Menopause and the Moon

There comes a point — often sometime in our 40s or 50s — when the pace that once worked in a woman’s life begins to feel…unsustainable.

The stamina that carried our careers and used our emotional bandwidth to hold everyone else, while overriding our bodies to “just get through it” is fading or doesn’t work anymore.

We don’t really connect that when we going through perimenopause-menopause our entire being is affected. The slow decline of hormones and changes to other parts of our biology lead to our sleep being disrupted, we’re having more mood swings, our energy is less predictable, and yikes, we can hear an inner voice asking “what is happening to my body?”

So what once felt manageable now feels shaky.

Menopause - a powerful recalibration

I’m a strong believer in facing what my body is doing and asking questions, so my instincts started tracking my menopausal journey at the first signs of menstrual change – I had a loose desire and idea that maybe I could set myself up for a smooth menopausal transition vs. experiencing a pile of symptoms. I asked my mom how she experienced menopause and she said “I sailed through it!” – I wanted to sail though my menopause*.

After I turned 40, I knew that my estrogen and progesterone were fluctuating and would eventually decline. My nervous system became more sensitive and stress management became super important, so I focused on hormonal balancing and supporting my psyche. That’s when I committed to diving into big emotional healing work as life showed me what needed tending, TLC, and release.

It was a tricky time in my life, but staying on top of what was happening inside and out helped me get through it. And that’s when long forgotten creative and intuitive gifts and visions came online and a new identity started to form.

Societal narratives shape menopause as hormonal instability and a decline and all kinds of other disempowering narratives. But through another lens, I saw it as a meaningful change that could be navigated with education, and with medical and emotional support. Then I came to realize menopause offers a stripping away of old ways of being and a deeper relationship with my body-mind.

As I look back, it felt like a kind of alchemy and recalibration – an internal re-organization.

During menopause, and all the bodily and mood changes, there were opportunities to revisit my values and what I cared (and didn't care) about, and re-assess my changing needs and appetites. Through it all, a new subtle longing arose – I wanted a new way of tracking the inner cycle that was disappearing.

It’s all about cycles

As my menstrual cycle got wobbly in my 40’s, something interesting happened after going through life-changing shamanic initiations and healing – I looked to nature’s intelligence and the cycle of seasons and over time, the sun and moon became guides and replacements for the menstrual cycle that was leaving.

Our nervous systems love structure and patterns, and the fluctuations that come with hormonal changes can be wildly destabilizing – so I expanded my view to something predictable and contained in natural laws.

This helped me feel that I was part of something bigger, and was being invited into a massive sisterhood through time. I learned that some cultures hold the menopausal journey as a powerful return of inner power when the child-bearing years are over. Powerful archetypes guided a light of possibility – the Wise Women, the Enchantress, the Queen, the Sage, the Healer, the Mystic.

For a few years I was invited to participate in Full Moon Fire Ceremonies, which deepened my relationship with nature and cycles as I opened to synch-ing with archetypal moon cycles in practical and inspirational ways. Soon enough, a monthly rhythm was established that helped contain my plans and goals and finely tune to my inner rhythms and needs.

A new way of being

As my body was changing, this larger container for the recalibration I was experiencing helped soften my mind about what was happening. There was a new permission to fluctuate and appreciate that energy now comes in waves, that sometimes clarity sharpens and softens, and it’s OK to not tolerate what I’ve been tolerating. I also realized that I have personal rhythms that I can trust and they don’t follow a calendar set by a church in 1582 (the Gregorian calendar we use) – they actually synchronize with nature and the sun and moon.

Taking inspiration from the archetypes of moon cycles helps trust the ebbs and flows of energy on a consistent basis. This lessens and re-shapes the pressure of societal programs, compelling boundaries and efficient energy management. Even though I exist in a modern culture with deadlines and appointments, I and other women can connect to and reclaim our own rhythm and anchor a new truth that we can live cyclically in a linear world. Our long-ago grandmothers and the ancients did – and there’s a reason why many women call their period their “moon cycle”.

