🌿🤍 [The Well Edit] Your Brain Feels Off. Here’s Why.


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sponsored by Rootine - science-backed supplements for cortisol, sleep, and focus

Weekly Insight: Mental Clarity

After my second baby, I remember sitting at my laptop one morning and feeling like my brain had completely given up on me.

What I came into the room to grab? Blank.

The name of the investor I met last week? Not a clue.

Creating the marketing plan? Took an extra hour.

I was running a growing company, nursing a newborn, raising a toddler, and constantly feeling like my brain was lagging three steps behind the rest of me.

At first, I thought it was just “mom brain.”

But as months went on, I started to wonder - was this my new normal?

So I did what I always do when something doesn’t feel right in my body: I started researching, experimenting, and testing.

And what I found was this:

👉🏼 Brain fog is common, but not normal.

Especially for women.

And it often isn’t just about sleep or stress.

It’s also about hormones, inflammation, and cortisol.

What’s Actually Happening in Your Brain?

Women in their 30s and 40s often start to notice mental changes:

  • You walk into a room and forget why
  • You read the same sentence three times
  • You can’t recall names, appointments, or conversations

Yes, this can be sleep deprivation and multitasking overload.

But underneath that, it’s often a biological shift.

➡️ Imbalanced cortisol impacts memory, focus, and verbal recall

➡️ Estrogen supports brain function - and it starts to decline as early as your 30s

➡️ Chronic inflammation affects neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine

➡️ Nutrient depletion (hello, pregnancy and stress) can impair brain performance

The result?

Mental fatigue. Cognitive haze. Motivation dips. Mood swings. Brain fog.

5 Simple Habits That Helped Me Combat Brain Fog:

Here are 5 habits that actually helped me:

☀️ Start your morning with protein + sunlight

This combo stabilizes blood sugar, boosts dopamine, and helps your brain wake up.

🌿 Take Rootine Focus daily

This clean nootropic supports clarity, memory, and focus with ingredients like CDP-Choline, Bacopa, and Ginseng.

😌 Do a nervous system reset daily

Habits like breathwork, legs up the wall, or a walk without your phone help lower cortisol (and mental chaos).

🥚 Eat choline-rich foods

Eggs, salmon, and leafy greens fuel your brain and support memory—especially postpartum.

Create 10 minutes of quiet daily

Even a few unplugged minutes gives your brain the space it needs to reset and think clearly.

If You’re Feeling Foggy, It’s Not Just You

The truth is, we were never meant to do this much, this fast, for this long without rest.

Brain fog isn’t a flaw in your system, it’s a signal.

Your brain needs support, just like your body.

You don’t need to accept mental burnout as your baseline.

With the right tools, your brain can feel clear again.

(And yes, even creative, focused, and energized.)

🏆Your Well Challenge

A real-life mini challenge - something simple to try this week!

Feeling foggy? Try this 3-day reset to boost mental clarity:

✅ Day 1: Eat 30g of protein within 90 minutes of waking

✅ Day 2: Walk outside without your phone for at least 10 minutes

✅ Day 3: Take 10 minutes of screen-free quiet time—no phone, no podcast, no distractions

Want a bonus?

Try adding in Rootine Focus each day to give your brain a little extra support.

And let me know if you feel the difference - just reply here!

🤍 The Social Edit

What I’ve been sharing on social this week — in case you missed it.

🔥 My Hot Take

My POV on wellness trends, what’s hype, and the business behind it all.

Fitness is no longer just about workouts - and this move proves it.

Dear Media just acquired obé Fitness, a women-focused digital workout platform known for its high-production workouts and high profile collabs.

But this deal isn’t just about fitness.

It’s about owning attention.

And then using that attention to power everything else.

Because if you're not building first-party distribution, you're playing someone else’s game.

Here's what I’m seeing:

→ The line between creator, founder, and media company is officially gone

obé isn’t just a fitness app; it’s a content brand.

Now it lives inside a powerful ecosystem where Dear Media hosts 100+ podcasts, creates and invests in wellness products (Arrae, The Skinny Confidential), and drives hundreds of millions of social impressions each month.

→ Personal brands are becoming umbrellas for platforms

What Reese Witherspoon built with Hello Sunshine? Dear Media is doing it in wellness: combining content, commerce, and media under one flywheel.

Mari Llewellyn could be next: between her ownership in Bloom and the launch of Pursuit Network, the blueprint is already in motion.

→ Consumer brands without a celeb / influencer attached will struggle

Launching a digital or physical product today is harder than ever. Funding is scarce. Ads are less efficient. Influencer marketing is more expensive. Having even one founder with a loyal audience solves a dozen early-stage problems.

(And yes, I’m a prime example—founders are becoming influencers out of necessity.)

The downside to the attention trend?

Attention and distribution will be owned by a select few.

And as more brands follow the same formula - partner with a creator, launch a supplement, build a media arm - it starts to feel less like innovation and more like replication.

Meanwhile, smaller founders or practitioners without massive followings may struggle to break through, even if their products are better.

But the opportunity?

Brands can now launch with less capital, faster feedback, and products that actually serve their audience, because they’re built with that audience in mind. Less guessing, more signal, quicker scale.

And the creator landscape is evolving. MBAs, operators, and founders are building real presence online.

The lines are blurring, and for those who can build both value and visibility, the upside is massive.

🌿 The Well List

What I’m using, loving, or eyeing this week — your curated shortcut to what’s actually working in my world

📚 Tools to Live Well

Guides, courses, products, and resources to support your journey

Picked Just for You

The Cortisol Reset

Transform your body and mind in just 6 weeks!

High Protein Breakfasts

Get 3 of my go-to high protein breakfast recipes!

Thanks for Reading!

I really appreciate you being a part of this community! You’ve got this!🤍🌿

See you next week!

Rachel

🌿🤍 The Well Edit | Rachel Sanders

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