I didn't think this was how I was going to start my blog, talking about Periods; I thought it would be something a little different, maybe about meditation or my Christian faith, just not Mother Nature's Gift. It's the perfect message for the start of this journey, though: life is filled with unexpected twists and you truly have no control over them. Our job? Find the magic through and in between, and ride it all the way to the other side.
Also, what a beautiful week to launch the blog; Happy World Wellbeing Week!
In a nutshell, this is a safe space, a place of learning, community and growth as I document my path along the holistic, balanced and wholesome road. I hope, if you decide to join me or pop in from time to time, that we'll all run through this adventure together and come out of it better souls than we entered * waves enthusiastically to say hi *
Now, back to Periods; Mother Nature; Mother Nature's Gift; Aunt Flo and on the list goes...
I'm not going to be specifically talking about what happens inside my body but rather what happens to me, as a living soul, during that time and how I've found some sort of peace in that time of turbulence.
Seven days before Mother Nature greets me and through the entire time I'm on, these are the following struggles I have:
Getting out of bed is virtually impossible because of the lethargy (I'm an early riser, so this hits hard)
I don't want to write
I have an overwhelming sense that I'm floating in the middle of nowhere
My appetite diminishes
Exercise? Never heard of it
Migraines and nausea are my constant companions
There's a mental, emotional, physical and spiritual disconnect
If I don't get [insert name of food craving here] right now, I promise you I'm going to start crying, and you're not going to like it
I don't want to write
I have an overwhelming sense that I'm floating in the middle of nowhere
My appetite diminishes
Exercise? Never heard of it
Migraines and nausea are my constant companions
There's a mental, emotional, physical and spiritual disconnect
If I don't get [insert name of food craving here] right now, I promise you I'm going to start crying, and you're not going to like it
Of this list (which has been shortened for the sake of time), I can just about paddle through most of them, apart from not having the desire to write and not being able to connect to my mental, emotional, physical or spiritual selves.
I'm a writer by trade and am currently in the midst of working on a project so, naturally, not having a desire to write presents a huge problem.
For example, this morning, I woke up at my weekly 5:30am alarm with a burning desire to do anything but write, and I mean anything; I would have rather washed my curtains with my bare teeth than write.
And then, followed my beating myself up for: not being a good steward of time and how I should be ashamed of myself; not doing well for not exercising to keep fit; not doing well for not eating a lot; and not feeling connected to anything? Get a grip; nothing is wrong — act right and keep it moving.
My inner critic is very ruthless, unloving, cruel and unkind, and she tends to get much worse around my time of the month.
Something I recently had to acknowledge was how hard I can be on myself and how I need to give myself a chance to breathe. I don't have to be doing something every single second to make my life mean something; it's okay not to. It doesn't make my life less valuable than the person on my right.
So when I'm on my Moon Time, I've recently learned (recently as in my last cycle), that I need to actively listen to my body. I need to instead find ways in which I can accommodate both how my body is feeling and what it is that I want to accomplish:
Instead of beating myself up for not waking up early because I'm feeling lethargic, I accept that my body is going through a beautiful but very draining and painful process. I need to allow it time to go through the motions and heal. This makes me feel better about waking up at 8am rather than my usual 5:30am.
Instead of beating myself up for not wanting to write, I accept that nearing and during my time of the month that my hormones are constantly fluctuating, which then influences my serotonin levels; serotonin is a neurotransmitter that helps regulate my mood and low levels of it can affect how I'm feeling. I accept that I can't control my hormones, but I can control what and how much I write; if I can't write the normal amount I would for the project (around 2,000 words a day), I try for at least 200 words every day until The Red Wedding is over (and this works).
Serotonin also affects appetites so instead of beating myself up for hardly eating, I accept that once again, I can't control my hormones but I can try to eat smaller meals more frequently throughout the day.
And the rest sort of follows:
I'm lacking in energy and that's okay; yoga is a gentle way of keeping the body fit.
I can't connect with anything on any type of level and that's okay. As long as I continue spending time with God, talking with loved ones, meditating, reading books, journalling and spending time in nature, and not distance myself from everything and everyone, I've done as much as I can. That's all I should want.
I've also learned that it's okay to float; as long as I remember that I'm anchored, I'll never float too far from home anyway.
☾
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