Andrea Beadle from the UK tells us about Listening to the Voice Within in her deeply- personal chapter.
The lead up to menopause is a time in a woman’s life where she can find herself really examining the purpose of her life. We spend so many years of our lives being who we think we ‘should’ be but as we get older, the cracks can begin to show. Eventually menopause leads us to a phase where the only solution is to go within and follow the truth of our hearts. For women, many of the things that were previously important fall away (or disappear) and personal growth becomes a huge driving force. We often find ourselves looking for our purpose and more meaning in our lives. This was the case for Andrea and it was a journey she was catapulted into without much warning or preparation!
“I could never have imagined how much of a struggle it would be to balance all the different areas of my life! How could a successful career girl find it so difficult? I found myself being pulled in all different directions … feeling guilty when I was at work and not being able to concentrate on my son fully when I wasn’t.
The house was a mess, I battled the baby blues and all the time I was wishing I could be at home, like many of my friends in more fortunate financial circumstances.
I knew that I needed to leave my job. My heart told me, my gut told me and yet I couldn’t! I didn’t know how. I didn’t believe I could! …
But I knew something had to change. I knew I was dying inside and I ignored it. Not because I didn’t want things to change but because I didn’t know how. My days at work were painfully dull. I was tired, irritable and sometimes it felt as if my whole world was being dragged slowly into a black hole and I was powerless to escape its pull. Deep down I knew that something had to drastically change.
And it did!
Slowly my health began to trouble me. I didn’t know what was happening but each month I began to experience increasingly more painful periods. They began to get so bad that I couldn’t get out of bed in the morning without taking strong painkillers first.
The pain often made me sick, sometimes I would pass out, and, for a few days each month, the crippling pain meant I couldn’t function without strong painkillers. I began to have to take time off work and although I knew something wasn’t right, I soldiered on regardless.
Until one day I read an article about endometriosis. The words hit me like a bolt of lightning and I knew this was what I was suffering from.
In February 2010 there followed a rapid surgical diagnosis that left me totally reeling. The second child that we had hoped for was never going to happen and I was told that I would need a total hysterectomy.
Shocked, I retreated into a period where I wallowed in self-pity.
There was something about being told I needed a hysterectomy that… ”
Buy Embraced by the Divine – The Emerging Woman’s Gateway to Power, Passion and Purpose at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B018FCGJDQ to read the full chapter and all the other inspiring and empowering chapters.
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Andrea Beadle (United Kingdom) helps heart-centered entrepreneurs find their purpose and create the business that is the expression of their soul. She believes that your business will only grow as far as you grow as an individual and, using Higher Guidance Coaching, helps you to break through the beliefs that are holding you back so that you can have a healthy life and a healthy business. She is creating the Heart Business Academy for heart-centered entrepreneurs at www.andreabeadle.com