I READ THIS......Symptoms of the Menstrual Cycle or rather messages from your body.
I was talking to a young woman about her cycle, starting to lead into the flow of the energy in our cycles and how she could be with that to best suit her life and I asked her ‘Are you on the pill?’ ‘Yes’, she was 21 and had been on it for seven years because she had bad period pain at 14. I suggested the concept that her body was giving her a message that she wasn’t heeding, that maybe she needed to rest in bed with a hot water bottle. She said nothing had worked, her mother even needed to take the day off work to look after her. I didn’t feel I had the license, so to speak, to take the conversation deeper, but if I did I would have asked her about what she needed to do at 14 to get her mother’s attention, to get her needs met? And I would suspect that her whole story would unravel and she would ‘see’ that what had been going on in her life regarding her needs being met or not, was manifesting through her cycle, her period pain. Instead of taking the opportunity to ‘hear’ her body speak to her of her needs – physical, emotional and spiritual needs, and any imbalances, she was subjected to the enforced regulation of The Pill. The fake version of a cycle, in fact when you’re on The Pill, you’re body ‘thinks’ its pregnant. I’ve heard also that when you’re on The Pill your inbuilt pheromone radar system that checks out likely mates for their suitability ceases to work.
The different physical and associated emotion symptoms that you experience through your cycle, are your body, your Self alerting you to a particular need you have that requires meeting. If you chart your cycle you will see that the symptoms happen at different times that have different needs.
The crankiness, impatience or annoyance so infamously called Premenstrual Syndrome, that we may experience in the last two weeks of our cycle, is really more about the feelings you have because you are not flowing with what you body really wants you to do – that is slow down, withdraw from the busyness of the outside world and look after yourself, not everybody else.
In your premenstrual week you feel less interested in the outside world and desire quiet time to yourself. If this doesn’t happen or isn’t possible because of your living arrangements, you may become very edgy, easily upset and in a ‘bad mood’, this serves its purpose and usually drives others away from you anyway.
There’s one sure way to get some space to yourself and that’s have fights, so no one wants to be around you!
Often times, the bad moods, so to speak, associated with the end of the cycle are due to the woman knowing that even though she’ll be bleeding next week, and would really rather be having sometime to herself to do that, she will have to carry on regardless, looking after everybody else and not herself. If she knew at this time, that next week she was going to have 3 days to herself, to rest, read, write, draw, whatever, her moon lodge, red tent time she wouldn’t be cranky, she’d be looking forward to it.
The other thing that happens in the third and fourth week of the cycle is that everything that’s not working in your life shows up.
Like, ways you’ve been behaving in relationships, ways you’ve been meeting your needs, or not, old patterns, anything, everything. Its Nature’s design that at this time, you notice outmoded ways of being so you can let them go with your blood and replace them with their evolution next cycle.
Each month when you bleed you can consciously let go of old ways, patterns and beliefs that no longer serve you. You can do this for yourself and also “for all your relations”, the collective feminine.
It’s the contemplative and reflective energy of this phase of the cycle that facilitates this great opportunity, your inner autumn pruning, as it were.
Cramps at bleeding time are to get you to apply some heat to your belly or back, and to get you to withdraw, from the outside world, so you notice what you’re feeling and thinking. You will hear your inner wisdom and have new ideas about how to do things differently for those outmoded ways you let it go of with your blood.
When we bleed we are more tired and when we sleep, when we bleed we may dream more than usual and it is common to have prophetic dreams at that time. So that’s why your body sends you messages of tiredness, so you will sleep more, and have those dreams.
When you emerge from your raw bleeding state, hopefully you will bring with you what you have learned from listening to her inner wisdom.In the tradition of the Native American’s Moon lodge, the community waited for the wisdom that the women returned with from their moon time retreat. They would come back with information about when and where to move camp, about where the buffalo were etc.The community valued this highly and made their plans around it, they honored the wisdom of the feminine.
Watch the cyclical nature of your libido, your sexual desire and your body awareness.
Women usually experience increased libido around ovulation for the obvious reason that there’s a chance they will conceive, and that’s the case even if that’s not their plan.
They pay more attention to the clothes they wear and how they look, leading up to and during ovulation.
Sometimes women feel more sexual just before they bleed too.
This is because their vulva and vagina is more filled with blood in that fullness we feel around our pelvic area, just before our blood flows. And because relative to the lower levels of oestrogen and progesterone at this time of the cycle, our testosterone level, responsible for many things including libido, is high.
The severity of symptoms you experience throughout your cycle will be a direct result of all the things that influence your state of health. What you eat, what you think and what you do with your body. Eating a good diet, and a regular yoga and meditation practise are the best things you can do to regulate your system and ensure it functions from a harmonious space rather than out of balance.
Ways to honour the menstrual cycle
The flow of the energy through the cycle gives us the clues for how to honour it. It’s a good idea to let the people you live with know if you are going to change the way you do things at your bleeding time. Their support will be important to the success of you implementing these life changes.
Week one
Retreat from the busyness of the world, even just for an evening.
Have a relaxing bath by candle light with essential oils. Try geranium and rose.
Create your moon lodge or red tent, this is as much a state of mind as a physical space.
