I've asked a lot of questions from various stages. Last Saturday in Norway, I asked one that stopped the room.

How many of you wake up at four in the morning, regularly, and can't get back to sleep?

The majority of hands went up.

When you've been lying awake at 4am thinking it's just you, seeing those hands go up changes something. It makes it feel less lonely and something shifts.

After the talk, an older woman told me she had gone through menopause completely alone. No information. No language for what was happening. No one told her it was normal. She just wanted to say thank you.

That woman is why this work matters. And she is also why we can't stop here.

Another woman said something that has stayed with me: "You've given us a common language."

That is what happens when women get into a room together and someone finally names what's in the air. Relief. Recognition. Connection.

I've just finished an eight-week programme with a group of nursery school leaders. By the end, almost every woman in the group was sleeping meaningfully better, some for the first time in years. Sleep sits at the intersection of everything: Energy, mood, focus, resilience, relationships, clarity, confidence. Small shifts in habit made that difference. For some women, hormone therapy was part of the picture too, but the starting point is always the same: Awareness.

There is a lot of momentum right now around menopause. In 2022, the UK's Women's Health Strategy landed. By 2024, everyone had an opinion - policies, protocols, podcasts, headlines. I do too.

Sometimes when we're all talking at once, it becomes harder to hear the one voice that actually matters most.

Your own.

Whether you're a woman trying to make sense of what's happening in your body, or a leader trying to support the women in your organisation, it starts in the same place. Awareness. 

What am I actually feeling? What is my body trying to tell me? How are my colleagues impacted? And sometimes, that requires more stillness than we're used to giving ourselves.

That's what I saw in that room last Saturday. A hundred women, a single question, and a moment of collective recognition that no policy document can replicate.

The hands said it all.

Join me for the next Power Pause: Friday 1st May, 12pm BST

This time we're going deep on sleep: what's disrupting it, what helps, and how small shifts can change a lot. Tools, talks and techniques.

Free to join. Register here.

Torild Founder, Pause Effect | Workplace Coach & Consultant