[00:00:00] Monica: Welcome friend. If you're scrolling your phone at 3am because you can't sleep, if your sheets are soaked with sweat from your hot flush, if you lose your train of thought mid sentence and you can't think straight, if you're getting pimples again, or if you're angry, moody, and have lost your patience, you're not alone, and this episode will help you to get a handle on your menopause symptoms, so that you can stay cool, calm, and collected in menopause.
[00:01:32] But before we dive in, let's take a long, slow exhale together.
[00:01:36] Now the information I share in this episode is for entertainment purposes, it's not medical advice. It's always best to speak to your doctor or health professional. Over the last decade at my yoga studio, I've witnessed thousands of clients go through menopause. Some of these clients were overwhelmed with menopause symptoms, while others sailed through with minimal inconvenience.
[00:02:03] And those that sailed through menopause with ease had one thing in common. They learned how to manage their stress. Stress can make menopause symptoms a whole lot worse. And that's because high cortisol levels, our stress hormones, deplete whatever natural progesterone we have left. And progesterone is the hormone that keeps us calm and relaxed.
[00:02:28] So when we have high stress and high cortisol, it exacerbates all of our menopause symptoms. It makes insomnia worse. It makes the mood swings and anxiety worse. It makes the hot flushes worse. And high levels of cortisol cause us to gain weight, even if we eat like a saint and go to the gym every day. So lowering our stress levels can help make the menopause ride a little easier.
[00:02:57] And one of the things that really sucks about menopause is that it often coincides with changes at work and changes within our relationships. We might be climbing the corporate ladder, or growing our business, and then we're struck with brain fog or embarrassing hot flushes. We might be dealing with kids or older parents who need our help.
[00:03:18] Our relationship might be going through a rough patch as we've lost that spark, we don't feel like doing it, or we're thinking of leaving. It's a lot to deal with at this stage in life, and then comes the unpredictability of menopause and the sense of feeling out of control and misunderstood. And as if the physical changes weren't bad enough, our mood and state of mind can take a dive.
[00:03:43] We used to be happy, confident, and positive, and now we're like a moody teenager with bills to pay. And many women experience anxiety and depression for the first time in menopause. We can feel exhausted and burnt out from our work and caring responsibilities, and no one gives a shit when we say that we're exhausted and have had enough.
[00:04:06] So if you're still listening, you're probably feeling a bit shit. And while there's no magic fix, lowering our stress and calming our minds will help us think and feel better, and that's where yoga comes in. Lowering our cortisol is the key to navigating menopause. So hardcore exercises like running, crossfit, or high intensity gym sessions won't cut it anymore.
[00:04:32] High intensity exercise increases our cortisol level. It puts us into that fight or flight sympathetic state of our nervous system, and at this stage in our lives, this can cause us to gain weight, it can affect our sleep, increase our stress and anxiety, and just create extra competition for what remaining progesterone is still there.
[00:04:56] Less intense exercise will help us keep fit while lowering our stress and that's where yoga comes in. Now yin yoga is fantastic for menopause. Yin yoga helps with joint pain, it helps to lower our stress levels, it lowers our anxiety. But yin yoga also targets the meridians of the body or the acupuncture lines.
[00:05:21] And in particular, yin yoga for menopause targets the kidney, spleen, heart and liver meridians, which also happen to be the feminine meridians, and and can help us to balance those tricky emotions that arise in menopause. So today I'm going to share with you some of the best yin yoga poses for menopause.
[00:05:41] They're all really gentle and you won't work up a sweat. You'll need a bolster or a pillow, and ideally have some free space on the wall, or the ability to put your legs on a chair. This sequence is not suitable if you're pregnant, and please check with your doctor if you have an injury or health condition.
[00:06:02] Now we're going to start by taking our legs up the wall. So shuffle over near the wall, come in sideways, and raise your legs up the wall as you recline back on the floor or the yoga mat.
[00:06:16] And you can prop your hips up with a bolster or a pillow. You don't have to have straight legs, just elevated.
[00:06:29] And if you don't have a wall handy, you can rest your legs on the edge of the bed, on the edge of a chair or the lounge, resting the calves and feet on support.
[00:06:38] Now do whatever feels good with your arms, you might want to take them out wide, maybe take them overhead, or even rest your arms on your body.
[00:06:52] Now tuck your chin in towards your chest so the back of the neck is long,
[00:07:05] and feel your breath flow in and out of the nostrils.
[00:07:08] Feel your ribcage expand and contract with your breath.
[00:07:37] Feel your belly rise and fall with your breath.
[00:07:51] Now legs up the wall or Viparita Karani is wonderful for circulation. for lymphatic drainage and it lowers our blood pressure.
