From Uncertainty to Harmony: My Perimenopause Journey

There was a stretch of time in my life when I knew something had shifted, but I didn’t have the words for it. Looking back now, I believe that was the beginning of perimenopause. I can’t tell you exactly when it started, and that’s part of what made it so disorienting. It didn’t arrive with a clear moment or marker. It unfolded slowly until one day I realized I didn’t feel like myself at all.

The first thing I remember was the brain fog. Thoughts that used to come easily felt just out of reach. Then anxiety showed up, and it didn’t make sense because I had never experienced it that way before. My body started changing too, with weight gain that felt impossible to manage no matter what I tried. Around the same time, I was moving through some of the hardest moments of my life. COVID changed the rhythm of everything, my brother died by suicide, and we lost my father-in-law. Grief, stress, and what I now understand to be hormonal shifts were all happening together. There was no clear line between them, just a feeling of being hit from every direction.

What I kept coming back to, over and over, was this quiet but persistent thought: I don’t feel like myself.

Hearing that same experience described in The Menopause Moment book by Kelly Casperson MD stopped me for a moment. It put language to something I had lived through without fully understanding. At the time, I wasn’t thinking about hormones or stages of life. I was trying to get through each day and find some sense of steadiness again. I never had my hormones tested. I didn’t know what questions to ask. I just knew something inside me felt unfamiliar.

What carried me through that season was my love of learning. I didn’t have a clear roadmap, so I started building one. Discovering the VIA Institute on Character helped me reconnect with something steady within myself. That strength led me to books, reflection, and a deeper curiosity about what I was experiencing. Over time, that exploration shaped what I now call my Soulful Path—Root, Rise, Radiate, Reflect.

• Root became the place I returned to when everything felt unstable. It grounded me when my body and mind felt unpredictable.

• Rise became a turning point. It helped me honor my emotions instead of being afraid of them, and over time, it helped me value the gifts those emotions were trying to offer. There was information in what I was feeling. There was guidance in it.

• Radiate reminded me there was still life and energy within me, even when it felt buried.

• Reflect gave me space to process what I had been through and begin to make sense of it.

Now, I find myself focused on harmony. Not a perfect state, but a steady relationship with myself that honors how much has changed and how much is still here.

If I had understood more at the beginning, I would have approached that time differently. I would have paid closer attention to what my body was signaling. I would have asked more questions and sought out more information. Going through that experience without context made it feel far more overwhelming than it needed to be. When your body and mind start shifting and you don’t know why, it can feel unsettling in a way that’s hard to explain.

Perimenopause and menopause are natural stages of life, yet so many people move through them without clear understanding of what’s happening. Some experience only subtle changes. Others feel it deeply across every part of their life. I found myself in that deeper experience, and it changed me.

Now, when I see others beginning this stage, I recognize it in ways I couldn’t before. I can see the questions behind their words, the moments where something feels off but hasn’t been named yet. That’s part of why this feels important to share.

If you’re in that place where something feels different and you can’t quite explain it, there is nothing random about that experience. Your body is communicating. It may be asking for care, attention, or a new way of supporting yourself.

You don’t have to figure it out all at once. You can stay curious. You can learn as you go. You can create your own path through it, one step at a time.

And if you’re looking for a space to talk this through, ask questions, or find your footing in the middle of it, you can schedule a session with me here: https://calendly.com/theresnoplacelikesoul

There’s No Place Like Soul 🪴