Stress, Recovery & Longevity in Menopause: Go-Go-Go Living Isn’t Sustainable

Stress can literally shorten your life — but the right kind of stress can actually build resilience. In this episode of The Menopause Method, Cam Allen explores how stress impacts healthspan vs lifespan, and why reframing stress is one of the most powerful longevity tools for women in midlife.

You’ll discover:

• How heavy stress increases disease risk and cuts years off lifespan
• Why “go-go-go” living isn’t sustainable or true health
• The difference between harmful stress and healthy stress that builds resilience
• How to reframe stress using the belief “There’s no failure, only feedback”
• Simple strategies to lower stress and extend your healthspan after 40

If you’re ready to stress less and live longer, this episode is for you. Try my Menopause Minis: 10-Minute Strength Workouts here: https://www.camoyler.com/meno-minis 

Use CAMYOUTUBE at checkout to save $20

👉 Comment below: What’s one stress habit you’d love to reframe right now?

Chapters:
00:00 Longevity and Muscle Health Tips
05:15 Reframe: Stress as Longevity Tool
07:14 Life as Feedback and Growth

Transcript

0:00

Want to add more living to your life? Welcome back to the Menopause Method podcast. This is part two in our longevity series where we're talking about health span, not just lifespan. In the first episode, we looked at why muscle really is your armor for aging. We talked about how wonderful walking is, but walking alone is not enough if you want to stay strong, steady, and independent all through your midlife. I shared how grip strength is actually one of the strongest predictors of longevity. It's kind of like a snapshot of how much muscle you have on your body. Plus, I gave you some simple ways to get started. Farmer's carries, suitcase carry, and even dead hangs. And I left you with this thought. What would it look like to become the woman who actually feels strong in her body? Not just for today, but for decades to come? Today, we're shifting from strength to stress because go, go, go. Living might be celebrated as a wonderful lifestyle, but let's be honest, that's not sustainable. And if we're really honest, it's actually not even living. Research shows us that heavy stress literally cuts years off of our lives. It increases our risk for heart disease and cancer. No, thank you. But here's the fascinating part. Stress isn't all bad. The right kind of stress actually builds resilience. Too much stress wears us down. Too little stress leaves us really flat. So we gotta meet stress somewhere in the middle, somewhere in the healthy range. So it actually becomes a training ground for longevity. So I learned this lesson back in 2020 when I got a sauna. At first, my tolerance for the sauna was super low. Physically, I felt like I couldn't breathe. I was staring at the clock, I was staring at the temperature. I just wanted to get out of there. So mentally, after a few minutes, sometimes I was done. My body and my brain were screaming, nope, this is too much again. I was like a year post hysterectomy, so I was very aware of, like, how my body was responding. But instead of pushing myself like I used to do in the CrossFit days, I just stayed curious. Some days I stayed in a little longer, some days I stayed in a little shorter. And I made it okay. It really depended on how I slept and how I felt that day. Over time, though, I built up my resilience and my tolerance. Now, one of my favorite ways to use the sauna is 25 minute session after a strength workout. It feels restorative, not punishing, and it actually mimics cardio. So that's a. Heck yeah. In my. In my world. So what does healthy stress actually do? It trains your body and your mind to adapt and recover stronger. Just like when you lift weights, you're causing little micro tears in your muscles, and over time, they rebuild stronger. The right amount of stress does the same thing for you. Now, I'm going to pull this through the four bodies because I love doing that physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. And we're going to start with the physical body. So physical stress shows up in the way we feel. Maybe we feel inflamed. Maybe you notice more belly fat. Sometimes you may just toss and turn and it's really hard to sleep. Or I have this in my late 40s, slow recovery, like, just couldn't catch up. I often kid that my belly fluff is like a barometer of my stress. If I've had a stressful week and I look down at my belly, it's puffier than it was a week that I wasn't stressed. Does that happen to you too? Anyway, the right kind of stress, like lifting weights or sitting in the sauna, actually teaches your body to recover stronger emotionally. Stress can actually shorten your fuse. Have you ever snapped at someone you love? Or maybe you had tears that came out of nowhere. But when you reframe those moments, stress actually becomes a chance to practice your steadiness and show emotional regulation. Mentally, stress feels like brain fog. It's really hard to make