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I have been working in the realms of everyday community creativity and diversity for a while now. When I began to experience symptoms 16 years ago, I found myself needing new strategies and knowledge in order to improve my experience of daily life. At first it did not occur to me to connect my creative practice (largely singing) with this health and existential challenge. 

Those passing through the menopause transition have an increasing range of practical advice and help available, while other aspects of this lifecycle experience can be less well attended to. As a former senior manager of mental health services, it shocks me how little I was ever taught about this process, experienced by everyone with female sex organs. Now I am making up for lost time educating and agitating. While positive for some, this transition can also be accompanied by grief at the loss of years of life that might have been better.

When I entered the time of distress and dysregulation that was my perimenopause, I suddenly found myself opening up to impulses to write poetry, finding the use of metaphor helpful to grapple with and try to understand my experiences. Some I felt moved to create tunes for and others would fit themselves to tunes of familiar songs as they played on the radio or my own collections. Poetry and song writing became newly appealing as a way to care for myself and express things hard to articulate in conversation. 

As I found ways to reconnect to myself, and to manage aspects of my own menopause, I began to bring this discovery into my community arts work, for example running creative writing workshops and singing workshops for those experiencing menopause. Often these also connected with nature (pictured above is Catherine sitting in a lavender field). I noticed that I might plan plenty in but then found in practice that people wanted calm, de-escalation and accessible activities that could help them find self-expression, comfort, and that did not feel too overwhelming or demanding. Arts, talking, nature, sound, and low light – candles and campfires – seemed soothing and releasing of our creative and symbolic efforts.

So, my key reflections for International Menopause awareness day are:

• Take time for yourself to find your easeful creative pleasures.
• Help protect time for others to experience this too.
• Explore a variety of relaxing creative activity, simple writing, arts, crafts, music.
• Make use of nature as a companion and co-collaborator in your creative journey.

Together these practices can help us come home to ourselves.