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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THE DAY I TRANSFORMED

 

I remember the day my life transformed forever. The day I became a woman. Often times we hear stories about the first sexual experience as becoming a woman or the first orgasm as the rite of passage into womanhood. It is interesting having shared my body many times as well as being married with three amazing children how disconnected I was from my body. I ask myself how can you walk through life and be so detached from the very essence of you. Then one day it occurred to me that most women are scolded and reprimanded for touching down there as if it is a clandestine top secret CIA project. What is so funny is most parents would not even call the vagina by its proper name. I remember having started my monthly and how I was told I could get pregnant not to mention how I was not to let anyone touch it. This information about my monthly came with such heavy energy that I wondered if something was wrong. However, our boys are often celebrated for honoring their male parts besides the fact that their first orgasmic experience is provided by the power of themselves which in turns allow men to have a relationship with their male organ.  

This is the voyage to finding the magic that lies between my thighs. A journey to owning my greatest power. This is the day that I truly understood what it meant to be a woman. I was in New York on business. I had some extra time and navigated through the streets alone. I walked up on a sex museum and a flyer advertised a vagina workshop. I changed course and walked into the place, and up to the room where the workshop was being held.

The room had floor to ceiling mirrors, low lighting, cubicles, a candle in each section, and sensual music. A beautiful, ivory-skinned woman, welcomed me into the workshop and had an amazing accent that led to an air of mystery. She walked me to the place that would become “my section” for the duration of the session. The workshop was filled with women. I could feel the anticipation as well as deep heavy breathing.

As I laid on the floor against the pillow, an inner voice said, “Girl, what are you doing. Get the Hell out of here”. Just as I was about to leave that comfortable spot on the floor, the woman asked us to turn to the mirrors and instead of making a beeline for the door, I complied. She asked us to raise our dresses, remove the underwear and take a look at our vaginas. Then we were asked to open our lips and allow the music to move us into a sensual energy. Our work was to develop a relationship with our vaginas. She wanted us to “send love to our sacred space”.

Next we had to write letters of forgiveness to our sacred space. The letters were to send forgiving energy to the vagina for allowing people in our space who did not deserve to be there.  This led to also writing about molestations and rapes that we had experienced.  Soon, the ladies were crying and the room was heavy with the weight of so much that had transpired in our lives. The tears that flowed, flowed from the memory of the pain of being touched in inappropriate ways. The body as well as the cells remember the hurt. The vagina will hold on to the fire of that pain no matter how momentary the act the effects are monumental. The vagina remember the pain of the people. When this exercise was over we lit the bundle of sage (a Native American cleansing ritual) and then we saged our sacred place while speaking “releasing” affirmations at the same time.  The vibe of liberation swept away the previous heaviness that had permeated the room.  Then the woman encouraged us to write love letters to the vagina.

Before the next request of another sensory experience, she explained that the vagina is like a self-cleaning oven, not to mention it was the cleanest space in the body. Subsequently, the next request was to study the clitoris, to touch, rub and look at her in the mirror. She told us that the clitoris comes from a Greek word that means “Goddess Like.”

By the time we were done with this workshop I was a different woman. I had been with my husband for years, had three children and never had I taken the time to do the things that were asked of me in this workshop. I had been disconnected from my body all these years and never realized it.

The facilitator told us as we healed the womb we would begin to own our voice. I never knew that my life would transform so much. By owning my body and having a relationship with my sacred place, my orgasms became more intense. Owning my vagina changed how I saw myself. My heart connection opened the way and I began to feel love for myself.

One day while I was home alone, I lit three candles, played relaxing music, and undressed. I sat naked on the floor with a mirror in front of me and scanned my body with the intent of truly recognizing and understand the physical parts that I only gave a cursory glance.  My body: my full breasts, the curve of my womb, acquired scars, and then all the way down to the brown-pink colors of my labia. I wondered how my vagina felt about itself, so I listened to it.

Into meditation, a sense of beauty rushed over me. I felt a warmth that was like the sun coming from behind the clouds come over me; a warmth that made my heart sing. Within myself, I could feel the presence of past partners. In silence, I felt the spirit of them. I began to feel the energy of them being released from my energy.

I was compelled to speak to my womb:

“I pray for the healing, transformational and creative power of you. I pray that we stay aligned with the moon. I pray that we are healed and that all energy that enters and exits you is cleansed and given life. I apologize for hurting you.  I apologize for not honoring you. Thank you for being a source of pleasure. I am so grateful for our renewed relationship. I love you.”

I also learned that the vocal cords are patterned in a formation just like the vagina. The throat chakra and the sacral chakras are the only outlets for energy. Voice and orgasm—sounds familiar and quite possibly by why having said orgasm produces a sound of release—from a whisper to a scream. Ideas and life are created from your vagina and your throat. Your vagina and throat are expressions of what you birth. Armed with this information, I began to see my sacred space as the portal of all life.

However, I also saw my sacred space as a way to manifest or birth my dreams. The most high sends life through the womb and brings such blessings into the world.  And it is the same with goals, dreams and ideas as the sacred space is the center of creativity. I began to honor the presence of my beautiful vagina. It is imperative that women not be embarrassed or disconnected about any aspect of their sacred space—the look, feel, touch, taste, and scent.  It is equally important in relationships and in life, to remember that it is part of a personal expression of life, womanhood, and creativity.  Meaning, something that sacred needs to be worshiped and adored, and any person who shares that space should recognize the fact that it, and you, are a 

DIVINE GIFT...

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Today, I was speaking with my life coach, we were discussing the topic of receiving.(WHEW!) I am manifesting the money to go to a speaking camp. She decided to pull out the uncomfortable card.

Anthony Robbins said, "To succeed, we must

become comfortable with being uncomfortable on a daily basis."  

She began to explain that Our reluctance to freely receive affects our relationships with others and limits our openness to God's grace. Getting better at receiving, then, is an important intention of spiritual practice. 

She really hit home when she said how we downplay or minimize positive things people say about us with phrases like "Oh, it was nothing." Think about what it says to others and to God if we are always insisting that we are unworthy of their love.

So she hit me with the question how many years have you been doing The Love Journey radio show? I answered for a little over 9 years.. I was waiting for the next question. Does it cost you to run that show? How much does it cost to do the Sunrise Service? How many times do you speak to people throughout the day or night in the their time of need? 

Here comes the BOOM! Janine your receiving exercise is to ask as many people as you can to support you by asking them to donate money to you to go to speaking camp. She said it does not matter how much they donate. The very fact that you ask opens you to receiving. 

My heart skipped a beat and  my mind begin to race what are they going to think. I begin to speak to that critic in my head. I said you are deserving and worthy of all that UNIVERSE has for you and it does not matter what someone else thinks.

I thought it is my birthday and I can ask to donate to assist me  in going to Speaker's Camp. 

Below is away to donate to support Janine in going to Speaker's Camp. You can give $1 $5 $10 $20 $50 or $1,000,000 nothing is to small or to large.

PayPal.Me/lovejourney

Thank you so much for your donation. My heart is full in knowing that Universe will provide.

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Blog Talk Radio Morning Show Number (602)753-1902

The Love Journey, Inc Tele-Conference (712)432-0900 code 772719

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