Hello everyone! Emma here, I hope that this blog post finds you well? Here at Emma’s Yoga Hut we are bedding in for the chill of mid autumn with fluffy pink blankets, extra fairy lights and turning up the heating to ensure the Yoga Hut is as warm and cosy as can be!
Autumn into winter is a season not without issues, seasonal affective disorder, more likelihood of coughs and colds, with the added worries they bring right now, more time indoors and the creeping darkness carries a weight that can become overwhelming. This transition can be a pleasure, the beauty of the trees, the excuse to find a blanket and a book and drink tea in cosy corners, but equally it is easy for that slow down and move indoors to come hand in hand with lethargy and low mood. But that is a blog post for another day!
This talk of seasonal transition and its challenges leads me nicely into cyclical seasons for those who menstruate, and those in peri-menopause. The monthly (ish) cycle biological women follow links back into the seasons in the year (another thing added to the growing list of things I wish I had known when I was younger!) So, the seasonal menstrual cycle starts in Spring, straight after your bleed when women often have lots of energy, it’s sometimes called the warrior phase, a good time for getting stuff done. In mid cycle, ovulation is associated with the season of Summer, the creative zone, there is the obvious link of the creation of new life, but it is also every other form of creation: art, writing, work, music, new ventures, whatever floats your boat. Post ovulation we move into Autumn. This is your PMT (unless you are a lucky one who has never endured this joy!) this is the time where you are most likely to say no, the time associated with the most honest, confrontational and spiritual version of yourself. And then, your bleed is the season of Winter, associated with the archetype of the (much misrepresented) Crone - a quiet, wise and knowing time.
If you are heading towards Menopause this talk of seasons and menstruation might seem a bit irrelevant. But, this ties into a way bigger cycle that biological women are in: Spring is puberty, Summer is our creation years, be that a career, or travel or children or something else entirely. Autumn is our Peri-menopause and Winter is the quiet of the menopause. That sounds a bit dire with a sudden wintery stop! But, menopause is followed by a second Spring and so on. You will notice Autumn in the monthly cycle is PMT, and Autumn in the bigger hormonal cycle is Peri. Which means, unless you are the kind of lucky duck who never endured PMT/PMS, you might already have a stash of good tools to cope with perimenopause. (Think; chocolate, duvets, rest, walks, being outdoors, time alone, whatever gets you through PMT will help you get through Peri too!)
Given it is the yearly Autumn season, it feels like an appropriate time to explore how yoga can support women in the autumn of their larger hormonal cycle. During our workshop we will have a conversation about how perimenopause is showing up in peoples lives. We will move from there into a brief look the biological and hormonal side of things and how that impacts the body and mind, thus taking the mystique out of the symptoms. Following on from this there will be a grounding yoga practice to help you re-centre and deal with the anxiety and worry that often appears in menopause. There will be poses to combat stress, one of the biggest factors in managing the symptoms of peri menopause, there will be cooling breath techniques to help deal with the dreaded hot flushes, and finally some yoga to support your sleep, offering a tool to help you with the insomnia that often comes hand in hand with peri menopause. This will be a gentle, inclusive and supportive practice, suitable for anyone, even if you have absolutely no experience of practicing yoga.
In the time of your life that you might have found the value of the word No, say yes to doing something to support, nurture and empower you! See the classes section for a link to the Yoga for Perimenopause workshop. If you the workshop is full, please drop me a line at emmasyogahut@gmail.com and I will add you to a shortlist for a second workshop.
I do fully appreciate and respect that all women do not menstruate, and this blog post and workshop is in no way exclusionary in spirit, it is just tailored to those women who having menstruated for many years, are now in the place of life where they are dealing with the significant hormonal changes that trigger peri and menopause.
With love,
Emma x
(Emma runs Emma’s Yoga Hut in Earley. A tiny garden studio for small group yoga tuition and workshops. She is a yoga student and yoga teacher and has practiced yoga for 25 years. She trained with the Traditional Yoga Association right here in Reading between 2016 and 2018 to achieve her 500 hour yoga teaching accreditation. She has additional teaching qualifications in Yin Yoga and Yoga Nidra which she subsequently undertook online during the great lockdown of 2020. Emma tries her best to practice yoga every day and to use that yoga to help manage her peri menopause induced mood swings and insomnia!)
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