Are You A Cheerleader? A Public Service Announcement About Perimenopause and The World is Always a Shit Show - Just Go Sailing.
Plus, Let's Get Better at Failing together, One Day and Other Recommendations..
International Women’s Day has come and gone for another year and I know I talked about it last week. There’s lot’s to do, a lot still wrong, but there is still a joy to be had in celebrating women.
There are so many women in our local community who run businesses and are doing amazing things and I shared about this on my instagram HERE.
Then in the wider rural community there’s so many incredible women..
Some things that have stood out over the last week:
Skye Manson coming back with her pod which I already mentioned last week but how lovely and wonderful is her interview with Annabelle Hickson of Galah Press?!
She Makes News with Kimbereley from Oak Magazine. The first episode came out last week as a wrap of all the wonderful news things happening in rural Australia and it was so good. I’ve actually had the idea myself to do a news wrap program for Rural Australia so I am so thrilled to see this coming to life!
I also loved this interview with Belinda Mawhinney.
Dimity Smith launched GroRural which is such a great concept and her branding and marketing is on point as usual.
In the interview with Kimberley, Belinda talked about how she often noticed that we weren’t supporting each other enough as women and hit on something I have thought about a lot too. Even in our local community, why aren’t we supporting each other more? Are you cheering other women on or tearing them down? If you aren’t able to cheer other on, why? Get curious and get the bottom of why you aren’t! Because “when women support each other great things happen” or something like that.. it also just feels good to be a cheerleader!
I am going to add a “cheerleader” or a “spotlight” section to this newsletter each week to cheer on and highlight women who are wonderful. If you have any recommendations or if YOU want a cheer on send me a message I would LOVE to hear from you.
A REMINDER THAT THERE IS ALWAYS A LOT OF SHIT GOING DOWN IN THE WORLD AND ALL YOU CAN CONTROL IS YOU
A few years ago at a wonderful dinner table conversation with our dear family friends Roger and Anne Mckinnon, Roger said something that has always stuck with both Tim and I.. He recalled a story of moving in to a new house in the 70s and finding a newspaper under the bed that was from the 1930s and the front cover was an article that was pretty much exactly the same as what was happening in the 70s.. he made the point that the world, humans, life just repeats itself. Things will happen and the wrold will be shit and his advice was - “just go sailing”… He and Anne are avid sailors, have built their own boats and have travelled a lot of the world on a catamaran.
Whenever Tim and I are having a shit time or something’s gone hey wire on the farm, the toilets are blocked for the 50th time, the pumps stopped again, or the bank are being shits, we say “just go sailing” and laugh about the world.
This piece by Jac from the Broad Place in her letter this week really reminded of that..
I listened to a talk of Ram Dass's the other day, and he was saying listen, in the face of American politics falling into chaos with the election looming, with fluctuating financial scenes globally, and a sense of pessimism with the climate crisis, all amongst what is shaping up to be a new world war, that we can find within ourselves the space to still be loving and kind and not fall into chaos ourselves. I took pause, as Ram Dass died many years ago, and so I went back to check WHEN did this talk take place. The 1970's. So interesting right? Humanity's capacity to just keep rinsing and repeating.
It doesn't have to be an exhausting thing. And it also doesn't mean we throw our hands in the air and do nothing. The invitation on the table is to ask of ourselves what does personal integrity look like? Where we can we as individuals move the needle and be a part of change, and also, how can we best take care of ourselves along the way?
So the world will keep world-ing, wars, politics, financial crises, will keep happening. Life will be life, all you can control is your internal world. So - how are you taking care of you? How are you showing up? What are you doing that is within your control? Or should we all just go sailing?
Here are some pics from our sailing trip with Roger and Anne in the Greek Islands in 2017. It’s definitely a lifestyle I could get used and a dream that Tim and I still have..
ON THE PODCAST
Listen right here.
Perimenopause - A public Service Announcement
This week for the pod I recorded an episode about my journey with perimenopause for you. I have had so many friends talking about this lately and I’ve been sending them all the links to podcasts and info and where to go for help etc so I thought I’d do a podcast for you all too.
