EP : S02E04 - Breaking the Silence Empowering Women's Health through Self Awareness

Show Notes

How can Self Awareness empower you on your Health journey?

Did you know that until the 1970s, medical data was based on the male physiology? Menopause reseach only started in the 1990s and data has been based primarily on the physiology of caucasian women!

In this excerpt from a Free Group Coaching Session in Season 2 #fearlesslycuriouspodcast I share why it's important for women to reclaim our personal authority by reconnecting with the wisdom within our own bodies, and challenging societal norms.

Here are the highlights from this episode:

01:15 - Challenges and Data Gaps

01:49 - Trusting Your Own Awareness

04:35 - The Power of Self-Questioning

05:12 - Evolving Routines and Self-Awareness

06:27 - Impact of Menopause on Relationships

07:34 - Women Empowerment and Asking for Help

08:15 - Exploring Feminism and Equality

08:42 - Embracing Differences Taking Action & Advocating for Change

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I help you lead with fearless authenticity by smashing the self-imposed heteronormative stereotypes that keep you playing small through emotional healing inner child and inherited intergenerational trauma. Create a purposeful life of your unique design by disrupting societal norms and expectations of who you should be. Explore mindfulness, fearless curiosity and loving kindness through the lens of Human Design to thrive as the person you are born to be.

Learn more about my coaching method and join my emotional healing, mindfulness, and music community at melissaindot.com.

TRANSCRIPT

The Importance of Self-Awareness and Asking Questions

[00:00:30] I'm just turned 50 and I've been navigating this wonderful rollercoaster ride probably for about seven years now, with very little information about menopause and perimenopause. What got me through it was self awareness. My personal growth and development and spiritual growth. journey is still getting me through it. In fact, I'm still getting hot flashes. I'm still getting dizzy spells. I'm still not sleeping well and it's cyclical.

[00:00:34] For someone like me, I like to be in flow, but I feel very safe in flow when I have a structure. It's impossible to build a structure when during this perimenopause phase, Your flow is literally unpredictable. It's all over the place. It's been through my practice of self awareness and in my practice of self awareness, there are many different layers to that.

[00:00:57] Mind, body, and spirit. It's literally about knowing yourself and doing that through what I feel is the foundational quality, curiosity. Constantly asking why, constantly, and I'm going to be the rebel, constantly challenging the status quo. Up until the 1970s, all data was just done for men.

[00:01:24] And up until the 1990s, it's predominantly for Caucasian women. But in this specific topic, as Southeast Asian, Asian women, we are underserved.

[00:01:35] In this topic of midlife menopause and perimenopause, because there just hasn't been enough data, it really proves that we must remain curious because we are a society that has become way too dependent on data.

[00:01:48] We're so trusting. And trust is a beautiful thing. I'm not saying don't trust. What I'm saying is don't give away the trust you have for your own awareness. Don't give that power to someone else. We can still trust an expert, trust an authority. But what we must do is measure that, discern that against our own barometer.

[00:02:11] What has been happening for generations is that we've been giving up our own authority, meaning we've lost connection with our bodies.

[00:02:19] We've lost connection with ourselves. We are wholly dependent on somebody else telling us how we are. I'm going to make this so simple. I've not been well this whole week. My throat is itchy, runny nose, achy body, sweats.

[00:02:35] It's not my perimenopause. In this case, it really is a cold. Once upon a time, I would've been like, oh, I'm not, well, I must go to the doctor. Let's see what the doctor tells me. I don't need the doctor to tell me. I have a runny nose and a cold.

[00:02:49] This may seem very bombastically simplistic, but my friends, it is that simple. We go to the doctor at the drop of a hat. We go to the pharmacy, we go to the chemist and we look for medication at a drop of a hat. But I think it's about time that we started to go back to finding the natural remedies.

[00:03:10] The remedies that exist within our bodies, the capacity our body has to heal itself. How on earth did our ancestors survive generations on plant medicine, on natural remedy, on Ayurveda, on traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, flowers, herbs. How did they do all that survive generations? For us to be dependent on taking a chemical or for us to be dependent on somebody else's advice for us, somebody who isn't living in our own body, and I'm not diminishing the power of science and medical knowledge.

[00:03:51] I have doctors in my family. I have high regard for people in service especially in the health industry. My question to you is how well do you know yourself? How connected are you to your own body? I'm guilty of this.

[00:04:06] I'm so connected to my body. I feel everything. My aches, my pains, the works, but my nervous system is incredibly dysregulated because I feel it and I overdrive, I ignore it. How many of you here listening, watching the replay do the same thing? I have this ache. I'll manage.

