How I Manage Energy, Moods & Daily Function While Running on Overload
Managing energy and moods in midlife is hard enough — try doing it through cancer treatment, menopause, two teenagers, an elderly parent, and a business you’re building from scratch at the same time.
That is not an exaggeration. That is my actual life right now. And some days I feel like I’m running 2½ full-time jobs simultaneously — which, let’s be honest, I basically am.
Here’s what I’ve learned about keeping the train on the tracks when everything is demanding something from you at once — and what I still struggle with, because this is a real conversation, not a highlight reel.
The Weird Truth About My Energy
Oddly, energy is usually not my biggest problem — even with everything going on. I credit that almost entirely to cleaning up my food, fixing my sleep, and moving my body consistently. When those three things are solid, energy follows.
But moods? Daily functioning? That’s where cancer and menopause tag-teamed me in the worst possible way.
Cancer does a number on your mood that’s genuinely hard to describe unless you’ve been through it. The fear, the physical toll, the loss of your normal life, the fog of treatment — all of it collides with your emotional baseline in ways that are impossible to predict. Throw menopause on top of that, with its hormone-driven emotional volatility, and some days were just a complete shit show.
I had vowed to stay positive when cancer came along. And I am genuinely, deeply grateful for the silver linings — the healthier life, the clearer priorities, the perspective that comes from surviving something that could have killed you. I mean that honestly.
But gratitude doesn’t automatically put you in a good mood every day. And I hate being in a bad mood. So, I had to figure out what actually works to get me out of one.
What Actually Fixes a Bad Mood (My Real Toolkit)
This might sound a little unexpected for a wellness brand, but my first go-to for a bad mood is music.
I know. Not meditation. Not journaling. Music.
But here’s the thing — music is genuinely powerful in a way that’s not talked about enough in the wellness space. I put my old favorites on and I physically cannot stay in a bad mood. It lifts me, calms me, energizes me, or gives me something to cry to, depending on what I need. The end result is always the same: I feel better.
Music is now on in our house in the kitchen basically all the time. It’s one of the simplest, cheapest, most effective mood tools I’ve found and I’m not apologizing for leading with it.
When my energy and mood are genuinely bad — not just a little flat but actually dark, heavy, or on the verge of a meltdown — I need an emotional release first before anything else can help. And I do all of them depending on what the moment calls for: journal dump, a good cry, screaming into a pillow, a brisk walk outside. Whatever my body needs at that moment.
And I’ve completely gotten over worrying about what anyone might think of that. One of the genuine perks of getting older is finally understanding that what other people think of you is none of your damn business. That perspective shift is so refreshing I can’t even explain it. Do what you need to do to take care of yourself. Period.
The other thing that’s made a real difference is drastically reducing my news and social media consumption. I still have some regular touchpoints because I don’t like feeling completely in the dark about the world. But I’ve learned I can go days without checking, and you know what? It’s all still there when I come back. Me not hearing breaking news for 48 hours did not change my life in any way. The world kept spinning. My nervous system got a break. Worth it every single time.
The Mental Load Is the Real Daily Battle
Here’s my honest truth: the mental load is the thing I struggle with most, every single day. Not energy. Not even mood most of the time. The sheer cognitive weight of managing everything.
Wife, mom, caregiver, solopreneur, household manager — all simultaneously, all while treating cancer and navigating midlife. My brain is running at capacity basically all the time. Of course there’s brain fog. And then there’s decision fatigue. Absolutely some days I feel the weight of it all pressing down.
And none of these things are going away any time soon. The kids are still in school. My dad still needs me. The business is in its early stages. Cancer treatment is ongoing. So I can’t wait for things to get easier before I figure out how to function well. I have to figure out how to function well inside the chaos that is my actual life right now.
Here’s what actually works for me:
Planning my day the night before. With teenagers and elderly health situations, any plans I make more than one day out will inevitably change. So I’ve stopped trying to plan further out and instead I keep the calendar updated with what’s happening, and I plan exactly how I’ll spend my time specifically the night before. This eliminates the mental tax of figuring it out in the morning when my capacity is needed elsewhere. And it lets me take into account how I’m actually feeling — if I’m not productive, I don’t over-plan. If I need downtime, I build it in. And doing this the night before absolutely lets me stop worrying about it and sleep easier (see how everything is connected?)
The top one to two things. I’ve gotten very specific about what actually needs to happen each day. Not a list of twenty things I’ll never get through. The one or two things that matter most. If that’s all that gets done, I’m okay with it. It’s progress. A day where I actually complete something meaningful is infinitely better than a day where I was busy for twelve hours and accomplished nothing — and those days are genuinely the ones that deplete me and leave me moody and frustrated.
Meal planning as a sanity tool. If there’s no food plan for a busy family, dinner becomes expensive takeout or whatever processed convenient thing is easiest. Meal planning removes both the daily decision and the guilt that comes with defaulting to shit food when you’re exhausted.
Permission to not deal with things that aren’t urgent. Our family needs to go through the house and clear out years of accumulated stuff we’ve outgrown or don’t use. We’ve run out of space. But I don’t have the bandwidth for that until summer, so I’ve made a conscious decision not to let myself worry or get frustrated about it until then. It’ll get done when it can get done. Carrying stress about things you can’t address right now is just pointless cognitive tax you’re paying for nothing.
