You may be going through a different challenge in life. Take my “life lesson from surgical menopause” and see if you can apply it to your own life. Embrace serenity, and you’ll find more peace and freedom.
I received great feedback from my first book, Come Back Strong, Balanced Wellness after Surgical Menopause. Perhaps one of the best things I hear is that readers forget it is a book about menopause, as there are so many wellness tips inside.
Serenity Through Acceptance
When I woke up from surgery in sudden surgical menopause, I had much to learn, discover, and heal. I had to recover from more than the removal of an organ and the tiny incisions the surgeon made in my abdomen. As I moved through this transitional time, my body and mind transformed. My hormones changed, and every aspect of my life felt out of balance. I sought to heal old wounds and rediscover passions from childhood. It was a time of personal discovery and creative expression. I questioned who I was and who I wanted to be in the future. I found myself putting all areas of my life, from relationships to careers, hobbies, and interests, under a microscope for examination.
One of the first things I had to learn was acceptance.
Before surgery, I made three major decisions. I:
- Agreed to undergo surgery to remove an ovary and fallopian tube.
- Trusted my doctor and husband to make the decisions that were in my best interest while I was unconscious.
- Promised to accept whatever outcome I woke up to.
Serenity is the state of being calm, peaceful, and untroubled. With serenity comes freedom. There are things that I cannot change: I no longer have a uterus or ovaries. We can’t stuff them back in or do a transplant. I accept that. The uterus I wasn’t using. The ovaries . . . well, that’s another story, as they are headquarters for producing most hormones that keep a woman in balance.
There are things that I can change: my attitude, my feelings, my thoughts, my words, my habits, and my perspective. It takes courage and hard work, but I can change these things.
Learning to see and knowing the difference between what we cannot change and what we can is where the brilliance of the advice comes in. It is freedom. It is, indeed, serenity.
Every single one of us has adversity and challenges in life. So, the question for each of us becomes not whether we will have struggles, but how we are going to respond to them. As humans, one of our greatest skills is the ability to adapt and transform.
The above post is an excerpt from my book, Come Back Strong, Balanced Wellness after Surgical Menopause.
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