growing up, I didn’t get any useful education about the cycle, about anything, and it was very taboo.

I grew up in a very conservative religious environment. So, it is like everything is just don’t talk about it and don’t get pregnant, and you can’t get pregnant because you’re not married. That’s pretty much everything that was around these topics. And I think for me, and again, we go back to a mental factor. I used to be a triathlete, so I used to train a lot. And I remember that some days I felt like I could run three marathons in a day. And then some days, I felt that I really didn’t want to wake up from my bed and I just wanted to stay in and rest, but I couldn’t because I had training. And the couple of times that you would say, I just can’t run today, or I just can’t swim today, or I just can’t cycle today, the people surrounding me would be like, just don’t be lazy. It’s just a 10 k run. You want to run even 5K.

Kim: Power through!

Maria: Power, through power, through. You just summarized everything. And for me, I really think it’s combined with yes, probably my HSP and probably the way I like doing things and everything that I just pushed through. And at some point that eventually affected my mental health.

And about seven, eight years ago, a friend of mine recommended me a book from an exercise physiologist, a woman who is an iron man or iron woman. And she goes over the physiology of the cycle and she explains why at the different stages you feel certain ways, and what does that mean for your training? I wasn’t training anymore when I read that book, but it was also an eye-opening moment where I said I wasn’t lazy. I was just not meant to be doing those things at that time, and so that’s how it all connects.

Kim: Yes, I hear you so deeply. It’s like we keep fighting the way our bodies work and the way we feel about certain things to kind of power through when there’s so much to be said about flowing with our needs in the moment, and that fluctuates.

Maria: Exactly. Exactly. And so that’s what I want to do. I want to open this conversation so that everyone is aware of what’s happening so that girls that are 15, I was 15, know that it’s okay to feel this way…so that men also know, since I started openly talking about this, a lot of my male friends are super interested because if we weren’t thought, of course they weren’t thought. And they also deserve to be in the conversation. So, it’s just an awareness of this is what we’re going through. Women are not supposed to be productive 24/7. And the moment you accept it, the moment your life changes, or at least my life changed, not only in terms of sports but in everything. So, this is really the core of the project, the basic education of what’s happening, what does that mean for us, and how to really work with it. Right.

Kim: Incredible. So, with your studies and your awareness and your knowledge, where do you hope to take these ideas and your expertise? What do you hope to accomplish here?

Maria: That is a good question. I don’t know at the moment, to be very honest, I am exhausted from the PhD. I was also a year and a half ago diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. So, that really changed a bit life for me. So, I really don’t know. At the moment, I want to finish my thesis, take some time off, and then figure out from there so many possibilities and so many interests that I have that I don’t know.

Kim: Love that so much. There’s so many possibilities. There’s so much for you to dive into and discover. And you’re in that discovery phase. I don’t know if that ever ends, by the way.

Maria: Yeah. I’m afraid it won’t, but it’s fine. One step at a time.

Kim: Yeah, no fear. No, it’s an evolution. It’s a process. It’s a beautiful thing. But yeah, it just sounds like you’re on the precipice of so many incredible discoveries, and thank you for studying that and being so vocal about it. It’s something a lot of us need to know more about.

Maria: Thank you. Yeah, I do think so as well.

Kim: So, what do you say you struggle with when it comes to your high sensitivity? What are some of the challenges that you face?

Maria: The many things that I want to do, because sometimes I’m just, I’ll do this, I’ll do this. And I grab five books. I sit and I have five books and three notebooks of I want to write these things, but I want to read these things. And then having the, I always, there’s so much that I want to do with myself and learning perspective and everything that sometimes I don’t have time for the outdoor world. And then when I do too much of the outdoor world, I end up depleted. And I think for me, I still remember a couple of months ago that it was a lot of social activities and a lot of interactions and a lot of everything. And not parties, but going to bed late and everything. And I remember that I was really struggling to even getting proper rest and everything that I remember saying to my best friend.

Sometimes my personality, if we call HSP, the personality, sometimes my personality really weighs a lot, right? Because I can’t do a lot. And I think when you are in a relationship with someone that’s not HSP, then we talk about it. He’s also really respecting when I tell him, not anymore, but it’s that balance, right? Because he goes out with his friends and he expects me and he wants me to go. And so I go, but then the next day I can’t really do life. And normal people don’t get the toll it takes for you to try to have a normal life where you don’t really respect your boundaries.

Kim: Right? Normal in quotes.

Maria: Yes. Yes. I don’t want to say, not that we’re not normal and I don’t want to say it like that, but just people that don’t have these limitations because we look, I was going to say, we look normal when I talk about this. People are like, but you are okay. You would see me out and you would see me socializing and going from here to there, they wouldn’t suspect a thing. But there is a lot going on. And I think that’s the thing there.

