Menopause's Missing Seasons

I’ve been teaching and filming a lot recently and so I apologise for not having had time to write and post here. I have been posting on Instagram and YouTube about the menopause, which I have decided to rename: Maturessence. I hope you enjoy this piece on the seasons of your Maturessence.

This is a photo I took of me in the spring. I posted it on my Instagram and asked

“Where do you feel spring in your body?”

You have probably heard the menopause described as your second spring.

It’s a beautiful image. And it’s true. But what is less talked about is that before you get to your second spring, you have to go through autumn and winter first.

Most women have little or no idea of these seasons and what they involve.

I like to call these changes our Maturessence. Maturessence is a ripening or maturing of our being, which happens when we stop fighting these seasons and allow them to move through us. Maturessence isn’t a problem to be solved. It’s a “turning point” ; the name I now adopt for key moments in our life’s journey.

Autumn arrives before most women recognise it.

It may be a growing sense that something needs to change — in your work, your relationships, or where you live. It may feel like grief. Sometimes it is grief — for the children you didn’t have, or lost. For the years that have passed and the expression of you which no longer exists. For the version of you, who you thought you’d be at this stage of your life.

In most cases it is not depression: it is the power of autumn.

In TCM this is the season of Metal — the energy of Lungs and Large Intestine. The Lungs take in what is precious and the Large Intestine releases what no longer serves. Breathe in. Breathe out. Release.

At a deeper level the Extraordinary Vessels help us transform — especially our Linking Vessels, the Wei Mai, which I like to think of as our wings. They protect our heart and regulate our relationship to the world around us. In autumn we are asked to re-evaluate every aspect of our being: our relationships, our work, our sense of self. As we release our fertility and our capacity to have children, something fundamental shifts in how we understand who we are.

Physically this season can bring hot flushes, insomnia, overwhelm. Our hormones move erratically as our body navigates the change. These aren’t malfunctions. They are our body living the season of autumn: clearing, releasing, preparing, going back to the earth, to the Yin.

Some women experience this in their shoulders, where the main pathway of the Linking Vessels is. It can be a sign that our body is physically holding what we’re not yet ready to let go. I fell off my bike during my maturessence autumn and had a frozen shoulder for a year or so. This experience taught me that I needed to tend to myself more than I was doing. It was an opportunity to reset. If you experienced this holding, what does it mean for you ? Remember your body is always telling you something.

This is the season most women fear. And the season we hear least about.

After the turbulence of autumn, winter can feel like nothing is happening. You may feel invisible. Depleted. Purposeless. You may ask yourself what is wrong with you.

Nothing is wrong. This is winter. It’s not a mistake or a failure. It is the most Yin point of the cycle — the stillness before something new can be born. We need to go through winter to emerge into spring: like a seed resting in the earth before it bursts through to the light.

In TCM winter is the season of Water — Bladder and Kidney. Our Extraordinary Vessels connect us to the source of our life. This is an opportunity to reset our Essence — our Jing — which is stored in our Kidneys. Essence is essentially our DNA which is constantly being modified by our environment: beginning with the watery environment of the womb. Winter is a time of deep dormancy, of going inward, of allowing the body to do its invisible work.

I had the privilege of speaking with Kate Codrington, author of Second Spring, and one of my students, about the power of winter and its role in our creativity. If you haven’t watched this conversation, I’d encourage you to:

Kate understands winter in a way that may help you stop resisting it.

When you emerge from winter — and you will emerge — something has changed.

This is your Second Spring. A rebirth of your Essence and your being. In TCM this is the energy of Wood — Liver and Gallbladder — the force that pushes the first shoots up through frozen ground. It may be the most creative time of your life. The Extraordinary Vessels, have been revitalised by winter and rest and can flow in a new way to support us during the second half of our life.

I have watch this happen many times in women, and have experienced it myself.

After your second Spring comes your Second Summer — a new expression of your creativity. Many women describe a freedom they never felt in their first summer. There is often a greater clarity about what is most important in your life.

I am in my Second Summer. My journey here has not been easy. But now I am here, in many ways it is one of the most creative and fulfilling times of my life. I feel more able to be me. I still have my challenges. I believe while we are living in our physical body, we are here to learn. And learning includes challenges. There may still be mini autumns and winters, but we have experienced a deep shift in our being which prepares us for another phase of our life: time to exerience the second seasons .

If you are in your second spring or summer I would love to hear how you experience these times.

And yet… the cycle doesn’t end there.

After Second Summer comes a second autumn — another letting go, another deepening. And then a final winter, when we leave this earthly body altogether. The second seasons are not as time bound as our first seasons. For the ancient Chinese, the first seasons for women run in cycles of 7 years; reflecting core changes in our developing bodies. Now we are less bound to these cycles and freer to create our own wisdom.

Traditional societies understood this. They built their wisdom around it. They prepared women for every season, not just the ones that are “productive “. Rest and renewal is vital to support all seasons.

Modern medicine tends to consider these seasons and transitions as problems to be fixed, often with synthetic hormones manufactured in a factory. I am not dismissing medical support — there are times when it is needed and valuable. But it is not the whole story. And for many women it is not the story at all.

The Extraordinary Vessels have guided me and my clients through these seasons for over 35 years. They are not an alternative to understanding your body. They are an understanding of your body — one that has existed for thousands of years and that modern epigenetics is only now beginning to confirm.

If you recognise yourself in any of these seasons — whether you’re in the turbulence of autumn, the stillness of winter, or beginning to feel the first stirrings of spring — there are practices that can support you.

I have movement practices specifically for this transition that work with the Extraordinary Vessels and the seasonal energies.

And if you want to go deeper into understanding your Essence — your Jing — and how the Extraordinary Vessels regulate these passages, my courses offer a framework that will change how you understand not just menopause but your entire life.

I am running one online with my daughter Rosa, beginning on 29th September: Extraordinary Women’s Cycles

Extraordinary Women's Cycles

A FINAL WORLD

You were not designed to fight your seasons.

You were designed to live them.

Maturessence isn’t the end of something. It’s the ripening of everything you’ve been becoming.

What season are you in right now? I’d love to know. Tell me in the comments.

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