I feel like there are so many women suffering and not knowing what the hell is going on for them. So I wanted to share my journey with you to give you some hope that there is a way through it and you can do something about it.
I had a bit of a glitch adding it to the podcast so I’ve added it in here for you so you will get first listen.
Here are all the links to the helpful bits and bobs I have leaned on for advice on perimenopause. There’s a lot!
Veryperi by Mamamia, this one is a paid subscription but it’s a great podcast.
Dr Lousie Newson on The Imperfects HERE
The Resetter Podcast with Mindy Pelz has lots of great episodes about hormones but this one was particularly good with Dr Felice Gersh
This episode of my podcast This Rural Life from last year with Dr Sarah McKay
The School of Wellbeing Podcast interview with Ali Daddo HERE
Diary of a CEO interview with The Number 1 Menopause Dr HERE
Australian Menopause Society HERE
Your Mood, Your Hormones And How They Are Related With Professor Jayashri Kulkarni listen HERE
The Her Centre at the Monash, Alfred Psychiatry Research Cetnre have developed a questionnaire you can do to find out if you have “menopausal depression” but as I learnt from Dr Yasmin Tan on the Very Peri podcast - the treatment would be HRT not antidepressants. So be ready if you are going to go to your GP. Be firm and advocate for yourself.
See a Specialist
I can not recommend highly enough going to a women’s health specialist not just your GP. GPs are great of course, we love them and you can try your GP but in my experience and that of many others, a lot of GPs are not across “perimenopuase” and some don’t even know it’s a thing. I would highly recommend going to The Jean Hailes Institute or seeing my Dr Dr Michelle Woolhouse who I have recommended before.
I hope that’s helpful for you! Obviously I am NOT an expert, but this is my experience and what’s been helpful for me so I hope it’s helpful for you and do with it what you will x
100 EPISODES NEXT WEEK
So - next week marks 100 episodes of my podcast (I thought it was 98 this week but it’s actually 99 - woohoo! ) and I am going to be taking a break after that.. I am feeling like I need a break and a bit of a reset with what I’m doing with it. I will still be bringing you this newsletter each week and I thought I would add audio hot tip episodes here for you too. But I need to think about what I am doing and where I really want the podcast to go.
RECOMENDATIONS
I’ve already recommended a lot of things to listen to this week so here are some other things:
Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth- easy read, good page turner
This piece by about why we’re not having as much sex and so much more is really interesting. I have long believed the phones are the problem and I have a complex relationship with my phone and I have been on it far too much lately. Im terrified about it for the kids, which I have talked about a lot and I hate what they are doing to our society.
Adam Grant on The Imperfects - OK one more thing to listen to sorry, there’s been a lot this week. Adam Grant is a bit of a hero in the self development world and this interview was great.
He also talks about the effects of phone on kids and the direct correlation between the earlier kids have phones and the onset of mental health issues.
One Day - oh man. I won’t tell you how I felt or it will give away too much, but this was so good. Just a great escape from reality watch. I haven’t read the book which I always like to do first, but anyway it was so great.
Tim was away for the night on Tuesday and I finished One Day and Darling Girls, on the same night. Amazing.
HOT TIP
Lately I have been in an ideas thinking phase and listening to SO many things.. I’ve started keeping a daily track of what I learn each day. I might even turn them in to little Reels or something..
Anyway todays hot tip is fail at three things this year. This actually came from the Adam Grant interview and we often hear about the importance of learning to fail fast.. The whole story about the Spanx founder at the dinner table and her Dad would ask how many things they failed at today, heard that a million times, but I am still not very good at failing fast. I do a lot of thinking and ideas generating but I am not good at taking action, or at least that’s the story I tell myself, so this year I am going to fail at at least three things.
Are you good at trying things and failing at them? Or does your perfectionist self get in the way? Why not set the challenge for yourself as well and let’s all fail together this year.
SHARE THE LOVE
If you are enjoying this update each week, could you maybe share it with someone? I love helping Rural Women to thrive, sharing what I know and connecting with other like minded people and writing this newsletter brings me a lot of joy and I think it might be helpful for others too. So if you like it pass it on! Be a cheerleader!