Regulating Emotions for Women Recovering from Burnout & Mental Overload

For the Woman Who Holds It All Together — It’s Time to Come Home to Yourself

You’re a leader. A visionary. A woman who gets things done. Whether you’re a CEO, CFO, founder, or entrepreneur — you carry the weight of decisions, deadlines, teams, and a thousand unseen details. But under that polished, capable surface… something may be fraying.

If you’ve been feeling more reactive, foggy, or emotionally drained than usual, you’re not alone. Burnout doesn’t always look like a breakdown. Sometimes, it looks like high-functioning exhaustion. Mental overload becomes your “new normal” until your nervous system starts flashing warning signs.

The Hidden Cost of High Performance

Women over 40 are often in their peak leadership years. You’ve worked hard to get where you are. But as the responsibilities pile up, so does the cost to your physical, emotional, and hormonal health.

Let’s take a closer look at what’s happening.

Top 3 Reasons Women Over 40 Are Especially Prone to Burnout & Mental Overload

1. Hormonal Shifts During Perimenopause

Beginning in your late 30s to early 40s, your body begins the natural transition toward menopause. This phase, called perimenopause, can last up to 10 years. Even if you’re still cycling regularly, your hormones are already fluctuating in ways that directly impact your brain and nervous system.

• Estrogen spikes and crashes can lead to anxiety, irritability, and emotional sensitivity.

• Progesterone declines, removing its calming effect on your nervous system and making it harder to sleep or feel grounded.

• These hormonal changes affect your cortisol regulation (your stress hormone), meaning your body can’t bounce back from stress like it used to.

2. Relentless Cognitive Load

As a high-achieving woman, your mental bandwidth is constantly being taxed. From business strategy to people management to personal obligations, the sheer volume of decisions you make daily is staggering. Add to that the invisible mental labor of emotional regulation, and it’s no wonder your system feels fried.

Symptoms of cognitive overload include:

• Difficulty concentrating or making decisions

• Mental fog and forgetfulness

• Heightened reactivity or emotional detachment

3. Living in a Culture That Rewards Disconnection

We’re taught to override, perform, and stay productive at all costs. Even self-care gets commodified into something to check off a list. The body becomes something to manage or ignore, rather than a source of intelligence. This disconnection is a major contributor to burnout — especially when your body is already undergoing profound change.

What Does Burnout Look Like in High-Functioning Women?

Here are some of the most common signs that you’re in burnout or overload:

• Emotional reactivity or numbness: You either feel everything all at once or feel shut down entirely.

• Cognitive fog: You struggle to focus or make decisions, even about small things.

• Physical tension: Your body feels tight, wired, or depleted. Rest doesn’t feel restorative.

• Insomnia or disrupted sleep: You’re exhausted but can’t shut your mind off.

• Loss of joy or drive: You feel like you’re going through the motions, disconnected from purpose.

This isn’t just stress. It’s your body telling you it’s time to reset.

Three Somatic Solutions to Reclaim Your Energy & Emotional Resilience

Healing from burnout isn’t about doing more — it’s about coming back to what your body already knows. Somatic practices are body-based tools that support nervous system regulation, emotional processing, and deeper embodiment.

1. Grounding Through the Feet (5 Minutes Daily)

The nervous system loves simplicity and rhythm. Grounding through your feet reconnects you with the support of the earth and helps discharge anxious energy.

How to Practice:

• Stand or sit with feet flat on the floor.

• Gently shift your weight side to side, then forward and back.

• Visualize roots growing from your feet deep into the earth.

Why It Works: This activates your parasympathetic nervous system, signaling to your brain that you are safe. It brings you back from racing thoughts into embodied presence.

2. Orienting with the Eyes (3–5 Minutes as Needed)

Our eyes are directly connected to the nervous system. When we’re overwhelmed, we tend to stare, freeze, or become hyper-focused. Orienting helps soften this response and return you to the present.

How to Practice:

• Slowly move your eyes around the space you’re in.

• Let your gaze rest gently on objects, colors, or shapes without judgment.

• Name what you see aloud or silently (e.g., “blue chair,” “sunlight on wall”).

Why It Works: This technique engages your brain’s safety circuitry and helps de-escalate a stress response, pulling you out of fight-or-flight mode.

3. Vagal Toning Through Sound (2–3 Minutes)

Your vagus nerve is the main communication highway between your body and brain, playing a key role in emotional regulation. Humming or using a “voo” sound can gently stimulate it.

How to Practice:

• Sit comfortably and take a slow breath in.

• On the exhale, make a long “Voo” or humming sound, letting it vibrate in your chest.

• Repeat 3–5 times, noticing any shifts in your body.

Why It Works: Sound vibrations directly tone the vagus nerve, helping you move from sympathetic arousal (stress) to parasympathetic restoration (calm).

The Bottom Line: Burnout is Not a Personal Failure

If you’re feeling emotionally flooded, mentally foggy, or physically exhausted, it doesn’t mean you’re weak. It means your body is asking you to slow down, recalibrate, and come back into relationship with yourself.

Burnout recovery for women over 40 requires a somatic, hormonal, and nervous system-aware approach. This is not the time to override. It’s the time to return to your body as your greatest ally.

Your Next Step: Join Me for a Interoceptive Training

Let this be your turning point.

Because your leadership doesn’t require more force. It requires deeper embodiment, gentler rhythms, and the courage to truly listen to your body’s wisdom.

I’ll meet you there.