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Welcome to "No F**ks Given," where we redefine menopause as a superpower. Hosted by Holly Lamb, a women's health coach, who is navigating early menopause. This podcast offers empowering guidance on women's health and navigating perimenopause with confidence. From nutrition tips to fitness advice and mindfulness practices, we cover it all. But here's the twist: it's all about embracing your most authentic, unapologetic self. We're here to help you reclaim your power, say goodbye to societal norms, and live life on your own terms—no f**ks given. Welcome to the revolution!
Holly Lamb (00:00.77)
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the No Fucks Given podcast with me, host Holly Lamb. This week I'm excited because I'm doing video podcasts for the first time. So as well as listening along, if you want to see my wonderful face, you can go and watch me as well. So I hope you've all had a fabulous week and this week's episode is all about managing mental health in perimenopause.
and how you can deal with all the symptoms and emotional challenges that come up that aren't just physical, that are the emotional and mental side. Because personally for me, that was what was the biggest struggle and that's what continues to be. But putting practices in place in order to help you manage this can make it so much easier and without having to go on any type of medication.
Understanding the emotional challenges that accompany perimenopause and beyond is the first step towards effectively managing them. So overcoming these challenges involves a multifaceted approach. So it's not just a one size fits all. And this is what I want to dive into today. So things that you might be experiencing are mood swings, anxiety, depression.
sleep disturbances, because that's going to have a knock -on effect throughout your day, overwhelm, memory and concentration issues, body image and self -esteem and stress. So all of these, you could be experiencing one, a couple or all of them, and then mixed together with all the physical symptoms that are happening in perimenopause, it can be really, really difficult to navigate.
In this episode, I just want to give you some actionable steps in order for you to start feeling better today. So these are things you can do without using any time type of medication, whether that's HRT or antidepressants. I come at it from a holistic approach and I believe that in order to help you get over these issues, we need to be looking at lifestyle factors over
Holly Lamb (02:21.142)
everything else. So a big one for me is mindfulness and gratitude. So mindfulness and gratitude is going to help to reduce stress and anxiety. And mindfulness practices and gratitude practices have been shown to reduce stress and anxiety levels in perimenopausal women. So by focusing on the present moment and cultivating a sense of gratitude,
these practices can help to alleviate the mental burden and promote emotional wellbeing. And it also is gonna help to improve your mood and just general mental health. So it can positively impact mood and your mental health during perimenopause because regular practice has been associated with increased feelings of positivity, contentment, and just a much more optimistic outlook on life.
Holly Lamb (03:35.374)
Bro.
Holly Lamb (03:45.475)
edit
Holly Lamb (03:51.118)
How ridiculous that was.
Holly Lamb (04:15.554)
Mindfulness and gratitude are gonna help to enhance your own self -awareness as well. So being mindful and grateful allows you to become more in tune with your emotions and your thoughts. And in turn, that's gonna foster a deeper understanding of your experiences through perimenopause. So self -awareness can lead to better coping strategies and a greater sense of self -compassion. And I completely...
wholeheartedly believe that if we can become more self -aware and understand why this is happening to us and not see it as a, this is happening to me, but this is actually happening for me to show me where I need to focus on and where I need to do the work, because that's what it's shown me. It's shown me where I need to put my focus in on in order to grow.
and in order to feel better. And then, you know, another reason is it promotes resilience and just general, better coping skills with whatever life's going to throw at you, life in general, and your perimenopausal journey as well. So, you know, perimenopause can be really, really challenging to navigate, but mindfulness and gratitude is going to help to strengthen your resilience and your coping capabilities. So these practices empower you to face
difficulties with greater emotional stability and the ability to find moments of joy and gratitude amid all these challenges. And this has been such a massive game changer for me, just understanding that I need to be more in the present moment and need to be focusing in on me and my internal world and not the external reality. Because there's so many things
are fighting for our attention in the outside world, that's when our internal world starts to go into turmoil. And with all the extra added things that perimenopause brings with the mental, emotional, and physical challenges,
Holly Lamb (06:34.242)
doing these practices is just going to help you become more resilient in coping with these things. And you may think, what's a bit of gratitude going to do? But if you're in the state of gratitude more than not, it radiates out. It radiates out into your world, into your outer reality, into the people you come into contact with. You can view this as, this is a proper shit day. What the hell is happening to me?
