When “Pushing Through” Starts to Push Back

If you’ve ever caught yourself saying, “I just need to get through this week,” you’re not alone. In today’s world, “pushing through” has almost become a badge of honour especially for women balancing work, family, and the quiet expectations that seem to fill every corner of the day.

But beneath that quiet strength, our bodies are whispering something different. Constant stress leaves a mark not just in our minds, but in our hormones, energy, and mood.

When life feels like one long sprint, your main stress hormone, cortisol, stays switched on. It’s meant to help you handle short bursts of pressure, but when it never gets the signal to turn off, everything from your sleep to your cycle can start to shift. You might notice feeling flat one moment and wired the next, or that sense of being tired but unable to rest.

Cortisol: Your Body’s First Responder

Think of cortisol as your body’s emergency responder. The one that helps you rise to the challenge, focus, and keep moving when things get tough. But when you live in that “emergency mode” for too long, your internal systems start to miscommunicate.

Your brain’s stress circuit, called the HPA axis, can begin to misfire. It slows down the release of reproductive hormones, which means your oestrogen and progesterone, the hormones that help regulate mood, sleep, and emotional steadiness can fall out of sync.

Research even shows cortisol naturally changes across your cycle, often running higher in the early days than later in the month. So, when you’re in perimenopause and your hormone levels are already shifting, your stress response can feel extra sensitive, sometimes even unpredictable.

Why You Feel “Wired but Tired”

Here’s the tricky part: high cortisol doesn’t just affect how you feel; it also changes how your body stores and uses energy. When stress sticks around, your body goes into preservation mode holding on to fat, especially around the middle, as a way to “protect” you. It’s an ancient survival mechanism that doesn’t quite fit modern life.

Psychologically, it’s no easier. Constant stress ramps up anxiety, scatters focus and interrupts deep sleep, it’s a perfect storm during hormonal changes. Studies show women often experience higher cortisol spikes than men under pressure, thanks to our hormonal sensitivity and emotional multitasking. No wonder so many of us in midlife feel both wired and exhausted at the same time.

Rest Isn’t a Luxury, It’s Medicine

Here’s the truth we’re rarely told rest isn’t indulgent. It’s essential. Your body needs it to heal, balance, and recalibrate.

Simple, intentional moments of rest like breathing deeply for a few minutes, stepping outside into daylight, sipping herbal tea instead of another coffee, or leaving your phone in another room can lower cortisol and help your nervous system settle. These aren’t grand gestures; they’re small acts of repair.

When you start weaving rest into your daily rhythm, you’re not slowing down your progress you’re strengthening your foundation. For women in midlife, whose hormones are already rewriting their rhythm, these micro-rituals can be profoundly transformative.

At Aloriae, we see rest as regulation. It’s not another task to tick off. It’s a soft invitation for your body to return to harmony. Because true recalibration doesn’t come from doing more, it begins the moment you finally exhale.

---

Science Snapshot

Hamidovic, A., Karapetyan, H., Karapetyan, A., Cox, C. and Singh, S. (2020) Higher circulating cortisol in the follicular vs. luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. Frontiers in Endocrinology. Available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fendo.2020.00311/full

Lovallo, W.R., Farag, N.H., Vincent, A.S. and Thomas, T.L. (2019) Cortisol stress reactivity in women, diurnal variations and contraceptive effects. PubMed Central (PMC). Available at: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6525075/

StatPearls (2023) Physiology, cortisol. NCBI Bookshelf. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538239/ [Accessed 13 October 2025].

James, K.A., Mitchell, C. and Roden, L. (2023) Understanding the relationships between physiological stress response and emotional wellbeing in aging women. Frontiers in Endocrinology. Available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fendo.2023.1085950/full