Last summer everything was going right for me. I\u2019d just had a huge win at work – and yet, I was incapable of celebrating. When I should have been dancing from the rooftops, I was sulking indoors hiding from friends and family. When I went to see a doctor, she confirmed what I\u2019d already suspected. My frequent periods and chronic insomnia were symptoms of perimenopause. Alongside a prescription for HRT, she suggested I go and see a therapist as my bloodwork showed elevated cortisol levels, indicating I was extremely stressed.<\/p>\n
Easy for her to say. Just looking at the fees charged by therapists made my heart thump, triggering yet more sleepless nights. Surely there was a cheaper way to handle this problem? This was when I decided to try writing a happiness diary<\/strong>. The idea is simple: write down three things a day that make you happy along with one thing you\u2019re looking forward to.<\/p>\n Simple, and yet my inner teenager rebelled against the notion of enforced positivity. Still, who was she to sneer? My adolescent diary was so self-involved, I had cringed re-reading it and sworn never to write one again.<\/p>\n Instead, over the course of my career, I trained myself to look outwards. Observing the actions of others, I avoided writing about my own emotional state. Unfortunately, this was precisely why it was so hard to pinpoint the moment my mood took a nosedive. Once I realised how low I\u2019d sunk, it was impossible to imagine things having ever been any different.<\/p>\n When you\u2019re depressed it feels as if you\u2019ve always been this way. Negative emotions dwarf any positivity. And here\u2019s where the happiness diary comes in: by highlighting bright moments, it\u2019s possible to create a new narrative. Determined to break out of the grey fug that had enveloped me, I tuned out my doubts and started writing.<\/p>\n As my batteries were low, I began with a few lines just before bedtime. The resulting entries were repetitive. All I could come up with was: stroking the cat, having my morning coffee, cooking, and riding my bike. I felt frustrated. Sure I was beginning to notice the small things, but the bigger moments still eluded me. Social occasions felt hellish. Everybody irritated me and I hardly felt up to faking gaiety.<\/p>\n Time to ramp things up. Now I\u2019d try to expand. Why did I enjoy these small things? I started thinking about my solitary morning coffee, drunk before anyone else was around. Silence had become really important to me. Perhaps I ought to seek it out more?<\/p>\n Looking for positive moments of solitude – sitting in front of the TV tended to send me into a deeper fug – I started taking more bike rides out into the countryside, or if I was at home, I spent the time cooking. Both activities involved total focus, allowing me to forget the swirl of dark thoughts that tended to haunt me at other times. And even better, as my thighs firmed up, the freezer filled with bagels, curries and cake. Treats for when I couldn’t summon the energy to properly care for myself.<\/p>\n Next, I turned to the question of why I wasn\u2019t enjoying social events and noticed that after two drinks my mood dipped. Boozy nights out were not as fun as they had been. My relationship with alcohol had to change. For far too long, I had been letting my inner teenager guide my actions. She\u2019d been wrong about the diary and she was doubly wrong when she told me to stay out and have another. So I cut back and started ordering non-alcoholic drinks along with beers.<\/p>\n Around the time I realised this, I took a trip to the countryside with a new friend. On a long walk, she admitted that she now preferred hikes to long drinking sessions. I felt massively relieved. I wasn\u2019t the only one!<\/p>\n That hike was just one of many gorgeous moments that had begun to illuminate my life. With the spring flowers in bloom, both of us were able to discuss the difficulties we faced and encourage each other to forge ahead. I felt so uplifted that the entry that night was utterly rapturous! Unlike the wild nights of my youth, this moment would be properly remembered!<\/p>\n Feeling my joie de vivre return little by little each day has been wonderful. But along with deeply-felt happiness, there have been painful moments. Just recently one of my cats was diagnosed with lymphoma. Now I have to face the fact that the little kitty who had appeared so many times in the pages of my diary might not be with me for much longer.<\/p>\n Once you allow yourself to feel gratitude for what you have, you realise its value. When I heard the news I couldn\u2019t help but cry. But crying like this was a big win. When I had been deeply depressed, I hadn\u2019t properly felt either joy or pain. Despite feeling down, I hadn\u2019t been able to sob it out of my system.<\/p>\n Now I was bawling my eyes out. And I wasn\u2019t only crying for the loss of my cat. The arrival of perimenopause has made me keenly aware of my own mortality. I\u2019ve passed the midway point and there is no going back. I had to mourn this loss. On one of the many evenings I spent alone at home, I bawled my eyes out listening to a Kate Bush album that reminded me of my teenage years. It was a bittersweet moment that I, of course, put in my diary.<\/p>\n In the end, I ended up using my diary to record both the good and the bad. For me, it was a way to allow myself to deeply feel the troubling emotions I\u2019d been suppressing. And when the tears dried, after I\u2019d given myself permission to feel sad, it was so much easier to emerge from my solitary shell and begin to feel glad again.<\/p>\n For more stories, advice and interviews, head to the\u00a0Menopause Your Way Stories hub<\/a>. To browse and shop a curated edit of menopause products, visit the\u00a0Menopause Your Way page on QVC<\/a>.<\/p>\n The content of the QVC website is for information only. It is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on the QVC website.<\/i><\/p>\n We understand there\u2019s a lot of information out there on the menopause. You can read through the\u00a0<\/i>NICE guidance on menopause management<\/i><\/a>, as well as the\u00a0<\/i>NHS overview on the menopause<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last summer everything was going right for me. I\u2019d just had a huge win at work – and yet, I was incapable of celebrating. When I should have been dancing from the rooftops, I was sulking indoors hiding from friends and family. When I went to see a doctor, she confirmed what I\u2019d already suspected. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":82,"featured_media":119159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[292,295],"tags":[176],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.qvcuk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119157"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.qvcuk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.qvcuk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.qvcuk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/82"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.qvcuk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119157"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stories.qvcuk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119160,"href":"https:\/\/stories.qvcuk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119157\/revisions\/119160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.qvcuk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.qvcuk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.qvcuk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.qvcuk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}