Need A FIX?
“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” -Albert Einstein
Gotta love the words of wisdom of Albert Einstein. To be of value is my driving force behind Testosterone the New Drug Addiction and my hope is that you have found it to be of value to you and your loved ones.
The recent FDA warning regarding testosterone replacement therapy is a “wake up” call to those men and women who are currently taking it “recreationally” for vanity and to increase their sex drive.
Hormone clinics are popping up on street corners across the country and men & women are flocking to the corner hormone drug store, like a flock of seagulls hovering over a local Malibu restaurant ready to swoop in and get their next fix.
One of my favorite authors, Dr. Christaine Northrup, in her new book, Goddesses Never Age: The Secret Prescription for Radiance, Vitality and Well-Being, says, “Your beliefs and thoughts are wired into your biology. They become your cells, tissues, and organs. There’s no supplement, no diet, no medicine, and no exercise regimen that can compare with the power of your thoughts and beliefs. That’s the very first place you need to look when anything goes wrong with your body.”
What is your body telling you? What thoughts are you thinking? What beliefs are you holding on to? Are they productive or destructive? Are you being lured in by the brilliant advertising campaigns that are making you think that low testosterone could be the answer to all your middle age woes?
For someone like myself who is conscious and aware of my thoughts and beliefs and has used and studied, the work of Louise Hay, You Can Heal Your Life for the past 20 years, those advertising messages and the thought of creating the perfect body were still very appealing to me five years ago.
My life at the time was an episode of Bravo’s new hit dramedy, Girlfriends Guide to Divorce. I had moved through my divorce, started dating again, met my transition man – then met my next relationship man, lost the protective marriage weight I was holding on to. I was running, doing sprint triathlons, working out with my trainer, building my body and this testosterone thing was the next thing to put me on my path to creating the “perfect body” and the post-divorce , hot cougar look. I even went and met with a plastic surgeon about getting a tummy tuck.
All of this triggered me into the false belief that if I create the perfect body I will be loved and accepted.
Hang with me for a moment. Middle age is not about reliving your youth like the proverbal mid-life crisis, check out the warning signs on Dr. Phil’s website: http://www.drphil.com/articles/article/694
It’s about honoring your life to this point, reflecting on what you have accomplished and what it is you still want to do and create with your life. Think back to when you were in high school What was your life like? Were you captain of the football team? Cheerleader? Thin? Overweight? Popular? Shy? Experimenting with drugs (this was big in the 70’s and 80’s).
When I was freshmen, I was terrified. We had moved from California to Texas, I was painfully shy, my parents separated, I had a poor body image and started taking diet pills then speed then cocaine and then crystal meth, all to be thin and create the perfect body. It didn’t help that my Dad, the man I idolized at the time, sent me to a weight loss camp in between my freshmen and sophomore year. I lost 12 pounds that summer and he told me if I maintained my 112 pound figure for a year he would buy me a car. Needless to say, I didn’t maintain the weight and I never got the car. What my parents failed to see was I was experiencing excruciating pain around my body and I had developed a body image disorder. You could see it in all of my pictures. I wanted to cover up my body, I no longer wanted to be on the swim team and you would never see me in the pool again. Well maybe occasionally but it created massive anxiety for me and still does.
My purpose in sharing this story with you is to think about your life. As you have traveled through your journey into the wonderful world of middle age, have you carried your teenage years with you? What thoughts became your reality? What false beliefs have you carried with you?
Instead of getting your “fix” at the corner hormone drug store, how about making a shift from a “fix” mindset to a “growth” mindset? The quick “fix” mind set is only a temporary fix to a long term false belief or thought that is no longer serving you. The Growth mindset enables you to build a sustainable foundation that you can build upon and grow on.
When I was going through my life coach training 14 years ago, part of the training and curriculum was building a strong personal foundation or, as I now refer to it, “Becoming your own CEO.” During middle age, nothing is more important than rebuilding or rebirthing your solid foundation and becoming your own CEO! What does this mean? It means meeting your unmet needs, aligning yourself with your true values, living with integrity, completing your past, facing bad habits or addictions, minding your body, and more.
How many of you middle-agers are thinking about taking testosterone to lose weight, build muscle, and regain your youthful energy? Recently, I was conversing with a woman on pellet therapy and how it was starting to wreak havoc in her life. She said she has a short temper with her kids and is aggressive personally and professionally, affecting her overall well-being. She also mentioned at one point, her testosterone level got as high as 600!!!! (A healthy male middle age testosterone level is 300-500.) Can you say, Man in the making!!!? She had other parts of her body growing too. I will leave that to your imagination. She is self-aware and realizes it is causing problems in her life. This woman is beautiful, fit, and successful. I looked at her and said, why are you taking it? She said, I like the anabolic effect it has of building muscle and the sex drive, but I know I need to do something because I don’t like the way I am feeling and behaving.
So middle agers, I say lets launch a middle age movement and make a commitment to embrace a growth mindset with becoming our own personal CEO’s and not fall prey to the local hormone drug store to get a quick fix.
With Love & Miracles,
Lisa Marie Shaughnessy