good decisions, and you're just basically trying to survive. For me, when I know I'm too stressed, mental stress feels like busy behind my eyes. But if you're curious about your approach to stress, it actually sharpens your focus and you build your resilience. You can actually handle more than you thought you could. So what about spiritually? Spiritually, stress pulls you out of presence. You're either in the past or you're in the future. It disconnects you from the big picture. And when you meet it, with breath and some awareness, prayer, a pause, stress can actually connect you back to your purpose. And here's something that most people don't say out loud. Our culture celebrates the grind. You gotta hustle, you gotta be busy. Your to do list must be a mile long. You gotta prove yourself. All that. But the truth is, rest is actually medicine. And I've mentioned this before, rest is actually one of the four keys to midlife fitness. Because recovery is actually a strategy. It doesn't make you lazy. You're not losing your fitness. All that stuff that I heard in the CrossFit gym all through my 40s. Oh, if I miss a day I'm going to lose my fitness. Come on. It took you years or months to build your fitness. One day off is not going to wreck it. When you reframe stress, it is actually one of the most powerful tools for longevity. Reframing is one of my favorite strategies. So what is reframing? It's taking the same situation and putting a new mat and a new frame and hanging it up on your wall. Literally, it's the same situation, but you're just changing the way you look at it. One of my favorite reframes is there's no failure, only feedback. So when you miss a workout and you eat the way that doesn't feel good to your belly, or maybe you lose your cool with your partner, that's really not a failure. It's just feedback of how much stress your body is feeling. Feedback that your nervous system is maxed out. Feedback that maybe you need rest, support, ask for help, or maybe just a new approach. Feedback always comes with this invitation. What can I learn from this? And what is the lesson here for me? Because you need to hear this. Your life is a mirror for what's going on. When you hear or see something that's really tough for you, like in another person, that's an opportunity for you to learn more about yourself and actually grow. So think about that impatient friend. If impatient wasn't one of your life lessons, you wouldn't even notice that they're impatient. But since it's bothering you and it's getting under your skin, that's actually a chance for you to look inside. And what is there to learn about my impatience? But here's also the. Here's the other side of that. It's not just the hard stuff. It's the positive traits you admire in other people as well. Those are being mirrored back to you as well, because those traits also exist in you. So when you start viewing your life as a mirror and there is only feedback, no failure, you can see that life is always happening for you. And when you start viewing life this way, your stress goes way down. And guess what? Your longevity goes up. You might find that when you start treating stress, like as feedback, everything changes. What would it be like if a stressful moment was actually an invitation not to push harder, but actually to pause, breathe, and reframe? And here's the double bind. Do you want to keep running in that go, go, go loop that you feel drained, or do you want to practice something new? One where stress actually becomes information for yourself, information that actually makes you stronger. So here's your reflection for today. Where in my life am I confusing that pushing harder of my younger me with actually being healthier? And how can I reframe that as feedback instead of failure? What can I learn from this? And what is the lesson here for me? And how might this moment be a mirror showing me something about myself that I can actually grow from and get better, stronger and more resilient? Reminding me that a positive trait already exists to me? Because when you start seeing life this way, life is feedback. Life is a mirror. Life is an opportunity. Your stress goes way down and your midlife wisdom goes way up. Guess what else follows? Longevity. If you'd like to explore it more, I've linked some resources in the show notes. Below you'll find free guides like the Bone Health, where I actually have a built in guided meditation thanking your bones, as well as some of my favorite paid programs and next steps if you're ready to go deeper. Of course, I'd love to hear from you too. What's one small way you can reframe stress this week? Share it in the comments. Let's figure this out together and if this conversation resonated with you, make sure to like this episode. Give the show a follow and share it with a friend who needs a reminder that longevity is about adding life to your years. If you missed episode one, make sure you check that out because strength is definitely part of our longevity too. And I'll see you next week.