Tuesday, November 11, 2008

The Changing Years - PREPARE NOW! [Part 1]

This "MUST READ" article, written by Ronald D. Kelly is requesting us all, especially women to understand our natural life cycles in order to prepare ourselves well for the changing years. However, this is not only meant for the women alone, but also for all spouses and family members, if you want to know why, then read on to find out............ I assure you that this article is worth reading, so please don't omit it. As it is rather a long article, I will be putting it in parts, so happy reading friends..........

Those of you who are women face far more today than was expected of your mothers and grandmothers.

Not only must you be an up-to-date homemaker, wife and mother, you must also cope with the mounting pressures of financial responsibility and keep up with knowledge of a rapidly changing world.

Yet when you reach those middle years of life, the same physical, hormonal, mental and emotional changes will go on just as women have experienced for thousands of years. For many, it's a devastating combination.

Some have hoped, even thought, today's active, fulfilled women aren't supposed to experience irrational anxieties. It seems so out of style.

Instead of looking at this stage of life as a time of reassessment -- a time to grow and develop some of those interests put aside in earlier years -- some look into their mirrors one day and see a vaguely familiar face and a figure they don't like very well.

There is a noticeable tint of gray in the hair. There are wrinkles in the corners of the eyes. A few pounds of extra weight. A listless feeling, frequent depressions, occasional hot flashes and night sweats and their nerves are frayed.

It all adds up to the "change of life" -- menopause as it is more technically called. There is in the life of every God-designed women that time when the body will no longer bear children. A physical and emotional change is under way.

For too many it becomes a crisis!

Battling Fluctuating Hormones
Women entering the middle years, whether they admit it or not, have the battle of fluctuating hormones to fight. Many find it hardly a skirmish. But for some, it's an all-out war. It's up to you whether you will enter the battle prepared and armed or whether you will face this challenge unprepared both physically and mentally.

It is an important time in life. The happiness of the remaining one third of your life is at stake. How to pass through menopause and plan for the future is often one of the most overlooked and least considered times of life.

Everyone has to realize the middle years are very real. I have a good friend, a male, who until recently believed these sort of changes were all mental and phychological.

One night he and his wife were guests in our home for dinner. As we sat by the fireplace after the meal, the subject of menopause came up. He and my wife engaged in quite a discussion on whether the change of life was hormonal and physical or just in one's head.

After some time, my friend's wife finally presented the best case to convince him he was wrong. She said to him, 'Honey, please don't make it so I have to go through terrible turmoil during menopause just to prove you are wrong."

You see, my friend had also thought morning sickness during the early stages of pregnancy was just in the head. They have three lovely children. The first pregnancy was practically perfect. No morning sickness. No complications. A relatively easy delivery. A healthy and happy baby.

So, my friend thought they were all supposed to be this way. Easy. Trouble free. And if they weren't, he reasoned, it was because people didn't think right.

A couple of years later, they were expecting their second child. He fully anticipated the same carefree nine months as before.

That was not to be. During the first few weeks, the expectant mother began to experience nausea -- extreme morning sickness. Actually it was morning, noon and nighttime sickness. Not just a few weeks, but most of the rest of the pregnancy.

That's why she said, "Honey, please don't make me go through a terrible menopause just to prove you are wrong."

I think he was now convinced there was a biological and hormonal change that does take place.

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