In recent years we’ve been witnessing an encouraging and exciting change regarding the public conversation about menopause. Not only is the topic discussed much more prominently and frequently, but also the way it is framed and approached continues to shift noticeably. It has thankfully become standard to highlight the fact that menopause is not a disease or disability, but much rather a naturally occurring event.
Support tools and advice are now flooding our inboxes and social media streams, and it takes determination and careful consideration to figure out which ones come from a place of integrity while also not getting overwhelmed by it all.
No doubt, conversations about hormone therapy, dietary and herbal supplements, nutrition, exercise and sleep are all essential and valuable. However, a truly fundamental aspect of menopause seems to be getting drowned out quite a bit: The meaning and potential of menopause for our emotional and spiritual well-being and development as we are entering the second half of our lives.
Menopause is more than a few years of hormonal imbalances and associated discomforts and changes – it encompasses several decades of magnitudinous transformational processes on the physical but equally if not more important, the mental, emotional, and spiritual level. It can be confusing and scary to say the least, but with a supportive and non-judgmental community it can lead us on a path of liberation and a renewed sense of self and meaning.
If you’ve heard yourself say I don’t feel like myself anymore, please know, you’re not alone. But what if instead of trying to return to that comforting and familiar feeling of myself, we join hands, take heart, and travel through the at times testing and more than rocky landscapes of this transformation?
This does not mean we disregard the many valuable tools to lessen the discomforts and support our changing bodies and minds into healthy aging. It simply does mean, that by releasing our resistance to this impactful transformation, we could be gifted fundamentally new and potentially cathartic perspectives – on ourselves, our relationships with fellow humans and more-than human beings, and our understanding of and inspiration for life.
If you’d like to leave Alexandria behind for a day and gift yourself a few hours of soul-nourishment in the community of fellow menopause navigators, join me in the magical Love Wild Garden of Wild Roots Apothecary in Sperryville, VA on November 8 for Sacred Menopause Portal – A Half-Day Garden Retreat of Sisterhood: Midlife Visioning, Plant Spirit Connection, Story Weaving. You can find more info and registration link at https://www.curaviriditas.com/events
Clinical Herbalist and Forest Therapy Guide Kay Sidahmed (PhD, MS) is founder and owner of Cura Viriditas, a clinical herbal practice in service of connecting plants and humans to foster individual, communal, and planetary healing and wellbeing. In her work Kay simultaneously draws from the findings and tools of modern science as well as traditional herbal healing knowledge and wisdom from around the world. She offers individual and group consultations, classes, workshops, and forest bathing. Her work focuses largely on menopause, second-half-of-life, and family health support, and she is passionate about bringing people together and creating communal and inclusive spaces of learning and exploration. Learn more at curaviriditas.com.
