Words of Wellness with Shelly

From Hot Flashes To Healing: An Ayurvedic Guide To Menopause, Purpose, And Everyday Transitions

Shelly Jefferis Season 3 Episode 164

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Menopause isn’t a malfunction—it’s a redesign. We sit down with Ayurvedic practitioner and yoga teacher Hannah Levin to explore how midlife can become a powerful reset for your body, your routines, and your sense of purpose. Instead of chasing fixes, we focus on balance through food, sleep, herbs, and small daily rituals that help you feel steady and clear.

Hannah explains the elemental shift from the fire-and-water years of creation to the air-and-space years after menopause, and why that transition can feel like a roller coaster. You’ll learn how the adrenals step up as ovarian hormones decline, why stress and late-night meals amplify hot flashes and insomnia, and how microtransitions—short pauses between roles—reduce brain fog and reactivity. We also name the identity currents under the surface: empty nests, retirement, and the question that keeps returning—Who am I now?

We get practical about triggers many of us normalize. Alcohol, refined sugar, and high-caffeine choices can sabotage sleep and mood during perimenopause and beyond. Hannah shares simple experiments to find your personal thresholds, plus ways to support detox and digestion. We include the discussion on toxins too; cleaning up household and personal care products can make symptoms more manageable while honoring your body’s new sensitivity as a kind of built-in intuition.

This conversation is a reminder that you’re not stuck. Integrative care—pairing Western diagnostics with Ayurveda’s personalized wisdom—can turn midlife into a grounded, joyful second act. If you’re ready to feel at home in your body again, start by respecting your transitions, aligning your daily rhythm, and letting curiosity lead.

Enjoyed this conversation? Follow and rate the show, share it with a friend who needs it today, and tell us: what transition are you honoring right now?

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Thank you for listening to the Words of Wellness podcast with Shelly Jefferis. I am honored and so grateful to have you here and it would mean the world to me if you could take a minute to follow, leave a 5-star review and share  the podcast with anyone you love and anyone you feel could benefit from the message.

Thank you and God Bless! And remember to do something for yourself, for your wellness on this day! 
In Health, 

Shelly

Honoring Life Transitions

SPEAKER_01

These transitions are really, really powerful because if we honor them and we really show up with curiosity, they can be increasingly empowering. And I work with a lot of women who are, yeah, going through I like your term openness, the openness stage. Um, and also retirement. I mean, that's another thing that leaves people kind of going, who am I? You know, if if I'm not um a mother, if I'm not taking care of my family and my children all the time, if I'm not um working this job, um, who who am I? So there's also this piece of what we call dharma or like your your life purpose that's not necessarily related to career, but is this conversation of like, what are you here for? What's your life all about? And you know, the menopausal transition puts you squarely in the second half of life.

Meet Hannah And The Focus On Menopause

SPEAKER_02

Do you get confused by all of the information that bombards us every day on ways to improve our overall health and our overall wellness? Do you often feel stuck, unmotivated, or struggle to reach your wellness goals? Do you have questions as to what exercises you should be doing, what foods you should and shouldn't be eating, how to improve your overall emotional and mental well-being? Hello everyone, I am so excited to welcome you to women's wellness. My name is Lady McCrees, and I will be your host. My goal is to answer these questions and so much more. You should education and inspiration in all of the components of women. I certainly have love to say. Now let's dive into our message for today. Hello, my friends. Welcome back to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly, and I will be your host. And I would love to introduce to everyone my guest today. She is an Aur Veda and yoga instructor, and she does health consulting. She also owns her own business called Heartfelt Well-being, which I love that name. And she specializes in women's health. And hot topic that's out there today and talked about more than ever is menopause. So I'm sure we're going to dive into that. So, Hannah Levin, welcome to Words of Wellness.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you so much for having me, Shelly. I'm delighted to be here.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, I'm excited to have you. And I know there are a lot of different topics that we can jump into today, but you see everywhere the topic of menopause and perimenopause, and what what do I do? How what can I how can I feel better, sleep better, or lose this weight, whatever it is. So I'm sure you're faced with so many different symptoms that women experience. And how how do you approach that? I mean, I know everyone is different when it comes to their health and their wellness and how to treat what they maybe are experiencing, but what are you finding most common and how are you treating women? I don't know if treatment is the right term I want to say, but helping them cope with the symptoms.

