How to feel younger in your 40s than you did in your 30s with a few simple shifts and changes in your lifestyle. Your mindset is a key component to feeling better! It is a choice, and the choice is all yours.
Have you ever wondered why you started to feel more anxious and sleeping became more difficult in your 40s?
Maybe it isn’t something you are even aware of, or perhaps you have no idea what to do about it or why it is happening. Many women have no idea that in their 40s, their ovaries gradually produce less estrogen as they head into peri-menopause.
Women are always asking me in the clinic what does peri-menopause mean? It is the transitional stage before heading into menopause. Most women have many new symptoms that arise because their ovaries start to produce less estrogen, and they are transitioning out of their reproductive years.
Chinese Medicine,
In Chinese Medicine, it is looked at as a new beginning. Yang energy is heat, and yin is cooling. Menopause is yang, so the body stores more heat when menstruation slows down. The release of blood every month was what released excess heat. Hence, the hot flashes begin; this is how the body removes the extra heat and cools the body down.
I can tell you that I feel better in my 40s than I did in my 30s, and first off, it is because I just don’t take people’s bullshit anymore. When I don’t feel good being around someone, I choose not to be around them anymore.
It really is as simple as that. We as women tend to overcomplicate things and talk a nauseating amount about the issue that we are dealing with or a person that isn’t behaving the way we want them to. We have no control over other people’s behaviour. We only have control over how we react to a situation.
Get back in your lane and look straight ahead. Never does it help me to look at what other people are doing and compare myself to them. All that does is create envy and jealousy. Both of these emotions will make you feel stressed, which majorly affects your hormones and cause illness in the body.
Boundaries are something that I became aware of in my 30’s, and I implemented them in my 40’s.
Boundaries
Boundaries are that fine line between you and everyone else in the world. Energetically it is essential to have them so that you aren’t becoming emotionally drained or taking on someone else’s energy and not being aware of it.
When I was in Peru in the amazon jungle, the shaman that I so dearly love told me, ” Jeanette, you need to be careful, you are taking on other people’s negative energy, and it is affecting you in an unhealthy way. This was 12 years ago, and to this day, I think about that and am very aware of what is mine and what is somebody else’s crap. I recommend that when you are feeling anxious or sad for no particular reason, check in with yourself to see if it is you or if you are absorbing other people’s emotions.
Implementing boundaries helps you to take on less crap or baggage from other people. I always feel exhausted when I expend too much energy on a situation that is completely out of my control.
I try not to allow the thoughts to rotate repeatedly in my brain. Sometimes I like to visualize a big stop sign when my thoughts are out of control; this helps to STOP my thoughts. It is a choice, and you do have control over what thoughts you decide to entertain in your head.
I still haven’t mastered the thoughts from entering, but I am working on it daily! We all are a work in progress, and I think illness and imbalances arise in the body when we ignore how we feel. I don’t believe in pushing through the pain. I believe pain is a reflection and notification that we need to change something in our lives.
This brings me to how to feel younger in your 40s. You need to make some changes. Hormonally we are starting to shift into a new stage of life slowly, and if we continue to push ourselves as hard as we did in our 30s, then the body will talk.
Symptoms like night sweats, painful menstruation, high anxiety, and insomnia will arise.
The more changes you make in your early 40s, the smoother your transition will be from peri-menopause to menopause. It would help if you made small changes that allow you to move easily through hormonal changes.
Here are 3 tips you can implement today
- Love yourself, and do things that make you feel good today and every day. Even if you only have a few minutes, read a chapter of your favourite book or pet your dog.
- Set boundaries and start saying no to things you don’t feel like doing. Let me tell you, I would prefer someone tell me they don’t want to do something then show up only out of obligation.
- Cut back on red wine. Alcohol is hot in nature in Chinese Medicine, and it adds fuel to the fire. Now, wait a minute. I am all about dancing and having fun. I am just saying it would be helpful to be mindful, and if you notice that alcohol aggravates your symptoms, then you might want to cut back on the amount you are drinking. It is all about balance.
Is today going to be a really good day? That is on you, my friends; that is up to you! Every day you wake up, and your feet hit the floor, you have a choice. I choose appreciation for being alive!
“Emotional pains are just truth knocking upon a door that’s been closed too long.”
Let the sunshine in
Mike Dooley said this, and he is a great guy to follow if you want a great dose of inspiration in your daily life.
You can find him here
If you like this blog post check out this one Finding Your Balance During Menopause