It’s also a lack of awareness and the way the world works and the overstimulation, I think as well, for me, it’s a lot of overstimulation. Even if I don’t go out, my email, all the spam of this newsletter and this and this, that and this, that I’m just, leave me alone. Please just leave me alone. So, I think that the thing.

Kim: The bombardment.

Maria: That’s the thing. I don’t want to read one more thing. I think for me it it’s very overstimulating.

Kim: Yeah, I can totally relate to that. Especially the point you were saying about having so many interests and wanting to read a million things. I’m with you. I always have, I call it my bag ‘o books. I have a bag of books and journals and I have eight different kinds of journals for every way I’m feeling. It’s like there’s so much we want to experience, and to your point, sometimes we feel so limited. It’s like we don’t have the time or energy to do all that we want. And there’s so much to discover in life. I don’t know. I get that sense too.

Maria: Yes, yes, that’s exactly it. And then also the emotional bit when we’re happy and when we’re sad, it’s just a really depressive situation, and it’s just so extreme that also people don’t grasp what it’s like to be. For example, I had to learn to really set boundaries because when someone that close to me was sad or whatever, I would be sad as well. And then I remember I was once listening to a podcast, they were talking about HSPs that maybe your best friend comes and they tell you that they’re sad. And so you feel sad the whole day and your best friend is already moved on. And then at the evening you’re still at that situation and they’re like, oh yeah, that’s right. Sometimes it’s too much.

Kim: Yeah, they’ve moved on, and you’re still carrying their pain. Yeah, we’re doing it to ourselves. Yeah.

Maria: Yes. And I had to learn to be like, look, I’m here to support you, but not that they were asking, right? I was just doing it automatically because that was what I knew. And then the moment I realized, I was like, fine, I am here and I’m thinking of you and everything, but I can’t really have my life not stop, but I cannot go through this because it’s not my pain.

Kim: Hundred percent.

Maria: Especially yes. Especially because I live abroad. My family is far away. So that’s the thing. There are things that are going to happen and I really can’t carry whatever is happening.

Kim: Such a great point. It’s like I can love you and support you, but from more of a disconnected point of reference because I can’t get caught up in your thing. I have my own thing that I’m experiencing.

Maria: Yes.

Kim: Yeah, that’s important. What do you love about high sensitivity?

Maria: I love my internal world. I would say the curiosity as we said that the bag of books, right? But I love the bag of books. I also thank God for Kindle when traveling, because otherwise, I don’t know, my suitcase would be half books and half the rest big ones too.

Kim: Yeah. I used to pack an encyclopedia. Come on.

Maria: Yes, exactly. Kindle is a lifesaver for this situations because as you said, I have my book before bed, my book for when I’m feeling this way, my book for, and I am reading five things at a time. I love that. And I think once you learn to work with it to limit yourself to certain things that can actually be done, which I’m still, it’s a work in progress. I think it will always be a work in progress. But I really like that. And I think I love the empathy as well that a lot of people, I have some friends telling me that I do this, I do it. I used to do it unconsciously. But it’s just that ability to what we were saying about setting the boundaries because you’re feeling those things, but you really make feel people listen to and cared for and you can really identify with whatever they go through.

And I think that is super, super special, especially in this world. So, I come to work, everyone shares everything. It is actually funny in the lab, there’s one of the researchers there, I’m close to him and his wife also works in that institute. We don’t even sit at the same office, but his wife has come a couple of times and asking him, asking me about where is him? She’s looking for him at the lab. Everyone knows that I just know where people are. I know this. I somehow register. I pay attention. So, people know and she’s like, where’s this person? Or do you know what happened to this? And I do know. So, I think that level of attention and care that you can give to people naturally, I think that’s a superpower.

Kim: And then you find people, like you said, just coming naturally to you, they sense that you’re aware, you’re present, you’re holding space, you’re empathetic. Yeah, I get that too. People perfect strangers will just open up about their life story. And we have this ability to just hold space and just listen and relate and share our kindness and yeah, empathy. Yeah, I’m with you there. It’s such a beautiful part of our trait.

Maria: It is, it is. And I think for me it was a bit hard. I think this is, when I talk about my past and how I felt, not weird, but different. I feel like I didn’t belong. And it took me some time to find that space where I felt the space for me because I felt that the environment that I grew up was full of expectations, full of this is what it’s done in society, this is what happens and everything. And I never felt that space until a couple of years ago. And once I found it, I really never, it’s so special for me and I realized the importance of yes, I’m holding that space for people empathetic. I am there for them, I listen, but I need the same as well. And I had never realized the importance of having it for ourselves as well. Right?

Kim: Yep. That is a balancing act. Absolutely. I’m so with you there, it’s funny, I talk about that on a few of the podcast episodes, is feeling that way, especially in relationships. And yeah, I totally get that because we are so giving, but part of us needs that too. And that’s okay, but that’s where standing up for our needs comes in and being vocal about what we need in the moment and in general.

