What if you've been breathing wrong your whole life — and never noticed?

Functional breathing coach Elsa Unenge explains how most of us drift into shallow, inefficient breathing, and how to retrain it. Searchable terms: functional breathing, how to breathe properly, breathwork, diaphragmatic breathing, nasal breathing.

This episode is about the breath as a tool — how it shapes your energy, your stress, and the state of your nervous system, and why working with it doesn't have to be complicated.

It's for anyone who feels tired, tense or slightly out of breath without knowing why, and wants a simple, practical way to feel steadier.

In this episode:

• Why most people breathe inefficiently without realizing it
• What functional breathing actually means
• How a slow exhale calms the nervous system
• Nose vs. mouth, chest vs. diaphragm
• Small breath practices you can do anywhere

Full episode and more at nataliekakon.com

Guest: Elsa Unenge, functional breathing coach, founder of Breath Curriculum

Thank you for being part of this podcast.
For your messages, your comments, your questions and for letting me know that what I’m putting into the world is landing.

This season has been incredibly special.
We heard from doctors, menstrual coaches, movement educators, and so many thoughtful voices shaping this conversation.

To every guest who joined m, thank YOU.
And to each of you listening, reflecting, and sharing… I’m so grateful.

Season 3 is already in motion, and the conversations ahead are ones I know you’re going to love.

If there’s someone you’d like me to interview, I’d love to hear from you.

See you back here soon.

Do you ever worry you're not a good enough mother?

Clinical psychologist Dr. Tanya Cotler unpacks what secure attachment really is — and why it was never about getting parenting right. Searchable terms: secure attachment, parent-child bond, good enough parenting, motherhood, attachment styles.

This episode is about the everyday work of connection: attunement, the small ruptures that happen in every relationship, and the repair that rebuilds trust.

It's for any mother carrying the quiet fear that one wrong move will harm her child — and who wants a steadier, kinder framework for raising a secure child.

In this episode:

• What secure attachment actually means
• Why "good enough" parenting is the goal, not perfection
• Rupture and repair — and why repair matters most
• How your own childhood shapes the way you parent
• Choosing a response instead of repeating a pattern

Full episode and more at nataliekakon.comGuest: Dr. Tanya Cotler, clinical psychologist

I’m joined by pelvic health physiotherapist Jennifer Nwankwo, CEO and co-founder of Nuvo Physio and co-founder of Elle Santé, for a grounded, myth-busting conversation on women’s pelvic health across the lifespan.

We explore anatomy, breath and pressure mechanics, incontinence, painful sex, hormonal tissue changes, vaginal pH, and the nervous system.

Jennifer also shares what she’s building next: Elle Santé, a women’s health platform and pelvic health app designed to support women between appointments.

Practical, embodied, and deeply informative.

Get in touch / work with Jennifer

• Clinic: Nuvo Physio — in-person and online women’s pelvic health care
• App: Elle Santé  — women’s health platform and pelvic health app (pelvic health network, resources + care plans)
• Instagram: @nuvophysio

About Natalie

I’m Natalie Kakon — founder of The Embodied Signal Method™ and host of Get Obsessed.

My work sits at the intersection of menstrual cycle physiology, nervous system regulation, and lived female experience.

Through education, mentorship, and embodied practice, I help women move from information to literacy — and from literacy to lived autonomy.

Explore more at: nataliekakon.com

Instagram: @nataliekakon_

What happens when you stop trying to take up less space?

Melanie Richards — founder of Happy Tree and creator of the F*CK Skinny movement — shares an honest, personal conversation about body image, diet culture and self-acceptance. Searchable terms: body image, diet culture, eating disorder recovery, anti-diet, self-worth.

This episode moves through Melanie's own story, the loss of her sister to an eating disorder, and the movement she built so that other women might find support and acceptance sooner.

It's for any woman who's tired of trying to be smaller and wants a different, kinder way to live in her body.

In this episode:

• How diet culture becomes "the water we swim in"
• The loss that became a calling
• What the F*CK Skinny movement really means — culture, not people
• Why thinness is never a measure of health
• Coming back to your body with kindness

This episode includes an honest discussion of eating disorders and the loss of a loved one. If you're struggling, support is available through the National Alliance for Eating Disorders helpline.

Full episode and more at nataliekakon.comGuest: Melanie Richards, founder of Happy Tree and creator of the F*CK Skinny movement

What if everything you were taught about the body left out the part that holds it all together?

Author and educator Joanne Avison explains fascia — the connective tissue web running through the entire body. Searchable terms: fascia, connective tissue, what is fascia, myofascial, proprioception.

This episode is about a shift in how we see the body: not a machine of separate parts, but a whole, living, continuous form — and what that means for how we move, feel and heal.

It's for anyone curious about how the body really works, and why "the issues are in the tissues" is more than a saying.

In this episode:

• What fascia actually is — and why it's not just packaging
• Why the body has no levers and no isolated parts
• Fascia as connective intelligence and the seat of proprioception
• How the body holds experience in the tissue
• Why releasing tissue takes patience, not force

Full episode and more at nataliekakon.com

Guest: Joanne Avison, author and founder of MMIA

What if everything you've been told about training your core is wrong?

