Rise Again Episode 13 | Mental Health

Welcome to Episode 13 of the Rise Again Podcast: Mental Health.

Mental health is one of the most overlooked aspects of perimenopause and menopause. Hormonal changes can affect mood, anxiety, stress levels, emotional resilience, brain fog, focus, and overall well-being, leaving many women wondering why they no longer feel like themselves.

In this episode, we explore the connection between menopause and mental health, the emotional impact of hormonal shifts, and practical ways to support your mind during this season of life. We discuss stress management, self-care, emotional wellness, mindset, and building habits that support long-term mental and emotional health.

If you're navigating perimenopause, menopause, mood swings, anxiety, overwhelm, burnout, or emotional changes in midlife, this conversation is for you.

The Health Pillar continues with an important reminder: your mental health is health.

#Menopause #Perimenopause #MentalHealth #MenopauseSupport #WomenOver40 #MidlifeWellness #HormoneHealth #BrainFog #EmotionalWellness #AnxietySupport #StressManagement #HealthyAging #Women'sHealth #RiseAgainPodcast #BeautifulOnions

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Sometimes feel off. Not in your body this time, but it's in your mind. You walked into a room, forgot why you were there, you started a sentence and lost your thought halfway through. You sit down to focus and your mind just won't settle. And the part that really gets you is you know this is not how you used to think. You were sharp, you were clear, you were on top of things, and now it feels like your mind is working against you.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Morning breaks on a brand new climb. Shadows fade in the light. This time, every scar tells sealed.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Welcome back to Beautiful Irons. How are you doing today? This is series 13. We're gonna be peeling back mental health. Today I had I hey, this is real for me. Um, so we're gonna be sharing these layers of help. Last time, I've already covered in the mental health series 11. Episode 11 was the wake-up call. Episode 12 was the physical body, getting that moving because you know, at the minute in midlife, the hormones kick in, the energy is not there, and structure. We needed to know how to start moving again. And now we're gonna move into the mind because here's the truth: most people don't say clearly. Your mental health in midlife is deeply connected to what happens in your body. This is not random, this is your body and brain trying to adjust and ask for support. So your body is talking to you, and the only thing we say is, I can't think about this. I, you know, I forget this and I forget that. You say that, and then you move on, but you don't do nothing about it. You don't have to live that away. Stay tuned. We're gonna talk about it. The scripture for today is Romans 12:2. Do not conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. This is not just a spiritual language, this is instructions. Your mind can be renewed, but first it has to be understood. You got to start listening to your body. Okay, so let's move on into this because I had this very bad. The first section definitely brain fog, my mental shutdown. I couldn't, I couldn't have a conversation. So I know what it's like to not even be able to put words together to sit and talk with someone. Um, this is where most women notice the shift first at right here, the brain fog, and then you can't get words out that you was trying to say. During midlife and menopause, estrogen, you know, levels fluctuate. We talk about that a lot. Estrogen plays a role in the brain function. It affects your memory, it affects your focus on something, your processing speed, how how fast you can process things. And so when estrogen shift, or like me, I don't have any estrogen because I'm taking medicine to stop my estrogen. Your brain doesn't fire the same way. It don't fire off and be able to come back as quick as it used to be. That's where the brain fall comes from. That's what we use that. We have brain fall because we stop and be like, uh, why this matters is because you're not imagining it. This is, this happened, and it's it, and it's more important, you're not declining, your brain is adjusting. So, but without understanding, this can feel like, you know, something's wrong with me. I'm not capable as I used to be. I'm slipping. And that thinking creates stress. That's not true. It creates stress in you, like, uh, what's going on? And it seemed like it's getting worse. What to pay attention to? Okay. So you have identified it and you talk about it. A lot of people identify it and they talk about it, but this is where you gotta start paying attention to when it shows up the most. This is that tricon again. So when do you feel fog the most? Is it in the morning or is it in the afternoon? Or are you stressed at work or something like that? So you gotta pay attention to this so you can be able to make some small changes. Are you multitasking heavily? That I know I can't multitask heavily. I can barely do one thing at a time and stay on track. Are you mentally exhausted before the day can start, even start? You know, like so if you didn't get good sleep, you already tired and you wake up, you're like, let me get my cup of