Yoga & Wellness for Perimenopause and Menopause
Something has changed. You’re not imagining it.
This is perimenopause.
For me it was the sleep first. I fell asleep easily enough, and then I found myself wide awake at 3am for absolutely no reason. My breathing was off, but I wasn’t anxious. I was simply…awake. And I could not get back to sleep. Then came the brain fog. Simple word-finding became an enormous challenge, never mind completing a full sentence. I wondered if dementia could begin in my 40s. My body and mind stopped feeling like mine. I couldn’t name it, but something felt off.
For you, maybe it's the anxiety that arrived out of nowhere that has quietly taken up residence. Or the joint stiffness in the morning. How about the mood shifts that feel disproportionate to what's actually happening? Perhaps that sudden, aggressive, almost burning itching all over the body - ears, arms, legs - that no amount of scratching, cortisone cream, or even coconut oil can stop? (although the coconut oil did help me the most.)
Perimenopause and menopause are not just reproductive events. They are whole-body neurological and hormonal transitions that affect the nervous system, the breath, the connective tissue, the brain, and the emotional landscape - often simultaneously and often without warning. Most women are not told this. They are told to expect hot flashes and irregular periods. The rest comes as a surprise.
You are not falling apart. Your nervous system is adapting to a significant shift in its hormonal environment. That adaptation is uncomfortable. It is also workable.
What’s actually happening to you
The hormonal changes of perimenopause and menopause - particularly the fluctuation and eventual decline of estrogen and progesterone - directly affect the nervous system's capacity for regulation. Progesterone, which has a calming effect on the nervous system and directly influences breathing rate, becomes erratic during perimenopause and drops significantly at menopause. Estrogen, which supports serotonin and dopamine production, follows. The result is a nervous system that is more reactive, less resilient, and more easily tipped into fight-or-flight. This is not because something is wrong with you, but because the hormonal scaffolding that supported your regulation has shifted.
This is also why breathing changes at this stage of life. Lower progesterone means less breathing drive overnight, which contributes to sleep disruption and the 3am wake-ups that so many women like me experience. It contributes to anxiety and panic symptoms that seem to appear from nowhere. It contributes to a general feeling of being on edge that no amount of yoga, supplements, or self-care seems to fully address on their own.
How these practices help
Each of the modalities offered at Any Body Yoga and Wellness addresses a different layer of what perimenopause and menopause do to the body, and they work beautifully together.
Yoga supports the nervous system through slow, intentional movement that signals safety to the body. Yin and Deep Stretch specifically target the connective tissue - fascia, tendons, ligaments - where chronic tension tends to accumulate and where the body holds the physical residue of stress. Long-held shapes, unhurried breath, and a teacher who is not asking you to perform - this is what the perimenopausal nervous system is asking for.
TRE® and Neurogenic Yoga™ address the deeper holding patterns: the bracing and guarding that the nervous system has learned over decades of stress, which perimenopause can intensify. The neurogenic tremor response releases chronic muscular tension at a level that movement alone cannot always reach. Many women find that TRE® offers a quality of release - physical, emotional, sometimes inexplicable - that they have been searching for without knowing what they were looking for.
Buteyko Breathing works directly with the CO2 tolerance changes that perimenopause and menopause drive. Improving CO2 tolerance means a less reactive nervous system, better sleep, reduced anxiety, and more capacity to move through the hormonal fluctuations of this transition without being derailed by them. For women who wake at 3am, who experience panic symptoms, or who feel perpetually on edge, this is often the missing piece.
Meditation offers the cognitive and emotional scaffolding for all of this: the capacity to observe what the nervous system is doing without being consumed by it. This is not about emptying the mind. It is about developing a different relationship with the thoughts, sensations, and emotions that perimenopause amplifies.
Working with Shaileen
Once I understood and accepted the phase of life I had entered, I made a commitment to care for myself. My daily meditation (sadhana) and tremoring practice are non-negotiable, but I reassessed my yoga practice - did my body actually need the style I was practicing? Not really, no. I reincorporated Buteyko breathing into my daily life after years of not needing it. I began to weave together all of these modalities to bring myself back home.
I understand the particular exhaustion of a body that is working hard to adapt, and the exhaustion of a mind that keeps searching for an explanation that actually fits all of these new symptoms.
There is something that will help you. Several somethings, actually.
A free consultation is available if you'd like to talk through what you're experiencing and which of these practices might be the right starting point. There is no pressure and no obligation - just a conversation.
These practices are somatic education, not medical care. Please consult your physician or healthcare provider regarding your specific symptoms and treatment options.
Book a free consultation at https://calendly.com/abyogawellness-info/consultation
or email me at hello@abyogawellness.com