In this episode, I want to explore something you might not have thought of that can really help with menopause symptoms, and that is body awareness.
Menopause and Body Awareness
During the menopause transition, it's common to feel a sense of loss, grief, or anxiety around aging. Because you may be experiencing new symptoms and not entirely sure what is happening, you may also have a feeling that you are no longer in control of your body. Developing a sense of connectedness with your body can not only help you take better care of yourself from a practical point of view, but it can also expand your sense of pleasure, aliveness, and well-being. So take a second and notice, how connected do you feel to your body? Do you feel like you're mostly in your head, or can you bring your awareness all the way down to your abdomen, your legs, your feet?
Developing body awareness during menopause is beneficial on many levels.
For one, it creates a feeling of respect and honoring yourself when you take actions that you support your health and your future self. It makes a person feel more whole.
How Body Awareness Benefits Your Health During Menopause
Body awareness can also help you ask questions that are helpful during the menopause transition. For example, If I make this choice, will it help me feel better, or will I feel worse? You can develop the awareness to notice when in your day is a better time to exercise, or what are some conditions that help you have a bit better sleep. And awareness of these factors and listening to your body can really add up to helping with how you experience menopause.
Body awareness can not only help you identify issues, but also make changes. You could notice a change in your health and get it checked out before it becomes an problem. Maybe you notice your body reacts differently after eating a certain food.
You could keep a journal to track the relationship between what you eat and how your body feels, which would help you make decisions around what to eat. And you would also have this information to bring to a health provider if necessary. You can also practice body awareness by charting your cycles or symptoms, which gives you a visual to see any irregularities or changes.
I believe this also helps with developing respect for your body and seeing it as a beautiful and amazing thing.
We can also track our behaviours. As humans, we typically think that we've eaten less than we have and that we've been more active than we actually have been.
So tracking can help us become more aware of our behaviors. Tracking can be done with a pen and paper to record a food diary or something like a Fitbit or a pedometer to track your movement. We can also learn to recognize, am I actually hungry? Do I feel hunger in my belly? Am I shaky, low energy, cranky? Or do I want to eat for another reason like boredom or stress or avoiding something else? And we can learn to recognize when we've had enough food, feel satisfied, and could eat more but don't need to.
Mindful Eating and Menopause
I've always been fascinated by the people in Okinawa who regularly live to be over 100 and they have a practice called hara hatchi bu. This means that they stop eating when they're 80% full and this has many health benefits in addition to preventing overeating. And as a side note, they eat a mostly plant-based diet that includes veggies, sweet potatoes, brown rice, and tofu.
So it can take 15 to 20 minutes for the brain to register that we are satisfied. So by eating mindfully and slowly, we can recognize when we've had enough to eat. Notice the smells, the colors, the flavors, and put down your fork in between bites.
If you truly enjoy your food and relax while you eat rather than gobbling it down in the car or while you're working or watching TV, you may find you are satisfied with less.
Mindful Exercise for Menopause
Exercise is another opportunity to practice awareness of your body and recognize that changes in your body due to hormones, energy levels, stress, hydration, and pain can affect what you're able to do. You may have been able to exercise without paying much attention in your younger years, but during menopause this can backfire.
Body awareness can be helpful to assess how you are feeling before you exercise and let that determine your activity.
Check in with yourself. You might notice that a certain time of day works better for you and this can come by trying things out and tracking the results. Some days you might be okay to push yourself a bit and other days you might want to do some restorative yoga or take a short walk instead.
And if you start doing an activity and it just feels like too much, give yourself permission to back off a bit and do something lower intensity.
Menopause Body Awareness Practice
Finally, and this one is my favourite, developing a sense of body awareness and being present in your body (also known as introspection) can also be a form of meditation or mindfulness activity. You can do a scan of your body from head to feet and feel all the sensations that arise.
This can be very enjoyable as you practice because there can be many feelings of aliveness or pleasure even where you may least expect it. Like behind your knees or in your hands -- you can develop the awareness to notice these sensations anywhere -- and you get more and more sensitive to these sensations as you practice. As this practice develops, you may experience a renewed sense of well-being and joy.
If you enjoyed these menopause mindfulness tips, you may also enjoy my podcasts on Mindful Eating and How Stress Makes Menopause Worse.
Further help for Menopause
My free Vegan Menopause 3-Day Meal Plan is packed with recipes containing vegan protein to help you feel full longer, stabilize your blood sugar, protect your bones, boost your mood, and feel better overall during perimenopause!
In my free guide, Five Action Steps to Elevate Your Vegan Menopause Experience, I share five simple steps you can implement immediately, to feel more calm, more positive, and less affected by menopausal symptoms.
DISCLAIMER: This podcast’s information is general in nature and for informational purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice and is not intended to substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
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