The Inner Seasons of Your Menstrual Cycle
When you align your life around your menstrual cycle, everything shifts.
Do you feel like going to work when you have cramps and are bleeding heavily? How do you feel when you can’t make space for nourishment and rest? How many women* move through their period disconnected from their bleed?
How many partners fail to support them during this sensitive time?
Does our society support those who bleed every month?
The hustle and go-go-go lifestyle that we all attempt to achieve ~ we aren’t supposed to live like this.
How often have you said, “Ugh, I just can’t wait for my period to be over”?
How common is it to hear, “I hate my period”?
Can you even imagine looking forward to the week before you bleed? Feeling deeply connected to your blood? Cherishing the time that comes every cycle? If this feels unattainable, don’t worry… I used to think so too.
* I choose to use the word “women” in the majority of my writing to depict a person who identifies with being female-bodied. A lot of the work I do is centered around the feminine, wombs, pussy, etc. I am not using the term “women” to exclude trans, bi gender, genderqueer, non-binary folx.
My Story
I started my period in the 7th grade. My mom had given me a book on what to expect during your period, so I felt prepared enough. She was pretty open with me about sex, womanhood and periods. Even though my parents were more open than most, our society fails to honor this initiation into womanhood as a sacred ritual and rite of passage. I remember feeling nervous when I saw that first red stain on my toilet paper. My mom was making red velvet cupcakes. The image of her swirling the deep red, thick batter still fills my mind. Honestly, I don’t remember what was said but I know I went to school that day prepared with pads and tampons. I got to school and felt excited to share with my friend Kiersten that I started my period. To me, it always felt like a rite of passage. But, walking around the hallways was torture ~ feeling self conscious that I would drip blood down my pants at any moment. A perfect situation for uneducated boys to shame me.
Every cycle, I dreaded my “time of the month”. As a hormonal teenager now on birth control pills, every 4 weeks my life got WAY more challenging. As I reached my 20’s, my PMS got worse. Every month I was bed ridden with horrible cramps, fatigue, drastic mood swings, bloating and depression. I thought this was how I would spend the rest of my life. I thought my experience was normal.
Heavy PMS is common, not normal.
My period began to be something I despised. It was hard to work my job at the mall, stay motivated in college and maintain healthy relationships. I thought, “My period must be the problem!” However, my disconnection from my body and womb was the real problem.
Fast forward to now, I am excited to bleed. When I take time to check in with my body and honor what I need, my PMS is almost non-existent. There wasn’t just one magic thing that solved all my period problems either.
It’s been a combination of:
Balancing my hormones through herbs, food + supplements.
Daily movement.
De-armoring practices
Releasing societal shame, sexual trauma + body insecurities.
Working with a Naturopathic doctor, coaches + online courses.
Eating an ancestral + nutritious diet.
Being in relationship with a man who supports me.
Community, especially other women to lean on, learn from and look up to.
Honoring my bleed ~ menstrual cups, rituals in nature + somatic release.
Getting off hormonal birth control and switching to tracking my cycle.
Learning about the four phases of the menstrual cycle + aligning my life to this (cough cough.. that’s why we’re here right now).
This has been my path of deprogramming and re-learning how to love my bleed. It doesn’t matter what tools you use to get there, or what path you follow. All that matters is that you know there is a path and that this is possible. Disconnecting women* from their wombs, bleeds and power has been embedded in society for centuries. Now, the divine feminine is rising. Can you feel it? More and more people are talking about their sexuality, pleasure and menstrual cycle. More businesses are popping up that focus on creating sustainable products for folks with wombs + menstrual cycles. More women dancing and feeling embodied on their Instagram.
Women are coming back to their bodies… and it’s fucking magical.
The Four Phases of the Menstrual Cycle
With the recent rise of education on menstrual cycles, bleeding, womb health, etc, you may have heard people claim that the menstrual cycle isn’t comprised of just four phases.
This is correct - It is much more unique and diverse than that. On a biological, hormonal and scientific level there are more than four phases and various shifts happening within your womb every cycle. The phases are: Menstruation, Follicular Phase, Proliferative Phase, Ovulation, Luteal Phase, and Secretory Phase.
And they are sort of missing the point - The commonly taught “four phases” of your menstrual cycle is shared this way because it’s an easy to navigate concept + framework to understand your cycle deeper. It just makes sense.
These four phases align with the seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall + Winter. The feminine archetypes also beautifully pair with these phases: Maiden, Mother, Enchantress & Crone. Understanding my cycle in this way has been the biggest tool for positively shifting my relationship with my bleed.
