I still remember when Julie first messaged me over 2 years ago. She had driven 2 hours from the farm into town and wanted to buy a juicer. She was checking in with me about the brand she should buy. Living in a remote area of New Zealand, she was struggling with sore joints, poor sleep and low energy. The days were a challenge to get through as her arthritis would kick-in as well. She felt stiff and sore. Over the time of our email ‘conversations’ what I loved about Julie was that, however she was feeling, she didn’t give up on herself.
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I hadn’t heard from Julie for a long time. Then this week she messaged me and sent me this gorgeous photo of her which she gave me permission to share.
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She told me that she is now setting up a new life away from the farm and life has been stressful for a number of personal reasons. But she took strength from keeping up with the changes that she had learnt on the MyMTâą programme. She knew that doing the right thing for her health was building her resilience to cope with all the changes going on in her life. Â
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I’m so proud of how she slowly found her ‘Ikigai’ – this is a term used in Japan, in those locations who have some of the world’s oldest living women on the planet. These women ave ‘Ikigai’ , which is purpose and passion for living their life. Julie had this as well – a renewed purpose to start a new life, set up an accommodation business and give time to the things and people she cares about.
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When we find our purpose and our passion, life becomes a lot clearer for us. Especially at a time of our lives, when it’s easy to get lost in the fog (literally) and our needs get hidden under everyone else’s at times too. I know this, because it happened to me as well. Millions of women struggle with their physical and emotional health as they move through menopause because they aren’t sleeping, have sore joints, have relentless hot flushes and/ or become overweight. But as Julie learnt, it doesn’t have to be this way.Â
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When we change the way we look after ourselves to better match our changing hormones in menopause, then you can sleep better, turn around your hot flushes, improve mood and motivation and improve your joint health too. The focus with the MyMT programmes is on reducing inflammation which has been building up inside our tissues for decades as this causes our symptoms to become worse.Â
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When I did my studies and began to learn about the power of ‘Ikigai’ that Japanese women attributed to a long and healthy life, I discovered that it was OK to focus on ‘me’. Sometimes we need to give ourselves permission to do this don’t we? And with the reminder that the mind and body cannot function as separate entities, the first thing I began to do, was to set the foundations for improving my health – focusing on the ‘inside-me’. It started with learning how to sleep all night. As I say in my seminars, from the time we aren’t sleeping, our health can quickly deteriorate and we develop sore joints, we feel exhausted and don’t have the energy to do what we want to do.Â
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I’m so pleased Julie learnt to do this too.
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