In this episode, the conversation explores what women commonly experience after 40—hormonal shifts, identity changes, and new health concerns—and how these changes impact relationships. Rather than blaming anyone, the focus is on insight, understanding, and practical ways couples can support each other, regulate their nervous systems together, and build deeper, safer connection in this season of life.

Key Points:

• Women 40+ face hormone changes and lower libido
• Nervous system becomes more sensitive and reactive
• Identity shifts as kids need mom less
• Need more rest, quiet, and alone time
• This is recalibration, not rejection of partners
• Women need safety, support, and listening, not fixing
• Women are allowed to change and ask for what they need
• Shared nervous system regulation (walks, breathwork, rituals)
• Prioritize sleep and a calm, tech-free bedroom
• Being rested reduces conflict and reactivity
• Take ownership of health: food, movement, sleep
• Nurture nourishing relationships; drop draining ones
• Reduce phone use and comparison to others
• Google searches show concern about perimenopause and hormones
• Women worry about heart, bone, sleep, and chronic health
• Relationships in your 40s will (and should) look different
• With communication, this season can deepen connection
• Quality of relationships shapes quality of life

Connect with Anna:

Email: annamarie@happywholeyou.com / info@HappyWholeYou.com

Website: www.happywholeyou.com / https://linktr.ee/happywholeyou

Personal Website: www.DrAnnaMarie.com

Instagram: @happywholeyou

Personal Instagram: @Dr.Anna.Marie

Facebook: Happy Whole You

LinkedIn: Anna Marie Frank

Venmo: @happywholeyou

In this episode, the focus is on the "quiet crisis" many accomplished women experience in midlife: having everything they worked for yet feeling empty or misaligned. The conversation explores how success driven by external validation and constant achievement can leave a gap where meaning, alignment, and inner peace should be. Listeners are invited to slow down, regulate their nervous system, get quiet enough to hear their intuition, and begin honoring the desires that have been quietly calling to them.

Key Points

• Quiet crisis: success achieved, but inner emptiness remains
• Many goals were built on others' expectations, not true desires
• Midlife shifts focus from "What can I do?" to "Who am I?"
• External success vs. internal alignment and meaning
• Dopamine-driven achievement can't fill a deeper soul need
• Regulating the nervous system allows more calm and clarity
• Silence and stillness make room for intuition to be heard
• Notice what now feels heavy that once felt exciting
• Notice what feels alive and keeps "tapping on your shoulder"
• Example: prioritizing short, frequent trips to see a loved one
• Midlife as recalibration, not crisis

Connect with Anna:

Email: annamarie@happywholeyou.com / info@HappyWholeYou.com

Website: www.happywholeyou.com / https://linktr.ee/happywholeyou

Personal Website: www.DrAnnaMarie.com

Instagram: @happywholeyou

Personal Instagram: @Dr.Anna.Marie

Facebook: Happy Whole You

LinkedIn: Anna Marie Frank

Venmo: @happywholeyou

In this episode, Dr. Anna Marie explores the idea that women are not "too much" — they are often just carrying too much for too long. She shares a vulnerable story about burnout while planning a conference, how being labeled "too much" is often about dysregulated nervous systems (ours and others'), and why midlife can feel like a breaking point. She reframes exhaustion, grief, and the loss of hustle as biology and awakening rather than failure, and offers practical ways to regulate the nervous system, release people-pleasing, and honor rest as a form of leadership.

Key Points:

• Being "too much" is often just carrying too much.
• Dysregulated nervous systems shape how we see ourselves and others.
• Midlife burnout can feel like grief for a former self.
• The body says "no" when the mind won't listen.
• Women hold an invisible emotional and mental load.
• Most women want presence and acknowledgment, not fixes.
• Regulating cortisol: light exposure, protein, consistent sleep.
• Reduce triggers: inflammatory foods, media, draining conversations.
• Use simple breathing rituals morning and night.
• Rest is not laziness; it is leadership.
• Outgrowing survival mode can make life feel heavier at first.
• Let go of people-pleasing and energy-draining commitments.
• Choose what gives energy; if it drains you, it's a "no."
  
  

Connect with Anna:

Email: annamarie@happywholeyou.com / info@HappyWholeYou.com

Website: www.happywholeyou.com / https://linktr.ee/happywholeyou

Personal Website: www.DrAnnaMarie.com

Instagram: @happywholeyou

Personal Instagram: @Dr.Anna.Marie

Facebook: Happy Whole You

LinkedIn: Anna Marie Frank

Venmo: @happywholeyou