BONUS: Menopause Your Way 4 Day Retreat with Sonya & Justine

Welcome to the Dear Menopause podcast, where we discuss the menopause transition to help make everyday life a little easier for women. Hi, this is Sonja, the host of Dare Menopause the podcast. This is a bonus episode where I will be chatting with my retreat co-host, justine Thompson, about everything you could possibly want to know about our four day menopause your way retreat being held in New South Wales in September 2023. Hey guys, sonja, here and today I have a very, very special guest with me. I have Justine Thompson sitting on the other end of the line here today and we have come together to talk to you about our very special four day retreat that we are holding in September of this year, 2023. Justine, welcome, hey.

Sonya, how are you doing? Thanks for inviting me in here. Always good to talk to you.

Awesome. I'm super excited to have you on board today. So we are going to really kind of get dive deep into the nuts and bolts of the retreat why we're holding it, why we are the best people to hold this retreat, who is the retreat for, why would women want to come to this retreat, and what you can expect to experience when you're on the retreat with us. So why don't we kick things off, though? But I suppose for any woman that is listening that isn't familiar with who I am, i'll start. Obviously, my name is Sonja Sonja Lovell. I am a my overarching theme. I'm a menopause campaigner at heart, but for my day job, i am a personal trainer and a podcast host of Dear Menopause podcast. Christine, do you want to give us a little riff as to who you are?

Yes, sure, i suppose in my core I am a yoga student and a yoga teacher And I have a very special, passionate interest in women going through all the stages of menopause, helping them navigate that time in their life and then beyond. That's, i suppose, where I come at all this from, that's what I bring to it.

Yeah, And one of the things that we've realized is that you and I, although we have quite different backgrounds in some respects, we also have very, very, very similar passions and a very similar mission And, as a result, I think that has created a synergy between us that actually allows us to work really well together. And we've run workshops together. We've done you know, you've been on the podcast before as well And we just have this great way of being able to present a very rounded, balanced, holistic approach for women going through their menopausal transition. I guess You know, do you have some better words to use around that than I do?

Well, actually, i mean, i agree with you 100%. I love what you bring to this partnership, because there are lots of things that you have encountered in terms of people you've met and information that you have gathered in interviews as well as in your campaigning, that I haven't sort of not been as well across And that has added so much to my ability to offer to students in my community, and I think that we complement one another because we both really want to help women to move through this as part of a positive transformation. So there's so recognizing that, yes, this is difficult and yes, there are some fantastic things that you can do, treatment wise. However, there's a lot, of, a lot of things we can do ourselves and a lot of lifestyle tweaks we can. We can have them, and I think that both of us recognize that and and sort of bring that into our workshops and and we'll bring it into this retreat as well. For me, coming from a yoga background, i have always believed that awareness is one of the greatest things that we can try to foster in people encouraging people to develop their own awareness of themselves and where they sit in life, and and I think that menopause when you go into perimenopause and you and you're in the depths of all of those sort of experiences. You can lose sight of that bigger picture And I like to think that what we do is is shine a bit of the light into that darkness and say, hey, you know, there's, there's, there's something else here. There's a there's an overarching transformational process that that you are part of now and and, and and we're sort of there to help people, to guide people through that, and and I love your energy. I really enjoy working with you because you're full of energy and and you're a lively, zesty woman.

Oh, that's so lovely to hear, thank you. One of the things that I love about working with you and one of the things we're areas where I see, where we do just have this great synergy, is you know, you, you know I really see us as a bit of a yin and a yang, and and then you know you have this you're much more grounded that I am, your, you're much more Zen, i guess, than I am. You have a lot more peace to you And I really tack into that when I'm with you and when I'm around you, and that is really good for me. It's, you know, it's really good for me to to bring my energy levels actually back down sometimes and to be reminded that I need to be grounded and that it is good for me to be still and to just be. Sometimes my, my brain is very active. My science brain goes off in all sorts of directions And this is where I think you know you and I just do come together so well. So I see us really being such a great compliment for women who you know I really acknowledge that the menopausal transition is, you know, at its core. It's something sciencey. It is, you know, it is a physiological change that your body is going through and we need to understand the hormonal transition that is happening and how we can support our body through that And that. But then you bring in so much beauty and, you know, like you said, awareness around how we can support ourselves through the likes of your yoga, needrism, meditation and grounding and a little bit of spirituality. And when we can bring the two of those, those areas together, that is when we can be so, so powerful in how we care for ourselves and how we can really show up in the world.

