Demystifying the Cycle
How many of us have actually been taught how powerful and essential our menstrual cycle is?
I know for myself, I only saw my cycle as this pain in the a** thing that happened each month. To me it was this painful, uncomfortable, and shame filled time that I lived through monthly. In fact if you asked me what the menstrual cycle was, I would have told you that it was just my bleed time every 28 days.
I was so completely unaware of what my womb was and how important it was to my health….and not just reproductive health. In fact it was not until I was in the depths of my fertility journey that I even knew there was more than just ovulation and menstruation, never mind understanding the energetics behind each phase.
When I was first introduced to thinking about the cycle in its individual parts, my mind was blown, but even then it was still such clinical and anatomical information. It was all very science based, which let’s be honest, doesn’t really encourage you to be curious or excited about your body. But once I started learning the science behind the body, I kept digging and before I knew it I was symbolically trying to connect to my body.
It really is true, that once you start digging for treasure, you will become obsessed with the quest that will turn into a lifetime journey. And this journey is one that I am so glad I started on.
So what is our cycle beyond the anatomical reference we are taught in school or by our doctors?
Our cycle is a deep inner connection to our own unique rhythm. One that is constantly trying to talk with us and slip us notes on how to seek balance and wellness in our body. The really cool thing is that each month, if we listen to it, it resets and tries to heal any leftovers from the previous month. Our womb and our cycle do not believe in accepting defeat, it truly is this built in system that believes in second chances and autocorrecting. Which is why some people believe that women live longer than men, we have a built in detox system that is trying to clear the system and go back in to fix the problem each month, how cool is that!
The problem lies in that we are really never taught this hidden power. In fact, until we are aware of this power within us, we are probably living our life very linear and just pushing through the days in survival mode.
For the magic to happen, we have to break down our cycle, understand the phases and what strengths and weaknesses exist in them.
So here we go! Here is a very brief look into the phases:
Phase 1 - Menstruation, our bleed time! This is not meant to be a nuisance, in fact we often feel disconnected to it because it tries to force us to slow down and when we don’t, it gives the punishment of pain, irritability, and a variety of unpleasant emotions. Menstruation's strength is that it really wants to do the work while you just rest. Think of it like your house cleaner. You get to lay back and watch Netflix while someone else cleans your house. Your body is powerful and is doing some powerful stuff right now and all it asks is that you stop, rest, and let it do its thing. It’s weakness though, is that it does not play nicely when ignored. If you keep pushing through and over extending your energy here, your menstruation will turn into the biggest bully ever (which is where menstrual conditions start to present themselves). Say no to the outside world and give control to your body, while you connect with you.
Phase 2 - The building stage known as follicular. Think of this time as your inner spring. The uterus and the body have been cleansed (if you relaxed during your bleed) and know the new lining can begin to build and layer. Why should you care if you're not trying to get pregnant? Because the hormones needed for this process are the same hormones that are going to bring you back to life and make you feel alive. Estrogen is so important in that it makes us want to be social and it also makes our brain start to fire up. Our vocabulary is larger and our brain is quick. This is the time our strengths come out. Our weakness here is that we probably will feel very stir crazy if we are asked to slow down or if we cannot be social. Think of the talkative kid in class that the teacher is constantly saying be quiet to. That is us here.
Phase 3 - Whoop Whoop, Ovulation time! It is no coincidence that ovulation is the time we can conceive a baby. This is the time where we are the party in our own life. Charismatic, cleaver, and really outgoing. All hormones are mixing together to make the perfect cocktail. Obviously our strength is that we are charming and feel our best. Our weakness is that we don’t know how to say no, which is fine while we are here for a few short days, but often what happens is we say yes so much that we end up overburdening our system in the next phase. Let me explain more as we jump into luteal…
Phase 4 - Leave me alone, it's my time in luteal. Estrogen is now leaving the party and progesterone is kicking everyone out. During our luteal phase, we move from being very outward to craving time alone. So, this is where we become over stressed because we committed to so many things in ovulation that we ran out of time and now we need to do it here, but really we just want to be left alone. This is this phase that brings us back to being grounded. To connect with ourselves, making plans, prioritizing ourselves, tapping into our source of creativity and just dreaming. When we don’t start to slow down, we exhaust our body and PMS comes to visit, never mind the body cannot digest the hormones from the other phases to properly prepare for our menstruation.
So as you can see, once we know these basic principles of our cycle, we can start to understand why our body feels the way it does and the beautiful thing is we also know what we need to do to honour the shift that are happening.
We are not meant to be linear! We are cyclical, always shift, recreating, and coming back to home. So how are you going to start to honour your internal shifts now that you understand what your body needs?
