Hibiscus family © lynette sheppard
With all the wonderful remedies and helps we have found to help us on the Menopause journey, the singular most important one is girlfriends. A group of like-minded, like-afflicted women can share humor, heart, and help with one another. I can’t imagine dealing with the Big M without the goddesses.
On a whim, Theresa-Venus and I asked a group of women to attend a long weekend to discuss Menopause and ultimately the Second Act of our lives. It turned out to be one of the most important things we have ever done. Over 10 years later, and the Venuses still meet annually. We come from all over the country, so once a year is all we can manage with our busy lives. And we share and cover so much that it lasts us an entire year.
If you don’t have girlfriends who are going through the same changes as you are, we urge you to start your own Menopause Goddess Group. And so you don’t have to re-invent the wheel, here is how you do it!
In answer to those who have written wanting to know how to begin their own menopause goddess group, we offer this little nuts-and-bolts guide based on our experience with the Venuses.
Getting The Right Mix
Theresa-Venus and I started by asking one another “Are there any others out there like us, who are wondering just what the @#&* is going on with this crazy time of life?” We subsequently invited women we knew (in turn having them ask one or two of their friends) to join us for a weekend slumber party with a focus.
First, and foremost, we didn’t try to overcontrol the makeup of the group. Whether blessed or naive, we simply trusted that the right women would come together for our first gathering. Naturally, we did avoid asking women who routinely seem to suck the oxygen out of any room they occupy. Thankfully we know few of them. (Although it seems like everyone knows at least one!)
Begin Before The First Gathering
Again, looking back, we see how important it was to start working before we came together initially. We devised and sent out a questionnaire to all our potential attendees, as well as to some women who were interested in the questions for themselves once they heard about what we’d planned. (These women were satellite Venuses and contributed their thoughts and feelings in the spirit of helping us all.) The questionnaire was to be completed and returned prior to our first meeting. It was also meant to weed out anyone who wasn’t serious about working on these issues and questions together. Interestingly enough, no one opted out and most spent a great deal of time and soul searching in their answering.
Theresa-Venus and I also thought that our questionnaire might serve as a focusing tool and general icebreaker when we did come together. Little did we suspect that it would serve as much more. The process of looking at our attitudes and feelings, past and present, fostered a level of self-awareness that propelled Meeting One forward. Our questions and answers also helped inform our group as a whole. Personal information gleaned was as new to each individual goddess as it was to our sisters. Yet universal themes emerged and we knew we were on the right track. For a pdf copy of our questionnaire click the following link: questionnaire_for_blog. (Pdf files require Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can download Adobe Acrobat Reader for free – click here.)
Enough for today, goddesses. Stay tuned for part Two in the next blog post. If you have burning questions about starting your own Venus group, comment or write us by clicking on Contact Us on the left side of the homepage.
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