Yeah, that's lovely, thank you. Yeah, i think that that's, and you know that also calls to mind how we benefit from coming together as a, whether it's two women like you and I working together, or a group of women coming together in a circle and sharing. And that's one of the things that we do And we will do on the retreat, but we'll we also do it in our workshops, giving women the opportunity to share their experiences or their concerns and helping people to listen and understand that there's a common, common experience that often moves through different lives.

Yeah, there really is nothing more powerful than then for us being the women that are creating the space and holding the space. But then for the women that are coming together, as you say, into the spaces and on this retreat, you know that this is going to be an incredible space of four days together, three nights, four days. You know this is going to be a judgment free space where you are going to meet women just like you, who are probably coming into it with a little bit of fear, a little bit of, you know, not too sure what to hear maybe. You know life feels a little bit, you know, hurly, burly and there's, you know, a little bit of chaos going on. This is going to be a space where you can talk openly about that and, and you may be surprised to learn how many other women feel just just the same as you and you're going to be able to share, you know, so much of what you're experiencing with other women. Learn from them a that you're not alone be. You know, maybe, what strategies they've used, what's worked for them, what hasn't. You know this isn't just going to be about us, you know, giving you advice on what we believe can work. You know this is also going to be so much about learning from each other and you know that's the beauty of the woman circle and, you know, creating that safe space for you to be held in a judgment free space where you can be transparent, you can be authentic, you can be honest, maybe, about some stuff that you haven't really been able to in the environment that you live in day to day.

That's hugely important and I think, going back to what you say about us creating the space, that's that's really our role is ultimately to create this nurturing, open space for women to come into, and we and what we've planned is is, yes, there's going to be some, some meditation and some yoga and and there'll be information, but there's going that idea of having lots of free time for the women to be able to sit and stare at the breeze, moving through the trees, or to talk to one another or go and curl up and have a map much needed and have a map if that's what they want. A huge part of our job is to hold that space and you know I'd like to be able to bring in some journal prompts each day, so there's something for people to consider and if they want to go deeply into that and and write up about it in a, that's great. For some women it might be that it's just something that consider and hold mentally and and don't need to write about. I think that you know people get a little bit nervous about coming on a retreat if they've never done one before. They think it's going to be very scheduled and I'll have to do so much of this, and then I'll be here, and then I'll be there and and this is not what we have planned I think in the retreats that I've run in the past it's there's so much value in that free time and seeing people come back together after they've had two hours of wandering around or lying in a sunny spot. Then new interesting conversations spark up out of that. It's like we take a little time to shed those layers that we wear every day. I think that that's what that space allows for. We slowly start to peel some things away.

I think, when we talk about when you and I sat down to create this retreat itself, one of the things that we were both really clear on was we wanted it to be long enough in the sense of the three nights, four days to really allow the attendees, the women that come along to the retreat, to really unplug from their normal everyday environments, because we just don't do that often enough, we don't gift ourselves the space to maybe you go to the beach for an hour for a walk by yourself once a weekend or once a day. Even that is, it's not long enough to do exactly what you're talking about, which is to really A get those prompts from external sources, of whether you journal them or whether they're just something that you sit and contemplate and marinate on, then to let the layers peel back on what you really think and then allow yourself to really just sit in that, without the external factors of work and home and family and the washing and the shopping and all of those things just come penetrating into that bubble. We've created an environment where you can be completely disconnected from everything else that exists in your normal day to day life so that you truly can dive deeply into all of the information that you'll gather from us over the weekend, the discussions that you have with other women. You can use all of that as prompts. For what do I feel about this? and nothing that we tell you is going to be in lecture style. Nothing is going to be. You must go home and you must do this, and there will be no activated almonds and there will be no Pete Evans style lectures on what you must eat and what you mustn't. It will all be information to nourish your brain. It will be information to nourish your spirit and information to nourish your body. And then you get all these days to just sit and let all of that marinate, and then you get to take it home and implement what feels right for you.

Definitely. That's part of the gift of being on a retreat. It's a radical act, and I was teaching a class at the start of this week and we were doing a restorative class, so a lot of lying over bolsters, as one of the students likes to say. oh, we're just going to lie over the bolsters, that's all we did for an hour and a half. One of the students said oh, it's amazing how you describe it as a radical act, and that's exactly what it is. It's so radical to just stop and put myself first and be here with myself and let everything else just rest for three days, four days. I think that that's something that we don't do anywhere near enough anymore.

I would give everybody that is listening a perhaps a little challenge to reflect on the last time that you gifted yourself that opportunity.

We make space for it in our lives, for our children or our partner, or for work. I've gone and do that for work. How often do you actually just go? this isn't about me.

This is for me.

Beautiful.

