Dear Mid-aged Women

Suppose you were insisted to describe your life as a mid-aged woman, what would come to your mind first? Unsolicited visitors on your face such as crows’ feet and nasolabial folds? Many a sleepless nights? Hot flashes out of the blue? Irregular or very sporadic periods? Showing sudden anger or giving acrimonious comments on beautiful ladies on TV or magazines? Tears well up in the eyes during a cheesy, sappy tearjerkers? Feeling like going somewhere all by yourself, foregoing all your duties of life one day or two? Well, well,……even if these are what makes up your recent phase of life, do not despair. It is not your fault, but blame it on your HORMONES that are getting out of your hands without your notice. As a woman on the perimenopausal period in her life, I often go through some of the listed above as well. I bet your moms, grandmas, great grandmas, great, great, great grandmas all had gone through this transition in life. Then, have they all –including ourselves- seen such changes in body and soul as some kind of ominous gegenschein in the night sky? Maybe or maybe not. But if it is all up to us or depends on how we see the change, why don’t we try to find a happy medium with our mind and body? We can accept perimenopausal or menopausal periods as a spiritual and emotional transformation in which you and I can grow deeper, wiser, and more intuitive. According to a meditation teacher Lisa Erikson, “With hormonal shifts come energetic shifts as well, or changes to your energetic centers of the body (called “Chakras” in Indian culture)”.  These seven Chakras refer to as follows: cultivating faith and insight in head, honing wisdom in mind, improving self-esteem through expression in throat, finding love and peace at heart, enjoying the sense of abundance and well-being at navel, feeling of being grounded and security on tailbones.

As a mid-aged woman, we can be a better, more capable, and self-sufficient communicator not only with ourselves but with others as well. “Smile and sois forte, ladies!” You are all smokin’ hot mamas just the way you are! ;-)

Expressions

crow’s feet: (noun) a wrinkle in the skin at the outer corner of your eyes

nasolabial folds: (noun) laugh lines/ the wrinkles from each side of the tip of one’s nose to each side of one’s mouth

hot flashes : (noun) a sudden brief sensation of heat, often over the entire body, caused by a transient dilation of the blood vessels of the skin and experienced by some women during menopause.

sappy: silly, extremely sad

tear-jerker: a movie that is often intended for women with sad and emotional ending

perimenopausal: (adjective) referring to the time period around menopause at which the production of female sex hormones (i.e., Estrogens)  is reduced.

gegenschein: (noun) a faint glowing spot or region in the sky, occasionally visible exactly opposite the position of the sun, consisting of sunlight scattered by interplanetary dust particles. Also called counterglow

happy medium: (noun) a course or state that avoids extremes

to hone: (verb) to sharpen or refine something

Sois forte!: (French expression) Be strong!

smokin’ hot: sexy and attractive