If you’re interested in learning the more technical understanding of your menstrual cycle ~ HelloClue shares an informative article that goes into more depth here.
What are the four phases & how do I shift my life to be more in alignment with them?
Follicular
Season: Spring
Archetype: Maiden
Cervical Fluid: dry, sticky or creamy.
Affirmation: “I am a magnet for creative, sexual and financial energy”
Hormones: Hormones are low as you’re coming out of Menstruation. Estrogen and FSH rises.
Nourishment: Fresh raw fruits and veggies. Foods that are young and alive. My go-to meals are smoothie bowls, salads, yogurt, eggs, fruit, etc.
Themes: renew, creation, planting the seeds, creativity, new ideas and projects, energy, passion, aligned action, clarity and confidence.
Daily Flow: Try a new class, start a new project, deep cleaning, working out, outdoor adventures, high energy sports, business meetings, social gatherings, brainstorming sessions, say “yes”, sort finances, plan month ahead, sexual energy - take hot nudes, make business decisions and creative endeavors.
Ovulatory
Season: Summer
Archetype: Mother
Cervical Fluid: Like egg-whites, fertile, wet, stretchy and slippery
Hormones: Estrogen levels peak.
Nourishment: Foods that increase circulation and support the libido. Continue foods from follicular phase.
Themes: fertility, abundance, peak, expansion, magnetic, sexual energy, confidence, community, growth, manifest, full moon, social, responsibility, gratitude,
Daily Flow: social gatherings and community - but do not overbook for the following week, tantra, sexual practices, embodiment practices, hot yoga, strength training, writing/creative endeavors, mothering the self, supporting others, nurturing, etc.
Luteal
Season: Autumn
Archetype: Enchantress
Cervical Fluid: Dry + Sticky
Affirmation: “A no to others, can be a yes to myself. I create space to honor me.”
Hormones: First half - progesterone peaks. Second half - hormones decrease in preparation for shedding the uterine lining.
Nourishment: Roasted root veggies, warming foods like broth/soups/curries, fiber rich foods, increase protein and magnesium rich foods.
Stay away from raw or cooling foods, because the goal is to warm the cervix and increase blood flow/circulation.
Themes: deep healing, release, presence, medicine woman, reflection, balance, letting go, contraction, inner work, intuition, change, grounding.
Daily Flow: Move your body (the intensity may decrease), say no to plans, connect to your inner sensuality, reflective walks outside in nature, lean into your own natural rhythm and energy (random bursts of energy are normal, alongside a deep need for rest), make space for reflection + processing, plan ahead for your menstruation when you may need more support, prep snacks for future cravings and carve out time for rituals.
Menstrual
Season: Winter
Hormones: All hormones are at a low.
Archetype: Crone
Cervical Fluid: Menstruation/Blood
Affirmation: “I choose to be present with my emotions and needs”
Nourishment: Anti-inflammatory food. Warming foods to prevent uterine cold. Food that helps circulation + replenish blood loss. Iron rich foods. Herbs: Damiana, raspberry leaf, White Willow Bark, Red clover, and more. Reduce caffeine.
Themes: Deep rest, going inwards, recharge, compassion, clarity, truth, reveal, let go, renew, shadow work, boundaries, sensitive.
Daily Flow: Connect to your bleed/womb, Singing - Kirtan, Somatic releases, Deep breathing, Nourish your body with warming foods, self care, take a warm bath, rest and recharge, say no to plans, spend time quiet in nature, low stimulation, and journaling.
When we understand these four inner seasons, it can bring us more compassion for the inevitable ups + downs of being a woman. Just like the moon goes through phases, so do we. Our hormones go up and down every month, causing our inner worlds to shift. In a society that fails to make space for these shifts, we must find ways to feel grounded and connected in our own personal lives.
Understanding my menstrual cycle through this framework has been HUGE.
When I start to feel moody in my Luteal phase, I know I need to slow down and say no. If I am feeling fatigued in my Follicular phase, it’s probably because I did too much while I was bleeding. Whenever I bleed, I feel all the emotions I didn’t make space for during the rest of my cycle. The rhythms of our wombs reveal so many messages to us. We need to stop trying to adapt to a society that wasn’t constructed to benefit us. Aligning our lives for our menstrual cycle through the four inner seasons ~ Follicular, Ovulation, Luteal & Menstrual ~ can allow us to feel more held as we navigate through so much every 28-32 day cycle.
If you desire to learn more about the inner seasons of your menstrual cycle or discover more from Earth, Rhythm & Womb: