Wellness Posts by judithL

10-Steps to Manifesting A Change for the Better

support@wellness.com — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 08:24:29 Z

Wellness.com - 10-Steps to Manifesting A Change for the Better by judithL

It is important to remember that the symptoms of menopause are physical manifestations of underlying biological changes taking place in a woman's body - changes that impact not only our lives and lifestyle, but our physical health as well.
What's a woman to do?

These ten steps can help ease you through the transition and keep you on the road to a long, healthy life.

1. First and foremost schedule an appointment with your doctor for a complete physical - including all medical tests appropriate to your age. Pay special attention to bone density, cholesterol, and heart and circulatory health. Go over any menopausal symptoms you are experiencing. Together you and your doctor can decide if HRT is right for you.

2. Get adequate rest. If you are having trouble sleeping at night, try Yoga, Tai Chi or meditation (classes are available at private studios, health and fitness centers and most YMCA facilities). Practicing these relaxation methods helps improve sleep as well as lowering blood pressure and improving mental clarity.

3. Eat a healthy diet - including fresh fruit and vegetables, low fat protein and whole grain carbohydrates. Drink plenty of water. Reduce or eliminate caffeine which may increase hot flashes and night sweats. Also avoid refined sugar. Instead, if you need an energy boost, take a brisk walk or have a light protein snack - or both.

4. Take a quality vitamin supplement specifically for mature women. Omega -3 supplements and extra calcium may also be beneficial. Talk to your doctor before taking any supplements.

5. Incorporate moderate exercise into your daily routine. Walking is the easiest - no special equipment or gym membership needed. Be creative when working exercise into your life-plan. Gardening, dancing, playing games and chasing grandchildren all count! If you can't manage 30 - 45 minutes once a day, try ten or fifteen minutes three times a day. Take the steps instead of the elevator, park your car at the end of the lot, walk the dog, or turn up the music and dance through your household chores.

6. Incorporate both muscle-building and weight bearing exercise into your fitness regime. Increasing your muscle to fat ratio also increases your metabolism and helps you to maintain a healthy weight, arguably your best defense against developing metobolic syndrome. Weight bearing exercise (yoga, walking, low impact aerobics, etc.) is important for bone density.

7. Breathe. Most of us are shallow breathers, which contributes to stress and fatigue. Again, a Yoga class is an excellent place to learn deep breathing. (or search www.yogajournal.com for breathing). Practice deep breathing several times throughout your day (while your stuck in traffic is a great time) and you will begin to naturally breath deeper. You'll also find that taking three deep breaths helps relieve both mental and physical stress.

8. Spend time in nature every day - after all, we are kith and kin. Unless the weather is threatening, getting outdoors will rejuvenate mind, body and spirit.

9. Spend time on yourself every day. What do you love? What feeds your soul? It might be one thing or many, just make sure you spend time every single day doing something you love. In my coaching practice, I find that this step is the first one most women will forgo in their busy days. To keep on track, make a list of activities and pastimes you enjoy and how much time each requires. Make sure your list includes things that take just a few minutes, sipping a cup of herbal tea or paging through a new magazine, along with more lingering indulgences, lunch with the girls, a trip to the antique mall, classes at a community college. Post the list where you will see it and vow to do one thing each day.

10. Spend time with friends every day. Whether by email, phone or in person, make that connection. A strong support network of friends adds years to your life and life to your years.

Remeber, every woman is different; that's what makes us all beautiful. See your doctor and discuss all aspects of your menopause and how it affects your individual health and lifestyle. Make your mid-life your best life yet!

Not Your Mother's Menopause

support@wellness.com — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:27:05 Z

Wellness.com - Not Your Mother's Menopause by judithL

If your mother spoke of it at all, she likely whispered euphemisms in hushed tones. "I'm going through my change." Of course, she wasn't talking to you. More likely you overheard a tearful confidence she shared with a friend. Like menstruation, pregnancy, and childbirth, menopause was not a topic of polite conversation for our mothers or grandmothers. Women's mysteries were just that, revealed only amongst closest friends behind closed doors.

That was then and this is now, but one thing remains as true for menopausal women today as it did for our mother's and grandmothers-each woman experiences this life transition differently, from sailing through the physical and emotional changes, to struggling with a laundry list of maladies best described by Suzanne Somers as the "Seven Dwarves of Menopause-Itchy, Bitchy, Sweaty, Sleepy, Bloated, Forgetful and All Dried Up." To that I would add the twins, Doubt and Dread. These twins are born from a loss of self confidence and an increasing fear of losing health and wellness.

