Your Body Knows The Score

There's a turn in the light this time of year, and if you grew up in Ireland you feel it in your bones before you even notice it properly.

The evenings start getting darker that bit earlier. The blackberries go heavy on the hedges. Something in us starts to quieten and gather itself in, after the busy energy of the Summer. Our grandmothers had a name for this season, the season of the Cailleach, the old wise woman of Irish myth who shows up with the first frost and reminds us that an ending isn't the same thing as a disappearing. I think about her a lot when I'm sitting with women moving through menopause. So much of what she stands for, the depth, the authority, her fierce quiet wisdom, that only comes from having actually lived.

Menopause

It's funny, for many years menopause was overlooked for its impact on women. Nowadays, Menopause everywhere. There is so much information that you don't know what is right and what is correct. Well, a bit of research landed this month that put a very modern number on a very old problem. A study looked at close to 400,000 women. Nearly 200,000 of them told researchers, straight out, that they were menopausal. But when the researchers checked the medical files, only a small fraction, something like one in fourteen, actually had it written down anywhere.

The menopause was there. It was there in the broken sleep, the racing heart, the panic attacks and the sudden heat that comes out of nowhere. It just wasn't being recorded. The lead researcher put it plainly, and I haven't stopped thinking about the line since: you cannot treat what you do not know, and you cannot know what was never written down.

That gap matters, because so many women already feel like this whole stage just happens to them without anyone actually seeing it. Symptoms get waved off as stress, as getting older. When really, this is a full bodied transition, it's big, every bit as real as puberty or pregnancy ever was. Menopause is not a woman's imagination. It is not "just hormones," not in the dismissive way that phrase tends to get thrown around. It deserves to be tracked. It deserves to be understood. It deserves better than being filed away as an afterthought. Menopause is a whole new life transition.

How the Orcas and Pilot Whales are Similar to Us

Here's a reframe I keep coming back to in this work, and I'll be honest, it took me a long time to trust it myself. What if the body isn't breaking down at all. What if it's speaking up. What if it is telling us exactly what we need to know about ourselves, our bodies and our lifestyle. It is so easy to believe, that something is wrong with you, but not every culture buys into that story.

In Japan, menopause is sometimes called konenki, which translates roughly as energy season. This is a world away from the language of loss and decline we're so used to hearing here today.

Nature seems to back it up too, funnily enough. Do you know about Orca and Pilot whales ? They are two of the only other creatures we know of on this earth, that goes through menopause, and researchers studying wild pods have found it's the older, past reproductive females who end up leading the group ! The ones who remember where the food is in a bad year. The ones who guide the younger whales through. That's wisdom, not decline.

I think of the Cailleach the very same way. She isn't put out to pasture once the harvest is in. She's the one who knows how to survive the Winter.

Here in Ireland, we're slowly catching up. There's been real movement lately, with funding for women's health research. There is now a national conversation finally starting to name what women have been saying to each other in kitchens and clinics for generations. It's a start. But I don't think any of us need to wait for a chart, or a funding announcement, to know what's already true in our own bodies. That knowing has always lived somewhere else. Somewhere a form can't quite reach.

This is the heart of the work I do. When a doctor's chart falls short, the body still keeps its own record. We feel it in the tension held across our shoulders. We feel it in the tightness of the jaw. In the way your feet tells a story the mouth hasn't found the words for yet.

Reflexology

Reflexology has always been, for me, a way of listening to that record. Through the feet, I can often feel where a woman is carrying her stress, her sleeplessness, her grief for a body that suddenly feels unfamiliar, long before she's found the words to say it out loud herself. I can also read the emotions, past and present from your feet !

Facial Reflexology and Zone Face Lift do the same work through the face. With Reflexology in the feet, face and hands, the Endocrine System and Reproductive organs can be stimulated to help give you a boost and at the same time, to calm your nervous system. We ease the tension that settles during these years, while supporting circulation and that lit from within glow so many women tell me they miss.

Emotional Freedom Techniques

EFT tapping gives us a gentle way to talk directly to the nervous system when the hot flushes or the racing thoughts take hold. Like Facial Reflexology, Indian Head Massage is still one of the simplest, oldest ways I know to help an overworked mind finally let go.

A small ritual for tonight, if you fancy it. Sit for a few minutes with your feet in warm water. Place both hands over your face, or your heart. Take three slow breaths. Say to yourself, out loud or just in your own head, that you're allowed to be in this chapter without apologising for it. It won't fix anything. But it might help you feel a little more met.

Kundalini Magnetic Resonance Therapy

This is another great way to calm the nervous system in your Autumn/Cailleach season. KMRT is trauma informed and uses meditation, vedic hand gestures, somatic movement and breathwork. I use it to "Re-birth" the woman in how she wants to be, right here, right now.

Using this meditation every day, helps you to integrate what is going on in your life and then to gently let it go. It will help to form a more intimate connection with your body, your womb as well as boosting your consciousness. You will feel calmer and more resilient.

However, none of the above replaces good medical care, and I'll always say that plainly. But my therapies can sit alongside it. A way of honouring what the body already knows, while the wider systems around us slowly learn to listen too. You don't need a diagnosis code to deserve care. You don't need a study to validate what you already feel in your own skin. Your experience was always evidence enough.

If any of this is landing for you today. If you're in the thick of your own turning of the season. I'd love to hold space for you, either in my treatment room or in 🐝 The Hive, my free community which was built exactly for this. A gentle place to land among women who get this chapter without you having to explain yourself first. And if you fancy something a little more hands on, the Zone Face Lift ritual is one of the loveliest ways I know to give an overworked nervous system, and a tired face, some proper rest.

Whatever stage of womanhood you're moving through, I hope you come away feeling less like a statistic and more like the wise woman you're already becoming. This has always been a sacred space for every chapter of your womanhood. There's a seat by the fire waiting for you.

Remember....

You are the 👑 Queen, with boundaries, with the permission to say "No". You are in a time for you to take back your life, your sovereignty, your sexuality.

📌And one last thing....Are you Ready to Connect, Share, and Bloom Together ?

If this blog post resonated with you, I’d love for you to join 🐝The Hive. It's absolutely FREE and a place where we can chat about all things Women's Health and Wellbeing. This is a space where we come together to explore all things womb and women's wellness: fertility, pregnancy, menopause and beyond. Here, you’ll find support, wisdom, and a sisterhood of women who truly understand your journey.

👉Join 🐝The Hive, and let's thrive

With love and moonlit blessings,

Catherine 🌹

Disclaimer:

The information shared here is intended solely for educational and informational purposes. It is not medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment of any kind. I am a Reflexologist specialising in Fertility and Pregnancy, Soulful Doula, EFT Practitioner, Yoga Teacher, Womb Shaman, Fertile Body Method Practitioner, and Women’s Health Coach. All guidance provided here is offered to support your personal empowerment and self-awareness.

You are encouraged to tune into your own body wisdom. Your body and womb space always know what is best for you. However, if you are experiencing specific health concerns or conditions, please seek the advice and care of a qualified medical or healthcare practitioner.

Always trust yourself and follow what feels right and true for you.

With love,

Catherine🌹