The Empowered Menopause with Carolyn Cowan

 The Mind. Introduction: The Menopause and the Mind. We may have a narrative around our menopause and this will affect how we think about ourselves. 

The Mind: Anxiety: An extremely challenging aspect of the menopause, we look at it with an overview to make sense of the later films. 

Depression can kick in in either peri-menopause or once you are well into the experience. This film overviews this aspect. 

I have joked with friends that you find yourself so flooded with anger and waves of rage, as the menopause begins, that you want to kill someone. And then, when really in it, you want to kill everyone! The anger can be intense. 

All of the above, along with the flushes, can make sleep quite hard to manage.

Exploring all the effects of hormonal changes to the skin, internal organs and one’s self-perception. 

This is the key aspect of how the menopause affects the body, mind, sexual experiences, body changes and sleep. 

An overview of the changes one may expect in moving into the menopause and beyond. 

By many, seen as the worst aspect of the menopause, and interestingly one of the most obvious give-aways. 

How do we relate to all of the different aspects of the menopause? The changes that it heralds in our experience of ourselves and our changing realities? 

This is one of my favourite aspects of working with breath, movement, posture, hormones and anxiety. The wonderful “wandering” or Vagus Nerve. 

This is a Jungian concept which I worked with and expanded over many years. I add it here because I find it very relevant to our experience, societally, of the menopause. But it is also the personal especially in terms of anxiety, depression, motherhood and more. 

The five films in this section all aim to balance the sensation of anxiety that can arise, unbidden by actual experiences, into our emotional world. 

This stretch is a wonderful way to start the day, great if you are feel anxious and stressed. 

Understanding how to actually stretch the front of the body is important. This re sets the nervous system. 

This looks at how to literally manage the emotional body and sense of the self through a daily stretch routine. 

The breath is a powerful way to calm the mind and calm the system. This breath allows you to stabilise the mind and thoughts. 

We can change our hormonal flow through stretching. This movement releases serotonin into the body and we need lots of it! 

How can we work with a sense of depression? There is much we can do, especially if we can recognise it as a need for change. The 5 films in this section explore tools forchanging the sense of depression. 

The 7 cores series has a profound effect on the sense of self. You can build up the strength quite quickly but please do take it gently! 

Learn to use touch to stimulate hormones that make you feel good! 

One of my favourite postures of all time, Sufi Grind releases serotonin and grounds the mind. Essential as a daily movement. 

Looking at a breath manipulation to release large amounts of serotonin and massage the guts. 

Expanding our internal horizons, our felt sense of ourselves, immerse yourself in this lovely meditation! 

Anger is such a socially unacceptable emotion and until we hit the change, we can usually avoid or hide it. Now, there is no escape unless you hide it and fall into depression. The films here explore how to move anger. 

This breath cools the system, calms the heat, relaxes the Vagus nerve. 

An unusual opportunity to really vocally express, through sound and movement, the deepest rage and fury from deep within the subconscious mind. 

A meditation for anger. This could seem like an oxymoron, to meditate on anger, but it is powerful and my experience is that it works! 

I love the intention behind this three-part series. We really take ourselves on and choose to clear away the emotional debris. 

What is spiritual practice? What does it mean? How do we practice? To whom do we bow. Thought provoking questions. 

An overview of the stress hormones involved in the menopause. 

This is literally a lecture on how to manipulate and play with your hormones! No one ever tells us we can.   

Planks again, a wonderful way to manage the self, to hold and empower the self. 

The ego here means the child state or the pain body. In this posture and breath combination we get to burn off rage and fury through the shoulders and massage the emotional body with the diaphragm. 

We need DHEA to counteract the high levels of cortisol that flood our body when we are under stress. This breath is potent, easy, calming and you feel wonderful after.  

I may be the first person to tell you that you don’t need ice cream, sugar, carbs or social media to release dopamine. This stretch does it for you, every time! 

Oxytocin is the love hormone. This simple meditation can change how you feel and it is so easy to share on! Share the love! 

Always an odd way to describe how we manage our sleep patterns. The films here all look at how to relax into good sleep which is vital for the metabolism, our minds and much, much more.  

Before bed, stretch. This specific stretch releases emotional and stress contraction in the body enabling better sleep. 

An interesting breath to calm the entire visceral system in the body. This breath soothes and calms and so is wonderful before bed.