70: An Intentional Pause

Welcome to the Dear Menopause podcast, where we discuss the menopause transition to help make everyday life a little easier for women. I am your host, Sonya Lovell, and I'm here with something a little bit different for you today because I have an announcement to make. Dear Menopause is taking an intentional pause. Yes, it has been 70 episodes today, which means I all, by my lonesome, have been pumping out weekly interviews, episode production, episode publishing for 70 plus weeks, because there's been some bonus episodes along the way there as well. And I love Dear menopause. I seriously do. I love everything that she stands for. I love every guest that I have had on the show. I love every listener that I know is out there listening, those of you that reach out to me via email, through reviews on the different platforms, through my social media. I am so incredibly grateful for you and I am so happy to know that you have gained so much from listening to Dear Menopause. I love her like a sister. Actually, I probably love her a little bit more, but, like everything in life, we need a little break from time to time, and I have decided that now is the time to take a little bit of an intentional pause from Dear Menopause. Now, this is not a permanent breakup. I want to assure you she will be back In your mind. Perhaps she's taking a few weeks in Europe, like apparently everybody else. Perhaps she's taking a few weeks in Bali. Maybe she's just crawling up into the fetal position in her walk-in wardrobe and she'll come out when she's ready. She is just having a little break, like me. I want to make sure that you know when she is back, because she will be back. To do that, you need to make sure that you are following the show, on whatever platform it is that you are listening. If you are on Apple Podcasts, if you are on Spotify, if you are on one of those other smaller platforms, but following along every week, please make sure that you have hit follow for the show, because that way you will get a notification when the next episode of Dear Menopause is back. Now I do have something a little bit special lined up for you. In the meantime, I am not leaving you hanging completely. I have been working away in the background on a little sub-series of Dear Menopause with a very good friend of mine. Over the next four weeks there will be a weekly episode drop of that sub-series. It will drop on a Wednesday as opposed to a Friday. That is one thing that will be a little bit different with those episodes. If your schedule means that you listen to my episodes every Friday, you can stick with that schedule. That episode will still be there waiting for you every Friday morning. If you just can't wait to get your hands on an episode a little bit earlier, it will be there for you on a Wednesday instead. Now, I'm not going to give away too much for you. I want you to have something to look forward to, but there will be four sub-series episodes dropping, starting next Wednesday. So a little something there for you to look forward to and to look out for. Thank you so so very much for listening in to all these amazing episodes. Thank you to all of my incredible guests that I have had on. I am so beyond grateful and a little bit surprised at the quality of guests that I have been able to bring you over their past 70 episodes. I have learned so much from having my guests on the show, so I know that you have learned so much from listening to them. I'm not somebody that is able to go through life doing the same thing day after day, week after week, year after year. That has never been a pattern of my life. Just ask my husband, who just does not understand why I haven't been able to hold down the same job for the last five, 10, 15 years. So it is very much in my nature not to be able to replicate the same role week after week. It is quite natural for me to reach this point with a project, to want to shape things up a little bit. Absolutely, in my heart and in my gut know that this is not the end of Dear Menopause. It is just time for me to hit pause, and intentional pause, whilst I create some space to work on what little tweaks I want to make so that when I bring her back she will be fresh, she will be sparkly and she will be bringing you something to revitalize and re-engage you all over again. I cannot wait to see what that is and what that looks like. That's it. That's my big announcement. I hope that you enjoy the next four episodes that I have coming up for you of this subseries. Please send me feedback, let me know what you think, because this subseries is a bit of a tease of something new that is coming. I would absolutely love to know your thoughts and get your feedback on the content that we are delivering through the subseries. Thank you, thank. You have an amazing few weeks. I look forward to being back in your ears very, very soon. Thank you for listening today. I am so grateful to have these conversations with incredible women and experts. I'm grateful that you chose to hit play on this episode of Dear Menopause. If you have a minute of time today, please leave a rating or a review. I would love to hear from you, because you are my biggest driver for doing this work. If this chat went way too fast for you and you want more, head over to stellarwomen. com. au slash podcast for the show notes and, while you're there, take my midlife quiz to see why it feels like midlife is messing with your head.