In your 40s you enter the inner autumn of your menstruating years. Where your inner spring-like 20s and inner summer-like 30s are about you discovering your rhythm, establishing your identity in the world and building a ‘home’ for your life, the tone shifts as you head towards midlife.
You begin the journey Home to yourself. In other words, things start to get more real.
You may feel a grittiness come in, as though you can’t mess around anymore. The bigger life questions begin to tug at you more often, causing you to reconsider things anew. Your rose‐tinted glasses slowly fade and any idealism you’ve been holding may begin to wane as you see more of life’s harsh realities.
Just like when you’re in the premenstruum, the metaphorical anaesthetic wears off, and you’re suddenly feeling things like you’ve never felt them before. It’s an invitation into greater depth within yourself, and a greater self-responsibility.
The parallels between the inner autumn of the cycle and the inner process at work in our 40s is incredibly potent, and today we want to draw out some of the premenstrual powers that you can tap into in this life phase.
(In this Menstruality podcast episode we explore the self care practice that supports you to go counter to the cultural momentum to keep pushing through in your 40s, so that you might enjoy the full fruits of these autumnal powers - it’s one of the four cyclical self care practices that we teach in depth on our Cycle Power course).
The inner autumn powers that awaken in our 40s
ONE: Homecoming - you’re returning to yourself; your inner world is being amplified, and you’re being reminded of your true needs and desires.
TWO: Truth-speaking - the increasing critical, provocative, difficult energy you feel in your 40s is actually a sign that you’re coming to your senses. It’s not something to be apologised for or dismissed as ‘just perimenopausal’. Instead, practice regarding this difficult energy as the truth being spoken, and learn to channel it more coherently.
THREE: Truth-seeing - the bubble of illusion is popped. You step out of the stories of our over-culture and are restored to a deeper truth: for example, instead of buying into the messages of the media, you see through the manipulation.
FOUR: Your critical capacity expands - the inner critic calls you to account. In your 40s you are being called to meet it in order to grow your inner authority.
FIVE: Instinct - a wild, raw, instinctual, elemental power is waking up in you ever more strongly. Without this you could lose touch with the intelligence, beauty and wisdom of the natural world and of your own nature and humanity. You would become a cynical, dried-up husk of yourself.
As challenging as all of this may feel, something powerful is being worked within you.
Essentially, all of this is preparing you for the winter of your menstruating years - it’s actually paving the way for insight, revelation and the spiritual awakening at menopause.
If you’re feeling these shifts in your 40s, we warmly welcome you to take a look at our Cycle Power course.
