Menopausal Anxiety: Is Your Nervous System Whispering or Shouting? 

It starts with a flutter, nothing big. A strange, low-level unease that settles into your stomach. At first, you think you are just overtired or perhaps coming down with something. But the whispers soon turned into a roar. 

Heart racing at night. Tears without warning. Irritability that feels disproportionate to the moment. You couldn’t explain it, and you certainly don’t feel like herself. 

If you’re nodding along, you’re not alone. These are common signs of menopausal anxiety, and they often go overlooked, misread as moodiness or burnout. But what if this is your nervous system trying to speak to you? What if it’s whispering… or perhaps shouting? 

The Hormone-Stress Loop

During perimenopause and menopause, the body undergoes a recalibration. As oestrogen and progesterone levels fluctuate, their effect on the nervous system becomes profound. These hormones don’t just regulate your reproductive system, they play key roles in mood stability, cognition, and sleep. 

When their levels drop, the stress response becomes heightened. The body shifts into “fight or flight” more readily. Cue the anxiety, irritability, insomnia, and feeling like you’re on the brink, even when nothing is “wrong.” 

Add to that modern life’s relentless pace, and your nervous system in menopause is working overtime. You may find yourself unable to rest, feeling “wired but tired,” or constantly bracing for something that never comes. 

The Role of the Vagus Nerve in Menopause

Let’s talk about the vagus nerve, the main communication highway between your brain and your body. It regulates key functions like digestion, heart rate, and emotional calm. When working well, it brings your body into parasympathetic mode: rest, digest, restore. 

But in menopause, the vagus nerve can become sluggish or overwhelmed by chronic stress. This impairs your ability to calm down after stressful events, leaving you in a heightened state of vigilance. 

“Vagus nerve menopause” is an increasingly recognised concept in integrative health, and learning how to tone the vagus nerve can be a game-changer in managing menopausal anxiety. 

Soothing the Shout: Vagal Toning & Breathwork

There’s no magic pill, but there are powerful practices that help. Two accessible ones are: 

• Vagal toning exercises: Humming, singing, gargling, or slow diaphragmatic breathing all stimulate the vagus nerve. Over time, this builds resilience and helps calm the nervous system. 

• Breathwork: Intentional breath practices, especially exhalation-focused techniques (like 4-7-8 breathing), signal safety to the body. Breath is one of the fastest ways to interrupt a stress response. 

What You Eat Tells Your Nervous System Whether You’re Safe

A depleted nervous system cannot regulate mood or energy properly, and midlife places increased demands on nutrient reserves often without the replenishment. If your mornings begin with caffeine and chaos, if lunch is rushed, and dinner is an afterthought, the message your body receives is one of threat, not safety. 

One of the most important minerals in this equation is magnesium. Essential for the calming neurotransmitter GABA, it also helps ease muscle tension, steady the heart rate, and support adrenal resilience. Dark leafy greens like spinach and chard, along with pumpkin seeds, lentils, avocados, and even a few squares of dark chocolate, are all reliable sources. But it’s worth knowing that stress, coffee, and poor sleep all deplete magnesium so consistent intake matters more than perfection. 

Equally essential are omega-3 fatty acids, particularly for women navigating hormonal shifts. These fats are anti-inflammatory, stabilise cell membranes in the brain, and help buffer the impact of stress hormones. Oily fish, like salmon or sardines, as well as flaxseeds and walnuts, are rich sources. If you’re not eating fish regularly, consider plant-based or algae-derived support, especially during the most emotionally volatile stages of perimenopause. 

Then come the B vitamins, particularly B6 and B12, quiet heroes in neurotransmitter synthesis. Without them, serotonin and dopamine production falters, and mood can plummet. B6 is found in chickpeas, poultry, and root vegetables like sweet potato, while B12 comes from animal proteins such as eggs, meat, and shellfish. B12 absorption declines with age, especially if you’ve used antacids or suffer from low stomach acid, which many midlife women do. It’s one of the reasons anxiety often worsens in this stage, not from deficiency of willpower, but of cofactors. 

And perhaps most important of all: blood sugar stability. When glucose levels swing, cortisol rises. A crash in the afternoon can feel like sudden anxiety, irritability, or even light-headedness and that sets off another round of nervous system dysregulation. The key here isn’t to avoid carbohydrates altogether but to anchor each meal with protein and fibre. A breakfast of eggs with greens, a lunch that includes oily fish and root vegetables, an afternoon snack of a few nuts and half an avocado. These choices stabilise the system, giving the brain what it needs to regulate, rather than react. 

 Food is not just energy. It’s information. And for a woman in midlife, it is one of the clearest ways to tell the nervous system: you’re not under threat anymore. 

Neuroenergetic Kinesiology: Balancing Energy & Emotion

At Aura & Meta, we integrate neuroenergetic kinesiology, a modality that works with the body’s energetic pathways to reset the nervous system and release stored stress patterns. This approach identifies the exact imbalances creating distress and helps clear emotional blocks that are often subconscious. 

Kinesiology doesn’t just address the symptoms of menopausal anxiety, it goes to the root. By combining energetic work with tailored guidance, we help women move out of survival mode and into clarity and confidence. 

You can learn more about this beautiful modality on our website: What is Kinesiology, How it Works, and Benefits. 

If your nervous system feels like it’s been shouting and no one’s listening, know that you don’t have to carry this alone. Together, we can gently turn down the volume and restore balance, physically, emotionally, energetically. 

Book your place for The Empowered Reset

(limited spaces) and begin the process of moving from cortisol chaos to hormonal clarity, not through force, but through function.