The MiDOViA Menopause Podcast

Episode 027: Transforming Menopause Through Mindfulness

• April Haberman and Kim Hart • Season 1 • Episode 27

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Can finding stillness amidst life's chaos truly transform your experience of menopause? Today's episode of the MiDOViA Menopause Podcast promises to reveal exactly how mindfulness can empower you during this significant phase of life. We're joined by Denise Pyles, an inspiring micro-mindfulness coach with a captivating past as a former nun. Denise shares her fascinating journey from nonprofit work to the corporate world, and how she fused her experiences to help others navigate midlife challenges with grace. From practical strategies like one-sentence journaling to intentional pauses and self-talk mantras, Denise brings you actionable steps to achieve calm and balance.

In this insightful episode, Denise dives into the power of capturing daily moments through various journaling techniques, and how setting daily intentions can build sustainable focus and clarity. Listeners will also get a sneak peek into her upcoming book, "Burned Without Burning Out," which outlines seven micro-mindfulness habits for clear thinking and burnout recovery. Tune in for an enriching discussion that covers everything from mindful self-talk to engaging with nature, and even some personal anecdotes that will leave you inspired to incorporate mindfulness into your everyday life.

Denise is a writer, speaker, and micro-mindfulness coach with over 35,000 hours of mindfulness practice under her belt. Her unique background as a former nun and her work helping individuals in high-pressure environments find stillness brings a powerful perspective to today’s conversation. Denise has made it her mission to help others discover nurturing stillness in a distracted world, and her practical approach to micro-mindfulness through one-sentence journaling, intentional pauses, and mindful self-talk mantras is truly transformative.

https://denisepyles.com/

Pre-order the book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DB1H9ZC7/

LINKS:

Website: https://www.midovia.com/
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LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/midovia
Email Us: info@midovia.com

MiDOViA is dedicated to changing the narrative about menopause by educating, raising awareness & supporting women in this stage of life, both at home and in the workplace. Visit midovia.com to learn more.

The information, including but not limited to, text, graphics, images & other material contained on this website are for informational purposes only. No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. 

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Medovia Menopause Podcast, your trusted source for evidence-based, clients-backed information related to menopause. Medovia is dedicated to changing the narrative about menopause by educating, raising awareness and supporting women in this stage of life, both at home and in the workplace. Visit medoviacom to learn more home and in the workplace. Visit Medoviacom to learn more. I'm one of your hosts, april Haberman, and I'm joined by Kim Hart. We're co-founders of Medovia, certified health coaches, registered yoga teachers and midlife mamas specializing in menopause. You're listening to another episode of our podcast, where we offer expert guidance for the most transformative stage of life, bringing you real conversations, education and resources to help you overcome challenges and reach your full potential through midlife. Join us and our special guests each episode as we bring vibrant, fun and truthful conversation and let us help you have a deeper understanding of menopause.

Speaker 1:

Today, we have a very special guest joining us Denise Piles. Denise is a writer, speaker and micro-mindfulness coach with over 35,000 hours of mindfulness practice under her belt Wow. Her unique background as a former nun and her work helping individuals and high pressure environments find stillness brings a powerful perspective to today's conversation. Denise has made it her mission to help others discover nurturing stillness in a distracted world, and her practical approach to micro mindfulness through one sentence, journaling, intentional pauses and mindful self-talk mantras is truly transformative. In this episode, we explore how mindfulness practices can offer invaluable support for women navigating the often overwhelming challenges of menopause. Whether you're experiencing hot flashes, anxiety or brain fog, denise's insights will empower you to take small, intentional steps towards calm and balance. Let's dive in, denise welcome to the show.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, it's great to be here.

Speaker 1:

We're excited to have this conversation today. You have a unique background and we know that you're going to give great insight and perspective today for our conversation. And I can't believe that you actually live in Edmonds. You are our neighbor. I'm sure that we have crossed paths in downtown Edmonds at some point, but it's great to have you on the show and to get to know you a little bit better.

Speaker 2:

Thank you. Thank you, it's great to be here.

Speaker 3:

I um just for our, just for our listeners. I met Denise through work and had a coffee with her a couple of months ago, and it was one of those coffees that we, um, couldn't stop. We wanted to be like we're taking our watch like gosh. There's so much to learn from each other, so really happy to have you here, denise, thank you?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you do. You have such a unique background and it fits so perfectly with the work that we do with women in midlife and menopause. And, you know, I think it'd be a great place to just start with the conversation to ask you about your mission. You know you have so many things that we're going to talk about in this podcast, but tell us a little bit about your mission and your ultimate drive.

