Tête-à-Tête with Dr. Sara Reardon

Water, coffee, and emails.

Trust your gut! I often looked externally to others for their advice and guidance when I believe internally I knew what the best decision was, and it was fear of making a mistake or messing up that was holding me back.

Sleep, exercise, and saying no. When I am overwhelmed, it's often that I am over-scheduled, working a lot, and juggling all that comes along with raising two children. 

I start by ensuring I get enough sleep and avoid staying up late, working into the night. Prioritizing a workout, whether it's a walk outside or playing tennis, helps my mind take a break and releases stress. 

Saying no to commitments that over-schedule me and my family is essential to create time for both sleep and exercise, as well as to avoid rushing around and instead have time to be outside or enjoy being together as a family.

Watching my kids be goofy or funny together. They are at an age where they are big kids but almost pre-teens, so when I see them let loose and still be goofy kids, that makes my heart very happy. I don't want them to feel the weight of the world yet, and I want them to just enjoy the freedom of childhood for as long as possible.

The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. My son just started middle school, where screens and internet access are everywhere, and navigating this stage of parenting is incredibly challenging. 
I like the data presented in this book, along with our family values, to help guide the decisions we are making for our kids and our family.

There are two. My mom has always been an inspiration to me. She raised four kids as a single mom and was a steady presence in my childhood. She didn't make it to my sporting events or school activities, but she prioritized eating dinner together every evening. That ritual was something I truly learned to appreciate and now implement with my family. 

My husband also inspires me. He is incredibly hard-working and successful, yet also incredibly humble. I think this combination is rare in today's world, where success is often viewed as your rank in a company, your follower count on a social media platform, or your income level. Yet he has really shown me that success is a constant evolution of working on oneself, being good to the people around you, and not attaching oneself to external accolades. It's about who you are as a person versus what you do for work.

After I attend a conference surrounded by other professionals doing great work. I love learning and building!

This is part of my profession that I have really come to cherish and is ongoing. Whether it's learning more as a pelvic floor therapist in how to best care for my patients, learning how to start a therapy clinic and building the practice, learning the publishing industry and the work and discipline it takes to write a book, and recently learning what goes into creating an app that I am releasing soon with pelvic floor education and exercises. 

For me, it's really about the journey and the opportunities to learn and meet so many others passionate about their work in the same way.

As a woman, I have always felt grateful to be in the medical field, particularly in pelvic health, which has helped me better understand my body as a woman. I firmly believe that every woman and mother deserves access to this information.

Women make up 51% of the population and are how the population can continue to grow, yet they are incredibly underserved, dismissed, and uncared for in our medical system. I will continue to keep advocating for better pelvic healthcare for women because they deserve it, and it's an integral part of healthcare that they are not receiving.