We've come to the end of our journey and finally arrived at Step 5. After weeks of being diligent, opening up, finding a specialist, tracking your symptoms, and getting the right tests for a complete evaluation of the treatment options available to you, the grand finale is here! It's finally the moment to complete the circle and arrive at hormone happiness. However, would you be very disappointed if I told you that there was no final destination? Hormone happiness is a continuing cycle.

Let's review. A commitment to hormone happiness requires that you:

• open up and reach out
  

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• do the work
  

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• check in with yourself to continually evaluate and tweak your path
  

    Step 5: Stay on the path

If you like pictures, it looks like this:

Step 5 may, at first, sound simple, but really, it's vital to completing the cycle. It also takes us back to the beginning. Each time we complete the cycle, we have more knowledge, we are more informed, and we have more experience. We know what has or has not worked. We, with the guidance of our specialist, are better able to choose the next best available treatment options. I sum Step 5 up in this phrase: "Stay on the Path." What this means, in expanded real time, is this: work with your specialist to choose a treatment strategy, continue to monitor your symptoms, and check in with yourself to see if you are still on the path.

I used to put my kids on the star program whenever I wanted to help reinforce positive behavior and accomplishments. It worked beautifully for helping to get them out of our bed and start sleeping in theirs and for potty training, etc. Every day that they accomplished the task positively, they received a gold star on the calendar. At the end of the week if they had all stars, they got to do something special. After a month, new habits and skills were created.

I use a similar concept to reinforce the 5 Step program to hormone happiness. Each week, usually on Sunday before everyone else wakes up, I take a few quiet minutes to reflect on the previous week. I have placed two letters on my calendar on Sunday, "ME". This reminds me to take inventory of my week. I check in with myself on three levels: physically, mentally, and emotionally. Here are some of the questions I ask myself: Am I eating healthy? Did I get in some exercise? Did I [Link Removed], so that I can be sure old ones or new ones are not cropping up? I rate how I feel about my health and happiness on a scale from 1 – 10. Ten is feeling good, positive, and happy, because I have stayed on my path. I don't expect to be a 10 every week, but I want to try to achieve the best health and joy possible. Yes, I reward myself. My reward is more ME time! I might go get a manicure, sit and read a book, or put on my fav tunes and try out a new recipe. When the number is low, rather than beat myself up about it, I try to feel good about what I have done well. Then I refocus and establish a few positive goals for the week ahead – nudging myself gently back towards the path.

The healthy life you want is possible, and get this ... you deserve it! Getting there is a process, and once you've arrived, the process is not over. In time, the cycle becomes habit, and you're living a healthy life complete with hormone happiness! This whole process is what I like to call, living. Some days it's easy. Some days it's not. I do the best I can to check in with myself and make sure I'm doing my part to live a healthy life. I have to reach out, take action, and accept responsibility for staying on my path to hormone happiness. It's as easy as 1-2-3-4-5!!

Say it until you believe it: Reaching out is IN! Suffering in silence is OUT!

Lifelong pathways to lifelong health:

• Still smoking? [Link Removed], from Dr. Edward Creagan's stress blog on MayoClinic.com.

Follow Ellen Dolgen on [Link Removed] 

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