My Perimenopause Diaries: What a week as a nun taught me about Peri

Dear Diary,

It’s been a year since I lived as a nun for a week… what an extraordinary and profound experience that was. A week immersed in monastic life… waking up at 5.15 am to the sound of bells for the 5.30 Matins prayer, eating in silence and presence, learning  about devotional life, observing my own resistance to certain situations, chanting seven prayers a day, and cleaning… I was allocated to do plenty of cleaning during the daily four hours of “work time.”

Everything was unbelievably clean. I would be searching for crumbs and specks of dust just to “prove I was working.” One day, while I was mopping the library and study room  (a busy area of the monastery), my boss nun arrived, a walking angel who will forever remain in my heart. I said: “Mother, everything is so clean that it feels as if I am cleaning on clean.” she replied in the most gracious way “Of course, that’s how it’s supposed to be.”

That comment was a mic-drop moment. To clean on clean… I realised it’s a profound life philosophy. Why do some of us wait for things to become urgent and important before we do something about them? What would happen if I approached life with the mindset of cleaning on clean, nourishing, and caring for myself daily rather than intervening only when things escalate?

And what has this got to do with Peri? So much!

I sometimes wonder if one reason for the intensity of my Peri symptoms is that I didn’t “clean on clean” in previous years.

While I was in Madrid for three months with my family over summer, I ran out of some of my “essentials.” I hadn’t expected to stay that long and packed for just over two months… you know, the collagens, the magnesiums (or should I say saint magnesium! Honestly, how did I survive before magnesium?). Since my favourite brands are UK based, I thought to myself that surely I can get away with not taking them for a little while.

After a few peak experiences during my time in Spain, I slipped into my own version of a soft-girl season with lots of walks, but weight training? Well… I slipped a little… maybe a lot… who am I kidding, I stopped altogether. Why, why!? Again I told myself that when I got back to London, I would restart.

My skin felt it. My muscles felt it. I felt it.

That old attitude doesn’t work anymore. What I used to get away with in my 20s and 30s has become non-negotiable in Peri. There’s no more “getting away with it.” There’s only the commitment to do my best to clean on clean.

So now I am rebuilding my habit of weight training, and I’ve restocked my supplements.

By the way, something super exciting is happening on Wednesday, the 1st of October; a few months ago, I had the joy of writing a chapter for an upcoming book alongside a remarkable group of women. It’s called Wise Women Don’t Whisper: Menopause, The Ultimate Feminine Rising.

This book is a collection of real stories from real women; what happened, what helped, and what we wish we had known. I cannot wait to read the stories of the other women. I’m sure it will be full of medicine.

Guess where I’m off to now… to do some weight training! 🙂

Until next week,

Lara 🌹

A loving note: I’m sharing my lived experience as a woman who menstruates, knowing that not all women do, and not everyone who menstruates identifies as a woman. This is not advice or a recommendation. If something here inspires you, please research, honour your intuition, check local laws, and seek qualified professional support. Any brands I mention are simply personal favourites; I’m not paid, gifted or affiliated. If that ever changes, I’ll label it clearly. 🧡