I don't know what to do. I feel like crap. And you know, when you're going into the day with that mindset, then the rest of your day is just, it goes to shit basically, doesn't it? One thing, one bad thing after another happens. Whereas if you can wake up and say to yourself, this is going to be a great day. And then in the day, find those little micro moments of gratitude. If you feel yourself slipping into the negative and focusing in on all the bad things that are happening, flip it. And this then comes back to perception.
and how we choose to perceive what is happening to us or happening for us. You know, there's a program I'm on and Elle always uses this term, EWOP, everything is working out perfectly. She's going to be on the podcast in a couple of weeks. And that's all you've got to do. Flip the perception. Everything is working out perfectly. And it's not about toxic positivity. It's about
flipping the narrative and making sure that you're in that positive energy more than the negative energy. And honestly, I swear to God, this has had such a massive impact on my life and my clients' lives. Something so simple can be so, so powerful. So ways you can start to implement this is number one, easy, gratitude journaling. So you can just start a daily gratitude journal.
either in the morning or the evening, write down things that you're grateful for. And that can really start to help you get into a gratitude, an attitude of gratitude. I'm sure Bob Proctor says that. And that's what I do, write down things that I'm grateful for and it really can set you up for the day. And it can be small, like you woke up. Like how many people went to sleep last night and didn't wake up and didn't know they weren't gonna wake
Holly Lamb (09:00.758)
You woke up and you get to live another day. And that's so, powerful. And that's something we forget because we get so caught up in the past or in the future that we aren't here in the present moment celebrating all the wonderful things that are happening in our lives. Mindful breathing is a really good technique as well. So you can take a few minutes each day just to practice mindful breathing. And this can really help to calm your nervous system as
So box breathing is really good for this. So four in, hold for four, four out, hold for four. It's just bringing your nervous system back into regulation. So if you can feel like you're starting to spiral, bringing the mindful breathing is a really good tool. And then mindful eating as well. That's a lovely way to bring more calmness into maybe a chaotic time, especially if you have children
Maybe you sit in front of the telly and you just eat your dinner. Well, practicing mindful eating is a really good tool to help bring more awareness into the present moment. And a lot of anxiety disorders are because we are focusing in on the wrong things. We're focusing in on things that haven't happened yet. And we're focusing things that have on things that have already happened. If it's already happened, we can't change it. So there's no point worrying.
If it's already, if it's happening in the future, then we don't know it's going to happen. It's only happening in our brains at the moment. So we need to not focus on the future or the past. need to be in the present and mindful going back to mindful eating. So I went off on a tangent there again. mindful eating is just savoring each bite of your meal. So really concentrating on what you're eating and been in the present moment and enjoying
for what it is and it slows you down as well. Because how often do you just like eat on the go, eat really fast, especially if you've got kids like ram it down your neck. Whereas if we just take the time to savor and enjoy every moment of it, it can help you feel fuller for longer as well, which then can turn can help you consume less calories, which then can in turn help you lose weight. So there's all these extra bonus things that come.
Holly Lamb (11:25.804)
with practicing mindful eating. And then gratitude walks is a lovely one to get into. So you can do this anytime. Like if you go for an afternoon walk, morning, whatever it is, just go for a walk in nature and use this time to express gratitude for the beauty around you. Like how often do you see people like walking their dogs, but they're on their phone or out for a walk, but they're on their phone and their heads in their phone. And it's
Don't you ever like stop to have a look around and just see how beautiful it is where you actually live. I go for runs in the morning when there's nobody about and I just see all the wonderful nature like the baby geese and I saw a heron the other morning and just the wildlife and it's quiet and it's just taking that time to appreciate what's already on your
Holly Lamb (12:31.0)
So next would be gratitude reflection. So this is a really good one to do. And I do this every night as I'm going off to sleep. So it's focusing in on all the amazing things that have happened that day. Because our brain is very clever and we'll focus in on all the negative things that happened that day. So you could have had the best day. One negative thing happens and your brain is focusing in on that. So if
take time to replay the day and replay all the wonderful things that are gonna happen. And if you think, as you're going off to sleep thinking about all the wonderful things that happened that day, that's what's going into your subconscious brain as you go off to sleep. And then as you wake up, that's still in there working its way in into your subconscious. And then if you're doing that on a daily basis, day in, day out, waking up with gratitude, going to sleep with gratitude, you can start to flip your perception and your attitude
to your perimenopausal journey. Because I totally understand that there's going to be times where this becomes a lot more difficult, but if you start to do it daily and implement it as a habit, it just becomes second nature. Like all the things that I do now in the morning and in the evening are second nature and it would feel weird for me not to do them. Yes, it takes time. It will take a bit of effort, but if you're serious about wanting to feel better,
then start doing these things today. And not, I'll start tomorrow. No, start today. Because again, that's the ego part of the brain going, just start tomorrow, you'll be fine. Start tomorrow. So if we wanna rewire our brain to a more positive perception, then we need to go, no, I'm in charge. We're gonna start today and start today. And then obviously meditation is so, so good.