Support Over Treatment: An Ayurvedic Frame

Meds, Herbs, And Meeting Women Where They Are

Elements, Life Stages, And Perimenopause

Adrenals’ Role And Modern Complexity

SPEAKER_01

Yes. Um, yeah, there's a lot, a lot there that we can unpack. Um, yeah, I mean, I I like to think more about supporting women. Um, maybe that's a good alternative to treating. Um, and that really from an Ayurvedic perspective, what we're working with is balancing what's out of balance. So from that perspective, it's like more empowering. It's not so much like, oh, you're a mess, too, too bad for you. You know, it's like, oh, what's out of balance, and how can we bring that back into balance? And so it gives people a lot of hope. Um, I work primarily with the tools of food and lifestyle and herbs. And so those are kind of the big rocks we can say of what I um help support women using. And, you know, working in the menopausal space, there's so much conversation about hormone replacement and menopause hormone therapy, and um, and even the use of GLP1s or SSRIs or SNRIs. There's lots of kind of medication avenues or routes that people can take. Um, and so I really just try to meet people where they are. You know, some people are already on medications, and I never am like, oh, get off of that. But one thing that I try to work with is how do we support them in getting to a place where they don't need those things, and it becomes clear to their doctors. So that's kind of my goal because it's not my job to put people on meds or take them off. But in the in the big picture, a lot of what is happening with this transition through menopause is that women are moving from a stage of life that is governed by the elements of fire and water, the motherhood, um, what I like to call the creatrix um stage of life, where we're just like creating a lot and very focused on this like material world and what we're um we're building and creating and doing and being. Um, and then we're moving into a stage of life governed by air and space, which is um the post-menopausal. And then in the meantime, we're kind of weaving back and forth between the fire and water and air and space through perimenopause, and it can be a roller coaster. Um, and I actually just taught a workshop on the role of the adrenals during this time because it's really a powerful shift that happens in the body when the hormone production that we're used to during our fertile years that has been primarily allotted to the ovaries shifts back to the adrenals as were it was during our prepubescent years. And so we get to see these cycles happening in the life stages and life cycles of every woman. And it's really beautiful when we can tune into it and understand what's naturally happening and what we're being invited into, and there's so much that makes it complex in our modern world from toxins to um, you know, the role of technology, our access to natural light, you know, clean food. I mean, there's so many things. So, um, to all the women out there that are struggling at this time, you're not alone. There's a lot that you are navigating that your mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers could never have imagined. And so I think we are, you know, charting new territory in this day and age. And I'm I'm really excited about it for the most part. There are some things that are very concerning to me, but um, for the most part, I think it's a time when we can really be empowered to to make some really, really amazing headway in in what is possible for for women during this time.

Normalizing The Conversation

SPEAKER_02

That is, I I feel the same as you. I feel very excited with the direction that we are going. And I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we are talking about it more and just getting the information out there and sharing. I was just with a group of women the other day, and we got on this very topic of, you know, the hot flashes and what are we experiencing? And one gal started having it when she was in her 30s, and and I just mentioned there's there's a long list of symptoms that we I didn't learn prior to menopause. It would be nice to get that information out at earlier ages so that women can be know, kind of know what to expect, right? Rather than going, what is wrong with me? Because when you think about certain things and you look at that long list, I didn't realize everything that was on it. And I just think of how many, you know, women can have a little bit of peace, knowing, okay, that's what this is probably related to, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

And I love that you mentioned the tools, nutrition, a lifestyle, because that's that's really been my journey. Thankfully, my experience through menopause was pretty mild. And it's interesting because I have a younger sister, and a while back she even asked me, she says, I keep meaning to ask you, what did you do for menopause? And I had to pause for a minute, and I I said, nothing, you know, I didn't do anything. And then it was my doctor who said, you know, she goes, it's your nutrition, your lifestyle, which I've always done. And so I don't know any different. So I think that that's so great that you bring that up because I think that is so so key. And even for women who maybe are post-menopause, they can still incorporate these tools and help them to navigate and have more energy and sleep better and and just feel all the way over, just better in their skin, I would think on a day-to-day basis.

