Midlife and Menopause

Let the world be a reflection of yourself in acceptance.

Midlife transformation represents a changing point for any person, to start living life on their own terms.

However, Menopause isn’t always a change a woman is ready to accept in their life. It isn’t as if a woman can choose when Menopause can happen. Yet historically this isn’t true. Female Taoist Practitioners were known to induce menopause up to a decade early on purpose in their life.

In terms of life, Taoism sees a human life divided into 3 major times as an adult.

1. The first third of life is all about fitting in with your society.
2. The second third of life represents becoming your own person.
3. The third third of life represents releasing oneself into spiritual exploration.

The second third of life is Mid Life transformation and Menopause. Taoist women used to induce menopause early on purpose to release the social responsibility of having children. A woman’s life in China was very much about family and having children. The choice of having a child wasn’t an easy one, nor one which as a woman got older was a safe path. It was a much safer and powerful place to induce menopause earlier and literally seize control of one’s own life to be outside societies control.

In current modern society things are very different. It’s medically more acceptable to have children older. In addition, our culture is more mind centric: people want to control their bodies, and not be control by the body. In addition, this culture is youth centric. People don’t want to lose the edge of their youth… To go through menopause is to be forced away from one’s youth.

In China where elders were respected, it makes sense to speed up menopause. In the western culture which worships youth (look at how western culture treats the older population and you immediately see the problem) it makes sense women would unconsciously rather delay menopause.

A simple truth is this… reproduction comes at a high cost to our bodies. To be reproductively fit burns the body at a higher pace and rate, in order to ensure reproduction. It turns out Midlife is a very very biologically important time in human life. Mid life transformation is really all about resetting and then re-tuning our bodies to be more sustainable.

To live as a 20 year body, would in fact mean the average human body would fail and burn out by 60… The body needs to ramp down a bit in order to pace out life in a better fashion. Men who don’t go thru a full version of menopause (men still do go thru some physical changes, but more slight and subtle) die younger than women, on average 7 years younger. (Other factors come into play for the age difference, but this re-pacing of life plays in heavily)

Midlife and Menopause are all about improving the quality of life for a person. In addition to literally re-tuning a body, a woman’s body will age more gracefully when flowing to the Menopause process.

Menopause isn’t always an easy transition for many women. Mid life crisis itself is a hard time for many people, for both men and women. Yet for women who could be dealing with the effects of Menopause at the same time as their mid life transformation, the combination of both processes can feel overwhelming indeed.

Now one aspect that is interesting: The actual timing of Menopause and Mid Life Transformation aren’t always in sync with each other. Menopause can be induced earlier in life due to stress or other conditions. Likewise, a woman’s Mid Life Transformation could happen before menopause due to a partner being in mid life transformation or other life changing events. This period of time as a result can be a bit more confusing to a woman since while menopause traditionally represents when midlife transition happens, that isn’t actually necessarily the case either.

When a woman works with menopause it can become a very powerful gift to enhance her life. So a final consideration is this: midlife transformation often in our society becomes midlife crisis. The trouble is when pushing events off to become a crisis, that crisis of lifestyle then forces what would normally be a natural physical process, to feel like a deeper personal crisis itself.

In this process women need some reassurance to be reminded to not let crisis style thinking from the culture and peers, impose upon their own natural changing point in life. Menopause is actually a time of great power for a woman, power represents the ability to define oneself. Don’t lose the power of transformation to crisis style thinking and actions from our culture.

This time of life is the the second third of life: The second third of life represents becoming your own person.

So make this time be about true transformation and become strong in who you would like to become.

Menopause Retreats

At the Personal Tao Retreat center, we have special menopause retreats teaching meditation, energy balancing techniques and herbal practices to help women in menopause achieve a new balance in their life.

Our Menopause Retreats provide an environment that allows women to take time off and explore their natural process with grace.

Contact Julie and Casey at:
PersonalTao@gmail.com
(360) 870-2897

Additional Midlife Crisis Reading Materials

• Introduction to Midlife Transformation
• Helping Partners Change
• Midlife Crisis and Taoism
• Mid-life Counseling
• Mid Life Affairs
• Videos for Mid-life Crisis
• Quarter Life Crisis at 25
• Signs of a Midlife Transformation