om body
What are the things that someone who is going through menopause and wants to
do yoga to help would want to know? By Sarah Haden
M
enopause is a completely
natural and appropriate
process of change but is
not something we decide
to do or can schedule for
our convenience at a pace of our choosing.
At a certain stage the body simply prepares
to transition. The rhythms that have been
with us through our adult life start to shift
and our experience of embodiment at this
time can be very dynamic (physical, mental
and emotional). This necessarily involves
uncertainty and unfamiliarity with the
way things feel, bringing an unequivocal
experiential understanding of where we find
ourselves in our life-cycle.
Practicing yoga can help us on a physical,
mental and emotional level at this time.
It can be energising as well as restorative
which is so important for the tiredness we
can feel. At a more subtle level, through
connecting the tension in mind and body
as we move and breathe, we can learn skills
that support us back into balance where our
experience in daily life (whether physical,
mental, emotional) is distinctly off kilter.Embodied
menopause
What are the differences you feel
in the body and the mind and how
can yoga support this transition?
Menopause (like pregnancy) does not
provide a one size fits all experience.
The nature and intensity of changes we
go through are diverse and can be
deeply felt; yoga can encourage us to
turn towards what is going on through
awareness of how we hold and create
tension in the mind and body moving us
in the direction of what ‘acceptance’ is
really about.
However much we dislike and perhaps
struggle with a particular symptom, the
significance of becoming post-procreative
is a much wider embodied experience.
The new landscape that is coming into
view with its varied weather gives us an
invitation to learn over and over again
if necessary, the value of being kind to
ourselves and responsibility for self-care.
If we choose to work with what is going
on in this way, our potential for learning
at this time keeps on accelerating.What yoga poses might help
through the transition?
Being open to change is a really helpful
approach rather than rigidly sticking to any
particular routine or pushing the body into
familiar postures that now feel strained. If
we push and strive to fight what is going
on in our bodies and our minds we simply
create more tension, more stress and more
disconnection from the support we can
offer ourselves. Working instead with our
relationship to what is going on gives us a
route to an easier time of it.
Key to being open is developing a
capacity to listen to ourselves. We can start
by practicing some body basics – breathing
and moving without tension in mind and
body and remembering to smile. Opening
postures, a slower pace and backbends
can feel particularly good. Don’t skip
relaxation at the end of a practice but
extend it at this time.
A regular practice, not necessarily very
long, gives a routine of self-support and
inquiry. The approaches we can learn at
this time can then be applied in daily lifeYoga &
menopause