Some Effective Ways to Relieve the Symptoms of Menopause
Menopause is an unavoidable fact of life for all women. There are two most common complaints about menopause- hot flashes and night sweats. These uncomfortable symptoms affect approximately three-quarters of all women in perimenopause, or the time before actual menopause. Once a woman reaches the stage of menopause, she may continue to have hot flashes for six months to five years, while in some women, they may persist for 10 years or even longer. There are several natural options to get rid of these disturbing issues of menopause. Some are lifestyle changes, and some involve complementary and alternative medicine such as vitamins, herbs, and mind/body techniques.
Breathe slowly and deeply
Diaphragmatic breathing, also called paced breathing, involves breathing in slowly through nose for at least 5 seconds and out slowly through your mouth for at least 5 seconds. When you see your abdomen rise with each breath in and feel your lungs inflate, you’ll know that you are doing it right. You’ll find it quite a contrast to your usual tight, tense, shallow breathing. Paced breathing calms the sympathetic nervous system and enhances circulation. A study has reported that women doing the breathing exercises had half as many hot flashes as those doing biofeedback. The key to getting benefits from paced breathing is practice. And the good times to practice are when you are in the car, watching TV, or checking email.
Always focus on the positive
Do you feel yourself to be a catastrophic thinker? Even at the first tingle of a hot flash, do you immediately focus on how miserable you are going to feel? What if, instead of immediately jumping to the worst possible scenario when things go wrong, you focus on managing the situation? This type of thinking according to researchers, can actually reduce the intensity of the flash. Thinking of the things negatively can actually make it worse. Thus, learn to think about the positives of every flush. You are burning more calories, your skin looks better when it’s flushed, even if just for a few minutes.
Mindfulness-based stress reduction
This combines mindfulness meditation with yoga and other movements. It helps you to focus on your body and understand how your unconscious feelings and thoughts affect your physical as well as emotional health. Studies have revealed that it can calm numerous unconscious processes in your body, such as lowering blood pressure and reducing pain. Thus it makes sense that it could improve your body’s temperature control. Moreover, it restores some of that much-needed control. It is best to learn mindfulness meditation through a class, rather than on your own to make sure you are doing it right.
