We were never taught this in school. This knowledge was gradually erased from the world many generations back in our feminine lineage.
We have communication with our womb. We have a relationship with our feminine cycle. We can even influence the timing of our bleeding.
If we dare to open this closed box and begin looking at what is inside, we may discover that we do indeed have a relationship with our menstruation, but that it is complex, layered, and not simple at all. Perhaps we may not even wish to dive into it.
A culture that erased the cycle
This relationship is directly shaped by the culture we were raised in. A culture that worships doing and productivity. A culture that is disgusted by menstruation, even by the word itself, for which we invented a cleaner, more "respectable" word: cycle. A culture in which menstruation is perceived as dirty, polluted, impure, so much so that we are expected to hide it. To wear white and play tennis, or go to work and lift heavy things in order to prove that we are equal to men.
The way we experienced our first bleeding was directly influenced by our mother, who herself absorbed this very same culture.
If we are willing to shatter this image of menstruation, so deeply imprinted within us, we may begin to truly see the expression of menstruation, the expression of the entire cyclical nature moving through our bodies.
The inner storm before bleeding
If we listen to our natural movement in the days before menstruation, a movement that asks for slowing down and turning inward. An autumn-like atmosphere, a cold wind inviting us to enter the cave and witness the spectacle rising within us, sometimes terrifying. The spectacle of all our fears, our pain, our beliefs.
And this spectacle, which in medical language is called PMS, is actually a gift.
It is an opportunity to receive directly in the face, through a giant amplifier, everything we have worked so hard to hide from ourselves.
Everything we are being asked to work on within us. Where we still need to grow and evolve. What we need to shed in order to do so. What toxins we carry within us that are asking to be released.
It is a gift. It is powerful. It is painful. It is frightening.
The choice in our hands
And the choice is in our hands.
Whether to continue ignoring the body that asks to slow down, the heart that asks for love, the swollen aching belly that only wants to release the old that no longer serves it, and then continue experiencing the same terrifying inner storm every month, in an endless cycle.
Or to begin slowing down. To turn inward a little. To listen and observe. To write down everything that rises to the surface for deeper work later on.
Simply observe. Not try to change. Not try to fix. Observe.
This is not the time for fixing and changing. Just as during a storm we would not go outside to repair a broken window, but would wait for the storm to calm, so it is with our own inner stormy days. This is not the time to go out and fix things.
Only to observe. To become quiet. To wait.
And afterward, to tend, to heal, to change.
In this way we begin listening to our body, respecting it, respecting its needs and the needs of our heart. And with each cycle, the storm becomes a little smaller, until it transforms into a time of quiet and precise observation.
And this is a first step into this wondrous relationship, one we were never taught to live with in harmony and cooperation.
More on this soon… 🌑🌘🌗🌔🌕🌖🌓🌒🌑
Going deeper
Our feminine cyclical nature mirrors both the seasons of the year and the phases of the moon. Each month I open the workshop Your Cycle Wisdom in Aljezur, Algarve, a journey through the four phases of the feminine cycle, held in a small, intimate group of women.
If something in these words touched you, you are warmly invited.