We’ve mentioned mindfulness several times when talking about the ways that women can help themselves develop a lifestyle that supports them through the menopause, but what is mindfulness and where’s the evidence? What is mindfulness? The Mental Health Foundation defines it like this, “Mindfulness is an integrative, mind-body based approach that helps people change the …
We’ve mentioned mindfulness several times when talking about the ways that women can help themselves develop a lifestyle that supports them through the menopause, but what is mindfulness and where’s the evidence?
What is mindfulness?
The Mental Health Foundation defines it like this, “Mindfulness is an integrative, mind-body based approach that helps people change the way they think and feel about their experiences, especially stressful experiences. It involves paying attention to our thoughts and feelings so we become more aware of them, less enmeshed in them, and better able to manage them.”
As any menopausal women can testify, our thoughts and feelings can become overwhelming – especially if those thoughts or feelings are very different to our pre-menopause ones. When we feel ourselves becoming angry or anxious or stressed about things that we used to take in our stride, it amplifies our emotions, because we aren’t just experiencing strange and unfamiliar reactions, we’re aware that we don’t have control of those reactions, and that they often seem to be controlling us!
Where is the evidence for mindfulness and menopause?
There’s a lot of talk about mindfulness, but considerably less solid research. As Scientific American reported in 2017 “[this] … technique for relieving stress and pain has remarkably little scientific evidence backing it”. Doesn’t sound great, does it? However, the report goes on to detail where mindfulness does have real value, based on peer-reviewed research studies. In fact the three problems that mindfulness has been proven to help are all problems that many women end up contending with through their menopause.
