Spiritual Menopause--Opportunity to Transform
How Women can Harness Their Power in Midlife
Oct 11, 2009
Spiritual treatment of menopause symptoms involves understanding what is taking place at the time of midlife. The cessation of reproductive ability heralds the birth of a new self.
Signs of Menopause
Signs of menopause — the birth of midlife — may include night sweats, hot flashes, insomnia, depression and anxiety, all menopause symptoms. Hormone therapy treatments can sometimes have unpleasant side effects; this prompts some to turn to vitamin and herbal remedies for menopause relief. According to Susun Weed in her book New Menopausal Years, The Wise Woman Way, these natural remedies can help women cope with the changes that are taking place.
Like puberty, menopause is a gradual transformation that takes an average of ten years to complete. The creative energy involved is becoming free to be expressed in ways other than physical reproduction and childbearing.
How Menopause Affects Chakras
Seven energy centers, roughly corresponding to major endocrine glands in the body, are called chakras by many Eastern philosophies. It's believed that menopause has a very distinct effect on the chakras:
- The root chakra houses the kundalini, or life energy, at the base of the spine. Kundaline rises naturally during puberty and again in midlife for both men and women. Although women may have more outward physical signs of menopause, men go through it too. The renewal of vitality is available to both sexes.
- If the kundalini is blocked at the second, or sexual chakra, people in midlife experience compulsions to act out by having affairs and buying expensive sports cars or motorcycles. Risk-taking is a symptom of this time of life, and it can either be done irresponsibly or with true liberation that preserves values.
- The solar plexus, or third chakra, is one of heightened sensitivity. Women who have believed that others' needs were more important than their own may finally give themselves permission to practice good self-care.
- The heart center, or fourth chakra, is one of heightened creativity, enhanced productivity along innovative channels, and deepening of personal relationships. These will seem to be new possibilities under the influence of midlife kundalini energy.
- The fifth chakra, associated with verbal expression and the release of tension through the neck and shoulders is opened to honesty with oneself that may have been lacking due to social constraints. There is the added benefit of having wisdom and some good judgment forged through life's experiences.
- The sixth chakra is the third eye, or healing center. Creativity energy focused here is more than a drive toward physical union. It is a drive toward liberating lifestyles, a return to simpler concepts and new definitions of prosperity. Doing things with love, such as reviving neglected hobbies or travel, can enhance self-awareness. Shifting responsibility from raising young families to mentoring young people is one example of planetary healing available now.
- Meditation raises the kundalini at any time of life. Relaxation practices, including prayer, massage, yoga, and others, can help channel transformative energy through the seventh chakra in productive ways. Women who go through menopause, with or without the assistance of herbal friends and lifestyle changes, become the "wise ones" of culture. The ancient Greeks used the word "hagia" to mean "holy one." The modern meaning has been distorted in the word "hag." Another misunderstood term is "crones," or women in the third stage of life who were revered in ancient times. They were healers, midwives, and considered extremely powerful.
According to Elizabeth Clare Prophet, holistic menopause treatment can assist women who are undergoing the transformation of menopause by progressing through the chakra levels and find menopause health greater than any they have yet experienced.
Accessing information about transformative energy, along with practicing meditation and using herbs in a grateful way, leads many women in midlife to develop their own rituals of a fuller life.
References:
New Menopausal Years, The Wise Woman Way: Alternative Approaches for Women 30-90, Susun Weed, Ash Tree Publishing, 2001
Your Seven Energy Centers: A Holistic Approach to Physical, Emotional and Spiritual Vitality, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Summit University Press, 2001
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