When trouble occurs with any aspect of your hormonal journey from menarche to menopause you can see it as an early warning signal to attend to yourself more. Menstrual symptoms, as well as menopause symptoms, give us vital feedback about our health.
One of the best ways to tune into the feedback from your cycle is by deepening your practice of menstrual cycle awareness (MCA) - the art and practice of paying attention to and pacing the changing pattern of energy and mood of your cycle each menstrual month and organizing your life around this pattern as best you can.
We invite you to start including new, fresh layers to your MCA daily check-ins: such as your mental health, your energy levels, your sexual energy, your levels of creativity, your dreams, and the state of your nervous system. All of these factors will help you to make even better choices about how you care for yourself (as much as your life allows).
And, as you honour the changing pattern of energy and mood, you’ll also be better equipped to manage the stress of day-to-day life.
It’s Not Personal - much of the feedback is collective
As well as giving you feedback about your body and soul, your menstrual cycle and menopause experience respond to what’s happening externally. In many ways, our experience of menstrual and menopause suffering for so many of us today is a kind of ‘state of the world’ report card.
Menstrual stigma, period poverty, gender inequality, misogny, and negative attitudes to menopause and the older woman all compound the extraordinarily complex and challenging times we live in where we face environmental toxins, climate disruption, huge social and political unrest and economic turmoil.
In other words, our suffering can be seen as a statement about the condition of the planet we inhabit right now.
This is why we’re passionate about growing a movement of cycle-aware advocates who are re‐imagining the menstrual cycle and menopause, so that we can transform them into a means by which we’re empowered to make a difference. Menstrual health challenges and menopause may make us vulnerable for a while, but that very tenderness is the doorway to a fierce power in service of life.
(This is what our Menstruality Leadership programme is in service to - you can find out more about the world’s first leadership training rooted in the power of the menstrual cycle and menopause here).
There’s no Pass or Fail
If you’re suffering with menstrual, perimenopause, or menopause health challenges, whatever your symptoms and however extreme, it’s crucial to remember they’re not a judgement on you. They’re categorically not a sign of failure. There’s no pass or fail in this menstrual and menopause game – there’s only the experience you have.
If you find you’re inflicting harshness on yourself for not handling it well, we invite you to drop the judgement right now.
Some of us have been dealt much easier genetic‐and‐life‐circumstance cards than others, with different levels of privilege and access to health care and support. Your experience of your menstrual cycle and menopause is your particular initiatory adventure, serving you to come into a new place of self‐recognition and acceptance to realize your creative expression, or Calling, in the world.
Your symptoms are not the enemy, even though in the moment they may feel like it. Health challenges expose you to yourself in ways you’ve never been before – to the taste of your soul, your overall health, the reality of the world – and you're still being expected to keep up normal appearances. It’s a lot. But we see the strength and tenacity you bring, and want to create a world where you’re fully supported to weather these initiations with grace and dignity to find greater freedom.
If you want to join in our quest to create a menstrual and menopause positive world, come and explore our Menstruality Leadership Programme - you can find out more information here.
