If you're a woman over the age 40, here are 3 simple life hacks you can do to care for your health and wellbeing that can make a massive difference to your body confidence

What happens in our 40s

Our forties are often the time we begin to recognise how important it is to be true to ourselves, to listen to our bodies, cultivate boundaries and tear down the artificial rules and restrictions we may have been holding on to for years that no longer serve us 

If you’re a woman in your 40s or you know someone who is, there are a few things to consider when we transition into peri menopause. Our brains and bodies are changing, and what we do in this stage of life can have a huge impact on how we feel for the next several decades, helping us prevent illness, promote longevity, and perhaps feel even better than we did at age 25

1. Get Stronger Inside And Out

There are so many benefits to strength training, yet it’s something so many women overlook. Building strength protects our joints and our bones, enhances metabolism, improves cognitive function, improves blood sugar balance, prevents chronic diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease, as well as promoting better a mood. 

Focusing on strength in your yoga practice, gym routine or home workouts can go a long way to helping you feel strong, fit and physically ‘in shape’, especially at a time when we can begin to lose muscle mass if we don’t work on building strength. A strength yoga type of class can help increase muscle strength and bone density, lower stress levels and make you feel like a bad ass that can conquer anything

2. Care for your brain

As we age, levels of oestrogen begin to decline, this is not only linked to increased risk of lower bone density, but significant changes within the brain too. As oestrogen levels decline our mood can be disrupted, as well as our memory and ability to handle stress

Many 40+ women experience brain fog, which can be caused by dehydration, disrupted sleep, poor quality nutrition, excess alcohol consumption as well as many other factors. The hypothalamus in the brain controls whether we feel thirsty or not and as we age the signals telling us we’re thirsty tend to decline. Care for your brain by drinking water regularly, drink water with extra electrolytes to hydrate the brain even more

Research has shown that yoga has an anti-inflammatory, stress reducing, anti-aging neuroplastic brain effect that may improve brain health and memory performance 

3. Reduce stress and create boundaries

Reducing unnecessary stress is important at every age, but at age 40, stress can have a powerfully detrimental effect upon oestrogen levels and brain function. Research shows that stress can literally speed up shrinking of different parts of the brain, which is why it’s more important than ever to be true to what you need and what you don’t. 

At age 40, we’ve had enough life experience to help us understand what gives us joy, and what brings us down. We know who we love spending time with and who drains us, what we want to spend our time on, and what we want to do less of. General everyday stressors like traffic, work deadlines and bills are inevitable, but how we react to them, and the amount of extra stress we take on is somewhat in our own control. 

Take a little time out for yourself to reassess what matters to you and what doesn’t; what lights you up? What makes you feel fatigued and drained? Begin creating some boundaries around your work-life balance, the amount of time you spend scrolling through social media, who you give your time to, and what you choose to say ‘yes’ to. 

Yoga promotes the release of mood-boosting endorphins, which are the feel-good hormones that can positively affect how you handle stress.