There is a link between your menopause symptoms getting worse and the term burnout. If you’ve not heard of it yet then it’s something to take seriously because menopause symptoms are exponentially worsened as you become stressed tired and ill. It’s no coincidence that clients say to me: my symptoms got worse (or came back) after I was ill recently. My background is Chinese medicine and it explains the link and why this is the case. I’ll touch on this today along with ensuring you know how best to avoid exacerbating your symptoms in this month’s menopause blog: 9 ways to avoid burnout this winter.
What causes burnout in menopause?
Is burnout caused by the temperature and season change? Do your symptoms in menopause or perimenopause worsen as it gets colder? The answer is yes along with how stressed your body is (even if you think your mind isn’t!) and this also applies to you if you’re grateful for the cooler weather because you’re suffering from hot flushes. Did you know that colder weather can make your flushes worse? How is this? Read on!
This is the Chinese medicine (TCM) bit: your body like’s to be temperate – not too hot or too cold; and I’m sure you’re thinking you’d love this to be the case for you! This blog is going to show you how to do that too because this is vital to having a better menopause altogether. The part of the body that regulates your temperature is in your lower back – in TCM we call it Kidney Ki and it’s more commonly known as adrenal health. In western medicine adrenal fatigue isn’t considered a genuine condition but from a holistic point of view it is a term for a collection of symptoms which when your adrenal health is addressed - lessen. A majority of common menopause symptoms ARE when you’re adrenally fatigued and burnt out AND pushing yourself hard and not employing sensible selfcare.
Burnout out is a western term for you being chronically fatigued and ill due to workplace stress but let’s drop workplace – it’s actually stress plus physically pushing yourself further than your body can take anymore. Your body does hold the score and you’re experiencing it as physical and emotional symptoms.
How to check whether your body is stressed
When your Kidney energy in TCM is exhausted your body can’t regulate your temperature and you experience this as feeling very cold, having hot flushes or very hot and irritated all of the time.
Did you know that you mainly register heat from your chest to your face?
The place to monitor as to whether you’re too hot or too cold is actually your back; specifically, around the lower ribcage. Check your hands are temperate and place them behind you over your lower ribcage? If your hands feel warm and comforting – you’re too cold. Very rarely, maybe around 1 in 20 of the menopause women I’ve met actually are too warm over the kidneys. Most women don’t realise that they are too cold and that this cold is caused by being overly stressed, exhausted and yes heading towards burnout (or just adrenally fatigued!).
9 ways to avoid burnout this winter
Have you heard the term: selfcare isn’t selfish? If you’d like to start having a better menopause experience you need to take this onboard and reassess some of your daily habits and routines to see where you can make improvements – you need to gain time back for you to do this. Todays 9 ways don’t all require expense! Funnily enough I’m accused of not helping women for free but all the gold is in these blogs – they just need to be read 😊
If you’re here that’s a great start because to resolve your symptoms you need to either self-learn and makes changes or pay someone to personalise your lifestyle changes. If you’re really suffering then you’ll need supplements to fill the nutrient deficit you’re experiencing along with eating the best diet possible. HRT is an option and it does help some women; the problem is it only helps some. The 9 ways listed here will help all women because they are based on your physiology and helping you get it back into optimal health.
Menopause symptoms are your body telling you it’s struggling and there is one underlying energy that can help you lessen your symptoms – restorative energy. Heal your exhausted adrenal energy and many symptoms will lessen. When stress is lowered in the body then other parts of you have a chance to heal. From aching joints to brain fog with a host of symptoms in between these are signs that you’re under nourished and tired; and this is where you start to turn it around:
Pause before you say yes!
The power of saying No! We automatically say: yes, and leave it with me or I’ll do it I’ll be quicker! What you don’t do is pause and think about whether it is necessary for you to do these things? Building in a pause (I literally learnt to bite my tongue – you only do it a few times!) allows you time to engage your brain and decide whether you need to do what’s been requested of you. Before you say: yes but…. Stop and think! I’ve heard all the excuses but the thing is until you stop yourself from doing everything, you’ll never create time for yourself. If you don’t have available time, you don’t have the space and energy to make beneficial change. It’s free AND it gives you time – it’s invaluable to pause before you say yes!
Breathe
The Japanese invented the term Forest Bathing and it encompasses 3 powerful natural and holistic ways to reduce stress. They are:
Walking in nature – mindful walking not route marching. Breathing in oxygen to re-energise your blood
Inhaling woody goodness – chemical scents from trees lowers stress, blood pressure and has many health benefits. If you can't get to the woods then invest in your favourite wood-scented essential oil.
Sounds of the woods – calms your system, switching you into a healing state.
Walking along the beach also has as many health benefits.
Rejuvenated Resting
This can be anything that stills your mind WITHOUT exerting yourself physically. Think fishing over spin classes! Many women say the only way to calm their mind it to workout but that’s just what your body doesn’t need; that causes more stress. Mindfulness activities are a way of calming the mind without over doing it. This is how you rest whilst you’re awake. It’s not about watching an adrenalin fuelled film (or book) it’s about doing something (anything!) that calms your mind to one point of focus. It could be reading or meditating or restorative yoga. It could be a hobby like knitting or beading, even mooching around a shop just absorbed in what you’re looking at. It doesn’t matter what it is, it’s how you feel and how calm/clear your mind is at the end of that activity. If you feel that you’ve really had a good wakeful rest then you’ve triggered Rejuvenated Resting!
