In this episode of Unapologetic Edge, Philippa explores resentment, not the loud, obvious kind, but the quiet, simmering resentment that shows up in capable, high-functioning women who don’t recognise themselves anymore.

This conversation reframes resentment as unexpressed boundary information, not bitterness, ingratitude, or emotional immaturity.

You’ll learn:

• Why resentment isn’t anger gone wrong
• How it builds when effort exceeds emotional and relational return
• Why resentment often increases in perimenopause and midlife
• How motherhood intensifies resentment through invisible labour
• Why gratitude and suppression don’t resolve resentment when you’re depleted
• What resentment is actually asking for — and what it’s not

Resentment isn’t the enemy. It’s information.

And learning to listen to it may be the beginning of a more sustainable way of living.

www.unapologeticedge.com

In this episode of Unapologetic Edge, Philippa speaks to a quiet but pervasive experience many women are having in midlife:

The sense that you just can’t hold as much as you used to.

Nothing dramatic has changed. The job is the same. The family is the same. Life, on paper, looks familiar.

Yet everything feels heavier. Your mind feels full before the day has begun. Your tolerance is thinner. You’re closer to overwhelm — and often carrying shame for struggling when you “should” be able to cope.

This episode unpacks why that experience is not a personal failing, a lack of resilience, or a discipline problem — but a predictable nervous-system shift that happens during perimenopause.

In this episode, we explore:

• What women are really describing when they talk about the mental load
• Why the mental load isn’t about tasks, but about constant anticipation, monitoring, and emotional holding
• How invisible and unacknowledged labour drains nervous system capacity
• Why strategies that worked for years suddenly stop working in perimenopause
• How hormonal changes affect stress tolerance, emotional regulation, sleep, cognition, and recovery
• Why burnout emerges when demand stays the same but capacity quietly changes
• How irritability, brain fog, emotional flooding, and resentment are early signs of overload
• Why “just doing less,” resting more, or becoming more organised often doesn’t resolve the issue
• The additional layer of complexity when mothering older children or neurodivergent children in midlife
• How self-blame compounds exhaustion — and what shifts when you move from judgment to curiosity

Rather than asking “What’s wrong with me?”, this episode invites a different question:

What is my system responding to right now?

This conversation reframes overwhelm as information, not failure — and opens the door to working with your nervous system rather than pushing against it.

Reflection to sit with after listening:

What feels like too much right now?

Instead of fixing it, what might change if you listened to what that feeling is telling you?

www.unapologeticedge.com

In this episode of Unapologetic Edge, Philippa breaks down one of the most misunderstood distinctions women face in perimenopause: the difference between an activated emotion and a nervous system trigger.

When everything gets labelled a “trigger,” women start policing their feelings, mistrusting their instincts, and trying to manage the wrong thing. This confusion becomes even more costly during perimenopause, when the nervous system is already more reactive, capacity is reduced, and the margin for error is thinner.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What emotions actually are when you’re inside your window of tolerance
• What triggers really are from a nervous system and survival perspective
• Why insight, therapy, and self-awareness don’t resolve triggers
• How confusing activation with trauma keeps you stuck and exhausted
• What true nervous system resolution looks like — and why completion matters more than control

This conversation is especially for women who have “done the work,” understand themselves deeply, and still find the same patterns repeating. Nothing is wrong with you. Your nervous system is asking for something different.

www.unapologeticedge.com

Perimenopause, motherhood, and burnout aren’t separate struggles. They’re converging realities for many high-performing women in midlife. In this opening episode of Unapologetic Edge, Philippa explains what’s actually happening when capacity changes, coping stops working, and self-blame creeps in.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why perimenopause, motherhood, and burnout amplify each other
• How midlife changes stress tolerance, emotional capacity, and recovery
• Why does insight and “coping better” stop working at this stage of life
• The hidden cost of pushing through exhaustion and emotional labour
• Why nothing has gone wrong, even if everything feels harder

This episode sets the foundation for the entire podcast. It’s an orientation, not a fix. A place to exhale and finally make sense of what you’re experiencing.

Who this episode is for

• Professional women navigating perimenopause
• Mothers in midlife feeling stretched, reactive, or depleted
• Women experiencing burnout despite insight, success, or therapy
• Anyone sensing that their old ways of functioning no longer fit

Key themes

Perimenopause, Midlife motherhood, Burnout, Capacity and stress tolerance, Emotional labour, Identity shifts, High-performing women

What’s next

In Episode 2, we’ll look at the difference between activated emotions and triggers, and why confusing the two keeps many women exhausted and self-doubting.

About the host

Philippa is the founder of Unapologetic Edge. She works with high-performing women navigating perimenopause, motherhood, burnout, and repeating emotional patterns. Her work focuses on helping women understand what’s happening beneath the surface and why willpower and insight alone aren’t enough in this phase of life.

www.unapologeticedge.com