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If you’re experiencing anxiety, depression or internalised rage (whether menopausal or not) and you believed you had a happy childhood, you MAY be over idealising your parents.  Read the blog to gain more insight.

Now, before we dive in, I totally understand that this may well be a paradigm shifting read, but if you've found your way here, it's likely that you're already starting to take the rose coloured spectacles off. 

Be kind to yourself as you read this, you really don't need anything else to beat yourself up about. 

Take a breath.  

Believing you had a happy childhood does not make you exempt from having Complex Trauma which may be underlying your anxiety and depression.  Complex PTSD arises as a result of the quality of our attachments in early life.   

The obvious issues are abuse and neglect, but the less obvious ones are:

🥺 Not being allowed to rebel and find yourself (rebellion is how we find ourselves).
🥺 Feeling like you had to keep the peace (it's not your job to ke...

Have you heard of the expression, "You don't stop playing because you age, you age because you stop playing."  ?

Well I think something similar is going on with our libido during menopause. 

Yes the initial hormone decline may cause our libido to drop but it's OUR job to re-ignite it otherwise we end up in the trap that goes:  'you don't stop having sex because of menopause, you menopause because you stop having sex.'

Maybe that's not actual science, but there's something in the idea which feels important and certainly goes along with the theory of stereotype embodiment. 

The health benefits of sex and orgasms are phenomenal. 

The increased levels of nitric oxide released during orgasm bring improvements in: 

🍆 cardiovascular health including blood pressure.
🍆 exercise performance.
🍆 immune function.
🍆 memory and overall brain function.
🍆 wound healing.
🍆 anti inflammatory.
🍆 emotional regulation.

all of which support a healthier menopause and so I think we would do well to be curio...

Good ole menopause, the rollercoaster ride of hormonal changes that can make even the most composed woman feel like she's in a never-ending heatwave.

One of the most notorious symptoms that women experience during this phase are hot flushes. But fear not because I am here to guide you through this hellish inferno.

So, grab a fan, sit back, and let's cool down together. 

Understanding the Heatwave: Hot flushes (or hot flashes depending on what side of the pond you reside), are sudden feelings of intense heat (that usually starts in the head) and can spread throughout your body, leaving you sweaty, red-faced, and feeling like you're trapped in a sauna. These episodes can strike at any time, especially when we feel anxious, causing embarrassment, discomfort, and a desperate need to either leave the building or for a personal portable air conditioner.  

Ok so let's start with some quick wins...

1. Embrace the Power of Layers: When it comes to dressing for hot flushes, layering is you...

Mental health challenges at menopause are the un-sung symptoms of this transition and for many, it may be the first time that anxiety or depression have been experienced. 

My guest today is Chris McDonald.  She's a Holistic Licensed Therapist and owns a group online practice, “Path to Hope Counseling”. 

In today's episode, we discuss:

🧠 What holistic therapy entails that other therapies don't.
🧠 If you don't do this one thing (even if you're having therapy), nothing is going to work.
🧠 How to overcome the challenges of personal responsibility.
🧠 What resilience is and what it is not.
🧠 Sleep - what to do if you wake up in the middle of the night.
🧠 The power of radical acceptance and the reason it's so difficult to do.
🧠 The most incredible thing I've found to help me self soothe.  
🧠 Cooking and creativity.
🧠 What might be better than talk therapy if you're dysregulated.
🧠 Breaking the cycle of depression.
🧠 How this particular group of people can help you to re-parent yourself

.... and ...

By 2025, there will be one billion people on the planet in some stage of menopause, that's a LOT of potential struggle and a good reason to GET LOUD.  

That's why my guests today set up Windrose World Retreats (for women going through menopause) to help ease some of the load. 

Jan Scott and Diana Phillips are two friends that joined forces through a love of yoga, travel and wellbeing.  

In today's conversation we talk about:

👉🏽 The power of full immersion on transformation.
👉🏽What happens on a menopause retreat.
👉🏽WHEN vs WHAT.
👉🏽What's the alternative to a 'blanket solution' for menopause.
👉🏽Why healing through menopause is so multi faceted.
👉🏽What a natural decrease in oxytocin actually GIVES us and how we can use it to our advantage.
👉🏽Why personality and identity change is so much more rapid during menopause.
👉🏽De-conditioning the 'menopause is miserable' narrative.

And more...