Prioritise Sleep
This is one of those where you’re probably eye rolling, you either can’t get to bed earlier or once you get to bed there are blocks of hours that you don’t sleep. Sleep issues are either can’t get to sleep or fall asleep quickly but wake up one or more times a night for a extended period of time. Each of these sleep issues can be resolved by analysing exactly what the issue is and then adopting the resolution for that specific block of time that you can’t sleep. We’d all love to have 8 hours of sleep but a lot of women are managing on 4; this is detrimental to your heart and overall health in the long-term. Read my blog on insomnia to understand how to rebuild your sleep and contact me to help you.
Also - employ the above rejuvenated resting to combat lack of sleep or to enhance your energy levels.
If you sleep well but still wake feeling fatigued then you are nutritionally depleted and will need to add in the right supplements.
Keep your Kidneys warm
From Chinese medicine- your Kidney Qi is the root of your constitution and so governs your internal temperature too. If you feel the cold, you most likely have an energetic kidney deficiency this is mainly caused by stress and then the menopause transition and also any ill health that takes its toll on your body; you will be in this state to some degree.
A simple tip to keeping warmer all the time is to keep your kidneys warm. If you're out and about from dog walking to cleaning out the horses, wear an extra specific layer around your kidneys (situated under the lower back ribcage), either a cut off T shirt (worn as a band) or tying a blanket/scarf around you as you sit at the desk. If you wear a gilet or hoody always keep them zipped up – it’s about trapping your own body heat and utilising that to help you feel warmer and to regulate your temperature so that you don’t flush.
Ankles, wrists and neck are points of weakness, where the Qi is thin and can be used for warming or cooling. To keep these strong, shake to ensure blockages are released and Qi can flow freely, and your hands and feet will feel warmer if you do this regularly.
Are you self-sabotaging?
This goes back to the yes buts… from earlier. Are you creating downtime for yourself or are you finding excuses WHY you can’t rest up? Remember that resting IS NOT a waste of time and especially if your body is crying out for it.
Warm foods and spices
Another top tip from Chinese medicine. Internally you can keep your kidneys warmer and support your adrenal health by having all food and drink at the very least room temperature or warmer; never more so than when the weather turns colder. Your body wants to stay warm but if you pour in cold and damp food and drink it has to divert precious energy from keeping your energy up to consuming it in heating and as we know – heating is now expensive and it certainly is in menopause!
Gentle spicing is another effective way to jeep you warmer – one of my favourite drinks when getting in from the evening dog walk is warmed cranberry juice with a pinch of cinnamon in – instantly warming.
If you find that your joints are worse in the cold and damp then reducing inflammation and warming will be beneficial too. This is why the likes of Turmeric and Ginger go well together.
Hygge over guilt!
Let’s take a tip from our European counterparts – from Denmark to Sweden where the nights draw in even earlier, they create a Hygge environment. They create a cosy and restful space and settle in. Whether it’s the cuddly lounge wear, lighting candles whose flames are known to have a therapeutic effect on calming the nervous system or settling down and reading a book you’ve saved for ages. Don’t feel guilty!
Winter is an energetic time of stillness and hibernation - embrace it. Humans are the only animals that don’t and we’re the most stressed and ill. Also do this for your animals as they pick up on your stress. Chill out with them and help them feel better too 😊
Guilt is a self-imposed state – the only person that can make you feel guilty is you. If you feel others are pushing their agenda on you then see that for what it is. Anyone who truly cares about you won’t make you feel bad about yourself. If you feel tired - listen to your body. If you don’t take downtime in the winter, it’ll soon be Spring and you’ll be on the go again. Treat winter as a time to rest.
Replenish your mind and body with supplements
In menopause hormones change, progesterone and oestrogen decline – this is natural. What is not natural is the amount of symptoms some women have as this happens. It’s less to do with the decrease in these hormones and more to do with hormones out of balance due to stress. This includes cortisol, insulin, melatonin and more. Taking HRT means you’re putting back in a certain amount of hormones to boost what you maybe lacking but it is not an exact science; it works for some.
If, however, you put in the nutrients that your body is missing (and most of your symptoms are a lack of nutrients) then your body can start to replenish itself and in doing so - hormones regulate.
This is why some women have NO symptoms at all during menopause. We all lose oestrogen but some have horrific symptoms – why is this?
It’s because of stress levels and stress munches through vitamins and minerals at a rate. When you’re depleted of these essential elements this is when symptoms start to appear.
There’s one golden rule for supplements to really work – they have to be food so that your body absorbs them well. Supplements that are plant-based (i.e. 100 heads of broccoli packed in a capsule) will be absorbed by your gut and utilised like food and you’ll feel the benefits!
I’ve created a handy guide to explain all of this – you can access it here.
Combat stress with plant-based supplements and you’ll replenish your mind and body.
Ways in which I can help you combat menopause symptoms
I help women in 2 ways – a vast array of self help including my extensive library of blogs. Self help guides and programmes can be found here.
If you’d like a more bespoke option then I do have a choice of consultation/treatment options here.
Meet Andrea - Holistic Menopause Specialist
Andrea is a shiatsu and Chinese medicine practitioner who uses the principles and wisdom of Chinese medicine in a completely practical way to help you resolve your symptoms naturally and effectively. If you live locally you can book in for a wonderfully relaxing Shiatsu for Menopause, otherwise Andrea does online in depth consultations where you'll leave with an actionable plan to follow. Andrea is also passionate about doing workplace talks and has written a book to help you step through simple and effect changes to reduce your symptoms: Understanding Your Menopause
KNOWLEDGE . PAUSE . FLOURISH