Speaker 2:

Thank you. So part of my mission is I pivoted at midlife from a nonprofit organization, church work to corporate with zero business experience, and what got me there was the sense of what I leaned on in my former life is that I am a nun and I lived as a nun for eight years and then, over time, realized I couldn't, for health and financial reasons, needed to make that pivot. But I leaned on those experiences of mindfulness that I learned as a nun to help me make that pivot to a corporate successful career that I'm in today in the tech industry. Wow, what stays rooted is my mission is the same as I want to help people find mindfulness and stillness in life today, which life today feels like we are living in don't have time to practice mindfulness, and I thought me neither. I mean it's that sense of mindfulness is about.

Speaker 2:

I would love to have several huge impact on our lives and can help us in the bouncy house find our balance, pick out the right ball that we need to focus on right now and be present to all the chaos with a clear mind and focus. And so I want to help others that know that you have it within you already to practice mindfulness. You no longer have the excuse to say I don't have time because, and that we can all do it, even in a life that we're living today, that is chaotic, that's stressful, that's constantly changing and that AI is pushing us at the speed of faster than how we want to live sometimes. But we have that power within us to slow down, just to take a pause, be still for a moment, to clear our mind, our head, our heart, and be present and then go at life as full of war as we can when we want to and need to.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's like refueling right, yeah. That pause is really refueling, Kim. What were you going to say?

Speaker 3:

Well, we hear often from women. We were doing a training session for a large group of women and this one woman raises her hand. I'll never forget it. She's like I don't have any time. I've got a disabled husband, I have two jobs, I have kids that are doing this. How am I supposed to take care of self-care? And I was like just take a breath, Just remember to take a breath. So on that note, Denise, you post on LinkedIn every day. I do Micro mindfulness minutes. How many days in a row are you up to now?

Speaker 2:

I think it's 1,218 days in a row.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's worth following because it helps me take my moments of self-care. So let's talk about that a little bit. How can we take time for self-care? About that a little bit. How can we take time for self-care? How are these practices able to support women with menopause symptoms? This mid-stage life you talked about, you know your mid-stage changes how can women think about this as a way of self-care and what are your advice and guidance on those micro-mindfulness minutes?

Speaker 2:

Yes, thank you. So one thing in looking at menopause and and and I can share this with this group because I was forced into menopause at an early time in my life, as a young, as an adult in my I was 32 when I had a hysterectomy due to endometriosis and I suffered from chronic endometriosis for six years. Even I had six surgeries in six years with because I had I was one of the few women where it grows outside the uterine wall and to struggle with that. It's a pivot in our lives. It's part of that aging process. It's part of those life transitions that happen in our lives and sometimes we're in control of that. We make a decision, and other times they try to control us.

Speaker 2:

Those pivots do that, and what micro mindfulness reminds me is that sometimes I'm not in control.

Speaker 2:

And how do I just be present and release expectations and release judgment, being in the moment, or judgment against myself, and it's not adding one thing to my calendar to do that, but it's a mental pivot or a shift or like a short activity, if people have never tried mindfulness before, even to give yourself 30 seconds or 10 seconds or, like you said, just one intentional deep breath and or I used to direct the choir and I'm saying we would always start our choir practice pivoting from work or getting to there before rehearsing is to say to everybody take it a nice deep breath and sigh out loud, and that alone, psychology says just a focused, mindful breath can help reduce stress.

Speaker 2:

It's sort of like this mini power boost of energy. And so did we have time in the day, we're so busy, but I took less than 10 seconds to do that. And so then it's like can I build on that, those transition moments of going from one activity to the next, or my attitude that hot flashes are going to hit me, the emotional roller coaster up and down bouncy house? How can I know it's happening and how can I just take in a deep breath and embrace that moment and know that that moment will pass and I can be calm and centered in that? Again, that takes less than 30 seconds, yeah.

Speaker 3:

It sounds a little bit like habit stacking right. Yes, trying to learn how to do this. So what's your advice and guidance for how to add this in, like? How do I remember oh my gosh, I'm stressed right now I how to add this in, like, how do I remember?

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh, I'm stressed right now I need to take a breath Like yeah, yeah, how do you notice?

