Post-Davina, there are going to be more people in yoga classes, coaching programs, counselling and complementary health 1-2-1’s that are asking for support for perimenopause, and they’re going to be scared and overwhelmed. They’re scared because the cultural view of older women is hyper-negative and this very fear will make their symptoms worse*. Previously, they might have felt they were going mad, but now, they have a name for what they’re experiencing and probably an avalanche of contradictory information about what to do. How will you meet them? Or rather, how can you stand apart from the pervasive fear and negativity and meet them with openness and reassurance?
The way you meet your midlife clients is going to be governed by how you feel about your own aging process, how much you are able to trust your body and your beliefs about menopause. No amount of training in the physiology of menopause is going to change the way your people feel if you are still delivering care from a place of fear. Even if you are mindful with language and talk about empowerment, any incongruence between your beliefs and your words will leak and be picked up unconsciously by clients. People need clear evidence-based information, yes, but information that comes from someone who is rooted in trust of the process and in their authority.
Trust that through the sensitised years of perimenopause transition:
- We have a natural need to quieten and tend lovingly to ourselves
- We can notice where healing is being asked for with compassion
- We can learn better self-care
- And through these kindnesses, we can birth into a new way of being
This is a different kind of authority, not about ego, or power over others:
- One that comes from an acceptance of our own vulnerability
- The certainty that we all have our unique paths to our own unique solutions
- The courage to offer curiosity and spaciousness as to what might be helpful
- The willingness to not know what is best for a client
The good news is that you already have the path to accessing this trust and authority in your hands. The decades of navigating your own menstrual and/or moon cycle have given you everything you need to know:
- The outward facing, world engaging , self-affirming Spring-Summer-Waxing part of the cycle
- The inward facing, sensitised, self-loving Autumn-Winter-Waning part of the cycle
Just from living these cycles you have developed your own skillset of resources, gifts and self-care that enable you to survive the sensitive times and expand into the more resilient seasons.
One of the things I love to do with wellbeing professionals (actually with everyone) is invite them to explore the seasons of life in an embodied practice known as a Medicine Circle. Having used it with 100’s of people of all ages and genders, anyone can actually feel what the process of menopause is like, and how to is to emerge well-resourced into postmenopause aka Second Spring. Emerging from this process, you better understand the challenges, feel more trust in your body’s capacity and affirm your authority to find resources in sensitive times. Going into more depth, you can also explore what practices from your modality might be useful for your classes and clients.
What I wish wellbeing professionals knew about menopause is that:
- Our bodies know how to do this
- Our sensitivities guide our attention to our path
- Bringing yourself as congruently as possible to your work is the ultimate tool for your people
- Most of the challenges in perimenopause are societal not personal
- Kindness is the way forward
- The rebirth will follow the challenge, especially when we are well resourced: Spring always follows Winter
If this is something that interests you, I’d love come to your studio and facilitate a menopause CPD day. It can be for yoga teachers, therapists, bodyworkers and movement practitioners of all ages, modalities and genders. It’s helpful but not essential for you to have read Second Spring. I can have copies for sale if not!
What will you learn
- An embodied sense of trust in the cyclical process of menopause
- How the menstrual cycle trains us for menopause
- The three psychological phases of menopause
- The gifts of each phase
- Embodied sense of the self-care for each phase
- A sense of what asana might be useful and how to hold your students
- An embodied preview of Second Spring
- A deep excitement about the creative potential in the second part of life
- How to empower your students
- How to care for yourself as you teach in your transition years
*Quality of life has shown to be higher where attitudes to menopause and ageing are positive https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22335298/
