Taking Action
Move Towards Acceptance
You don’t have to like menopause, but you do have to accept it. Acceptance means that you build an accurate understanding about the irreversible nature of menopause. You accept the truth of the situation that you cannot change or control the progression through menopause; you can only respond and manage the effects. If acceptance seems challenging, consider the alternative. Remaining in denial means that you will be fighting against something that you cannot possibly change. Denying reality does not change it. Fighting a losing battle only lowers self-esteem.
Fight Fire With Fire
When your biology is changing, you need to look at ways that you can modify your biology to soften the blow of menopause. Adding exercise, changing your diet, and adjusting your sleep patterns have all been shown to modify your body’s biology.
Exercise can flood your brain with helpful, depression-busting chemicals like serotonin, norepinephrine, and endorphins. Exercise also heats up your body and encourages perspiration, which are both related to improved biology.
A better diet and sleep routine will have similar results. Sleep is so necessary for recovering your body and your mind after a day of stress. Diet provides energy to make it through the day. If you do not feed your body, it cannot help with your self-esteem goals. An improved diet can help limit the risk of weight gain in postmenopause.
Change Your Self-Talk
Do you talk to yourself? Don’t worry. Everyone does. This constant conversation you have with yourself is call self-talk. Self-talk is highly influential to your mood, anxiety, and self-esteem. Think about the way you speak to your best friend. What is stopping you from speaking to yourself in the same way?
What you say to yourself greatly impacts how you feel about yourself. If you say that your life is changing and you hate it. You are going to feel worse. If you speak kindly and realistically to yourself by saying, “I don’t like menopause, but accepting it will help me. I’m going to work really hard to feel good about myself no matter what it throws at me” inspires confidence and resolve to work with menopause without letting it take over.
Surround Yourself With Love
Menopause has a way of forcing you to push people away. Resist this urge and fight this trend at all costs. If you isolate and cut out positive influences in your life, your self-esteem will shrink. To give your esteem a burst of life, spend more time around the people, things, and places that you love and those that love you. Doing this will remind you of how other people see you, and their positive reactions will instill in you a renewed belief that you are a worthwhile, self-assured, and independent person.
Conclusion
Menopause is a powerful force in the life of any woman. Rather that allowing the biological changes to override your self-esteem, take control over your physical and emotional health to boost your self-esteem.
By gaining education, finding acceptance and improving your lifestyle while you change your self-talk and surround yourself with love, you will counteract the impact of menopause. With work, it can be a change for the better.