I think you'll feel super motivated and inspired after listening to this bright, sparkly conversation. 

Has menopause left you feeling very untrusting of your body?  😳

The symptoms!  Oh the symptoms!  Over 48 of them now last time I looked.

But what are all these symptoms telling us?  

That our body is breaking? That our body failing? That we are degenerating?  

I have to say, I'm a little more optimistic than that.

What if these symptoms were actually a result of the body trying to heal itself? 

If we thought about it that way, how differently might we treat our entire menopausal transition?

My guest today is Sarah Davison, a homeopath specialising in menopause. 

In this conversation we talk about...

👉🏽 The two aspects of yourself that need to be included if deep healing is to take place. 
👉🏽 An explanation of how homeopathy works that you'll actually get.
👉🏽 The big energy issue that many menopausal women face.
👉🏽 What exactly can homeopathy treat.
👉🏽 The surprising ways you might experience change with homeopathy.
👉🏽 Why homeopathy is completely different to supplements an...

Have you considered that the scattered thinking you experience, the inability to do mundane tasks, and the noise in your head might be ADHD and not just menopause? 

Before peri menopause conditions like ADHD are easy to mask, but as our sex hormones start to decline dopamine disregulation (which is at the heart of ADHD) can be revealed or may get worse.  

I'm not saying that EVERY women in menopause suddenly develops ADHD, but leaps in logic suggest that there could be a link.  

Today's conversation is a tale of two halves.  I speak with Bev Thorogood (Author, TEDX speaker and Menopause Trainer) about menopause in the workplace and what it's like to have been diagnosed with ADHD later on in life.  

In today's conversation we speak about:  

😬 Why menopause in the workplace is perhaps more relevant today than it was 30 years ago.
😬 Why mandatory menopause training in the workplace might NOT be a good idea.
😬 What women can do to make the menopause conversation easier for men. 
😬 T...

As I sit here writing this, I'm eating my words.  If you listen to early episodes of The Menopause Mindset Podcast you'll hear me say in the jingle 'yes you CAN have it all'.  

My guest today strongly disagrees and I have to say, so do I now.  

I think of that younger version of me with love.  She was fresh into peri menopause and fresh into menopause education (with all the enthusiasm that brings) and truthfully she had no idea how menopause would hit her in years to come. 

I believe in divine timing and I think this interview with Dr Lisa Petty, couldn't have come at a better time.  

Dr Lisa Petty started her career as a holistic nutritionist and health researcher and quickly become recognised as a speaker, journalist and award winning author.  She earned a PhD for her research on how midlife women experience self care in the face of social pressure to be perfect in every facet of their lives. 

In this conversation we talk about: 

😘 The real reason why women can't keep up ...

If you're anything like me, you've purchased hundreds of aromatherapy oils in the past with the full intention of using them in your baths, in diffusers and in your massage oils, only to then wonder 'are they really working?'  Promptly abandoning them only to repeat the cycle a year later. 

My guest today is listed as one of America's most influential aromatherapists.  She's also the New York State representative for the Alliance of International Aromatherapists, so she knows a thing or two about the contents of these mysterious little bottles.  

In our long awaited conversation we spoke about:

🪴 What makes an essential oil so powerful.
🪴 How smells affects the nervous system.
🪴 The properties of essential oils.
🪴 How essential oils actually affect our bodies.
🪴 How to really work with and appreciate essential oils.
🪴 Aromatherapy post hysterectomy.
🪴 Aromatherapy for symptoms management during menopause.
🪴 The problem with perfume.
🪴 What NOT to do with essential oils.
🪴 Why y...

What's it like when you're told that your lab results are 'normal' but you feel far from it? 

It might offer temporary relief but you go back into your life and before long, you feel awful again. 

Your intuition is telling you that things are far from normal.  

So what is really going on here?  

My guest today is Ricky Brandon, founder of The Hormone Balance Centres in the USA.  After years of searching, thousands of hours in training, research, and trial, and error, he has finally landed on the process and system that mixes traditional medicine with alternative medicine and helps people feel great again and live younger and longer with natural hormone replacement therapy.

In today's conversation we discuss: 

✅ Why UNDERSTANDING is power when it comes to your health.
✅ Embracing symptoms rather than fearing them.
✅ The restrictions that tight protocol creates for traditional doctors when dealing with hormones. 
✅ The wide generic nature of hormone levels set by insurance compan...