Shall we talk a little bit more in detail about what you can expect on the retreat. Outside of the marinating and the prompting We will be, there will be yoga sessions. One of the things we want to be really clear about when we do talk about yoga sessions is that you do not have to be a student of yoga or have done yoga before to enjoy these yoga sessions. Justine, you are the yoga expert. Do you want to describe a little bit more about how that works?

Yes, of course, what I have planned is in the morning we will do a general movement practice of yoga. That's really just to get the energy flowing. There will be. It will be suitable for all levels. If you already have an existing yoga practice, then of course you will be able to take a few options further than if you are a complete beginner. A lot of the yoga that we will do really will be around relaxation and restoration of the body and things like meditation. Meditation can again, you can set off a lot like oh no, i can't meditate. Oh no, i'm terrible at meditating. I have to be honest and say that I struggle with meditating myself and I've been doing it for 20 odd years. There are just some days when your brain is like wow, wow, wow, wow, and I know lots of different techniques for meditating. There's lots of different practices that we can do. The ones that we will be doing on the retreat will be very simple, something because what I want to do is give you some options that you can take home and think, oh, i see, you know, i like that. That works. For me at the time, that felt useful, or I felt like I got into a calmer space, so I'm going to try that for a few days. So simple things like working with the breath, learning to watch your breath. So you can do that by inhaling for a count of three and exhaling for a count of five Really simple practice and your mind distracts you, you lose the breath and you don't go into oh no, i've lost it. You bring yourself back to the breath and you start the count again. So when you start to do those sorts of simple practices, they ripple out and into the rest of your life, because one, you start to become aware of your own breathing and are you breathing through a stressful situation or are you actually holding your breath and ensure it starts to help you to become aware of the stories that you might tell yourself or that, those sort of judgmental comments, those snappy little things that fire up. And once you start to become aware of those, they lose some of their impact because you go oh look, i'm doing that again. So that's the sort of meditation that we'll do, and then I will also lead some yoga nitra, and yoga nitra is a form of guided meditation. So all that is required of you for that is that you lie in a comfortable position and pay attention to the words that I'm speaking And that runs, for you know they will be doing them for about 30 minutes And they take you into a deeply meditative, relaxed state where you start to recognize yourself as the witness of the experience rather than being deeply the doer, as we always are in our lives, and we're always really doing and acting out, and so this gives you an opportunity to come into that state of resting, in a state of being. So it's not all very approachable, all very approachable Yes, that's the word accessible for complete newbies. I don't teach a type of yoga that is, you know, you mean requires you to be super flexible and or, you know, have the, have the strength of 10, 10 lines, you know, if you have issues around, you know, knees or hips, or then. These are sorts of the questions that I'll be asking before the retreat begins, and then I can accommodate them in a practice. We can do some chair yoga If people you know want to work with chairs, and we can do that. It's really. It's really about helping you to see that how movement can help you in the morning, just shift a little bit of energy and get going into the day, especially if you've been experiencing tight achy joints, then that's really what I'm trying.

I'm not trying to convert anyone into yoga land Yoga land excellent, and I've experienced, obviously, yoga with Justine, and the yoga needers are out of this world. They are my absolute favorite form of meditation and my favorite way to spend time with Justine, because I get to lie down and relax and she just talks to me. It's wonderful. Yeah, so there will be the yogas, there will be meditation, there'll be yoga needers. Then, you know and these will all be optional, of course, as well So if you know, you really decide that this is absolutely not your bag, then you totally will never be forced into doing something You don't want to do, but they will be a part of each day at the retreat. We then will have a series of workshops, but they'll be very casual. They'll be very discussion-based, where we'll talk about a series of different topics. You know we will be talking about nutrition and how you can work with food and nutrition as your body transitions through into the menopausal years. You know you do need to start looking at your nutrition a little bit differently and needs to change. As women, you know, our protein becomes so much more important as we start to lose a little bit of muscle mass through the loss of estrogen, so that becomes our priority that we really need to shift up our priority list more than we ever have at any other stage in our lives, and you know I'll be guiding everybody through all the different ways that you can very easily incorporate more protein into your diet, whether that's plant-based protein or animal-based, dependent on what your nutritional needs are. You know that's where it will always be discussion-based, conversational workshop We will talk about. You know, one of the workshops that I'm really excited to run is we're going to, you know, take you through a little bit of a guided exercise around, perhaps a bit of a midlife audit, like you know where. You know Justine mentioned, you know, giving you some journaling prompts, but you know, perhaps a little bit more of a structured workshop around everything that you've achieved in this. You know, past first half of your life, who are you in this midlife point that you're at today And who do you want to be moving forward? You know what do you want your legacy to be and what has served you well to now and that you want to continue taking forward with your perhaps there's some things that you want to leave behind and you want to, you know, bring some new things into your life. What brings you joy? Are you spending enough time doing the things that bring you joy? I had a great conversation with a podcast guest recently about how we can actually tap back into what some of those things that bring us joy are, and we actually find some of those by reflecting back on our childhood. What did we, what things did we do when our childhood that brought us joy, that we left behind in our twenties and our thirties Because, you know, we were twenties and our thirties. We were doing different things, we were at the clubs, we were doing whatever, but you know, maybe it's actually a really nice time to go back to those And you know I'm really excited to be taking everybody through an exercise around that. You know, we'll also talk about exercise and movement and all the different ways that we can move our bodies and different ways that you can perhaps start prioritising movement in your life as well, through your transitional years and beyond, and the reasons why prioritising particularly strength work becomes so important. Again, linked back to that muscle mass loss that I talked about, i think that the midlife audit.

