Your Monthly Inspiration to Shine Bright
Welcome to your monthly Soulshine Love Letter.
As we enter retreat season, I'm excited to share more about our upcoming 'Return to Self' retreat journey. This retreat, held at our rustic Soulshine Château in the French countryside, is built around the phenomenally transformative psychotherapeutic model of Internal Family Systems, combined with super-charged daily Trauma Release Breathwork, led by our expert facilitator, Angharad Owen.
If you're ready to move through some deep healing, processing, releasing and rise in all your glory, then this is the retreat for you.
We only have a few spaces left, so if you're curious, you can explore more here or enquire now and we'll send you the final availability.
Inspired by the theme of rising from the ashes in all our glory, this month's Love Letter is dedicated to reflecting on the Menopause, a time that many of you are journeying through and something that often comes up in our Soulshine community.
As always, I would love to hear from you about this newsletter. Please feel free to be in touch with any feedback or questions.
In service of supporting you to shine your brightest as ever my love.
MONTHLY REFLECTIONS ON...
Have you ever wondered why we aren't educated about the role of hormones in our lives at school? It's a question that I have often pondered. Our hormones play such a fundamental role every single day in our experience of ourselves and our lives. They can provide the ever-shifting foundation upon which all aspects of our life and our relationship with ourselves are built.
As women, we go through so many hormonal changes throughout our lives, from puberty to pregnancy to menopause. Menopause signals a major transitional point in our lives that can be so challenging to navigate yet also offers the possibility of entering the ‘Second Spring’ of our lives in greater alignment, authenticity and awareness than ever before.
That's why I wanted to share some resources to help inspire, educate and empower you if you’re journeying through the Menopause.
Knowledge is power, and the more we know about our bodies and hormones, the better we can take care of ourselves and make informed decisions.
A book to read...
Ahhh Davina. I can’t help but love her! She’s brought out a book in collaboration with Dr. Naomi Potter all about the Menopause.
The intention of this book is to ‘tell you the truth, so you can make an informed decision about your life and your body’.
Sounds good to me!
A community to join...
Like so many of us working in the wellness space, MPowder was born through the personally challenging experience of its founder, one of my oldest and bestest friends, Rebekah Brown.
Rebekah had a fairly hellish catalogue of symptoms as she hit menopause in her early 40’s. Unsupported through the allopathic health system she set out to find a way to support herself (that’s the epic researcher in her!). And so, MPowder was born as she developed an amazing whole-food led powder range for each stage of menopause (check them out here).
At the heart and soul of MPowder is the intention to make mid-life a superpower for women everywhere. Woohoo!
What I particularly love about MPowder is their regular online Meno.Well Masterclass events with experts to help educate, inspire, demystify and empower women on their mid-life and menopause journey (I ran a Masterclass this week!).
They also share a really interesting weekly newsletter with a summary of research, resources and insights in the Menopause and Mid-Life space. I highly recommend checking them out…
A resource to explore...
This one feels so important to me as someone who has walked a long path of navigating hormone-influenced mood challenges with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (find out more about PMDD here).
We cannot underestimate the impact that hormones bring to our mental health. And never more so than during the Menopause Journey. And yet there is so little information, support and guidance in this area.
Dr. Louise Newson is a GP and renowned menopause specialist who is passionate about improving education about the perimenopause and menopause and improving awareness of safe prescribing of HRT to healthcare professionals.
She has some fantastic podcasts discussing the link between hormone health and mental health, which for those that are suffering, can offer such a life-line.
You can also explore her book over here.
Someone to follow...
So, I guess this monthly newsletter is actually turning into a bit of a love note to women that I admire because Henny is definitely another one!
Henny and I first met on a Soulshine Retreat and had an instant soul connection. Up on our yoga deck she wrote her first love note to her inner girl and from there her first beautiful book ‘My darling girl’ was born. She is also an expert in the space of change, compassionate menopause and supports women to thrive through mid-life. I love her utterly warm and honest podcast. I’ve shared a couple of podcasts for you to dive into here:
That's it for this month's resources. I'd so love to know any insights, reflections or opinions that you might have about what I have shared.