coffee, and you already can't focus on what's going on because you already don't felt like you did eight hours at sleep. So those are the things you need to pay attention to. The simple actions, this is where you need to slow your pace intentionally. Slow down because you got too much going on. Your brain is not broken. It can be overloaded with all the multitasking that you might be trying to do. I don't do that anymore. I have on a few things. I try to keep my tasks small and try to journal. I journal all the time because I can't remember anything. I do single tasks instead of multitasking. I focus on one thing at a time, like I say, to reveal clarity because I don't want to be doing all those things. I got this I need to do once I finish this, I do this, I do this. I already know what's what my day looks like. So I do carry a journal. So you need to pop on over to Beautiful Onions because we got journals uh coming out. So you need to go ahead on and get you a journal to help you with your day. Write things down immediately. So I have to keep it with me because write things immediately. I go if I go over to my desk, I got a pass sitting right over there on my desk of where I write things down. Not because I'm failing, it's just because I know I want to support my brain and I don't want to stress myself because when I forget something, I'll be like, God, what did I forget? I forget, and then I'm trying to think of it. And then that's where the stress starts going up. I'm not trying to be live a stressful life now. I'm trying to live a life that is calming and peaceful. So that's what Beautiful Onion is all about, trying to get us to recognize where we are in life and how to live a better life calmly, peaceful, so we can move forward. So I have a reflection question that I want to ask you. Where in your day do you feel mentally stressed the most, or mostly have brain fall? And what happens right before that? When I'm gonna be looking crazy. And he wants 50 million hundred things that he's asking me for. And I had to get him into a routine of how we get into the car and what we get. His snack, he gets his snack, get into the car, and I play music, and we don't he sit back there and eat. Halfway till we get home, we then me and him start conversating. So that's one way I know that that gets me like, I don't know what's going on. The next section I want to talk to you about is overthinking and mental overload. Now let's talk about constant thinking, not just thinking, but overthinking, because I can do this too. I can think of all the processes that gotta happen in my brain. And then once I think of all of that, I get I it I go off. I just go. It's like, oh, this and all that, I gotta do this, I gotta do that. No. So your brain is trying to process, hormones are shifting, life's transition, all these responsibilities I gotta get done. That emotional weight of everything of mama, wife, employee, and all of that, it doesn't shut off that easy. So your mind keeps running, trying to solve, prepare, and protect. Why this matters? Overthinking leads to anxiety. Hello, mental exhaustion. You know, when we walk in the house from work or wherever, we're like, I am just tired. Don't ask me nothing. I'm going to take a bath. Or decision fatigue. You don't made so many decisions today at your job or whatever you did throughout the day. And eventually you just don't trust your own thought. I don't, I'm tired. I don't even know. Because my husband asks me things, and I'd be like, look, I don't know. You need to go check it out and see if if it got done. What to pay attention to is are your thoughts repetitive? You need to know if your thoughts are repetitive. Are you solving the same problem over and over? And are you thinking more than you're acting, like moving, doing something? Because some simple actions that you need to think, if those things are happening to you, these are the things you need to do. Do a thought dump daily in the morning or if it's in the evening. Just sit down with a piece of paper and write everything down so you can get it out of your head and then you can relax. Set thinking boundaries. Hmm. What is what what what what is that? Yeah, set thinking boundaries. Give yourself a window to process and then stop. So when I get up in the morning, I have a list from the night before, but of course things could have changed because children call and other mom call and you know we're taking care of parents now. So things could happen. So in the morning, after everything getting ready to start, I'd be like, okay, what has changed from last night to this morning? And what order do I need to rearrange things in? So that's like me giving myself another time to relook at what I'm supposed to do of my boundaries so I can stop my brain from thinking what else I need to do. Let me go through it, let me mark out stuff so I can get myself prepared to do what it is, and I don't overthink things and I don't become stressed throughout the day. And like, did I forget this? Did I forget that? Then ask, is this useful or just noise? Because some things that my kids could tell me, I'd be like, child, please, I ain't doing that. I don't even I don't even put it on the list. I just know. They get a text message, no. Not every thought deserves your energy. Okay. That's where we at. Especially sometimes what we're gonna eat