Lets talk about stress and menopause
Lets talk about stress and menopause
If there’s one more piece of the healthy menopause puzzle that is often overlooked but is critical to how we experience our menopause
It’s stress
Chronic stress shows up in similar ways to menopause symptoms like sleep disturbance, anxiety, increased BP, brain fog, weight gain, and digestive issues.
I highly recommend tuning into this podcast episode from Professor Joyce Harper’s new podcast with Dr Annice Mukherjee for some home truths about stress and menopause
As women, we need to be hyper-aware of the importance of managing stress in perimenopause and menopause. Too often this gets overlooked in the menopause conversation although there are sometimes throw-away lines around mindfulness.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine overworking and emotional stress are highlighted as being key contributory factors to the severity of symptoms and addressing these through lifestyle changes is seen as critical.
Rest is central to menopause management but I often get a pushback. Despite knowing that stress and burnout are on the rise we have been sold the view that resting is lazy and unproductive. When this comes up in my coaching sessions I encourage journaling around key prompts to unlock the ‘why’ behind our resistance.
If rest feels elusive or you want to carve out more time I recommend trying yoga nidra or hypnosis. I am also exploring binaural beats and looking forward to hosting Wayne Altman on the podcast the founder of Melody Cloud specializing in binaural beats, guided meditations, audiobooks, solfeggio, nature sounds, calming, and relaxation sounds for those who need it.
Read, listen, follow…
It has been a toxic week for menopause conversations with debates raging around testosterone and I am grateful for Dr Jen Gunter and big dose of fact and common sense around HRT/MHT.
I highly recommend if you haven’t already, subscribing to her newsletter The Vajenda and also check out posts from MenoClarity which I am delighted to be involved with.
Personally when women attack other women, when menopause becomes all about profit and dogma and we say things for click-bait sake then we are no longer empowered. We are on the slippery slope and playing straight into the hands of patriarchy - nothing any of us wants! At least I don’t.
This week on the podcast we’re talking back pain, one of those painful and lesser-discussed sides of perimenopause. I was honoured to be joined by Retrain Back Pain founder Dinneen Viggiano to share some #truthbombs and practical ways you can start managing your back pain. You check out more here on the Thriving Thru Menopause podcast
Finally, I’m super excited to be a speaker at the upcoming Well-Tech World Summit in March. This got cancelled and rearranged a few times due to Covid and nervousness around the UK economy (thanks to former PM Liz Truss) but now it is going ahead online.
Tickets are now free and there is a full session dedicated to menopause. Hope to see you there https://www.welltechworldsummit.com/
If you are interested in going deeper around holistic health and how oriental medicine can support your menopause consider upgrading to paid.
Clarissa x