Your first period is a vital and often overlooked aspect of menstrual cycle awareness, and the menopause process. In today’s article, we explore why menarche is such a pivotal, initiatory life transition, how it sets you on the path of awakening to the power of the cycle and to your calling, and how you can re-write your own experience as a way of claiming your uniqueness and honour your true nature.
You Move from the Womb of your Family, to the Womb of your Menstruating Years
During menarche we are each birthed from the ‘womb of our family’, into the ‘womb of our menstruating years’. We’re coming into the holding, guidance and wisdom of our menstrual cycle. In many ways, Menarche is the beginning of the journey of becoming oneself. As a child you are enmeshed with your family. Menarche marks the beginning of the separation from your family, and the process of clarifying your own identity and discovering what you are here to do and be in the world.
Your First Periods can set the Tone for your Menstruating Life
We often say that how you bleed sets the tone for the whole of your menstrual cycle. And we could expand on this to say that the atmosphere that surrounds you at your menarche makes an imprint on your psyche. Depending on the nature of the experience, this can be both aid and grit in your relationship with your power. If the experience of your first bleed was in any way difficult, traumatic, unsafe, or even simply a non‐event, that can influence your experience of menstruation each month and subtly organize your unfolding sense of self through your menstruating years right up to menopause.
The Deep Connection Between Menarche and Self Worth
In an ideal world, our first blood would be met with a welcome. Our uniqueness and gifts would be acknowledged, our individual nature recognized and celebrated, and we'd be surrounded by an atmosphere of affirmation.
In this way, the awakening that we go through would feel safe and sanctified and who we are would feel valued. This kind of menarchial experience creates a deep well of worthiness sending us into our menstruating years, into the world, with resilience and a foundation of confidence. And this helps us to fight for ourselves in the face of life's challenges and stay true to our calling no matter what.
Many indigenous cultures have long known the potency of the first bleed. In Sophie’s Menstruality podcast conversation with Dr Cre Dye, who is an incredible therapist and teacher as well as the Red School Menstruality Justice and Inclusion Educator, shared her research around different indigenous menarche rituals; such as the Anishinaabe rite of passage known as the Berry Fast, and the Navajo Kinalda ceremony.
How to Rewrite Your Experience of Your First Period
The truth is that many of us had a less than ideal entry into our menstruating years. For many it was a kind of ‘non-event’ where we didn’t feel well held, let alone celebrated. Or perhaps you experienced a subtle or overt form of shaming?
There are specific things we all wish we had heard in this precious, vulnerable moment. And we suggest reflecting on how you would have preferred the experience to be. What is it you would long to have been met with? What would have been most affirming for you? When you explore an inquiry like this with yourself, it can become a process of recognizing your unique nature, and claiming your innate power and authority.
Would You Like Support to Re-Write Your Experience of your First Period?
If you’d like to reimagine and re-anoint your entry into your menstruating years, and translate what you experienced into new intentions for your life today, we invite you to explore our Menarche course. It's self-paced and includes your very own menarche ritual pack, beautiful guided visualizations, exercises, worksheets, everything you need to support you through the process.
Here is a story from Desi, about her experience of the course:
I can't believe all the changes and clarity that have come into my life since doing the menarche course including the ritual. Going back to the time of my Menarche helped me realize when I started taking all the wrong turns in my life. I had lived my life until now drifting along. It was as if I had been asleep all this time and had finally woken up. I believe I was lucky, because a power stronger than myself was guiding me and protecting me through my intuition, and it took me to the beautiful place I am now.
- Desi, mother
You can register for the Menarche: Reinitiate Yourself Into Your Menstrual Journey course here
