Menstrual Cycle Awareness - the daily practice of remembering your menstrual cycle day, tuning into how it is influencing your mood and energy, and adapting the way you move through your day accordingly. It sounds simple. But as you may well know, the impact can be profoundly life-changing.
Not only does a daily cycle check-in gently walk us home to our own natural rhythms, it also keeps us close to what truly matters to us. It’s a natural self esteem builder, helping us to trust ourselves more and more. It even prepares us for the great initiation of menopause.
We decided to ask the Red School community how the daily practice of cycle awareness had changed their lives, and were amazed by the stories that flooded in. Here are just a handful of them:
One: From powerlessness to fighting the patriarchy, one household at a time, from Clara
“I went through an intense period of a couple months when I first read Wild Power and started listening to the podcast, during which I took a deep dive into cycle awareness and radical(ish) rest during my bleeds…
My almost four year old son now asks me about my inner seasons, and it has become part of our household discourse about how we communicate with one another, and how we give each other more room for forgiveness. To me, this feels like one of the most beautiful ways to fight the patriarchy - one husband, one son, one household at a time.“
Two: From uprooted to nature connection and earth activism, from Rebecca
“Cycle awareness has brought me back into a sense of belonging to the earth. It's helped me see how the seasonal mirrors of our menstrual cycle phases aren't just a mirror, but evidence that I am nature, the same cycles that sustain life in our universe are present in me and sustain me too.
It helped me see how the parts of me as a woman and menstruator that have been so dismissed by our culture, are also the same parts of the earth that have been exiled. And it helped me see that I can practice as a small scale - starting with my body - the beautiful, regenerative future I envision just by honouring my own cyclical nature.”
Three: From depression to alignment, from Melanie
“Prior to starting cycle awareness, I was navigating a bout of severe depression. While many things contributed to my healing process cycle awareness was the first step on my journey, and my trusted ally through it all. It changed my life and I am so incredibly grateful for it.
Cycle awareness has truly become my greatest passion. I feel it quietly leading the way to a deeper alignment with my true self and calling. I have a deep respect and unshakeable conviction in the truth of its power to bring women closer to themselves. A commitment to what feels in its own way radical to honour - trusting and going at the pace of my own rhythm, no longer resisting and fighting against the current.”
Four: From feeling lost in perimenopause to grounded clarity from Erin
“I was in the early months of understanding what perimenopause is and my place in that journey. After endless, often frantic research and making various lifestyle changes in attempt to regain that feeling of “myself”, I can say that the moment I began to take in the practice of menstrual cycle awareness, I immediately felt grounded again. Things started to make sense.
As someone who has always felt in tune with myself on an emotional level, I realised that it had been quite awhile since I had felt the same union with my own body. This has been an immense gift and I am forever changed in how I see and walk through life. Thank you for leading the way.”
If your looking for a little more support with your cycle, you can find you copy of our book Wild Power here.
Or if you want support on your journey of Menopause, find your copy of Wise Power here.
