Day 29: Embracing Change Intro

Welcome to Week 5 which is all about embracing change. In 6 steps, you’ll learn how to transform your relationship to the changes you’re experiencing, so you can move through this time feeling calmer and more empowered.

Life can be turbulent and overwhelming and the changes we experience during menopause are no different. Even though our individual experience is unique, one thing we share is that familiar feeling…of suddenly having no control over our body, or our day to day experience. This is hard to adjust to when we’re used to knowing what to expect.

This course is your antidote to the sense of frustration you can feel on your journey. We’ll learn simple, achievable steps to help you embrace change with more ease, even when you feel powerless.

The course has been designed to have minimum impact on your time, while giving you maximum results. It follows a simple, memorable format, based on the word CHANGE, to help your brain remember and integrate each step.

Before you get started, have you ever wondered why you sometimes struggle to adjust to change?

It’s because of something called the Biology of Change. When you know about it, you can work with it, rather than against it. Even when it comes to physical changes you might be experiencing right now.

Your body’s used to existing on a certain amount of chemicals to keep it working well and maintaining balance. It gets so used to your normal state, that when you introduce or experience changes, it gets over-excited. It responds by flooding your system with Dopamine, the feel-good hormone.

This is why you may feel like you can conquer the world when you start something new! But, as you’ve probably experienced, this excitement soon fades. Only to be replaced by its friend resistance. For most of us, resisting those annoying changes brought on by menopause is what we instinctively do without realizing it.

When you don’t know about the biology of change, it’s easy to assume this resistance to menopause is your new normal. But you’re about to learn something empowering, that will transform your relationship to change for good.

When you’re experiencing change and you encounter resistance, it’s actually a really good sign! It means the chemical receptors in your cells are doing an inner dance, so they can recalibrate and start getting used to their new chemical and hormonal cocktail. This means you’re closer to adjusting to change than you think.

It feels really hard while your cells are dancing and adjusting. But just as you can’t build a new kitchen without stripping the old one out and creating a mess first, you can’t expect your cells not to protest to the disruption before they feel settled again.

To help you keep going through this period of change, there are three simple self-care rules to remember:

Firstly, let go of the word “should” whenever you notice you’re inwardly chastising yourself for not “managing menopause better.”

Secondly, accept that adjusting to your menopause journey may be more like the tortoise than the hare. Give yourself permission to take small slow steps in your own time.

And finally, be kind to yourself. Even though you’re no stranger to change, you haven’t navigated this journey before. It’s ok if you sometimes find it hard or don’t know which step to take next.

By the end of this week, you’ll have your own personal toolkit of techniques to help you cope more easily with the changes in your life. So that rather than fight them, you can navigate your journey feeling calmer and more empowered.