Menopause Resource Center
The
Great Awakening - Menopause
by Dr. Loretta Lanphier, ND, CN, HHP
Menopause is a natural transition all women
experience, as natural as adolescence. For your
grandmother and great-grandmother, life expectancy
was shorter. Reaching menopause often meant that
their life was nearing an end. But this is no longer
true. Today women are living longer—on average,
until age 78. How you experience menopause is determined
by many factors: attitude, diet, overall health,
genetics, and your cultural group. Medical science
views menopause as the state of your body after
you had completed one full year without having
a period. It is most definitely not a disease!
By making wise decisions about your menopause and
healthy lifestyle, you can make the most of the
20, 30, or more years afterwards!
Attitude
Many women report that they are glad to no longer have
their monthly periods and all of the hormonal or
just physical issues that accompanied their periods.
They feel a freedom from having to be concerned about
pregnancy and birth control. There is a sense of
more energy, and a sense of freedom that comes without
the biological drive to be mother, helper, and nurturer.
Many women turn their attention to those things in
life they have put aside. Some start new careers
or businesses. Others take up creative pursuits like
photography or painting, while others travel to places
they have wanted to see. These women have a positive
attitude.
Those
women who dread menopause, see it as unnatural, or
a sign of old
age (and we all get old don’t
we!), have more problems enjoying the transition during
perimenopause. They report more symptom issues. Negative
attitudes result in negative experiences.
Wake-up Call
Everything is magnified, starting in your perimenopause,
then continuing on as you make the transition into
menopause. Issues you have not reconciled as a woman
will surface for you to deal with. Perhaps long overdue
lifestyle changes need to be made. Your body is very
smart and it will start to purge any “stuffed” emotions.
This means the body does not want to carry these
negative thought patterns or habits inside anymore.
If you have experienced trauma or hurtful experiences—the
ones unresolved--they will come up. You will remember
incidents you ignored or just could not deal with
at the time. Maybe you did not have a safe space
to work on them. This is the opportunity to let them
go. If you understand this purge and welcome it,
you will experience an easier transition.
Health issues that have been neglected will also wake-up.
Be sure you get thorough check-ups and tests during
this time, including dental, vision, heart health,
as well as hormones. Health issues are serious to me.
I have walked the path of being unhealthy and the path
of health. I very definitely choose being healthy.
We can implement preventative health. Diet, exercise,
clean water, stress management, healthy environment,
and no synthetic drugs go a long way in creating and
keeping a healthy body.
Spiritual Awakening
You may find that the changes you are making lead you
to an awakening spiritually. This happens to many
women who welcome this growth. Seek out your local
church, take classes in meditation, discover new
spiritual thought, or a renewed connection with God.
You are a spirit with a body. Approaching your spiritual
wellness includes making choices that take care of
yourself physically and emotionally.
Proactive Steps
Although menopause is one of the important physical
milestones in a woman's life, many women lack concrete
information about what is taking place, and what
are the options. It is your right to know your body
and be informed. With a proper attitude, diet, nutritional
supplements, exercise, and simple lifestyle changes,
most of the unpleasant side effects of menopause
can be minimized to a great extent. With this knowledge
and preparation you can step forward with grace and
embrace it!
To make menopause fun and pleasant:
- Make
choices to eliminate/reduce stress.
- Create
a sanctuary space for yourself where you can meditate,
write, draw, or anything that expresses
your thoughts and emotions.
- Find
an exercise you like and stick with it.
- Evaluate
diet and reduce weight, if you have gained pounds
over the years.
- Become
selfish with your time for yourself. Do more things
for you and evaluate care-giving
roles.
- Get
enough rest and sleep.
- Develop
an outside interest or hobby.
- Have
joy and fun in your life. If this means making
new friends, go do it.
Read
more about what you can do in my e-Book, Balancing
Your Hormones Without Drugs…You
Can Feel Good Again.
If
you haven’t gone through menopause yet, you’ll
want to have an easy adjustment to your body’s
changes. Begin to educate yourself about the symptoms
and their causes before, or during, perimenopause--the
time when you begin to experience symptoms. I have
posted more articles that go into detail about these
issues, and how to alleviate them.
Loretta
Lanphier, ND, CN, HHP is a Doctor of Naturopath,
Clinical Nutritionist and Holistic Health Practitioner
in the Houston, TX area and CEO/President of Oasis
Advanced Wellness. A teacher, educator and author,
she counsels Oasis Advanced Wellness clients on
the aspects of getting the body healthy and keeping
the body healthy. As a cancer survivor, she is
able to relate extensively, both as a patient and
a practitioner, to clients suffering from disease.
Dr. Lanphier has been privileged to share her cancer
survival story with hundreds of people during seminars
and lectures. Her passionate style of truth and
straight-forwardnessin an easy-to-understand format
is very refreshing to even the most discerning
of audiences. Dr. Lanphier is the author of two
books and many articles on health conditions written
from a natural/alternative medicine viewpoint.
Dr. Lanphier is dedicated to helping people create
lasting changes in their health and enhancing well-being
through whole body nutritional balancing including
physician strength supplementation. Dr. Lanphier
is Editor and contributor to the worldwide newsletter Alternative
Health & Healing.
> Menopause
Resource Center
> PMS Resource Center
> Progesterone Resource Center
> Subscribe
to Menopause & PMS Tips Newsletter
> Recommended Products
|