I think that that's really exciting Because, again, how often do you get time to sit down and do that? And it's not something you can do in five minutes. I finished my shopping life. I finished my shopping, i did a midlife audit. You know, it takes a while to let the mind be clear And again you've sort of got to shed a few layers and then things start to bubble up And you think, oh, you know, i've been doing that for the last five years and it really shits me. I don't want to do that anymore. I've time to let that go. Yeah, oh, i'm really excited for that session.

I'm actually like oh sorry, they're the types of things that we have planned from a workshop perspective as well. But in saying all of this, as Justine touched on, i don't want anyone to think that we are just going to be jam-packed and scheduled up the Wazoo and running from one session to the next. There will be a lot of downtime and you will have plenty of time to adjust. The venue that we have chosen, the retreat, the carawari forest escape, is absolutely stunning. The inside spaces, as well as the outside spaces, are beautiful. There is lots of big internally. There's big communal areas that really encourage everyone to just sit around in these big comfy lounges, around fireplaces, with the sun streaming in, to really just stop and be and just enjoy each other's company. So we're going to make sure that there is plenty of time built in for all of that as well.

And we have an absolutely fantastic caterer who is going to. She's come up with a menu which is all food and really nutritious, beautiful tasting foods but perfectly slot in with the nutritional needs of women during this stage of life. And really the food is one of the most important things, because you get hungry, you're doing and you're not doing, and you just have a chance to eat some really great food. We're going to sit around on this long table and enjoy each other's company while we eat, and the food is always something that I look forward to the most.

Yeah, there's going to be a lot of nourishing, i think, around that long table, both from a food perspective as well as souls, i think.

Yeah.

And I think we have conversations and yeah, I can't wait for that. And I know when we went through the menu and we chose the food with the caterer and you know, oh my goodness, I can't wait for some of those meals that we've decided.

So you can sign when you're not watering as you read through the list.

I know, choosing the, choosing the meals for each day, and very excited. So this you know, i think, justine, i'll hand over to you in a second. To you know, give your kind of little summary on this, but I really feel this is an incredible opportunity for you know, any anyone that's listening, any woman that really is feeling that urge to. You know, step away from the chaos, the hustle, the bustle of work, of life, of family, and take some time out to really give back to yourself, to allow yourself to open up to some new possibilities, to perhaps taking some time to explore what you're, the next half of your life might look like, to future proof your body from a nutritional and a movement perspective, and to really, really embrace, you know, what we have named this retreat, which is menopause your way, and that is moving into the second half of your life on your terms. So this is an opportunity for you to really set the groundwork for what that will be.

I think that that's. you've summed it up really beautifully. Yeah, and you know it's, the more women who do things like this, the better our communities become, you know it's so. ultimately, yes, you are, you're doing something for yourself, but when you go home, back to your life, the people that you live with, that you surround yourself with, work with whatever, they will all benefit. It's a, it's a. it's a. it's a ripple out. I love that. I think that that's that's a great reason to be coming as well. But you know, i can't wait to meet these women. I'm, you know, i know that we have people booked already and I'm very excited about that, that we have some spaces available, and I'm really, i'm really looking forward to seeing everyone arriving up, pulling up and they're facing as they look at this stunning location and then getting out of their cars and just like, oh, i'm here, yeah.

And just washing everything, letting everything, just leaving it all behind you and moving into the next four days. So let's talk, then, just a little bit more about the nitty gritty, the details of the retreat. So this is four days in September. So it is arriving on Friday, the eighth of September, and then leaving on Monday, the 11th of September. So four days, september 2023 in New South Wales. Now it the the retreat venue, is called Carawiri Forest Escape. It's located about just over three hours kind of north and a little bit west of Sydney, in an area I think the closest kind of well-known little town to it is Dungal.