[00:04:27] I'll see to it later. We put everything before us. I'll see it to it later. I'll see to it later. Right. So that is the basic level of self awareness and curiosity. I'm going to invite every single one of you watching this. Can you, from this moment, start to ask the question, why, to yourself more often?

[00:04:46] Oh, this hurts. Why? This hurts. I think I better go to the doctor. Why? I would like you to start questioning yourself because when you start to question yourself. You start to notice the patterns you live on autopilot. Are you in the driver's seat of your life or have you just created a whole library of programs that run on autopilot?

[00:05:11] Now, hey, listen, I'm all for life hacks. I'm all for things running smoothly and efficiently. The thing is, my friends, we are evolving every day. There are no two moments that are the same. And therefore, in every moment, we, you, me, all of us here, we are different. And if we're different and evolving, in every moment, those routines that we have created, those highly effective programs, rituals, strategies that we've created to make life easier, suddenly become out of date because we've evolved, but the strategy is the same.

[00:05:49] We've changed, but the ritual is the same.

[00:05:53] So we get stuck, we get stuck in a loop, but also there's a dissonance. Because our physical body is running in this loop of what we do every day in and out. The same thing. When I'm sick, I do this. When I don't feel well, I do that. When my body aches, oh, I take this supplement or I take this painkiller.

[00:06:12] We do the same thing, but the physical body actually needs something different. We're not listening anymore. We're not paying attention anymore because we're no longer self aware. So that's, my gripe, that's my passion. Is the medicine us? And it starts through our self awareness.

[00:06:32] 73 percent of women blame the menopause for a breakup in their relationships. That is heartbreaking. I find that so incredibly devastating, not just for women, but for all their partners. Not just for women and all their partners, but for the sacred cycle of the menopause. There's a whole spiritual and energetic layer that comes with the woman going through this stage in her life.

[00:07:05] This is the stage where we transition into our highest wisdom, but because there is a lack of awareness, there is a lack of information. There's a lack of education on this topic. We as women, instead of really coming into our peak. We are diminished, we are diminished by the lack of information. We are diminished by the lack of support and we diminish ourselves.

[00:07:30] The thing is, once we're self aware, we are more able to communicate to the people around us, what support we need. As women generally, we're not great at asking for help, right? Cause we're so used to doing everything ourselves. And that's a whole other conversation of self awareness and women empowerment that I like to talk about.

[00:07:50] Why do we not ask for help? What is our conditioning that comes from the way that we were parented? How has being a woman been modeled to us by our mothers, by our grandmothers, by our great grandmothers.

[00:08:06] By media, by the educational places that we studied at, by our peers. Another reason why we don't ask for help is also because we don't really know what help we need.

Exploring Feminism and Equality

[00:08:20] Melissa Indot: Because we live in a man's world, right? I mean, , I'm a feminist. Absolutely. And I'm a feminist for all the right reasons. I'm a feminist because I want to live in a world that isn't equal because it can never be equal. Why can it never be equal anybody? Because men and women are different.

[00:08:36] So let's stop talking about an equal world when we're not equal as humans. We are different. So let's start serving the differences.

Embracing Differences and Advocating for Change

[00:08:47] Melissa Indot: I want to live in a world where we honor our differences, a diverse world. Now, rather than champion and complain, I use that word very broadly, and be an activist, and I'm nothing against activists, that criticize what's not working, I'd rather look at what's not working and see how I can be part of making it work.

[00:09:11] And I'm hoping, I'm praying, I'm intending that all of you here watching Want to be part of that change because complaining doesn't change. Action changes and through information, through the power of community, conversation, storytelling, right? We can bring forth that change through the power of communication.

The Power of Community and Communication

[00:09:36] Melissa Indot: With compassion, the power of sharing what your struggles are so that people like me and all our other guest speakers are going to come in in this series together, we can bring more information in, embody the change. We're not just talking about it anymore and we're not just doing.

[00:09:56] We're living it. We're breathing it.

Prioritizing Self-Care and Health

[00:09:58] Melissa Indot: I'm going to encourage every single one of you, please be selfish.

[00:10:02] Please care about yourself. Please care about making your health journey an absolute priority because It's so easy to forget, but it's so, so true, right? When you have a home and the woman is happy and healthy, everyone is HALPTHY. Halpthy, a cross between healthy and happy.

[00:10:21] So please be selfish. Think of yourself, be here for yourself, show up.

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