Wear particular clothes or jewelry when bleeding, red stones or appropriate crystals. This can also serve the purpose of notifying the people you live with that you’re bleeding.
Suggestions from Cassarne, my crystal advisor:
Two crystals resonate with the bleeding time and the choice can be made depending on which the wearer is more drawn to.
Carnelian: this relates specific to the sacral chakra and our creative centre, it brings balance to the female sacred organs and empowers the feminine in its process.
Moonstone: provides a balancing healing energy, especially of the emotions which may be in a vulnerable and fragile space. It assists in the balance and awareness of our hormones in their “dance” through our cycle. It is also a lovely stone to wear when its one’s bloodtime as it reminds us of our connection with the moon and all her & our rhythms. Moonstone reassures us when we are in retreat at this time.
Garnet could also be worn purely because of its deep blood red hue and its resonance to our physical experience at this time. Plus it keeps one grounded and strengthens the healing energy of the Earth with our heart.
Experiment with dreaming by asking particular questions of your dreams.
Invoke a particular Goddess archetype to be with you during your blood time, perhaps Maeve or Kali.
Draw or paint.
Meditate – with or without questions and perhaps focused on what it is you will let go of with your blood this cycle.
Do gentle exercise such as walking in nature and consciously connecting with it.
Feed yourself well.
Use special linen at blood time, like red colored!
Use red towels.
Be kind to yourself – go with your flow!
The bleeding phase of the cycle is as if a monthly enactment of a vision quest. On day 3 of your cycle, just like in a vision quest, do a meditation and ask for a vision. You will be gifted with a vision to inspire and fuel you for your next cycle, write about it, draw it and refer back to it.
Make Blood Prayers – collect your blood by soaking your pads, and return the blood to the Earth, in a ritual with your prayers and intentions for your next cycle and beyond. With your blood that you give, return to the earth, metaphorically attach the unwanted ways you want to let go of. The Earth transmutes everything that returns to her, your prayers for your new cycle are made new from that. Pour the blood on the garden, many women have a special blood rose to pour their blood around, and they grow so beautifully!
The red dot that the Hindu women put between their eyes, on their third eye, used to be menstrual blood and was done so to invoke the potential visionary aspect inherent in the bloodtime. Your blood carries with it all your genetic information and your ancestors genetic information, so this practice could open your third eye to specific personal information and ancient knowledge. The third eye area is also the place of the pineal gland, referred to in ancient knowledge as the “seat of the soul”, so this practice could well increase connection and communication with one’s ‘higher self’. This practice could be done at bed time with a special invocation to remember your dreams in the morning.
Once you’ve stopped bleeding, when you are ready, gently reintroduce yourself back into the world.
Week Two
Use your creative energy, make something (make your own pads).
Express your sexuality, beautify yourself, be indulgent.
Celebrate the energy of your ovulation (just like you would the full moon).
Dedicate your egg to something you wish to give the creative life force to.
Week Three
Celebrate what you have achieved, created, succeeded in this cycle and let go of what you haven’t. Don’t be hard on yourself.
Start to notice the things that aren’t working in your life in readiness to let them go with your blood.
Don’t start any new projects, rather finish things off.
Week Four
Be ready for your approaching blood time, adjust your plans around it.
Cook in preparation for your retreat time.
Make a pot of hearty soup that you can easily feed yourself and everyone else from during your bleeding time.
Slow down.
Start to imagine how you want your next cycle to go.
“The whole menstrual cycle is an alchemical process in itself, during which every woman who bleeds goes through a transformation inside herself. To menstruate means to live through a cyclical transmutation in which the past is shed and the new in embraced. Experiencing this transformation through conscious ritual awakens us to our connection with the cycles taking place all around us and to our relationship with all life.” Lara Owen – “Her Blood is Gold”
Honor the Rites of Passage
Welcome your daughters to womanhood with an honoring ceremony, as little or as much as she will allow you! What happens around a rite of passage teaches you about what’s expected of you in your new role.
Think about what happened around your menarche – What did it teach you about being a woman? Maybe you want to re enact your menarche.
Honor and understand peri-menopause and menopause – it is a time of transformation, a labor of sorts with a birth of a new you.
Create a Women’s circle and share together your experience of your cycle.
So, there you have it – the menstrual cycle is such a gift if you bring your awareness to it. It’s that extra special thing about being a woman, not only can we create new life but we can re create ourselves anew each cycle. And its so important to get this, because this happens whatever the energy is, whatever thoughts and feelings you start your cycle with will be what sees you through that cycle, it will be the theme (just like at a new moon).
So if that’s negative, like yuk, here I am bleeding again, I’m so tired, what about me, I’m in pain etc etc, then those thoughts are the metaphoric seeds you’ve planted at the start of the cycle that will grow, full bloom, harvest, decay, die and then be reborn again. So make sure you spend time at the start of your cycle, and on the new moon, setting your intentions for the new cycle, planting the metaphoric seeds that will nurture and feed you as they grow to their fullness during your current menstrual cycle or as the lunation cycle takes its course.
So in closing I shall say again, there is so much transformational magic available to women through their cycles. Such opportunity.
And I’ll leave you with a thought..
You know, if we, all the women, got it together with our prayers and intentions maybe even re-synchronize our cycles with the moon and with each other – we could use this energy to heal the planet.
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