What to do during perimenopause: How Hobbies Can Support Identity in Perimenopause
Welcome to the podcast.
In this series, we’ll explore perimenopause through a unique lens—drawing from female wisdom across cultures, lived experiences, and identities. We'll look beyond just symptoms and science, and instead focus on how you can define your own version of health and claim your power during this transformative time.
As a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist trained in systemic thinking, I bring a different perspective. While many podcasts focus on hormones, medications, and clinical terms, this space centers the emotional, social, and cultural systems that shape how we experience perimenopause—and how we’ve been taught to understand womanhood itself.
We’ll talk about hobbies, health, identity, nutrition, and so much more—all with a focus on insight and empowerment.
This podcast is created for all women—trans women, cisgender women, biological females, women of all ethnicities, disabled women, single or partnered—and for the people who love and support them.
Join me on this journey, and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. Let’s grow through this together.
Transcript:
Welcome to the First Official Episode
Hi, I’m Katherine Linscott. Welcome to the first official episode of the What To Do During Perimenopause podcast. In the intro, I shared what to expect from this space. Today, we’re diving into something surprisingly essential: hobbies.
What comes to your mind when you think of hobbies? Do you think of Olympians, your kids, your partner, or maybe those ultra-creative people who seem to make magic out of nothing? Do you come to your own mind?
If not—you’re not alone.
Why Hobbies Matter (and Why We Forget Them)
This podcast is grounded in both personal experience and evidence-based insight. I’ll keep the research present, but not dry (trust me, I’ve read enough academic articles for a lifetime). So let’s talk about hobbies—and why they matter.
🧠 Hobbies Rebuild Identity
In Internal Family Systems (IFS), we talk a lot about parts. At birth, we’re essentially a beautiful cluster of parts—curious, open, vulnerable. From there, we begin discovering who we are. What do we believe in? Who do we want to be? What kind of music gives us chills?
Hobbies help answer those questions. They give us access to the self. They help us connect with Nature, our values, and our identities. They are not frivolous. Hobbies are a form of self-care.
Redefining Self-Care
Self-care isn’t just spas and meditation (though those have value). In Western, individualistic societies, self-care is often packaged as something luxurious or reserved for burnout recovery. But in many collective cultures—like those in Oceania, Africa, parts of Eastern Asia, and throughout Latin America—self-care is energetic and integrated into daily life: singing, dancing, grieving out loud, cooking together, gathering often.
These cultures also offer powerful female-centered models of community. Women live together, meet regularly, use tattoos, jewelry, hair, and clothing to mark grief, change, and shared meaning. These rituals are connective and creative. They’re built into life.
Contrast that with individualistic cultures, where it's common to hear how hard it is to find community or make friends. It’s no surprise: individualism doesn’t cater to connection.
Hobbies Heal
So what happens when we go without hobbies? Have you ever gone through a stretch of life when you forgot what yours were? Maybe that time is now.
I know I’ve been there—on autopilot, stuck in routines of cooking, cleaning, and trying to keep up with whatever values I thought I was supposed to embody.
When we’re not connected to our hobbies, we’re not connected to ourselves.
And this is especially important during massive life shifts—like perimenopause.
Why Hobbies Are Vital in Perimenopause
Let’s name it: perimenopause is still taboo. Aside from a few public voices like Oprah or Drew Barrymore, most people stay quiet about it. And that silence? It breeds shame and secrecy—some of the heaviest burdens we can carry.
After six years of infertility, my body was not in a good place. I had been pregnant many times, and I exited that chapter of my life with inflammation, pain, depression, and a massive loss of identity. Sure, I had finished my schooling, and I knew I liked the color green—but beyond that? I didn’t know who I was anymore.
Then, one day, I stumbled on an article about a famous mountaineer from the early 1900s. Intrigued, I ordered their biography. Something inside me flickered back to life. I was raised in the mountains of Northern Colorado, and hiking was second nature to me growing up.
So I went on a hike. Overweight, out of shape, and unsure of what I was doing—but something felt different this time. I wasn’t competing. I was connecting. My legs remembered what to do. I started hiking every day because something in me came alive again.
That simple act—getting back into nature—uncovered physical health issues like asthma and pre-diabetes, both of which I worked through and healed. And it didn’t stop there.
The Ripple Effect of One Hobby
Hiking led to swimming.
Swimming led to running.
Running led to trail running.
Trail running led to trail friends (yes, the people you wave to every day on the path).
The greatest gift that hobby gave me? I remembered how I connect.
As a therapist, I pour so much into others. But hiking reminded me that I matter too. It helped me break through personal glass ceilings—from being more comfortable alone, to singing first at karaoke, to striking up conversations anywhere. It reconnected me to me.
Hobbies Can Be Anything (Seriously)
Humans are wired to connect—to the world, to others, to themselves. Once we nailed survival, we mastered creative expression.
Hobbies can look like anything:
Making slime
Standing barefoot on grass for an hour
Planning long solo road trips
Calligraphy, baking, climbing trees
Brushing hair, drawing anime, fixing cars
Learning languages, telling jokes, building computers
Whatever brings you back to life, do that.
Why We Lose Ourselves in Midlife
Perimenopause is a major identity shift. It comes with real grief, physical changes, time distortions, and a sense of losing relevance in a culture that already undervalues women. Clients often tell me they feel invisible, unimportant, or disconnected from who they were.
That’s exactly why hobbies matter. They help us stay grounded in the present. They remind us we’re still here. Still evolving. Still capable of joy.
Hobbies can help you uncover health concerns, meet new people, and rediscover meaning.
A Quick Word on Rest
Before I go, I want to name something else just as vital: rest. You cannot reclaim yourself without rest. Especially during perimenopause, when the body is processing change and loss, rest is non-negotiable. Rest isn’t laziness—it’s medicine.
Join me next time for an in-depth look at what rest can do for us during perimenopause.
Until then—do something today that brings you back to life.
[ID: Every female in perimenopause needs a good hair expert, active hobby, experiential psychotherapist, and friends. She needs all the advocates she can get that empower her to be her own greatest advocate. Quote by Katherine Linscott, LMFT. End ID]