Menstrual Cycle Health & Awareness

What I find surprising when coaching women is how little knowledge they have about their bodies. It’s not the human anatomy that I am referring to but the knowledge of their own body and energetics. The body that they have and seen growing over the years transforming from a child, into adolescence and finally a woman. Of course, when it comes to make up and how to look pretty, women know best how to make their face and body look amazing. However, when it comes to what their body needs or is telling them like feeling tired, overstimulated, excited, stressed not to mention bloated, constipated, anxious or going through a headache, they have no idea what is going on or how to care for that aspect of themselves.  

What makes women extra special is their menstrual cycle.

Women have an amazing body that performs miracles such as bringing an entire human being into existence, yet the knowledge of their own menstrual cycle is still quite poor. We may think that nowadays with the technological and medical advancement, we have more information available which is true, but it is not in the average woman’s range of perception. Yes, it is true that nowadays, most women track their cycle but predominantly to know when to expect their periods. Some women who are trying to conceive might track their ovulation, when trying to get pregnant, but overall women have little to no knowledge how their menstrual cycle affects their general health.

Why would you need to know about your menstrual cycle?

As a woman it is vital to understand the different phases of your menstrual cycle and the hormones at play during each phase, so you can support yourself in the most effective way possible. Knowing when during your menstrual cycle you experience most symptoms or changes, such as headaches, slumps in energy and increased cravings, can help you pinpoint which hormones may be involved and therefore create the most appropriate self-care for yourself. Educating yourself on your cycle and how to work with it, will help you thrive and appreciate the power of being a woman.

What your menstrual cycle tells you about your health?

The menstrual cycle is dance of hormones that guides your body majority of your life. It is a flow of energy that you can easily identify by just looking at where you are in your menstrual cycle. That flow of energy can tell you a lot about yourself and how you interact with your environment.

The different phases of the menstrual cycles can be seen as the 4 inner seasons.

Bleeding - Winter, After bleeding - Spring, Ovulation - Summer, Before you start to bleed - Autumn.

This is also because the different menstrual phases reflect the energetics of that particular season, and it will affect the interaction you have with the outside world.  

For example, during your period, when you bleed, you have the lowest physical energy, you feel like cocooning and keeping to yourself and that is what the winter season is about, hence the name winter. It is also the time when your reproductive hormones are at the lowest.

During your ovulation, you have a lot of energy, you feel great and ready to mingle with people also because biologically you would be looking for a mate to conceive (whether you want to get pregnant or not your hormones work the same), hence the name summer.  You can guess now how the other seasons work with your menstrual cycle.

You are literally carrying nature inside you every single month!

Knowing this can allow you to be in flow with your cycle with the dance of your hormones and can give you the knowledge of when you to push yourself in today’s taxing modern world and when to let go and rest. Coupled with the knowledge of which hormones are at play during your current menstrual cycle season, you can easily identify if your headache, low energy, or bloating is a symptom of the said season or some underlying issue to address.

Last, but not least the more you tune into the flow of your menstrual cycle seasons, the less symptoms you are going to experience. Now isn’t that something each one of us desires!

It is my wish to empower every woman I coach to have this knowledge and for her to appreciate the power of being a woman.

Photos by Becca Tapert & Chris Lawton.