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🎙️ Season 4, Episode 5 – Why Stress Makes Perimenopause Symptoms Worse (and What You Can Do About It)

In this episode of Lemons and Pineapples, Emma O’Brien and her co-host, functional medicine health coach Sam Shrosbree, dive into the powerful connection between stress and perimenopause.

Many women in their 40s and 50s experience joint pain, hot flushes, insomnia, brain fog, weight gain, and anxiety — often chalked up to “just perimenopause.” But as Emma and Sam reveal, chronic stress and excess cortisol may be the real culprits behind worsening symptoms.

Together, they explore:

• 🔎 Why high stress levels throw hormones off balance
• 🍰 The “baking analogy” that makes hormone production easy to understand
• 🧠 How cortisol steal impacts sleep, mood, and brain health
• ⚖️ Why weight gain, anxiety, and brain fog are often linked to stress, not just hormones
• 🌿 Practical tools for calming your nervous system naturally
• 💤 Why stress management is just as important as diet, sleep, and exercise
• 🌳 The power of nature, breathwork, and boundaries in restoring balance

Emma also guides listeners through a short HeartMath heart-focused breathing practice, offering a taste of how simple nervous system regulation tools can create calm within minutes.

✨ If you’re tired of feeling frazzled, stuck, or told that HRT is the only option, this episode will empower you to take back control of your well-being — body, mind, and spirit.

🌟 Special Invitation: The Re-Calibration Course

Emma and Sam are launching a 6-week online course starting Monday, 1st September.

Inside, you’ll learn:

• Sam’s four pillars of health (nutrition, movement, sleep, stress management)
• Science-backed nervous system regulation tools
• Practical, doable strategies to balance hormones naturally
• Simple daily tweaks that add up to lasting change

Learn more and sign up here 👉 www.emmaobriencoach.com/recalibration

📲 Stay Connected

• Follow Emma on Instagram: @emmaobriencoach
  
  
• Follow Sam on Instagram: @zenroom_at_thewoods
  
  
• Got questions? Reach out via

Procrastinators, this will change the way you show up for yourself and help you make serious progress in just 7 days.

STOP putting your progress on the back burner

LEARN how to set effective boundaries

MAKE more progress in a week than you have in the last month

Get instant access to STOP Procrastinating in 7 Days here.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

If you know you want more from your life or career but you're totally stuck about where to start, I invite you to book a complimentary strategy call with me here.

We'll uncover what's holding you back from the goals you want to achieve and you'll leave the call with actionable steps to get you moving in the right direction.

For the tea on me, how I work, who I coach and the packages I offer, please visit my website - www.emmaobriencoach.com

You can also connect with me on Instagram @emmaobriencoach where I share an abundance of tools, strategies and brilliant content, you might also see the occasional dog.

Send us a text

How to Re-Calibrate your mind, body and life before burnout hits.

In this episode my co-host Sam and I share the subtle - and not-so-subtle - signs that you're heading towards burnout and what you can do to course correct before everything falls apart.

If you're feeling constantly tired, reactive, disconnected or simply like your spark has left the building, this episode is your wake-up call.

In this episode:

- The sneaky early signs of burnout no one talks about

- Why constant fatigue (even after rest) is a big red flag

- The link between physical inflammation and chronic stress

- How burnout often requires a full life redesign

- The connection between stress and disconnection from others

- How to tell what's draining your energy - and what energises you

- Purpose-driven living and how reconnecting your why is life changing

- A sneak peek into The Re-Calibration course starting on 1st September (not 28th July as per the episode)

Reflective questions:

1. What are three things in your life that completely drain your energy?

2. What situations or people make you feel lighter and alive?

3. Are you running on autopilot - and what might it take to slow down and reconnect?

Are you ready for a Re-Calibration?

If this episode hit home, you're not alone and you don't have to navigate burnout by yourself.

Join Sam and I in The Re-Calibration Course starting Monday 1st September - a group programme designed to help you realign your body, mind and life from the ground up.

Sign up here.

(If you sign up before Friday 22nd August you'll also receive a 45 minute private 1:1 coaching session with Sam & I valued at R1500 / £150)

Connect with us on Instagram:

Emma O'Brien - @emmaobriencoach

Sam Shrosbree - @zenroom_at_thewoods

Procrastinators, this will change the way you show up for yourself and help you make serious progress in just 7 days.

STOP putting your progress on the back burner

LEARN how to set effective boundaries

MAKE more progress in a week than you have in the last month

Get instant access to STOP Procrastinating in 7 Days here.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

If you know you want more from your life or career but you're totally stuck about where to start, I invite you to book a complimentary strategy call with me here.

We'll uncover what's holding you back from the goals you want to achieve and you'll leave the call with actionable steps to get you moving in the right direction.

For the tea on me, how I work, who I coach and the packages I offer, please visit my website - www.emmaobriencoach.com

You can also connect with me on Instagram @emmaobriencoach where I share an abundance of tools, strategies and brilliant content, you might also see the occasional dog.

Send us a text

You've done the journaling, the affirmations, the mindset shifts...so why are you still feeling stuck?

In this episode, I'm joined by functional medicine health coach Sam Shrosbree to unpack why mindset work on its own isn't enough and what's missing when progress just won't stick. Together, we explore the essential connection between mind and body, and how bringing in somatic practices can unlock real, lasting change.

This is a must-listen if you've been doing 'all the right things' but still feel overwhelmed, unfocused, or emotionally reactive. The missing puzzle piece might not be in your head - it might be in your body.

What you'll learn:

• Why mindset tools like affirmations and journaling can only take you so far
• How your body holds unprocessed emotions and how that impacts your mental state
• Simple somatic practices to regulate your nervous system
• How to use your breath as a powerful mind-body reset
• The impact of food, caffeine and supplements on your emotional state
• What 'self-mastery' really looks like in practice

"We fear the big feelings less when we know we have the tools to handle them."

Ready to go deeper?

The Re-Calibration 6 week group programme is now open for enrolment! It's a programme designed to help you reconnect to your body, regulate your emotions and build a practical toolkit for resilience, clarity and joy in all areas of your life.

Find out more and sign up here.

Got a question?

DM Emma on Instagram @emmaobriencoach

DM Sam on Instagram @zenroom_at_thewoods

Procrastinators, this will change the way you show up for yourself and help you make serious progress in just 7 days.

STOP putting your progress on the back burner

LEARN how to set effective boundaries

MAKE more progress in a week than you have in the last month

Get instant access to STOP Procrastinating in 7 Days here.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

If you know you want more from your life or career but you're totally stuck about where to start, I invite you to book a complimentary strategy call with me here.

We'll uncover what's holding you back from the goals you want to achieve and you'll leave the call with actionable steps to get you moving in the right direction.

For the tea on me, how I work, who I coach and the packages I offer, please visit my website - www.emmaobriencoach.com

You can also connect with me on Instagram @emmaobriencoach where I share an abundance of tools, strategies and brilliant content, you might also see the occasional dog.