[00:08:06] It also brings blood flow to our ovaries which helps to balance our hormones. It can help with any pelvic pain
[00:08:22] and belly breathing acts like an internal massage. So we're not technically breathing into the belly. What's happening here is as we inhale, our diaphragm is going to descend down towards the abdominal organs. And on the exhale, the diaphragm moves upwards to expel air out of the lungs. And this movement of the diaphragm, down and up with our breath, helps to bring increased blood flow to our pelvic organs.
[00:08:52] It's like an internal massage. And it can help to release the tension that we tend to store around our belly, that we store around our pelvic organs.
[00:09:11] Belly breathing can help with pelvic pain, lower back pain, even with digestive troubles.
[00:09:53] Now we're going to take our legs out wide. So keeping the legs on the wall, but taking those feet out as wide as feels comfortable for you. This is a great stretch for the inner thighs and the groin
[00:10:12] that stimulates the liver and kidney meridians, which run through the inseam of the leg.
[00:10:25] And in Chinese medicine where each born with a set amount of energy called Jing, cell life force energy and jing is stored in our kidneys. And over the course of our life we deplete our jing, but something that depletes jing quickly, or faster, is stress.
[00:10:51] So, yoga poses that balance our kidney, that support and nourish our kidney, just reduce some of this excess depletion.
[00:11:25] And in Chinese medicine, the liver, is where we store anger. And during menopause, clients often report increased feelings of anger, resentment, even rage. It's like all the anger that they've been repressing for decades comes to the surface. So if this is happening to you too, you're not alone, keep breathing,
[00:11:54] feel the belly rise and fall with the breath.
[00:11:57] Just a couple more belly breaths here, and
[00:13:03] when you're ready to come out of the pose, bend your knees,
[00:13:10] slowly roll over to your side,
[00:13:18] and take your time to come up to hands and knees.
[00:13:34] Now we're going to come into a wide knee child's pose. So take your knees to the outer edges of the mat, bring your big toes to touch, sit the hips back onto the heels, and lower your head and torso down.
[00:13:57] If your head doesn't touch the floor, you can rest it on your hands. If you have a bolster or a pillow, you can bring that underneath your torso for support.
[00:14:13] If your shoulders feel tight, try taking the elbows wider, or even turning the palms upward.
[00:14:24] Make sure your head is resting on something.
[00:14:27] Now feel your breath again.
[00:14:41] Feel your ribcage expand on the inhale. And soften on the exhale
[00:15:00] and child pose releases tension from the hips, groin, and lower back, stimulates the kidney, liver, and heart meridians, really helping with emotional balance.
[00:15:26] And now we'll make our exhales twice as long as our inhale.
[00:15:52] So you can inhale for a count of two
[00:15:57] and exhale for a count of four.
[00:16:06] Inhale for two,
[00:16:11] and exhale for four.
[00:16:13] Keep going to your own count,
[00:16:28] and when we deliberately and consciously extend our exhales, it has a calming effect on our nervous system. It
[00:16:49] helps to lower our stress hormones, helps to lower our cortisol,
[00:16:57] which in turn can ease The severity of menopause symptoms.
[00:17:02] We'll stay here for another three slow exhales.
[00:17:38] And when you're ready to come out of the pose, bring some weight into your hands. Ease your way back up, and do whatever feels good for your body. Have a bit of a stretch, wriggle around through the hips.
[00:18:17] Now the next pose is Sphinx Pose. So come down onto your belly,
[00:18:43] and come up onto your elbows. Bringing your elbows just forward over the shoulders. If you have a bolster or a pillow, you can place it underneath your chest for support and the legs are out straight behind you.
[00:18:57] And you can experiment with taking the feet out wide to the edges of the mat or you can bring the toes to touch.
[00:19:11] Now make a fist with each hand and place one fist on top of the other. Then rest your brow on your fist to apply some gentle pressure to the brow. This stimulates an acupuncture point called yin tang, which calms the mind.
[00:19:35] But if that doesn't feel good, you don't have to do it.
[00:19:42] Now imagine that you can breathe into the spine. As
[00:19:53] you inhale, imagine sending the breath down the spine to the tailbone. And on the exhale, imagine sending the breath up the spine to the top of the head. On the inhale, the breath goes down the spine.
[00:20:13] And on the exhale, the breath moves up the spine.
[00:20:16] Spinal breathing is incredibly calming for our nervous system, because our spine houses our central nervous system.
[00:20:35] And as we breathe down and up the spine, we might even sense our spine being moved by our breath, which is great for releasing some chronic tension from the tissue surrounding the spine, but also creates a sense of safety in the nervous system. And it's only when the nervous system feels safe that we can drop into that.
