In the past, I have talked about how to rephrase the word “period” (meaning menses not punctuation) to the much more lovingly magical phrase “Moon Flow” ~ and the entire monthly cycle the Moon Cycle. As a woman, putting your Moon Cycle at the forefront of your life allows you to follow the rise and dips in energy. This in turn allows you to schedule your extroverted vs. introverted times to optimize your energy patterns.
The truth is, this Rhythm is for anyone! Learning to slow down and go with the cycle of the flow of life is a great way to rediscover the magic within. Here are few tips and resources to get you started.
* For All: Take out your calendar and a Moon cycle calendar. During the Waxing phase of the moon, label this week “Spring”. The week of a Full Moon is “Summer”, Waning is “Fall” and New Moon is “Winter”. These phases of the moon literally affect the energy of those of us on earth – just like the moon affects the water within the ocean to rise and fall.
* For Women Flowing: If you own Moon Cycle doesn’t match up with the moon patterns, use your cycle to mark your weeks. Days of the bleed = Winter. Pre-Ovulation = Spring. Ovulation = Summer. Pre-Moon Flow = Fall.
* Thinking about these seasons and planning your social/work/family life accordingly will help you follow and optimize the natural energy rises and falls within and without ~ while protecting your body against undo stress that can be the cause of illness and dis-ease. Think of this as interval training for your entire well-being! Example: Summer time is a time of long, hot days with lots of heat providing energy to go out and do fun things. Winter time are short days and long nights that allow for rest.
* Especially for Flowing women: chart to see how long your Fall time is, and play around with starting to slow down the extroverted/out-and-about calendar in favor of quieter activities at home. Eating deep growing roots, drinking red raspberry leaf and/or mugwart tea helps to tone the womb, taking a nap when the energy wanes in the late afternoon will all help ease the symptoms of Pre-Moon Flow. Sara Avant Stover teaches that if PMF (otherwise known as PMS) is rearing its ugly head – this is a deep warning sign to the woman that something in her life was off balance this last cycle(s) (as in my story above) ~ and her body is actually lovingly attempting to alert her to draw her attention inwards to re-balance. It might not be a quick fix and all of the symptoms of PMF may never go away fully, which I use simply as a reminder to honor my body and my boundaries with my friends and my family. My boys, even though they are young and are boys, are made aware of how special this time is and how sometimes I need extra space (especially physically) in order to be the mommy I want to be. It’s not a perfect system, but it helps!
* For all during the Winter time of the cycle: practice taking a few days a cycle to really slow down, to give more time to rest/sleep/journaling and dreaming. Take long baths with Epsom salt and Rose Oil or petals while touching your body all over, feeling the magic of your skin come alive. Sip tea in the late afternoon sun while watching the changing colors. Take slower walks or dances instead of the high intensity ones, pausing to feel whatever is there to be felt. Watch a movie with friends and family instead of going out to the latest social gathering. Have a nice quiet night around the fire with some music.
* For flowing Women: allow your abdomen to fully release, creating room for the blood to flow out without constriction. Avoid doing rigorous workouts with abs in favor of Yin yoga, deep breathing allowing the energy to keep moving and not grow stale. SeeResource: Developing a Healthy Feminine Core for more info!
As always my dear friend, if you would like to invest deeper into finding your own inner rhythm and magic, I am here for you. Click here to schedule a time to talk!
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Well, that was until last cycle. Memorial Day to be exact. I had no kids and lots of plans for dancing and acro and fun, and I decided to take the risk and do it all!
All I did. I spent all 3 days out and about, upside down and inside out (read the post here). What I didn’t do was sit long enough to let my belly fully out, to breath deep into my womb and intentionally set my blood a flowing.
About 1.5 weeks later I started to come down with a virus of sorts. While it did provide very physical symptoms, I firmly believe that pushing myself through my Moon Flow – not allowing myself space and time to rest, dream and rest some more – my body was attempting to quickly wake me up to the temptation of ignoring who I am. Pushing through my Moon had been a way of life for 35 years, and it was amazing to me how easy it was to step right back into this mode of being even after the last 2 years.
Fast forward to this past week and my Pre-Moon flow time: this has been a time where I have struggled with feeling my deep core of who I am. A time where words escaped me to even begin to describe the raging of storms going on inside and the disconnect I was feeling. It became a time where I dropped back into my old story about the Feminine Wound and how deep it ran in my life (i.e. my posts from earlier this week). Even though I found much magic in the past month all around me, I was struggling with a tight chest, an even tighter feeling in my womb and tears of heartache for wanting to be seen by the world.
Fast forward to yesterday and yet another powerful coaching session with my own coach. I started off the call with the comment “What does it feel like to be a soul inside the feminine body?” and then going on to share that I felt blocked in some way to being able to access this feeling inside of me and it was because of this deep Feminine Wound that my head was wrapped up in.
“Woo is me…woo are the women of the world…let me continue to play the victim role unkowningly and hopefully that will lead me back into the Oneism that I crave.” is what I can know hear I was saying as I shared my story.
By the end of the session I realized that the very thing that was blocking me from feeling my soul, the very thing that was putting me back into dualism and into the Feminine Wound was my denial of my Feminine body’s needs to slow down, to rest and to connect to my own internal rhythm. It wasn’t some deep seeded story about being a woman in a patriarchal society, defined by words made by the patriarchy. It wasn’t the absence of my father at such a young age and the feeling that I was invisible because of his absence. It wasn’t because I felt unseen by men in my life – nothing could be further from the truth on that one.
When I sat and really looked at how well I had been seen by all of my community in the past week, I started to dig into the reflection of me I saw in them. As I shared this with my coach and we dug into who it was that really wanted to be seen and by whom – of course it turned out to be me. I wanted to be seen and heard by me. That the part of me that wanted to be felt was the deep womanly cycle that slows me down, gives me rest and space to reconnect with me. This part of me wanted me to be present, to honor and pamper myself.
This part of me wanted me to RELEASE THOSE OLD STORIES of being invisible and ignored.
When I did this, I touched my hand to my heart chakra and felt the most amazing spark of connection from within. I essentially had OPENED up my body to realize I did not need to force anything.
All I really needed? To simply RECEIVE the love that is always available to me through me by accepting me as I am.
