Menstruation is a magical process.
Every 28 days or so, the body, in sync with the moon cycle, goes through seasons.
The complex, interconnected, hormonal dance that plays out in order to make this cycle come and go like the tides is fascinating.
How we could ever see ourselves as separate from nature is beyond me. Each month, we experience a shedding of the month before. As women who menstruate, we get to experience this not only physically, but also mentally, emotionally and spiritually. To release the old, the used, the unused and the past in general. An opportunity to be aware of what parts of ourselves we are ready to shed each and every month. This part of the cycle is also an opportunity to racket up our self-care practices as we are (sometimes forced) to pay deep attention to our bodies. Awareness of the flow, symptoms and taking extra time to attend to the menstrual blood allows us to come back into communication with our body and to show her respect and attention.
The following week as we ramp up to ovulation is often full of energy, creative juices and a heightened libido for life and love. Our skin glows with the extra estrogen and our spirit shines bright from our hearts and our eyes as we see the possibilities to create and express everywhere we look. The moon gets full at this time and lights up the sky in a similar fashion. Our attention is drawn towards life, our dreams and our relations. Expansiveness ensues.
The waning moon shrinks as we contract. Our awareness is pulled back to our centre, and we begin the process of reflection. The ideas we conceived of in the bright light of the moon start to take root just as embryos implant in the soft lining of our uterus. The womb of incubation time, where our creative expressions dip back into us so as to have deeper roots in the outside world.
Finally, the last season of this 28 day cycle is upon us and our reflections back on the previous month bring us to question all of it. What will stay and what will be released? The dark sky ushers us inward, deeper still, to gather truths and answers for our next cycle. These answers are not always what we want to hear and a storm of hard-truths and consciousness of what isn’t working in our lives can take over our awareness. Let it all come be seen and acknowledged so that it doesn't accumulate into an avalanche of awareness next month. Sit with all of this information and let it inform you of what needs healing. This is akin to the final moments of a life; in review.
Then the ceremony begins, a release and the cycle begins anew.
As women we are the time-keepers of the seasons. Our bodies remind of when it’s time to expand and when it’s time to contract. When it’s time to review and when it’s time to release.
When a mechanical clock starts telling the wrong time, we automatically open the back and wind up the mechanisms in order to get it back into rhythm. Similarly, when the menstruation becomes irregular, we look inside to uncover the components that need to be addressed. Since there are a multitude of physiological and chemical processes that coalesce to allow our menses to flow with regularity, assessing and addressing the whole picture is essential.
Naturopathic doctors are trained to assess, test and treat some of the underlying physiological imbalances that are at root of irregular menstrual cycles.
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