3 Ways the Traditional 9-5 Fails Female Business Owners (& How to Thrive Instead)

The reality is, as women, we have a choice to choose a different path when it comes to working hard and honoring our bodies. Or else, we will end up in the Dr’s office wondering: “What the heck is going on with my body?!” And their answer will probably be “most likely stress.”

This was me.

After I graduated from college, I decided to pursue my career as an educator and taught 1st grade and Kindergarten. I loved the babies. I loved the dream of what educating for 20 years could look like…but my body thought otherwise.

I was waking up after 8 hours of sleep feeling exhausted.

I was craving all the artificial sweets I could find.

I wasn’t prioritizing my mental health and was having multiple panic attacks a week.

I was exhausted. My cycles were irregular. I was having symptoms that could have been thyroid, autoimmune, or hormone-related. I wasn’t taking care of my body.

My symptoms started to get worse and worse… so I eventually went to the doctor. With the big question… “Why am I having all of these symptoms?!”

The Dr’s response? “It’s stress.” No pill. No medication.

Just a diagnosis of stress and a tip: “Maybe you need to find a new job” is what I was told, and from the school district’s doctor!

Now, I’m not saying that we can’t work hard or change our current circumstances – I could have probably found a way to support myself in education. But I decided to change.

Regardless of what you do for work—9-5, stay-at-home mama, full-time breastfeeding, entrepreneur—there is a way to support yourself and rewire your belief that this is ‘just how it is.’

The traditional 9-5 wasn’t built with women in mind. It doesn’t serve our hormones. It wasn’t designed with a holistic approach in mind.

Considering women weren’t even allowed to read or write back in the day, we have certainly come a long way. But it is 2024, and it is time we consider that not every body thrives in an 8-hour workday.

There is a new way to honor our bodies and be productive, and it isn’t really new at all. It starts with how you were designed and your cycle, whether you bleed or not.

Cycle syncing is an approach that considers intuition, balance, and business all in one.

So, hearing this, maybe you’re in one of two boats.

Boat #1: You don’t know what it means to track your cycle (regardless of if you have a menstrual bleed or not).

Boat #2: You are familiar with it but don’t know how you can support yourself with that information.

And you’re not alone in that.

I was right where you are not too long ago.

I craved balance between my work and my body.

My body was telling me that it was time for a change (heck maybe it was just getting off the hormonal BC pill?!)- that I needed to honor my natural rhythms – and I was ready to listen.

But “typical work day” doesn’t help us at all as women business owners (it can only work for so long until it doesn’t).

The Grind is Failing You: Here’s How

01 | Fixed Schedules Ignore the Body/Soul Connection

We will get into this on a different day, but our bodies are in tune with the moon and its different phases. So, yes, you can track your cycle even if you aren’t having a period OR are on birth control.

Even as a teacher, we knew that when there was a new moon, the kids were going to be acting differently than normal. I thought this was a myth, but NOPE, it’s true!

So, if kids are sensitive to the moon and nature – so are we. We might have just gotten so wrapped up in society’s pressures that we can’t intuitively feel it, which comes with the power of tracking and being more in tune with our bodies.

As natural beings, before technology advanced and all of those things, we lived in tune with nature, especially as women….

And that will never change.

It just means that now in our society, we need to be more intentional about listening and tuning into nature and our bodies.

For example: In the follicular (yang) phase, our energy is increased, and we are more productive in the first half of our cycle.

In contrast, in the luteal (yin) phase, our energy is more inward, and we are better skilled at coming up with ideas and finding cracks in systems that could be improved, which happens in the last half of our cycle.

02 | Lack of Flexibility

Don’t even get me started on paid maternity leave. The United States has 0 paid maternity leave for women.

So…. do I need to say more about where the economy and big business’ intentions are?

Work culture has little to no flexibility for women regardless of age.

Somehow, we believe we are meant to show up 6 weeks after a baby is born (which is unethical in my opinion), to work and clock in at a desk with pumping sessions done in a non-welcoming bathroom or closet.

We are meant to show up to work for a day full of calls with heavy periods or clotting, when in reality, our body needs rest.

How in the world can we be productive when our body is detoxing and releasing each month?!

There’s little to no balance or flexibility (which I believe is from a lack of education), which can lead to women feeling chronic stress, increased chance of autoimmune disease, and struggles with hormones and other wide variety of things (i.e., gut, fertility, and menstrual cycle health).

03 | Most Work Environments Neglect Female-Specific Health Needs

If your baby is sick, you need to take a day off work, and there goes a day that you saved for vacay.

If you are sick, there goes a day off of your bank of days you were using for your unpaid maternity leave.

There needs to be a change. Because there’s hardly any flexibility with how our bodies change.

CEOs and business owners need to understand the foundation that women are more complex than men. For instance, men have a 24-hour cycle, whereas women have an average 28-day cycle.

That means that men’s hormones fluctuate the same each and every day, whereas women’s hormones fluctuate differently each day for a full 28 days. No day is the same for us.

If we were able to show up to work in tune with our hormones and cycle, we would be able to get more done and be more productive. But right now, women are struggling because they feel like they don’t fit in. And they think it’s THEIR problem. WRONG.

We have different needs, and that should be celebrated, not ignored.

Taking breaks and shifting how and what we do each day can actually help us long-term and support our bodies OUTSIDE of work too.

Living In Balance with Your Business

So, what do you do?

There are a lot of ways that the traditional 9-5 is not built for female entrepreneurs. Here are a few ways you can prioritize holistic wellness in the midst of a culture that may be telling you otherwise.

Start learning more about your body. Be curious. Start journaling or tracking and note where your stress is, how your sleep is, and even small things like environment and nutrition can play a huge part in your overall health.

Start tracking your cycle on a monthly basis(and yes, if you don’t have a menstrual bleed, you can still track your cycle).

Reflect and ask yourself when you honored your body and its needs each day. P.S. it’s okay to change your mind and not be available when you’re in the last half of your cycle.

For example, when I was teaching, I realized that the work life that I put myself in, wasn’t serving me. So, I decided to change my path and honor my body.

Now, I’m able to work in tune with my hormones and the moon. For example…

01 | Each night, I look at the moon’s phase and write down how the day went. Based on what the moon is doing, I know how to be more gracious with myself and what my energy levels might be like.

02 | I use the Proov and Natural Cycles apps to track my basal body temperature, LH, and progesterone hormone, which helps confirm ovulation and my full cycle on a monthly basis! I love using these methods because, again, they help me realize and analyze what my emotions and energy might be like.

So, how can you be more in tune with your body?

You’ll be amazed to see how your body intuitively changes and shifts depending on nature and your environment. As a woman entrepreneur, I have found a way to enhance productivity and work-life balance by embracing cycle syncing.

Optimizing work with my cycle has allowed me to align my tasks with my natural energy levels, leading to greater business productivity (and yes, it looks different than 98% of other business owners out there).

It’s clear that acknowledging women’s health is essential for business (and general life) success. As women, we can thrive by respecting our cycles and making adjustments that support our well-being and professional goals.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you agree? Do you feel like you’re not living your best life because of society’s standards for you?

I’d love to hear from you and your story! Send me a DM on IG and let’s chat!