٭𝙸𝚝'𝚜 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚜٭

Hey there beautiful menopause warriors, I don’t know about you but I’ve seen a lot of stuff written about menopause saying that this is a beautiful time when the responsibility of raising children is behind us and it’s a time to focus on ourselves and what we want to do. Well, it seems to me that some of us Mumma's are having our bambinos later in life (me) and still have the honour and pleasure of raising our babies and can’t solely focus on ourselves. So not only are we raising a family, running a house and working, we can potentially be starting our menopause journey as well just to add into the mix (caveat: this isn’t every woman's life), and for some of us spectacularly amazing goddesses, the menopause journey isn’t so kind and we can experience some pretty mad mind and body altering symptoms.

So how the heck do we manage this transition while we have all this other stuff going on? 🤷🏻‍♀️ Well, I don’t believe there is one concrete answer here because we are all on different levels both physically and mentally, we all are living different lives and we can have different preferences on how we manage our health. One thing I am certain about though, there ain’t no magic pill ladies, not even the HRT pill.

So warriors, first up let’s exterminate the word ‘diet’ from our vocab because let’s face it, by the time we have got to this stage in our life, we know that diets are never sustainable. Also, the word diet has such a negative connotation to it, because after all, if you take the "t" off, we’ve got die 😨. What about if we changed our mindset from eliminating foods to adding in good foods unless, of course, you are eating the equivalent of a dinosaur leg for each meal, in which case you might need to look at your portion size!!!! Let’s start adding in foods that we know are rich in nutrients that are especially important at this time in our life. For example, omega 3’s are a big one, start adding some avocado, berries and fish because studies show it reduces our risk of breast cancer and reduces night sweats. There are many other foods that can support our health but this is not my area of genius, so do your research, or hook yourself up with a session with a nutritionist or naturopath.

What about exercise? 🚶🏻‍♀️ Been down this road and it didn’t end well for me, but that was only because I didn’t know how extreme exercise could actually exacerbate menopause symptoms. Try some yoga which is great for core strength or some qi gong which is great for nice deep breathing. Deep breathing is great for stimulating our vagus nerve which is responsible for the regulation of organ functions, such as digestion, heart rate, and respiratory rate, as well as vasomotor activity, and certain reflex actions. If you like walking there is a really cool book out called 52 ways to walk by Annabel Streets, she sheds light on all the myths and health benefits of walking. You gotta find a way to keep moving that fits in with your lifestyle and what feels right for you, not what the “in thing” is or what the media is telling you to do. But we do have to keep moving or we’re going to end up decrepit oldies who can’t move! 👵🏻

Now here is the biggest thing we all need to do, and this area is my area of genius. RESOLVE YOUR TRAUMA, and yes there is scientific evidence to support this too. Yep, all the things you have suppressed and not resolved (consciously or not) during your life have a tendency to rear their head at this time. Unresolved trauma leaves your body in a state of fight and flight and this state messes with your hormones big time, releasing adrenalin and cortisol into your body which keeps you in a state of hypervigilance. The state of being in constant fear is also linked to so many illnesses and diseases which could also increase your risk of nasty diseases during menopause (this is a big list by the way). You may believe you are fine consciously, but there are a lot of behavioural tells (trauma responses) when you are in fight and flight. See if these ring any bells for you; always wanting to fit in, can’t trust anyone, overly independent, always striving for perfection, wallflower that’s always in the background, apologises all the time, extremely analytical having to work everything out all the time, nothing ever works out for you and keeping yourself small for fear of failure. These are just a few tells that you are living a life driven by fear. So just in case, you missed the point here…..living in fear equals unhealthy minds and bodies and will intensify the symptoms of menopause.

The wrap-up warriors. Don’t put your head in the sand when it comes to menopause, there are small changes that we can make in our lives that can have great long term benefits and they don’t cost much either. We don’t have to make all these changes overnight either, just one step at a time. If you need help reach out, don’t bottle everything up because that just adds to all the craziness we may be experiencing.