Menopause As Reckoning: Body, Mind, Spirit

Stats, Stigma, And Identity Shifts

Do Less, Be More: Redefining Self-Care

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. Yeah, one thing that I um teach a lot about is that menopause, though, the whole trajectory of it that is usually between seven and ten years for most women, it can be more or less than that too, um, is a reckoning. It's it is a time in life where what is no longer working or what you've kind of swept under the rug in the past will come to the surface. And that's body, mind, and spirit, you know, like foods that don't work for you anymore will let you know very clearly like this does not work, or you know, eating out of alignment with the chronobiology, like if you're eating really late at night, or you know, um, or skipping lunch, or things that like when you were younger and you had more buffer from this hormonal support, all of a sudden it's like, oh, that doesn't work, you know, or you know, even traumas that we haven't dealt with in our lives, like we haven't fully um worked through or integrated, it's it will come up. And you know, there's certainly a lot that we can do with diet and lifestyle that is really supportive. And I think it's also really important to weave in the awareness that there's other aspects to to what is happening. I mean, statistically, the um the time in a woman's life where she's most likely to die by suicide is between 45 and 55 years old. And 70% of divorces that are initiated by women are over the age of 40. So when we look at like these larger statistics in in the world, like that's menopausal time, right? And women feel really alone, they feel really lost, and like what's happening to me, I'm not who I knew myself to be. And we aren't having the cultural conversation around actually, you're becoming someone totally new. You're not staying who you were before. And uh, if we could change the the cultural conversation to celebrate that, I think we would have a much different uh perspective on life, aging, what it means to you know, go through this this change and and then not be so um like uh pulled over by it, right? So like you were saying that your experience was like not not much um intense, you know, stuff. And so if we look at you know people that are generally taking care of themselves, and you know, that looks really different than kind of the mainstream like take care of yourself. Like most people would be like, oh yeah, I'm pushing my, you know, like I'm working out of the gym for an hour each day, and I'm you know, doing all these, I'm doing, doing, doing, doing, doing. And a lot of what comes up during this time is a need to be, not do, to be more, do less. Right. And when we're constantly doing, doing, doing, doing, doing, that's when we're pushing ourselves into further imbalance. So, like a lot of the conversations that I'm having with my clients are around, you know, not working out so hard, you know, making sure they're getting more sleep, it really comes down to this like root level nourishment um that isn't about doing more. And so if if we aren't super depleted when we enter perimenopause, that's really helpful, really helpful. And it's rare, is rare. So kudos to you.

Empty Nest, Retirement, And Dharma

SPEAKER_02

Well, I get so excited when you're talking because I I with you know, with mentoring in the area of wellness and and I'm opening up and offering more in the area of longevity, you hit the nail on the head, you know, the nutrition, the sleep, the managing the stress, doing doing less and taking the moments just to be. And I talk about that a lot because you're right, not enough people in general take that time to just be still. And it can be two minutes, it can be five minutes, it can be an hour. I don't know. Everybody's a little bit different with what they can do and the time that they have. Every little bit I think helps, and it's so key. And really interesting going back to what you were sharing, the statistics about women, it's kind of fascinating because around that time, like you're saying, after 40s, that's when many of them get a divorce. And in you think, okay, my mind, I'm going, all right. Like you said, menopause is happening. And for many, maybe not in the 40s, but when we get into the 50s, is when those of us who are moms start to go through into that into that empty nest, I like to say open nest state. And I can imagine for especially the moms that are in this is this is this is not a bash at all, but have been been stayed home through all the years of raising their children, and now that has gone, it's gotta be a big shock and a big, big transition. So I'm just thinking, wow, these different major phases line up with the ages that you just shared earlier statistically. So uh I don't I don't know, you know, what God had in mind with planning all that around the same time, but we work, we work through it. And and you know, we that's one thing I like to stress with my mom's community is we come out on the other side with lots of joy. I mean, it can be a big transition and there can be painful moments when our kids leave the house and we become impunesters. However, on the on the flip side, it can be really beautiful at the same time. And it's it's just finding that, but we have to sometimes go through the challenging part, the the the harder moments to get to that point.

