Practicing Yoga or any other form of exercise can feel like a daunting prospect. Especially when finding the energy just to get through the day can sometimes feel exhausting. Starting is always the hardest part but making a few small daily changes to include some movement, tweak your nutrition and factor in some rest can make a positive difference to your life.
Practicing Yoga postures (asana) using breathing techniques (pranayama) and meditation have been proven to help women ease some of the symptoms experienced during perimenopause and menopause. If you do a quick google search, you will get a never-ending list of symptoms that can leave you wondering what the hell is there is to look forward to!
During this transitioning time many women will have a varied experience, some can feel fatigued, anger, frustration, find themselves overwhelmed with emotion, hot flushes and let’s not forget the ‘fear’ that can creep up on you making you question, who you are and how you can deal with the future. Top that with the dreaded middle-aged spread, achy joints and a low-level mood and things can begin to get on a downward spiral. Not all women will experience symptoms and each womens experience is totally unique but given that ALL women will go through it, then surely we need to be talking about it more and taking some action!
What I have learnt along the way is you need a plan, one that takes a holistic look at the small changes you can start to implement into your daily life.
You need the 3 P’s – no not Prosecco, Prozac and Puddings….
You need to Plan, Prioritize and Practice
Plan – You need a long-term health plan that’s sustainable for you, not a quick fix with short term gains. Making small changes that you can implement into your day and build on once you are comfortable with them, will set you on you journey to greater wellbeing. If your symptoms are becoming overwhelming or difficult to manage then take the first step and talk to a menopause specialist or GP (if you have a good GP) about your options for HRT or talk to a naturopath dependent on what route you would like to go.
Prioritize – Make sure you prioritize yourself. This is non-negotiable action to change the way you think around dedicating time to improve your wellbeing. We all have busy lives, work, children the things that get in the way of caring for ourselves, but this is so important. Now is a time to make yourself the priority.
Practice – put it into practice! Its no-good planning if you don’t take consistent action! Showing up for yourself is key and a radical act of self-love that needs to be taken because you are worthy of that! Put into practice the small changes that will make the big difference in your future health and wellbeing.