just generally for our mental health, but especially in perimenopause. I do a short morning meditation and then I do a longer evening one as I'm going off to sleep. And I'm finding the evening ones now have been super, super powerful where I am starting to astral project and I'm starting to connect to my higher self and connect more to my intuition, which is amazing. And things start to come up. And again,
Holly Lamb (14:54.186)
evening meditations are great because if there's something that you want to achieve and you want to change in your subconscious mind, then the best time to do this is you go enough to sleep because your conscious mind is not in charge anymore. That's going off. So if you want to change your habit or want to do something, then rewiring it at night with either hypnosis tapes or with meditations is a perfect time to do.
And this is what I get my clients to do in order to start to implement habits and behaviors that they want to continue with. We do this as we're going off to sleep and it's really, really powerful. And then you can create like gratitude rituals. So anything that suits you, it can be anything that you want to implement.
think like, for example, if you like maybe struggle to sit down and do like a routine, have one where every time you make a brew, flick the kettle, I'm grateful that I can make a brew anytime that I want, you know, just little things like that to bring more gratitude into your life. And like, for example, spending money, I'm so grateful I have this money in order to spend. Just little things like that. I mean, if you've got a roof over your head, food in your fridge, a bed to sleep in,
and money in the bank, you're doing better than most people. So be grateful for these things. I think because of the world we live in, we're always comparing to other people. Whereas really, we should be so grateful for everything that we already have, because it's so much more than most people do. So again, it's that perception flip. It's that perception of, how amazing my life already is. And then once you're in the attitude of gratitude,
That's when you attract more abundance to you as well. So not only is it gonna help you feel better, it's gonna make the people around you feel better, and then you're gonna attract more into your life that you want. And that's just the law of vibration. So whatever vibration that you're in is what you're gonna attract to you. And then mindful technology use would be a big one because how easy is it to just sit there and to scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll.
Holly Lamb (17:17.038)
In an Instagram hole all that stuff. Be mindful of how much time you're spending and what you're actually consuming. If you're following, you know, 20 something fitness people who have got abs and don't look anything like you, don't follow them because that's just gonna, you're just gonna compare yourself to them and that's just gonna make you feel really shit. So just be mindful of what you're consuming and how often you're consuming it and set yourself.
limits if that's something that you do struggle with. Cause we want to get out of the habit of mindless scrolling. Like in that 30 minutes, what could you be doing instead? Could you be reading a book that's going to help your self development? I know it's so easy just to sit there and do that, but we need to get out the habit because it's not good for our mental health at all. So along with all the like mindfulness, gratitude and all that jazz.
We also need to be leading a healthy lifestyle because we can do all the things, but if we're not actually looking after our bodies, it doesn't make a blind bit of difference.
Holly Lamb (18:39.022)
So we need to be looking at regular exercise. So strength training, daily movement, walks, runs, if that's your thing, some kind of cardio, swimming, dancing, whatever it is. But daily movement of your body is what is gonna help you. And getting out for walks in nature is gonna help to boost your mental health as well. Now it's so simple, but literally a 20 minute walk is just gonna get those endorphins going. It's just gonna make you feel so much better.
You know, it releases the natural happy hormones and it's going to lift your mood and you're just going to feel so, so, so much better than you did if you're just sat at home watching another box set or mindlessly scrolling. So yes, we need to be doing all the mindful gratitude, all that kind of stuff, but we also need to look at the physical as well. And a healthy diet comes into that. So a high protein whole food diet is going to help you boost your mood.
because when we put nutritious food into our bodies, it's just going to make us feel so much better. And it's going to lift our energy levels as well. So whole foods, high protein diet, and then a
Holly Lamb (20:42.126)
So a whole food diet, high in protein, high in omega -3 fatty acids. So no low fat crap because it's full of sugar and we want to avoid sugar as much as possible. And we want high protein because we need to keep muscle and build muscle and we want high fat because it's going to help to nourish our bodies and helps with our brain function as well. So fatty fish.
full fat Greek yogurt, things like that, leafy green vegetables, they're high in folate and that's going to help to support mental health as well. But just think like a Mediterranean diet and eating the rainbow and that you can't go far wrong with that. And then sleep. Sleep is such a big one because if you have a crap night sleep, you're going to make unhealthy food choices because you're hungry.
