As you are cleaning out your closets this spring it’s a great time to take note of that great big closet in your mind. It’s where we store a lot of habits in the way that we think about life, the world around us and ourselves. In our closets we are apt to find things that just don’t fit well anymore. This can also be true about the closet in our mind.
In this month of the heart as we think of those we love it is important to include some special regard for ourselves too.
Our lives after all include plenty of difficult or painful times that challenge us. We are imperfect beings and make plenty of mistakes that we have to face as well. Life doesn’t always go the way we plan.
Having compassion for ourselves is a way we honor the reality of our very humanness and give ourselves permission to be the imperfect beings that we are.
It’s pretty common to consider taking care of our physical health but what about our mental health? That’s not as common, but in reality taking care of our mental health can have a huge impact on how we manage our physical health and times of stress.
Because mental health includes our emotional, psychological and social well-being it affects how we think, feel and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others and make choices.
Many women that are fabulously 40 and over frequently disregard mid-life care because they are too busy tending to their families, their career and their aging parents. However, at this stage in your life, it’s crucial to reflect on your health and discuss your family history and any lifestyle habits that can jeopardize your health. Creating a good wellness plan with your health care provider can minimize dangerous health risks that set the stage for serious disease later on in your life.
Heart Disease
The pelvic floor has become a hot topic lately—common on the internet, talk show chatter and among friends, but what does it mean? The pelvic floor is a group of muscles covering your entire perineum (or bottom)—from pubic bone to tailbone and sit bone to sit bone. It’s located at the base of the pelvis and plays an important role in supporting your spine and organs and controlling urine flow, the bowels and sexual satisfaction! Not a small job for a group of muscles that is typically ignored.
So how do we find these muscles?
Blood pressure is the intensity with which blood pushes against the walls of the arteries. It is measured in millimeters of mercury (mmHg) while the heart is beating (systolic pressure) and when the heart is resting (diastolic pressure). A blood pressure reading is written like a fraction and shows the systolic pressure over the diastolic pressure.
A healthy person has a blood pressure level lower than 120/80 mmHg. A person with high blood pressure or hypertension has a blood pressure level at or above 140/90 mmHg.
Of all the changes happening during perimenopause and menopause, difficulty sleeping is one of the most common. Women may notice a difference as early as their late 30s.What feels like insomnia may actually be hormone changes disrupting sleep.
At any stage in life, lack of sleep slows metabolism, lowers sex drive and increases forgetfulness–of all the changes during menopause, controlling sleep could mend other symptoms disrupting your life like mental fogginess or mood changes.
Has your doctor ever told you that you have high cholesterol or that you should consider a low cholesterol diet? Then, did you think: What does that mean? Cholesterol is important for good health. It makes cell walls, tissues, hormones, Vitamin D and bile acid—which helps food digestion. But too much cholesterol increases your risk of developing heart disease and stroke.