Why Hard Seasons Hit Harder Now
I've been thinking a lot about what makes hard seasons feel harder in peri.
Because you and I both know: everyone has hard seasons. A divorce. A job loss. A parent getting sick. A kid struggling. A move. A diagnosis. A death. Life throws hard things at everyone. That's not new.
What IS new is your body's ability to absorb them.
My Peri Journey
I'm living in that right now. My dad passed six weeks ago. I'm still helping my mom. Grief is still showing up at strange hours. And on top of that, life is still lifing. Normal stressors that would have annoyed me a few years ago are now landing like they weigh three times as much.
That's not me being dramatic. That's biology.
And here's the part I want you to hear. This is happening to you too. Whatever your hard thing is right now, big or small, obvious or invisible, your body is processing it through a nervous system that has fewer shock absorbers than it used to. So the same amount of hard hits harder.
That's not a character flaw. That's peri.
Let's talk about what's actually going on under the surface.
The Biology Bit - Dr. Flora's Notes:
Picture it. Something stressful happens. Not even a huge thing. Maybe the printer jammed. Maybe your teenager slammed a door. Maybe someone said something mildly annoying in a meeting. And suddenly your heart is pounding, your patience is gone, and you're crying in your car by lunchtime wondering what is wrong with you.
Here's what's happening. Estrogen and progesterone don't just regulate your cycle. They also regulate your stress response. Estrogen keeps your serotonin steady. Progesterone calms your nervous system through GABA (your brain's "chill out" chemical). When both start fluctuating and declining, your baseline stress response goes up and your ability to bounce back goes down.
Same stressor. Different body. Very different impact.
That is not you being fragile. That is a nervous system without its usual buffer.
This Week's Reset
One small thing I want you to do this week:
Take three slow exhales before you respond to the next thing that spikes you.
The habit: When something stressful hits (an email, a comment, a moment), before you react, breathe out slowly for a count of six. Do it three times. That's it.
Slow exhales activate your parasympathetic nervous system, the "brake" your peri body needs help hitting. It's not going to fix a hard season. It's going to give you three seconds of buffer between the trigger and your response.
In peri, three seconds is a lot.
Try it for a week and notice what changes. Not everything. Not nothing. Something in between.
Hit reply and tell me the last thing that felt way too big in the moment. I want to normalize this out loud with you.
Ready to Get Yourself Back?
If you're in a hard season and your body feels like it's fighting you every step of the way, please hear me. It's not you. It's biology. And you don't have to figure it out alone.
REwritten is my 6-month 1:1 coaching program for women who are ready to stop guessing and start working with their body, especially when life is hard. We build the plan for the season you're in, not the one you wish you were in.
P.S. Next week I want to name something I hear from women constantly but rarely see written about. The feeling that you're grieving your old self. It's real. And it deserves its own conversation.
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