There have been and continue to be, many situations in which we are being pushed. Pushed to make choices about what to put into our bodies, to the extreme of losing freedom of choice in other realms. It can be easy to fall into feeling victimized, angry, outraged, confused, and those feelings are valid and completely understandable. So what does the warrior spirit do in such circumstances?
There are many possible responses, and what feels right for each individual is up to them. I am of course talking about the degree to which we fight, we speak up, essentially how we respond and the energy we put towards external action.
This article is not about what is right in that regard. For how can one really know? Rather, let’s consider what this means from a self empowerment perspective. For one of the quantum laws of the universe is that we have no control over another, only over ourselves and our energy bodies. Being thrust into feeling the victim is ultimately disempowering. So how can we release resistance to our present circumstances and dominant story lines playing out in our society, and channel that energy into choosing something that feels good? From that space, from a “you can try to control and yet you can never truly take anything from me that I am not in some way giving” mindset, call back one’s power, one’s energy and channel it towards transformation. Transformation of self, stepping into deeper authenticity, holding the vision of the energy in which you wish to live, what reality do you wish to create? This is not about bypassing the experience, or denying “a reality”, rather to fully see, fully feel and then choose what you wish to do with that experience.
What has come up again and again, is the concept of Body Sovereignty. Both the concept that we have the inherent right to choose what we receive or do not receive, as well that this requires a level of body awareness and attunement such that we can trust the messages we receive from our bodies, and trust our inner wisdom.
There comes a point in our healing journey, where we can FEEL what is right for us, while allowing ourselves the GRACE that this might change along the way. As we cultivate a relationship with our Inner Self, our Intuition and our Body, we learn to interpret our experience lovingly and wisely, and TRUST in the guidance we receive.
For Women, we are being called to greater menstrual cycle and fertility awareness. And it’s best to not rely on apps to tell us where we are at in our menstrual cycles, rather to be attuned to the subtle and yet distinct changes that happen as we enter fertile windows. This also for many is a call to action in healing our relationship to being a bleeding woman. As well to heal on all levels: to receive the medicine of our herbal allies, to invite in deeper healing practices, to upgrade our nutrition and movement practices and to be radical honesty within our emotional realm. Such that our cycles rebalance, and we become more a participant rather than at the whim of our cyclical nature.
This also means, being discerning with whom we invite into intimate experiences, working with healing our relationship to sexuality, such that our choices in partners are wise, and our boundaries loving and resilient.
So there is the why, or at least a part of it anyways! So now let’s dive into a bit of the how.
The foundational piece is developing a relationship with your intuition, getting to know the body, and getting to know YOUR BODY.
Step one: Track Your Cycle
What I mean here is to not solely rely on an app. While they can be useful to store information and look at patterns, there is also some concern with data sharing, and mostly, it takes the responsibility away from the inner world and places it in technology. So what I do mean is to get to know how your physical body, psyche and emotional body shifts throughout your cycle so that you have an idea of where you are at WITHOUT needing an app. Here are some places to start with this process:
Energy Levels: The simplest way is looking at energy levels, as it tends to be at its lowest the day before and day 1 of bleeding, and then slowly starts revving up between Day 3 and Day 7, with a peak in the ovulation window, a steady hold for 3-5 days after ovulation, before it then starts to go down as we again approach bleeding. Another way to work with this is to be tuned into your emotional and mental state, as neurotransmitter production and balance is affected by reproductive hormones, so depending on where we are in those realms can also really help us to know. Personally, I can tell where I am depending on the level of creativity, energetic and emotional highs and how radiant I feel.
Cervical Mucus: This is the most reliable way to predict ovulation. The discharge changes in texture, volume and color throughout your cycle. You can often see this coming out while you urinate or on your underwear however the most reliable way to to get comfortable using your own (clean) fingers to get a sample from the vagina, and rub the discharge between your fingers to assess the consistency. In general the pattern is as such:
- During Bleeding: the blood covers the mucous so you won’t be able to assess. Contrary to some belief, you can actually get pregnant while on your period, as sometimes women will ovulate very early and have no way to tell!
- Right after you bleed (3-4 days after): There are days that are dry, as in there isn’t much mucus. These are usually safe as long as you have long enough and regular enough cycles. However keep in mind that sperm can survive in the vaginal crypts for up to 5 days, so the closer you are getting to that shift in discharge the more likely you will be crossing over into the fertile window.
- Before Ovulation: The body starts to make more mucus as the egg matures and prepares to be released. In general the mucus is yellow, white or cloudy and feels sticky. This is approaching ovulation and is close to that fertile window where there is a chance of conception.
- Right before and During Ovulation: This is when there is the most mucous, and it has that classic egg white, slippery texture. These are the fertile days, and lead up to when you ovulate. The Egg can only survive for 12-24 hours after ovulation, so once you are a whole day past known ovulation you start to enter that non fertile window.
- After Ovulation through the Start of Bleeding: The mucus returns to that tacky/sticky texture and normally decreases in volume.
- NOTE: this works best alongside tracking your temperature, and must be done at least one ideally three cycles before it’s advisable to rely on this for predicting fertility.
- This is also why working with and healing the vaginal microbiome is so important, as yeast and/or BV and other microbial imbalances can also affect the mucus and make it harder to tell when ovulation is occurring.
There are many other methods of course, however this is a great place to start. Getting yourself a notebook or calendar to write down your observations will be very helpful for the first few months, then often we only need to make note of when we bleed and when we ovulate and can go from there.
Step Two: Educate Yourself on the Menstrual Cycle
This is a longer topic, and one we won’t go into in depth in this article, rather in resources and courses in the future, however the basic concept is take some time to study the science behind the cycle, and likely from different perspectives to get a whole picture. That way you know what is theoretically happening on the physical level throughout your cycle, and how this translates into shifts in energys, mental/emotional states and archetypes.
Consider studying:
- How the hormones rise and fall in the cycle
- How the reproductive hormones relate to adrenal and thyroid hormone production
- How reproductive hormones are made and detoxified
- What is happening in the ovary, the process of egg maturation
- How reproductive hormones affect neurotransmitter production and balance
- The Traditional Chinese Medicine approach to the phases in the cycle is very useful, essentially the Follicular Phase is the YIN phase, the Luteal is the YANG. This can be helpful to know how to best support ourselves as well as know where we are at in our cycles.
- The Inner Seasons and Archetypes that we move through:
- Early Follicular/Bleeding/Winter (The Death Crone)
- Late Follicular/Spring (The Maiden)
- Ovulation/Early Luteal/Summer (The Empress or The Mother)
- Late Luteal/Premenstrual/Fall (The Wise Woman).
Cultivation Intuition
One of the beautiful things about educating ourselves and tracking our cycles is that we naturally come into deeper relationship with ourselves and the subtle communication between spirit, body, heart and mind. During the Premenstrual and Bleeding phases we are naturally more connected to our emotional bodies and our intuition, the veils are thinner. Listen to the messages. Listen to your body, learn to trust yourself again as the greatest authority on your WHOLE SELF.
Take time to meditate and sit with your body each day, how do you feel, what is your energy like? How would you describe your state of being?
I guarantee that when you start to do this, you will notice patterns that fit with your cycle! It’s fascinating and empowering, and is a vital step in Body Sovereignty.
Blessings dear sisters.