✨ You’re Doing Everything You Can, but Your Body Just Won’t Cooperate
When I work with women in midlife, one of the most common frustrations I hear is:
“I’m doing everything I can, but my body just won’t cooperate.”
Whether it’s stubborn weight gain, high blood pressure or blood sugar, inflammation, insomnia, or unrelenting fatigue no matter how much you rest, these issues often have less to do with your discipline or “willpower” and more to do with your nervous system.
🌟 It’s easy to blame hormones for struggles in midlife, but they’re only part of the picture.
When your nervous system gets stuck in overdrive and is constantly bracing for threat, it shifts your biology into “fight or flight” mode. Healing, digestion, hormone regulation, and even metabolism take a back seat. It’s no wonder so many attempts at feeling better don’t seem to stick.
What causes nervous system overdrive?
Chronic stress: The daily pressures of caregiving, work, and responsibilities without enough downtime.
Anxiety: Racing thoughts that keep your body in a loop of hypervigilance.
Past trauma: Even if the events are long behind you, your body may still be keeping the score.
Grief or emotional pain: Unresolved emotions lingering in the background can fuel tension in ways we can’t always see until they manifest as physical ailments.
Signs you may be stuck in survival mode:
Weight gain or inability to lose weight
Difficulty sleeping, even when you’re exhausted
Chronic fatigue that no amount of coffee can shake
High blood pressure or rapid heart rate
Digestive issues that flare under stress
Feeling “numb,” disconnected, or emotionally flat
Constant worry, rumination, or looping thoughts
👉 So how do we begin to shift from survival into safety?
Not with big, dramatic fixes, but with small, steady practices that teach the body it can let go:
🌿 Breathwork: A simple box breath (inhale 4, hold 4, exhale 4, hold 4) can begin to calm the nervous system.
🌿 Mindfulness: Awareness practices that bring you into the present moment can shift you out of “fight or flight” and into the “rest and digest” state.
🌿 Nature: Spending just 20-30 minutes outdoors, preferably in green spaces, has been shown to lower cortisol (“stress hormone”) levels.
🌿 Community: Probably the most underrated pillar of nervous system health, spending time with people whose company you enjoy relaxes your nervous system through increased oxytocin and co-regulation.
🌿 Somatic practices: Gentle shaking, stretching, singing, or even humming helps release stored stress and restore flow.
🌿 Psilocybin: The intentional use of psilocybin-containing mushrooms, even in small, subperceptual doses (“microdoses”), has shown promise in reducing rumination, easing anxiety, and processing stored grief, trauma, and painful emotions. Please be aware that this medicine is not yet legal in most places in the US.
🍄 If you haven’t caught my free workshop about how psilocybin can be an integral part of a midlife wellness toolkit, you can watch it here: The Midlife Magic Mushroom Hour
Nervous system regulation is the true prerequisite to well-being. Without it, we’re trying to feel better while our body is still bracing for attack. With it, we open the door to deeper healing — whether that means lowering blood pressure, getting deeper sleep, releasing excess weight, or simply feeling more alive as we go about our day.
👉 If you’re ready to bring more balance into your life and optimize your health from the inside out, schedule a complimentary consultation with me to see if working together feels aligned:
