The moon has been waiting for you.Moon Pause
A field guide to rest, rhythm, and returning to yourself in midlife and beyond
Arriving May 31, 2026
What if you saw the moon not as an object in the sky, but as kin?
As a companion and guide through the spiral journey of midlife and beyond.
Moon Pause invites you into relationship — with the moon, with the rhythms of your changing body, and with the wisdom you've gathered through decades of living.
How Moon Pause works
Using the four primary lunar phases as monthly touchpoints, Moon Pause offers practices for rest, reflection, pleasure, and returning to yourself.
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New Moon
for resting
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First Quarter Moon
for turning outward
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Full Moon
for honouring wholeness
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Last Quarter Moon
for turning inward
To open this book is to step into the moonlight with a wise and tender guide. Shelagh Lenon takes you by the hand and leads you somewhere you didn't know you were homesick for — back to the rhythms of your own body, the wisdom of your own depths.
-Brooke Hofsess, PhDMidlife Midwife & host of The Midlife Ripening Podcast
Moon Pause is designed and illustrated by visual artist Zuza Miśko.
This isn't a book you need to read from cover to cover.
It’s intentionally created to feel like a treasure you can return to again and again.
A garden of practices awaits you in each chapter
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Meeting the Moon
Guidance for finding the moon in the sky, with Marvelous Moon Facts woven throughout
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Reflective Prompts
An invitation to see aging differently, through the wisdom and energy of each lunar phase.
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Meeting Myself
Practices to connect with yourself and embody the theme of each phase
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Pleasure Practices
Gentle, embodied experiences to reconnect with your body and your senses.
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Moon Magic
Rituals to develop kinship and connection with the moon and with yourself
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Rest Rituals
Short guided meditations to return to yourself, with audio recordings available online
This book is for you if:
You are a woman in your 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond — navigating the transformative terrain of growing older. Perhaps you are moving through perimenopause or menopause, or simply sensing that the rhythm of your life is shifting and something new is asking to emerge.
Moon Pause is also a beautiful resource for:
Women's circle facilitators and space holders
Yoga teachers and yoga nidra facilitators
Coaches and therapists working with women in midlife
Retreat leaders looking for a gentle, embodied guide to share with the women they serve
Not simply a book to be read and set aside, Moon Pause is an immersive experience—a carefully crafted journey designed to support your next season of growth and expansion. It will become a treasured companion for any woman stepping into greater authenticity and wholeness, especially at mid-life and beyond.
-Lisa BrownBurn-Out Recovery Coach and Founder of the Living Empowered Feminine Leadership Programs and Community
Meet Shelagh Lenon
Moon Pause was born from my journey through breast cancer and menopause.
It is a field guide for returning to yourself through the rhythms of the moon. It offers new ways of thinking about rest, growth, wholeness, and aging, grounded in kinship with the natural world and alive with enchantment.
In collaboration with visual artist Zuza Miśko, Moon Pause was intentionally created to feel like a treasure you can return to again and again.
Advance praise for Moon Pause
In a culture that rushes women past their own thresholds, MOON PAUSE slows everything down to the pace of the moon herself. To open this book is to step into the moonlight with a wise and tender guide.
Shelagh Lenon takes you by the hand and leads you somewhere you didn't know you were homesick for — back to the rhythms of your own body, the wisdom of your own depths. Along the way, she invites you to anoint, soothe, and nourish from the inside out. This luminous little field guide will lead you out into the dark so you can find rest, pleasure, and your way back to yourself.
— Brooke Hofsess, PhDMidlife Midwife & host of The Midlife Ripening Podcast
Moon Pause is a beautiful illustrated field guide for midlife women that will inspire you to deepen your relationship with the moon. Both poetic and practical - with loving prompts and practices - it's a divine companion for all midlife women looking to live a more enchanted and embodied life.
— Julie ParkerFounder Beautiful You Coaching Academy & the Priestess Podcast
Moon Pause is permission to slow down and rest in the gentle glow of the moon as it travels our sky - an unconditional anchor and unwavering presence we can lean on, particularly at times of transition, challenges or in those small moments where we simply feel a little lost.
It’s an invitation to rekindle our relationship with ourselves, our own rhythms and inner world, as we follow the glimmers the moon offers when we learn to listen. In discovering the wisdom of the moon through Shelagh’s beautiful words, reflection prompts, poems and rituals, we find our way home to our own.
— Isabelle GriffithFounder School of Somatic Leadership for Women
More praise
“As a work of art, Shelagh Lenon’s Moon Pause gently draws the reader into a richly sensory experience of beauty, healing, and inspiration. At a deeper level, it is both a sacred invitation and a practical guide to embody the wisdom of nature’s creative cycle and reclaim our feminine power.
Not simply a book to be read and set aside, Moon Pause is an immersive experience—a carefully crafted journey designed to support your next season of growth and expansion. It will become a treasured companion for any woman stepping into greater authenticity and wholeness, especially at mid-life and beyond.”
-Lisa BrownBurn-Out Recovery Coach and Founder of the Living Empowered Feminine Leadership Programs and Community
“Moon Pause is a delightful little book full of so much wisdom and support. I have been fascinated by the moon every since I was a little girl, laying in bed staring up at it for ages, not wanting to sleep just so I could drink in its beauty. In this book, Shelagh and Zuza truly capture the magic of this beautiful celestial body and the way it influences us down here on Earth.
As someone who strives to live cyclically, I found all of the reflections, visualizations, and rituals so beautifully supportive to my own practice. What a tender offering of love to each of us navigating the pause in our own internal tides and a reminder that, even though our cycles may pause, the moon never does.”
— Eileen MarchSpiritual Coach & Slow-living Witch
The moon has a rhythm of waxing and waning. And so do you.
Look up. Pause. Rediscover who you are beneath all the doing.
Moon Pause is coming May 31, 2026
Moon Pause Rest Retreats
Come in your pyjamas. Join from the cozy comfort of home.
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Join me every New Moon for a 60-minute rest retreat from the comfort of your home.
Step out of the demands of daily life and into a space of reflection, rest, and renewal.
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Each gathering includes:
a brief rest practice and a poem
an aromatic ritual
a 30 minute yoga nidra meditation for deep rest
quiet journaling and a supportive community of women
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You have the option of joining live on Zoom or accessing the recordings and resources in the private online portal the next day.
UPCOMING MOON PAUSE gatherings
7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Mountain Time
Held on Zoom
Join live or access the recordings and resources in the online portal.
