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Managing Menopause in the workplace: How to Cool Down, Calm Down and Breakthrough the Brain Fog
By amandaalexander | Career
By amandaalexander | Career
This week, our guest post is from Julie Dennis. Julie will also be running a masterclass for The Academy for Talented Women on managing menopause in the workplace. Read how you can join us at the end of the post.
In a recent study nearly 50% of the women interviewed felt menopause symptoms had a negative impact on their performance at work. Is that you?
The most common symptoms were poor concentration, tiredness and poor memory.
And surprise surprise hot flushes were cited as a major source of distress for women at work too.
Hot flushes aren’t just uncomfortable, they’re embarrassing, especially when you’re with colleagues.
You know how it is. Mid meeting you suddenly sense that inner spark ignite.
You try to stay focused on what’s being said, maybe casually remove your jacket or put your hair up to get some cool air on the back of your neck.
Perhaps you make a joke about being a woman of a certain age, “is it hot in here or is it just me ha ha?”
Except it’s not funny is it? It’s humiliating.
The good news is it doesn’t have to be that way. You really can learn about managing menopause in the workplace. The secret lies in managing your cortisol levels.
High levels of cortisol, your main stress hormone, is the most common hormone imbalance in women over the age of 40.
Your body is designed to release cortisol when your mind perceives you to be in a stressful situation. It’s part of your fight or flight response.
Your adrenal glands pump out cortisol to give you the energy to either flee or stand and fight. This ancient response was originally designed to help you deal with the stress of a life or death situation. Perhaps a confrontation with a neighbouring tribe or an attack by a dangerous animal.
Modern day stresses of course are very different. They’re made up of certain foods, types of drink, poorly worded emails, traffic jams, toxins and even your working environment.
Menopause itself is a form of stress on your body.
But here’s the thing, the same stress response still gets triggered today even though the danger isn’t actually life threatening.
And stress in the 21st century workplace is unrelenting. So instead of cortisol being produced when you actually need it, your body starts to produce it all the time.
So what’s stressing you out? What are you eating, drinking or experiencing during your working day that’s triggering your fight or flight response, increasing your cortisol levels and making your menopause symptoms worse?
Once you know what your triggers are you can work on managing or eliminating that trigger and you really can cool down, calm down, breakthrough the brain fog and stay on track with your career.
You see, whilst you can’t avoid stress in the 21st century what you can do is learn how to manage it, through the way you eat and drink, the way you exercise, your menopause mindset and by reducing your exposure to toxins.
Julie will be running a virtual seminar on managing menopause in the workplace for my Academy for Talented Women Members on Wednesday 12 October. She will also share a simple but effective framework for you to follow so you can talk to your boss about how your symptoms are affecting your ability to do you job without damaging your career.
If you’d like access to the webinar – both live and recorded version, to watch, listen or download whenever you want, click here to read all the other benefits and join the Academy now.
Imagine a virtual “gym”, but a gym where, instead of working on your fitness, you work on your mindset, your skill set and your life! Now imagine you don’t have to travel to that gym and you can access it from anywhere in the World – on your computer, your tablet or your phone.
Imagine that, instead of signing up for a Zumba or a Spinning Class, you could go to a class on, for example..
or even…
And let’s say you could sign up to do that class at the time it’s scheduled. But if you missed it, it wouldn’t matter, because you could simply do the class by yourself, at any time of the day or night to suit YOUR schedule!
The Academy for Talented Women has been created and built by me, Amanda Alexander. And I created it from having coached hundreds of working mums over many years. I know that, for a woman to be successful, there are many elements of her life that have to work – and they have to work in harmony. That’s why I built The Academy is around 3 pillars of a working woman’s life:
– Your Career
– Your Life
– You
I believe that getting coaching with a GOOD Coach is an invaluable investment in your career and your life. It certainly changed my life for the better when I first worked with a Coach back in 2002! But what if funds simply won’t stretch to your own Coach? I get that – even if you’re earning a good salary, after food is paid for, kids’ activities are paid for, the phone bill, the council tax bill and the boiler you’ve just had to replace.. you quite understandably might see coaching as a luxury that you literally can’t afford.
But what if you COULD get access to a GOOD Coach without the usual price tag? In fact, what if you could access not just a GOOD Coach but a multi-award winning, highly experienced Coach who was accredited as Professional Certified Coach with the ICF? That’ll be me then! (You can read more about me here).
That’s why I included a monthly “drop in” coaching call” within The Academy membership. It’s usually held during “lunch hour” from 12.30 to 1.30 pm BST, with the odd evening call at 8.30 pm BST. But if you can’t make it to the call, you still get to ask a question beforehand.
The idea of the coaching calls is – if you’re stuck, you need an idea, motivation or inspiration, I’m here for you.
The Academy has also been created to allow you to access learning, development and support when it suits YOU. I understand how busy you are – so am I! I understand that, for you to invest in yourself and your career, you are probably going to do so in pockets of time, often whilst multi-tasking. So do I!
That’s why I created an online members’ area with all the Academy’s fantastic masterclasses, coaching sessions and online life coaching course under one roof!
None of us can do it alone. Whether your goal is to change your career, get a promotion or even leave your career and go it alone, you need support. Or maybe you’re just struggling to keep up with the fast pace of life – you need support (and practical strategies). You need someone who can be your cheerleader when the going gets tough, who can be your advisor when you’re stuck and who can hold up a mirror to show you how capable you really are, when you have lost sight of the fact.
I created The Academy for Talented Women to give you the support you need in order to be successful. Whether it’s in our warm and friendly private Facebook group, in our monthly coaching calls or even at our annual “Stepping Up” live event (yes, you even get a live event!), The Academy for Talented Women is all about providing you with the right kind of support you need to be successful, fulfilled and balanced.
How do you join?
You pay a monthly subscription via PayPal or your credit card. You can leave at any time. There is no “minimum contract”. There are NO catches. You can get the full details about The Academy and join here.
I look forward to supporting you!