Knowing my limits. My overloaded era isn’t ending any time soon, so I’ve had to get very clear on what my actual limits are — and how to effectively work within them instead of constantly pushing past them and crashing. Working twelve hours straight happens easily when you’re building something. But I’ve learned to catch it before the damage is done. The verge-of-tears signal I mentioned in the hormones post? Same thing applies here. My body tells me when I’ve gone too far. I’ve learned to listen before things go sideways.
Why This Isn’t Just “Stress Management” Advice
Here’s what your wellness routine has probably gotten wrong about energy and mood in midlife: it’s not a mindset problem, a motivation problem, or a discipline problem.
Your nervous system regulates your energy, your mood, and your ability to function daily — and in midlife, that nervous system is already under more pressure than it was designed to handle continuously.
Cortisol stays elevated when your system is overwhelmed. Elevated cortisol destabilizes blood sugar, which crashes energy and spikes irritability. Poor energy leads to worse decision-making. Worse decision-making increases cognitive load. Increased cognitive load depletes emotional resilience. And suddenly you’re crying over a radio commercial, and you have no idea why.
It is all connected. Every single piece of it.
That’s why “just push through it” is — as the workbook puts it — terrible fucking advice. Pushing through doesn’t fix an overwhelmed nervous system. It just depletes the reserves faster.
What actually works is supporting your system. Small, consistent actions that signal safety to your nervous system, reduce cognitive load, stabilize energy, and give your emotions a healthy outlet. Not fixing everything at once. Not achieving more. Just functioning with some steadiness — and building from there.
What’s Inside the Energy, Moods & Daily Function Workbook
The Energy, Moods & Daily Function Workbook — Because “Just Push Through It” Is Terrible F*cking Advice — is the workbook that finally connects all the dots between how you feel and how you function.
This is the one for women who aren’t dramatically ill but feel like everything is just… harder than it should be. Like they’re running on a system that’s perpetually slightly behind.
Here’s what’s inside:
Why Everything Feels So Intertwined Energy affects mood. Mood affects function. Function affects energy. The workbook opens by making this connection explicit so you stop treating these as separate problems and start addressing the system.
Your Personal Baseline Assessment A quiz covering five pressure points — nervous system overload, blood sugar and energy instability, sleep debt, cognitive load and decision fatigue, and emotional overload. Your top one or two categories tell you exactly where to focus first instead of trying to fix everything simultaneously.
Mapping Your Personal Patterns Daily energy maps, mood pattern reflections, and pattern-tracking tools that help you see what’s actually happening in your days — not what you assume is happening. Patterns that seem random almost never are.
Nervous System Support Gentle regulation practices for when your system is in overdrive. Breathwork, grounding, NSDR for mental recovery, and tools for the days when your emotional reactivity has gone haywire and you need to bring it back down before you can function.
Energy Support Not caffeine and willpower — actual energy stabilization. Steady fuel, hydration, pacing, and recovery practices that stop the spike-and-crash cycle that’s making your afternoons brutal.
Mood Support Real tools for when emotions spike — not toxic positivity, not “just think better thoughts.” Emotional release practices, movement as mood regulation, music (yes, it’s in there), and strategies for actually moving difficult emotions through your system instead of carrying them all day.
Mental Load and Cognitive Support This section alone is worth the whole workbook for most midlife women. Planning strategies, the top-three list approach, decision defaults, meal planning as cognitive relief, digital noise reduction, and how to create a fallback routine for the low-capacity days when you simply cannot think from scratch.
The 10-Day Function First Challenge Ten days of tracking energy, mood, and daily function while experimenting with new tools. Not to be perfect — to gather real evidence about what actually helps your specific system, so you stop guessing.
Redefining What a “Good Day” Means Because productivity is not the goal. Functioning steadily is. This section reframes success in a way that most overloaded midlife women desperately need to hear.
This Is for You If…
Your energy crashes at the same time every day and you don’t know why
Your fuse is shorter than it used to be and you hate it
Brain fog is affecting your ability to do the things you actually need to do
You feel like you’re busy all day but not actually getting anything done
Your mental load feels impossible and you can’t figure out how to reduce it
You’re tired of being told to “just manage your stress better”
You want to understand your own patterns instead of just white-knuckling through them
What’s the answer? Well, you don’t need more discipline. You need a better system. And this is it.
Before You Buy — A Note on the Bundles
The Energy, Moods & Daily Function Workbook is also included in the Ultimate bundle. If you’re already thinking you want the whole system, it’s worth knowing your options before you buy individually:
Signature Bundle — 4 workbooks — $79
Ultimate Bundle — all 7 workbooks, the complete system including this one — $99
Explore the Full Workbook Library
Not sure where to start? Download the free Midlife Pivot Towards Wellness guide first — it gives you the foundation before you go deep on any single area.
Instant digital download. Use it at your own pace. Return to it whenever you need a reset.
RustiChic Wellness | theRustiChic.com | @rustichicwellness This workbook is for personal guidance and wellness support — it’s not a substitute for professional medical advice.
