Menopause: The Fork In The Road
Menopause is certainly an important transition, an initiation into a whole different phase of our lives as women, just as puberty and pregnancy are. But it is more than that. Menopause is a critical juncture in our lives as women. It is a point at which women generally decide to thrive - to move forward and embrace their approaching elderhood and the wisdom they have accumulated - or begin to give up and fade away.
Our culture drives this in many ways. In general, we do not cherish our elders as many societies do, and value their wisdom and experience. So, moving toward that phase of our lives is not appealing; we resist it. Since our western culture deifies youth, women often feel they lose their value, if they have bought into the cultural narrative. They become invisible, and therefore often depressed. They slowly fade away.
We quite literally go through a metamorphosis when we go through our hormonal changes. Just as a caterpillar and butterfly are expressions of the same creature, yet different in form, function, makeup and destiny, so our hormones change us into different creatures as we move from our reproductive years to our Wisdom years. These times of metamorphosis are critical to the unfolding of the human biological program and the evolving of our consciousness. Our bodies, our patterns, our possibilities all open up at these times when things are made new.
During this time of possibility, how do we navigate in such a way as to move through and into our Wisdom years with our connection to our life force, our curiosity and creativity still intact? First, it is important to determine what is authentic for us now...to untangle ourselves from the various roles and identities we have inhabited in our lives up to this point. Our bodies and brains prepare us powerfully for this at menopause. The estrogens that stimulate our brains in the reproductive years and make it possible for us to put our own needs aside for our mates and children - and do more than is humanly possible for our families - begin to diminish. It is as if we have been in a hormonal trance, induced by Mother Nature, to ensure survival of the species. Other estrogens that stimulate the creative centers in our brain, rise after menopause and make it possible for us to move toward what creatively draws us.
Our individual journeys and how we experience menopause and aging, actually begin in the womb. Understanding the path of our journey as women goes a long way toward bringing us to a place of authenticity and thriving during menopause. Our histories, our experiences, our identities as women and what of the cultural narrative we have internalized, all impact the menopause we will have. Understanding how the 'we' that we are now was formed, and making adjustments to this based on what we now know to be true, gives us a strong and authentic place to stand and move forward from.
My book, Making Sense of Menopause contains a process, which will take you step by step along your personal journey to determine what is authentic for you now and to move forward from that place, thriving. The Wisdom years are the harvest, the fruit of all the years preceding. Enjoy them. Thrive.
