080: Rewriting the Menopause Story - Awaken Your Second Spring

Have you ever felt like something is shifting inside you… but you can’t quite explain what it is?

In this heartfelt episode of the Strong Bones Coach Podcast, Carly invites you to reframe menopause — not as an ending, but as an invitation to rediscover the woman you're becoming.

Menopause is so often framed as loss, but what if it's actually your Second Spring; a powerful time to reconnect with your inner wisdom, soften the pressure to do it all, and begin writing a new story based on who you are now?

✨ You’ll explore:

• Why menopause feels like a turning point for so many women
• The emotional shifts and questions that come with midlife
• How to embrace your evolution with compassion (not pressure)
• The powerful symbolism of Second Spring
• Carly’s personal story of shifting from burnout to intention

This is your permission to slow down, tune in, and start asking what you want for this next chapter.

📣 Don't miss Carly’s FREE workshop: Embrace Your Second Spring
🗓 Thursday 17th April | 🕖 7–8pm UK Time | 💻 Online

 Sign up here >> Embrace Your Second Spring FREE Online Workshop

Or head over to Instagram and say hi! >> @thestrongbonescoach

Thanks for listening to the Strong Bones Coach Podcast

If you'd like to get in touch to ask a question about today's episode or to find out how you can get support from my coaching, reach out on the following links:

hello@carlykillencoaching.com

https://www.instagram.com/thestrongbonescoach

Thanks for listening to The Strong Bones Coach Podcast!

If you’d like to get in touch with a question about today’s episode or find out how I can support you with coaching, here’s how to reach me:
📧 Email: hello@carlykillencoaching.com
📱 Instagram: @thestrongbonescoach

Do you crave unshakable confidence in your strength from midlife and beyond? Would you love to achieve your goals without sacrificing family time or self-care?

Ready to take your strength to the next level? Start building a stronger body and healthier bones with my Strong Bones Starter Kit—your step-by-step guide to safe and effective strength training at home.
👉 Click here to learn more and access today

🌟 Stay connected and inspired with daily wellness tips on Instagram @thestrongbonescoach.
🌟 For tailored advice or personal queries, email me at hello@carlykillencoaching.com.

Thank you for being here, and I look forward to supporting you on your journey to strength, health, and confidence! 💪🦴✨

