Unlock Your Best Life: Mindset Shifts For Menopause

Welcome to the Menopause Summit 0:00

Hi, I'm Doctor Sharon Stills and I am thrilled to be here with you to kick off mastering the menopause transitions Summit hosting this globally important event to help all of you understand that menopause is a beautiful time and doesn't need to be filled with symptoms. So we have all new interviews. I have done close to 50 brand new interviews with you, so if you were here for the first summit or the 2.0 summit. Stay tuned because I've got all the interviews and if this is your first time joining me, welcome around here.

I do menopause very differently. So I want you to take a deep breath and just really settle in and know whatever you've been told, whatever society has told you, whatever you're afraid of, there is another conversation that we are having. So I am a natural pathway physician. I've been in practice for 23 years, and I started working with menopausal women when I was in my early 30s. Suzanne Somers, rest and rest, rest her soul. She wrote a book about bioidentical hormones, and I was a brand new doctor.

This was 2002, and a woman came in, shortly after she had

How Dr. Stills Found Her Approach 1:29

written the book, and she had her book and she said, I want what she's having. And I was like, okay, that's Suzanne and Somers, the dumb blond Christie from Three's Company. But okay, I'll take medical advice from her. I have an open mind. I was like, let me read the book and I'll get back to you. And my open mind is what I credit with allowing me to help so many women. Because I read that book, I realized Suzanne Somers, the dumb blond from Three's Company, wasn't that dumb, and she was really on to something.

And then I took my medical knowledge of what I knew, and I said, I can make this even better because I'm going to really support the whole terrain. I'm going to make sure the liver is functioning and the bile is flowing and the lymph is moving and the fashions unrestricted, and the emotions are happy and the gut is balanced. And all the things that we're going to talk about during this entire summit. So anyway, I helped this woman, her husband sent me flowers. She told two friends who tell you friends you tell your friends, like the pert, shampoo commercial from back in the day.

And here we are. I started helping menopausal women go through their transitions. I have patients who have been with me over 20 years. Hello. If you're watching and I have watched them backwards, lose weight, have better sex. Travel around the world, ride motorcycles, hang out on sailboats like just live their dreams, contribute, have passion, just all the things. And so when I first started doing this, like I said, I was in my early 30s and I was not the poster child of balanced hormones. I had the worst premenstrual issues, like probably ever.

People used to ask me if I was pregnant. I only felt good one day out of them. I mean, one week out of the month. And so I thought, I need to, practice what I preach because I really do that all the time. And I thought, I better get this PMS under control because all these menopausal women who I'm helping, they're like, having balanced hormones. And I am struggling. So I pre-game and I did what I was doing for them, but I did it for a woman who is still cycling. So it's a little different when you do hormone balancing for a cycling woman

Personal Menopause Journey and Kilimanjaro 3:43

rather than a woman who's done with her cycles. And voila, I got better, I felt better. No one ever freakin asked me if I was pregnant again. And by the time I got to menopause. So this was I was in my early 30s. I lost a bit, well, early mid maybe 34, 35. I went through menopause. I was done when I was 48 and I'll talk about that in a second. But when I went through menopause, I just sailed through it because I had pregain, because I had taken care of my body, so much so that I never even had a hot flash.

And so I know that if I can feel amazing and better than I've ever felt before in menopause, I know you can too. Because I'm not special. I'm a human being just like you. It's just I understand how the body works and I understand how to support it. And so I was 48 when I went through menopause, and I wanted to celebrate because I thought, society tells us when you go through menopause, you're now a big fat cow and you're not important and you're going way out in the fields to pasture and no one's going to pay attention to you anymore.

And this is the beginning of the end. And I was like, not for me, not for you, not for us. And so I decided to climb Kilimanjaro to celebrate, to say, menopause. I am coming for you. And I did, and it actually worked out, because UPS lost my banners that said Red hot, sexy menopause. But I was going to hold at the summit. Our climb started at, like a day and a half late. But because of that, I actually stood on the summit. It was a year to the date from when I had last had my last period. And that is the official medical definition of menopause.

Right? So it's a year without your period. And I stood on top of the summit. I, didn't do my photoshoot because it was rough and it was hard to breathe, and I was just happy to be there and happy to turn around and get down because there was a huge storm coming in and my hair was turning to ice, literally. But that was how I marked it. To remember that menopause is an amazing time. Now you don't have to climb Kilimanjaro. I'm not saying that that's just like my thing, but even if you've gone through menopause, I want you to go back and just think about something you can do in your mind or right now to say, you know, I'm celebrating that two years ago, five years ago, 20 years ago, I went through menopause.

And now I am this wise woman in the Native American tradition, the women who go through menopause, who are no longer losing their blood to the earth, are the wise women.

Menopause as a Time of Wisdom and Hope 6:29

They are the crones and that is what you are. You are wise and you have so much to give. And if you are struggling with sleepless nights, with losing your hair, with not having a libido, with having urinary tract infections, with having burning tongue, with having muscle pain, with, with with all the symptoms, there are like over 100 symptoms of menopause. You can be experiencing mood swings, depression, anxiety. I could go on and on and I will because I have a whole summit for you. But if you are suffering with those things, I'm here to tell you that there is hope that with the use of bioidentical hormones, which I'm going to go deep with, because that is my expertise, but also with making sure you're eating right, moving right, thinking right, sleeping right, getting in touch with your community, right with nature, time, with all the things.