Microtransitions And Daily Rituals

Rituals We’ve Lost And Croning

Changing The Narrative Around Menopause

Cycles, Toxins, And Rising Sensitivity

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I love that you're using the word transition because that's exactly what it is. And from kind of the the macro of these huge transitions in our lives, like the three main transitions that happen over a course of a woman's life if we're blessed to live a full life, is puberty, motherhood, and menopause. Now, some of us don't have biological children, but we're still birthing things into the and that's why I like to pair mother with creatrix, because whether we're creating humans or we're creating um, you know, art, music, businesses, social movements, whatever it is, we're in that time of birthing things into the world. And though those transitions are worthy of our honoring and our attention, you know, never when you know, oh, a young girl starts going through puberty do we say, oh, stop that, stay, stay a little girl. And we really give, hopefully, you know, in our families, we give our teenagers a lot of grace. And they're like trying on ways of being, right? And then when we go through the motherhood stage, there's a huge hormonal shift there too. It's like we're no longer just responsible for ourselves. We are now responsible, whether it's for, you know, a company or a creative birth or an actual person. We have a shift there. And then the same is true when we go through menopause. But menopause in our culture is something that we have tended to try to push away. Like stay looking, you know, don't go gray, don't, you know, get wrinkles, don't have a lack of libido, don't really like try to stay in that mother creatrix stage. And and so there's a lot of cultural bias, I think, around around what we're doing. But these um, these transitions are really, really powerful because if we honor them and we really show up with curiosity, they can be increasingly empowering. And I work with a lot of women um who are yeah, going through, I like your term openness, the openness stage. Um, and also retirement. I mean, that's another thing that leaves people kind of going, who am I? You know, if if I'm not um a mother, if I'm not taking care of my family and my children all the time, if I'm not um working this job, um, who who am I? So there's also this piece of what we call dharma or like your your life purpose that's not necessarily related to career, but is this conversation of like, what are you here for? What's your life all about? And you know, the menopausal transition puts you squarely in the second half of life. So you're more aware of your mortality, you're often also aware of the aging of your parents, or maybe you've lost them by that point too. So you're there's no longer a buffer generation at some point in there. You're next, right? So that that awareness of transitions is like, what are you gonna make of it? You know, like Mary Oliver says, like, what are you going to do with your one wild and precious life? And then I'd like to zoom in from there, like to these little microtransitions that happen throughout our days. And what I find with a lot of us who have been in the rushing woman's life, where things are just packed back to back to back to back to back through the whole day. There's no room for error. We're barely breathing, we're barely eating, we're barely, you know, like squeaking by, but we're making it all happen with a smile on our face. Is that we realize that there like with the the perimenopausal time and we have these hormone fluctuations and a lot of what people call brain fog is like a struggle to shift gears, right? It's like not as easy to be like, oh, here I'm you know, parenting and here I'm being an expert in this, you know, field, and here I'm showing up at my community volunteer thing, and here I'm, you know, a spouse and uh, you know, I'm building this new part of my business. It becomes a little less um possible. But I think in a good way. And so a lot of what I am coaching folks to do is to really tune into those transition moments and to pause. And to be like, okay, I just finished, you know, like today, I'd gonna finish this podcast interview. I was in the seat of being a Ayurvedic expert on women's health, having this wonderful conversation. And then now I'm gonna transition to this next part, you know, either working with I've got some emails to write to clients, um, our daughter just got home from a sleepover, you know, like checking in with her. There's things that I'm going to move into that aren't this, right? And that it's really important to just be like, I am all of these things. Like we can own what we've cultivated, right? I am the Ayurveda practitioner, I am the bonus mom, I am the, you know, tax support for my, I mean, I do have other tech support, but like I, you know, I still have to write the emails or, you know, whatever. So those those pieces kind of like the micro to the macro of the transitions is really, really important for us. And I think, you know, I grieve for our culture because we have really lost the honoring and ritualizing of transitions. We don't generally have coming of age ceremonies or blessing ways for, you know, rites of passage. And um, and so even, you know, last summer at a retreat that I led, I held a croning ceremony for everybody who was there, whether we were post-menopausal or not, um, just welcoming in this stage of our lives. And um, we decided we wanted to be called enchantress crones.

Everyday Toxins: Alcohol, Caffeine, Sugar

SPEAKER_02

Well, you have such a great point because we don't take the time to really honor those different phases, and especially, I'm just thinking too, like, even when I was a teenager and young girl, and then I think of my daughter, you know, they're us going through those phases as teenagers, it's you just chalk it up as it's part of life, you but you don't take really the moment to kind of like honor like it is part of life, but why? And how can we, how can we again, you don't know, accept it more and not be like, oh no, you know, it just uh sometimes comes upon us when we least expect it rather than being able to celebrate it, I guess. I just think that it's those different phases are not celebrated, is what probably what I'm thinking of. Even the menopause has like this negative connotation, right? And how can we maybe, like you're saying, kind of switch that reverse that thought process and how we are approaching it can make such a big difference.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02

And uh yeah, that's fascinating how you're saying that because I think that that could really change, change the approach for so many people. It tends to be more of this negative, negative approach, and it it's it's part of us. I mean, it's part of life. I mean, and wow, as much as the hormones impact everything, like it's we want to embrace it the best that we can because I feel like everything you see is related to our hormones, even with men, but of course, women much, much more so. Yeah, so how can we shift that that approach is is really really interesting to think about.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and it's not a personal failing, like like so much of our cultural, you know, it's like stay young. It's like if you start going through menopause, like don't let people know like you're you know on the out and out, you know, like it's not a personal failing, it's a natural evolution of your life. And if you're blessed to live that long to go through that, why not get really curious about who you're becoming next?

Individuality And Integrative Care

SPEAKER_02

You know, and it's almost like you were saying in the beginning, you you enter that phase. Like I was just like like comparing it to it, makes so much sense. You enter that phase, it's just a little bit more open and a little more breathing space because your responsibilities have lessened. So it's it can be a really beautiful phase, again, depending on our approach and and attitude and the mindset around it, and and even going back to like the different phases of our day and how we approach it. I mean, I I like you, I find that it's definitely a slower approach to everything that I do throughout the day, which is really, really nice. But that also is because it's a different phase. I mean, it's just the way it is. When you don't have young children at home, it becomes a totally different phase. And uh I think all of them are beautiful. It's just again, how do we how would he enter them in an exciting part where we're looking forward to it? I think the the exciting part that I always hear, and I feel too, with the menopause, you always hear, oh, I'm not gonna have my cycle anymore. It's like woo-hoo, celebrate that, right? Um, but again, back to your point, celebrate the years that we had it, because that's the part of being a woman. And for those of us who do have children, it lends itself to that and that beautiful experience. So there's just so many parts to this that every no matter what you're doing with a family or children or not, we all are experiencing these different phases of our lives. So how can we really embrace them? I think is the key thing here.

Final Encouragement And Next Steps

SPEAKER_01

Yes, absolutely. Yeah, I I would love to say something about about cycling too. Um, as um, well, I'm I'm 47 and I'm still cycling, but it's getting a little wacky with perimenopause too. So I'm you know staying curious. But I do like every month when my cycle comes, I'm like, what what if this is the last one? You know, and like and and there is um, you know, biologically the the having of a period is clearing out toxins each month. And as we start having less and less periods and then eventually don't have any, we don't have that taking out of the the trash as you know as a function of our biology. From an Ayurvedic perspective, when we're in our menstruating year, we have years, we have this downward moving energy. It's called Apanavayu. Um, and some folks might know the the yoga pose apanasana, which is hugging your your knees into your chest, and it helps. It's called wind reliever pose. Actually, it helps like move things down and out, right? So um a panavayu helps us bleed and have babies and this downward moving and be connected to this earthly realm. Well, once we're finished menstruating, the central and energy channel, which is called Shishumna Nadi, opens up and we have more of this connection to the spiritual realm. But we're also gonna be way more sensitive in our bodies. So I mean, sometimes I talk about menopausal or especially post-menopausal women kind of being the canaries in the coal mines, right? They're going to have this awareness, intuitive sense, especially if they've cultivated it and really embraced this stage of their lives, really cultivating more of a spiritual life, that they're gonna have more of an intuitive sense about things. They're also going to be able to, you know, notice if like food is rancid or like you know, somebody's wearing a toxic perfume. That's so true.

SPEAKER_02

I I wanted to say that is such a great point. And I never really thought of this cycle as a way to release toxins. And I'm I'm very much into speaking about toxins and ways to reduce our exposure, and I never thought of it that way. And that's um, that's really amazing. And uh, as you were saying, also, I can think about it in my own life, like becoming a little more intuitive. And oh my gosh, senses, especially in my nose, I'm dry I always drive my husband crazy because I smell everything. So maybe that's another thing that happens, you know, your senses get more magnified. Exactly. Yeah, you know, so that's fascinating. I I was going to, and this probably should be another episode, but when you were talking about so many different just areas of our lives and what we're exposed to create kind of this web, and it can become a little complicated because so many different things can affect all these different things we experience in our lives, the menopause, the the different cycles, the and men too, the hormones, all of the things. So on the topic of toxins, I was thinking as you brought that up, I went, oh my gosh, that's that's a huge, that's a huge topic that I would be willing to bet has almost the most impact out of everything that we're exposed to, I would think. And everything you see, and I again I well, this is one of the slides in my in my presentation, is almost every chemical or preservative or something, anything we're exposed to, usually it always has some impact on our hormone, our hormones. And so when you throw that into the mix, that's just give that's a that's a whole other, I don't want to say rabbit hole, but it's just a whole other area to to to really look at and to find ways to be less less toxic.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, absolutely. And there's so yes, we could go on a whole other big conversation about that, but I I do just want to say like there is there are are different levels kind of of of what we're being exposed to, and it it takes a certain hypervigilance to live in a way that's not inviting in constant toxic exposure. I mean, it really is is incredible how how much effort it takes to really like clear them out of your household, you know, like not have them in your food, you know, all these things. But another piece that I want to point out is even things that we have normalized in our culture as um not we wouldn't say these things are specifically toxins, but most postmenopausal women will say, heck yeah, these are toxins, are um alcohol, caffeine and refined sugar. So most postmenopausal women will have stories around these three substances that will at least one of them they'll be like, oh yeah, like I can't drink alcohol anymore. Like if I eat sugar, like refined sugar, I am up all night long, or hot flashes come back, or you know, things like that. And and so it's interesting, like we have really normalized certain things that are crazy in what they do to the functioning of our system. I mean, we're not even talking, you know, PFOS and salads and I share about that often.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you're so right. And it's interesting because I know my husband has has noticed a difference in those those three areas too. Not so much the caffeine. I mean, we have a very clean, organic coffee that we enjoy, and it's not jittery or high in caffeine at all. Um, but it's true. Like, you know, he he notices a difference in certain foods that he'll eat um and how his body responds. And so again, it's a for the for the men out there, this applies to you as well, not just for the women, right? Um, it's just different. Just every again, every body is different, and the way that we respond and how we are affected. I mean, I luckily knock on wood, I you know, I haven't had any issues really. Um, but again, it everything, you know, you just take it in moderation and you you just never know, like when you get to a point where you might be having some symptoms of something and you have to kind of like figure out and trace back, okay, what is this maybe related to? And I think it's so so key what you're saying. There's so many things that maybe didn't bother us when we were younger that now we're like, okay, it's completely different. My body responds completely different.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And it doesn't have to be an identity crisis, it can simply be like, oh, who am I now?

SPEAKER_02

Right, right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

What's next? Yeah. And and also just to say for folks who aren't familiar with Ayurveda, is that it's a five-element system. And so everybody is made up of all five elements, but in differing amounts. And so there is this awareness of we are all unique universes, and um, and what we're experiencing will, you know, there'll be some commonalities as we're moving in from the fire and water stage of life into or into the air and space stage of life. There's some generalizations, but there's also very individual experiences. And um, and that also is really important, you know, in our Western medical model, it's more of a one size fits all. And so much is based on male physiology. And women are never the same as men. So it's it can be um very confusing, but I'm just such a big advocate for integrative health, you know, like there's a lot we are blessed to live in a time, you know, maybe this is kind of circling back around to how we opened this conversation, but we're we're really blessed to live in a time where we have access to, you know, Eastern healing traditions like Ayurveda and also Western medicine, which, you know, Ayurveda's been around for over 5,000 years, Western medicine's been around for a couple hundred, you know, like there's some differences there. And thank goodness for both, you know, that we have access to both living in our modern world. And I don't think either should be discounted. Like, let's utilize all the tools that we have available to us. And there's so much that we can do through food and lifestyle choices and um and working with herbs too, that sets us up to live long, healthy lives and not be dependent on pharmaceuticals.