Speaker 2:

right. How do you know that is stopping to notice? Yeah, so there's two things. One is that sense of desire, like part of one of my habits that I talk about in the book I have that's coming out is setting your intention, like in the morning or anytime during the day. Is that my intention is I want to be able to pay attention when I need to pause or when I need to take a breath. So that sense of mentally and I write that down I keep a journal with me just during the day, like a commonplace journal, where I just take notes about what is going on in the day and at the top I write my intention for the day Pay attention, what is my, what is my, the desire of my heart today? I want to lean in and listen, I want to be mindful of when I need to breathe. I put that on a sticky note and then so. Then the habit stacking is maybe I pivot from one meeting to the next and I see that sticky note, or the moment my phone rings to say, okay, I'm going to pause for two seconds and take in a deep breath before I pick it up and even look at who it's from, or I try to have my phone upside down when I'm working so I don't see the screen. So it's habit stacking on.

Speaker 2:

Pay attention during your day. What are some transition moments? Do you go to pick up kids at school? Do you go and can you drive in the car with no nothing on, you know, like no podcast or radio or something like that going on? Just say I'm going to just focus on driving it. Every stoplight or every red light stop sign, I'm going to take a deep breath and just breathe. Or I'm going to pay attention to what's going in my head and just mentally say, okay, I'm just stacking that on my to-do pile for now and I'm going to stay focused on what I'm doing. So they're just short, little like it's finding out.

Speaker 2:

Where are those opportunities in your day that you pivot to from one activity to the next? I currently work fully, 100%, at home, remotely, and so I'd have a shutdown ritual in the evening where I shut down my laptop and I just pause with my hands on top of my laptop and taking a deep breath and say I'm letting all this go, it's not going anywhere and nobody's going to die at work on on and this and just say, just putting setting realistic expectations and I can. When I open it it's going to be right here with me and I can face it tomorrow. So that's kind of like just and, like I said, that's 30 seconds of shutting, literally shutting down and pivoting to the next thing. So that habit stacking of is helpful you turn on a light switch.

Speaker 2:

You know, that's another one that's coming. Yeah, that's a good one.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's, intentionality right.

Speaker 1:

You have to be very intentional with it. It reminds me gosh, just things that come back. You don't realize that you've been doing it for so long. When I used to run same thing, denise I would run and I would hit. I would tell myself you're going to hit that stop sign and when you hit that stop sign, from that stop sign, all the way around, that circle is your prayer circle and you're not going to do anything else and you're going to turn the music off and this is what it becomes. So, yeah, you create those habits, but it has to be very, very intentional.

Speaker 1:

And I love the post-it note reminder too, to put that throughout the house so that as you're going about your day, you see it, and it's a great reminder because we forget. You know, we get busy and we forget as much intention good intention that we have. We're humans and we forget. I'd love for you to unpack the one sentence journaling a little bit more as well, because I'm a journaler and I love that, but I know that for a lot of people, when you say journaling and you hand them an empty notebook, they don't know what to do with that. It's very overwhelming and not calming. So can you unpack that a little bit more?

Speaker 2:

Sure, I've been journaling as well since high school and I've kept my journals since then and I love it and I do various forms of journaling. And one sentence journaling has really helped me, especially in times when they're very stressful and chaotic, but it still helps me connect with my mind and heart and body in being present. And the other thing is one sentence journaling. So even when people say I don't like to write, I'm saying that's okay. What do you like to do? Maybe you like to take photographs, maybe you sketch or doodle, maybe you like to talk, maybe you know you like to draw. So when I was a nun, I journaled every day and I was on a retreat with another sister and she English was not her first language and she English was not her first language and on retreat she had this 11 by 14 notepad and every day she drew in color, like chalk and crayon, this incredible beautiful picture of flowers or trees or something. And that was her journal every day. She had a picture every day so that so like, for example, I'll move my phone, like on my phone I have the day one journal and I made a folder called one sentence journaling, but it's one photograph a day that I take to say what am I feeling, what captures my mood, and I take now I take lots of pictures on my phone, on my, you know, on my phone, in my camera photos, but I choose one for the day and say this is, and most often it centers around gratitude, or watching the sunset in Edmonds over the Olympic Mountains, or something like that. But for people I do have on my website, I have also a free course that you could take on one sentence journaling. If you've never done it, the sense of like I give you the prompts, you're not staring at a blank page and you can have just a small notebook and number the weeks one to seven and day one. What is it? And it could be a word, it could be a phrase, it could be a sentence, and then if your mind starts going, then keep going.

