Life can be arduous and overwhelming for women going into menopause because the hormonal changes significantly impact their mental health. It is a period of mood disorder, and emotional reactions are a part of it. The most recognizable changes are hot flushes, mood swings, and restless nights.

This life-changing experience is not as negative as we often consider it. Instead, stress from our personal issues often aggravates the symptoms of menopause. Read on to learn how stress worsens can worsen your menopausal symptoms and how you can cope with them.

Stress & The Menopause

In the modern world, we have to deal with a lot of stress. The pressure to perform all the tasks ideally is very high in society for women. Trying to be a perfect mother, ideal wife, and the best daughter are the standards women want to maintain, and in doing so, they add some extra burden on them. In fact, life is not perfect, and nobody’s perfect. Trying to achieve an unreachable goal adds a lot of stress to your life.

As mothers, we make sure that our children are healthy, well nourished, social, achieve high grades in school, and participate in extracurricular activities. If it does not happen, the other mums at school will give you a look that you were hoping to never get.

Once you reach the age of forty or fifty, you face other issues like managing a hectic job, marriage problems, and dealing with significant life events, including illness or the death of a dear one. All these stress-inducing factors worsen menopausal symptoms.

What Happens When Your Body Constantly Secretes Stress Hormones?

When you suffer from stress, your body secretes stress hormones that help you deal with life-threatening or dangerous situations. They provide a quick, high-energy boost to escape danger. After the event, we retreat and recollect our energy.

But when you are constantly under stress, it will significantly harm your physical and mental health. For example, stress could be the reason for strokes, heart attacks, and preterm labour.

Studies have shown that prolonged stress aggravates the symptoms of menopause. Women with acute stress suffer from worse mood changes, hot flushes, and joint pain.

How to Reduce Stress During Menopause

It becomes overwhelming to manage your stress when you are dealing with so many things in life, but there are many little things that you can incorporate into your daily life to start to feel better.

• Try Deep Breathing

The most simple and easy thing you can do to manage your stress is deep breathing. Whenever you feel that your thoughts are interfering with your work or daily activities, leave everything for a few moments and start deep breathing.

Deep breathing increases the oxygen supply to the brain and stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system to promote a state of calmness. It makes you forget your worries and bring peace to your mind.

• Limit Caffeine

Avoid consuming caffeine, especially at night, because it will interfere with your sleep. Caffeine stimulates your nervous system, which is under pressure due to stress. Drinking caffeinated drinks will have a severe negative effect on people under stress.

• Mindfulness

Mindfulness is another incredible thing that can help manage your stress. It is all about focusing your awareness on what is going on externally and internally in your body. It brings your attention to the present moment.

Shut yourself away for half an hour and listens to your favourite music. You can also try mindful walking. Instead of allowing your mind to wander, stroll and be conscious of what is happing in the present moment. For example, feel your leg muscle contraction, the cool breeze touching your face, or the sun’s warmth. This practice will help you stay in the present.

The daily mindfulness practice will be worth its weight in gold in helping to manage menopausal symptoms.

• Talk to Your Friends

Talking to your friends, especially to women of your age, will significantly help. They are probably facing the same thing that you are dealing with. Talk to a close family member as well. Tell them how you feel and what’s going on so that instead of getting annoyed by your mood swings, they can understand and support you.

• Exercise

I know physical exercise is difficult to practice when you are under stress. But do you know that a daily 10-15 minutes of exercise can help you maintain a healthy weight and release endorphins? Endorphins are the hormones that make us feel good about ourselves. They enhance our mood and help us cope with stress.

• Accept Your Imperfections

Accepting your imperfections brings a lot of peace into your life. For example, suppose your child is not performing well in school. Deal with it but try not to get stressed about it. You love him or her; it is all that matters. Look for the positive things your child has managed to achieve. Stop worrying about what others think.

If your job is exhausting and you cannot catch up anymore. It’s likely time to leave that job. Do what you can and find a peaceful working environment for yourself. Build some boundaries between you and the people who bring you down and talk about the negative aspects of life.

The Bottom Line

Going through menopause is entirely normal. But stress can make your menopause symptoms a lot worse. It isn’t easy to manage stress when so many things are going on in our lives, but the little tips I mentioned can help. Try them. You will feel great!