Although some women sail through menopause - for others it is a tough time which causes significant physical health issues and significant mental distress.

For those of you with primarily female hormones (oestrogen and progesterone) - unless you have experienced early menopause, these hormones begin to decline in your 40s. How much they decline and how this impacts you can depend on a number of things. Testosterone also declines as we age, however, unlike oestrogen and progesterone, post-menopause testosterone levels actually increase - and can revert back to levels that we experienced in our earlier years.

Oestrogen and progesterone don’t only affect our periods and sexual health - these hormones also impact our immune function, inflammatory response, cardiovascular health and our brain function - the decrease of these hormones can have a significant impact on our overall health and well-being.

Before we continue - to help you understand a bit of terminology.

We’re generally stressed.

We have a lot going on. Children, jobs, relationships - a swirling to do list.

We’ve had chronic stress (thanks Covid). We have monthly stress (thanks menstrual cycle). We have hormone stress (menopause, puberty).

And we often walk around with a body full of tension.

So; here are three things to do to relax right now:

We are being exposed to friends and family members that have very different viewpoints from ours. The result of which can leave us feeling confused and threatened. I recently experienced a person who is non-vaccinated, non-mask wearing, who failed to inform a family member that they were Covid positive. The family member lives with my 95 year old father. The family member now has Covid.

Needless to say, my blood was boiling.

But I am hearing stories from other friends, family member and also clients.

How do we cope, when our best friend who we have known and trusted ‘forever’ suddenly appears to ‘be on the other side’? How do we cope when the family member who isn’t vaccinated and will not test, still wants to come to the family dinner? How do we cope when a person we know, refuses to wear a mask to the supermarket, not for legitimate reasons - apart from their belief that ‘Covid is just a sniffle’? How do we cope when you are friends with someone who isn’t vaccinated and uses a ‘fake vaccine passport’ to go to cafes and socialise?

Meditation is often promoted to be a cure all treatment for all sorts of issues; anxiety, depression, sleep problems, chronic pain etc etc. But there is a 'deeper' aspect to meditating which is often glossed over by the modern attitude for a quick fix. Sometimes meditating doesn't change a lot, but instead brings us deeper in touch with ourselves

How does your diet affect your mental health?

Food or nutrition is not often a subject that comes up when you see your health practitioner for your mood - but it's a very important part of getting and staying well.

How does my diet affect my mental health?

Getting back to basics!!

This is something I find myself coming back to again and again. We can get so stuck down the rabbit hole of looking for solutions to help to improve the way we feel.

However if we don't have these three basics nailed, it's really challenging to work on improving anything else.

We need sleep, rest relaxation and downtime. We need to have a good solid nutritious diet, and sometimes supplements too. And we need movement in our lives. Movement is associated with improved mental health, physical health and general overall well-being.

Health and well-being coaching is a strength based approach to creating wellness both mentally and physically. It incorporates aspects of general life coaching (helping you get to where you want to be) and has an emphasis on health and well-being.

The aim of a health coach is to empower and inspire an individual to adopt behaviours that are conducive to the overall health and well-being of the individual in both the short and long term. The role of a health coach is to inspire self confidence, share knowledge and find ways to motivate an individual to achieve their goals.

Incorporating many aspects of health, well-being and life coaching, mental health coaching addresses areas in your life which you might be struggling in - for example, stress, anxiety, addiction, depression, low mood or feelings of overwhelm.

Coaching in general is a strength & future based process, focusing on where an individual would like to be and helping to create steps on how to get there. Although your past is an important part of who you are - coaching is interested in where you are heading.

Mental health coaching also emphases building resilience with the aim or

Lockdown has brought to life some interesting emotions for a lot of us. We’re at home, some of us aren’t working, we have less distractions and for some of us we have increased feelings of anxiety or other challenging emotions.

Food - is - let’s face it - a wonderful distraction.

And this can cause us to feel frustrated with our best laid plans to ‘eat well’ over lock-down.

Mindful eating can be a way of encouraging awareness of what you are eating and what emotions or feelings may be driving your desire to eat!