Menopause: Belief Replacement Therapy

I thought I could keep quiet, but I can't.

The incredible thing about transformation is not the external bit that people can notice. It's the internal shift, in how you feel and experience yourself and the e x p a n s i o n you experience in your interaction with the world of objects and ideas. There is a taste of being limitless! Once you feel it, you know it's delicious and you will go through the breakdowns because you know if you do the work, the breakthroughs are imminent.

I'm not speaking of personal transformation alone. I'm speaking of witnessing firsthand, the transformation of a few hundred people whose breakdowns and breakthroughs I have been witness to.

Over the last 4 years in particular, Yogā and Āyurveda have shown me that many of the behaviours I thought were part of my dysfunction had to do with 3 main things

• the belief that "This trait is inherent to me, genetically or culturally inherited" or "I've tried to change but I can't. This is how I am."

• food and lifestyle have more to do with mental health including the ability to change or stay stuck in limiting beliefs

• by nature of exclusion, all beliefs are limited and limiting (perhaps except the belief that all beliefs are limited)

Last weekend, I was at a women's empowerment brunch with over 400 women in attendance. Two of my BIRY clients, Janet Hislop and Chlesea Flynn, were speakers along with Keynote Speaker Lisa Hanna, former Miss World, MP from Jamaica, and Mental Health Activist. My client Janet, said something incredible. "I never let the thought enter my mind, that I was limited because I was a woman." (I'm paraphrasing). Just to give you a background, of where that thought got her, Janet is CEO of a Bank, President of a Corporation, has a BSc Hons Molecular Biology & Genetics, is a mother, wife, sister, grandmother, music and food lover, and more.

As I looked around the room, I noticed the profoundness of what she said didn't register for most. I was intrigued. Janet was saying, "If you don't hold the belief that you are disempowered because you are a woman, you won't be." She acknowledged the unique challenges we have as women without bypassing anything. She didn't buy into the narrative, so it didn't limit her. She didn't waste any energy complaining, dissing, blaming men and patriarchy. All her energy went into listening to her heart and head and doing exactly what she felt called to do.

This is very much in line with Vedanta philosophy, where we understand that we are consciousness, expressing itself through the world of name and form, and therefore limitless.

Simultaneously, my daughter turned 13 last week, and most people have been saying "OMG! The teenage years. Good luck!". For a while I noticed I was saying to myself "Mirabelle, I hope she's nowhere close to the nasty teenager you were, losing your cool and slamming doors, wanting to run away from home and thinking you were adopted." (Yes, I was a proper mess :) ). Then I stopped and considered. This narrative was coming from fear. I've been thinking about the narrative around birthing, breastfeeding, puberty, and menopause for a few years now.

You see, in Yogā, we teach headstands to kids when they are around 8 years old, not before. Why? Because that's when the fontanelles fully close AND the pineal gland starts shrinking, bringing the onset of puberty. In Yogā studies, I learned that consistent practices of headstands slow down the shrinking of the pineal gland, mitigating the hormonal hurricanes that can often engulf teens.

Again through my daughter's journey working to heal a recurring gymnastics injury with an Āyurvedic doctor after years of conventional treatments had failed, I learned how reducing inflammation and heat in the body supports a more even-keeled transition into puberty. My own experience of balancing Agni through Āyurveda changed my experiences with menstruation, almost getting rid of the bloating I used to experience during my cycle.

The big thing everyone seems to be speaking about now is menopause. Podcasts, books, and more. Why not? It's all good. Yet, we must discern between integrative and fragmented approaches. We must discern whether using patches and pills is the solution or the band-aid or if there's a way to take responsibility and work with the body to support the transition. Discernment is key. Whatever we choose, no judgment, but choice without discernment veers on fatalism.

I am not peri-menopausal yet, so I have no real experience to share. I'm just observing my clients and referring them to an Āyurvedic Doctor I trust. Today, I'm sharing this video of my client, Jaslyne Bridges, an accountant and Director at a Big 4 firm (just to say she's a logical thinker), and how her menopause experience changed in just 40 days by making dietary and lifestyle changes.

In this video, Jaslyne shares

• her mother's history with hot flushes for over a decade

• her fear of the genetic possibility of her having the same challenges and the steps she took to avoid it

• what happened to her despite taking precautions

• medical advice

• Āyurveda, her skepticism, and challenge

• results

• questioning conditioning

• Jaslyne's heartfelt message for all peri-menopausal women.

Watch the full unfiltered video

This video is presented with time stamps and chapters to allow easy access to content that speaks to you.

Please leave Jaslyne a comment on the video or here on the blog. We'd love to know what this video evoked in you. All observations are welcome.

PS: Please know that I have no judgment or opinion about Hormone Replacement Therapy. My desire is only to invite a process of discernment with relation to beliefs and the biology of belief.

Fun Fact

PS: Have you wondered why the word men precedes so many words, like men-tal, men-suration, men-tor, tor-men-tor lol....you get the gist. I decided to question my assumptions, the easy way, so I asked Chat GPT, and here's what it had to say

The fact that words like mental, menstruation, mensuration, menopause, and mentor begin with "men" is coincidental and unrelated to the word man or men. These terms derive from different linguistic roots:

• Mental: From the Latin word mentalis, which stems from mens, meaning "mind."

• Menstruation: From the Latin word menstruus, which is based on mensis, meaning "month" — relating to the monthly cycle.

• Mensuration: From the Latin mensuratio, meaning "the act of measuring" (mensura means measure).

• Menopause: Derived from the Greek menos (month) and pausis (pause), referring to the cessation of menstruation.

• Mentor: From the name Mentor, a character in Homer’s Odyssey, who was a trusted advisor.

So, despite the similarity in spelling, these words have distinct origins rooted in ancient languages like Latin and Greek, and their "men" prefix is purely etymological, not gender-related.

Related Blogs

• The Power of A Woman: Embodied Read more about Women and Conditioning

• Mind Your Gut and That 4-Letter Word: Read about Agni, the basis of transformation through diet and lifestyle.

• When You Just Can't Stomach It: Read how a 42-year lawyer healed from IBS and PCOS in 9 weeks.