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Restorative Yoga for Menopause 

Yoga's Great Rejuvenators for Women at Midlife and Beyond

By Suza Francina R.Y.T.

For women at midlife and beyond, yoga offers a primary form of menopause medicine that can help them adjust to hormonal changes and cope with a wide range of symptoms -- including hot flashes, night sweats, heavy bleeding, mood swings and fatigue -- without negative side effects.

For the past thirty years, my classes have been filled with women who began yoga during the menopausal years.  Now that I'm fifty-five years old and officially in menopause (defined as that point in time when a woman's periods stop permanently) my yoga practice is an antidote to the stiffness and fatigue that tends to settle into the body with the passage of time. Even a short yoga session helps replenish my energy reserves, especially when practiced with the help of yoga props. During the year that my periods stopped, I told my students that yoga is my “menopause medicine”. "And," I added, "you will not hear about a study ten years from now saying yoga is bad for you!"

I often remind my students who are in the perimenopausal (pre menopause) years, that if you practice yoga before menopause, then all the poses that are especially useful for coping with uncomfortable symptoms are already familiar, and you can reach for them like a nurturing and supportive friend.

The spiritual science of yoga recognizes that equilibrium in the physical body helps to bring emotional balance and mental clarity. Yoga supports a new archetype that depicts older women as wise, strong, healthy and intuitive.

Yoga's Unique Benefits During the Menopausal Years
Yoga reduces the effects of menopause's hormonal changes by balancing the endocrine system. It smoothes out the hormonal and glandular changes that take place during this stage of life. The regular practice of all the categories of poses -- standing, sitting, lying down, backbends, forward bends, twists, and inverted (upside down) poses -- stimulates and activates all the glands, organs, tissues and cells of the body. Yoga's inverted poses are particularly important during menopause as they have a powerful effect on the neuroendocrine system, allowing fresh, oxygenated blood to flow to the glands in the head and neck.

A woman's body is quite capable of adjusting to the hormonal changes that occur when the ovaries slow down. If all our other glands are functioning well, they will, in most cases, continue to produce all the hormones a woman needs for the rest of her life.

It's important to bear in mind that all menopausal symptoms are related and using yoga to ease the unpleasant effect of one symptom generally leads to better health in the rest of the body.Every yoga pose has a multitude of effects on all the systems of the body.

No aspect of yoga is more important for women crossing the menopausal bridge then to take time to practice yoga's restorative poses – passive poses where the body is completely supported by yoga props. Props help you stay in poses for a longer time and conserve your energy, allowing the nervous system to relax. Restorative yoga poses are recommended for replenishing your adrenal reserves. This is especially important during times like menopause when women often find themselves in a vicious cycle of feeling "too tired to exercise," (often due to adrenal exhaustion) and then feeling even more tired because they are not exercising.

Yoga Bolsters – Menopause Medicine
Yoga bolsters provide a firm support for the entire length of your spinal column, from the lower back to your head, when you are lying down. The muscles of your abdomen, chest and back release their tension, lengthen and relax deeply. Bolsters are specifically designed so that the sides of your rib cage open and expand over the bolster and move downward toward the floor. When your rib cage expands laterally in this manner, your breathing capacity naturally deepens. The bolster leaves a vital, lasting impression on the body of what it feels like to have the chest open and free. (Note: Two or three firm blankets, neatly folded similar to the shape of a yoga bolster, can also be used.)

Keep your yoga bolsters (or folded blankets) in plain view so that they call to you, to remind you to take time to stretch and relax - just like your toothbrush reminds you to brush your teeth. When tired, get in the habit of lying down on your bolster in “The Goddess Pose” (Supported Lying Down Bound Angle Pose) or other restorative poses.

Most restorative poses can be safely practiced on their own. For example, if you are feeling tired, practice Supported Legs-Up-the-Wall Pose or Supported Lying-Down Bound Angle Pose for ten minutes. If you have twenty minutes, practice both or stay in one pose longer. Do not be in a hurry. It is far better to do fewer poses in a peaceful, leisurely way than to rush through too many. There will be days when it is a blessing just to be still and rest deeply in one pose for as long as you like. Yoga gives us some much-needed time to be quiet.

After a long stay in restorative poses, you will feel and look like you've had a massage and a facial. Your face and whole body will feel smoothed and soothed, from the inside out. Your eyes will look clearer and brighter. You will look at your world as if from the top of a mountain. The deep rest, peac and quiet you experience with restorative yoga is a doorway to meditation. In all poses -and in all of life - keep your abdomen soft, your chest open and your breath flowing.

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