Speaker 2:

Some people who do one sentence journaling is that a friend of mine said I mark my calendar in my notebook every hour and I reflect on the word that I'm mindful of every hour and at the end of the day I've got all this work graph, almost mindful love every hour. And at the end of the day I've got all these, this work graph almost. And then I encourage people that like, say, give yourself a week and then that seventh day, just pause and reflect on what you wrote, what you drew, what you sketched, what you, what photographs you took, and then make a list of any insights about yourself. And then make a list of any insights about yourself and then rinse and repeat and over time, you see this pattern of days. The other thing I've had is that I oh I didn't have it with me, but the five year, one sentence a day, these little journals, and I started that five years ago and I clearly remember March 3rd of 2020 writing. There's nine cases of this COVID that happened in Kirkland. I wonder how long this is going to last. And I go back and look at that and I'm going oh my gosh, several million people later and you know we're still so. That's those memories, those thoughts in the moment, moment.

Speaker 2:

So once into one sentence journaling I love because I can help people.

Speaker 2:

Or, if you've not done it, it's just a way to get into a habit. It's a way to build a consistent habit. It's one of the easiest way to build a consistent habit around mindfulness Because, first of all, before writing, it's like you're reflecting and stating what was your intention today, what did reflect on your day, or you get a prompt and it's, and my my philosophy about practicing mindfulness is in my graduate studies I took a course on the spirituality of Alcoholics Anonymous and one of my favorite lines from AA is take what you like and leave the rest. And that is the sense of mindfulness is like can you embrace activities without judgment and without judgment of yourself or other people? And if it's not helpful, move on and it's okay? So the sense of like one sentence journaling is like that sense of habit stacking, that sense of reflecting and even to say I don't my, my mind is racing, I don't have anything to say today. It's like you own it and acknowledge it and that is okay. It's like there's not a right or wrong way.

Speaker 3:

I love that April does her journaling in the morning and I do a gratitude journal at night. So I write down five things that I'm grateful for, and they're usually related to what happened that day. You know, something great happened with my kids or something great happened at work or something like that. So it's sort of a journal in time and sort of a gratitude practice which always helps me go to sleep. You emphasize mindful self-talk mantras and.

Speaker 3:

I'm pretty sure that I'm not as good at my self-talk as I need to be, and I was just doing some work on trusting yourself with the commitments that you make to yourself and how can you follow through on those. Talk about the mindful self-talk mantras and how they help you with I don't know body image, self-esteem, accomplishing your goals. How, how do you, how do you use that and how does it help with a shift in your mindset?

Speaker 2:

Yes. So first of all, I consider myself a recovering perfectionist in my life, so self-taught and it's a work in progress. Self-talk is very important. One of the things that has stayed with me all throughout my life and working on my own personal growth is that one of the most important voices you listen to and are mindful of in your life is the voice inside your head and what you are telling yourself and Brene Brown has said this too. It's like you would not say to your friends what you sometimes say to yourself internally, and so it's kind of that check and the sense of embracing yourself with self-compassion. Can you hold yourself in grace and wrapped in compassion, and so the journaling or mindful self-talk can be just one again.

Speaker 2:

One phrase, a very short phrase, like I am worthy, I am grateful to be here, I am loved, I love myself, I'm a work in progress, that.

Speaker 2:

So those mantras are something that I can repeat over and over again to myself and it's kind of this way of the image I have is like inside your head you have an inner critic and this positive coach and it's like and I'm aging myself too it's like, it's like a radio dials you turn the mentally, turn the volume down of the inner critic and just turn up the volume of the of the positive coach, the positive that says you can do this, You've got this, you are. You are good in the goodness of who you are. And one experience that helped me with that mantra is at work. I was moved to a new building this was before COVID and I walked into the women's restroom to wash my hands and I come out and there are sticky notes on the mirror and it says you've got this, you can do it, You're having a great day, you are here because you are good and you have something to give. You know, I mean, it's like this and I thought this is so cool, so I'm taking pictures.

Speaker 2:

I did the same, yeah, and every time I would just smile and it boosted my energy. I'd walk out of the bathroom smiling and I'm sure people who notice me like what is going on here, you know. But again, it's that sense of listening to that as a reminder of the self-talk that I do to myself. How can I do that? And I have to say, as a recovering perfectionist, that takes a lot of work, because under stress and under difficult situations, sometimes in life and in work, it's like, oh, I just get mad at myself and then I intentionally pause and I say to myself let it go.

