Cultivating Bandwidth in Menopause
Bandwidth…I looked it up the other day because it’s been on my mind and in my breath with most of the clients that come through my office. Here’s what the great Google shared:
“The energy or mental capacity required to deal with a situation”
Hmmm…For me, one of the main things I have noticed from menopause is that the bandwidth I have relied on for the majority of my adult life has changed. But the more I have been thinking about it the more I am wondering if it’s more my willingness to push myself with the force of a tidal wave through everything that comes my way that has shifted? I’m not sure yet, but I do think it may be a bit of both. Regardless, it is a subject I find very interesting and one that finds it’s way often into my office walls.
The people who come to see me are often at the end of it, bandwidth that is. Running hard, working hard, helping others, answering emails and texts, checking social media, supporting partners, friends, kids, animals and others…all very well intended, I am absolutely sure of it. But the outcome is the same-a very hard time springing back to strength and vitality, clarity and balance especially as aging continues. And most especially after 40.
Why?
There hasn’t been too much written (that I know of), except for a few pioneers who have studied and practiced health of folks who have bled and the natural shift that occurs in cessation of cycles in perimenopause and menopause. I really love the work of Dr. Christian Northrup, MD who has spent a lifetime in practice of watching, treating and writing about “women’s health” and the hormonal process. I have learned a number of things from her including a core tenet that I have also learned in studying Ayurveda:
The body is wise
I know this to be true. I have experienced it over and over again in my own health and seen it reflected in the health of my friends and clients. So then, why are our bodies going through such an epic hormonal shift as we age, post child bearing years? What is our body trying to tell us? And why should we listen?
There are fantastic theories out there that suggest that as we age, and the roles in our lives begin to change, our body physiology shifts to support this. The years of hormonal production that have supported the fullness of our lives in the external world begin to give way to support a more thoughtful, wise approach to living that is backed by a lifetime of experiences and exchanges. AND that the natural aging process can usher us into a stage that brings in wisdom through contemplation, discernment and Right action.
For me this all sounds great, but like many others, my life so far has been full. I have relied on my capacity to manage many things at once and my ability to “power” through mostly because it was necessary but sometimes because the pattern was ingrained. Shit, our culture celebrates multi-tasking and our bodies’ natural bandwidth doing and being it all. We love to discuss all the things we have to do and the lists that keep us occupied. When I look around to find examples that show me otherwise, I am sort of hard pressed to do so, honestly. I’m not sure if I even know what a more balanced way of living truly is.