Today is World Menopause Day

Today, is World Menopause Day until recently I didn’t know there was such a thing, but apparently each year on 18 October it happens. The fact that September 2019 was Menopause Awareness Month in the UK also passed me by, for this I’ll blame the fact that I was moving house and had a big study trip to Sweden, but in reality how well was it publicised or is it just me?

We can’t dispute that there has been a considerable increase in awareness of the menopause. It is talked about much more often and much more freely, although there does still seem to be a certain taboo around it. Over the past year or so there has been television programmes dedicated to the menopause, Woman’s Hour has had several episodes where it has been covered, TV presenters and actors and so on are stepping forward and talking about their experiences openly.

The menopause will affect every woman at some point in their life, for some it comes earlier, for some it comes forced from illness/operations and yet I hear many women not knowing what to expect, feeling isolated, feel like they’re going mad. Many will sail through it and not even notice it and others will have all kinds of symptoms the key ones that I come across in my work is memory loss, anxiety and mood swings, but there are lots of different symptoms some of them such as vaginal dryness is hardly talked about at all and some women find it just happens and they didn’t know it could happen, don’t know what to do and some feel too embarrassed to do anything.

I’ve run several workshops around the menopause and have done much training and study around it; I have my own experience and have listened to the experiences of many, many women. I hear when sat in circle the audible relief as women realise they’re not on their own, that is normal and does happen to many other women too. I know some will disagree with me here with the world normal and say that no woman should “suffer” with symptoms of the menopause and that there many things you can do to help and yes I agree with this wholeheartedly, and yet this isn’t always the case and yes sometimes medical intervention is the only option. There have of course also been the recent discussions around HRT and the effectiveness of it and the risks associated with it. Some women I’ve spoken to feel at the end of their tether and yet feel afraid of going on HRT but see no other way out.

One way of hopefully having an easier menopause is preparation, especially in your 40s but preferably much earlier is to make friends with your cycle, your menstruation. I wish I’d had this advice much earlier, although I did have the opportunity to do so before it was too late. Embrace your cycle and all that it brings to you, it’s a way of getting to know your body, your mood, the inner you, tracking/charting your cycle is such an important thing to do and give s you so much insight into you.

If you feel this information is too late for you, if you have gone through the menopause but are left feeling confused, incomplete, hurting from the experience then healing work can be done to help you.

Making friends with your cycle as I said is just one thing you can do, there are many other things that may be of benefit to you. I have found that the Womb Yoga and Restorative Yoga practices that I teach have helped me and many of my students, there are specific poses, breathing techniques and mudras that can all help with the menopausal symptoms. Shamanic Healing has also helped many of my clients.

In the New Year I will be offering many workshops around the menopause and making friends with your cycle, incorporating many different practices including the yoga that I’ve mentioned, essential oils, crystals and much, much more.

In celebration of World Menopause Day I’m offering a 10% discount to any women that books in with me this month for a session around their menopause or making friends with their menstruation or anything in between. Have a look at more of what I do on my website, give me a call, a message, an email, whatever works best for you and we can have a chat. Yoga can be on a one to one basis with the poses tailored for your needs.

Remember talking and sharing helps, let your partner/husband/boyfriend/lover know how you’re feeling, let them know what you want from them right now. Sometimes it might be that you just want them to leave you alone, another day you might just want a big hug, no reason other than the comfort of their arms around you.