So you're going to want to eat more sugary, fatty processed foods. So, and then that's going to affect your mental health and affect your mood and how you're feeling. So all these things have a knock on effect. So if you're struggling with your sleep, then you need to get some kind of sleep routine in place. So things like a cold, dark room, no caffeine after two, no alcohol, cause that's just going to act as like a sedative. It's not going to help you get a good night's sleep.
I mask earplugs, no screens two hours before bed, all these things that you can start to implement in order to help you feel better. Because like I said, it's just going to have a knock -on effect into your daily life. And sleep is so important for women. I know there's the eight hour thing, but I think I really believe that women need a whole lot more, up to 10 hours easy, maybe more.
It's about prioritizing you and putting yourself first. So if you need to go to bed an hour earlier, you need to do that for you. And if you're struggling to get off to sleep, then listening to those kind of meditative sleep hypnosis tapes can really help in the evenings. You can find them on YouTube, whatever you want to listen to. And you can download them so you don't have to have Wi -Fi on. You can put your phone on aeroplane mode. And then we need to look at stress.
Holly Lamb (23:04.62)
because stressors are just gonna make mental health issues a whole lot worse. So any kind of stress is gonna exacerbate perimenopausal symptoms. So we need to reduce stress as much as possible. So whatever that looks like for you, you need to bring those practices in. And a lot of this comes down to saying no boundaries and putting yourself first. And it does get to the stage where you have to start putting yourself first.
You have to listen to your body. have to listen to your mental health and what it needs because you don't want to get to the place of burnout. You don't want to get to the place where you feel like you have to withdraw from the world in order to feel better. You need to put these steps in place and have these regulation tools in place. And if that's something that you are struggling with, then ask for help. know, connect with friends, family.
They can provide emotional support, speak to partners and explain how you're feeling. Cause a lot of the time it might be that they just don't understand what's going on in your life. So speaking to them and helping them to understand what's going on for you will not only help you, but it will help them as well. You know, talking about your experiences, your feelings, it can be very therapeutic and then they will know how to support you better. And then
If it's getting past that point, then speaking with a therapist, a counselor, getting coaching, whatever that looks like in order for you to have a safe space in order to explore and manage your emotions. CBT is known to be effective, but a lot of it does come down to just finding the right support.
for you. There are a lot of menopause support groups now, either online or in person. There's one near me now. So there's more popping up, which is great. And sometimes all you need is just to have someone to talk to, to listen and to understand what you're going through as well. Because sometimes if you're speaking to someone who's not going through it, then just not going to get it. And I understand because you feel like you're losing a sense of self and that can be really difficult.
Holly Lamb (25:28.59)
But there's also other avenues you can look at. things like somatic therapy, that's a form of psychotherapy that focuses on the connection between the mind and the body. And it's used to address and treat like a wide range of emotional and psychological issues. So that can be really, really effective. But again, it's just understanding what you need in order to feel better, but implementing those practices that I said at the
you know, mindfulness, gratitude and perception shifting can all really help. And this perception shift is what I help my clients do in order for them to get out of this victim mindset of, this is happening. This is happening to me. All these things. Why da, da, da, da. And you know, you can go on forever. We need to, we shift that to this is happening for me. This is happening for a reason. This is happening in order to help me grow into the best version of me.
And once you understand that, everything starts to shift. So if that's something that you're like, fucking hell, need to get out of this victim mindset. I need to shift this feeling. Then reach out to me and let's have a chat about how we can work together in order to get you to the best version of you and beyond. Because once you've got all these tools in your toolbox,
You can just take it off and you can just continue with it and then it becomes a lifestyle. Cause this is what it is. It's a lifestyle change. It's not a six month thing. And then that's it. These things need to be done for life. So if you need any help, feel free to reach out to me. And as always, I love to have any feedback from the episode and obviously the first recorded one this time. So if you've got any feedback, then I'd love to hear from you. My DMs are always open. Hormone Harmony Coach on Instagram.
And that's it for this week's episode. Thanks so much for joining and I will catch you all next week.