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.)

Did you know: The start of midlife has a “soul map”?

One of the gifts of getting older is our ability to reflect and make sense of why things happened the ways they did in the past. Soul Expressions has just published a complimentary guide for women beginning the midlife soul journey, which was born out of my own look back to when soul entered my awareness and the journey of awakening and healing that life brought.

I call it a “midlife soul map”.

Thanks to the support I received over the years and my growing interest in universal human developmental cycles, I became fascinated with archetypes and astrology which highlighted major midlife themes that people go through during their 40’s. The more I explored, the more wisdom I found, and the teachings I received about the alchemy of menopause added insight to what I was experiencing.

So to assist women navigating their own middle of life journeys, I’ve summarized the themes of the start-of-midlife soul alchemy into a short guide.

In A Soul Map to Awaken Your Midlife Magic, I’ve named 5 particular inner currents our psyches go through during our 40’s, offering how to spot them and how to be with them. These 5 themes are anchored in the universal archetypal insights found in writings about the soul and midlife, and psychological teachings about the phases of life.

I know that when I was doing my own deep healing work, these themes mapped to my own experiences, along with those of my friends, family, colleagues, clients and mentors.

So if you are reading this and are somewhere around your 40’s (before, during, after), check it out and see if it helps make sense of your own inner currents.

And if you’re ready to jump in for some deep chats with me, get in touch here.