Dr. Deb's Blog
It’s HOT! The Unexpected Joys of Hot Flashes. Part 1
JULY 9TH, 2010It’s July and there are heat waves all over the country. I am no exception. I am a living heat wave. I am HOT! Since Sunday evening I’ve been experiencing my first true waves of hot flashes – SIX the first night….TWELVE the next day. This may sound crazy, but I’ve actually been awaiting this day with a sense of excited anticipation thanks to Dr. Joan Borysenko. While most women are afraid of hot flashes or complain about them, I’ve actually been looking forward to them. Why? Because in 1996 I read Dr. Borysenko’s book “A Woman’s Book of Life: The Biology, Psychology, and Spirituality of the Feminine Life Cycle” and I was captivated by a section about menopause and hot flashes. At the time I was in my late 30’s and hadn’t even given birth to my first son, but there was something so powerful in the way she described hot flashes that I committed it to memory and I’ve been waiting for my turn to experience them.
Here’s what she says on pages 164 – 165 of her book as she describes the research of a spunky Frenchwoman by the name of Alexandra David-Neel who left her life of privilege in Paris, shaved her head, dressed in saffron and crimson robes, traveled halfway around the world to the forbidden mountains of Tibet, and sneaked into a monastery by impersonating a male lama:
“During the Full moon one February she attended a ritual in which monks stripped naked in the freezing temperatures of a Himalayan cave, wrapped themselves in wet sheets and proceeded to dry them when their bodies liberated prodigious amounts of heat during a meditation practice called tumo yoga. The monk who dried the most sheets was considered the highest adept. Tumo means ‘fierce woman’ in Tibetan. It refers to a life-force energy of every human being (regardless of gender) that circulates in thousands of small channels called nadis, similar to the acupuncture meridians.”
“Tumo yoga was practiced primarily for spiritual reasons. Through a series of meticulous visualizations and the repetition of sacred sounds, the monks raised the life-force energy through the lower energy centers up to the highest chakra at the crown of the head. In the process, they believe that they are burning away mistakes, erroneous beliefs, and ego attachments that keep them from fully recognizing the nature of their True Self.”
What does tumo yoga have to do with my hot flashes? Well, as Dr. Borysenko points out in her book, menopausal women can use hot flashes in the same way the monks did: consciously thinking of their self-limiting beliefs, erroneous thoughts, stresses and ego attachments and allowing them to be burned up in the inner fires of transformation.
So six to twelve times a day (and night) I now have the chance to consciously burn off anything that might be blocking me from realizing my full potential. That thrills me!!! Am I still using my bio-identical hormones, following a healthy diet, exercising, meditating and doing yoga in order to lessen the frequency, intensity and severity of my hot flashes? You bet. But when they do come, I ride the heat wave with excited anticipation and I am grateful for all that is burning away.
9 Comments to “It’s HOT! The Unexpected Joys of Hot Flashes. Part 1”
Posted: Jul 13th, 2010 at 12:35 pm
Fabulous post! I am in my late twenties and have always looked forward to each next phase of my life. It’s women like you who are pre-paving the path and showing women of my generation what it looks like to embrace the life cycle of a woman with pizazz and joy and pleasure. Thank you for being a gorgeous way showers. You are HOT!
Posted: Jul 15th, 2010 at 9:14 pm
Thank you – I am surrounded by women even 10 years younger than myself who are continually, predicting, complaining, bemoaning their own peri-menopause and menopause like symptoms. It feels like an epidemic in ones so young (I’m 45).
I believe in facing every transition with joy in the opportunity – you are inspirational. I feel sorrow for so many women who are embracing “old age”, as they see it, so early and with such dread. I am excited to experience the changes when they come – I use my magical 82 year young, strong as an ox,elfish masseuse as my role model – she is still burning brightly !
Posted: Jul 15th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
I LOVE the idea of meditating on the hot flash and letting is burn away the stuff you’re ready to let go of. Fantastic idea! Come on hot flash, hurry up hot flash, I’ve got some stuff for you!!!
Posted: Jul 15th, 2010 at 10:52 pm
Well, Deb, you’ve always been hot and now you must really be on fire! Loved this post. I had heard a while back of someone referring to hot flashes as power surges. Power on my friend!
Posted: Jul 16th, 2010 at 12:00 am
you feel this way because you are not there yet. I think you are glamorizing hot flashes. They are very uncomfortable.
Posted: Jul 16th, 2010 at 4:28 pm
you’ve got to be kidding. I have not been able to chanel my hot flashes, now in their 7th year, into anything productive or spiritual. tried to…did not succeed.
Posted: Jul 16th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
I am not looking forward to hot flashes. I’ve seen and known women in menopause it and it makes you look and feel awful. Suddenly you’re burning up like crazy from the inside out and it’s not a good feeling. Think of living in the Sahara Desert and how hot it is there. That’s how they feel and they’re utterly miserable. No sleep, you name it. Breakthrough is by far the most helpful and a book that makes sense out of any other book out there about menopause, perimenopause, and everything else discussed in there. Unless women are taking bioidentical hormones and taking all you need health-wise to make yourself feel, look, work out, and be over all healthy. That isn’t something we as women should be going through EVER!! Not the uncomfortable mood swings that our mothers and grandmothers had to deal with. Thank goodness they’ve advanced their studies.
Posted: Jul 20th, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Great and frequent sex removes the hot flashes.
Posted: Oct 17th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
The hot flashes can be very uncomfortable with a very fast heart beat for a long periods like 30 minutes. I had those around 50 times a day.
If you don’t have a job it might be possible to do yoga but else be rest assured it is a pain in the behind.
Now if hot flashes were the only discomfort it would not be that bad, there are also mood swings and that is a night mare.
I agree with Marie great and frequent sex removes the hot flashes for a short while and also takes away the mood swings – again for a short while. Sex every 3 hours would be the answer according to my experience – which of course is not bad at all.