[00:21:05] Parasympathetic state, that state of deep rest and calm.
[00:21:10] Keep breathing down and up the spine.
[00:21:18] And sphinx pose really nourishes our kidney energy, that jing energy. It also soothes our adrenal glands, which sit just above our kidneys. And it's our adrenal glands that produce adrenaline and cortisol. So if we've got a lot of stress in our lives, if we've got high cortisol levels, our adrenal glands are working overdrive.
[00:21:51] This helps to soothe and calm both the nervous system, the adrenals, and our kidney energy.
[00:22:05] And when the kidney energy is balanced, we feel more vitality, we feel more confident, we feel calm.
[00:22:30] Inhale down the spine, exhale up the spine.
[00:22:41] Take another three of these spinal breaths.
[00:23:20] And when you're ready to come out of the pose, do whatever feels comfortable for you. You might want to lie flat on your belly, you might want to roll over and lie on your back. You might want to come back to child's pose or all fours. So go with what feels good for your body.
[00:24:00] Now the next pose is going to be our figure four. So make your way down onto your back with your knees bent.
[00:24:44] And then cross the right ankle over the left knee. Making a figure four shape with that right knee out wide.
[00:24:52] If you prefer something stronger, you can come into your pigeon pose, if you know that.
[00:25:00] And we're looking for a stretching sensation around the outside of the right hip, around the right cheek at the bottom.
[00:25:13] Try to keep your head and shoulders soft,
[00:25:26] the jaw soft.
[00:25:32] Let the belly out,
[00:25:33] and make the exhales twice as long as the inhales again.
[00:25:45] And this shape stimulates our gallbladder meridian, which runs through the outside of the hip, through the outside of the thigh. This can help to release anger, frustration, resentment.
[00:26:34] So if you notice yourself getting hot and bothered here, if you notice yourself getting frustrated, it's actually a sign the pose is working. Keep breathing, make those exhales long, slow, and smooth.
[00:27:02] Staying here for another three slow exhales.
[00:27:51] And when you're ready to come out of the pose, uncross that right ankle. Lower the foot down, and do whatever feels good. Maybe rolling the knees side to side like windscreen wipers.
[00:28:20] Maybe hugging both knees into the chest.
[00:28:26] Now we'll come to the other side. This time we'll cross the left ankle onto the right knee. Making that figure four shape.
[00:29:10] Keep the chin tucked in towards the chest so the back of the neck stays long. Keep
[00:29:27] the jaw soft. The shoulders soft. Let the belly out,
[00:29:42] and make those exhales long, slow, and smooth.
[00:29:58] And as you lie here, focusing on your breath, feeling the sensations of the pose, notice any emotion or content that's coming up for you.
[00:30:39] Notice where your mind goes in this pose,
[00:30:46] notice anything that might be bothering you, anything upsetting,
[00:30:57] notice anything that's annoying you, and just notice without judging,
[00:31:02] practicing being present with what is.
[00:31:15] Remaining here for a few more breaths.
[00:31:54] And when you're ready to come out of the pose, uncross the ankle, lower the foot down, and do whatever feels good for your body. If you feel restless or agitated, feel free to move, maybe stomp your feet, wriggle your hips, have a big yawn or stretch.
[00:32:37] This is how the body releases emotion.
[00:32:39] Now we'll stay on our back and come into supported bridge pose. So grab your bolster or pillow, place it underneath your hips,
[00:33:05] And lowering the hips back down so they're supported. And we want to keep the knees bent. I know it's tempting to straighten the legs out and feel that stretch through the front of the hips, but the supported bridge is all about releasing through our psoas. And we want to maintain a pelvic tilt. We want our pelvis to tilt towards our chest
[00:33:29] and we need to bend our knees to do that. If we straighten our legs with the. It will actually tilt our pelvis away from us, and we want to avoid that here.
[00:33:40] Now you might like to take your arms overhead or out wide. Tuck your chin in. This doesn't just lengthen the back of the neck, it also compresses through the throat where the vagus nerve is close to the surface. These gentle chin tucks can activate the vagus nerve, helping us to relax even more.
[00:34:05] And when we're practicing yin yoga for menopause, it's all about the nervous system, it's all about bringing us into that parasympathetic state, so we can lower our stress levels, so we can lower our stress hormones, because the less cortisol we have, the less severe our menopause symptoms.
[00:34:33] And now we'll do our spinal breath again. So as you inhale, send your breath down your spine to the tailbone. And on the exhale, imagine sending the breath up the spine to the top of the head.
[00:34:50] Inhale down the spine. Exhale up the spine.