Pilates instructor and MMIA co-founder Paul Thornley explains why the "core" is a myth — and why hardening it can create the injuries it's meant to prevent. Searchable terms: core myth, core training, why fit people get injured, micro-movement, functional movement.

This episode is about a different way to understand the body: not a machine of parts to stabilize, but a pressurized, fluid system built to rotate, breathe and adapt.

It's for anyone who feels like they're doing all the right things in the gym or studio and still feels something is off in their body.

In this episode:

• Why strong, fit people still get injured
• The myth of the "core" — and what it really should be
• Why the body is a pressure system, and breath is the valve
• How rotation and micro-movement restore energy
• Why small, sustainable change beats pushing the body's limits

Full episode and more at nataliekakon.comGuest: Paul Thornley, Pilates instructor and co-founder of MMIA

Why do cravings hit harder in the days before your period?

In this roundtable, psychiatrist Dr. Sara Cohen Fournier, naturopathic doctor Dr. Michal Waldfogel and nervous system educator Carina Raisman unpack how the cycle shapes the brain's reward system. Searchable terms: cravings before period, dopamine, addiction and the menstrual cycle, luteal phase, serotonin.

The conversation goes far beyond cravings — into chronic stress, the nervous system, how serotonin is built in the gut, and what changes as estrogen declines in perimenopause.

It's for any woman who's noticed her mood, energy and cravings shift across the month and wants to understand the biology underneath it.

In this episode:

• Why estrogen amplifies the dopamine pathway before your period
• The "boss is not a bear" model of chronic stress
• How serotonin is built — and why the gut matters
• The serotonin-melatonin link between mood and sleep
• Why stress resilience and heart health shift in perimenopause
• Small, healthy sources of dopamine that help meet the craving

Full episode and more at nataliekakon.comA roundtable with Dr. Sara Cohen Fournier (psychiatrist), Dr. Michal Waldfogel (ND) and Carina Raisman (nervous system educator)

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Guests

Dr. Sara Cohen Fournier, MD
Sara is a practicing psychiatrist whose work sits at the intersection of mental health, physiology, and lived experience.

Dr. Michal Waldfogel, ND
Dr. Michal Pearl Waldfogel is a licensed naturopathic doctor with a deep background in education, facilitation, and community-building. Her work integrates mental health, addiction recovery, and integrative primary care, with particular care for those seeking to change their relationship with alcohol. Drawing on training in clinical nutrition, botanical medicine, and CranioSacral therapy, she collaborates closely with other providers to create personalized, systems-based care. She is especially passionate about increasing access to naturopathic medicine and addressing loneliness through community-centered models of healing.
Learn more at phillynaturopathic.com

Carina Raisman, BSc
Carina is a nervous system specialist, yoga therapist, and teacher of teachers. She is the founder of Yoga Resource and leads one of the most respected yoga therapy education programs, with a focus on regulation, embodiment, and sustainable care.
Learn more at yogaresource.com

Your period has been gone for months — or years — and you're not pregnant. Every test comes back "normal," and no one can tell you why.

Period recovery coach Elena Gelibter explains hypothalamic amenorrhea (HA) — covering missing periods, under-eating, overtraining, the post-pill bleed that masks it, and what bloodwork actually shows.

It's a conversation about energy, nervous system safety, and why the body switches off the cycle to survive — and how it switches back on.

This episode is for any woman whose period has disappeared, who's been told to "eat less and exercise more," and wants to understand the real root cause.

In this episode:

– What hypothalamic amenorrhea is — and why it's a survival response, not a broken body

– How under-eating, overtraining and chronic stress switch the cycle off

– Why "normal" bloodwork can still point to HA — the labs to actually look at

– Why the pill can mask a missing period for years without you knowing

– How the brain changes under restriction — and why those changes reverse

– The first real doorway back: energy availability, rest, and fully fuelling movement

Full show notes & transcript → nataliekakon.com/podcast/hypothalamic-amenorrhea-missing-period-recovery

Connect with Elena Gelibter → instagram.com/messyandmenstruating

Guest: Elena Gelibter, period recovery coach

Your mood swings with your cycle and you've started to wonder if something's wrong with you.

Psychiatrist Dr. Sara Cohen Fournier reframes the menstrual cycle as a fifth vital sign — covering PMS vs PMDD, why mood drops before your period, hormones and mental health, and emotional regulation.

It's a conversation about hormones, cyclical living, and protecting your mental health through perimenopause and beyond.

This episode is for any woman who's felt dismissed, unsure if her symptoms are "normal," and ready to understand her own body.

In this episode:

– Why your menstrual cycle is a fifth vital sign no one taught you to read

– PMS vs PMDD — and why tracking across cycles is how you tell

– Why mood, anxiety and sleep shift in the days before your bleed

– How perimenopause changes mental health — and how to prepare

– Breath as a free, powerful tool for nervous system regulation

– Naming your emotions to cut their intensity in half

Guest: Dr. Sara Cohen Fournier, MD, psychiatrist

Full show notes & transcript → nataliekakon.com/podcast/mood-or-cycle-mental-health-menstrual-cycle-sara-cohen-fournier