The Heart & Hormones
Posted on February 18, 2020 by dragonspitapothecary
I have now reached this time in my life where I notice things changing in my body. These changes have been subtle for the most part but yet ever present. In honesty they have made more more aware of how things are always changing around me. I’m not slowing down as a result and life pretty much goes on as it always has but yet these changes are happening and I can no longer not acknowledge them.
We all know time passes too quickly. In a blink 10 years is pass and we’re doing century pictures on our Facebook timelines again. We see our family and friends getting older and think that can’t possibly be happening to us too. Yet it is and while we try to ignore we notice it more and more. That slight change in our hair texture. The appearance of fine lines. The change in our energy and appetite. The interests and priorities we see ourselves switching to. All of it occurring in small changes until one day we realize time has passed yet again and we are awakened to our own changes we are learning about.
For me these changes have awakened an increase interest in my heart and hormones. Most definitely my hormones have been taking a larger part of my awareness with the changes they are forcing through my body. Where I once never questioned my sleep quality I now find I don’t sleep as well and I wake in damp clothes from night sweats. It also has changed my energy. Where once I could go non-stop and get what I needed done, I now find I need to slow just a bit and steady my pace. This of course makes me aware of my heart and the beating it does to keep everything working and going. Am I doing what I can to keep it healthy? Have I given it enough love and care to carry me through this next phase of my life? Have I healed my relationship with myself to trust and be aligned with how to move in this season with grace?
I don’t want to say you stop caring when you get older but you realize different interests and priorities. You are drawn to different things than you were before that influence different areas of your life. Where once it was all about friends and having fun, it is now about quality of friendships and relationships providing enriching and fulfilling adventures that make good memories. I have really noticed most I have stopped caring what so many think about me or if I’m meeting their expectations. These days it is more about if there is a equal give-and-take that drives to me foster and solidify relationships. You definitely start to see the longer term, built to last aspects of a lot more areas in your life.
In my journey of living more natural on my terms these past couple years, I have really worked to align my emotional well-being with my physical body needs. It isn’t always easy but it’s been something that has changed my perspective of health. I’m interested in things that make me happy, support what I need and enable me to experience life on my terms. That truly is what living more natural is really about too. That has manifested in ways for me to honor my body’s changes into this next phase with a greater anticipation and not dread old age. It feels instead like an awakening where I find this whole new place to explore, enjoy and learn in. I am finding others like me who don’t want this next season to be filled with pain, dread or regrets. Instead it’s a uplifting, rewarding and honoring sensation that spreads throughout my body and my heart.
Too often we can quickly run into things in this phase of our life that become complicated, risky and are scary. When I started having significant pain in my menstrual cycle for instance I found that traditional medicine starts you on this path of hormone replacement treatments without really getting deeper into what is occurring in your body. In my case it was a simple low dose birth control that was meant to help regulate my cycles and relieve the severe pain that was occurring in my body. Our treatments are often just about symptomatically relieving pain accepting it as just part of life and moving on. However, all of us know there is something else there. Yes we want relief from the discomfort but if we just take the birth control or hormones we don’t really see the causes behind that pain. We don’t hear the messages from our body saying what it really needs. This is where the biggest gap between our health and healing occurs. If we only deal with the relief of the pain we miss out on the longer term influence it could have on our life.
What I believe my hormones were really telling me is it was time for some health changes to support changes it was preparing to undergo. I was no longer at an age where I could go non-stop without a break or sleep. I was no longer able to just eat whatever and go on. My body was telling me it needed better nutrition, balance of activities and balance of rest. These basic health needs are things we all need every day but often with the stress of every day living we let things slide to keep up with the demands facing us. I’m certainly guilty of missing a workout or eating foods I know are not good for me because I’m in a hurry, under a deadline or just plain exhausted from trying to do it all.
The point is we can do it all but we need to redefine what it all looks like. Doing it all needs to include taking care of ourselves. Waiting until we are in pain and forced to stop or slow down isn’t what our lives were meant to be like. The season of life I find myself entering is something we should be doing all the while. Unfortunately it’s taking us until we are in our 40s and 50s to realize that we’ve had this freedom all along. We’ve had the ability to love our life, our body, our journey every day. Growing older isn’t in fact a destination at all but rather a place we live daily. Honoring our life and giving us those moments of experiences built on quality in our relationships, work, family and health is really and truly something we can do every day.
To take my Healthy Hormones course and learn what I use to support my body simply click here: dragonspitapothecary.com/healthy-hormones