Though there are an almost infinite number of possible symptoms/reactions/tangible messages of the advent of menopause (Susun Weed’s Menopausal Years: The Wise Woman Way explores over 30 categories), the one that seems to stand out most dramatically from the others is the ‘hot flashes’.

Symptoms like depression and irritability, migraines and fatigue are not new to women in this day and age - stress of the workplace and relationships in general have given us all a headache or depressed state on numerous occasions over the years! So these are often easy to discount as true indicators of the approach of menopause. And though not every woman will experience hot flashes or night sweats, most do at some point. Many try to explain it away as overeating or stress induced, and eventually they will recognize the flashes as something speaking to them from a deeper, inner place, not really about the outer causal influences at all.

So, what about HOT FLASHES? Shall we continue to make jokes about women and their hot flashes? Humor has its place of course but something in me has always thought that joking about hot flashes is too similar to teenage jokes about farting! There is surely something more dignified about the ‘change of life’, isn’t there?

Though I have used herbal remedies for several years now to alleviate the typical hormone fluctuations that bring on mood swings of irritability, depression or anxiety, I have not focused on remedies specific for hot flashes. Rather I have learned to approach them more like a meditation state. Like the ring of a Tibetan chime or bell (called a tingsha).

(Not familiar with a tingsha? Tingshas are like small cymbals and come in matched pairs, held together by a leather cord. Simply hold by the cord and strike one against the other on their edges. The sound of tingshas is like a summons. The pure, ringing vibration creates an opening in reality. They are used at the beginning of meditation to open the mind and then at the end to bring you back to reality. They are used in Feng Shui to ring in the four corners of a room and open the energy.)

So hot flashes appear out of nowhere, like a summons. And they resonate for a specific time, not forever! During these seconds or maybe a minute or two, there is indeed an opening, and invitation to go within, to be still and notice who I am. I am not the ‘hot flash’ and I am not even this body that I have known for over 55 years quite intimately. I am becoming aware of the ‘I’ that is noticing the hot flash, the prickly heat sensation spreading over and within this body.

This technique of just being with the flashes was developed fairly easily when I first began to experience ‘night sweats’. Lying in bed with the covers thrown off and just being still and noticing what was happening. Granted this is a little more difficult when standing in line in the grocery store, but breathing helps. Being aware of the breath, in and out, unaffected by the new flow of heated energy. Totally going within, unaware of what may be going on around me.

This I believe is the purpose of the hot flashes, a summons to ‘pay attention’, to take a few moments away from the outside influences of life demands.

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