Menopause is one of those fundamental facts of life that is unavoidable for women. You cannot get around it, stop it from coming, or hide from it. At some point, usually around your 40s or 50s, you’ll start to feel the effects of what can be a 14-year journey toward the end of menstruation. It often comes with hot flashes, aches and pains, fatigue, skin and vaginal dryness, irritability, and more. Don’t worry, though. It’s not all bad news.
The truth is that some women around the world don’t actually suffer much from menopausal symptoms. Still more women find ways to not only manage menopause but also to embrace it. In many spiritual traditions, the “crone” stage is a beautiful period of life where women can stop worrying about fertility, periods, and finding a date. Instead they can settle into growing wisdom, confidence, and joy. Here are some tips to help you embrace menopause as well:
1. Treat the Symptoms
First, you don’t have to try to ignore the aches, pains, and other discomforts of menopause. Hormonal fluctuations, namely a drop in estrogen levels, increase inflammation in the body and can lead to weakened bones as well as joint and muscle pain. It can also cause vaginal dryness that may ultimately result in an increase in urinary tract infections, or UTIs. You shouldn’t have to put up with existing in a constant state of discomfort for a decade or more.
Instead, build a diet around reducing inflammation and producing more estrogen in your body. This can attack the problem from both angles. Foods like nuts, seeds, legumes, chocolate, soybeans, tofu, and garlic will all increase estrogen production in your body. Many of those same foods will also reduce inflammation. You can add them to your daily meals. To combat frequent UTIs, consider taking a UTI supplement for prevention.
2. Find Your People
One of the most challenging aspects of dealing with any life-altering situation is feeling alone. To make matters worse, feelings of loneliness can lead to isolation. Menopause is already an unsettling experience that can make you prone to depression and anxiety because the hormonal shifts can lower your serotonin levels. Those natural feelings can then increase when you feel alone and/or isolate yourself.
To combat this situation, find your people. If you don’t know any other women your age, entering perimenopause, or women who are deep in the throes, find them. Being able to commiserate with women who can relate will go a long way toward making you feel less lonely and more uplifted. Socializing in general is a mood lifter. If you struggle to find women your age, consider joining a yoga class, a book club, or another community activity that tends to attract mature women.
3. Lift Heavy
One place you probably won’t find a lot of women your age is in the gym, and that’s too bad. Menopausal women who lift heavy weights benefit in a number of ways. Heavy lifting can increase bone density and muscle mass, both of which are negatively affected by menopause. It can also boost your mood, help you lose weight, and even aid in cooling down your hot flashes.
Heavy lifting is relative to the person, but it generally means lifting a weight heavy enough that you can’t lift it anymore after 4-6 repetitions. You don’t technically have to go to the gym, either. You can invest in dumbbells, barbells, or resistance bands for your home, and work out there. Try to get in three or four 45-minute workouts each week, and watch your self-confidence grow as a bonus. You’ll be embracing menopause in no time.
4. Create Healthy Habits
Weight lifting, yoga classes, and eating a healthy diet, all ideas discussed here, are critical pieces of a larger lifestyle puzzle for menopausal women. The reality is that your body is changing in dramatic ways, which means your life is changing as well. To ease yourself through this transition, make the decision to adopt a new lifestyle better suited to this new phase you’re in. Creating healthy lifestyle habits now will benefit you well into your golden years.
In addition to the changes already touched on, consider cutting out highly processed foods and alcohol, which can both be highly inflammatory. Alcohol also contributes to mood swings and fatigue so consider limiting it. Finally, work daily walks or another low-impact exercise into your routine and make sure you get seven or eight hours of sleep each night. You might ultimately find yourself enjoying your strong, healthy body as it goes through its changes.
5. Let Go
Last, but certainly not least, one obvious way to embrace menopause is to let go. This isn’t a suggestion to “let go of yourself” and “give up on life.” Instead, it is a reminder that you can only control the controllable, and menopause is not something you have any control over. So, let go. Let go of the need to be unrealistically young, to look a certain way, or to adhere to certain social norms.
Menopause is an invitation to women the world over to walk gracefully into the next stage of life and love themselves there. But, yes, this graceful stroll requires you to let go of the life you lived before. For help, you can engage in meditative practices that call you to sit still, breathe deeply, and empty your mind for 10 or 15 minutes each day. Meditation can help you release the old baggage you’re hanging onto and surrender to what’s ahead.
The expression “aging is a privilege denied to many” is a fitting one for this discussion. When you shift your perspective from having to go through this natural shift to getting to still be here and experience this new part of life, you’ll embrace menopause that much more quickly. Menopause means you made it this far. Now, you have the power to decide what to do with it. Let this next chapter of your life be epic.
