The best resolutions to support your perimenopause experience?
What would be the best resolutions to support your perimenopause?
I’m not actually a big fan of New Year’s resolutions. I think we need to ease into the year a bit and set positive intentions to be aspired to rather than resolutions that we break and then feel like we’ve failed!
And in the last 2 years we’ve had a lot of uncertainty, change and stress that actually has made it hard to plan or stick to our goals in many ways.
I’m actually allowing my intentions to unfurl this January, but the 5 things I propose below will form a part of how I live every day!
The resolutions I propose are those that are about fitting into your life whatever is going on. Small things that can add up to feeling so much better, and if consistently applied can make a huge difference by the end of the year.
So, here are my top 5 resolutions to support your perimenopause in 2022.
Drink more water. Seriously. It’s that easy. Staying hydrated helps our digestion and other detoxification processes in our body, it helps our energy levels, helps us sleep better, and has a positive effect on our skin too.
Support your gut health by eating a wide variety of fruit and vegetables, drinking plenty of water and allowing space between meals. (Joining my Refresh and Revive programme to support your gut health starting on 31 January is also a great plan).
Move your body in a positive and nourishing way everyday. Perimenopause isn’t the best time to do hard HIIT workouts and punish your body with long, hard sessions in the gym. BUT it’s a really important time to form habits of movement and exercise for the long term. Resistance/strength training along with regular walks, some mobility and flexibility work (Pilates and Yoga are great) would be an ideal mix. We want to support our bone health, our heart health, our joint health and our brain health as well as our hormone health with regular movement. I often start the year with the Yoga with Adriene’s 30 days of yoga, for a little feel good dose every day.
Learn the art of rest and stress reduction. Stress has a negative impact on our hormones and our long term health (including our gut and brain) and it can trigger and exacerbate our perimenopause symptoms.
The beginning of the year is a good time to consider what to take out of your life that adds to your stress bucket, and what restorative activities you could add in. It could be as simple as a phone-free walk around the block, or 10 deep breaths before each meeting.
And let’s not forget the power of a good night’s sleep. This can feel hard in perimenopause, but finding strategies that work for you can be really helpful. Watch out for an upcoming blog on sleep and perimenopause.
Find and savour joy. This is an odd one, but I think is so important to our health and to balance the tricky times of our midlife experience. Joy isn’t the same as happiness. We can find and experience joy in small, fleeting moments. Like your children’s laughter, a reunion with good friends, finishing a project or getting into a freshly laundered bed.
Joy is an important balance to stress, to the low mood that we might experience in perimenopause. It’s often part of what gives us purpose. I get incredible joy from the work I do, especially when I see those lightbulb moments of realisation in the women I work with, or see their shift and change in their overall wellbeing.
I also get joy from time spent outside in nature, whether by myself or with others. And from time alone with a good book, as well as from adventures with family and friends. If you were to write a list of what gives you joy, what would be on it, and how you could you add a little sprinkle more into your life.
Want to find out more about perimenopause? My next Introduction to the Perimenopause workshop is on 25th January at 7:30pm. Find out more via the button below.