Managing Work-Life Balance During Menopause
The physical changes that happen during the menopause transition occur at an age when many other aspects of your life are changing as well. Juggling the shift in your hormones along with new stages in your personal and work life is challenging, but it doesn’t have to be insurmountable. With a mindful and self-caring approach, you can make all the pieces of your middle life fit more neatly together.
Put Your Health First
Menopause can have broad-ranging physical effects, but its impact on your overall quality of life can be minimized if you make your health your top priority. Meeting all the obligations of your busy life can place demands on your health and stamina even before you reach menopause. Once the physical changes of menopause kick in, bearing all your responsibilities will depend more than ever on prioritizing self-care. As estrogen declines and your overall hormone balance changes, you will see a lot of changes in your body from sagging skin to heart palpitations. Many women worry about menopause weight gain, but a heart-healthy diet and exercise regimen should help you keep off pounds while also addressing the increased cardiovascular risk that comes with midlife.
Ask for Help
If you’ve always been that go-it-alone type of person who is reluctant to ask for support, perimenopause is an excellent time to overcome that mental roadblock. By this time, you should have enough life experience and self-knowledge to know what you can and should expect of yourself and others. Your family can do more around the house, and yes, you can get used to them not doing it exactly according to your standards! You can trust your staff to do more of the tasks you’ve resisted delegating; giving people a chance to take on responsibility and grow is what a good leader does. Rely on the people around you to take some of the weight off your shoulders, and the remainder will be much easier to bear.
Keep a Big-Picture Focus
Whether you’re a landscape gardener fussing over compost or an IT pro handling security certificate management, it’s easy to let the details of your daily workload overwhelm you. Stepping back and taking a wide-angle view of your life and work can propel you into your future with more understanding and a sense of purpose. Remind yourself what your central values are, what you want for yourself and your family and why you do the work you do. The clarity that comes with focusing on purpose and not just particulars can make it easier to make choices and eliminate useless activities. Then you can spend your energy on what matters most.
Choose a New Path
Maybe your job has truly become a mental or physical drain that consistently takes more from you than it gives back. In that case, you may decide to become one of the many people who make a career change in midlife. While there are some simple steps for changing careers that anyone can take, menopause may make your options feel a bit more complicated. The impact of menopause on your physical health may make you reluctant to leave a job with good health insurance. You may have financial obligations, such as helping a child pay for college, which have you questioning whether you can afford to take a job that pays less. Investigating your options and weighing what you can gain versus what you might lose can help you feel empowered to reach for a job that fits around your life, instead of fitting your life around your job.
If the arrival of menopause on top of all your other midlife realities has you overwhelmed, you could benefit from taking a more holistic – and humane – view of your life. Caring for yourself, accepting the support of others and reorienting toward fulfilling work can make the next phase of your life the most exciting.
