3 Step Plan to Reframe Midlife Transitions

Peri-Menopause, Creativity, and Running a Business: What’s Actually Helping Me

When I closed Our Happy Place physical space in March 2025, I finally had time and space to hear what my body had been whispering for a while: slow down.

I’d been carrying the weight of ten years of “go, go, go,” and it felt as if my body was crumbling. Add in peri-menopause symptoms and I was a mess!

Sleep was unpredictable. Brain fog showed up like a browser with too many tabs—everything technically open, nothing loading well. Recovery took longer after busy days, and small stressors felt huge.

Instead of muscling through fatigue and fog, I started asking, “What would feel kind right now?” That question has become my new business strategy—gentler rhythms, fewer tabs open, more presence. Slow living. Simplicity.

Noticing these shifts in my body helped me stop labelling them as “failures” and start treating them like information. I’ve learned that when I respect my energy, it respects me back.

“Good things” do not equal the “right things”

With this new strategy of slowing down, I started saying “not now” to good things so I could say “absolutely yes” to the right things.

FOMO is real but as I dropped the expectation to be everywhere for everyone else, I found a simple rhythm I can actually live with that gives me space - mentally and physically - to be what I need to be in the moment. Sometimes this is meeting friends in the city and other times it is reading a good book in my favourite chair. Both are ok - and absolutely necessary for my mental health!

Boundaries haven’t made me smaller; they’ve made my attention deeper and allow me to be more present with my family, friends and business.

The “new” me

Julie "2.0" (or more like "7.0" when you take in all of my life transitions...) looks more like:

• Daily walks and movement - alone, with my dog, Luna, or with friends

• Meals built around protein + fiber - think eggs and legumes, colourful veggies, soups, greek yogurt with fruit and seeds

• Creativity in tiny doses - ten minutes of watercoulor, a single photo walk, or journalling one page in my favourite notebook.

• Focus time to create content and reassess how I want my business to look going forward

The win is the rhythm, not the production. Most days, these small anchors keep my mood steadier and my mind clearer.

Tools I actually use

• Weekly view + daily 3: I keep a paper planner with one weekly overview and a “Top 3” priorities for each day. If it doesn’t fit, it moves. I love the planner from Inspired Stories because it has a combination of daily, weekly, monthly and year overviews.

• Light checklists: as a former list-making pro, I now keep short lists to make my life easier, including a short weekly checklist for my work and personal to-do’s (the planner I use has a page with these lists for each week)

• Focus timer: 30–45 minute work sprints, then a stretch or a drink (water or tea).

• Wind-down cues: gratitude in my 5 Minute Journal, put the phone away after dinner (this is a work in progress 😅), 10-15 minute meditation before bed or 5-6 box breaths if I'm not in the mood for a meditation

• Supplements that support me (personal, not medical advice!): magnesium and vitamin D to support my sleep and mood; multi-vitamin for women; HRT for peri-menopause symptoms. Always check with your healthcare professional(s) for what’s right for you.

  
  

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Here's a short 3-step plan you can try to reframe your midlife transition:

1. Pick your anchors: Choose one movement (15–30 min walk), one food anchor (protein + colourful veggies), and one 10-minute creative micro-practice. Put them in your calendar like meetings with yourself.

2. Set a boundary: Identify one energy leak (an extra meeting, late-night scrolling, saying yes too fast). Replace it with a “not now—let’s revisit in two weeks.” Notice how much space returns. Once this boundary is under control. Choose another one and repeat.

3. Start and end the day kindly: Write one line: What helped today? Then prep tomorrow’s “Top 3.” Keep the lights low, phone away, and sit in the same quiet space.

If this resonates, you’ll love the cozy, low-pressure rhythm we’re building in our community walks, simple creative moments, and honest conversations about slow living in Zürich. Come as you are; leave a little more you.