Meet Claire (@clairesteichen), today’s Elektra #MenopauseMonday spotlight! There are so many negative aspects of menopause; we loved hearing Claire’s story of spiritual reawakening & creativity. Thank you Claire, for reminding us of the importance of surrender.
Can we get a 💁♀️💁♀️ for Claire?
Claire Steichen: “In my 40’s, I knew I was having “symptoms-lite,” but it was hard to tell what was what. I had children late and discovered that there are good reasons to have kids in your 20’s — energy! I’d also been managing hypothyroidism since my early 30’s. I started my own business just after I turned 41, and had spent three years taking a lot of care of my mom. So fatigue, impatience and up and down days were normal.
Then last April, my hormones went berserk. I had a week of intense hot flashes, every 15 minutes, and could barely leave the house. After running to my OBGYN and talking to lots of friends, I ended up taking black cohosh and adrenal supplements, which were great. I felt better. What I didn’t notice right away was that my mood started declining and I had NO. INTEREST. IN. WORK. That’s a drag when you own your own business. By August I was burnt out and freaked out, and I still didn’t realize it was the hormones. I thought I’d just lost interest in my business, which somehow made sense after 10 years.
At that point I totally surrendered. I spent several weeks resting and sleeping. I took stock. I got help for my mom, got a shared workspace so I’d have some company during the day, talked to older friends who’d been through menopause, and decided to open myself to anything, even closing my business. I ended up interviewing for an amazing position at a consultancy and realizing that I had so much more to offer than I’d thought — having your own business leaves you in a bit of a vacuum that way. And importantly, I explored a very spiritual and self-reflective path that led me to a realization: Menopause is a wildly creative time for women. We can finally let go of internal wounds and limiting beliefs that we didn’t even know were there. And we are more in charge of our destiny than ever. That has been incredible and right now I am feeling like “bring it on!”
I turned down the job and chose instead to refocus and scale my business. My practice has always focused on career management for women. Now I am working with a lot more 40 and 50-somethings who are ready — to gently evolve, or to go for broke.”
Updated: Sep 25, 2019