Healthy Aging Menopause Ayurveda

Healthy aging menopause Ayurveda, these travel together, as Kate O’Donnell and I note on her recent podcast. You can listen to it here. Ayurveda balances conditions. If we’re depleted, it’s there for rejuvenation. If we’re toxed, it’s there for cleaning. Sometimes we’re both, and this can be dealt with, too. 

The four ashramas, stages of life

In Ayurveda, we each move through four stages of life in our own ways. First being a student, second householding, third forest dwelling, and fourth, renunciation. Kate and I spoke especially about the vanaprastha, forest dweller stage of life, in relationship to health aging menopause Ayurveda.

The vanaprastha (forest dweller) stage of life

While vanaprastha is a mouthful, it represents that stage of life when Vata dosha begins to predominate in our lives from about 50 to 75. It’s time to take a step back from intense Pitta creation if we can, and assess how we’re going to lead the rest of our lives. Ideally more forest breathing, less pavement pounding. Perimenopause and menopause are gateways to this stage.

Everyday Ayurveda for Women’s Health by Kate O’Donnell

Everyday Ayurveda for Women’s Health by Kate O’Donnell which came out last year, is chockful of wise perspectives about healthy aging menopause Ayurveda. It includes all four stages of our lives. We are radiant like flowers. This book covers our full life cycle as women, from healthy menstruation, pregnancy prevention, pregnancy and childbirth, perimenopause and menopause. In these times, all of this information is extremely valuable. Let’s look at the sections related to menopause.

Some of Kate’s favorite plant allies are my favorites too. Vitex, chasteberry from India and China, is a great herb in perimenopause. It supports healthy progesterone levels and ovulation, and can help an irregular period come back into rhythm. A primary support for me in my late 30s and throughout my 40s, I am grateful to it.

Wild yam is another plant medicine featured here. Often found as a cream in Western herb apothecaries, it’s cool and moist in action. It boosts ojas, reproductive tissue, and longevity. In my 40s and early 50s, vitex and wild yam together provided steady emotional as well as physical support. If you are interested in sidestepping supplementary hormones, which do have side effects, these herbs and others can be real aids in perimenopause and menopause.

There’s lots of delicious recipes and food suggestions in Everyday Ayurveda for Women’s Health to keep bone well-nourished and all tissues replenished. Think Raspberry-Ginger Secret Smoothie and Strawberry Rose Smash. (Men, do not feel abandoned. These recipes are revitalizing for you too.)

Menopause can be akin to running a river in a kayak for the first time. You just keep paddling with awareness, you hope, getting ready to push off the rocks when needed, facing a variety of changing terrains. It’s a time when needs change and strategies do, too. It’s a test of adaptability and resourcefulness. I’ve got more confidence in my resilience since moving through menopause. It was a river trip to appreciate. A Western classic herbal invaluable for me when I made this transition was Susun Weed’s Menopausal Years, The Wise Woman Way. Susun Weed has a new take on this vital period, entitled New Menopausal Years. You can find it here.

Self respect and our weak spots – we’ve all got them

An inner attitude can paddle us through many a rapid, whether physical or mental, whatever our gender. One is something like this: May I stay calm and accept myself. Troubles arise; struggles happen. Life does not always go well. If you can hold with your self-respect as your weaknesses and others’ weaknesses are revealed, the journey can be more survivable. 

In Ayurveda, a physical weak spot is termed khavaigunya, a weakened space in the body due to past experiences, trauma, genetics. Here is a spot where aggravated Vata, Pitta or Kapha can lodge and “create disorder”. (Dr. Vasant Lad, Textbook of Ayurveda, volume I). These are the places where problems can show up, just when we appreciate them least.

According to Ayurveda, the roots of health are in our guts

The latest research on the gut microbiome supports this ancient view. Often times the digestive system can have a weak spot, given all we face environmentally, dietarily, experientially. Products from unfriendly microbes can irritate both our gut linings and our moods. (This is what’s known as a rajasic experience.) Toxic metabolites can be associated with anxiety, depression, even weight gain. Conversely, some friendly microbes, probiotics, can mop up “bad” bacteria and pull them out of the body. 

Each person is different, and each probiotic has a variety of effects. One well-known product, Florastor, available in drugstores, deserves its positive reputation. Its Dual Action product supports healthy digestion, immunity, and for some people, even mood. Being able to sleep better and wake up calm is not necessarily something one expects from a probiotic, yet for some, this really does help. In healthy aging menopause Ayurveda, these sorts of resets can be restorative.

Back to the vanaprastha, forest-dweller, stage of life

We are like flowers. This life is so fleeting. It looks like it’s going to be so long and then (from the perspective of these 72 years), it’s gone. What’s here is precious, to be treasured. 

When we’ve reached this stage, between 50 – 75, questions arise. How are we going to lead the rest of our lives? What does this stage mean for each of us?

From the perspective of Ayurveda, kama, desire and satisfaction, are aims of this vanaprastha stage. What do I want now? How do I back off AND do something new? Lately I find myself working with friends in post-menopause in their 50s and 60s, grappling with this. How do I start a new nourishing win-win profession now?, they ask. How do I rest more and be endlessly “on” – less?

Ethics, inner vision, and wisdom

In the podcast, I talked about the three Buddhist trainings: ethics, samadhi (or what could be called inner vision) and wisdom. These have been key processes in this stage of life for me. What ethics guide me? What does inner vision see? With wisdom, how can I apply these urges toward wise outer action?

While some see the last third of life as a time of rest and renunciation, what we are resting from and what we are renouncing becomes crucial to understand. As we assess and metabolize our lives and see what we want to lean into now, we each can bring a clearer light to this process, honed through years of mistakes and experience.

Support children, not killing

In this light, the actions of ice cream maker Ben Cohen, 74, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s are to be applauded. Ben was arrested in the Senate with six other people Wednesday protesting US health priorities. He linked starving US children (by radically reducing money for child food programs in this country) to killing children in Gaza.(by spending the money on weapons there). Senator Bernie Sanders has twice put up resolutions to block this, yet at best only 18% of the Senate has voted to block arms used to kill kids abroad. You can check here – How did your senators vote?

Wishing you a breath of fresh forest and flowers, wherever you are.

Amadea Morningstar is a writer and health educator working in the US. Her latest book is Easy Healing Drinks from the Wisdom of Ayurveda. Past works include The Ayurvedic Cookbook with Urmila Desai and Ayurvedic Cooking for Westerners.

Image Mother’s Day flowers from Iza, held in the light by her dad

This column is also up on Substack here.