Speaker 2:

You, you may not be at your best today, but you are here and present and you will be better tomorrow. You know, it's just that sense of the self talk and women, you know, in menopause it's again, it's that pivot, it's that life and you know the emotional roller coaster and to say I'm still here in this moment. I may not be able to control these emotions, but I can control remaining calm, being present or being frustrated, as heck that I can't. I, you know, it is what it is, not in a way to negate that, but to say I am here and I'm aware of this and I want to face this with my best self that I can bring, even if it's not my best self today.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that and it makes me think to Denise, just the transitions in our lives, especially for women in midlife. We're kind of in this, oftentimes in this middle place, as we call it at Adobe, where our sense of self and identity is gone, oftentimes if we're switching careers or we're looking at picking up a career, because we have sacrificed our career for children and raising family and now we're empty nesters. And what does that mean for me going forward? And I know I've talked to a lot of women who have just said I don't feel like I can do anything, I don't feel like I'm worth anything, I don't feel like I can add value. So that self-talk and those mantras can be extremely helpful in those transitional periods as well, can be extremely helpful in those transitional periods as well.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and I love nature, so I also talk to myself. Sometimes we do need to break a break where we don't do anything, and I'm very careful about that because I can be really easy to kind of go off that edge and say, oh, let's just watch Netflix and just forget about life and things like that, and then our rest becomes this long period of doing nothing. So I keep thinking it's okay to slow down and pause and I say, go at a pace of a turtle. You know, turtles are just steady, slow, not at the pace of a sloth where it becomes like this. Where it becomes like this.

Speaker 2:

I've seen Zootopia where it's like this slow motion of a sloth signing paperwork at the DMV in the Disney movie, pixar movie, zootopia. But that's a balance. That part of that is our own self-awareness and self-knowledge that if I need to really just release, let go, let everything just be and not do anything for a while, give myself a break. It's like put boundaries on that pivot of what we're doing and then bring ourselves back into what is that next thing. But again, that's individual and that's each person's prerogative on how to do that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's great. So before we get into how people can find you and a little bit about your book, let's talk about what people can do. What can they do when they're juggling their careers, their menopause, their kids, their parents, their all the things where, where? What can they do and where should they start? What can they do?

Speaker 2:

and where should they start. So one of the things that I really encourage is that what you do is to do something small, like small. Set reasonable expectations for yourself. One minute we all have one minute between something, even walking from one end of the hallway to the next, and just in that moment you can take a deep breath. One of my favorite breathing techniques is box breathing. You know, I could stop and just for four seconds inhale, hold for four seconds, like imagine drawing a box, release for four seconds and then pause and do it again, do it twice, or just taking a nice deep breath. Or the other thing is I love just walking outside and taking one lap around the house, and so set yourself reasonable expectations to do that and then build from there.

Speaker 2:

In the morning, when you wake up, if your alarm goes off, turn it off, even if it's attached to your phone, but don't pick up your phone and look at it, pause and say, for just this minute I'm just going to focus on what is my intention for today and then move so we can have that moment. Start small and do one thing, pick one activity. Or I connect a lot with nature. Nature is a great calming mirror to us. It helps us to pause and just be still. I can walk outside and say pick a color, for example pink or red. Walk outside and say what flower or what of nature do I see in red? I love it, like in the fall season and spring, to say or to say today I just want to listen, to see if I can hear any of the birds chirping, and just to be still, for I'm going to give myself one minute to do that.

Speaker 2:

That again, that's a mental reset, a recharge, and the sense is building on those micro moments and stacking those and then over time it's like I've got this sustainable energy, I've got this sustainable focus, I have this mental clarity in the midst of all the chaos, all the pivots, all the transitions that I'm going through. And it's sort of like this it's like your blood, your heart rate, you know, is at a range. It's not just flat, flat mind is not living, but you're within a range. And so mindfulness helps you stay in a range of clarity and that's you know, and that's the goal. And then that sense of energy, that reset, that presence of listening to someone, can sustain you. But again, start small, get a sense of timing. Arianna Huffington said she calls them 60 second micro steps. Do something for one minute at a time and then stack that on top of that throughout your day.

Speaker 1:

I love that. I love that, denise, we could keep talking. Truth be told, we have a list of questions that we like to prepare before podcasts, and there's so many more that we have on our list. We're going to have to have you back, because I would love to Fascinating, but you know, in the meantime, how can people find you? Do you have a website? Do you have a book? So why don't you talk a little bit about your book? Tell us where you can find that.

