What Can Golf Teach Us About Menopause

I’m a golfer.

I know, so many sports, so little time.

In fact, I’m a very good golfer.

During the past few years I haven’t gotten out there very much, but these past few months I’ve started playing again and I’m really enjoying it.

I had a real menopause AH HA on the course that I’d like to share with you.

I think you’ll find it both amusing and instructive.

If I don’t have anyone to play with I play alone. I enjoy the time to myself, and focusing on my game and not chatting with anyone while I play allows me to relax.

The third hole on this course (which I’ve played many times before) is not a particularly long one (par 3), but it’s uphill all the way.

I pulled out the club I’ve always used on this hole, and REALLY MISS-HIT my first shot off the tee. It flew into the trees and almost on to another fairway.

Here’s where the menopause AH HA begins!

There’s something in golf called a mulligan.

A mulligan is basically a do-over shot.

When you miss-hit your first shot off the tee and you take another shot, it’s called a mulligan.

I don’t take mulligans!

That’s why I can play 18 holes of golf in under 2 hours!

In fact, one time the guy in the golf pro shop noticed how quickly I played my round of golf and he said, “You don’t take mulligans, do you?

My attitude about mulligans is rare.

Most golfers do take them, and some take them on EVERY HOLE and anytime they hit a bad shot. This can drive a golfer like me CRAZY!

I’ve seen golfers drop balls in the middle of the fairway or play two or three balls at the same time.

I want to scream, “Hey, this ISN’T the driving range!” What’s the point of taking the same  shot over and over on the course; you’ll never improve that way.

Where was I? Oh yeah, golf and menopause!

So, I’m watching my shot go way off track and I think to myself (for a fleeting moment), do I take a mulligan here?

And my answer comes back NOPE. Play it where it lies.

I walk to my ball and I see that I’ll have to hit it over a tree and uphill to land it on the green.

I grab a 7 iron and hit the most beautiful shot. I watched it land softly on the green. If you could have seen my face, I suspect I was grinning from ear to ear.

I love it when things like that happen when I don’t take the easy way out and I reap the rewards of facing the challenge.

I felt uplifted the whole day.

For the rest of the day I couldn’t help but see how what I had experienced on the course was a metaphor for menopause and middle age.

On the one hand, by the time we reach menopause there are choices we’ve made and roads we’ve traveled that simply cannot be done over.

Mulligans don’t apply, so we’re best off making peace with what IS.

In a sense though, menopause does present us with an opportunity to take mulligans. It can be a time of do-overs.

If we take a more spiritual approach to life, every moment, every hour, every day can be seen as mulligan time. But I was thinking more about the bigger picture.

If we see menopause as a time to take stock and play it (life) where it lies, then there are many USEFUL ways to take mulligans.

We can do over how we’ve been eating and the nutritional choices we make each day.

We can take a mulligan and start an activity program that really motivates and energizes us, doing what we enjoy (like me playing golf again) and doing less of what we don’t enjoy.

We can do over relationships that aren’t working well or embrace new ones to fill in the gaps.

Here’s what I encourage you to do.

At the end of your day or at the end of the week, take some time to write (or at least mentally go over) about how you spend your days and what choices you’ve made and see where mulligans would come in handy.

That’s a great first step.

Call it your MMT….Menopause Mulligan Time!

Keep me posted on whether or not you’re taking mulligans and what metaphors your sporting life is presenting for you.

Me?

Believe it or not, in an hour I’m off to play that same course. Who knows what’s in store for me today!