Menopause: Crisis or Gift?

Menopause has only recently become a subject open to free discussion. In the past, it was hidden under the sacred taboo of secret women's business, possibly by men who were not in the least bit interested anyway! And why would they be? Menopause is secret women's business, something we women inevitably go through, and typically, it is very special to each of us having the experience. We naturally tend to share this kind of experience with each other, and this can be a good thing; experience shared becomes so much more easily bearable and even something to be laughed about.

That said, many women find menopause seems to be foisted upon them and they may not have been prepared at all. You seem to be well into the process before the penny drops and you realize what is happening to your mind and body. This is quite natural, in fact, it is the way we usually discover things about ourselves, slowly and sometimes with an element of bewilderment and surprise.

So you go online to research "menopause", you purchase a good ebook, you read about the symptoms and peculiarities of menopause and hope you have it handled. If this is you, well done, you will probably have few, if any, menopausal discomforts and life will go on as usual. You know how to cope and move on with your life easily.

However for the majority of menopausal women, they do actually show symptoms, varying from hot flushes, moodiness to night sweats and aches and pains, with various other indications in between . So how do you cope with these symptoms and how do you get over them with the least amount of discomfort?

First, let's look at what menopause is and what it is not. Simply put, menopause is the end of one life cycle and the beginning of another. It is the body's way of saying, I'm ready to move on from reproducing to being free and healthy with no impending drastic life changes, such as having a child involves. It is an ending and a beginning. That's it.

The reason so many women suffer harsh and worrisome symptoms is that they resist what is happening to their body. The turbulence that all change engenders does not have to be a crisis point! What you resist will persist. There may be some unconscious sadness that your time to reproduce offspring is over, and that is understandable. What we have known and has been part of us for so long may be at first, difficult to surrender.

But that sadness soon subsides and we begin to focus on the hormonal changes, fear of what lies in store for us as we enter full-on middle age, with only the prospect of growing older, looming in the future. So we resist. We say, I don't want this to happen to me, or worse, we deny that it can happen and is happening: I don't like this kind of change, over which I have no control!

While there are innumerable remedies you can try to alleviate the symptoms of menopause, basically, trying to stop it is a form of resistance, and the symptoms will remain. You may attain some temporary relief, but fighting against it will prolong the discomfort.

So the symptoms, which we try to resist, become more evident and intense. We talk about them. We complain to other women in a similar stage of growing. We get annoyed with how we feel when a small hot flush builds up, and by resisting the experience, we make it more intense and unpleasant. But it does not have to be this way!

Menopause can be an exciting and liberating time. Just think: no more monthly discomfort or inconvenience! Woo hoo! The next stage of my natural life is beginning and this is great! Our minds can play great tricks on us, can make mountains out of molehills, as they say, and can cause us to grieve or regret when such emotions are simply not relevant. As far as the physical indications are concerned, you can accept them and let them gently pass with time or you can create your little dramas and not enjoy this natural process.

Menopause is a time for rejoicing. It heralds a new era in a woman's life, one more rich and beautiful than anything that has come before. So be easy on yourself. Embrace life and its inevitable changes with joy and fascination. And put a happy smile on your face when little symptoms of this wonderful change serve to remind you of the next exciting episode in your life.