The final topic in my 5-part series of lifestyle changes I recommend making to help you sail through perimenopause a little bit easier is arguably the most important: Self-Care.
The more time I’ve spent reflecting over the past few years, the more I firmly believe that the root cause of so many of our issues as women comes down to one word: STRESS. It is the precursor to so many symptoms: hormone imbalance, weight gain, gut issues, insomnia, high blood pressure, headaches, brain fog, weakened immunity, depression, anxiety. (Can you relate to any of these?) Some of this stress is placed upon us by our capitalist, patriarchal society and its glorification of high-paced lifestyles, but much of it we place on ourselves: being perfectionist people-pleasers. (It’s not your fault. You were probably raised that way, like me. But once you are aware of it, it is your responsibility to do something about it. More on how to do this in a moment.) The expectations and obligations that we allow to be put upon ourselves–by family, work, friends, culture–cause our nervous system to go into that fight or flight response more often than our body can handle. This exacerbates our perimenopausal symptoms. Take it from me; as someone who went through five years of pretty chronic stress as I was going through perimenopause, the stress-related symptoms are no joke. So if you do only one thing to start taking charge of your health during perimenopause, I implore you to make it incorporating self-care on a daily basis.
Because I know this is not an easy thing to do–I had to work at it for quite a while until I got to the point where it felt comfortable making time for self-care everyday–I empathize and can offer some helpful advice. I give lots of tips in my Creating Your (Peri)menopause Plan e-Guide and have even created a compact but powerful self-guided course, Stop Sabotaging Your Self-Care, for those who want to dive a little deeper into the obstacles that are standing in the way of taking better care of themselves. I also have a whole section dedicated to Self-Care on my Wellness Blog, full of articles to inspire you.
If you can start incorporating self-care into your daily routine, I am confident that you will feel so much better, your perimenopausal symptoms will lessen, and your interactions with others and the world around you will become healthier. If you need an accountability partner for a little extra guidance and to keep you on track on your self-care journey, I offer Wellness Mentoring sessions done either within the framework of private yoga sessions or as stand-alone sessions. Contact me for more details.
This is the final in a series of 5 blog posts with lifestyle changes I recommend making for (peri)menopause. You can find my four previous blog posts here: Sleep; Yoga + Exercise; Herbs + Supplements; and Nutrition. For even more valuable tips and advice on how to alleviate your (peri)menopause symptoms, check out my Creating Your Perimenopause Plan e-Guide.
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