Yoga and Menopause – an invitation to live creatively

How can yoga help

Menopause is a time of physical and emotional flux, often accompanied by feelings of loss. Though the effects can be debilitating there is often little respite from the demands of our work and family life. How can yoga help?

Yoga supports, cools and calms us during menopause

Cooling, calming, grounding asana and breathing practices can support us through draining periods of sleeplessness, hot flushes and emotional volatility. Practices such as restorative yoga, as the name suggests, provide pockets of deep mental and physical rest; essential to our wellbeing during this time.

Yoga also supports our physical wellbeing in the years pre ceding menopause (increasing the odds of a relatively easy transition), with asana practice in particular playing a role in retaining bone density.

Menopause as a rite of passage

However, I think yoga has an even more significant role to play in how we feel about menopause. Do we view menopause merely as an unpleasant phase we must endure or as a spiritual experience from which greater self- acceptance, freedom and expansion can develop?

Our experience of menopause may include all of the above but as a clear rite of passage it invites us to consider and be open to what we truly need or want to accomplish in the next phase of our lives.

While we may not have the luxury of a prolonged retreat or sabbatical to contemplate our future selves, committing to a regular yoga practice for as little as thirty minutes can help to clarify our deeper needs, especially when coupled with meditation.

Yoga, menopause and creativity

The principle of creativity often features strongly during menopause.  While we are unlikely to physically conceive it is essential that we continue to ‘give birth’ to the creative ideas within us.
Yoga offers many tools to access and manifest our inherent creativity, particularly those which nurture the Svadisthana Chakra.

If you are unfamiliar with the concept of the chakra system, I like to envisage it as a type of blueprint which provides underlying animation and intelligence for our mind and emotions. Often described as ‘energy centres’ each chakra governs particular emotional challenges and opportunities we encounter as we mature and evolve.

It is in the area corresponding to the physical pelvis that we encounter the Svadisthana Chakra which is of key importance to our mental and emotional experience of menopause. This chakra feeds our creativity, our passion, and our key relationships including the one we have with our self; it is intimately involved in any process of personal expansion and transition.

Asana practice focussing on the hips and pelvis will guide awareness (and therefore energy flow) into the region of Svadisthana (as well as supporting the physical well -being of the reproductive organs through increased circulation). However, as chakras are energy rather than matter, it is also very beneficial to combine physical movement with subtler practices such as sound in the form of mantra, symbolic gestures in the form of mudra, visualization and intention. Above all, it is important that the practices you choose resonate or hold a personal meaning for you, feel free to be creative!

Changing our perspective on menopause increases our wellbeing

If we re frame menopause as an opportunity to tune in to our deep desires and fundamental creativity, we not only make the journey so much richer but may also reduce the severity of the physical side effects we experience.

Studies conducted (and presented at the Sixth International Congress of Menopause, 1990) in India, Japan and China showed much fewer menopausal symptoms, including depression and hot flushes, experienced by women than their western counterparts.

In all three cultures menopause was viewed positively as a time of increased wisdom, liberation or enhanced status. Consciously recognizing the value in our experience of menopause therefore seems to be both enriching and protective to our body and mind.

Menopause as a time of natural expansion

We can experience menopause as evolution by consciously nurturing expansion. Yoga supports growth by first helping to release what we no longer need, making room for the new, and building the confidence to move forward into unchartered water.

On a physical level asana practice assists detoxification (supporting homeostasis during this period of hormonal flux). However, if we also tune in to the subtler aspects of our practice, such breath awareness, symbolism or focussed intention, we may also shift lingering negative emotions, behaviours or attachments.

For example, if we practice Paschimottanasana, (seated forward bend), with an intention of surrender combined with a gently lengthened exhale we may find that our need for control softens or we are able to release an unnecessary burden. Gradually introducing more gently challenging asana into our practice will naturally build our confidence, as will tuning into the uplifting and expansive quality of our inhalation.

When meditation is introduced the urge to grow is often joined by an increased sense of compassion which naturally extends beyond just our nearest and dearest.  We may begin to experience a deeper sense of connection with our community at large and our sphere of engagement increases

As we consciously move towards broader and deeper areas of fulfilment we become even greater assets to our families, friends and communities as a whole.

Conclusion

The practice of yoga has so much more to contribute to our wellbeing during menopause than I have been able to include here. However, above all yoga is a beautifully comprehensive and multi-  faceted practice from which we can draw support, clarity and inspiration during this sometimes challenging but always sacred time of change.

Resources:

• ‘A Woman’s Best Medicine Health, Happiness, and Long Life through Maharishi Ayur-Veda’
  Nancy Lonsdorf M.D, Veronica Butler, M.D. and Melanie Brown, PH.D.
• ‘Relax & Renew Restful Yoga for Stressful Times’
  Judith Lasater, PH.D, P.T