The Second Act Reset: How Menopause Awakens Mind, Body, and Spirit

There’s a sacred kind of unraveling that often begins in midlife. It arrives quietly—through tears during a morning walk, the sudden craving for solitude, or the strange realization that the person staring back in the mirror feels unfamiliar. For many women, this threshold—what we call perimenopause, menopause, or “the change”—is not just hormonal. It’s spiritual.

Millana Snow calls it a rebirth. The energy healer, breathwork guide, and author of “It’s All Within You” has worked with clients worldwide, helping them move through this passage not as something to endure but as an opportunity to reclaim their inner power.

“For so long, Western culture has ignored the spiritual significance of menopause,” she says. “But many Indigenous and Eastern traditions have known for millennia that this is not just a phase of physical change. It is a powerful initiation.”

Clear Energy Blocks, Re-Connect with the Self

The chakra system—seven energy centers that move through the body—is at the heart of her practice. Each chakra is a portal to deeper emotional, physical, and spiritual truths.

Snow begins each session with a pendulum to assess chakra function, attuning to energetic blocks that often mirror emotional stagnation or suppressed truth. “Chakras close because the spirit has been withdrawn from that space,” she says. “The energy always goes where it’s needed.”

These imbalances can manifest in patterns that feel stuck, like chronic self-doubt or the weight of long-held emotional burdens. By combining chakra healing with integrative breathwork, Snow guides her clients toward unblocking consciousness. “The suppression of emotion uses up so much psychic energy,” she explains. “When we clear those blocks, we free up space for growth.”

The Menopausal Threshold: A Sacred Return

As women cross the threshold into midlife, these energetic centers begin to reorganize. Roles that once felt stable begin to slip away. Identities—mother, partner, achiever, caretaker—no longer fit as neatly as they once did. “We don’t just look different,” Snow says. “We feel different. And that change is a lot to navigate.”

The chakra system offers a spiritual map for this transformation. The root chakra, located at the base of the spine, governs safety and belonging—two themes that often feel destabilized during this transition. A woman who once felt grounded in her identity might now ask: Where do I belong if I’m no longer who I was?

The sacral chakra—the center of creativity and sensuality—also shifts. Fertility may no longer be tied to childbirth but becomes a more expansive creative force: the birth of ideas, the expression of desire, and the return to pleasure.

“It’s not just about fertility in terms of the womb,” Snow says. “It’s the source of artistry, sensuality, and power. We often feel new creative urges or the need to reconnect with pleasure on different terms.”

Then there’s the solar plexus, the energetic seat of identity and power. “This is where transformation lives,” she says. “It asks: Who am I now? Am I willing to become unrecognizable to myself in the name of growth?”

Millana Snow’s Menopause Chakra Guide:

A sacred, energetic lens for navigating midlife transformation.

Root Chakra (base of the spine)

Theme: Safety, survival, belonging

Inquiry: Where in my life do I yearn for belonging, safety, or security?

Sacral Chakra (womb space / lower belly)

Theme: Creativity, sexuality, emotional flow

Inquiry: How am I allowing or disallowing myself to feel, create, and express pleasure?

Solar Plexus Chakra (just above the navel)

Theme: Personal power, identity, transformation

Inquiry: Who am I excited to be now?

Heart Chakra (center of the chest)

Theme: Love, connection, compassion

Inquiry: Am I open to giving and receiving love, including love from within?

Throat Chakra (center of the throat)

Theme: Expression, truth, communication

Inquiry: Am I speaking and living my truth?

Third Eye Chakra (between the eyebrows)

Theme: Intuition, insight, inner vision

Inquiry: Am I trusting what I feel and perceive beyond logic?

Crown Chakra (top of the head)

Theme: Connection to higher self, spiritual wisdom

Inquiry: Am I open to receiving insight and support beyond what I can see?

Reclaiming Power, Pleasure, and Purpose

For many women, it’s the first time they’ve experienced themselves outside their roles. Breathwork helps them do this by inducing altered states of consciousness—without substances—allowing them to release inherited patterns and access their deeper truth.

“You get to zoom out,” Snow says. “And when you do, you realize that what’s been disempowering you isn’t your circumstances. It’s fear, shame, and guilt. When you let those go, you don’t just feel better. You feel free.

Becoming More of Who You Are

There’s something undeniably radical about approaching menopause not as a loss but as a gain—a deepening, a return, a revolution. And Snow is clear: this isn’t about putting a spiritual gloss over something difficult. The unraveling is real. But when viewed through the energetic lens, that unraveling becomes sacred.

Across cultures, the post-reproductive phase of a woman’s life has long been revered. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, it’s seen as the redirection of life force—from reproduction to wisdom. Ayurveda marks the beginning of the vata phase, a time of clarity and spiritual connection. In many Indigenous traditions, older women are regarded as the wisdom keepers, the spiritual leaders—not because of what they’ve lost, but because of what they now hold.

“This is not the end,” Snow says. “This is your revolution. And it is just the beginning.”

Her upcoming book, It’s All Within You (Hachette / Balance Books, Fall 2025), expands on these themes of energy healing, inner power, and the sacred work of returning to the most authentic Self. Because midlife isn’t the closing of a door; it’s the beginning of a homecoming.