Cycles
CW: Menstrual Cycle
In this post I wanted to bring up a slightly different subject. than usual. I would love to hear from you as it’s something I’ve been thinking about only in the past year or so and I’m trying to unpack myself.
I’ve been very lucky in my life and never really suffered from bad period pain nor big mood swings and have spent the last 30-ish years of my life not worried about when I was due on - I had the mindset of “it’ll just come when it comes” and I have never bothered to track my cycle.
The Pandemic hit and like everyone, all plans were cancelled. No events to go to and no intensive rhythm of preparations and planning for performances and shows.
I started to notice really “low” days, both in energy and mood, which I wouldn't have considered to be “like me”. And then a couple of days later - my period starts! After a couple of months I was starting to notice the pattern. Something even bigger - headaches I’ve suffered with for years seemed to be clustering together, guess when? Right around the start of my period. I’m sure you can imagine the facepalm when I realised this.
Now I don’t think any of this is new at all. It’s just that in the past I’ve been too busy to notice the connection and it really blows my mind that I’ve managed to go so long without knowing more about it!
So for the first time in my life, I’ve been tracking my menstrual cycle. It’s been about a year now and the more I research I’m doing, I’m starting to understand more about how the female hormonal system works, and how the system we live in is so misaligned with our cycle.
If I'm honest, I’m really struggling with it all - I’ve always considered myself to be “hard-working” and (fairly) organised and like to have a plan and a routine - always fitting a 24-hour day and a 7-day week with 5 days on and 2 days off. My Movement Practice is the same - it ebbs and flows throughout the week with stronger vs. chilled days to allow for recovery or life getting in the way but it always repeats exactly the same every 7 days.
It actually makes me nervous to even think about trying to make a practice plan to fit my monthly cycle! What’s holding me back is thinking about the days I won’t be “working as hard” - there’s a little part of me that feels lazy, even though I’m starting to understand that this may be an amazing thing for my body. It’s terrifying how ingrained this system is in my mindset!
What are your thoughts about this? Perhaps you track your cycle, but do you manage your activities around it? I know most of us can’t make major adjustments to our working lives (hello patriarchy) but of course there’s plenty of lifestyle tweaks that could be made. Am I the only one coming so late to these revelations? I’m much closer to menopause now than to my early teens and I feel so behind with all this!!
It’s definitely something I want to work on though - I have enough data now to predict how my cycle is roughly going to go (I’m not running like clockwork by any means!) so my next step is to plan my monthly movement practice around this, allowing for the ebb and flow of energy and mood throughout the month. Watch this space - I’ll keep you updated!
I would love it if you would share any insight, experience, resources or thoughts, either in the comments or privately. It’s something I’m doing a lot of thinking and research around and would value hearing from you if you are in a similar place or going through a similar journey!