today. If I don't fed a cook dinner two, three times this week, what we're gonna eat today is gonna be on you, not me today. That's a good one. Okay, I got some reflection questions. Reflection questions is what thought have been repeating in my mind that are not actually helping me move forward? That one, you need to go ahead on and lay that brick down because if it ain't helping me to move somewhere, I need to leave it alone because I'm not gonna get done. Okay? All right, let's move on into section three, which is dealing with emotional thoughts versus logical thoughts. This one is very powerful because not all thoughts are equal. What happens is your hormones change, increase emotional sensitivity. Okay? So what that's saying is thoughts feel heavier, reactions feel stronger, a situation might feel more intense. Your emotional brain becomes louder than your logical brain. Yeah. Your emotional brain becomes louder than your logical brain. And that's where you find me crying at, because my emotional brain is louder. Why this matters is because you may start believing thoughts that are fear-based, emotional driven, and not fully grounded in truth. And if you don't recognize that shift, you can make decisions based on emotions instead of clarity. Have done that before, not knowing all the information and make this decision and not be like, dang, I shouldn't have done that. I should have thought about that more. I was just tired at the moment and made the decision. I shouldn't have done that. Okay. This is where you gotta pay attention. Am I reacting or responding? That's the question you got to ask yourself. Did something small feel bigger than it actually was? What emotional is attached to that thought? Am I angry? Am I already stressed? Am I biased in any kind of way to the decision I'm getting ready to make or made? All right. Those are things you got to pay attention to when you're making decisions and your mental health is involved. Some simple actions you should take is pause before you react. Sometimes I just stop talking and they'd be like, What's wrong? I say, I I got, I got, I need to comprehend. I need to catch up. So just give me a minute. I need space. My mind needs space to settle down and it take in what you just told me. So give me a minute because my brain ain't is running through some things. Separate the feelings from the facts. I feel this does not always mean this is true. Refrain, refrain the thoughts. Ask, what's another way to look at this? So when we're dealing with mental health, that we have to stop and catch ourselves. It's trying to get us to get, I'm trying to get you to stop and think about things before you react to these things or slow it down, or just overall move slower when we we we we're in this space of our brain feel like it's just moving because it can get you in trouble. Okay. My reflective uh question is the thought coming from clarity or emotions? Based on somebody said something to you, did you emotionally fire it off? Or did you sit back and give yourself a few seconds to really understand what you're gonna say, other than let it just go right out the mouth? Section four is focus, clarity, and rebuilding your mental strength. This is dealing with the mental health that's going on inside our bodies in midlife. So mental strength. Now let's shift it to rebuilding so we can be able to recalibrate our brain. So what's happening is your brain is asking for structure, not pressure, it's just structure. Why this matters is clarity doesn't come from doing more, it comes from doing the right thing consistently and understanding that. We don't want to be too emotional. These are things you got to pay attention to. How scattered your day feels, how often you switch tasks and whether you have mental direction or not. That's important. The actions that I'm going to give you, things to help you calm down that mental health that resides in us doing menopause. These are some simple actions you should take. Create a simple daily focus plan. Write it down, prioritize it two to three priorities, not 10, because I ain't doing 10. No more than two or three. And this is even possibly on your job, at home, whatever you're doing. You must limit the mental clutter in your life of all those things you used to do. You can't do it no more. Build small daily wins. Small daily wins. It'll make you feel better. Like small daily physical exercises. It makes you feel better. I I don't do a lot, but I do enough to see myself moving forward. Then you'll have confidence in rebuilding through completion. Okay. So the reflect the reflection question is what are the two to three things that actually matters to you today? Section five, mental health, rest and protect your mind. I'm all day with this one. Cause look, this part of most people skip in their life. Rest is optional. No, it's not. Rest is required. In midlife, we used to laugh about our grandparents. I laugh about my mama. Every time you sit down, you take a nap, even with the husband. Hmm. I make sure I get me a nap in every day. Every single day. And if I don't take a nap, I'm going to bed early. I beat the six o'clock. My husband laughs at me sometimes. Yes, this is important. Mental rest. Because what's happening here is your brain is constantly stimulated. Phones, noise, information, conversation. When are you going to have a time to