Although nobody teaches us this – not our teachers, our parents, doctors or society – our body has a secret internal clock which guides us every month. This clock influences our mood, our energy and our libido. When we tap into it, it can be the biggest “aha moment” of our life. It feels like we’ve found our own instructions manual under the sofa and we’re like “What?! Has that been there the WHOLE TIME?!”
So, what is this hidden superpower? Unbelievably, it is our menstrual cycle!
Unlike men, who’s hormones and energy rise and fall with the sun, women and people with periods have energy which shifts through their menstrual cycle as our hormone levels ebb and flow.
Society has painted women and people with periods as unpredictable or moody. But let’s look at that from a different angle. What if the truth was, the world we live in doesn’t match the biochemistry of half of the global population? What if, it is the system we live in and not us that is broken?
You may have had a sneaky suspicion for a while that you have more energy, feel more chatty or more hungry in different phases of your menstrual cycle. And you’re right! Women and people with periods are cyclical and our mood, energy and all sorts of things change depending on where we are in our menstrual cycle. We can divide up our cycle into four “seasons” that influence us so you can use it to your advantage by maximising your strengths and being ready for the challenging parts too (I deep dive on all this brilliant stuff during my 6-week course, Embrace Your Cyclical Power).
Winter is when we have our period. Our superpower is claiming time for ourself and tapping into our intuition which is at its highest. Challenges can include period pains and migraines, as well as the world we live in not respecting our need to slow down.
The week after our period is spring. It’s a time of renewal, where we can plan our month ahead and creative ideas come bubbling up. But with that increased energy and influx of new ideas, we may find it difficult to keep our focus. It’s also easy to overdo it, going too fast after we’ve emerged from our winter.
Around ovulation is our summer and for many people this is our superwomen moment. To-do lists vanish in the blink of an eye, we are bursting with confidence and are happy to be a social butterfly. A downside to this is we feel so full of energy we book the rest of our month up, forgetting that quite soon we will be in a different season altogether. We’ve all been there!
The 7-10 days before our period is autumn. Our superpower is our ability to say no and claim time for ourself. We also have a great eye for detail so it’s a brilliant time to edit and organise either at work or at home. For many people, autumn is the most challenging time when we get irritated by others and our sugar cravings and mood swings dominant. Thankfully there are loads of simple things you can do to ease these common PMS issues.
By tracking our menstrual cycle, making a note of how we feel each day, we will see a pattern and be able to plan our life accordingly. We can’t always stop our busy life, but we can be kinder to ourself as we navigate our different inner “seasons”. We can appreciate that the way we feel on any given day is because of our predictable hormones and not because we’re lazy, unsociable, crazy etc. And jeez is that hugely freeing.
Once we understand the superpowers our menstrual cycle gives us, we will never doubt ourself again and instead we will feel unstoppable. Isn’t that the greatest gift we can give ourselves?