Speaker 2:

So what's coming out September 22nd 2024 is my book called Burned Without Burning Out. I have the author copy to check for mistakes, et cetera, and so it's Burned Without Burning Out seven micro-mindfulness habits for clear thinking, decisive action and recovery from burnout. I started writing this book a couple of years ago when I was reflecting on my own life and how do I want to live? And I asked myself this question as an ordinary person, how will you spend your everyday life doing extraordinary, meaningful work with the time you have left? And so, for women with menopause, it's that pivot in our lives of we see a runway, look shorter and say, okay, what do I need to do, what do I want to do, how do I want to live? And it starts in our moments of everyday life, and so the book is the result of that. So you can find this on Amazon and it's in will be paperback, ebook and audible. So I did the audible recording.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I'm doing the audible. I know I can listen to that on my walks. I love that, although I'd like to dog ear and highlight. Yes exactly, and I'd have to do both.

Speaker 2:

And then I have a website, denisepilescom, for resources. I do offer some easy. If you've not tried mindfulness before, I have a start micro mindfulness email course five days and then a two week on LinkedIn. I write every day, I post on Twitter, linkedin and Medium, and then I also offer a weekly newsletter called One Mindful Thing my Daring Perspectives on Mindfulness. So it's just weekly tips that you can do, that you can practice or focus without feeling like it's one more thing on your calendar.

Speaker 1:

You are busy. It's not meant to overwhelm. Yeah, Right, and by the way, listeners piles is P-Y-L-E-S, so Denise piles P-Y-L-E-S.

Speaker 2:

It's like piles of paper, but with a Y, there you go. I'm sure you've had to say that before. And why are?

Speaker 1:

there piles of paper, I don't know. All right, should we?

Speaker 3:

do rapid fire.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, let's do it, let's do it.

Speaker 3:

Well, I know the answer to this, but I'm going to ask you anyway. Are you coffee or tea? Denise, I'm tea.

Speaker 2:

You have a special tea that you drink. Yes, I drink English breakfast with a shot of frothed milk.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that is special. Okay, I might have to try that. I love all these questions because I try new things, yeah, okay, what is your favorite podcast besides this one?

Speaker 2:

So my favorite podcast is On being by Krista Tippett I really enjoy her work. She has a great book called Becoming Wise and she is in correspondence, npr and other news media, but she also has a Masters of Divinity, a theology degree, and the way she asks questions to interview people, it's excellent. It's an excellent read.

Speaker 1:

And are you? It's being b-e-i-n-g b-e-b-e-i-n-g.

Speaker 2:

Okay, okay, and krista tippett is t-i-p-p-e-t-t. Okay, all right, excellent.

Speaker 3:

What's the last thing that made you laugh?

Speaker 2:

laugh. Let's see, I laughed at myself for walking out the door without my car keys.

Speaker 1:

I'm so glad you can laugh at yourself. I laughed at myself.

Speaker 2:

And I think this doesn't happen that much, but sometimes I do that, so I just I was able to laugh at myself, instead of thinking oh my God, I'm losing my memory, you know?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, exactly, it's healthy, it's healthy. And then, on a more serious note, what is the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Speaker 2:

The best piece of advice that I ever received was from my 92 year old mentor of business that she was in business and in life and not and I took this as it's a. It was a positive message of saying you are running out of time, just go, don't let fear hold you back. So it was her wisdom of saying do what you need to do now and don't worry about it's not perfect, it's not. You know that you're running out of time, you don't? You know you don't have a full life, you don't you know it's like we don't have infinite time to do everything on our to-do list or our wishlist or our bucket list. And she's like don't let fear hold you back.

Speaker 3:

Great, that's great advice.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's great advice. Oh gosh, we're going to make a list of all of this someday and put it all in a book is what we're going to do. All right, well, thank you so much, denise, for spending your afternoon with us, and it's just been a pleasure. I'm so glad that Kim introduced us and that you took the time to be on the show. And a pleasure. I'm so glad that Kim introduced us and that you took the time to be on the show, and listeners. Until we meet again, go find joy in the journey. Thank you for listening to the Medovia Menopause Podcast. If you enjoyed today's show, please give it a thumbs up, subscribe for future episodes, leave a review and share this episode with a friend. There are more than 50 million women in the US who are navigating the menopause transition. The situation is compounded by the presence of stigma, shame and secrecy surrounding menopause, posing significant challenges and disruptions in women's personal and professional spheres. Medovia is out to change the narrative. Learn more at Medoviacom. That's M-I-D-O-V-I-A dot com.

People on this episode

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April Haberman

Co-host
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Kim Hart

Co-host