Attuning to the Present

Daisy and I on a sunny day! I miss her.....

[endif]--![endif]--[endif]--![endif]--

For me, it’s been a deeply gray winter. A winter that has had very strange shifts in my mind, body, and spirit. I have been challenged. Menopause and the transition into wise woman demands to have its time in the Light. I do use the word demand because, in my experience, menopause has not been a comfortable nor a passive energy. The gray winter added (adds) a tangible shadow to this experience and honestly, I would love to bypass this transition altogether! However, this is my present.

As a Healer, this has added value and miserable challenges. I realize that this present transition is teaching me about my past. Menopause is asking me to “review” my past. However, in this review, for me, it has felt like an old record player that only has grooves recorded with all the injustices I have done, and the injustices done to me. It appears this record player does not record any positive past experiences. It is quite overwhelming and challenges the shadow side of my being. In computer terms, I’m running a script in my brain that is no longer current, no longer useful, no longer functional, but is running alongside my current up-to-date programs, causing disruption, inefficiency, and slowing all processes.

I am understanding that “flipping the script” is insanely difficult, yet possible! But not instantaneous! Then I asked just whose script am I running in my head? Is this my script? The answer: this is not entirely my script. Conditioning says that menopause takes everything and gives nothing. To the contrary, I now believe and have experienced the peace and freedom of a more mature mind, body, and spirit, at least so far. What I feel is a more sensual, more confident, slower to judge, easier to discern, and most importantly easier to love myself just as I am woman instead of the socially conditioned younger version of me that had to have certain physical, mental, and emotional perfection to be of value. I find the need to be accepted, the constant desire for approval, constant reassurance because of self-doubt, and the required socially acceptable body habitus, has faded into a disturbing memory.

I must state emphatically that men have these same issues and are conditioned not to speak of them or allow their challenges to have their time in the Light. Men have socially inadequate resources for voicing their unique transitions let alone healthcare resources. The healthcare community seem to refer men and women to psychologists. Those same psychologists will tell us that they themselves have limited, unsuccessful resources and techniques to address men and women’s issues in ANY transition. Most allopathic/western psychologists and general practitioners tend to only offer antidepressants which are arguably ineffective and cause additional mental and physical health related side effects. I scream to all that will hear, "Give me/us a Choice!"

In integrative energy medicine, it has been my experience on a personal level and a professional level, that holding *sacred space for the individual just as they are in the present (not past or future) is imperative in ministering to the whole person. Ministering to the mind, the body, and the spirit to facilitate well-being. Being present allowing the emotional body, the mental body, the physical body, as well as the spiritual body to attune to the present incorporating the shadows, the grays, the mists, the opaque(s) to have their time in the Light!

Being present, when the present is uncomfortable or downright miserably painful, has benefit in that it will allow all those uncomfortable and painful things to be experienced and to be integrated into the fabric of your very precious being and helps in strengthening all that you are on multiple levels. What if being present, when it is hard to do so, assists with fulfilling and experiencing your birth intention??

* Sacred space means that we are willing to walk alongside another person in whatever journey they are on without judging them, making them feel inadequate, trying to fix them, or trying to impact the outcome. When we hold space for other people, we open our hearts, offer unconditional support, and let go of judgement and control.

![endif]--