“And then one day, when my husband brought up the same old complaint, I just smiled! Instead of getting triggered, I actually saw the pattern using mindfulness.“
My kind of mindfulness is not sitting stiffly for hours on end. My mindfulness, and the practices that revolutionize life for my clients, is the kind that happens moment to moment during real life. The revered tradition of silent sitting is highly effective. Speaking personally, it’s really hard to embrace that practice with my busy brain. What works for us is building in regular, short and frequent breaks from “busy-ness”.
How can mindfulness benefit women over 50?
- lose weight and keep it off with mindful eating
- sleep more deeply and regularly
- improve relationships, especially with oneself
Lose Menopausal Weight
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to find a healthier weight without calorie counting, depriving yourself of your favourite foods and going hungry? That’s what Mindful Eating did for me.
After menopause, I was getting pretty “padded”. I was doing yoga, eating healthy, exercising… all the right things. But, to be honest, a lot of things were routine and I wasn’t really paying attention anymore.
Using Mindfulness tools, like journaling, loving kindness meditation and mindful eating, allowed me to shed over 25 pounds. I still went out with friends, ate my favourite foods and did not punish my body with harsh exercise.
The SHE Mindfulness Program provides step by step guidance on how to implement mindful eating.
Find recipes to inspire a new passion for healthy eating here.
“I would lie awake for hours, in a panic about work the next day. Out of the many tools I learned through Cheryl, I’ve found what works for me.”
Sleep Better with Mindfulness
Not being able to sleep is scary. And stressful. I’ve been there. Do you wonder why something manageable during the day becomes impossible at night? As you learn about your nervous system, it all begins to make sense. You also learn how to hack into that automatic programming to achieve better sleep.
In the SHE Mindfulness Program, we devote one of the four modules to this question.
Here are a couple of my favourite tools for improving sleep quality, getting to sleep faster and staying asleep..
- A Bedtime Routine to Improve Sleep
- The Mindfulness Body Scan can help you get back to sleep in the middle of the night.
- Practicing How to Relax during the day makes it easier to sleep at night.
Develop more meaningful relationships.
Spiritual masters have been teaching for centuries this fundamental truth.
The tell us on the airplane to put on our own oxygen mask before others.
And yet, I persisted in putting everyone else’s needs and opinions before my own. When I hit menopause, I just couldn’t keep that up anymore.
In the SHE Mindfulness program, we spend considerable time looking at our self care options and creating a self compassion contract. I see these years as my turn after all the energy I put out in career, family and community.
I use loving kindness meditation regularly to cultivate a deeper connection with my own heart. Then I find it more natural to be loving with others. Try this one:
A Loving Kindness Meditation:
Further Reading:
