Rest, Ritual, and Community

A few weeks ago, we hosted Camp Menopause, an annual two-night, three-day retreat in the woods on Whidbey Island. While walking through the woods one morning, a participant said to me, with a huge sigh, tears rimming her lower eyelids, “It’s so beautiful here. And I am so grateful to be slowing down enough to have a conversation. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to follow a thought from beginning to end.” She looked up at the sky, “not just with other people,” she continued, “but with myself.”

I understood what she meant. Even if my phone is off and my house is quiet, I’ve grown accustomed to the mental ricocheting of my thoughts pinging against other thoughts. In many ways, this has become the norm. I wonder if that’s why I love going to bed each night. I’m putting my body to rest, but I’m also giving my brain a chance to be quiet.

At Launch Your Pause, we have a tagline we like to use, “Rest, Ritual and Community.” While much of what we do comes in the form of active support and education, rest is a through-line that runs through all of our activities. In slowing down and making time to understand what is absent from our lives — like the ability to have a full conversation with yourself or others — we can identify what we need to bring in.

I’ve heard it said that it takes knowing seven people who have a shared life experience to not feel “othered.” Another way of saying this is, to be in the company of people with a shared experience makes us feel less alone. 

Being at Camp Menopause is an intentional effort designed to create that experience. Every woman’s experience of menopause is different, yet we all long for rest. Menopause fatigue is one of the most common symptoms women experience. 

For some women, menopause and perimenopause bring interrupted sleep. For others, middle age brings with it an awareness that we no longer want to hold all the responsibility. For many women, kids leave home and they have, for the first time in many years, that feeling of having a little bit of freedom for the first time in decades. While there is energy in that freedom, there is also a coming down, a collapse into the ability to finally rest.

Every single one of the thirteen women at Camp Menopause could relate to the longing to slow down. We set up our activities on yoga mats with pillows and blankets and the explicit invitation for spontaneous naps. The middle of our circle is home to dozens of dark chocolate bars and a box of kleenex which participants are encouraged to help themselves to at any time.

We’re hosting another Camp Menopause in May. I can’t wait to get into the woods again. We also have ongoing events throughout the year. All come with the invitation to slow down, be together, and have a conversation from beginning to end. We hope you’ll join us.