THE JOY OF AGING

I am not a consistent podcast listener, but when I need to find joy or inspiration, I turn to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s podcast Wiser Than Me. Julia interviews women over 70, typically focusing on their lives, what they have learned, and wisdom they can share. I needed to feel some joy today, so I listened to a few episodes as I went about my day and one thing struck me about each interview I listened to. Every single woman was not only proud of her age, but she had a confidence in herself that was striking. 

I spend a lot of time talking to women about the drawbacks of aging, specifically the challenges of the menopause transition. We talk about changes in our bodies, changes in our minds, changes in relationships, and changes in who we feel we are. Sometimes these conversations are heartbreaking. Sometimes these conversations make me furious because of the injustices women face over and over again.

The menopause transition is just that, a time of transition. It is a transition from being one type of woman to being another type of woman. And while change can be scary, it can be liberating. 

While I work mostly with women in perimenopause, I do have a few clients who are older and are firmly cemented into their postmenopausal era. These women are inspirational. Just like Julia’s guests, these women are strong, confident, and know and love  themselves. To me, getting to this point is the greatest gift of menopause. 

Today I am inspired to tell women everywhere not to wait until they are older to get to this point. Living like this is a choice we can make. We can love our changing bodies, our changing minds, our changing relationships. We can find our way back to feeling like ourselves. Women are incredible, you are incredible. We don’t deserve to feel small, useless, forgotten. We don’t deserve to feel like the value we provide is in how we look or the way we take care of others. Today, let’s make the choice to respect ourselves, and love ourselves, in whatever way is most meaningful to us.