Wow, you’re not that you’re young, but comparatively, I love that you have so much awareness at your age, because I feel like that takes such a long time, or at least it did for me to develop. I’m 43 and you are really beyond that, so that’s incredible. You have a lot of self-awareness. Not that I need to tell you that. I’m sure you’ve already.

Maria: I appreciate hearing it.

Kim: Yeah, we’re all on our journeys. But yeah, I’m very impressed and very excited for you and where you take your journey and your work and your studies. It sounds like a really beautiful and meaningful path.

Maria: Thank you. I don’t know where it’s taking me, but I am quite just enjoying the moment, I would say.

Kim: Yeah. So where can people follow along on your journey? Where can they connect with you?

Maria: This is a bit unstable at the moment. I’m trying to figure it out because right now, as I write and finish my thesis, the past two months have been a bit crazy. But I usually post everything on LinkedIn when I have a Medium account, which is like Substack, but I prefer Medium. And that’s where I talk about this and the different cycles and what’s happening from physiological perspective. And then I usually announce it on LinkedIn. I started an Instagram account, which I absolutely hate, so I will not share that yet.

But I do want to start making videos about what I’m writing about because now I know that nowadays the way people consume information is way different. And just because I like writing doesn’t mean that people will actually read the whole situation. So, I will start making videos once I finally manage to finish my thesis and I’m working on a website with someone. So that’s coming along. It’s like everything is sort of slowly coming along, but right now I would say LinkedIn.

Kim: I love that you said, I don’t know if people are going to read the whole situation, not article, not it’s the situation how our mind, we just love to go in a million different areas and it becomes, yeah, I don’t know. I’m with you. I’m a writer too. But like you said, people like short snippets of information. But anyway.

Maria: I would read, I it. I prefer reading it, but yeah, I know that it’s different.

Kim: Different for the masses, so okay, we’ll put those links in the show notes so that everyone can follow along. And best of luck to you, and thank you so much for joining me today. It was such a pleasure.

Maria: Thank you. Thank you for having me, and thank you for having this amazing project because I think, well, I had to discover that I was an HSP when I discovered it, but maybe if it helps someone else, maybe if I hadn’t had that therapist, I wouldn’t know and I would still think that, I don’t know, I wouldn’t know. Because I think that the knowledge already gives you so much power over it and how to learn how to live your life with it and know how to use it to your advantage and how to protect yourself when you have to protect yourself.

And I think there’s not enough, I know it’s a recent discovery, but I think the more we talk about it, the more, because there’s a lot of HSPs, I can tell when someone is HSP, it’s actually quite nice. It takes one to know one, and I know and they don’t know. And for me it was life changing to figure it out. So, I love what you’re doing, and I love that you’re talking with people to see that there’s so many possibilities and that’s a superpower.

Kim: That means a lot to me because that’s exactly why I’m doing this. The awareness is so important as you and I know once you’ve learned that about yourself, it’s like this key that opens up a million doors if we appreciate and really learn about it. But that’s why I love everyone that’s been on, is just incredible. From a million different walks of life, a million different professions, and I don’t know. Yeah, I’m with you. I feel like I hope it sheds light on the subject and just spreads that awareness.

But yeah, thank you so much for your kindness. That meant a lot to me. 

Thank you so much for listening in on my conversation with Maria. I hope it reminds you that understanding and advocating for your needs as a highly sensitive person allows you to show up for others as your best self. It’s more than ok to say “no” to those late-night plans or choose to flow with your energy instead of pushing yourself past your limits. Our thresholds are there for a reason, and it’s always in our best interest to honor them.

Until next time. Take care!

About Maria Saucedo:

Maria is originally from Mexico and is currently based in the Czech Republic, where she is working on her PhD. She is a former triathlete and a highly sensitive person, and for many years, she struggled with fluctuating energy levels and feeling misunderstood. What she once saw as inconsistency or lack of effort, she later understood as physiology. This realization led her to focus on women’s health, hormonal cycles, and the importance of living in alignment with the body. She is now building a project dedicated to education, open conversations, and empowerment around women’s physiology. 

Follow along on Maria’s journey:

LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/maria-jose-saucedo

Medium: https://medium.com/@mariaj.saucedordz/about

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About Kimberly:

Kimberly Marshall is an ICF-certified Energy and Intuition coach for highly sensitive people (HSPs) and host of The Happy HSP Podcast. After 20 years in the publishing industry working for companies like Time Inc., Monster.com, and W. W. Norton, she left her corporate career to pursue work that better suited her HSP needs. She now helps HSPs reconnect with their intuition, energy, and soul’s purpose so they can live gentle, heart-centered lives in alignment with who they truly are.

Through her work, Kimberly hopes to shed more light on the reality of living with high sensitivity and inspire more HSPs to embrace their empathetic, loving, and gentle natures.

• Hosted/produced by Kimberly Marshall

• Edited by Fonzie Try Media

• Artwork by Tara Corola