Peri/menopausal? Do not miss out on this 'MUST-DO'

Perimenopause where the female hormone estrogen starts to deplete is usually around mid forties (can vary based on many factors). This is because nature and evolution is beautiful and wants to stop us having babies when we are older. This blog is going to help you with one decision that might make your Peri/menopause journey a bit more manageable.

When you start to feel the effects of changing hormones in Peri/meno you can get fatigued quite easily. Well not just fatigued, you might also experience joint pain, migraines, irritability, chronic anxiety and depression. You might also start to collect fat stores around the midriff and gain more weight.

OK Wow, for the gals who are just starting out, I am not trying to scare you ! I am hoping to inform you of what's to come (if you are not there yet) and give you information to understand that there is a biological reason for all of that!

You might probably know that when you are Peri/menopause, the body slowly stops producing the female hormone estrogen (ok repeating myself). Apart from the function of ovulation (releasing our eggs), this is the hormone that also helps regulate cortisol. This means there is way more Cortisol floating around in your body. Add to that, lack of sleep, then the adrenal glands get tired and they start to produce more cortisol.

***You can skip this next part if you know all about Cortisol***

Cortisol is a stress hormone that you require to protect us in stressful situations but excessive quantities of it can be harmful for us. Cortisol's essential function is to manages certain chemicals and glucose in the body so that we are in a dangerous or stressful situation we have enough energy and are alert to 'react'. Then when the stress passes, the cortisol levels fall and we return back to our calm (ha!) natural state.

BUT, if we look at our lives in the modern day and the subtle and disguised stressors that we face, cortisol levels are often high in us. Excessive cortisol levels can cause slow metabolism, impact sleep, chronic fatigue and all of those symptoms I mentioned above!

So then, your MUST-DO, as you navigate through Peri/menopause is that ALL of your choices MUST be with one goal in mind: reducing your cortisol levels.

Take this as a coaxing, a reminder, a gentle nudge..

MUST - DO this consciously, please for your sake.

Make each of your lifestyle choices about reducing STRESS (i.e cortisol levels).

Yes, I understand that this is not always possible, especially when we have general life's stresses bombarding at us every day.

So here are a few pointers to help you along the way on how you can endeavour to achieve this:

1. Get good quality and duration of sleep. This so that our adrenals are rested and our body has a chance to regenerate, recalibrate and detoxify (did you know the brain can also detox). Generally 'rebirth' ourselves.

2. Increase oxytocin levels in the body i.e feel good hormones by spending time in nature, doing things we enjoy, getting ourselves into a stress free state.

3. Diaphragmatic breathing. Simplest way is to place a palm on your belly button/navel and breathe so that you feel the belly rise up. This relaxes the abdominal muscles creating room for the diaphragm to relax and for the chest cavity to fully open giving you optimum results with your breathing.

4. Light exercise/walking/yoga. We don't want to do overly high intensity workouts in perimenopause because that causes more cortisol levels in the body. This is why Yoga is a great modality to train the body in strength as well as soothe the nervous system whilst practicing.

5. Weight training - While this might sound contradictory to point 4 where I have just said dont stress the body, weight training is not about lifting overly heavy. Start slow with lighter weights and slowly build up. Research is showing that anaerobic exercise helps manage hormone levels in the body. Weight training also helps with joints support by strength conditioning of the muscles.

6. Massage. Of course it is super luxurious to get a lovely deeply relaxing massage in a cosy health spa. But things are mega expensive these days so you can still get good results by training your partner.. ha! no. by Self massage. Areas you can massage yourself easily: Face, neck, shoulders, palms, feet/ankles. Perhaps even lower back.

7. Mid afternoon siesta. But even more effective is a Yoganidra practice. If you are at work, you can still do this seated but reclined in a chair or sofa. I'm going to release a newer version soon but until then here is my free recorded Yoganidra practice.

8. Meditation. If you are of the mindset that meditation is not for you, then Yoganidra is a good start.

If you are totally new to meditation and want to give meditation a go, here is a simple start. Start with sitting. Put your phone on airplane mode (so you don't get any buzzing or vibrating either). Set the stopwatch on, not the timer. Then just sit. As you sit, you might feel silly, you might fidget, you might slow down, you might have a gazillion million thoughts and that is natural. Try and watch the thoughts, let them come, let them go. You might start to get anxious about getting back to your chore list or back to your work, watch those feelings as well. When you feel the urge to stop practicing, see if you can prolong a bit more, but if its too much and you have had enough, complete your practice. Check the stop watch. Whatever that time is, even if it's 2 seconds. That is GOOD. You did it, that was the first step. Now you can try again the next day.

If you are part of our Weekly Pause e-circle, this week, I have shared a few Yoga asanas (poses) that you can also practice safely at home to reduce cortisol and calm the nervous system.

I am also sharing a short practice within my exclusive facebook community circle which is free to join. Click here

Lastly finishing this read with another reminder.. make your decisions about 'Reducing stress levels in your body'. Let my words ring in your ears (and mine) when we knowingly do otherwise xx