I used to hate my period
I used to hate my period and now I love it! I love the invitation to slow down. I love the invitation to stay attuned and present with my body. I love the opportunity to consciously release something I no longer wish to carry. I love the magic of my body’s capacity to do this.
While I love that we are gaining more access to information about how to tend ourselves during the different phases of our moontimes, I also see the world of social media and how it can make us feel bad about ourselves or our lifestyles if we are not able to, for example, fully stop everything when our bleed starts.
Personally, as a single mother, I can’t stop everything when my moon starts, and sometimes if I am scrolling instagram and see one too many posts by “influencers” who who make it look easy, I notice I feel agitated and somehow lacking in myself. I take full responsibility for that personal internal experience. AND, I bet I am not alone in those feelings. So let’s take responsibility for the jealousy and inadequacy that can arise AND find the ways that we can attune to ourselves and our cycles within a paradigm that makes it tricky to do so.
With the full life that I have as a small business owner, and single mama, I have found some essential ways to tend myself to support more ease in my menstrual cycle.
🌕During my premenstrual and menstrual window, I shift my exercise routine. All the other days, I do pushups and crunches, but in this window, I skip those, and opt for gentle stretching.
🌕The rest of the month, I go for regular vigorous walks. During this premenstrual and menstrual window, I slow my pace while I walk, so that I am still moving my body, but honoring the rhythm that it needs.
🌕During the pre menstrual window, I avoid excess sugar and carbs, opting for lots of healthy fats, proteins and well cooked foods. Diet is another way we can make ourselves a little neurotic, so while some folks do advocate for specific diet that changes through the seasons of menstruation, I like to be a little more flexible about food, and I see that many of my clients appreciate that approach, by simply paying more attention to less inflammatory foods in general, but specifically during the premenstrual window, when our digestive fire is a little lower.
🌕Take brief rests before preparing dinner in the late afternoon / early evening, as often as possible, but definitely during menstruation. It can be so easy to come home from the day and jump into all the home to-dos, but my body feels so much better when I take 10-20 minutes to rest and reset.
🌕I do a yoni steam during my premenstrual time. If you want my free guide to steaming, click here! I know yoni steaming can seem like a big project, but I promise, it is actually quite easy.
🌕Practice yoni self massage once a week during the non - menstrual weeks.
🌕Practice self abdominal massage daily during the non - menstrual days.
🌕Blood ritual. Every time I bleed, I offer my blood to the earth. In ancient times, this was a sacred sacrament. As misogyny began to take over, this practice was defiled as “witchy” and our blood was considered gross. It is the blood that comes from life and creates life and is meant to be an offering. When misogyny rose, we started to offer animal sacrifices, and in some cultures, human sacrifices instead. Let’s reclaim the sanctity and magic of our blood!
If you are interested in diving deeper into some of these practices, I have options to do that in a small group starting in October.
The Awakened Womb Group Immersion will be a magical container to go deep in a group IN PERSON with some of the above named practices and so much more. Like, we are actually going to have a lot of fun, connecting with our wombs together, through ritual, song, movement, dance, herbal goodness and so much more.