[00:34:55] A supported bridge is a wonderful passive release for our psoas, our hip flexor muscles. And these muscles are often tight during menopause or times of stress. This pose can help to alleviate any low back tension. And it helps to realign our hips relative to our spine.
[00:35:26] And we're also in a really passive inversion here. Our head is lower than our heart. This has a calming effect on our nervous system.
[00:35:44] This is teaching our body that we're safe in the moment right now.
[00:35:53] Inhale down the spine, exhale up the spine.
[00:36:03] And we'll take another three spinal breaths here.
[00:36:39] And when you're ready to come out of the pose, slowly lift the hips, remove the bolster or pillow, lower the hips back down, and do whatever feels good with your body. Maybe rolling the knees side to side like windscreen wipers, or perhaps hugging the knees into the chest.
[00:37:17] And the next pose is our reclining butterfly. So stay on your back, keep the knees bent, bring the soles of the feet together, let the knees go wide, creating that butterfly shape with your legs. Now if your hips or groins feel tight, move your feet further away from your body. If you want to make this stronger, bring your heels in close to your groin, or you can even elevate your feet on a bolster.
[00:38:07] Find a relaxing position for your arms. If your shoulders feel tight, you might like to take cactus shape, where the elbows are bent and the palms face up. You might like to rest your arms on your body, or just take them out wide. Pay
[00:39:05] attention to your breath.
[00:39:06] And choose your favourite breathing technique. You can do the spinal breath, where you inhale down the spine, exhale up the spine. You can make your exhales twice as long as your inhales. Or you can focus on belly breathing. whichever technique works best for you.
[00:39:35] And when we focus on our breathing, it gives our mind something simple and repetitive to focus on. It
[00:39:54] gives our mind a break from thinking. So even though it might feel boring, it's actually calming the mind when we rest it. on the breath.
[00:40:09] We're actually practicing mindfulness when we rest our attention on our breath.
[00:40:14] And we'll stay here for another three, slow, mindful breaths.
[00:41:02] And when you're ready to come out of the pose, use your hands to draw your knees back together. Then perhaps draw your knees into your chest, or you might like to straighten the legs out. Do what feels best for you.
[00:41:41] And then from here, we're going to roll over to our left side,
[00:42:14] coming into a fetal position on the left side. And bend both knees to the height of the hips. And take a bolster or cushion in between the knees for support. This is going to help to keep our hips aligned as we prepare for a twist. So extend both arms out to shoulder height. Take a deep breath in. And on your exhale, raise that right arm up and back.
[00:42:42] Taking the right arm down to the floor behind you. Try to rest your right arm on the floor. If
[00:42:52] it doesn't quite come down to the floor, you can open your knees up to enable that. Ideally, we want to have our chest facing the ceiling and both shoulder blades grounded.
[00:43:03] And notice what you can feel here in the body.
[00:43:17] Feel the sensations of the pose.
[00:43:31] Feel the sensations of breath.
[00:43:37] Maybe you can even feel your pulse.
[00:43:46] Take a few mindful breaths here.
[00:44:12] And when you're ready to come out of the pose, slowly take that right arm over to meet your left arm, and relax on your side.
[00:44:34] Now roll onto your back, and once you're on your back, draw your knees into your chest, give yourself a big hug. And if it feels good, bring your nose to your knees, and squeeze into a ball,
[00:44:59] and lower the head down. Now roll over to your right side,
[00:45:04] bend both knees to the height of your hips, and take a bolster or pillow in between the knees for support. Extend both arms out to shoulder height, take a deep breath in, and on your exhale raise that left arm up and back, resting that left arm on the floor behind you.
[00:45:29] If your arm doesn't come down to the floor you can open your knees up, so that you can get both shoulder blades grounded.
[00:45:44] Maybe even turning your head to the side.
[00:45:46] Notice what you can feel in your body.
[00:46:01] Notice your breath.
[00:46:15] Practice being present with yourself.
[00:46:28] Just a few more breaths here, and
[00:46:54] when you're ready to come out of the pose, slowly take your arm back over as you lie on your side.
[00:47:25] Now take your time to roll onto your back again. And once you're on your back, draw your knees into your chest. Give yourself a hug.
[00:47:42] Then lower the legs back down. We'll prepare for our final pose. Shavasana. So extend those legs out to straight. Take your arms by your side. Make sure your spine's straight. Your body's symmetrical. Chin slightly tucked.
[00:48:12] Allow your bones to sink down into the mat.
[00:48:23] Allow your breath to just happen to you, without any effort,
[00:48:40] and allow your mind to drift,
[00:48:54] allow your mind to float,
[00:48:56] allow yourself to rest, knowing that your nervous system is calm and relaxed, your stress levels are lower, your cortisol levels are lower.
[00:49:48] Until next time my friend.
