Yoga & The Menopause
By Clare Watson
Ever heard of Yoga for Menopause? It’s a type of yoga aimed at helping women experiencing menopause symptoms including hot flushes, anxiety, low mood, fatigue, insomnia, brain fog, and risks of osteoporosis, muscle loss, degenerating joints, heart disease and more; and aims to ease the negative impact of those symptoms on day-to-day through a combination of yoga poses, breathing exercises and restorative relaxation techniques. For so long, yoga has been well known to have an immense healing power and therefore provides a perfect, natural way to support women on their unique journeys through perimenopause, menopause, or post menopause
It’s just not fair! - as well as the list of over 34 common menopause symptoms, the susceptibility to stress for women increases significantly during menopause because of fluctuating and lowering oestrogen levels in our bodies; so, our ability to cope with life’s challenges and symptoms is made more difficult. It is scientifically proven that taking up a yoga practice helps to reduce stress and anxiety, changing the physiology of the body from ‘fight and flight’ to ‘rest and digest’.
Yoga is a clever exercise – boosting the chemicals produced by the body to relieve stress and pain (endorphins), supporting us to breathe more deeply, soothing over-active and anxious minds, stretching muscles to release tension and easing us into a more relaxed state. Not only that, but yoga also strengthens bones and tones muscle, gets the heart pumping and improves circulation and our immune system – it’s a win win!
I came to yoga in my fifties, at a point ‘my wheels had fallen off’! I hadn’t engaged with my menopause until then, wasn’t understanding how my body was changing and how that was negatively impacting on my ability to cope with life’s challenges - multi tasking, work and career, kids, illness, and bereavement – and something had to change! For me yoga became an important part of my menopause toolbox. I became stronger and more flexible but also yoga has helped me to rebuild my confidence, re-evaluate priorities, develop better resilience, improve my focus and introduced me to new positive friends and communities.
A typical Yoga for Menopause practice is a gentle practice and will have a weekly menopause theme - such as managing heat and hot flushes, or supporting fatigue and poor sleep, strengthening pelvic floor, or building strong bones. 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 ‘you time’ to rest and restore energy.
Western culture has such a negative perspective on menopause – anxiety, discomfort, aging, endings, and yes it can include many of these things, but the positives are often lost. So how do we go about reframing our menopause experience into something more positive? In Traditional Chinese Medicine menopause is called “Second Spring’ – a new awakening, a time to let go of negativity and judgement, time to rejuvenate and become a new you! This ethos and attitude is at the heart of Yoga for Menopause – so why not come and give it a try!
Clare teaches a Yoga for Menopause class at The Secret Space every Tuesday evening at 7.45 - 9.15pm To book visit our timetable here.