After 15 years as a CRNA in a high-stress hospital setting, Elizabeth Greenfield left to build her own functional medicine practice, expecting entrepreneurship to bring relief. Instead, her stress compounded, and lab testing at age 45 revealed her biological age had climbed to 102, more than double her chronological age. Despite years of teaching clients to listen to their bodies, she found herself overriding her own signals in the name of urgency.
This article traces her journey from burnout to reversing her biological age to 37 (now at 48), and the mindset shift that made it possible: recovery isn’t a reward for finishing the work; it’s part of the strategy. She shares simple, practical “micro-moments” for nervous system recovery: breath awareness, grounding scents, short outdoor breaks, and vagus nerve activation that any business owner can use between meetings, without needing to clear their calendar.
Elizabeth Greenfield MS, RN, IFMCP
Functional Wellness, LLC
(408) 314-7713
lizgreenfield.com
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