Step 1. Collect information . . .
Premenstrual, pregnant, premenopausal, and menopausal women rage and
weep. Like it or not, you'll probably find your emotions harder to control
as you enter your menopausal years. Men given hormone therapy (against
prostate cancer) weep and rage too!
Step 2. Engage the energy . . .
H Take time for yourself when you find yourself crying, yelling, raging,
depressed, out of control. Create your own sacred space, even in a closet,
where you can be alone, without responsibilities, where you can be safe
to have every one of your feelings.
o Begin (or deepen your commitment to working with) a journal as a way
to care for yourself and your emotions. The Change is an opportunity
to value your emotional self and to nourish all of your feelings, from
grief to bliss, rage to outrageous.
o Universal healing energy can help when your emotions are roaring.
Channel it through your hands to your heart or womb; hold yourself.
Step 3. Nourish and tonify . . .
H My remedy of choice for women dealing with premenstrual emotional
uproar is motherwort - the calm, fierce-hearted mother who helps you
find your center in the wildest of emotional storms. A dose of 5-15
drops taken several times when you're upset will bring calmer feelings
quickly. A dose of 10-30 drops taken twice a day for a month can help
prevent mood swings.
H Let a cup of garden sage tea with honey restore your emotional center
and soothe your irritated nerves. It is even said to cure insanity and
relieve hysteria. In Chinese herbal practice, honey is used (in tea,
not cooked) to soften the energy of the liver when it is hardened by
rage, frustration, and anger.
H Pamper yourself. Get a massage. Cuddle with someone you love.
H Moods don't swing so much in women who nourish their nerves and even
out their blood sugar levels with lots of calcium.
o Slow-acting liferoot flower tincture (5 drops) or slower-acting vitex
berry tincture (25-40 drops), taken daily for a week or two premenstrually
for several months will help you unravel your emotional snarls.
o Black cohosh root tincture eases menopausal flashes and is said to
cure hysteria, too. Try 10-20 drops once or twice a day for a month.
o Keep a piece of licorice or ginseng root handy to chew on when you
feel like chewing someone's head off.
Step 4. Stimulate/Sedate . . .
o Valerian root, as a bath or tincture (15-20 drops as needed) is a
powerful sleep-inducing sedative that also eases uterine cramps. Avoid
long-term use.
Step 5b. Use drugs . . .
o Feeling moody? Mood-altering drugs, legal (tranquilizers, anti-depressants,
alcohol, coffee, cigarettes) or illegal (cocaine, opium), create dependence.
Step 6. Break and enter . . .
o Psychoactive plants (such as marijuana, psilocybin mushrooms, and
mescaline), when taken in a safe setting, offer radically different
results than mood-altering drugs. Instead of dependence, they foster
self-worth, helping the individual to break open new neural pathways
and establish easier flows of emotions and energy through both the physical
and subtle bodies.
If you liked this excerpt by Susun S.
Weed, you will want
NEW Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way:
Alternative Approaches for Women 30 - 90
by Susun S. Weed
Foreword by Juliette de Bairacli Levy.
304 pages, index, magical illustrations.
Completely revised with 100 new pages. All the remedies women know and trust plus hundreds of new ones. New sections on thyroid health, fibromyalgia, hairy problems, male menopause, and herbs for women taking hormones. Recommended by Susan Love MD and Christiane Northrup MD.
Retails for $27.95
Read Juliette de Levy-Bairacli's introduction:
This
book should be in the hands of every woman, of every race,
no matter
what age, worldwide.
Read some excerpts:
Building Better Bones
Kundalini Meditation
Order New Menopausal Years in our Bookshop
"If this book had not been given to me by a close friend, I would be experiencing menopause in an entirely different manner. The Wise Woman approach to the various and unexpected discomforts and joys of the Change has motivated me to seize this experience to transform my life for the better."
