Customer Reviews

Yoga and the Wisdom of Menopause: A Guide to Physical, Emotional and Spiritual Health at Midlife and Beyond

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Whether you are premenopausal, menopausal or post menopausal, Suza Francina's newest book has something for you. "Yoga and the Wisdom of Menopause" offers advice and specific yoga poses to practice for hormonal changes, mood swings, fatigue, hot flashes, osteoporosis, stress and heart health among others. I was adamantly opposed to HRT and feel practicing yoga during my premenopausal years made my transition so much easier. I loved Suza's first book, "The New Yoga for People Over 50", and this new one is filled to the brim with her research on menopause and how yoga can be used as a tool to balance the effects of the natural hormonal and glandular changes of menopause. I consider it an excellent resource and highly recommend it for women seeking alternative methods of dealing with this natural mid-life transition.

I read Suza Francina's book, "Yoga and the Wisdom of Menopause" because I am a yoga student and a menopausal women. I am also a nurse working in women's healthcare. I was pleasantly suprised to find that this book helped me on a personal level as well as a professional level.
The book is a wealth of information that can answer many questions regarding menopause and what our bodies might endure.
The book explains how yoga can support one's health during the menopause transition. Topic's discussed are hormonal balance, fatique, hot flahes, pelvic health, osteoporosis, cancer, and heart disease. The book shows how yoga can help women with any of these health concerns. The yoga poses suggested to relieve side effects of menopause are clearly described and illustrated with photographs.
This book is very inspiring and I highly recommend it to my associates, clients and friends.

With this book, Suze Francina - Certified Iyengar Yoga teacher, applies Yoga and its therapeutic use to the challenging stage of menopause in a women's life. Her vast experience with Iyengar Yoga and her personal experience of the stage gives her real-life experience about how Yoga can be useful for calming the mind and the body during menopause.

As with any problem or symptom, it is useful to know what all parts of the body are affected first. The book addresses each of the symptoms that are a result of the phase - hormonal changes, hot flashes, pelvic health, stress, etc. You will find sequences of postures that are suitable to address the symptom. Suza encourages the use of props which is critical for people starting Yoga at these ages.

A key aspect of this book as in her earlier book is the inspirational stories of women who have faced the challenges by practicing yoga. The stories are alone enough to motivate you to look at Yoga as a cure to the problem. It is true that Yoga is extremely effective in calming the mind and this itself is a key aspect in its therapeutic effects on various ailments. What this book stands out is to help one choose a challenging aspect such as hot flashes and go straight to the chapter and see how Yoga could help. As a yoga teacher myself, I find the guidance extremely useful in letting women know how Yoga can help.

Suza's experience in dealing with the issue goes to a higher level than merely a prescriptive approach. 'Menopause is indeed a wake-up call to take care of ourselves' she writes. She rightly brings spirituality into the cure. A lot of physical and mental ailments can be faced effectively by feeling spiritual; the strength you find in being spiritual is stronger over the long run than many medicines. 'Yoga has helped me embrace my menopause, heal, grow, let go and move on. I want the same for you'.

If you know that Yoga can help many ailments and are getting to or into menopause, you will certainly benefit from this effort coming out with a good amount of knowledge about what happens and how Yoga can help.

It is an honor to write a review for Suza Francina's new book Yoga and the Wisdom of Menopause. I began my yoga practice with Suza over 20 years ago. Her inspiration led me to train as an Iyengar yoga instructor. After practicing with her through our pregnancies,we even gave birth on the same day! Now at the threshold of our menopausal years,I find her newest tome to be an invaluable resource for myself as well as many of my students.Her experience,along with many of her students personal stories invite the reader to feel less isolated and at ease as we make this transitional journey together. The technical aspect of the book is superb with clearly defined directions and the use of supportive props,thereby encouraging the deep restorative effect while remaining in the pose for a longer period of time. Suza has also chosen a variety of models who represent all body types. This dispells an old myth of the "perfect yoga body."Again, this illustrates her inclusivity as she celebrates and invites all women from every walk of life to nurture and balance themselves emotionally, physically and spiritually. I have watched her over the years experiment, resarch and gather her material to write this enlightening book. She has come back up from the depths of her study with an extraordinary pearl.

For almost two years, I have been teaching Iyengar yoga to mostly seniors. The average age of the students is 75; the age range runs from 25 to 84.

The classes the city offers last ten weeks, and last week was the last week in one of these ten week sessions. Since the last week usually has lower attendance, I promised the class we would do a sequence from Francina's book for fatigue and adrenal exhaustion.

To make a long story short, I forgot what I had promised and didn't have all the props I needed in this larger than usual class. Boy, did the students let me know that I had promised them this sequence.

I shouldn't have been surprised.Whenever I have used a sequence from this book, the students have loved it and commented on the "good class." From an instructor's point of view, the book is well organized, the content is explained well, and makes a wonderful reference.

As a woman entering menopause, I have found this book to be packed with valuable information. Francina does not merely make claims for yoga postures -- she backs up those claims with scientific explanations, and goes into great detail describing the effect menopause has on the on the different glands of the body, then recommends postures to help deal with different situations (hot flashes, insomnia, etc.). I recently had comprehensive bloodwork done by my M.D., which indicated poorly functioning adrenals. My M.D. had no advice to give to correct the situation -- but lo and behold, Francina's book addresses the specific problem, saying that it's a common occurrence during/before menopause. She prescribes specific asanas (postures), which I have been doing regularly. I find them to be energizing and enormously helpful in reducing stress.

