Is World Menopause Day creating more menopause awareness, or more opportunities to freak out?

On age and change and my desire for a headdress.

When I cured my perimenopause symptoms, simply and naturally, I had no idea that what I'd learned about women's health at midlife, would end up impacting the way I show up in business and ALL areas of my life! Audrey Groeschel, from the podcast Women Are The Journey, interviewed me to explore the shift in my life that allowed me to embrace THE CHANGE in a bigger and more exciting way than I could have ever imagined. Audrey is also the founder of Goddess at the Grindstone, whe

The idea that you need to boost your estrogen as you move through perimenopause and menopause is the biggest myth of midlife. Find out why!

Can one podcast transform a woman's experience of perimenopause and menopause? Happily, I've heard this one can! Nicola Bird and I discuss what really lies behind the emotional and physical symptoms that so many women experience at midlife, and point to the simplest and most natural cure. You can listen to the podcast over on Nicola's website, A Little Peace of Mind: CLICK HERE TO LISTEN #perimenopauseandmenopause #perimenopausesymptoms #menopausesymptoms #innatehealth #midl

In an alternative universe, at the first signs of midlife change, you’d be taken aside by a community elder and offered space. Space to rest, space for creation, space for your wisdom to come forth and nourish the community. You would be given space and a place – to build your throne. Instead, here you are, running into the supermarket and gazing at the space over the fruits and vegetables, hoping for inspiration. You remember that there were five things you needed to buy. Yo

Last month, The Journal of The American Medical Association (JAMA) published the findings of an 18-year clinical trial, which investigated the safety of hormone therapies. If you consult with your doctor about perimenoapuse and menopause in the near future, the findings of this trial will likely influence what she tells you. For decades, modern medicine has encouraged women to take hormone replacement therapy at midlife, not only to relieve perimenopause and menopause symptom

We can sit still and recall memories; but when we move, our bodies remember in a different way. Here's how my body remembered: I was arching and curving my back as my Gyrotonic teacher requested. If you’re not familiar with Gyrotonic, it’s considered a type of yoga for dancers – it seems I’m a dancer at heart. Gyrotonic has been good for my posture and my moving womb, and that day in my class, I felt I was making up for years of neglect. As I arched my back one more time, I h

Reason 1: Women enter their 40s clueless about THE CHANGE. Perimenopause – the period of change that normally starts in our 40s and can last up to 10 years prior to menopause – could be the best kept secret of women’s lives. I didn’t hear about perimenopause until I was 44. Most of my 40-something friends first heard about it from me, as I eagerly shared the knowledge that our bodies had already begun a period of transformation that would take us beyond our reproductive years

“I love your muffin top!” said no midlife woman to another, ever. At some point during midlife, your periods will stop – that’s certain. Almost as certain is that at some point between the ages of 45 and 60, you'll gain weight – yes, even if you eat well and exercise regularly. Keeping the weight we gain at midlife is not inevitable if you take massive action, however, if almost all women gain weight at this time, logic would suggest that there’s an evolutionary advantage to

When everything feels crazy out there, at least we can understand more about what’s going on inside. I discovered my womb is moving and yours might be too. My path to discovery started on the floor of my son's bedroom. I got stuck there when a sharp spasm of pain sped through my lower back as I attempted to pick up a pile of school books. Only by falling to my hands and knees, wiggling into a yoga cat pose and then gently arching and curving my back, was I able to release som

“Have you any notion how many books are written about women in the course of one year? Have you any notion how many are written by men? Are you aware that you are, perhaps, the most discussed animal in the universe?” ― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own (1929) “It is the untreated [menopausal] woman – the prematurely ageing castrate – that is unnatural…. The mere fact that such women castrates are prevalent – and getting more so every day as the world fills up with older wom

When in life, and especially at midlife, we have thoughts that tell us: I should be / I could have / I’ve never / I will never / I can’t … We can acknowledge those thoughts without judgement and let them pass through us. After all, when we let thought be, its nature is to move through us, 100% of the time. Instead of fearing what has been or what might be, midlife offers us a chance to open ourselves up to a future of infinite possibilities. The story of Anita Moorjani is one

Always on the lookout for perimenopause news, last week I was intrigued to discover that an expert on women’s health, who’s also frequently in the media and a Board Certified Gynecologist, had released a new book on perimenopause and menopause. Right from the introduction, she writes about the need for scientific evidence (unfortunately, in the areas of perimenopause and menopause, that usually means research funded by drug companies); she compares understanding a woman’s bod

When women are faced with a dilemma in life (no matter how big or small), I encourage them to practice an awareness of thought. One part of this practice is to pay attention to which thoughts arrive in a sea of calm, and which thoughts arrive in a storm. Through recognizing where lies the calm and where rumbles the storm, we're more likely to reach the best solution for the problem before us. We can also reduce any additional negative impact that may arise from a dilemma we'r

If you attended one of my recent webinars, you’ll already be familiar with theories that attempt to explain why women suffer during perimenopause and menopause. One of the theories I happily debunk is the argument that we were never supposed to live this long. During the webinar I present evidence of women living into their 70s and 80s throughout the ages and across continents – yes, even before the age of modern medicine! Living beyond our reproductive years makes us quite u

Before we get acquainted with the thoughts, let’s see: You’re educated. You’re passionate. And you’ve never been afraid to call yourself a feminist. You’re well-traveled. Culturally literate. And you have at least one career under your belt. Oh, and you know that you don’t have to put up with shit, right? So what’s going on? Why aren’t you happy? Deep. Down. Happy. The crazy schedule, the washing, the deadlines, the mortgage, your aging parents…. These can be stressors for su

What do you see in the mirror at midlife compared to decades gone by? Can you take pride in your enhanced sense of style, or is your sense of style far from enhanced? Have you created a more toned body or less? Are you a woman living with more wealth or struggling more to pay the bills? Do you hold more happiness or sadness? Do you live closer to the cutting edge of culture or further away? Are you bolder or more worried about what you should do? At midlife you could be here

Many women experiencing perimenopause and menopause today were teenagers in the 1980s. Fashion wise that was an interesting time to step into womanhood. Luckily, even if you were a teenager in the 1980s, your womanly parts didn’t spring up as fast as you could insert a pair of shoulder pads into a new shirt. Your transformation from a girl to a woman took years, as it has done for women in every decade before and since. Becoming a woman is an epic production. Hormones begin