About This Belonging
Free Your Menopause is a menopause rite of passage school.
Our culture has forgotten about rite of passage in general, and certainly has forgotten that menopause is one of life’s major rites of passage.
So no one knew to tell you that there are 5 stages of awakening power during your peri and post menopause years, and if you know how to work with these stages, your menopause passage will be so much more enjoyable and make so much more sense.
That’s what Free Your Menopause is here to do.
The Passionate Mission
Defuse negative menopause beliefs in the culture and in ourselves.
Ensure women know how the rite of passage part of menopause works.
Amplify the awakening power in peri and post menopause women.
Connect women in a worldwide web of camaraderie and support.
One of many screens of women during a powerful FYM event moment.
The Remembering
First, The Forgetting
Menopause has endured a character assassination. The silence and isolation due to cultural taboos around anything having to do with menstruation. The derogatory stereotypes of overly-emotional crazy ladies. Capitalism’s obsession with selling us products to “fix” aging. The shame around being seen as undesirable, invisible, irrelevant as we grow older. The lack of widespread information about menopause, or even recognition that menopause exists.
The Truth
All of the above is crap. We all know it deep down inside. And if we really tap into what’s true… we remember. That all phases of a woman’s life are sacred, important and valuable to her community. That there is nothing to “fix”. That those amplified emotions are simply hormones or perfectly reasonable deep feelings about big life changes. That we are a different kind of desirable now - a richer desirable with more dimension and depth. That we are even more visible and relevant to those who value wisdom and experience. That anything having to do with menstruation is not dirty, but rather an expression of the ultimate power to create life.
That menopause is a development to be celebrated - a graduation from one life phase to the next. And that menopause is a time for women to connect, share stories, laugh, cry and everything in between.
Rite Of Passage
When we remember the truth, we recognize that the menopause journey is simply a rite of passage. So that’s how we “do” menopause at Free Your Menopause - a beautiful, profound crossing from one life phase to the next.
All rites of passage follow the same transformational trajectory. The journey begins (in this case perimenopause symptoms). Then the heroine navigates the “liminal” or in between phase which can feel like being lost or desiring change but not quite yet able to make it.
All the while, a deeper power is awakening, born of the lessons of the previous chapter. And if we approach the trials during the passage (in this case physical, emotional and situational challenges) from the rite of passage perspective, they hone strengths that will serve in the coming life phase. The heroine emerges a different person - deepened and changed in preparation for the new chapter.
There are five key skills to navigate a rite of passage, and that’s what Free Your Menopause participants learn while also being guided in ritual, ceremony and meaningful activities to facilitate the passage.
Founder - Lisa Hunter
Interspiritual Minister specializing in Rite of Passage
Hi, I’m Lisa Hunter and my response to menopause used to be “Ew!”
Now my biggest love is the deeper power that emerges in every women when we do menopause as a rite of passage.
But how did I go from “Ew” to true…
Where I’ve Been
At 54, I’m now in post menopause after navigating my own nine-year perimenopause journey.
I’ve experienced “all the things” - gnarly physical menopause challenges, shift in caretaker roles in my family, a big geographical move of my home base, questioning and reinventing of my life direction.
It took me a long time to accept that my body was changing from simply adult woman to middle-aged woman and soon into wise woman years.
Friends would say, “I think those are perimenopause symptoms you’re experiencing” and I’d brush them off, annoyed and thinking “Yeah that’s not gonna happen to me.”
Which is so funny, right? Somehow I was thinking I was not “one of those people” who would get old. But no one escapes menopause or aging! It’s just such a trip how it took my brain and soul a period of time to really get that. I will always be young at heart, but yes, my body will continue to change.
The Aha
A mentor of mine suggested that I do rite of passage with women on the menopause journey and my visceral reaction was “Ew! I don’t want to be associated with menopause.”
Not too long after I walked away, it hit me: “Wait a minute, WHY am I so disgusted??”
And then it hit me deeper: I didn’t want to be associated with menopause because I’d bought into all the derogatory messaging fueled by capitalism, patriarchal structures and our culture’s demonization of the divine feminine.
These are things I’d fought all my life against and here I was buying into them without even realizing it. Wow.
When I at last recognized menopause as a powerful and beautiful rite of passage journey to get clear on who I am and what I’m creating next, and to strengthen my relationship with my body as it prepares for more metamorphosis, everything changed for the better. I am so excited to share this process with you too.
I am trained as an Interspiritual Minister, which means that I believe that there are as many recipes for spirituality as there are people in the world, and my programs focus on supporting meaning making for each individual in their unique style, rather than on dogma or rigid belief systems. I graduated in 2013 from the two-year seminary program at One Spirit Interfaith Seminary in New York.
I first fell in love with rites of passage as a full-time wedding officiant and have facilitated over 800 couples on the journey from engagement to marriage (www.CeremoniesWithLisa.com).
My even deeper love though, is helping women to empower themselves during significant life transitions. I have led transformational rite of passage body image groups with teenage girls, women’s circles for female business owners stepping into first-time entrepreneurship, and most recently these Free Your Menopause programs.
All in all, I’ve guided over 10,000 hours of spiritual inquiry guidance, ceremony and rite of passage for the beautiful humans I’ve had the honor of working with over the years.
I’m so happy that you’ve found Free Your Menopause. I look forward to getting to know you, and can’t wait to do this powerful work together!
“Lisa’s a sure-footed, divinely-directed medicine woman leading the next wave of feminine unapologetic movers and shakers through circle gatherings and so much more!” - Annette N.
