Midlife Overwhelm: Why “Having It All” Is Costing Women Too Much

For decades, women have been told that success means doing more, being perfect, and “leaning in”—both at work and at home. We’ve been sold the idea that we can have it all... but no one warned us about the burnout that can come with trying to live up to that promise.

We’ve learned to try harder, do more, and keep going, all in an effort to succeed in a world that hasn’t been built with women’s lives in mind. At the same time, we’re bombarded with unrealistic, curated portrayals of motherhood, homemaking, and careers—beautifully filtered on Instagram, but far removed from the daily grind of real life.

The Invisible Load

Many of the roles and responsibilities we carry as women are invisible, repetitive, and gendered—like laundry, meal planning, caregiving, and emotional labor. These are the tasks that never end, that you don’t clock out of. They fill every nook and cranny of your schedule, leaving little room to breathe.

Add to that the hormonal complexity of being a woman, and things really start to pile on.

Hormones & the Midlife Wake-Up Call

In your fertile years, estrogen supports your natural tendency to put others’ needs before your own (maternal instinct). It’s part of how we’re biologically wired. But as estrogen levels drop during midlife and beyond, it’s like someone pulling the curtain back.  And yes these changes start happening in your late 30’s!  New studies show that the body starts preparing for menopause 10 years in advance. Most women hit menopause between the ages of 48- 52 so minus 10 years from there and your hormones and body are already changing. You start to shift perspective -  You see how much you’ve been giving—sometimes to the point of depletion—and the realization of how you are spending your energy can be intense.

You may already be in burnout from years of chronic stress and putting others' needs before your own. That burnout doesn’t just affect your mood—it amplifies your midlife symptoms too. The exhaustion, the mood swings, the big feelings like resentment, rage, guilt, and grief—they’re all real.

And if, like me (I'm 44), you’re going through this shift right now, you might be feeling the physical and emotional toll at once—unsure of who you are anymore and wondering if you're falling apart.

🌱 So Where Do We Go From Here?

The truth is, this phase of life can be an opportunity—a moment of reckoning and realignment. With the right mindset and support, you can reclaim your power, your time, and your sense of self.

Here are a few ways to begin:

🧘‍♀️Mindset Reset

Start by making a full assessment of all the roles, tasks, and responsibilities you’re currently holding—both at home and at work. Don’t filter. Be honest. Then remind yourself:

You are one human woman.
You deserve joy, rest, creativity & support.

Be kind to yourSELF without judgement.
You are your own greatest gift.
You do not have to carry this all alone. 

Practice Radical Self-care!  That means learning how to fill your cup to overflowing and give the overflow to others INSTEAD of continually emptying your cup and struggling to refill it. 

🧠 Ground Yourself

Brain fog is one of the biggest worries of women in midlife.  Brain Fitness is a series of movements that have been approved by neuroscientists to help with brain fog, memory, energy and cognitive function.  Try these simple brain fitness moves and notice the difference!

🛑 Set One Simple Boundary

Boundaries are essential. Choose just one boundary this week that will protect your time, energy, or space. Here are some small but powerful examples:

• A no-chore time each day—perhaps outside with a warm drink or a gentle walk.

• A cozy, designated corner for reading, crafting, or meditating—just for you.

• A screen-free hour in the evening, with your bedroom door closed and your mind off-duty.

✨ Your Small Shift Today Is Your Future Freedom

Using tiny solutions is the best path to change.  That’s why we created a Tiny Course to dive a little deeper into easy to action daily baby steps that you can easily incorporate into your life.  We are so excited to share with you The 10-minute Overwhelm Solution so you can discover life-changing strategies to Press reset!  Get more information here.

 You've tried all the old ways! It's exhausting and it's not working!

• You don't need to count calories and do more cardio

• You don't need to join a gym

• You don't need a fad diet

• You don't need a 1 hour daily meditation practice

• You don't need a fancy new organizing app or journal

• You don't need a 12 week program or course

This is your reminder:
You’re not here to serve everyone else until you disappear.
You’re here to live fully, with purpose, pleasure, and peace.

Now is the time to reclaim your energy, your body, your schedule—and most importantly, your self.

Your future you will thank you!

Bone Broth and Lemon Tea

In the Fall when the nights start drawing in, it is common to feel your energy flagging and to slip more easily into overwhelm and exhaustion, as our modern busy schedules do not slow down to accommodate the change in daylight hours and our circadian rhythm becomes confused.

It is your thyroid and adrenal glands that bear the brunt of the stress resulting from e waking up in the dark each morning and going hard and fast in the day when are bodies are naturally wanting to slow down.

Chinese medicine identifies Fall as the season of Metal and of Letting Go, just like the leaves from the trees. Western medicine, does not entertain any attunement of our health to the world around us.

At this time of year foods that deeply nourish our adrenal and thyroid health are supportive to the body, so we can maintain our energy and our immunity stays strong into the Winter months. This means eating salty foods rich in minerals and boosting our vitamin C.

Bone broth is the quintessential mineral dense food and you can make your own using this recipe HERE or it can be bought in a pouch or as a powder.

This is a super simple recipe for a Bone Broth tea that can be drunk at all times of the day but is especially healing for your digestive health in the morning when you break your night time fast. If you have gas and bloat in perimenopause, drink in the A.M.

Savory and lemony, this tea is delicious and deeply supportive of your gut, skin, bone and joint health as it provides the nutrition your adrenal and thyroid glands crave and keeps you feeling energized daily and out of exhaustion and overwhelm as the dark nights creep in.

Ingredients

1. 1 mug of warmed bone broth, homemade, from a pouch or as a powder. (Organika have a great range of powdered bone broth)

2. Big pinch of mineral rich sea salt such as Maldon

3. Juice of 1/2 lemon

Instructions

1. Warm enough bone broth to fill your desired mug.

2. Add a big pinch of sea salt

3. Add the lemon juice and stir to combine

4. Sip each morning to support your thyroid and adrenal health as the nights draw in and especially your body feels the struggle as the hour changes

Mango Chia Pudding

‘Fibre is a midlife woman best friend,’ is one of my mantras whenever I am talking about womens health and menopause.

Hormone molecules such as estrogen are built with a cholesterol tail and fibre from our diet hooks onto that tail, to drag excess hormone out of our body. This leads to a reduction in our hormonal symptoms during peri-menopause and menopause

New research links increased fibre in the diet to a decrease in depression in peri-menopausal women as fibre also supports the health of our microbiome. Just as in ecosystems and communities, the diversity and health of our microbiome is directly linked to our mood and mental health.

Understand, we are not just alone as ‘us’ ladies, we have an ecosystem inside our gut and the health of this ecosystem directly impacts how happy we feel daily. Feeding our internal garden, improves our mental health as we pass through hormonal change.

Fibre in our diet can also help us to manage our blood sugar levels and keeps us off the sugar roller coaster by delaying the speed at which glucose from our food is dumped into our blood stream. If you are a woman who experiences:

1. Mood swings
2. Weight gain around the middle
3. Energy crashes or exhaustion
4. Waking in the night
5. Increased urination
6. Pre-menstrual symptoms

You may be experiencing blood sugar dysregulation and it is not your hormones at all!

The problem we have is when we arrive at peri-menopause, up to 50% of us will be deficient of fibre in our diet.

No wonder we are being ravaged by hormonal symptoms and feeling deeply uncomfortable on a daily basis! Our body is trying to tell us that it needs help and our support to pass easily through this challenging time.

So, we can go to the store and buy psyllium husks and senna, or we can make it delicious, fun and easy by making simple high fibre recipes, that help to build health in our bodies at midlife.

I was cruising my local grocery store when I saw these two stunning Atauflo mangos, with their price reduced, because they were at peak perfection of ripeness.

Isn’t that crazy! Food is reduced in price because it is perfect for eating?

In the soup we are living in, our food systems are primed for food transportation and mass production, not for food flavour or our health.

I could not pass up these beauties and I knew I had all the ingredients at home to immediately transform them into a delicious breakfast/snack/dessert dish.

Chia seeds are packed with soluble and insoluble fibre, magnesium, our relaxation mineral and anti-inflammatory omega 3 fatty acids. If you do not like the texture of chia seeds, you can blend the ingredients of this recipe to make a ‘pudding’ textured chia pudding.

Coconut milk provides medium chan fatty acids to support our brain health, prevents the sugar in the mangos from flooding quickly into the blood stream and helps to keep us satiated for longer.

A question I always ask myself when I am cooking is… ‘How can I add MORE!’

I added anti-inflammatory and blood sugar balancing spices to add delicious flavour and boost the health building properties of this dish.

This recipe is super easy. It just takes chopping, measuring and stirring to make a delicious, fibre rich, blood sugar balancing treat in your refrigerator.

My tip: When you see a perfectly ripe mango, buy the mango. Even if you sit and eat it in the bath with the juice dripping down your boobies, you are still a winner!

Ingredients

2 perfectly ripe small mangos or 1 perfectly ripe large mango
1/4 cup Chia seeds
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp raw pumpkin seeds
1 tbsp shredded coconut.

Instructions

1. Turn on a podcast you love and start by chopping your mango

2. Put the chopped mango in a large bowl with all of the other ingredients except the pumpkin seeds and shredded coconut.

3. Stir all the ingredients together until they are fully combined

4. Put the pudding mix into a single glass container or portion into smaller containers depending on how you want to eat it.

5. decorate the top of the pudding with the pumpkin seeds and shredded coconut to add more flavour and fibre

6. Store in the refrigerator overnight and the Mango Chia Pudding is ready to eat the next morning.