reset? It's constantly information. We ain't built that way in midlife. That ain't what we want to do no more. I don't want to have all those conversations. I don't want all that noise. Why this matters? Because without rest, that's we the fog increases, the overthinking increasing, and your emotional reaction increase. That's why at 2 o'clock, I'm taking a nap with grandson. We are going down. Okay. I try to get him in there at one, but we normally two. So that is my reboot. Why you want to pay attention to this? Do you have quiet time in your day? Is the mind always on? Just moving? Do you rest without guilt? I don't have no guilt. I'm I'm going, I'm going to take a nap. Yes. After this, I'm going to take a nap. After I get through this podcast, it's nap time for me. So simple actions that you need to take. I schedule mental time. But some most of the time I don't. On the weekends, I just go take it when I need to. Normally when I get up, eat breakfast. If I eat a heavy breakfast, I might go take a nap, or I try to walk because walking 10 minutes after you eat helps you out. And then I go take the nap. But schedule mental quiet time. It works. Cut off all the TVs. I don't watch no movies hardly ever unless it is quiet. Like action-packed movies can't do it. I have a whole list of movies that give me quiet time. Reduce input before bed. Let your brain wind down. Every time we go to sleep for nap time, I have uh a music on my website, Beautiful Onions, which is meditation music. I put it on for me and my grandson, and we it I let it play. Most of them are an hour. I said I was gonna move into two or three hours, but most of them are hours. I just put it on play all of it and it'll move on. So it's nothing but straight instrumentals. So I do wind down with music and instrumental. I protect my peace, and that's intentionally. Not everything deserves access to your mind. I'm gonna say that again. Protect your peace is intentional. Not everything deserves access to your mind. That is important. That is very important to mental health. All right. When was the last time my mind was truly quiet? I make sure mine is daily. This is an integrating moment. Let's bring this together. Your body is shifting, your hormones are changing, your brain is responding to all of this stuff. So the mental health is not you losing control, it is your system asking for support, structure, and understanding. So when you say, I got brain fog, I'm tired and exhausted, yeah, your body telling you you need to relax. Take it easy, go rest. When you support your body, you support your mind. And when you understand your thoughts, you reduce fear of I did this or did I do that, or you taking all that away. So self-reflection, take a moment and ask yourself what thoughts have been repeating in your mind lately. You see, I keep saying these same questions over and over. So these are the questions that you need to be asking yourself so you can get your mental health straightened out. And are they helping me or drain me? Because some things keep popping up in your brain, and you need to release them or go take care of them if it's important. So, like I say again, beautiful onions comes with a tracking system with brain fall, what's happening, what your thoughts repeated, what triggered, becomes overwhelmed. And then if you pair that with physical symptoms with your mental patterns, because then you track both. So that's why I'm saying if you can track, you start exercising, you start tracking that mental, what's going on mentally with you and how it affects you, then you can start putting in place some of them relaxed things. Okay, I need to relax because every day around 12, I'm burnt out and I'm tired or at work. I even talked to a few of my friends. Now, hey, doing my lunch hour, I'm gonna go take me on now and turn off the phone so it don't ring. Because when you do this, you will feel more clarity in your decisions and don't feel overwhelmed anymore. Okay, I am done. Let me go into closing. That uh scripture was be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12, 2. Renewing doesn't mean force your mind to do something it's not. It means understand it, support your mind, and guide it. Okay? Your mind is not working against you, it's just adjusting. And when you are aware of it, you then will move better and not be confused and know, hey, I need to go rest so I can get better control and better clarity. So that's why mental health is important and you need to understand what it takes to make sure you're not running yourself down and exhausted. So the next episode is 14, and this is where we're going even deeper into emotional health because what you think connects daily to what you feel. We're stepping into emotional health. All of these work together, they work together in your whole body health because your emotions play off of your mental and your mental and uh play off your physical because if you don't feel good, your mental estate, how you mind your health, and then now we're gonna go into emotional. I told you this is health is about whole body, it's not one thing. So I'm trying to make sure that women we need to understand our whole body health so we can be able to live a better life. See you later. This is your girl, Andrea, um, with beautiful onions peeling back one layer of a time. Come with me. Thank you. See you on 14.