Often these symptoms are put together as just 'I'm really moody, and all over the place', but when you think about it being in a low mood and then having a mood swing, are they really they same thing?
The one thing I'm sure you'll agree on is that it's miserable and frustrating, the feeling of not being in control of your mind and emotions anymore, just not being the woman you used to be.
You may not know yet but I've spent years working on the underlying causes and patterns of symptoms and working it through the eyes of my therapy Shiatsu and Chinese Medicine.
The power of Chinese medicine is that there is an underlying reason for everything that happens and it has a distinct pattern attached. Using this I can trace low moods back your kidneys and mood swings back to your liver!
That isn't going to make sense to you yet, but I'll come onto that and explain in a minute, but the great thing about understanding how your emotions link back to your vital organs means that if you sort out the health imbalance with that organ you can help alleviate and eradicate the associated mood patterns. Now THAT is great news, and it's what I do for the women I work with; and it works!
LOW MOODS AND KIDNEYS
Kidney energy is a chinese term, but it links to the adrenal system in your body. When we go through the menopause transition this in itself puts a stress on your body. As your ovaries make less oestrogen and progesterone the other place it can come from is the adrenal glands. I'm sure you've heard of adrenalin, this is released whenever we're stressed, whether its a positive, like exercise, or a negative, like fear. What you may not know about is Cortisol , released at the same time and the debilitating effect that has on your body.
Excess cortisol drains your nutrients, and that leads to another bundle of symptoms like aching joints and muscles. But getting back to the permanently stressed state we're in, this leads to an exhaustion where your body is always in a 'red alert' state, and that isn't a good place to be. When in this state your body is making and releasing too much adrenalin and cortisol , the flight or fight stress response, and so it doesn't have the time or energy to make that progesterone and oestrogen you so desperately need. These are the 2 hormones linked to emotions!
When you're in a state of fight or flight the last thing you need is emotions, so they flatten. Low moods or flat emotions are the result. To you this means you feel like you don't get excited anymore, or you can't feel happy anymore, and if you can't feel this , then you can't get excited and intimate, hence no libido.
It may take you some time to realise this, I think it really hit me when I went on a cruise, it should have been exciting, I was going to see my friends and we were going to party for 5 days. I felt flat, no excitement, went to bed feeling ill on the first night, and in hindsight I now realise I was in the depths of this exhaustion on my body. Not a physical tiredness, I didn't notice it as that, this was just that flatlining of my emotions, so I couldn't muster anything close to what I was used to. I'm pleased to say now a couple of years on with all the right supplements I feel great, I feel excited and happy and my emotions are well and truly back ;)
Knowledge, supplements, the correct type of exercise and eating, and time, and it will all come back!
MOOD SWINGS AND YOUR LIVER
Where as low moods take some time to sort out, believe it or not, this one can be quickly resolved! If you burst into tears at nothing, fly off the hand at a comment, and then feel guilt ridden and reverse back to tears, well, this is an exhausting way to get through the day. If you're in a job it also isn't a satisfactory way to be, and might even be causing you real problems with colleagues and clients. Mood swings need to be, and can be sorted.
In Chinese medicine we call this a stuttery liver, it simply means things aren't flowing as they should be; so it's a bit like a blocked drain. Your liver is a remarkable organ, and it puts up with a lot, and still, its carries on doing it's job. To compare it to a car, it's like the oil filter and you need to get that changed once and year, and new oil put it, but you're now on the way to 50, without cleaning the filter :)
A clogged liver directly relates to how bristly we can get, how quickly we fly off the handle! The more relaxed our liver, the more relaxed we are; so how did your liver get in this state?
The liver cleanses blood, it turns sugar into energy, along with the help of the gallbladder it deals with fats, pretty much everything needs to pass through the liver to be cleaned, it's involved in over 500 processes in your body. The liver isn't happy when it's got a big clogged up, this is caused by eating too much sugar and fats especially as processed foods and alcohol. You may love a pizza and a glass of red but have you ever linked this to how you feel the day afterwards?
If not, this is the time to start journalling your symptoms and especially your emotions, and also note what you eat, what exercise you do, how you sleep. The more of a picture you can build, the more a natural solutions expert can help you, we analyse the patterns to look for the causes. I can say though I already know the cause, thanks to those Chinese medicine patterns so I know exactly how to undo those mood swings.
YOUR FOOD TODAY IS YOUR MOOD TOMORROW
One of my favourite sayings in the videos and talks that I do! I notice sometimes I feel a little grotty on a Monday, then I think 'well what did I eat and drink this weekend?' It's powerful to know that you can link how feeling snappy is caused by what you ate and drank yesterday. Then you can start to change what you eat and drink to the level that you require.
So many symptoms of the menopause come back to what you eat and drink and your liver's state of health, and it can recover quickly with a little TLC. Most of the women I work with tweak what they eat, add in the ability to cleanse and really notice the difference in a matter of weeks. The basis of this is manage your sugar to manage your emotions. We all know what a sugar rush feels like, and you see kids bouncing off the walls with too much of it, and its the same for you; no matter whether you exercise a lot or not, that doesn't really play a factor here; though to much exercise can lead to you crying and exhausted (but that's another blog!)
LIGHTEN THE LOAD
Your liver would love for you to lighten the load on it, give it a little more time to clean up and clear out! Do you get night sweats? If so, this is a sign your liver is struggling to do it's job, as this is the time of night that it really wants to run its cleansing process. However if you've overloaded it with dinner and drink it can't perform efficiently, it tries really hard, and it pumps your blood as fast as it can, and what happens to an engine when its working at top speed? It gets hot!
To cool down at night, look to what you eat and drink in the evening, Eating for the Perimenopause and Beyond can help you with this, and this will also help you even out those mood swings. If after a week or 2 no change, then you need more support and this is where I come in, I help you sort out those moods, alleviate those sweats and get your sleep and life back on track.
READY TO GET STARTED?
If you haven't already got my free guide ' How To Have A Successful Natural Menopause' then grab it here:
Had a go and still finding you haven't resolved stubborn issues? Then you really need to delve deeper and I've created the perfect way for you to do this. A series of easy to understanding videos that step you through the 5 major health imbalances that exacerbate your symptoms, resolve these and you're be on the path to being symptom free and having a much healthier, and and happier menopause:
I want you to know that you really don't have to put up with any symptoms, the stress that the change of hormones puts on your body puts your health under a magnifying glass. The symptoms you're experiencing are your body screaming in pain, and you can answer these and resolve them and feel the relief, but the question is - are you listening?
'til next time, I wish you well!
Andrea xo
