Ladies! Some days or weeks you feel confident, outgoing, attractive, assertive, chatty, witty, sexy, enthusiastic you are going to take on and take over the world with one hand tied behind your back on very little sleep coz you’re not tired and you’ll do all this plus manage your full time job, 3 kids and a husband? And the next week you’re full of self-doubt, introverted, self-critical, shy, crave time alone where no one talks to you, touches you or even looks in your direction coz you’re so tired and irritable not to mention hangry you’re likely to bite their head off, eat it, then sob??

 

Yes, that’s good old mother nature at play. If you’re a woman of menstruating years or partner, friend, parent, colleague or know someone who is then the above scenarios are all too familiar. Or perhaps you experience these feelings in your own body and mind but keep them shut away?

 

The menstrual cycle has been likened to the seasons of a year with you guessed it Winter being your period and Summer being the time around which you ovulate. With Spring being the time where I personally find I feel gradually better moving from my period to ovulation and Autumn is often the descent into darkness in both body and mind I feel. In my mind’s eye it looks like a hill with a sun drenched top, being ovulation, which I climb and descend each month. I’d be interested how you view yours, let me know in the comments below. Or perhaps you’ve never really realised or thought about it.

 

To give a basic overview of how and why the hormones associated with the menstrual cycle make us feel the way we do we have to think about what our body is trying to achieve. Procreation! Our bodies want us to reproduce whether we like it or not so around ovulation you feel so flipping amazing coz your body wants you to get out there, find a partner, get laid and get pregnant. Then leading up to your period your body wants you to conserve energy and cut any crap out of your life so you have the capacity to support and protect a foetus in case you may be pregnant or to gear up for the next cycle of ovulation. She wants you to lay low and take care of yourself, take stock of your life and correct anything that’s not serving you.

 

Clever stuff hey!? But unfortunately, we have more going on in our lives than just making babies these days, so how to manage this often-overwhelming cycle of hormones in today’s modern busy life? My number one tip to all of my clients is always ‘listen to your body’ she will tell you when to rest and when you can fire on all cylinders, please do not beat yourself up you are not a robot it’s all normal.

 

Practicing menstrual cycle awareness or MCA should be the first step and can be so useful; use your diary to record how you feel each day even if it is one word, you’ll soon see a pattern emerging and utilise that to your advantage. For example, I’ll often write around my summer ‘extrovert, confident, life feels easy…’ and around my winter ‘mentally and physically drained, introverted, self-critical, I want to hibernate…’. I now know when to plan social occasions and really graft on work projects or smash it in the gym and when to have very little in my diary in terms of commitments, I’ll even pencil time in to ‘chill and rest’.

 

I’d say around 90% of my clients are female. I have found helping them to understand their menstrual cycle and work with not against the powers that it holds has helped us all immensely. Doctors will often see a healthy menstrual cycle as a vital sign when looking at the health of a female patient, like blood pressure or heart rate. If you have no periods, a cycle which is longer than 35 days or shorter than 26 days, severe symptoms such as very heavy bleeding, extreme cramps or violent mood swings then you do not have a healthy cycle and should seek medical advice. There are many things a woman can do to bring her cycle back on track therefor improving the quality of her life and reduce unwanted symptoms. A few I have tried are; tracking the cycle, resting when needed, making sure I get good quality and quantity sleep each night, eating nutritious foods regularly, cutting out dairy and sugar plus limiting caffeine and alcohol intake, exercise regularly and generally be a lot kinder to and easier on myself.

I find with clients and myself a poorly managed menstrual cycle can be a real spanner in the works when trying to diet and exercise to achieve weight loss, muscle gain or improve performance. On the flip side I truly believe there is an immense power within us all that if harnessed and nurtured can become our superpower in all areas of our lives. We owe it to ourselves and our daughters to gain this knowledge and start talking more openly about how we feel as females and how we can use the menstrual cycle to our personal advantage and that of the wider community and world!

If you’re interested in this topic and feel it would help you or someone you know please get in touch for a chat. There are a couple of books I’d recommend if you’ like to do some research yourself on the menstrual cycle and how harnessing its power can help you. I’ll put them in the references below.

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Look out for my next blog coming each weekend, if there are any topics you’d like me to blog about please get in touch.

Reading List:

Period Power by Maisie Hill

Wild Power by Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer