There is a moment in a woman's life when something quiet but irreversible happens.

It isn't loud.
It isn't dramatic.
And it isn't the breakdown we've been taught to expect.

Menopause is often framed as something to manage, fix, or endure. A list of symptoms to brace for. A season to survive. What I was never offered, and what so few women are, is the deeper truth of this passage.

Menopause is not the loss of self. It is the reorganization of self around truth.

There is a spirituality to this experience that our culture rarely names. Ancient societies understood this threshold. They prepared women for it. They listened to the women who emerged from it. Today, we tend to rush her, medicate her, and ask her to return to normal even though there is no normal on the other side of transformation.

This reflection names what becomes possible when menopause is honored as a rite of passage rather than treated as a hormonal inconvenience. I speak to meeting physical changes with curiosity instead of fear, allowing ritual to replace resistance, and listening for the deeper intelligence inside each shift.

In this episode, I explore:

• Why menopause is not a breakdown, but a profound internal shift

• How fear-based narratives disconnect women from their bodies

• What happens when a woman stops bending, explaining, and bleeding energy

• Why discernment sharpens and tolerance drops in this season of life

• The difference between patriarchal and matriarchal stories of aging

• How choosing a different narrative can change the experience entirely

Here, I share my experience…not from a medical or prescriptive lens, but from a lived, embodied one. I offer this for the women walking that path now. And for the younger women who deserve a different imprint than fear.

Because menopause does not diminish a woman. It reveals her.

If this conversation resonates, consider sharing it with a daughter, a friend, or a woman you love.

To continue this work of reclaiming inner authority across every season of womanhood, my book Muse is available now…a guide for women returning to themselves.

Connect with me on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/midlife.muse/

Order your copy of Muse
https://amandahanson.com/muse/?utm_source=menopause&utm_medium=podcast&utm_content=episode64&utm_campaign=podcast

There is a quiet abandonment built into motherhood.

After the baby arrives, the world gently but decisively turns its gaze. Questions shift. Attention moves outward. The mother is expected to hold the rest privately…recovering offstage, adapting without pause, needing little, asking less.

Within that quiet expectation, something internal begins to form. Women start to minimize their own truths. They tell themselves it's not that bad. They learn to translate exhaustion into gratitude, confusion into shame, grief into something to be endured rather than spoken. What cannot be neatly named is often swallowed whole.

Women don't stay silent because they want to.
They stay silent because our culture tells them there is no room for the truth.

In this episode, I sit down with Kate Hernandez, founder of Postparty, a company built on a radical premise: that the recovery of mothers is essential, not optional. Together, we name the truths that are often minimized or ignored: the fear and guilt new mothers carry, the physical realities of postpartum healing, the emotional rupture many women experience, and the permission to hold gratitude and struggle at the same time.

In this conversation, we explore:

• Why birth is celebrated while mothers are quietly abandoned afterward.

• How shame keeps mothers from asking for help when they need it most.

• The cultural obsession with bouncing back and who it actually serves.

• Why "being cleared" is not the same as being cared for.

• How virtual and in-home care can close dangerous access gaps.

• The cost of ignoring maternal wellbeing on families, children, and future generations.

• What becomes possible when mothers are finally centered and supported.

• Why postpartum never really "ends", it simply evolves.

Because birth is not the finish line.

It's the handoff into a years-long transformation and the way we show up for mothers in the weeks, months, and years after birth reverberates through families, communities, and generations.

If you're pregnant, newly postpartum, supporting a new mother, or holding your own birth story in silence…this conversation is for you.

Because when the mother is well, the family is well.
And when the mother suffers, we all suffer.

If you want to continue this work of honoring the mother, not just the birth, my book Muse is available now. A guide for women reclaiming their identity, restoring inner authority, and returning to themselves in every season.

Connect with Dr. Amanda on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/midlife.muse/

Connect with Kate Hernandez:
https://www.instagram.com/yourpostparty/

Order your copy of Muse
https://amandahanson.com/muse/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=kate_hernandez

This week I am joined by the incredible Gary Vee…a visionary who often speaks about hustle, but today, sits with us to talk about heart.

The conversation began before the microphones turned on. With my own children gathered around him, asking questions and soaking up his words. He took the time to talk with them and share his wisdom. It spoke volumes about who he was, how he relates to people of all ages, and the valuable words he has to offer.

Once we started recording, he continued the conversation with the same authenticity. We stripped away the layers of "shoulds" and expectations that society places on us. We explored what it really looks like to stop apologizing for who you are and start celebrating it. Gary shares his unique perspective on why the fear of judgment is what's standing between you and the life you crave, and how self-awareness is the ultimate form of self-love.

Inside this episode, we discuss:

• Why success doesn't shape character…it exposes it

• How fear gets passed down quietly through generations

• Why so many adults are still waiting for approval long past childhood

• How entitlement replaces gratitude and erodes resilience without us noticing

• Why failure is formative, not damaging

• What happens when self-awareness replaces performance

• The moment adulthood actually begins

If you have been feeling the call to reinvent yourself, to pivot, or simply to show up more boldly in your own skin, this episode is for you. Remember, it is never too late to become the woman you were always meant to be.

If you want to continue this work of remembering who you are beneath the noise, my book Muse is available now. A guide for women reclaiming identity, authority, and their inner voice.

Connect with Dr. Amanda on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/midlife.muse/

Connect with Gary Vee:
https://www.instagram.com/garyvee/

Order your copy of Muse
https://amandahanson.com/book/