How To Go Through Life According To Your Womb: Embody The Phases Of Your Menstrual Cycle

We've been taught to live life at an unchangeable pace, always expelling the same amount of energy, always being at the height of productivity, moralizing opposites:

energetic = good, tired = bad,

happy = good, sad = bad,

extrovertive = good, introvertive = bad.

By thinking that some natural, living characteristics are inherently "bad", we try to push them away and never be sad, never be tired, never feel introvertive. But all this does is raise our expectations of ourselves to impossible standards. From there we go straight to constant guilt as well as burnout.

​Are you a gym or exercise person? If so, consider the following situation: You know you sometimes go to the gym and are just exploding with energy, you know you can run for 45 mins at the treadmill followed by a full body workout. But you've noticed that some days you just don't really feel it, yet you push yourself anyway and hate every second of it, so you just go do a relaxed stretch and then you leave the gym feeling like it was a waste of time and even a bit unsuccessful. In the back of your mind there is a tiny amount of guilt that makes you feel like you didn't take advantage of your time at the gym.

​Are you a creative person? Do you notice the ups and downs of inspiration and motivation, and even in actual satisfaction and expectation with the art that you do? There are some days when you sit down, you get to it and within some time you create a masterpiece. And some other days your brain and your hands simply seem to not communicate, you start a few different pieces and you end up more and more unsatisfied with each result, until you finally leave it and think - today is just not my day, what a waste of time -.

There are some days where you feel extra powerful, you somehow manage to do everything the day required; fill in the blanks with as many of these that applied to your regular days: work, family obligations, clean, cook, run errands, exercise, work on your passion project, organize the closet, do your self-care routine, catch up with friends... You get to the end of the day and you think - what a successful and productive day - and you go to bed utterly satisfied.

But there are some days, when you barely manage to do the bare minimum, and even that feels like pulling teeth. You get to the end of the day, and you think - today was an absolute failure, let's just get this day over with -.

This happens because of the impossible standards society has set up for us. And when we don't reach them we either burn with guilt, or burn out as we are constantly trying to reach them.

Womb-pace is the cyclicity of ups and downs and push and pull of opposites. Energy requires rest, happiness requires sadness, motivation requires unmotivation and inspiration requires uninspiration.

It is in the moment of the lack of something, when we recharge that something. And those moments need to be equally valued and respected.

Womb-pace is the cyclicity of building - destroying - building - destroying - building - destroying...

Constructing - letting go - constructing - letting go - constructing - letting go...

The way in which we are disconnected from this cycle is two-fold:

1. The actual construction of our society's daily life, work expectations, family expectations, house expectations. We somehow need to do everything at once, alone, with a smile because we need to show the world how super powerful we are and satisfied, because we are somehow filling in every single role we ever wanted. And of course, this doesn't ever leave a single second for true rest, true recovery, true leisure time. Ever. All we manage to do is zombie out at night because it's the only time no one is requiring anything but truly, all this does is not allow us to get the true amount of sleeping hours we actually need, and wake up equally tired or worse.

2. The physical and biological disconnection we have to our body/wombs/menstrual cycle. A tampon allows you to get through your period as if nothing was going on, an advil allows you to feel barely fine in order to keep going, orrrr birth control just all around disrupts the entirety of your natural hormonal production, taking the menstrual cycle entirely out of the equation.

I am by no means judging any of this! I have taken countless advils, tried out all sorts of bleeding catchers and have fallen and keep falling into tremendous guilt, thinking I don't work as hard as others, I don't mother as well as others, I don't create as much as others, I don't socialize as much as I should, I don't exercise as much as I should, I don't eat as healthy as I should.

(I also want to point out that in some cases birth control is totally a blessing and helps with many biological imbalances or needs, however, not always. Birth control has been in many ways overused and overprescribed and many of the issues it solves sometimes didn't even need solving or can be solved in other, more natural, ways).

So what should we do about this?

We go back to our nature, ancient wisdom.

Our wombs have been doing this cycle for millennia, while our society has only been set up like this for a few hundred years.

We reconnect and reclaim our own relationship to ourselves.

We've been taught not to know ourselves, in fact, we've been taught to doubt the tiny sparks of true intuition. Every time our body speaks to us, we've been told we are not professionals, so we don't know what our bodies are saying.

There is a huge percentage of the population that doesn't even know the different energies that accompany every part of our cycle. We've been taught that there are two parts to it: bleeding and the time between bleeding. And we've also been taught that bleeding is an annoyance that must be masked to continue with life as if nothing was happening.

The problem here is that it leads us to live lives that are either full of guilt and self-gaslight, or completely burnt out lives trying to achieve constant productivity.

Embodying the phases of our menstrual cycle means to know our unique way in which our bodies operate during each phase. Every body is different, it takes time and a few cycles in which much attention is focused to listen, before we can get to know our individual language.

It is also helpful to know, biologically, what hormones are doing and for what reason, in each phase. And then, let them do their job while we help them out, instead of quieting their true needs. Listen when we truly need rest (mental, physical and emotional), listen what our bodies want to eat (our cravings - nutritional needs - change throughout the month). Listen... and support.

Some phases give us high energy, some low. We can listen and know what to expect from ourselves and manage our expectations, trusting that the days of high energy and high motivation will come back and be ready for when they do.

How do we go about this?

We set ourselves constant reminders to pause, ground and be present with our bodies. To deeply listen.

Here are some things that can help:

• Read my articles that dive deep into each phase:

  • MENSTRUATION - 3 Tips To Get Through Your Menstrual Phase With More Grounding And Empowerment

  • FOLLICULAR PHASE - How to Make The Best Use Of Your Follicular Phase

  • OVULATION - The Fireworks Of Your Menstrual Cycle

  • LUTEAL PHASE - The Change in Perspective

• Listen to my free meditations on Insight Timer, there is one meditation per phase so you can listen as many times as you want during that phase to ground yourself in its energy.

• Track your cycle using an app or an old school, pen and paper chart.

• Focus a whole month working one-on-one with me to truly deepen this connection with The Wombs Cycles Program.

*I am not a medical professional, I am a Transformational Coach interested in knowing and sharing how to connect with our deepest selves and use our menstrual cycles' energies in our daily lives.