Every woman awaits the day we all know is coming: menopause.
Menopause is a scary thing, but it doesn’t have to rule the rest of your life. The symptoms of heat flashes and mood swings don’t have to cause you relentless discomfort. And your mental health, especially, doesn’t have to suffer.
Whether you’re already experiencing menopause or know it’s coming soon, read on to learn 5 self-care tips for menopause and mental health.
1. Switch Up Your Diet
When you undergo early menopause and mental health changes, one of the best things you can do for yourself is work towards a healthy, balanced diet.
Menopause causes changes in your body that can be helped out by the right amounts and types of nutrients. Eating right can also help reduce the increased risk of heart disease and osteoporosis that comes with menopause.
Eating right is also beneficial for brain functioning, and thus, your mental health.
There are many tips for healthy eating with menopause, but one of the best is consuming plenty of Vitamin D and Calcium.
2. Try Hormone Therapy
There are many types of hormone therapy out there, including hormone therapy specifically developed for helping with menopause symptoms.
Many changes that happen in the body during menopause result from hormone shifts and imbalances. In fact, estrogen and progestin hormones begin decreasing around this time, causing hot flashes and mood swings.
If you experience severe menopause symptoms, you may be able to use hormone therapy to get your body back under your control.
3. Practice Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the practice of awareness and acceptance. While meditating is a well-known and popular form of mindfulness, there are other mindfulness practices that you can work into your daily routine as well.
The goal of mindfulness is to develop an understanding of yourself, thoughts, and bodily sensations and develop a non-judging acceptance of them. By accepting them, you gain peace of mind and better control over your actions.
Control may look like emotional control of your mood swings or the ability to be undisturbed by a hot flash.
4. Work Towards Better Sleep
One of the impacts of menopause and mental health problems that comes with it is a lack of quality sleep. Worse yet, the lack of sleep then makes these mental health problems worse, compounding the problem.
One of the best things you can do for yourself is to start getting better sleep. If menopause is making it difficult, try additional tactics like daily exercise or skipping a dose of caffeine.
5. Talk to a Therapist
Menopause and mental health issues and can also be talked through with a therapist. Therapy can now be done online or in person, and it’s a great way to work on your understanding of yourself and the changes you’re experiencing.
A therapist can help you with your mindset surrounding menopause too.
Talking to a therapist is important if you have a history of depression and sense that menopause has impacted your mental health.
Make Menopause and Mental Health Care a Priority
Every woman goes through menopause eventually, which means you’re not alone. There are a lot of tips and tricks for handling mental health challenges.
Therapy, mindfulness, hormone adjustments, getting more sleep, and eating better are some of the best ways to start taking control.
If you found this article helpful, be sure to check out our blog for more like it.
