What My Body Taught Me at the Intersection of Grief and Midlife

A reflection on perimenopause, grief, and learning to gather information with compassion rather than urgency.

A Season Where Many Threads Converged

There are seasons in life when multiple thresholds meet at once. Not because something has gone wrong — but because life is moving.

For me, this past season has been one where grief, midlife, and hormonal transition converged quietly but unmistakably. Losses layered on top of one another. Roles shifted. My body changed its rhythms. What once felt familiar no longer moved in the same way.

I didn’t experience this as a crisis to fix. It felt more like standing at a crossroads — a place where listening mattered more than pushing forward.

This is often how midlife arrives: not with alarms, but with signals.

Some seasons ask us to slow down, listen to the body, and let ourselves be accompanied.

Grief as a Whole-Body Experience

Grief doesn’t live only in the heart. It lives in the body.

It shows up in sleep that no longer restores, in fatigue that lingers, in a nervous system that stays on alert even during rest. It can soften focus, cloud memory, heighten anxiety, or create a sense of emotional heaviness that’s hard to name.

Many people navigating grief experience:

• Difficulty sleeping or persistent exhaustion

• Restlessness, anxiety, or feeling “on edge”

• Sadness, numbness, or emotional flatness

• Trouble concentrating or making decisions

• A sense of disconnection — from self or others

• Physical tension, aches, or a body stuck in survival

• Guilt or confusion about “how long” grief is taking

None of this means you’re doing grief wrong. It means your body is responding honestly to loss.

Perimenopause as a Threshold, Not a Diagnosis

Perimenopause is often framed as a problem to manage or a diagnosis to endure. I’ve come to experience it differently — as a threshold.

A time of heightened sensitivity. A period where the body communicates more clearly — and more insistently.

In this phase, signals become harder to ignore. Sleep shifts. Energy fluctuates. Emotional resilience changes shape. The nervous system may feel less buffered than before.

When grief and perimenopause overlap, the body can feel louder — not broken, but asking for a different kind of listening.

When Curiosity Replaced Self-Blame

For a long time, I carried the quiet question many people hold in seasons like this: What’s wrong with me?

At some point, that question softened and changed to something gentler: What’s happening in me?

That shift mattered.

Curiosity created space where self-blame had lived. It allowed me to meet my body with compassion instead of critique — and to consider support as an act of care rather than correction.

If you’re in a similar place, you might find it helpful to read more about the kinds of support I explore in my work — approaches that honor the body, the nervous system, and the lived experience of grief without rushing resolution.

Choosing Information as Support, Not a Fix

In that spirit of curiosity, I chose to explore comprehensive lab testing through Function Health.

Not as a solution.
Not as a way to override intuition.
And certainly not to pathologize grief.

Instead, I approached it as a form of self-advocacy — a way to gather information about what my body was navigating hormonally, metabolically, and systemically during a season shaped by both grief and perimenopause.

Grief can place real demands on the body. Hormonal transitions can amplify that experience. Having access to deeper health data helped me contextualize what I was feeling — not to rush toward answers, but to hold my experience with more clarity and compassion.

Information, when held gently, can become another layer of care.

If you’re curious about this kind of testing — not as a next step you should take, but as something you might want to understand — you can read more about Function Health here. I share this simply as one option I explored during my own health journey, offered for transparency and choice rather than recommendation.

👉 Learn more about Function Health

What the Body Revealed (and What It Didn’t)

The data didn’t give me all the answers.
It didn’t resolve grief.
It didn’t tell me who to be next.

What it did offer was clarity in some places, questions in others, and reassurance that my lived experience had a physiological context.

It also reminded me of something important: data has limits.

Numbers don’t replace intuition. They don’t measure meaning. They don’t capture love, loss, or longing. They are tools — useful when integrated, harmful when used to override the body’s wisdom.

Integrating Data with Embodiment and Grief Care

What felt most supportive was not the information alone — but how it lived alongside rest, nervous system care, and grief-informed practices.

Gentle movement.
Breath awareness.
Slowing down.
Listening without urgency.

This is where somatic grief support can be profoundly stabilizing — not because it fixes grief, but because it helps the body feel safer while grief moves through.

If you’re curious, you can learn how grief-informed, somatic support helps regulate the nervous system and support emotional steadiness — especially during prolonged or layered life transitions.

An Invitation to Gentle Self-Inquiry

If you’re reading this while navigating loss, change, or a quieter unraveling — I want you to know this:

You’re not behind.
Your body isn’t failing you.
You don’t need to rush toward answers.

You’re allowed to gather information slowly.
You’re allowed to trust your timing.
You’re allowed to seek support before things become unbearable.

If it feels right, you’re welcome to begin with a quiet conversation — a space to explore what support might look like for you, without pressure or expectation.

And if not now — that’s okay too.

Sometimes the most healing thing we can do is listen — and let the body lead.

Dawn M. Geoppinger, Trauma-Informed Grief & Embodiment Coach

Dawn M. Geoppinger is a Trauma-Informed Grief & Embodiment Coach based in Portland, Oregon, with a strong foundation of over two decades of professional experience in public administration, education, and the nonprofit sector. She specializes in grief education, somatic movement, breathwork, and mindfulness, integrating evidence-based approaches such as somatic practices, post-traumatic growth and woman-centered principles to help clients reconnect with themselves, regulate their nervous systems, and honor the full spectrum of loss and healing. Through her practice, The Embodied Grief Journey™, Dawn provides compassionate, expert support both in person and online—creating safe, nurturing spaces for individuals to explore grief, resilience, and embodied healing.

Transparency note: Function Health offers a referral credit — if you choose to use my link, both you and I receive $25. I share this openly and invite you to trust your own timing and discernment.