If this life transition is proving difficult for you, beyond the question of whether or not to resort to any form of hormone replacement therapy, you might do well to ask yourself what pre-conceived notions you have about menopause, where they originated and if they are helpful or harmful.

How did your mother react to her feminine life cycles in general? Was menstruation referred to as "the curse" in your home? Is your attitude regarding menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, and menopause positive or negative? The answer might have a lot to do with how you experience this right of feminine passage.

Centuries ago, women honored their life-cycles with celebration and reverence. Young girls eagerly awaited the time of their first blood, when they would be welcomed into the sisterhood of their tribe. Again, when they entered the realm of motherhood, their status in the community was elevated. But the most revered of all women in the tribe were those who lived to become Crones. In attending at births, healing the sick, and preparing the dead for burial, they were the conduit of life and death.

In today's American culture, where youth and beauty are revered, a woman in her menopausal years might begin to feel she has outlived her usefulness. She may feel disregarded by society-quite the opposite of being revered for her experience and wisdom.

Menopause signals a transition into the next stage of your life. You can choose to see it as a liberating, opportunity for growth or an enemy to battle to the death. To paraphrase the lyrics of a great '80s song, if you tidy up your point of view and get yourself a new attitude . . . you can still be healthy, beautiful, and vibrant for years to come.

Remember, life is a journey, not a destination. As long as you are living, there will be change. Like birthdays and old age, it's better than the alternative.

NEXT ENTRY: Manifesting Your Mid-Life, 10 Steps to a Change for the Better!

Losing My Cool

support@wellness.com — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 06:54:07 Z

Wellness.com - Losing My Cool by judithL

I'm losing my cool. In fact, I'm not sure I ever really had it. To be honest, I wasn't giving much brain time to this whole thing until I tuned into my favorite talk radio station today. It seems that in the war of the sexes, mature guys win hands down over older women in the cool department.

As if there isn't enough fodder to set the political pundits' tongues on fire, now they've pointed out that Hillary just doesn't have the same cool factor as her husband, the Former President Clinton.

Remember that great moment when Bill donned his Blues Brothers glasses and started tooting his own horn? The voters loved it. By comparison, Hillary looked, well, less than cool while performing the Macarena, and she can't carry a tune in a gunny sack, but that has little to do with the truth of the matter. It's her age - her middle age, to be exact that makes her uncool.

Too bad it wasn't a call in program; there are a few things I wanted to point out, like the fact that the commentators were men. In Man World, men become distinguished with age. Women just get old. I think men have some kind of magic mirrors that reflect only virile youth. How else can you explain the aging male, with substantial paunch, man boobs and sagging skin, that stands in front of his looking glass every morning, strikes the Atlas pose and announces, "I've still got it."?

Billy-boy's famous saxophone solo was sixteen years ago - that's almost two decades. Back then, if Hillary had donned a pair of tight blue jeans, a t-shirt and a leather jacket, and rode in on the back of a Harley with her long blond hair blowing out behind her, I think hot might have been the buzz word. As a matter of fact, I think she could still pull that off today if she lost the matronly suits and spent a little time with Stacy and Clinton of What Not To Wear.

There seems to be a little confusion over hot and cool. Does it all come down to gender? It is Joe Cool after all, not Jane. John Travolta's breakout character,Vinnie Barbarino was the epitome of cool in Welcome Back Kotter. And sitting in the desk behind him? Hotsy Totsy, not Cool Lulu. Then came Grease, and John T spelled cool with a capital C. When sweet and innocent Sandy decided to go bad for her man, she transformed into a sizzling hot babe.

Okay, so maybe a middle aged woman can't lose her cool factor because she never had it to begin with. But unless you count the hot flashes, my temperature on the hotty thermometer is definitely going down as my years increase. Let's face it, I'm barely lukewarm these days.

"That's not true," my 26 year old daughter assures me. "A lot of guys your age think you're hot."

Your age. Two words that rake on my confidence like nails on a chalkboard.

As for Hillary, she's in a catch-22. The same pundits who pigeon hole her as uncool, (translate - past her prime), find fault with her opponent for being too young and inexperienced. I guess they'd think it was cool if Senator Obama played a mean blues riff on a harmonica, then suddenly he'd be a seasoned gentleman - one cool cat.

