Why menopause can be the trigger for anxiety

Hormones don’t just control your cycle — they play a huge role in your mental health.

Oestrogen boosts serotonin (your happy hormone) and keeps cortisol (your stress hormone) in check. Progesterone has a calming, stabilising effect. Testosterone supports mental stamina and focus.

When these hormones decline and fluctuate during menopause, brain chemistry shifts — like Wi‑Fi dropping in and out. This can make your internal “alarm system” (the amygdala) overly sensitive, triggering fight, flight, or freeze responses to situations that wouldn’t have bothered you before.

Why boundaries matter more in midlife

Midlife brings unique challenges — from hormonal shifts in perimenopause and menopause to evolving priorities and changing energy levels. Boundaries become essential tools for protecting your wellbeing and aligning your life with what matters most.

Most women at midlife have overflowing stress buckets. Hormonal changes can make the bucket leak, reducing resilience. Boundaries help remove unnecessary stressors while adding positive, resilience-building habits.

Understanding what stress really is

There are things in life that will always be out of your control—an unexpected email, a partner’s bad mood, a difficult conversation. But how long those things impact you? That’s shaped by your internal response.

Gail introduced the 90-second rule: when something stressful happens, your body floods with cortisol and adrenaline. But physically, those hormones dissipate after 90 seconds. What makes the stress linger is the story you attach to it.

The overthinking. The guilt. The spiral of "what ifs". That’s what turns stress into chronic stress symptoms.

Rebuilding your health in midlife starts with less, not more

If you’ve spent years pushing, striving, and trying to feel better by doing more, this season of life might be inviting you to try something different. In this blog, we explore how slowing down—through nervous system support, self-awareness, and the mind-body connection—can become one of the most powerful healthy habits in midlife.

This is about a reset that feels real.

You don’t need to overhaul your whole life. But you do need a reset that helps you step out of the noise and back into clarity.

This is your moment to stop chasing happiness through hustle, and start creating it with intention.

Choose what matters. Act on it daily. Let that build the version of life that feels true to you.

You’ve done “should” for long enough. Now it’s time for something that feels like yours.

Rethinking Hormonal Health in Midlife

Here’s what really matters: the way you live every day has a huge impact on how your hormones behave. Victoria and I are completely aligned on this. We kept coming back to the foundations—the pillars of what I call the RESET Plan: Reclaim Energy, Strength, Empowerment and Trust.

You don’t have to accept brain fog, low energy or feeling not quite yourself as your new normal. This conversation was such a powerful reminder that midlife can be a time of awareness, clarity, and change—when we give ourselves the tools and support to feel well.

What is stress and why is it something that can wreak havoc on your health and happiness? In a world that is so busy for most of us, it’s easy to miss the signs of stress, and to shrug off the impact it can have on you. It’s important to check-in with yourself on how stress might be showing up for you and how to start taking steps to manage it in the best way possible and avoid burnout.

The Christmas season is pitched as the most wonderful time of the year when everything and everyone is merry and nice. But is it really like this? Christmastime often brings with it a huge amount of expectation and pressure. For many, this picture-perfect ideal isn’t their reality, causing stress and pressure to mount. Can you avoid the common burnout this time of year throws so many people by having your own perfect festive time?

It can be easy to feel like you’re failing and not progressing. We often focus only on what hasn’t been done and how many things are outstanding on our ever-growing ‘To-Do’ list. Our minds are set in default mode to go straight to these things and worry about when we’ll get to them. Instead, we should be reflecting on what we have done and how much we’ve achieved.