Helping with brain fog during the Menopause

By Clare Watson

Have found yourself standing in a room wondering why on earth you are there, or forgotten the names of people you know well, or started a sentence and forgotten what it was that you needed to say!  Has it even crossed your mind and worried you have early signs of dementia!  You are not alone! 

Approximately eight out of ten women in the UK will experience menopause symptoms (NHS 2018), with some women finding symptoms more extreme than others. If you are a woman in your 40s or 50s experiencing ‘menopause brain fog’ is not “all in your mind”. In perimenopause and the early stages of menopause, women can experience changes in their ability to assimilate and make use of new information, make decisions, think clearly, and function well mentally. It’s often described as “brain fog” and affects around two-thirds of menopausal and perimenopausal women. The cause is related to the effects of changing hormone levels on the female brain. Women also often also experience irritability, mood swings and sleep disturbance which in itself can affect the brain’s ability to function optimally. These physical and emotional symptoms related to the changes in your hormone levels are very real and can be debilitating and stressful.

Yoga for menopause aims to move the body with the breath in slow. Fluid movements through the spine, leg stretches, forward fold and inversions to calm the mind and release nervous tension and nourish ourselves – only then can you rest and restore energy, relax and refocus and calm the mind. Yoga for Menopause practice is a gentle practice and whether you have a significant amount of yoga experience or none, the class is for you.  There will be breathing practice to engage your parasympathetic nervous system, a range of asana/postures practices supporting that therapeutic theme and requiring poses to be held for longer than in conventional yoga often with the support of props, time spent in active relaxation / restorative yoga postures to both stimulate and relax the body to bring it back to balance, and relaxation and mediation techniques to clear and calm the mind.  The class aims to be a place to come and be with women going through the same experience and offer much needed ‘you time’ to rest and restore energy.  

Join Clare a Yoga class. Click here to find out more and book.