About this episode

Sara Larson discusses navigating menopause and mental fitness, sharing personal experiences and insights for women in midlife.

This week we sat down with menopause and mental fitness coach Sara Larson to cut through the noise around midlife, from quick‑fix promises and supplement stacks to rigid “shoulds” about how we’re supposed to look, feel, and age, and offer better solutions for navigating this challenging transition. Drawing on her own brutal perimenopause—crushing joint pain, brain fog so bad she joined an Alzheimer’s study, suffocating anxiety and depression—Sara shares how she went from feeling like everything was coming apart to becoming a menopause navigator, helping women walk into the doctor’s office “ready,” advocate for themselves, and understand their treatment plans. We dig into grief, weight gain and body image, the spiritual and identity unraveling of menopause, and the grounding power of outdoor experiences that reconnect you with strength and embodiment. This is a conversation about gentleness as strength and learning to ask for something different in the second half of life. Sara Larson is a menopause life coach, educator, and speaker who helps women cut through misinformation and access evidence-based menopause care. She specializes in advocacy, education, and community-building…

More episodes of Hit Play Not Pause

• Nourishing Menopause: Food, Stress, Sleep, Supplements & More with Andrea Donsky, RHN · June 3, 2026 · 1h 3m
• Mindset Mastery for Midlife Athletes with Sonya Looney (Episode 275) · May 20, 2026 · 1h 3m
• Why Even Active Women Lose Bone—and How to Build It Back with Belinda Beck, PhD (Episode 274) · May 13, 2026 · 1h 20m

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