Petra Coveney on yoga as therapy as we navigate the menopause transition

Middling Along

Joining me on the podcast this time is Petra Coveney - founder of Menopause Yoga™ - an international teacher, trainer, author and guest speaker specializing in supporting people through the stages of perimenopause to post menopause

Petra has trained over 700 Menopause Yoga teachers in 40+ countries and is the author of the book ‘Menopause Yoga - a holistic guide to supporting women on their menopause journey,’ which brings together modern western medical science with ancient eastern wellbeing. She positively reframes the menopause as a Second Spring awakening with an opportunity for long-term health and happiness.

What a lovely and wide-ranging conversation this was! We start with a little time-travel, back to 2013 when Menopause Yoga first launched, and the conversation around menopause was vastly different than it is today!

I was fascinated to learn that Petra and the teachers she trains use subtly different types and combinations of yoga for perimenopause, menopause and post-menopause… Petra describes how in perimenopause - a time of turbulence, instability, rewiring of the brain they use a combination of yin-yang yoga (stretching), breathwork, meditation and restorative yoga…helping support acceptance of changes. (We also talk about the similarity to teenagers - who also get very tired as their bodies and brains are changing - just as ours do in perimenopause…!)

I loved her analogy of us “ladling out the soup to everyone else all our lives, and in perimenopause, really scraping the bottom of the soup pot”…such that if we don’t make time for rest and recharge, our bodies will find a way to make us stop, whether through illness, fatigue or something else.

The in menopause (our ‘wintering’ phase) there is potentially more anxiety, overwhelm, insomnia, fatigue, joint pain, and muscle tightness - so the combination shift to provide more flowing, somatically releasing joint and muscle pain, toning the vagus nerve, together with meditation, and restorative practice.

Then in the post-menopause stage there is another subtle shift to prioritize balance, muscle and bone strengthening, and even some weightlifting.

We talk about the therapeutic approach to yoga practice and the importance of community, before moving on to look at reframing menopause and choosing to see this as a ‘second spring’ awakening - how our voices change not only physically, but how we commonly ‘find’ our voice in this life stage.

You can find Petra online at: https://www.menopause-yoga.com/ and on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/menopause_yoga/?hl=en

You can also find us over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ and you can listen to past episodes at https://middlingalong.com

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