“It’s clear I’m no longer young but I certainly don’t feel old.”
It’s what I hear from every woman in perimenopause or who’s recently-reached menopause.
This is a crazy in-between time:
Our bodies are changing, and in ways that definitely do not thrill us. Those changes highlight that, wow, this aging thing is really happening. Not to mention the life changes. Career, relationships, family. Some if not all are shifting.
Even though we’re the most confident we’ve ever been - in work or other skills - at the same time we’re like awkward teenagers with bodies that have morphed into foreign countries we’ve never visited, and new life situations that we’ve never navigated.
It’s a big and emotional learning curve, and it is not meant to be done alone.
Free Your Menopause is programs and events to do our midlife adolescence together.
Which is the best way to skip the identity crisis and instead enjoy the f*ck out of this time.
Every major life passage needs a community-supported holy hell yes.
That’s how we find our strut even during the awkward in-between time.
Sweet 16’s, graduations, bridal showers, baby showers…
Menopause deserves the same.
At Free your Menopause, we do this with our online Menopause Coming-Of-Age Camp and Menopause Slumber Parties that include:
No-holding-back girl talk about the changes that have been rocking our worlds.
Kicking the ass out of our challenges until they’re so beat, they say “uncle” and give us gifts.
Luring out our new emerging strengths, desires and a little mischief too.
A peer group who “gets you” and is your own we-see-you-hottie cheering section.
And the “No B.S.” thing.
It’s born of all our life experience… and our bodies making it clear that there is less energy to waste and only so many decades left.
The birth of the glorious “no fucks” attitude welling up within each of us.
Yeah, we coax that out of you too.
So that badass midlife strut that is undeniably yours - you’re walking it in your real life, real-time.
One of many screens of women during one of my fave FYM event moments.
Hi, I’m Lisa Hunter and my response to menopause used to be “Ew!”
I’m the founder of Free Your Menopause, and yep, I used to recoil in disgust at the word menopause.
Now my biggest love is that “strut” that I’ve been talking about that emerges in every women as we make this major life passage.
But how did I go from “Ew” to true…
First, Menopause Denial
At 55, I’m now in post menopause after navigating my own nine-year perimenopause journey, and I’ve experienced “all the things” - gnarly physical menopause challenges, shift in caretaker roles in my family, a big geographical move of my home base, questioning and reinventing of my life direction.
It took me a long time to accept that my body was changing,
Friends would say, “I think those are perimenopause symptoms you’re experiencing” and I’d brush them off, annoyed and thinking “Yeah that’s not gonna happen to me.”
Which is so funny, right? Somehow I was thinking I was not “one of those people” who would get old. But no one escapes menopause or aging! It’s just such a trip how it took my brain and soul a period of time to really get that. I will always be young at heart, but yes, my body will continue to change.
Then, The Aha Moment
I’m an Interspiritual Minister with a specialty in major life passages (more about that below), and when a mentor suggested that I do rite of passage with women on the menopause journey, my visceral reaction was “Ew! I don’t want to be associated with menopause.”
Not too long after I walked away, it hit me: “Wait a minute, WHY am I so disgusted??”
And then it hit me deeper: I didn’t want to be associated with menopause because I’d bought into all the derogatory messaging fueled by capitalism, patriarchal structures and our culture’s demonization of the feminine.
Well, that wouldn’t do. I ditched that B.S right then and there.
Then, The STRUT
I started running menopause groups and wow oh wow, the power of women coming together in this time of life. The camaraderie, the fun, the validation.
I watched each woman (including me) ditch old rules and come alive with this bolder, sassier self.
Sure, it was from what I facilitated, but even more it was about doing the menopause transition together.
We spark each other. Especially Late Boomers, Gen X and Early Millenials.
Put us in a room together and all sorts of positive hell breaks loose.
It’s a freaking blast. You must join in!
And if you want to know why the heck I’m not only qualified to run these things, but also really good at it:
All in all, I’ve guided over 10,000 hours of spiritual inquiry, ceremony and rite of passage for the super cool humans I’ve had the honor of working with over the years.
Oh and fun tidbits:
I was in a punk band called Orange Lola in my early 40’s. Now in our 50’s, we just got back together!
I was an career folk singer for most of my 20’s and 30’s and released five CD’s. In an instance of bizarre pairing, I found myself opening up for the rapper Eminem for an audience of thousands.
Right out of college I worked and lived in Yosemite National Park as an Environmental Educator.
My husband and I named our Doodle “Lemmy” after the lead singer of Mötorhead.
I met my best friend Carly in a Model Mugging self-defense class way back in 1996.
I got a tattoo of flowers and birds around my ankle in 1989, way before tattoos were a “thing”.
I’m trained as an Interspiritual Minister, which means that I believe that there are as many recipes for spirituality as there are people in the world, and my specialty is major life passages. I graduated in 2013 from the two-year seminary program at One Spirit Interfaith Seminary in New York.
I first fell in love with rites of passage as a full-time wedding officiant and have facilitated over 900 couples on the journey from engagement to marriage (www.CeremoniesWithLisa.com). I’ve also won the Best Of Weddings Award on The Knot every year for over a decade now.
My life passage work with women includes body image groups with teenage girls, women’s circles for business owners stepping into first-time entrepreneurship, teaching How To Lead Circle on the trainer team with Sistership Circle, and most recently these Free Your Menopause programs.
“Lisa Hunter is the go-to person for supporting women in this stage of life. She will make you feel like a badass, as opposed to what parts of society say we should feel like. She will help you awaken your inner wise woman goddess within and make you feel more powerful than you ever imagined you would when others say it's time to be put out to pasture. Her work goes straight to the very core of untrue beliefs about menopause, what it means, and who we are as women in this phase of life. And how to turn that around and develop the things you need to survive AND thrive in this stage of life!” - Angela H.
Enjoy The F*ck Out Of Menopause.
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