🔊 Episode Summary:

You’re holding it together… until someone breathes too loud or a canned potato goes missing. Welcome to meltdown math: cortisol + perimenopause = stress dumpster fire. In today’s episode of Unapologetically Imperfect, we’re breaking down the science of your stress response, how hormonal shifts mess with your ability to cope, and why rage-quitting the grocery store is a nervous system issue—not a character flaw.

From sobbing at the periodontist to losing it in aisle 3, Jen gets real about the emotional whiplash of midlife and what’s actually happening inside your body when it all feels like too much. This episode is both a permission slip to rest and a toolkit for calming your system before it combusts.

💡 What You’ll Learn:

• How cortisol impacts your mood, memory, digestion & sleep
• Why perimenopause makes stress feel unmanageable
• What your vagus nerve is really doing (and yes, it’s a thing)
• Tiny, doable ways to build stress resilience—without disappearing to a Costa Rican jungle

🧰 Tools & Tips Inside:

• Nervous system hygiene (no crystals required)
• Micro-recovery habits that actually work
• What to eat (and avoid) for hormone-fueled stress
• Boundaries, movement, and how to spike cortisol on purpose then let it go

💬 Favorite Line:

“If it costs you your peace, it’s too fcking expensive.”*

🗂 Resources:

• Learn more about The Balanced Life Lab community: Here
• Join Jen for Group coaching: Here

👉 Keep Listening:

Subscribe, follow, or leave a review if this episode made you feel a little less unhinged and a little more understood.

📲 Connect with Jen:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• https://www.jenleemorse.com
• Email: [email protected]

Keep being unapologetically imperfect - you've got this.