Pleasure in the Pause: Midlife Conversations About Menopause, Sex & Pleasure120 | Friendship in Midlife: Hormones, Connection & Building Community with Nandita Mahadevan
Pleasure is relational. It is shaped not only by our relationship with our own bodies but by the friendships, communities, and spaces that hold us through seasons of change.
For generations, women have gathered to share stories, ask questions, exchange wisdom, and remind each other they are not alone. Somewhere along the way, many of us lost some of that. Our lives became busier and more individual, and the spaces where women could simply sit together, speak honestly, and feel seen became harder to find.
In this episode, Gabriella sits down with Nandita Mahadevan, founder of Sol Women, a community in Austin, Texas that brings women together around health, mindset, nervous system regulation, and honest conversation about everything midlife brings. Nandita came to this work the hard way — through her own perimenopause awakening, a moment in a park where she finally broke down and admitted she was not okay, and the turning point that came when her eight-year-old daughter put her tiny hand on her shoulder and asked if there was something she could do to help.
This is a conversation about what it means to stop performing and start connecting. About the friendships that carry us and the ones that quietly fall away. About building community not by waiting to be invited in but by becoming the woman who invites. And about why, in midlife more than ever, sisterhood is the true medicine.
Are you ready to awaken your sensuality and feel more empowered in your body? Access the FREE Pleasure Upgrade Bundle at https://www.pleasureinthepause.com/gift.
Nandita Mahadevan is the founder of Sol Women, a community based in Austin, Texas that brings together functional medicine, mindset coaching, nervous system regulation, and female sisterhood to support women navigating perimenopause, menopause, and midlife transformation. With over 20 years of experience in the functional medicine and wellness space, Nandita co-founded Sol Women alongside nurse practitioner and functional medicine expert Lauren Colletti after their own transformative journey together at a retreat in Costa Rica.
Highlights from our discussion include:
What led Nandita to create Sol Women — including the moment her eight-year-old became her turning point
Why functional medicine, mindset, identity, nervous system regulation, and sisterhood all belong under the same roof in midlife
The loneliness epidemic and why connection is as important to women's health as hormones and lab work
How female friendships change in midlife — the ones that deepen, the ones that drift, and the ones that are okay to release
The difference between going and flowing — and why so many high-achieving women struggle to switch from masculine to feminine energy at home
Three things you need to create meaningful community, whether you start with five women at your kitchen table or a full retreat
The Sol Women approach: what their retreats include and how women can get involved
Nandita ended our conversation with something that landed in my whole body.
Sisterhood is the true medicine.
Loneliness, she reminded us, is now recognized as having the same health impact as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. We are deeply connected through our screens and deeply disconnected from one another. And what women are craving — in Nandita's retreats, in the Sol Women community, and in conversations like this one — is the thing that has always been the medicine. Each other.
Gabriella is thrilled to be joining Nandita and Lauren as an invited facilitator at the upcoming Sol Women three-day retreat in Austin. If you have been craving exactly this kind of connection, the details are in the show notes.
And if you are listening and wondering how to create this in your own life, Nandita's advice is simple. Do not wait to be invited. Become the woman who invites.
If you're seeking to reclaim your pleasure and vitality, join Gabriella at www.pleasureinthepause.com for this enlightening journey into the heart of female pleasure and empowerment.
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The information shared on Pleasure in the Pause is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider before making any decisions about your health or treatment. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or Pleasure in the Pause.