Synchronizing with the moon won’t “fix” menopause or all the complications of life, but it can soften any tendencies to hustle and risk burn-out especially as our hormones are shifting. It may also inspire moving through the menopause years with more dignity, awareness, and self-trust. And that is not a small thing when menopause brings a lot of questions and turbulence.

This post is being published on a new moon, that also auspiciously marks the lunar new year in Chinese astrology. There’s also 2026’s 1st annular solar eclipse today, and most astrologers I follow are highlighting some key intense energies that describe life on earth right now.

Personally, I welcome today as a seed of potential and opportunity amidst challenges. (Full disclosure, the lunar new year feels more like the true new year vs. the Gregorian calendar that has a new year starting right after winter has just started in the northern hemisphere. The last thing I want to do on January 1st is “hit the ground running” or plan the year ahead, and the lunar new year offers more light and warmth as we inch towards the Spring Equinox in March.)

The moon will now begin a waxing cycle, bringing energy and movement to set things in gear towards the next full moon that shines a light on expression. Then it will wane and bring opportunities to refine and release towards the next new moon, when a new lunar cycle of possibility begins.

Along with the sun cycle, this will move the northern hemisphere closer to Spring, where increasing sunlight brings a sprouting and growing season through Summer. Then after Summer Solstice, the sun light will begin to wane and the earth will bring a harvest season as Autumn arrives before the dark of Winter Solstice. Then the light will return, and so on.

Here at Soul Expressions, we offer a nature-based structure to help women keep or find their groove through peri-/menopause. That’s what In Your Element is all about, along with private 1:1 sessions.

To learn about the soul rhythms that shape our entry into midlife, download a free Soul Map to Awaken Your Midlife Magic.

*(I’ve learned that a low percentage of women actually “sail through” menopause. In hindsight, my “waters” were choppy, but navigable in my “sailboat” - this affirmed that maybe there was something to my leaning-in to my menopausal journey in a conscious, accepting way – which is also why I became certified as a Menopause Coach.)

Why Midlife Needs Meaning, Not Hustle — and How Solar Rhythms Help Us Listen

For much of our adult life, we’re taught to move forward by strategizing, planning, and making things happen. As we go through the motions of cultural/societal programs and goal setting, we set ourselves up for a good life as we get older. This way of “doing life” creates a kind of rhythm that is linear and works for probably several decades.

This linear rhythm rewards effort, skill building, endurance and hustle — and for a long time, it works.

For women, this way of operating helps us get educated, build professional lives, raise families, build relationships and community and find a kind of success.

But somewhere between our early 40s and 60s, many women begin to feel a quiet but persistent dissonance that begins to stir during peri-menopause and gets stronger during menopause and after. The strategies that once brought success start to feel hollow, and motivation starts to fade, not because we’re tired or failing, but because something deeper is asking to be heard. Just the realization that our bodies are changing can activate subtle inner forces that want attention.

This isn’t burnout in the usual sense, but an inner call for a recalibration of meaning.

The midlife shift no one prepares us for – a deeper look

Midlife isn’t a crisis of competence; it’s a crisis of relevance and meaning and an initiation into a deeper relationship with yourself.

The psyche begins to ask different questions:

• Why am I doing this now?

• What does this cost me — in energy, integrity, or aliveness?

• What wants to emerge if I stop performing and start listening?

The problem is that we’re often still using hustle-based rhythms to answer these questions. And hustle is poorly suited for this phase of life.

Hustle assumes urgency equals importance. Momentum is always the goal. Slowing down means falling behind

But the midlife psyche isn’t interested in speed. It’s interested in truth and aligned action.

Why rhythm matters more than motivation

During the before-during-and after of menopause, many women don’t need another plan. They need a different relationship with time.

This is where solar-based rhythms —the seasonal changes the earth goes through — offer something quietly radical. They don’t demand constant growth and instead, they reflect phases of emergence, activation, integration and release as we journey through 12 months of every year.

This mirrors the internal experience of midlife and menopause beautifully. There are moments where the psyche asks for honesty, assessment, and letting go. And moments of renewed energy and clarity.

The question shifts from: “What should I be doing right now?” to “What phase am I actually in?”

That single reframe reduces enormous inner friction and can soothe a buzzing nervous system. I love a good reframe!!

