This is a post I made on Facebook a couple of weeks ago, slightly edited for my Blog. I don't usually post a lot of writing on there, but I was inspired to write a Moon time post after listening to an incredible talk by Brooke Medicine Eagle at the Goddess Conference. I loved writing and sharing this post and writing it was the initial inspiration to make a blog.
So....do you know what I feel really PASSIONATE about? My bodies natural monthly rhythmic cycle. It's so cool. It matches up with the cycle of the moon because we are connected and it tells me when to rest and when to be more productive, and so much more. It tells me very clearly when is baby making time and when isn't, which is useful information that many women don't know how to access! Did you know there are only a handful of days a month you can get pregnant and it is not so hard to find out which those days are? The rest of the month you're good to go my friends!!! 😉 😉 There are many really incredible reasons that I am grateful to be tuned into my cycle, but the best one is that I know myself. I am in tune with myself. I am clued up on what my body is doing. And this is so empowering. It feels great. The fact that I LOVE myself enough to take the time and effort to be in tune with my cycle to the extent of knowing the exact day of ovulation just makes me so grateful to myself.
Before I learned to love my cycles, I was a teenager on the pill. It was handed to me as casually as though it was paracetamol and I feel so sad for the many, many young women who unconsciously take this drug as I did for several years. It should be a big life choice! To take something that disrupts the sacred and beautiful cycle that women can not endure but love and cherish if given the right conditions in which to do so. I have to be clear that I am not ANTI anything here - I'm just FOR the celebration, love and honouring of the women's cycle. The pill doesn't allow us to do that but it has it's place in our society! I would never judge or disrespect a woman making her own choice.
I remember going to my first ever women's circle around the age of 16 and feeling sad when we were sharing what point of our cycle we were at. I didn't have any idea and any natural symptoms of my cycle were masked with artificial hormones!
This chemical drug interferes with a delicate dance that is the hormonal make up of a woman's body doing what it was born to do.
Go to doctor with complaint of period pain. Gives you pill. Go to doctor with complaint of PMS. Gives you pill. Go to doctor with complaint of irregular cycles. Gives you pill. Go to doctor with complaint of hormonal acne. Gives you pill. ETC ETC ETC ETC
I am not saying there is no place for the pill for some medical issues and those who CHOOSE it in all it is. Choice is power.... and women need power with their own bodies. But how can we make an empowered choice when we literally don't know the facts?..... No doctor tells you when we ask for the Pill that it fucks up your body in a way that is emotionally tough. It doesn't feel good to suppress your hormones and your body in that way.
The reason that I feel so much about the idea of giving young women the Pill to control their cycles (which can take YEARS to settle into a natural cycle after menarche) is because of my own strong contrasting experiences. I had my years on the Pill where I felt out of tune with my cycles, confused about what my body was doing and wanted to be doing, unsure what feelings I was having were my own and what were caused by artificial hormones. I had very heavy bleeding between "breaks" and lost a lot of blood and iron, I was disempowered. Now I know when to expect ovulation, I notice PMS and can feel the shifts happening through the month. I feel empowered and in tune with my body. I feel like I respect myself!
Instead of so many popping pills to make our body behave in a way that is not natural, Imagine, every month when we bleed we take 3 days to bleed and rest. Not go to work, not be productive in the house, not go out in town. Just rest and be with our feelings. Journal and meditate. Drink herbal tea and have a hot bath. Pamper our body as it feels the pain of bleeding. Honour our body as it does the very thing that means the continuation of humanity. The blood that we bleed had the power to support human life for 9 months, had it needed to do that this month. During this time we could spend time with other women, and talk and laugh and rest together, Maybe make some art, maybe not. This is not time of birthing and new ideas and creativity anyway like pre ovulation and ovulation. This is a deep dark time of contemplation and being with what is. Maybe forget being all sacred and stuff, maybe we could just watch a cheesey rom com and some netflix shows while tending cramps with a hot water bottle. Or maybe the cramps aren't too bad at all and some time out in nature for a walk.
What would happen if we all gifted ourselves this????
Would we be more productive for the remainder of the month, having given ourselves just a little conscious time to revitalise and rejuvenate and regenerate? Would we be able to do that for ourselves without feeling guilty for being unproductive in the obvious sense of the word (because investing time in our own self is surely the most productive thing EVER?
Would we all begin to foster a little more love and adoration of ourselves through softening towards ourselves and treating ourselves with a little more care? And from this place of deep love of ourselves would we maybe be able to love each other better?
Would we all be happier knowing that our bleeding time isn't a time of inconvenience and pain and something to complain about and hide from under tampons and paracetamol?
Maybe the world would be a better place. Maybe a LOT of healing would happen in the world.
I know in my 10 years of bleeding I have not always honoured and loved my bleeding time. I spent my first 4 years embarrassed and shy about my bleeding before age 16 taking the Pill (given to me freely by a doctor who gave me NO WARNING WHATSOEVER for what it would do to my body).
It took my body around 18 months to overcome the effects of the pill when I came off it. It was pretty traumatic. My skin freaked out as soon as I stopped popping the pills and I was blessed with the most painful hormonal acne that I never had pre-pill. It was so intense that on many occasions I was tempted to go back on the Pill again but I persevered and the skin calmed down with time, sun, a healthful lifestyle, topical treatments and a lot of deep emotional work. I was getting night sweats every night waking me up, I guess detoxing all the unwanted crap from the Pill. My periods went haywire and it was about a year before I had a good length cycle.
But I am deeply grateful for the experience because without that difficult experience I would not have come to invest the time and energy to learn all I have about the importance of honouring my cycle. Now I LOVE my bleeding. Yeah sometimes it's crampy, and sometimes I get PMS... But I can cope with these things and use this time to tune in deep. I love my body and knowing my rhythm and listening to my body telling me what it needs is an important part of respecting myself.
I have masked my cramps with painkillers and rarely taken conscious time to honour my cycle until the last couple of years, but changing that pattern has been exactly the journey it was meant to be.
A lot of what I have said here has been inspired by the amazing Brooke Medicine Eagle who spoke at the conference and deeply moved me. Thank you Brooke for your words.
I'm just so inspired to share the word. "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" is a great book and I love the App NaturalCycles.
Something else, very important, that I want to say is that from my perspective, I honour and respect ALL women's experiences. EVERY single experience is different and they are all beautiful and unique. I love you all!
Thank you for reading! Love & Blessings xxxxxxxxxxx