Menopause: the Portal to Your Future Self

 Menopause: the Portal to Your Future Self

There comes a moment in a woman’s life when the body begins to whisper changes,not just physical, but spiritual, emotional, and mystical.Menopause , often misunderstood and dismissed in modern culture, is not just a biological event. It is a liminal space, a threshold, a sacred pause between identities. Like all initiations, it demands something of us. It asks us to surrender who we’ve been in order to become who we are meant to be.

In the Vedic tradition, time is not linear, it moves in cycles, in spirals. Menopause is not an ending, but a shift in dharma, a calling to step into a new phase of life. The maiden becomes the mother, and the mother, eventually, must become the wise woman. But transformation always comes with friction.

This liminal space can feel disorienting. The body aches. The mind fogs. Emotions surge. Sleep slips away. We grieve the self that once was, fertile, needed, tethered to roles and identities we’ve worn like skin. But within this unraveling lies an invitation: to walk through the portal, to meet our shadows, to feel everything we’ve been too busy or too polite to feel, and to burn away what no longer serves.

In Ayurveda, menopause is seen as a natural shift in doshic balance, often a rise in vata, the energy of air and ether, of movement and space. With it comes anxiety, dryness, changeability, and spiritual openness. This is why many women feel a sudden pull to silence, to nature, to ritual. The soul knows it is crossing into sacred territory.

But first, pain. Not as punishment, but as initiation. Like childbirth, we must breathe through the contractions of self-doubt, fatigue, hot flashes, and grief. We must let our bodies become the altar, our symptoms the sacred messengers. This portal will not be bypassed. It must be walked, barefoot and honest, with fierce tenderness.

The future self that awaits is not interested in small talk or shallow pursuits. She is sovereign. She knows what she wants and does not apologize for it. Her energy is not scattered but focused. She lives from intuition, not performance. She may wear silver in her hair, but she carries fire in her belly.

To reach her, we must honor this liminal space. We must slow down. We must nourish ourselves with oils, herbs, prayers, movement, and deep rest. We must release shame and reclaim ceremony. We must gather with other women in circles that feel like medicine.

Menopause is not the end of youth,it is the beginning of wisdom. It is the sacred bridge between the roles we were given and the truth we choose. And if we allow it, if we walk the portal with courage and grace, it can be the most powerful awakening of our lives.

Welcome to the becoming.

~Shanti Freedom Das