Menopause can take a woman down with hot flashes, mood swings, sleep interruptions, weight gain, and even the dreaded "Bingo wings." What are those you ask? According to my guest, Magic Barkley, "They are the low hanging fat wings many women get as we age through menopause." At least that's what they call them in Australia.

Magic — that's her real name — is a (w)holistic healer who works mainly with women entering or out of menopause to get to the root cause of menopause symptoms.

I treat their root cause. So I get a full chronology of their path. and I look at what happened first. And when did it happen? Are the issues that you're experiencing at 48, something that happened when you were two?

She wants to find out...

Is this an infection that hasn't been cleared up? Is this a pathogen that's just taken over your body and you know, your doctors along the way have gone, oh, it's nothing to worry about. Take these antibiotics or take these antifungals or have this acid reflux med, but they're not actually addressing the situation.

Magic has survived cancer, Lyme disease, complications due to surgery, gained weight, lost weight, gained it back, got divorced, and raised her children alone.

She has been successful in the hospitality industry and even car racing. Being the best at things allowed her to drink plenty of French champagne and life the high life. It also allowed her to hide her eating disorder. Some weeks she would eat only once.

Then she got pregnant for the first time.

You know what comes next. The crash, the body on strike, and a woman with no idea who she was or how to heal.

She does what she does today to help other women come back from that place or keep them from going there.

We talked about happiness vs peace with ourselves and why peace is more stable.

She shared her morning routine, which is a long, gentle wake up and connection with the new day.

And about the role cortisol plays in menopause symptoms--I had no idea.

The importance of total darkness to sleep and bright light upon waking.

For those of us always trying to figure out why the body is doing one thing or another, she shared a quote from Dr. Perry Nickelson of Stop Chasing Pain which I love. He said,

"He says the human body actually has no obligation to make any sense to you whatsoever."

Never thought of it that way, still frustrating when we don't have an answer and Dr. Google isn't helping.

Magic has a novel approach to working with clients. She requires a long intake form to determine if she can help someone before bringing them on. Whether or not she will bring someone on she follows up that intake form with a 45-minute call.

"I go through your history and even if we don't end up working together, you understand exactly what's been happening in your body. 

You can learn more at Magic's website.

Magic interviewed me on the power of 5, my core principals for aging like the fabulon you are and want to continue to be. You can find it here.