How is it we get to mid-life so tired?
I was talking with my husband last night over supper, trying to remember if I was this tired and stressed about everything when I was in my 20's and 30's. No, absolutely not, unless memory fails me (which it does regularly, but that's another topic).
Before kids is more to the point - we started late, due to miscarriages, and I had my first child at 36, second at 38 years old. Barely time for them to hit puberty before I hit peri-menopause and more lack of sleep. My daughter had just started sleeping full nights in her own bed, when I began demanding it was time for her to tuck me in at 9:00 p.m. I was very tired.
Now, postmenopause, I can say that my energy levels are better. I can even stay up till 11:00 p.m. without yawning too much. However, rest days and naps are a saving grace, and I think they are wonderful medicine, and very cheap.
For example, last Sunday, I had a huge list of things to do, furniture to put outside if it was nice, bicycles to pump up, a year's worth of bills to file, and a messy home office that needed organizing. But we had had a very rich dinner the night before at Au Pied du Cochon http://cabaneasucreaupieddecochon.com/index.html. Suffice it to say that after the gravlax and buckwheat pancakes, pork and beef tourtiere, roast chicken, lobster stuffed cabbage, omelette, fried pork rinds (oreilles de crisse), and beef tongue, oh yes and the pea soup with foie gras starter, we could barely roll into our beds let alone roll out of them Sunday morning.
So we not only slept in, we had an afternoon nap after a hot bath. It was a first for my husband, to ignore the list of spring cleaning items and just take it easy with a good book in the bathtub, then sleep in the afternoon. But how heavenly. And I thought, make this a real Sabbath, and take care of yourself for once. Do not get up and read emails, or turn on the computer. Unplug!
As you come into midlife, give yourself the gift of rest, at least once a week, and if you can make time every day! Rest is a radical option, cheaper than medication, and often all you need.
musemother
ps title taken from a chapter in The Piill, are yous ure it's for you, Jane Bennett and Alexandra Pope
http://www.wildgenie.com/books_fs.html
1 comment:
Nowadays, women are career-oriented! I can say that most of us are living in busy lifestyles, and that affects our health. Maybe this is the reason why some of us had a hard time about menopausal stage. Well, menopause is normal to every woman; however, they'll encounter few problems. There are some of us who take bioidentical hormones for menopause and/or undergo hormone therapy to ease symptoms of menopause, such as dryness, itching, burning and discomfort with intercourse.
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