So let me tell you a story.

A few weeks ago at the Physician Coaching Summit, I walked into a room where the energy felt… different.

Warm. Bright. Alive in a way you can feel in your chest.

And at the center of it was Dr. Zarya Rubin.

She’s one of those people who radiates something you can’t fake — joy, yes, but also this grounded wisdom that only comes from having walked through some real fires. I’d already known her work around burnout and midlife wellness, but meeting her in person? Seeing the way she held the room? Hearing her talk about midlife, the nervous system, and the realities we don’t say out loud?

I immediately knew we needed to have this conversation.

Because here’s the thing Zarya understands better than almost anyone:

Midlife is not the beginning of the end.
It’s the beginning of finally telling the truth.

She’s lived the unraveling — the panic attacks, the autoimmune crash, the sleepless nights, the identity confusion, the “why am I doing everything ‘right’ and still falling apart?” exhaustion.
She’s lived the perimenopause plot twists no one prepares you for.
She’s lived inside that very specific flavor of perfectionism that looks like competence on the outside and feels like collapse on the inside.

And she’s lived the rebuilding, too.
The healing.
The choosing joy not as a perk, but as a lifeline.

In this episode, Zarya and I talk about:

The midlife moment where your body becomes louder than your to-do list
Why burnout for high-achieving women can look “functional” until the day it’s not
How perimenopause makes everything you’ve been ignoring impossible to outrun
What perfectionism was protecting her from — and why it cost her so much
The surprising thing (hello, tango!) that brought her back into her body
Why functional medicine finally helped her make sense of her symptoms
And the joy practices she returns to again and again

This is not a conversation about “fixing” midlife.
It’s a conversation about reclaiming it — your autonomy, your voice, your nervous system, your pleasure, your meaning.

Zarya is funny, brilliant, deeply human, and refreshingly honest about what it takes to go from burnout to balance, and from balance to actual joy.

If you’ve been navigating your own midlife reckoning (or wreckoning, I promise you’ll exhale hearing this one.

Connect with Dr. Zarya Rubin

Website: https://www.zaryarubinmd.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zaryarubinmd
Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/outsmart-burnout-midlife-wellness-for-women-with-dr/id1816580256
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zaryarubinmd
TEDx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdg5sbx-Fpc

Stay Connected with Me

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrissieottmd
Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/solvingforjoypodcast
Website + transcripts: https://www.solvingforjoy.com

🎧 Full transcript + more at: https://www.solvingforjoy.com

For Physician Coaches

Physician Coaching Collective: https://www.physiciancoachingcollective.com
Physician Coaching Summit: https://www.thephysiciancoachingsummit.com

Music by Denys Kyshchuk (AudioCoffee): https://www.audiocoffee.net

The Midlife (W)reckoning: Burnout, Perimenopause, and Perfectionism — and the Case for Joy with Dr. Zarya Rubin