So what is this hot factor that has me losing my cool? Why do I spend money on creams, lotions and potions that promise to make me look ten years younger? Why do I squeeze myself into Spanks, a kinder gentler girdle than my mother wore, to look fifteen pounds thinner? Why do I even care if I can make men half my age take a second look?

Does a woman have to be hot to be cool and can a middle aged woman like me pull it off? Should I even bother? I mean, unless I'm running for President of the United States, what's it going to get me?

There will always be women younger and prettier than me and maybe my days of dancing the Macarana, or at least looking good while I'm doing it are over.

Not to worry, there's still the Tango.

Get a Mid-Life

support@wellness.com — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 06:49:39 Z

Wellness.com - Get a Mid-Life by judithL

Right this minute you are being toted along your life's journey in a caravan of transformation. Your time has come. Let go of your neophyte twenties, release your toilsome thirties, wave good-bye to your frantic forties and embrace the metamorphosis of your middle years, your life center. You are not just experiencing mid-life; you are becoming a Middle Aged Goddess. More precisely, you are becoming a MA'd Goddess, in every mirthful and powerful incarnation the title implies.

Regrettably, too many MA'd Goddess women have not broken their chrysalis and spread their wings. Or perhaps, having taken a tentative flight or two, they fear straying out into their new world; capricious spirits haphazardly flitting about in circles, searching for true self. Should you be one of these wayward spirits failing to connect with her deity identity, your search is over. The MA'd Goddess lies within. You need only call her name and she will emerge, to take her rightful place of honor.

But who is the MA'd Goddess? By what name is she known? She has borne the mantle of many a misnomer; Baby Boomer, Flower Child, Corporate Climber, Yuppie and the Sandwich Generation, to name a few. From the first post-war tide of Baby Boomers in 1946, up to the last gentle ebb in 1964, more than 38 million females were born into a generation of paradox.

Just as we were born in waves of proliferation, we came of age in surging tides that left a mark on the American landscape. In the Sixties we were the catalyst for social reform and higher consciousness. In the Seventies we pushed open the doors to women's equality and stormed the bastions of the Good 'Ol Boys. In the Eighties we conveniently forgot any conscience we ever had, and became vainglorious, corporate-climbers pounding against the glass ceiling. And in the new millennium, Hillary Clinton is breaking all the barriers as the first woman to make a viable bid for the highest position in the United States of America - Madam President.

We are mixed lot, with a lot in common.We proclaimed our mothers' lives of homemaking and child rearing oppressive and granted ourselves freedom from the constraints of patriarchal society. We vowed to raise our children in a kinder, gentler and much more enlightened way than our parents had raised us - the next generation would grow up to be well adjusted, caring, productive citizens. Wow, what a shock we had in store when we found out kids don't come with an instruction book - no matter what Dr. Spock said to the contrary.

In our late teens and twenties we clambered out the doors of our parents' homes as fast as our stacked heels would take us. Our mother's job was to make a home and raise the children. We decided we could do that and have careers too. After all, men had been doing it for years. We were blinded by the belief that we could have it all. Now we realize that only meant we'd be doing it all . . . all by ourselves. We go to work and then we come home to work some more. Whose brilliant idea was this anyway?

Middle aged? You're not kidding. We're stuck right in the middle of grown (well almost) children and aging parents. Despite our bests efforts, the kids seem to be making no attempt to leave the nest (and why should they when it's so well feathered?) and the folks are evermore tugging on our heartstrings and our time. In their day, it was a child's duty to pitch in when the snow needed shoveling, the grass needed mowing or the roof needed patching. They wouldn't dream of skipping Sunday dinner with their parents and they can't understand why you don't have the time to help pull weeds in the garden or prune the lilacs.

We've come a long way, baby? It's more like we're the lost generation ~ lost in denial and wandering in the desert of despair. No wonder we're so tired all the time. And hot flashes? It's about time we got a little hot under the collar.

So what's a MA'D Goddess to do? RECLAIM HER RIGHTFUL SPOT ON THE PEDESTAL. Join the gathering of women discovering the MA'D Goddess that lies within us all and slam the lid on this Pandora's Box we opened. Repeat after me - "I am a MA'd Goddessand I'm not going to take it anymore!