Yeah, Yeah, it sits between Stroud and Dungal, if you're, if you're familiar with either of those places. So it's, if you come in from South, then you, you basically are going to move, come up through the highway out of Sydney and then then you sort of head off into the Hunter Valley area. Yeah, it's, it's a very 200, is it 200 or 500, 300 acres of of forest.

Forest Yeah, in a purpose built retreat house. Yes, it was built during COVID, so it's very new. The rooms there are options with the rooms. For now. This will depend on bookings moving forward, but right now we have five rooms left. Now they can be booked as five private rooms So you can book a room to yourself. It will be shared bathrooms but they're beautiful, big, lush, gorgeous bathrooms, but there are, or you can take one of those rooms and split it into two king single beds, so it's a twin share room And maybe, if you have a you want to share with a friend or your sister or something like that, that might be a nice way for you to to utilize one of those rooms as well. So they're the rooms that we have available now for booking And really you don't need to bring anything other than yourself and open heart and an open mind and being willing to meet new friends And, yeah, and perhaps go home with a few layers less than you arrived with.

Yes, exactly. And one other thing is until the until the end of this month, we have early bird pricing.

So yeah, so this is been required in June 30th of June. Yep, so this is being recorded. In June. The early bird pricing expires on the 30th of June, so you still have time to jump in and take advantage of that. But if you have missed that date, then and there are still spaces available, then jump onto the sales page, which will all be linked through in the show notes, but you'll be able to go to grace and power dot com. Dot au is the website, and you'll find there's a little button there that says New South Wales retreat and that will take you straight through to the sales page. I mean, it's easily accessible from really, whether you're coming from north down the coast, from Newcastle across, so north coast down Newcastle, across Sydney or south coast up it's. It's going to be really easily accessible. Once we do have every, all our bookings completed and the retreat is sold out, we will create probably a WhatsApp group for all the participants to actually do a little bit of a meet and greet so that if anybody wants to coordinate carpooling or anything like that, that will be easily coordinated between you guys And that way you also won't feel like you're arriving and have no idea who everybody else is, that you're. You'll have had that opportunity to know everybody's names, and, and, and have had a little opportunity to get to know them. Oh, and the other thing that I didn't mention is we have some really lovely sponsors as well that have gifted us some lovely little treats for all the ladies that are attending. So everybody will be receiving some beautiful little treats from our sponsors and that we won't. I don't think we'll give away too much about that, but there will be some little treats on arrival from the beautiful sponsors of the event.

Yeah, it's lovely, isn't it?

Yes, very, very grateful.

All those little little delights that people get to open up when they are, and I think with the, with our, with our people that do book will will make sure that we answer any questions you have. So if you feel a little bit like, oh, i don't know how I'm going to find the place, and we'll talk you through that, so it can be a can be a bit of an adventure. I have had women come to retreat So they have never been on a retreat before that, never done something like this on their own, and the sense of achievement when they, when they arrive, they're like look at me, which is really lovely, but it's always really useful to be able to say, okay, i'm here, sonia and I are here, we're going to be answering your questions, we will. We're not going to just sort of make your own way there and we'll see you and get there. No, absolutely not, we'll look after you for sure, absolutely, yeah.

Okay, i don't think there's anything else that we need to run through at this point. We are both completely accessible. If you have any questions at any point in time, we're both on social media. Everything will be in the show notes. There is a contact form on the web page as well, where you can always reach out and ask us any questions. Yeah, please don't be shy. If there is any question that you have, no matter how silly you might think it is, there is no such thing as a silly question Reach out and ask us, because we would be really disappointed to think that somebody didn't come to the retreat purely because they didn't reach out and ask a question.

Yes, definitely Yeah. The only silly question is the one you don't ask.

Oh, that's very good. I might steal that. Awesome Justine. Thank you so much for joining us Everybody that's listening. We cannot wait to meet you. This is the first of our retreats that we are holding in New South Wales. We would love to think that there would be opportunities for us to hold these. We've already been approached about perhaps something in Victoria coming up in the future. So if you have an idea or if you have a group already together and you are like, hey, i would love you guys to come down I've already got the ladies organised then hit us up and let us know And we would love to chat to you about listing a retreat for you. Yeah, fantastic.

Thank you, sonia, take care, chat soon.

Thank you for listening today. I am so grateful to have these conversations with incredible women and experts And I'm grateful that you chose to hit play on this episode of dare men a pause. 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 stellarwomencomau 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.