"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" Mary Oliver asked.
My twenties were about an illusive ideal of love, a lot of lust, work, travel, and in the latter stages a marriage and the discovery of yoga.
My thirties - family, beautiful children, becoming a yoga teacher, setting up my own business, creating a home from a derelict building (twice), navigating a messy divorce and learning to love again, a dog, a very beautiful dog, oh another wedding this time to my soul mate, and the conscious ongoing effort to live a contemplative life (In just one decade - ouch.)
My forties - family growing up, ongoing practice and my business of yoga, a first class degree in English Literature and Creative Writing, my first 5km to my forth marathon, my first triathlon to my last Ironman event. I nurtured our marriage, navigated three youths to University and started a new business. Saw death and knew grief and chose to live a contemplative life.
My peri-menopause began half way through my forties, symptoms included inability to sleep, irrational thoughts, a palpable sense of isolation and a lowering of libido. Symptoms also included a dramatic rearranging of relationships and friendships outside the home, which on a good day can feel like taking no shit from anyone and making space for new inspirational souls in your life, and on a bad day can make you wonder if perhaps EVERYBODY else can't be getting it wrong all the time. The kids packed up, one by one off to Uni with Ikea bags bulging. Now the days echoed, free from family catering, washing and general running around, there was an emptiness, of having no purpose, of way way too much space for one woman. And yet, despite this and because of this, I had an incredible decade, my richest, most accomplished, most felt ten years on this planet. As if all the rawness of hormonal change actually allowed me to feel everything very acutely - to handle the challenges with curiosity, learning with a new sensitivity.
Midlife, menopause, that fascinating transition, both a physical and emotional roller-coaster of oscillating changes, is a journey of initiation. And what if the treasure at the end of this pilgrimage is finding out who you really are, what your truth is, your vocation is and what it is you have to give this precious world. What if it's about reclaiming the feminine as a way of being - of spirit embodied in loving connection with others, community and the earth.
So maybe you want to run that race, or dance that special dance, or paint that special picture, or cook soup for refugees, or hike that hike or find silence or sing unapologetically - whatever your heart desires; but, perhaps you feel stuck, or bonkers, or isolated too? We have created the 3 month course 'Radiance' just for you and it is an honour to be able to support you through this most transformative period of a woman's life. Please get in touch to find out more.
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