To My Client In Menopause

As a woman in my mid 50’s, I understand. I am with you. Going through menopause doesn't have to be all bad news. Here are several ways to combat those negative thoughts.

To my client in menopause,

As a woman in my mid 50’s, I understand. I am with you.

I wake up many nights in a sweaty mess in my bed, have to wash my pj’s every night.

When I enjoy a glass of wine, I feel as if I want to combust. And yes, those mood swings…

For me, menopause was not a gradual change in hormonal levels, it was instant.

It happened when I was 49 years old and had to go on an estrogen blocking cancer treatment.

One day, I was just a normal woman, the next, standing in my kitchen, a heat wave came over my entire body, like burning from the inside out.

Here is the thing though. This too is normal. It is healthy and is part of what being a woman is all about. Life comes in stages and this is one of them.

With acceptance comes peace.

I think a lot about the cycles of womanhood.

For the longest time people referred to periods as “the curse”. I am not sure if they still do. My point is that our thoughts and our words carry tremendous strengths towards our outcomes. So, if we see menopause as another curse of being a woman, or a curse of growing older, we miss a lot of blessings and joys along the way.

ELIMINATING NEGATIVE THOUGHTS DURING MENOPAUSE

What if we use the power of our brilliant minds to move these unpleasant symptoms to the background? It sounds simple, and it is.

HOT AIR BALLOONS

In my life, I love to use my imagination to pretend that I am in a hot air balloon. I imagine that being in that balloon removes me from unpleasant experiences. I imagine that I am flying away from it.

It never takes long. I see it from a distance and start to focus on so many other things.

The quiet serene environment where I am flying high, with beautiful birds. I hear their chirping, I feel the cool breeze. The white noise of every day life is becoming distant. The circumstances and people that upset me, are way down there, just a speck. In this dream, they do not exist.

Then I come back down and suddenly the relevance of the symptoms are diminished or gone. They never last and the only importance they have are the ones I give them. So I stop giving them importance.

POWER OF DISTRACTION

Another example is that when we get really busy and distracted, many times we do not notice the symptoms anymore. It does not mean that they are not there, it means that when we are not focusing on them they just do not carry the same importance in that moment. Something else does.

In my life and work, I see every day how it is very possible to distract your mind away from things that bother you, until you do not notice them anymore.

GRATITUDE TO EASE YOUR MIND

Another amazing way to dim the spotlight on the symptoms you do not enjoy, is gratitude.

I know that night sweats and many other of the symptoms are not pleasant. But what if we take the sting out of it?

I, for a fact, love some heat during the bitter cold Canadian winters.

Sometimes I choose to recover a bit after eating too much, and during the times that I eat less, I always feel really cold. In those times too, I would feel very grateful for some heat!

If you google it, there are actually a lot of amazing perks from being in or past menopause. And in my line of work, I am convinced that a lot of the things we now experience can be ignored, dismissed and chased away. If we believe it we will see it. So let’s believe something better.

NOTICE WHAT YOU ARE NOTICING

Now let’s imagine that every time we get a hot flash, they burn fat! How is that for a happy thought? I bet you will give gratitude to those hot flashes! Mood swings can be tricky, because it effects the people the closest to us. One of my mentors, Mary Morrissey, taught me to “notice what you are noticing.”

If I notice that I am swinging into a bad mood, I can also catch myself. The moment I catch it, I have the choice to change it.

Knowing myself is also amazing, because the person I really am does not like to be moody and unkind. So, I have the power to stop that behaviour.

Finally, the two biggest complaints that not many woman want to discuss publicly, is weight gain and vaginal dryness. Well, that is where hypnotherapy is one of the most amazing tools on this planet, and I happen to be an expert in that.

On the same topic, I am really good at helping my clients keep the fire in the bedroom burning strong.

For every problem there is a solution.