As a man who is involved with a woman undergoing menopause, I read this book with keen interest. What I found most remarkable about it is what I would call its visionary perspective. The author is evidently engaged in a far deeper project than merely providing information about how yoga can help mitigate menopausal symptoms -- although on that basic level the book is thoroughly informative, comprehensive, and practical. But the author's larger purpose is to completely reconceptualize how we think about menopause itself. The many first-person stories, as well as the alternative medical information and the author's own exuberant spirit, all combine to give force and meaning to this visionary perspective. (Having said all that, I have to confess I don't know for sure whether yoga can accomplish all the author claims for it -- I might still end up recommending to the woman I am involved with that she take some form of supplementary hormones! But first I will give her this book!)

As the Walking Editor for Prevention Magazine, I was priveledged to invite Suza Francina to teach yoga at our annual Walkers Rally several times. A welcoming and understanding teacher, Suza had classes attended twice a day by many of my participants, most over the age of 50, many 60 and 70 year olds. Her easy going style and attention to the way older bodies "work" (or don't) opened the door for many men and women to this wonderful body science.

This book, as well as The New Yoga for People Over 50 are invaluable guides for folks who are experiencing the effects of aging that can slowly erode range of motion and the pleasure and freedom of uninhibited movement. Thank you Suza!

Maggie Spilner
Author
Walk Your Way Through Menopause
Prevention's Complete Book of Walking
Prevention's Encyclopedia of Walking for Health

I was thoroughly impressed with Suza Francina's other book, "The New Yoga For Healthy Aging", so I thought I would check out "Yoga and the Wisdom of Menopause" as well. Once again, I was not disappointed. As a woman who is at midlife, I am concerned about the upcoming 'change of life' and have been reading many books on the subject. Some have been helpful and inspiring - others have been downright depressing. After reading Francina's book, I feel that my yoga practice is giving me options to deal with this new stage of life in a manner that is gentle, life affirming and positive.

"Yoga And The Wisdom of Menopause" is not just a book of poses for your symptoms - it is a friendly guide to this exciting and confusing experience filled with suggested routines and information about a wide range of issues including bone health, heart issues, pelvic problems, cancer and more. Francina is never preachy - instead, she adopts a very kind and spiritual tone, which is comforting. Even when talking about such controversial subjects such as HRT, she states facts without histrionics - this allows the reader to make their own conclusions about what is 'right' for them. Sprinkled throughout the book, other women share their stories about menopause, which gives the reader something to relate to. These anecdotes gave the book a very personal feeling - I found myself nodding in agreement with many of theit experiences.

Although this book is geared towards those of us in the change of life, I think that any woman would find it useful. Francina has an Iyengar background and is strongly influenced by Geeta Iyengar - all female pracitioners of Iyengar style yoga will really benefit from adding this book to their yoga library.

Suza Francina, the author of Yoga and the Wisdom of Menopause, dedicates this book to the Yoga Sisterhood, of which I consider myself a member. I have been practicing yoga off and on since my early 30s and have never really lost my love for this practice.

In this wonderfully arranged book with lots of snapshots of many yoga poses (asanas), Suza has provided the midlife woman with "tools" to help her with the transitional period of midlife that we call menopause. Each chapter tackles a specific topic. For example, Chapter One covers alternatives to hormone therapy and Chapter Two delves into the endocrine system. (Hormones are the substances secreted by the endocrine glands. Hormones are also called "biochemical messengers".) Chapter Four is called The Power of Hot Flashes and Chapters Five, Six, and Seven deal with healthy bones, cancer, and heart disease, respectively.

Each chapter is filled with stories of other women's menopausal stories and how yoga helped them through this midlife transition. In this way, the author also draws upon the wisdom of other yoga practitioners and writers in the field of yoga, putting quotes as sidebars in appropriate places in each chapter. In effect, you are getting the wisdom of many authors, not just Suza's.

The book is easy to read and quite comprehensive. Each chapter has photos of poses that help women as they navigate the menopausal trail. The final chapter is a series of photos as part of Suza's Practice Guide. There is also a helpful Resources section of yoga teachers featured in the book and a Directory for finding a yoga teacher in your area. Francina also includes women's retreats that offer yoga, as well as miscellaneous websites and associations.

Here are a few quotes from Francina's book that will hopefully encourage you to read the book and/or join a yoga class, if you have not already done so:

"Menopause is a metamorphosis, a complete change at the cellular level." (p. xvii)

"Yoga is a `unification' of physiological, psychological and spiritual therapies. It is a healing science that addresses all the concerns of women going through menopause." (p. xviii)

"Yoga postures, besides providing a superior form of weight-bearing exercise that stimulates bones to retain calcium, also help to stimulate and distribute the flow of synovial fluid, which lubricates the joints between bones." (p. 105)

"Yoga can help reduce the risk of breast cancer by stimulating lymph flow, strengthening the endocrine and immune systems, and helping you be more in touch with your body." (p. 127)

"The feminine path to self-realization unfolds when a woman reclaims her own authority over her body and her life. She learns to honor her own needs and rhythms, and to trust her body's innate wisdom." (p. 179)

This book is an excellent resource for all women. It is informative, uplifting, and powerful. Yoga and the Wisdom of Menopause is published by Health Communications, Inc. in Florida and costs $12.95 (soft cover), a bargain for so much information. The publisher's website is www.hcibooks.com.