MENOPAUSE
AS
SPIRITUAL RENAISSANCE
by Dr.
Helene Leonetti
I went to college, medical
school, and served a residency for twelve
years, and no one ever taught me how to keep my patients healthy.
I was also never taught that menopause is a natural life transition,
one that signals entry into a magnificent state of wisdom and power.
As a nurse in training
in the sixties I was taught that doctors
are gods and that we are to believe in
their absolute authority. Through those
years and the ones that followed when I
was studying to become a doctor, I came
to realize how disempowering that attitude
was. It did not give room for the individual
to rely on his/her own knowledge, understanding,
and experience.
There is a lot right within
the conventional medical community, and
there is a lot wrong too. One has only
to look at how we doctors are trained,
and that should be enough to raise eyebrows
about our ultimate wisdom. During our medical
training and ensuing intern and resident
years, we are deprived of the sleep required
to adequately carry out our complex duties.
And what does the medical establishment
do about it? Nothing. It takes the legislature
to pass a law requiring residents not to
work over a certain number of hours without
rest, so that the patients they serve will
be protected from our mishaps, misdiagnoses
and mistreatments.
We are taught nothing
about healthy foods and subsist on empty
nutrition, high caffeine and sugar diets
that ultimately burn out our adrenal glands
and lower our immune states. We go from
those long hours in the trenches home to
study and then to bed, so that we rarely
exercise, relax, have fun or smell the
roses. Then we are expected to be sensitive,
loving and caring with our patients when
we have taken no time at all to nurture
ourselves. Who has all the wisdom?
I have finally seen the
Light. And now I am shining it like a beacon
to my soul sisters who need nurturing,
healing and reminders that they are indeed
magnificent.
I began some years ago
giving monthly lectures called the Good
News About Menopause, a seeming oxymoron
for many women. But it is not. Menopause
indeed is a spiritual renaissance, the
beginning of the best time in life. But
many women need to be helped through to
that attitude, and it is my mission to
remind women, and their significant others,
of that fact. For seven years, in a monthly
healing circle, known as A Menopausal Enrichment
Circle for Women, a gathering co-facilitated
by my dear friend, therapist Diana Johansson,
we set the stage for a safe and sacred
space where women could share their dreams,
fears, and often-traumatic stories of their
journey toward wholeness.
Our
loving Creator provided us women with
this special time in life
to recognize the true essence of our being.
It is no coincidence that as menopause
approaches we experience dramatic bodily
changes: hot flashes and night sweats,
sexual dysfunction, hair loss or unwanted
hair growth, constipation, weight gain,
bleeding, depression and brain fog. God
in His/Her incredible wisdom provided these
gifts in order to nudge us into seeking
help for our own needs. After all, think
just how long we have been nurturing everyone
else’s needs instead of our own.
I
have sought not to “medicalize” the
subject of menopause, where menopausal
women become victims of the powerful medical-pharmaceutical
complex. Rather, my approach is that menopause
is a natural state, not a medical condition,
and that it can, indeed must, be considered
from a view of wholeness, connecting together
the body, mind and spirit.
I have a recurrent dream
where our powerful HMOs will one day give
referrals first to the herbalist, the chiropractor,
the naturopath, the homoeopathist, the
massage therapist and the acupuncturist
before sending patients to surgery or for
chemotherapy. I daresay more of us conventionalists
would rapidly learn the tenets of natural
healing. Because I regularly go to a chiropractor
and acupuncturist and receive the blessed
healing touch of a therapeutic massage
therapist, through whom I have experienced
major improvement from a chronic low back
ailment, and counseled monthly with Nils
Johansson, III, a psychotherapist who helped
me get in touch with my inner world, I
am in a perfect place of knowing, at a
deep level, how vital these healing modalities
are, and how marvelously they interface
with what I do as a gynecologist.
I
have looked at the exciting role that
I play in my patients’ lives,
and I realize that it in no way resembles
the conventional doctor-patient relationship.
Many years ago as a budding nursing student,
I was admonished never to address patients
by their first names, and to respectfully
stand by their bedside, not to sit, and “contaminate” the
bed linen. Well, thank God, I never resonated
to such prattling, because I have come
to learn that it is the intimacy with which
we share our stories that brings about
healing. I have learned that healing, true
healing, takes place not only on the physical
level but also more importantly, leveling
our emotional bodies and deep within the
soul.
Now that I know beyond
a doubt the power of the body-mind-spirit
connection, I can teach my beautiful patients
how to empower themselves to find the physician
within themselves. We are indeed spiritual
beings learning to be human, and the realization
of our soul potential is the most exciting
part of this magnificent journey.
So come along with me,
my sisters, and see how we can make menopause
a magnificent journey.
