Menopause

Five years ago, aged 48 I entered the first stage or menopause known as perimenopause and I’m still in that phase today.

I did not see it coming, I’d heard of menopause of course but I knew nothing about it and for over a year I had no idea that the weird symptoms I was experiencing were all related to the same life changing event.

Then one day a friend gave me a book about menopause and everything fell into place.

Lucky for me this transition into the next phase of life coincided with me transitioning into a new career as a Yoga Health Coach.

As I started to overhaul my daily habits I noticed that my menopause symptoms were reducing.

This is what i noticed:

• As my body clock became more in sync with its natural cycles, I was sleeping better and longer and I could digest heavy meals again.
• I became a gold star pooper! No more once a week visits for me.

And since my inner toilet was flushing nicely, there was no more bloating, my skin started to look healthier, my joints stopped aching and I could think more clearly.

• I was already a clean, healthy eater but when I started to eat specifically for healthy hormones my hot flushes stopped literally overnight and I wasn’t falling prey to the bugs or coughs and colds that always do the rounds when the seasons change.

As well as addressing sleep, digestion, diet and exercise I was learning to orient more towards ease in my daily life.

This was and still is my biggest game changer.

I had been teaching Yoga and meditation for a number of years so I had tools for managing stress, but I noticed that when I started reducing my schedule, saying no more, letting go of unhealthy relationships and ditching the FOMO my stress levels went down and my symptoms reduced, some disappeared altogether.

Now I understand a bit more about how hormones work, I know that it’s to do with the way progesterone and cortisol are produced, they share the same building blocks, so if we’re stressed out and not doing anything about it, our symptoms will most likely get worse.

It may sound a bit corny, but when I chose to honour the pause in menopause and recognise that I had stepped into a new phase of life with a new body, that would never, ever be the same again, I had a mental shift and things began to feel more in control.

I Love that

unlike our moms who come from a generation who don’t talk openly about ‘women’s problems’ our generation is changing attitudes and breaking down the taboos about menopause.

In Future

I’d like to see more consistent and accurate messaging from general health practitioners and for there to be more mainstream advice on what we can DO to help ourselves during and after menopause and not have to settle for just papering over the cracks in our health with medication.

And I’d like  more women to know that many of the symptoms of menopause are not, as we’re lead to believe, just a sign of getting older and many of them we can do something about with a few simple lifestyle tweaks.

Ending on a high note with a quote:

‘’So many women I’ve talked to see menopause as an ending.

But I’ve discovered this is your moment to reinvent yourself after years of focusing on the needs of everybody else.

It’s your opportunity to get clear about what matters to you and then pursue that with all of your energy, time and talent’’

Oprah Winfey