Menopause is one of those markers in a life where there is a distinct knowledge that, in many ways, everything is changing. Pregnancy, parenthood, and the loss of a parent tend to be the only things of similar caliber in personal experience. Each of these represents major changes and not all of them are necessarily welcome. This is particularly true with menopause and the loss of a parent. These seem to represent a net loss to many people and lead to the assumption that there is no good to be found in it at all. While the actual events are not necessarily good, we can all find positive aspects if we look a little closer. Perhaps old conversations suddenly make more sense and bits of wisdom ring a little truer. There might be a new form of closeness even as time takes someone away. This same potential to find a positive in something that seems unpleasant is true for menopause as well. All it takes is looking a little closer and finding out what changes can mean to you.

Another Beginning
Strangely enough, many people facing down menopause come to the realization that the end of a particular era in their life is an opportunity to begin again. After all, if one has had children, then they’re typically busy with their own lives by then. Life is slowing down to a degree and giving you room to breathe as you’ve already proven yourself. There is time to do things again. This translates to menopause being a sign that you can return to the things that make you passionate in your life that you might have left behind. Think of this as one of the perks of menopause. Dig out those plans for a novel or reignite your passion by picking up a new skill. Working towards self-improvement and building yourself into the person you wanted to be helps you to explore what make life meaningful again instead of feeling bound to try to keep up with one thing or another constantly. That opens up the chance for further benefits.

Renewed Investments
Our health becomes particularly important both as we approach and pass menopause. Some research indicates there may be slightly physical benefits to menopause that helps to improve the health of our muscles, but that won’t mean anything if we’re not using them. Most doctors tend to encourage us to begin showing a greater interesting in exercise to help manage the effects of the hormonal shifts within the body. These can help counter the worst of the effects such as putting on an unwelcome wait and a loss in overall muscle mass. Tending to your physical health through exercise will also help to minimize bone density loss if you’re doing a bit of strength training as part of that exercise. Countering that loss is one of the bigger challenges we all face from menopause and if all it takes to work against it is a little exercise it seems fitting to become rededicated to one’s health at that point in life.

Cultivating Meaning
The other benefit to menopause is that we’re likely not the only ones dealing with those effects. Others will begin taking a bit more time and looking into renewing parts of their lives. It makes it a good time to begin to consider trying to be a bit more social. Renewing ties with long-standing friends is a popular option, but you can also look towards building new bonds. Exercise or skill-based classes are particularly popular for people around the age of menopause and beyond. It provides a structure in which to be social while avoiding some of those awkward pitfalls of trying to find someone that one can talk to out in the proverbial wild. Cultivating connections to others will help us deal with both the physical and emotional aspects of menopause while giving us a solid foundation to enter into the next part of our lives on. They may form exactly the right support for any difficult life events yet to come.

These benefits may seem a bit ephemeral to a degree, but remember that the goal is finding the good parts in something. Even the tenuous physical benefits we highlighted briefly have to be properly cultivated for anyone to get something out of them. Making the effort to view menopause as the potential for another beginning is ultimately the key to finding and enjoying its benefits. You’ll quickly find that even the things we think must be bad can all potentially have a positive side.