3 yoga techniques to relieve perimenopause and menopause symptoms and prepare you for ‘Second Spring’
The journey to your wise years - or your ‘Second Spring’ according to Traditional Chinese Medicine, should be full of peace and insight. But along the way there are often menopause symptoms to contend with, like hot flushes, mood swings, irritability and anxiety. These unsettling symptoms are triggered by the fluctuation of reproductive hormones and can be multiplied by stress.
But help is at hand! Here are three simple yoga techniques which can help relieve those symptoms and the build-up of stress that sets them off and makes them worse. Practicing yoga not only gives you a chance to befriend your body and feelings as you navigate the changes, but also paves the way for you to whole heartedly embrace the second prime of your life – your ‘Second Spring’
1. Gentle inversions to rebalance
When reproductive hormones drop, it can set off a chain reaction that your endocrine system tries to counterbalance. Inversions can help bring balance to the pituitary, pineal, hypothalamus, thyroid and adrenal glands. Inverted poses cool the brain and the body by drawing energy and heat from the skin back toward the body and organs. Inversions also pacify the nerves and balance moods.
Try Legs-Up-The-Wall (Viparita Karani).
Sit next a wall and, as you lie back, slide your legs up the wall. You may have to wiggle forward or backward to find a comfortable angle for your legs. You can use a folded blanket under the low back, or under the base of the skull, for support, or do the pose without it. Extend your arms alongside you, bend the elbows like a cactus, or rest the hands on the body. Stay for 5-10 minutes and breathe gently.
2. Forward bends to cool down
The intention of forward-bending postures is to cool, calm and pacify the body. This is a more internal shape that allows you to surrender, release, and soothe your mind by quieting mental chatter and releasing heat, anger, stress and anxiety. Because they cool your temperature and bring balance to the nervous system and adrenal glands, they can relieve insomnia, too. You can do forward bends while standing, lying or sitting. In standing forward folds, bend at the waist and place your hands on blocks to bring the ground closer to you.
Try Supported Seated Forward Fold (Pascimottonasana).
Sit with legs extended forward. Place a bolster, pillow or rolled blanket over the tops of your legs. Fold forward, resting your head on the bolster or your folded hands. Keep adding props (pillows, blankets, blocks) as needed until your head rests comfortably. Close your eyes and allow your exhales to lengthen slowly. Stay for several minutes.
3. Reclining postures to restore
For many of us, supine shapes might be the best way to cool off, calm down, rest and re-centre. While these positions create space and surrender within, they also subtly restore energy.
Try Supported Reclining Bound Angle (Supta Baddha Konasana).
Sit on the floor with the soles of your feet touching, and knees fanned out wide; if this isn’t comfortable, place blocks or blankets underneath the knees to bring ease to the hips. Place a bolster a few inches behind your sacrum and lie back on it. Use a folded blanket to support the base of the head. Rest your arms beside you, supported on cushions, or place palms on the body. Stay for as long as you like. Breathe generously and easefully.
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BIO
Tiffy has been practising yoga since the 1990s. After completing a one- year full-time yoga teacher training with YogaArts in Australia, she qualified as an International Yoga Alliance certified yoga teacher in 2002. She has continued to explore and study many forms of yoga with various teachers over the years: Astanga, Iyengar, restorative and therapeutic yoga, breathwork and meditation, and yoga for pregnancy and postnatally. Most recently her ever-deepening passion has led her to develop additional expertise in Menopause YogaTM with Petra Coveney, as well as yoga for pelvic health with Leslie Howard. Tiffy’s classes and workshops offer a therapeutic route to finding and unravelling tension and moving towards greater ease and balance.
Yoga with Tiffy