Using the Seasons
As I wandered around my back yard this morning, I was looking at all of the glorious colours of Autumn. This time of the year is so beautiful, it is such a lovely colourful time.
With it comes a little bit of sadness as it is a time when we know that soon the leaves will fall and soon we will be heading into winter with less daylight and colder whether.
But this year I looked at the amazing colours and knew that I was going into Autumn and Winter with a completely different perspective.
The fascinating thing that I have learnt over the last couple of years with women’s health is that:
we are taught very little about our periods.
that when we have our periods it is a time for letting go of things that no longer serve you.
So today I would like to bring some focus to the power and timing of letting things go. Believe it or not it is a natural rhythm, we were just never taught about it.
Period pains are linked to things that we need to let go of and things that we need to change in our lives. If we have a painful period it is linked to having things that we need to sort out, that we need to get rid of, things that we need to change. Now, don’t you think that this would have been a handy bit of information to have known when you first got your period at say 12 years of age??
Do you think it would have been super useful to know that every time your period came you had a chance to let go of anything that was no longer serving you?? That we were taught how to do this from a young age (because everything takes practice right?) That you learnt that this was a time to reflect and really take care of yourself…
Well that would have been lovely…..
So roll on our mid 40’s and we are now heading into those glorious perimenopausal years - it is no surprise that the majority of women find this a really hard time to go through. Most of us have had over 500 opportunities to let go of things - that’s right - each time we have had our period over the years was an opportunity to let things go….
Instead most of us have held onto things because that is what is deemed the right thing to do. Not rock the boat, to not stand out, to just get on with things. So we bottle things up, oh we may have had a few times along the way were we have really let things out, but usually this ends up being an unpleasant experience for everyone involved.
HOPE THIS IS MAKING SENSE HERE!!!
SO, instead of sitting back and getting pissed that we weren’t told these things now is the time to make the changes. Let’s start by looking at our periods a little differently……..
TEACH TEACH TEACH. Lets start to teach our beautiful girls that our cycles are a magical time and our periods are a great time to let go of the things that are bothering them and not helping them in any way AND….
Start to let go of things for ourselves. Perimenopause is a opportunity for us to do this and a lovely albeit a rocky process for us to go through in order for us to come out the other side with little to no baggage.. BUT the work needs to be done. The letting go needs to be done (and I don’t mean ranting and raving at your loved ones - this can be a very private process). There are lots of ways that you can let go of things that don’t serve you anymore..
Meditate and let go
Yoga
Journalling
Yelling and screaming (in the car - into a pillow - out in the open spaces - you choose).
Talk to your girlfriends - have a bitch about what is annoying you to get it out - understanding that this is all you need to do at this time. You don’t need answers or a plan of attack, you just need to get it out (and this is why you want to choose your girlfriends at this time because your male counterparts will just want to fix it for you and come up with a plan of attack - which will just wind you up more at this time of the month!).
Counselling to help you through some of the big stuff
Let the stuff you no longer want go during winter so that you can move through your next cycle a lot easier.
Usually as women we tend to do a lot of pleasing and we often don’t ask for what we need. And do you know what the funny thing is about this? Most people are only too happy to help us. If only we would talk about it and ASK FOR HELP.
So let’s choose our times to talk about things….
Because your spring and summer phases are times when we find communicating easier and we feel more unstoppable you may want to use this time to talk about the things that come up during your autumn and winter. Instead of yelling and screaming and basically losing the plot as we can do during autumn and winter, let go during this time AND use the awesomeness of Spring and Summer to communicate the harder stuff.
Practice setting boundaries - start with small things so you get positive results
Talk about what feels right and what you are prepared to do and not so everyone knows
Ask for help
Start with someone not so close to you - then move onto your family and significant others - Baby steps
Haha, this was a challenging post for me to write, because I am currently in the Autumn of my cycle. So I had to work really hard to make this post positive. I started writing it over 2 days ago, only to find it was really hard to put it all together. So I am hoping that it makes a little sense to everyone and have made a note to self, try to write lots of blog posts during my Spring and Summer as it is sooo much easier.
I hope you get something out of this post and that you can take away something useful.
Take care, hope you are still enjoying your lock down.
BIG LOVE
Mel x