Seven months after my hysterectomy, I thought I was strong enough to keep going at full speed. Working full time. Growing my business. Showing up for women every day. And then my body forced me to stop. This blog explores the truth about menopause after hysterectomy, nervous system burnout, trauma recovery, addiction healing, and the pressure midlife women carry in silence. If you are exhausted, overwhelmed, or pushing through your own warning signs, this is the conversation your body has been begging you to have.

I’ll be honest with you. I thought I was fine. Like classic Gen X fine. Meaning I was powering through my days with coffee, grit, and that old survival strategy of pretending everything is totally manageable. Seven months after my hysterectomy, I really believed I was bouncing back. I was working full time. Wearing my life coach hat. Growing Hopeful Horizons. Pouring into my Courage Collective women every single day. And then my body shut down on me like a teenager slamming a bedroom door. Total shutdown. Fatigue. Brain fog. A full stop I didn’t choose. That was the moment I realized that even though I teach women how to slow down and listen to their bodies, I still wasn’t doing it myself.

When Your Body Finally Says Stop

Most midlife women know that feeling of being tired but pretending we’re not. We grew up in homes where nobody talked about trauma, hormones, addiction, toxic stress, or the truth about how much women carry. We learned to perform strength instead of living it.

So when my hysterectomy came and went, I told myself I was good. Healing. Tough. Capable. I told myself this because doing anything else felt like weakness. And honestly, I didn’t want to deal with the grief and the reality that my body had just gone through a major surgery that changed everything.

But here’s the thing about the body. It keeps score. And eventually it keeps receipts too.

The Moment Everything Crashed

Two weeks ago I hit a wall. Not a cute little moment of tiredness. I’m talking full brain fog. Zero motivation. My whole nervous system tapping out and saying nope.

I sat there thinking, how is this happening. I’m a certified life coach. I teach women how to regulate their nervous system. I talk about boundaries and burnout and healing. I coach other women through the exact same patterns I was refusing to see in myself.

It was humbling. And honestly, it was a bit embarrassing.

But here’s the truth. No amount of training or journaling or awareness removes the human part of me. And the human part of me was exhausted.

Why My Recovery Has Been So Intense

Seven months post hysterectomy means my hormones are not gently drifting into menopause. They were shoved off a cliff.

No estrogen for me. (No HRTs for me anymore!)
Instant menopause… All. Over. Again!
Hot flashes that could melt an ice cube from across the room.
Night sweats that nearly made me change the sheets.
Brain fog thick enough to lose my own train of thought mid sentence.

And layered underneath all of this was trauma healing. Addiction recovery. Nervous system fatigue from decades of being the reliable one. The responsible one. The strong one.

The one who never falls apart in public.

Except we don’t get medals for that. We get autoimmune disorders.

The Weight Women Carry Alone

Women have been dealing with menopause in silence for generations. Our mothers never talked about it. Our doctors barely explained it. And we carry that same silence into every part of our lives. We whisper about trauma. We whisper about people pleasing. We whisper about addiction. We whisper about the nights when our bodies scream for rest but we keep going because someone needs us.

I’m tired of whispering.

Because what I’m seeing in my Courage Collective is this.
Women are looking for a place where they can tell the truth.
Women are tired of holding it all together.
Women are tired of the pressure to be the glue for everyone else.

And our bodies are tired of us ignoring them.

Your Body Speaks Long Before It Yells

Fatigue is a whisper.
Irritability is a warning.
Brain fog is a signal.
Night sweats are a flashing light.
That deep feeling of being overwhelmed is an invitation.

Your body is not betraying you. It’s communicating with you.

Mine practically put on a Broadway show to get my attention.

The Lesson I Needed to Relearn

I can teach women about courage all day long. I can guide them through journaling practices that soften their nervous system. I can create beautiful journals to help them slow down. I can build communities like The Courage Collective to help women move from fear to strength.

But I am still a human woman in midlife trying to figure out how to listen to my own body with compassion instead of judgment. And the truth is, I hadn’t been listening.

My body finally said enough. And honestly, I needed that wake up call.

If You Feel Like This, You Are Not Alone

If you’re exhausted.
If you’re overwhelmed.
If your menopause symptoms are chaotic.
If your trauma healing feels heavy.
If your nervous system is fried from a lifetime of being everything for everyone.

You are not alone.
Not one bit.

I created this work because I needed someone to tell me that years ago.

And I’m telling you now.

You Deserve Better Support Than Silence

Women should not be left to figure out menopause, trauma, burnout, and emotional overload by googling symptoms at two in the morning. We should not be expected to carry our families, our work, our healing, and our pain without community.

This is why Hopeful Horizons exists.
This is why BREATHE exists.
This is why my YouTube channel exists.
This is why The Courage Collective exists.

Not to fix women.
But to remind women that they don’t have to do this alone.

If your body has been whispering or yelling lately, I hope this blog feels like a hand on your back reminding you that you are not weak, broken, or behind. You are human. And your body is asking for support, not shame. Midlife doesn’t need to feel like collapse. It can feel like clarity. It can feel like courage. And it starts with listening to your body before it has to scream for your attention.

If this hit home for you, come join me inside The Courage Collective. It’s where we slow down, tell the truth, breathe again, and actually support each other through all the stuff we’re not meant to carry alone. You don’t have to figure any of this out by yourself.

With Love & Courage, Jewels xo