Transcript

Carly: 0:37

Have you ever felt like something is staring inside you, but maybe you can't quite name it, you're not alone? If you're a midlife woman right now, you've probably been brought up to believe that menopause is an ending. Something to dread, to push through, to survive. But what if instead of an ending, it's actually an invitation? An invitation to pause, to reflect, to reclaim the next phase of your life on your terms. Welcome to the Strong Bones Coach Podcast. I'm Carly Killen, your guide and coach, and in today's episode, we are opening up a conversation, a space for you to breathe and remember who you are underneath all of this midlife noise. This week I'm sharing something that's really close to my heart, an idea of a second spring. A new season of life that often begins right in the middle of the mess. It's about shifting that menopause story from one of loss to one of rediscovery. So let's get started. One thing I hear so often from my clients is I feel different, but I can't explain it. Perhaps that resonates for you too. And you are not wrong. There's this inner shift that is happening physically, emotionally, even spiritually, but from the outside, it's business as usual. You're still showing up for your job, your family, all of those commitments. But inside something's just feeling off. Something is changing and I want to normalize that.'cause you're not meant to stay the same. We are complex, cyclical beings. Shifting, adapting, always evolving, especially through menopause. And this transition brings hormonal changes. Of course, it also brings big emotional waves, big questions and moments of deep reflection. You might find yourself asking, who am I now? What do I actually want? Not just what I'm expected to want. How much longer am I going to keep putting myself last? And this is what the second spring is all about. So before we move on, let me share with you a moment. Last year when everything felt too much, I was struggling to keep all the plates spinning, coaching, parenting, showing up for clients, trying to stay on top of my own wellness, and I suddenly realized I barely even had time to breathe. Okay. I was technically breathing, but I just wasn't slowing down long enough to check in with myself. I'd fallen into that pattern of doing, doing, doing to the point where I didn't even know what I needed anymore. That moment, as uncomfortable as it was, was the beginning of my own second spring because I started asking different questions. Instead of, how can I do more? I asked myself what actually matters to me? And instead of what do I need to fix, I asked, what am I wanting to lean into right now? And it's that shift that changed everything So why does this stage just feel so big and so important? Well, let's get honest with ourselves for a moment. Midlife menopause. It can really feel like the rug is being pulled from underneath you. Maybe you've spent decades pouring into everyone else. Maybe your body's changing in ways that feel unfamiliar. Maybe you've ticked off all the boxes, your career, house, family responsibilities, and now you're wondering what's next. And in those quiet moments, if you ever get them, you might be thinking, is this all there is? And that question is scary, but it's also powerful'cause it means that you're starting to wake up, and this is where your second spring might begin. Not with a dramatic change, but with permission to reflect, to desire something different for yourself. Permission to not have it all figured out and to stay open. Now over here in the uk, in the western side of the world, we have a different perspective to many other cultures. in many other cultures, the face of menopause is deeply respected. It's a time of deep wisdom. It's when a woman steps into her role as the wise woman, not because she has all the answers. Because she's lived and she's learning to listen to herself, and she can hold space to listen to others too. When we talk about second spring, it's not about going back to who you were in your twenties. It's all about honoring who you are now with all that experience, honoring with softness and strength, the scars, the laughter lines, all these parts of us that tell our story. It might be about shedding the shoulds and finally listening to yourself. I mean, so many of us have spent years outsourcing our worth. We've been praised for being busy, rewarding for saying yes to everything, and trained to ignore our intuition. So at this stage now, it's a chance to come back home to yourself. So what might change if we embraced our second spring? But if we think about the other phases of the year, the other seasons, we often. Start with winter. That quiet time, that time of hibernation, that's perhaps when we're doing all the reflection. That might be, when all those questions come up, when we think about spring. It follows winter, especially if you're in a country that has four seasons per year. But in that winter period, it's been a time of hibernation of solitude. Perhaps time to yourself. This might be where all those questions came up. So when we enter the spring. It's not about suddenly having the answers or springing into action. It's a gentle awakening. Now in the uk, as I mentioned last week, we have such a mix of weather. We're getting signs of warm weather, even some pretty warm days. We still have the rainy days, the cold snaps. The weather doesn't know what it's doing, and maybe this is how you feel at this time of life for you too. So as we step into this second springtime for ourselves, we have an invitation to slow down, not because we're lazy, but because your nervous system deserves peace. You might want to start moving your body, not to punish it, but to honor it. You might find your no and feel proud of it. You might find yourself crying more or laughing harder. Those emotions might feel bigger. You might start realizing you can make space for joy again, and not that performative type of joy, but that real quiet joy found in the glimmers that you see you take that time for you. So it's not necessarily about radical transformation, it's that subtle part of the reclaiming who you are. And maybe just maybe you might start to see yourself not as someone who's winding down, but as somebody who's waking up. So if this episode landed with you today. I'd love to take this further and invite you to a special workshop I'm running later on today. If you're managing to catch this on Thursday, the 17th of April, you can join us online with myself and Sian. That's seven o'clock till eight o'clock UK time for our free online workshop. Embrace your second spring. We'll be expanding on everything that I've spoken to you about today. Plus you get time within this gentle space for women who are ready to reconnect themselves. We are going to be reflecting on what's shifting. We'll give you time to explore what's next, and most importantly, celebrate the woman you are becoming. So the link to sign up to this is in the show notes, or you can head over to the Strong Bones Coach on Instagram and pop me over a dm and I will send you the link to join us. So thank you for listening this week. And remember, you're not behind, you are not broken. You are blooming in your own time, even if you don't feel like it right this moment. So I'll see you next week or maybe later on today. But for now, stay strong and take care.