Hormones are amazing. And I get to see amazing things with my patients. And whether or not you become a patient of mine, that's not the that's not what's going on, right? Whether or not you become a patient of mine, I want to give you all the information you need to share with your health care practitioner so you can be your best menopausal advocate, because I can tell you, I've been out in the field a long time, and there are a lot of hormone experts out there who really aren't experts. So I want to arm you with all the knowledge you need so you can be smarter than your doctor.

Or hopefully you can find a doctor who can help guide you. So I'm really, really excited. I am in the middle. So I think about when menopause happens, right? We can no longer birth physical children if that was something which has to do. But now we can birth our creative passions and our creative projects. And so I'm currently walking my talk and practicing what I preach, and I am birthing a 7000 square foot clinic in sunny Scottsdale, Arizona. When a lot of people are winding down. I'm 56. I am like, nope, it's another chapter.

I feel great and I'm ready to be of more service. And so I want to inspire you to bring that into your own life. And it could mean, I'm just going to start cooking my meals, I'm going to become an amazing chef, or I'm going to start writing, or I'm going to take a poetry class, or it can mean so many different things. Just because something is large, like my new clinic, doesn't mean it's more important than something small. Like I am going to start a garden in my backyard.

Reinventing Health and Embracing Aging 9:20

The most powerful things in our life are what bring us joy, and what brings you joy may be different from what brings me joy, or brings her joy, or her joy or her joy. I want you to spend this week really getting in touch and in tune with what your Kilimanjaro is, even if it's not standing on top of Kilimanjaro. And now, if you're interested in that, I could start a group project and we could climb together now. Just kidding. Anyway, so I'm really excited. I even though I have so much going on, this is such a passion project for me to be gifted with the opportunity to help educate you when the education out there on menopause and women's hormones and the aging process is so lacking.

And I don't say anti-aging around here, I used to say, oh, I'm an anti-aging doctor. And then I thought, why would I be anti anti something that is happening whether I'm against it or not, we are all aging. We're all a little bit older from when we first started watching this video. Right? It is. Time is marching on so we might as well harness our power. Enjoy the process because it is the human condition and really feel great about it. I plan on living to 130 maybe the last ten years. I'll be like rocking on the patio, not doing much.

But if we take care of ourselves, our bodies are designed to support us. We have to get rid of these beliefs that as we get old, we get crumpled over and we get achy and we don't feel good and we don't matter. I'm here to change that conversation. And when we if you join, I'm here to change that conversation. And by joining me in this conversation, I need you. I can't do it alone. You can change the conversation for your loved ones and your family members. I'm so committed to my two little granddaughters seeing me and having a totally different understanding of what aging is.

Then when I looked at my elders and I am so excited for you to be a part of that with me. So we are going to learn how to reinvent our health, how to explore our spirit, how to discover our sexy. In my talk tomorrow, I'm going to dive deep into hormones because I know we all need the the 101, right? We need the lowdown on the truth about hormones. And I've got it for you. And then every day I'm going to start off by giving you a little hang out with doctor stills time. Learn something that you can implement right away.

Get you thinking, get you curious, get you questioning, and get you feeling the best you can feel. So from the bottom of my heart, because I know one. That your time is precious. I know too, that there's a lot going on out there, right? You can just Google and have 1000 podcast.

What to Expect from the Summit 12:22

It's a thousand YouTubes. I know that we can get information from so many places, and so I do not take it lightly that you've chosen to come on this journey with me. I'm so committed to natural methods for women to heal and to make your hormonal journey one that you look back on and go, that was amazing! So buckle up. Enjoy this summit, enjoy the aging process. And if you're like, no, I'm not there yet, that's okay. Right? Because I will, I like keep it real. It's not enough to just go, okay, doctor stills said.

I need to enjoy aging, so I'm going to enjoy aging. But then all the mindset is going, but it's scary. But I don't like this wrinkle. But now I've got some gray hair, so just be real. Just start experience and finding out what you feel, what menopause means to you. And maybe you're like, oh, you know, I have this thought, this belief, but I don't really believe that. It's just I've heard it so many times from my doctor or from my mother or from my neighbor. So just start exploring. It's a great time to journal.

I highly recommend getting your menopause memo pad, because there's going to be a lot of information, and I want you to be introspective as you're writing down what's the best vitamin to take and how should I move my body, and what is estrogen going to do for me, and does it cause cancer? No it doesn't. And I want you to really like, take this time for you, because when we I say you were meant to pause. This is a beautiful time. So often we just go through our lives and we're just on autopay. Pilot.

Slowing down. Pausing is a beautiful thing, so I am ready to do it all with you. To educate, to laugh, to cry, to go oh wow and to pause. Because together we can master your menopause transition and help you feel the best you've ever felt. So I'm Doctor Sharon Stills. You're going to be seeing a lot of me over the week. I'll kick off every day with a talk just like this from me on different topics, and I'll see you in all the interviews. And of course, stay tuned after this summit, because there's always an after party and I have a lot of fun at the after party.

I'll be sharing webinars with you and coming live and answering your questions. So thank you for being a part of my journey, and I look forward to being a part of yours.