transition
– a period or phase in which such a change or shift is happening
I am changing.
I am lucky, I have never found it hard to change. I didn’t want to stay the same. Child to teen, teen to adult, then within adulthood Twenties to Thirties, Thirties to Forties and now Forties to Fifties.
Sometimes, the change has come naturally, and other times, a life experience has forced the change.
Whatever the experience has been, there is always an element of chaos present.
I like the metaphor
You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs.
Or the idea that a caterpillar turns to complete mush within its cocoon before becoming a butterfly.
or
Let’s just look at the simple origins of a human. 2 cells multiplying over and over to make a baby and a baby learning and growing and developing a sense of self to become a little human.
Change is not always bad.
Even my worst experiences have brought me something new and wonderful.
So, this transition is not bad.
Perimenopause/menopause is a perfectly natural transition. All women experience this at some point in their life. I think it’s hard for many women as it represents the end of something. Bringing questions of mortality when actually it’s just the middle, especially with the average age of death for women being around 90 years old and rising.
However, it’s not easy physically or emotionally. My experience so far is accepting it is easier than fighting it.
Accepting is not giving in. It is simply changing my perspective.
It is a time to truly listen to my body and care for myself properly, perhaps for the first time in my busy chaotic life.
In our society, we are told that being endlessly young, fertile, and busy is how a woman should be.
So often, there is an element of shame, disappointment, loss, and even grief when a woman gets to the point where Perimenopause begins.
Why is this?
It is not an illness or a disease.
Women are not dying they are changing.
Changing! ( caterpillar to butterfly)
I have been reading Hagitude by Sharon Blackie. It doesn’t tackle the physical change of ‘the change’ but it does take a broader look at attitudes towards menopause through story and myth. Why women transition and the potential behind that transition.The female potential. It has given me a deeper respect for the changes I and so many other women are going through and I would recommend that everyone should read it.
Through perimenopause and menopause we are coming into a place of knowing, of wisdom, of power.
It might not feel like it, but look at everything a woman goes through to get to this point in her life.
Whether you have lived a traditional life or not, being a woman is hard. Most of us just get on without complaining, and we are very good at just getting on with it, not seeing the bigger picture of our skills and achievements because women today have to be everything. First for family as a mum, wife, daughter, being cook, taxi-driver, gardener, housekeeper, accountant, nurse, teacher, counsellor, etc. and all of that before their own employment and career.
The abilities to balance all of that make an incredible skill set that most are not given credit for.
As a mother of three young women, it is important to me to make the world less biased towards ‘the change’. I want them to know that it is not the end. I want perimenopause and menopause to be accepted as a fact of life that is openly discussed and supported because it is already hard enough going through menarche and menstration.
So what can we let perimenopause/ menopause bring us? It should be empowering to know we have reached a point where we do not have to worry about social expectations like pregnancy or birthing or young family or housekeeping. That we don’t have to jump through loops to look a certain way. That with all the different ranges of experiences life has given us, we can finally decide what we really want.
What we want.
Powerful.
So while we hot flush, brain fog, mood swing, muscle ache, palpatate our way through this, let’s not forget what we have been and what we now can be.
Dream big because you got a whole other half of your life to live ♡
allnewyogalife 