SPEAKER_02

So amen. I love that. And you're right, we have all the tools, and we can use those all of the ones that work for us, and that that is so great. Well, this has been fascinating. I've really enjoyed the conversation and hearing all about what you do, and just really opening up that discussion again around menopause. I mean, and again, you know, it's it's important for for the men out there to be listening to, and and also as a support for your significant other when she's going through these phases, you know. Um, we're not all taught, or many of us aren't taught, how to what to expect and how to go through it. And that's that's a whole other part of this, is again the conversation is being had now. Let's start to have it when our girls are younger. And I know my daughter has even said the same thing. She says, I she's learned a lot about hormones in her 20s, where she says, I I never knew. And I said, you know, I don't think I ever learned either as a young girl. So, you know, I couldn't necessarily pass any great knowledge on to her because that was not an area that I knew about her, nor had I studied through all the years. So it's it's encouraging that it's definitely more of the conversation for sure. And thanks to, you know, people like yourself in your working in the field to help make it more known and kind of more of a natural, it's a natural part of life. Yeah, truly.

SPEAKER_01

And may future generations celebrate it.

SPEAKER_02

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01

That's my hope.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely. Well, this has really been a pleasure, Hannah. What would you share with our listeners? Any any last words of wellness or inspiration you'd like to share?

SPEAKER_01

Well, I just like to remind people that they're they're never stuck, you know. If people start telling themselves the story of this is just the way I am, I have to deal with this, whatever it is, headaches or you know, pain or autoimmune disease, whatever, you know, it's like I just really like to remind us that we're not stuck. Our bodies are always talking to us. And so our job is to listen and then to correct what's out of balance. And so um, I just really like to give people that little boost of like, get curious and don't feel like you're destined to live with discomfort or disease or frustration. And you know, the last thing we want is to have an adversarial relationship with our bodies, and and we really don't need to. So I encourage folks to really lean into getting curious about what else is out there that they haven't tried. And um, a lot of things are um, you know, it's helpful to have a guide, you know, along the journey. Um, but there's a lot that can shift with simple changes, but we have to be willing to make changes in our lives. And um it's it's fun to run experiments. So don't don't feel like you're destined to to have to deal with pain or imbalances, yeah.

How To Find Hannah

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that's so good. That is just so good. I I I uh agree wholeheartedly. Like we're our lives where you're meant to enjoy our lives and feel good and have the energy and the joy. And so, you know, like you're saying, be curious, seek out what might be going on and take small steps to feeling your best and being your healthiest, right? Yeah, I love that. Well, one last question where can our listeners find you, Hannah? If anyone wants to reach out and seek your your work and your consulting.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, my website is heartfeltwellbeing.com. It's all one word, heartfeltwellbeing.com. You can find everything that I do there. I also have a Facebook group and Instagram. Um so Heartfelt Wellbeing on Instagram. Facebook is Heartfelt Yoga and Ayurveda with Hannah. And I also have a YouTube channel under that same Heartfelt Yoga and Ayurveda with Hannah. I teach seasonal, seasonally inspired yoga classes on there. There's a whole bunch of those, and they're all there for free. And I do little Ayurveda talks and stuff on on Facebook and Instagram or sorry and YouTube. Um, and yeah, and then you can find out more about working with me directly on my website. So thanks for the opportunity to share.

Closing And Listener Invitation

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely. Well, I will share all of that information in the show notes. And again, thank you so much for your time today. And to all of our listeners, get in touch with Hannah. This is a hot topic, and it's something that we all experience, whether you have reached menopause or not, it is a part of our lives that we can embrace. And as you hear Hannah sharing, I mean she can help you through that season if you're having a little bit of a challenge. So definitely reach out to her. And as always, take time for yourself and your wellness on this day and have a beautiful, blessed rest of your week. And we'll see you next time on Words of Wellness. Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I hope you gained value and enjoyed our time together as much as I did. And if you know someone who could benefit from today's episode, I would love and appreciate it if you could share with a friend or rate and review Words of Wellness so that more can hear this message. I love and appreciate you all. Thank you for listening. And if you have any questions or topics you would like me to share in future episodes, please don't hesitate to reach out to me through my contact information that is shared. In the show notes below. Again, thank you for tuning in to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly Jeffries, and I encourage you to do something for you, for your wellness on this day. Until next time, I hope you all have a healthy, happy, and blessed week.