The changing tides...

Why is the menopause a good time to rewind and reflect and not just try and ignore and push through?

If I have learned anything over the last couple of years immersing myself into all things menopause - its that this is a change which cuts across everything.

As women we have lived (and sadly many have sometimes battled)  with our hormones for decades.  

You have in all probability been aware of where you are in your cycle by the various effects estrogen and progesterone have on our bodies.  

Maybe your clothes got a little tight, or you find it hard to manage your mood in the days before your period.  

You might have cravings at times (chocolate anyone!?!).

Those days where you just didn't want to see anyone or do anything, and other times when you felt just so full of love, vitality and wonderfully flirty.

As we come up to menopause this regular predictable cycle can all change... during peri menopause maybe you don't know where you are any more - all those signposts on the monthly cycle seem to have changed and moved.  

Things might be massively amplified - worsened PMT, heavy bleeding, shortened cycles - or maybe the other direction - decreased libido, dry skin (and elsewhere), aching joints, memory issues.

It's not just that we're losing our fertility at this time.  Because the influence of estrogen (and to a lesser extent progesterone) is felt throughout our bodies the impact can be huge.

I think about it as a receding tide - revealing the beach and sea bed below.  When the tides is high we are not aware of the rocks, the shingle, the sand, the seaweed under the waves.

But as the tide turns all these are revealed, and we need to navigate around them - see them in all their beauty and learn to appreciate them.

And so for us and our bodies.  

If we are lucky enough we are going to be living in our 'post menopausal' bodies for decades.  

Decades when new opportunities and new horizons are going to be available for us if we want them.  

So now is the time to learn how to live and love this new changed body we're in.  

Learn how to support ourselves to smooth the path.  

And learn how to adapt to the changes which have happened.

Not just to 'get by' or 'survive', but to thrive.