5 Benefits of Menopause Hot Flashes: Blessings in Disguise
You can’t escape it: the time has come.
Sometimes sooner, sometimes later, menopause catches up with all of us.
One of the most well known symptoms are the menopause hot flashes or hot flushes as they call them in the UK. Are you going through them?
I Am.
1. Natural Heat… Saving on Bills!
I’m not joking. Menopause has saved me money on heating bills for the last 2 years.
It took me some time to realise this. I wasn’t complaining too much about them (at least not half as much as what I used to hear my mum and other women complain in my youth. Now I see it was social conditioning: you get the hot flashes, you complain). In fact, it took me about a year to realise that the heat I was experiencing was from menopause. I thought the temperature just hot higher for some reason. I’ve never heard anyone else say this, but this is my experience.
Anyway, that winter (I was living in London at the time) I didn’t have the need of turning up the heating as much as I had done in previous winters. I was naturally hot (pardon the pun). Thus I saved quite a bit of money on heating.
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Does it sound petty, or in bad taste? Well, considering the alternative I had ‘learned’ was to suffer and complain to others (so I could feel sorry for myself through the use of other people) I thought I had a good deal going. The sudden waves of heat were more than bearable and I felt proud of having my own, homemade, natural heat. And I don’t care what anyone else thinks. Another beauty that comes from maturing!
2. They Bring You Closer to the Present Moment
Yes, that’s right.
One is away with the fairies thinking this, thinking that, thinking the other…. totally engage in head talk and not in what’s happening around oneself. Then, unexpectedly… BAM!! A hot flash comes out of nowhere. One is left but with only one option: to ‘come back’ to the Self.
Now, it is very important to understand that it is easy to follow ‘habit’ and simply feel miserable when the hot flash instantly appears. This must be checked, then stopped.
The hot flash is a reminder that we dwell in a physical body that has its own ways – and the way of maturing is that of menopause for women. I must respect this with all my heart. This is sacred, I am honoured to being held by such an incredible body-mind mechanism. I must pay my respects to it at all times – even though I am not my body, I do experience a body every time I notice it. The hot flash helps me to be with it, as if a child who is not well at the hospital; my hot flash needs nursing and constant attention. That’s how it ‘pulls me back’ to where I should be at all times: HERE / NOW. Thank you.
3. Identification Brings You Closer to Other Women
And, it was about time!!
The problem I’ve had with women in the past is that I’ve always felt somewhat distant to them, as if they were a species I didn’t fully integrate with (fully is a generous word here).
I never understood why that was – they talk about women rivalry sometimes… In my case it was more fear based; yes, that’s right, I feared women, never for a reason I was aware of.
There was just fear and even some repulsion at times (ok, that’s a strong word), maybe rejection is more like it.
I’m not sure why this was and it might be an interesting thing to discuss/find out in the future, for another blog post.
All I want to point out here is that the hot flashes have made me feel closer to my fellow comrade menopausers out there… Today a lady (yes, I’ve finally become a lady myself!) took a fan from her bag and started fanning herself that little bit too frantically… I happened to start doing exactly the same at about the exact time… We then caught each others’ glance and there was a sweet nodding without ever moving our heads – an instant of pure understanding, identification had been encapsulated in an eternal, magical moment of true fellowship.
Priceless.
4. The Perfect Excuse to Show Off Your Fan(s)!
Do you find yourself falling in love with many different designs? Fans are sooo cool.
I went with my partner to Barcelona and we bought 2 fans there – one spotty, lovely blue one and a white fan that looks amazing with anything I wear.
Don’t get me wrong: I NEVER really care about anything I put on. But this fan…. oh, how much I do love it!
In fact: my plan is to buy several designs that I can show off as much as possible in as many places as possible. I love the whole thing about them. Carrying them in my bag, taking them out, opening them with that sudden (oh, so Spanish) movement…
Whether paper fans, Chinese fans or Spanish fans… they can all be gorgeous. And who doesn’t like the sudden movement when opening one? The whole body responds to this lovely, graceful, dramatic move. It just screams: “I’m here!”. Lovingly, of course.
5. Time to Start Taking Liberties…
I went to a meeting today and sat on the only good chair available. The rest just seemed so uncomfortable.
Then, the guilt cropped up. “Should I sit somewhere else??” “Maybe I should leave it for older people?” Then it dawned on me… I was the older people. Well… rather than get upset as I’ve seen so many happen with other women before (hiding age syndrome, feeling uncomfortable about these symptoms, etc etc etc) I smiled and stayed.
Smiled and stayed.
So simple. I was entitled.
Full stop.
So There You Have it!
There are more benefits to having these types of symptoms. As always, the experience comes from the mind, and a healthy mind will produce a healthy experience.
Maybe the word here is not exactly healthy, but rather: sane.
Food for another post.
Let me know about how you experience the hot flashes below.