Meaning over momentum

Hustle says: Act now or you’ll miss your chance.

The midlife psyche says: When I’m out of alignment, I lose myself.

Aligning to the solar rhythms of nature help legitimize our instincts to pause without guilt, meet endings without feeling like a failure, and to take more care with our decisions as our bodies and values shift.

They offer external validation for an internal truth many women already feel. They affirm: I’m not behind. I’m in season.

This is especially powerful for women who have spent decades over-functioning — in careers, families, and communities — often at the expense of their own inner life and health.

A different kind of power

Working with powerful natural rhythms instead of force brings in a kind of inner precision.

You begin to recalibrate as you sense when action is clean instead of reactive. When holding steady is wiser than pushing. When release is not loss, but preparation for something new.

This new kind of inner power helps us adapt to the everyday things of our lives by making subtle little shifts and welcoming personal rituals that keep us growing, going, and glowing.

Menopausal changes and the entry into midlife ask us to lead from coherence rather than pressure. And that kind of leadership — grounded, paced, meaning-led — is exactly what this stage of life is designed to cultivate.

If we let it.

Soul Expressions has a few ways to support YOUR menopausal recalibration: see In Your Element, download your free Soul Map to Awaken Your Midlife Magic, or reach out for a complimentary chat.

Midlife as a Spiritual Journey

Welcome to Andorra’s Box revisited – a place designed to support women going through big life changes around the start of midlife, or just before. This is the time of life when women’s bodies, minds, emotions go through massive shifts that can lead to serious challenges if not navigated with conscious choices and support. Can you say menopause and aging? 

If you read my About page, you’ll see that my personal journey had me start to acknowledge my spiritual journey sometime around my mid-30’s, and by 40 big changes were in the wind, as they say. Now in my 60’s and knowing what I know, I strongly suggest women approaching and navigating the middle years acknowledge and nurture their spiritual lives, their faith.

Why? Because aging can get uncomfortable and midlife offers a huge opportunity to see your life as an important piece in the web of life - ie, who you are and why you are here. This is an existential impulse, a spiritual issue, a “why-am-I-here?” issue.

So if you identify as “spiritual” or are at least curious about your inner life, here are 8 characteristic and ways spirituality can show up from the late-30’s to early 60s via thoughts and feelings - see if any resonate with you:

1. A desire to find meaning: This is the “what’s my life all about?” question. Or what did certain life events, circumstance, people mean? Why did things happen the way they did?

2. Shifting perspectives about the roles we play: Midlife is when we transition from roles that dominated our earlier years, such as parenting or career-building. This opens up opportunities for self-discovery and exploring new aspects of our identity, including the spiritual dimension.

3. Finding inspiration in nature and the cycles of life: Noticing how nature changes and renews itself can awaken our connection with something bigger than ourselves - a “natural intelligence” that we are all part of.

4. Realizing the importance of health and wellbeing: Our own health can spark a focus on holistic well-being, including mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health.

5. Wanting deeper, more meaningful connections: As our roles shift, we often crave connection with like-minded women who are also seeking meaning and sisterhood as we age.

6. Questioning old goals and desiring more soul: shifting toward a more soul-centered way of living can lead to increased compassion, empathy, and a deeper connection to others.

7. Wanting to heal challenging parts of our lives: spirituality can help tend to deep hurts and repair younger versions of our selves.

8. Wanting support for losses: spirit enters the room when we are grieving, often with unexpected yet welcome gifts.

Acknowledging these inner currents can help shape our journeys and steer away from what they say about having a midlife crisis. Leaning into these concerns can instead offer a midlife awakening.

Every woman's entry into and navigation through midlife is obviously unique.

Honouring the impulses of the soul is the way to go through midlife - the eternal part of each of us needs to be acknowledged as we age, otherwise the pains of the past will define how we age.

So “Midlife as a Spiritual Journey” is now the theme of Andorra’s Box, and there’s lots to share about the opportunities and challenges of the midlife passage….so stay tuned, stay curious.

And if you are curious about your own soul journey, let’s chat.

(You can read about my midlife awakening in previous blog entries, numbered 1-7.)