Empowered Relationship Podcast: Your Relationship Resource And Guide · Dr. Jessica Higgins

ERP 506: Regulate Your Body, Transform Your Bond: The Habit Science Behind Healthy Love — An Interview with Hadlee Garrison

·48 min·3 clips

Hadlee Garrison says basic circadian rhythm habits can make someone more productive, not less.

1. Empowered Relationship Podcast episode 506 focuses on how Hadlee Garrison links circadian rhythm habits to relationship safety and energy management. 2. Dr. Jessica Higgins hosts Hadlee Garrison, a holistic health counselor and behavior change expert whose work blends habit science, somatic practice, and Ayurvedic wisdom. 3. The episode asks what changes before communication or mindset work when a person’s body is regulated enough for closeness. 4. Hadlee describes growing up around personal development and health advice while struggling with food, body image, and follow-through on her own habits. 5. She says she used eating, reading, and other numbing behaviors to suppress emotions and stay disconnected from her body. 6. Hadlee explains that her college experience pushed her toward public health graduate school and behavior change science because she wanted to understand why people know what to do but still do not do it. 7. She says her work now focuses less on telling people the 'what to do' and more on helping them actually do it. 8. Hadlee says she combines coaching certifications with academic behavior change science so her approach is both applied and evidence-based. 9. Jessica reflects that intellectual insight can create the illusion that a person can override the nervous system through willpower alone. 10. Hadlee responds that mindset work cannot catch up if the body and basic habits are not in place first. 11. Hadlee says conflict often shows up when someone is already at the edge of their capacity, stressed, or feeling fried. 12. She says her clients build more capacity, bandwidth, and energy so they can pursue relationships, purpose, and a day-to-day life they enjoy. 13. Hadlee emphasizes starting with circadian rhythm habits, especially sleep timing, morning routines, and exercise, before moving into deeper regulation practices. 14. She says going to bed at or around the same time each night matters more than simply going to bed as early as possible. 15. Hadlee warns that sleep does not work by suddenly shifting hours; she recommends moving bedtime in 15-minute increments. 16. She cites research showing that people in sleep-deprivation studies thought they were unimpaired even when their executive functioning was clearly impaired. 17. Hadlee says self-care habits create structure that produces more creativity, more capacity, and more freedom. 18. Jessica and Hadlee discuss an energy-archetype framework, including the fire type, the leisure enthusiast, and the depleted whirlwind, as ways to understand stress responses and conflict patterns. 19. The interview is reflective, practical, and conversational, with Jessica using examples from clients and Hadlee answering with concrete body-based tools. 20. People who want practical nervous-system and habit tools for relationships will get the most from this episode; listeners seeking only abstract mindset talk may skip it.

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