What season are you in? The dance between perimenopause, spring + your own Ayurvedic dosha ☘️

Every day, life stage, cycle + natural season has its own needs – how do we meet them?

Welcome to MOTHER NOURISH – the home of wholistic + realistic nourishment.

I’m Emine – an award-winning health editor + wellbeing author, as well as being a qualified yoga therapist, Ayurvedic consultant + holistic skin therapist (I no longer practice, but pour my experience into my writing, instead).

Here at MOTHER NOURISH, I write about our growing need for nourishment, collectively & personally – as a mid-40s mother of two beauteous, neurodivergent kids, who’s also beginning to experience perimenopause.

Week after week, I explore the ways in which we can stop relegating our own core needs, and move into a place where we feel truly resourced, cared-for, resilient, and yes, deeply, wholistically nourished.

No more burnt crusts + crumbs at the end of each day… we deserve the whole slice of Hot Buttered Toast!

I send out two letters every week – YIN + TONIC on a Wednesday evening (a simple, single-shot of midweek goodness; often a video/audio practice for a restful boost), and HOT BUTTERED TOAST on a Sunday morning, which deep-dives into Heart, Home, Food & Body/Skin, combining my 20+ years in health + wellness, with my ever-evolving path towards sustained + sustainable choices rooted in self-respect, love + care.

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When I awoke one day back in November 2024 with both eyes swollen shut, I was set on a new path…

I’ve always studied, researched and written about health, and have been managing my own sensitivities + atopic nature (prone to eczema, asthma, hayfever) since my late teens. I have various food intolerances (not great with lactose, nightshades or citrus; allergic to avocados)… and immensely sensitive skin… things I’ve sorta just accepted as part of who I am – ‘this is me’ – until, much more recently, I’ve come to a place where my interest in my own holistic resilience – i.e. my ability to be exposed to and not ‘overreact’ to certain triggers – is vastly improved.

Rather than view my health through a lens of what I must cut out or remove in order to I’m attempting to consider how I can build up my own immunity, lower inflammation, and improve the baseline functioning of my body… so that when I do encounter common triggers – from pollen to dust mites – I am less likely to flare or react.

It’s also a much more positive & empowering way to frame the choices we get to make… rather than cutting out/stripping back/removing (all of which have negative psychological associations), we get to talk about adding in, bolstering, supporting, nourishing. That helps my mental & emotional wellbeing… as well as helping my body feel safer, because it gets to eat far more inclusively…

There is also an emerging school of thought within integrative medical communities, that suggests when we cut something out COMPLETELY, we may make it harder for the body to encounter it in the future… i.e. we may make ourselves more prone to becoming allergic to something if we never expose ourselves to it at all.

Of course if you’re allergic to something, it must be avoided, but intolerance presents differently, and there is presently a lot of research being done into the myriad factors that cause + exacerbate various intolerances… the answer, rather than specialised, is likely more holistic… i.e. higher levels of inflammation in the body can lead to a greater likelihood of inflammatory responses (makes sense).

So, for me, rather than cutting out the things I’m sensitive to, I’m interested in reducing those inflammatory markers and focusing on getting my body to a place where it’s more balanced, efficient and less reactive.

We also hear SO much about gut health – and I think many of us can reel of a long list of things that we’ve read about as being ‘holy grails’ for good gut health – fermented foods; prebiotic-rich foods; butyrate-rich foods; fibre; filtered water; probiotics & digestive enzymes etc etc – and when things go awry, the urge to ‘kitchen-sink’ it – and try ALL of it, ALL of a sudden, ALL at once – in a desperate bid to fix the problem, is all too common.

My recent histamine issues – which I have come to see as histamine sensitivity rather than out-and-out histamine intolerance – have been a blessing in disguise. Namely because my system has never responded well to BIG, sudden changes – in any areas of my life – from food, sleep, exercise, supplementation etc. I have also learned that I am very sensitive to some of the things that are heralded as cure-alls, such as collagen for example, which is naturally VERY high in histamine; however pure, organic, or high grade – my body does not tolerate it, and within 48 hours, my skin begins to itch, flake & redden (I’ve tried several different collagens this year and all have ended the same way).

Other very high histamine foods that are held up as health cure-alls include fermented foods, bone broth, cacao and green tea (the latter two are thought to be histamine liberators, rather than high in histamine – i.e. they stimulate histamine release by the mast cells: not helpful if you are histamine sensitive / intolerant).

I’m as susceptible as the next person to those ‘fresh start’ and ‘brand new you’ messages… and there’s something about Spring, that has certainly added fuel to that inner fire: to awaken & be reborn, in ways that feel more aligned, empowered, whole.

It’s a powerful feeling – one I want to harness – without becoming suggestible and susceptible to all the marketing that ultimately just wants me to buy more + more stuff to feel better (finally).

The best way I’ve found to harness it, then, is to tap back into my cycle + season, in ways that feel instinctive, wholistic + realistic.

I’m almost 45, and what my body thrives on now is quite different to what it thrived on when I was in my 20s, having babies in my early 30s, postpartum, and then raising/feeding babies for a few years, before – now – supporting two teens while working full time.

From gentlest morning + evening choices to deeply rejuvenating foods – this is what I’m focusing on as I enter perimenopause, and throughout the Spring season (here in the UK)…