Tiredness is one of the most common symptoms of the menopause. It can be from symptoms such as hot flushes and night sweats or waking up in the wee hours of the morning and can’t get back to sleep.

If you keep hitting the snooze button you have less time to get ready in the mornings and all you good intentions about food planning and doing some exercise in the morning just goes out the window as you focus on getting to work on time.

It creates a spiral for the day and it feels like you are always on the back foot and can’t quite catch up with yourself.

You haven’t had time to eat breakfast so you grab what’s easiest with a coffee to go rather than the healthy nutritional breakfast you had planned. As you are also watching your waistline, you become annoyed at yourself for the extra calories you didn’t want to consume.

Tiredness can leave you feeling a bit moody, as in you just exercise when you feel like and just thinking about your usual exercise routine is too much effort. But the lack of exercise is making you feel as stiff as a board and you miss it and the feeling you get at the end of a good exercise session.

At some point you may start to think about what you can do that is manageable for you.

You may have heard that Hatha yoga is great for reducing stress and improving energy levels, but, it’s yoga! The classes are either early in the morning or late at night. They are usually 90 minutes long (eye roll) who has time for that never mind the energy for it!

I have cherry picked the best bits of Hatha yoga for supporting the menopause and reducing stress levels, that you can do in the comfort of your own home. No chanting, no headstands, no fancy yoga pants unless you want to wear them!

Can just 5 minutes on your mat, make a difference to how you feel and your energy levels?

Most definitely if you are picking the right things to do. I have brought together Menogise, a 4 week digital programme. No matter where you are in the world you can do it and part of a community who have the same issues as you have with energy levels and lack of oomph to get going. It has a wee bit of Hatha yoga, with gentle stretches and Pilates exercises added in.

Trying out new things in the privacy of your own home, feels a much safer option.

If you do not feel in your best physical shape, it can affect your confidence and trying something new may feel you are stretching yourself a bit too much mentally as well as physically

~Get back into a regular exercise habit starting with gentle stretches that take just 10 mins max
~Start connecting your mind and body and tune into what works for you in this phase of your menopause
~Have the confidence to perform gentle exercises and stretches knowing they are reducing your stress levels and providing you with much need energy boost.

You have a muggy head or brain fog and you know you are not always making the best choices because of that. You are picking the easiest choice for dinner rather than the healthiest choice. You may feel that you are letting yourself down, but don’t quite know how to get out of this tiredness cycle.

It can be easy to let things drift with a mañana attitude. ‘Tomorrow I’ll go to the gym as I’ll be more energetic then’. To keep put things off, but also knowing deep down, that crashing on the sofa with Netflix isn’t going to make you feel better.

I have created this programme in bite-sized chunks. Everyone has 5 minutes to do a wee something for themselves. If you meet me halfway on the mat, you will probably do 10 mins!

You can make some amazing changes in just 4 weeks when you keep it to bite-sized manageable chunks but are consistent with getting on your mat every day.