Oh yes yes to this Emma! Cycle awareness was something I dove into many years ago when I lost my bleed totally for four years. It forced me on a path of womb healing and connecting deeply to my inner rhythms. I have so much reverence now for my body while it bleeds and I feel it’s so sacred. I was so happy when my bleed returned after the birth of both my girls… I could talk about tracking and honouring our inner seasons for hours!!! I love you are listening!!! Have you read Wild Power? It’s my favourite book on cycle awareness.. and they talk about being able to give yourselves even 1% of our needs during the phases… and that has always stayed with me. I take that into motherhood and especially in my bleed… when the urge to cocoon and rest isn’t possible to fulfil… I find ways to give myself 1% at least… which might look like lying down on the playmat and playing doctors with the girls (I’m the patient) or actually asking my husband to come home one train earlier on my heavy bleeding days. I feel really inspired now to write about this too!!! My break is definitely being fruitful and the energy is returning, ironically I’m coming to my inner autumn now so I suspect it will be after my bleed that the blossoming happens. Loved this piece abs the conversation it’s sparking! Xxx
I love Wild Power!!! It is so good. Please talk about it, I want to talk about it more. I find it to be so powerful for me as a way to listen to myself and guide my life. I love (and forgot) about the 1% rule, it is so good and practical as a mother.
Oh I’d love to talk about homeschool/hear your thoughts. The pandemic pushed us off the fence and into homeschooling. There is much I enjoy about it but I still feel tension at times because I haven’t “regained my life” as they started school as culture talks about.
Selfishly, that is my fear. I watch other people put their kids in school and gain that, and I fear not having that experience. But I also have the flexibility to homeschool and I want to. There’s a huge homeschooling community where I am. My only hesitation is I don’t get space like I would if he’s in school.
I started with a pilot year. Use the last year of preschool as your start year. Do your research, test out how homeschooling structures and see if it works for you and your family. I love the flexibility, the extra time outside, the (re)learning alongside my kids. What is challenging is learning to be a teacher, feeling as if I have to cover all subjects and activities for them to be “well-rounded,” managing class room behavior and then, as we said, not having time along during the day. I’m still of two minds about it. We’re committed to homeschool again next year (that will be my 4th year), but I don’t know if it will be right for us forever.
There is that piece too, of knowing to probably won't be the right choice forever. My son is only two and something tells me it will be the right choice for him. And I am honestly excited about the flexibility, being outside (and connecting a lot of teaching to that), and being with him while he learns and explores. I find it feels to me to be a big commitment and a step in motherhood asking me to surrender some of myself and embrace what he needs.
So much of motherhood for me had been the tension between when to surrender/embrace mothering and when to set boundaries for my independent self. I’m not sure there’s one answer nor an answer that lasts forever. Like homeschooling I suppose.
I read Wild Power last year and it completely changed my relationship to my cycle. I love the deeper connection I feel to Mother Nature and the inner seasons. I was on birth control from early teens until I had my children so it wasn't until I finished breastfeeding my youngest that I actually felt the full spectrum of the menstrual cycle. There is a grief I feel for those 'lost years' on the pill but I'm grateful that I can now equip my daughter for menarche holistically when the time comes 💫
Ahhh Emma!! This is my life right now!! I was on birth control for 12 years from 17-27 and my “cycle-awareness” was pre-programmed via a pack of pills. I came off the pills to have children and started to become more aware of my cycle for the purposes of conception. It is only now 2.5 years after my second child and after experiencing a ruptured ovarian cyst that I am going on A much deeper journey of cycle awareness and it has been absolutely profound. I wish this was taught to every young girl! I can’t say how motherhood has changed my cycle because I didn’t pay that close attention before but I can say that so much of my life makes more sense now that I’ve tuned in. Thank you for sharing your experience in a topic that is not talked about enough and often taboo!
Yes to being taught this as a young girl...I remember learning about it in health class, I am not sure my mom ever talked to me about it. I am excited to someday have a daughter and introduce it to her way sooner and with intention. I am glad the wisdom is supporting you, it is such a beautiful thing to tune into.
You had a way better health class than I did! The only thing I remember from health class was having to sign a chastity promise card 😂 we also had a male health teacher who happened to be the head coach of the football team so there was no way he was teaching cycle awareness 🤦🏻♀️
A chastity promise card?! Did you go to a religious school?! And to be clear, in health class, we learned what a period was and how it happens, that's it!
I don’t have cycles, thanks to my birth control, so it’s hard to tap into what is happening inside. However, I do resonante with the crest and fall of energy! I often feel out of control, in this respect. So frustrating. When you learn to care for yourself with a toddler, do share! Mine are 2 and 3 and their energies exhaust mine, more often than not.
I ask for a lot of help from my partner around my bleed, but other than that I have no idea. I try to go to bed early, but most days I’m tired and worn out.
An interesting parallel to consider because you don’t experience your own cycle is to pay attention to the lunar cycle. The lunar cycle mirrors the menstrual cycle from an energetic perspective (new moon is equivalent to the bleed; full moon equivalent to ovulation). I find the lunar cycle useful to track simply as a calendar invitation to check in with my own energy. 🙂
YES! I tried to do this when I was pregnant and not bleeding. It was not as simple as I would of liked, I swear pregnancy has its own cycle of energies!
Definitely. And our own energies won’t always align with the lunar cycle but I find it useful as a starting place to simply bring awareness to a tangible cycle. Then we have to overlay our own experience and figure out our own ebbs and flows.
Gosh I have to say this is something I miss about my maidenhood, I had a deeper connection to my natural cycle rhythms, I put my blood in the earth or on an altar and I felt like magic!
Lately I’ve started some of this again, now my child is nearly 3, although not every cycle, depends how stretched I am!
But when I put my blood in the earth last bleed, I stood taller and my heart felt stronger.
Oh how beautiful, something I need and want to try. There was a whole host of other feelings in maidenhood! Trying to reclaim some of that magic and power in motherhood.
Emma, I relate to this so much. I am tracking my hormones on an app and I have found it really helps me to be kinder to myself and be be gentler when I need to be. I usually have a huge surge of energy mid- cycle and it has been so rewarding to harness that power. 🙌🏻❤️ but in order to accept that gift I have to accept the anger and the tiredness of the other aspects of my cycle. I know what you mean too about having kids making you more in tune. I have certainly been more affected by it since the kids or at least more conscious of it.
Oh yes yes to this Emma! Cycle awareness was something I dove into many years ago when I lost my bleed totally for four years. It forced me on a path of womb healing and connecting deeply to my inner rhythms. I have so much reverence now for my body while it bleeds and I feel it’s so sacred. I was so happy when my bleed returned after the birth of both my girls… I could talk about tracking and honouring our inner seasons for hours!!! I love you are listening!!! Have you read Wild Power? It’s my favourite book on cycle awareness.. and they talk about being able to give yourselves even 1% of our needs during the phases… and that has always stayed with me. I take that into motherhood and especially in my bleed… when the urge to cocoon and rest isn’t possible to fulfil… I find ways to give myself 1% at least… which might look like lying down on the playmat and playing doctors with the girls (I’m the patient) or actually asking my husband to come home one train earlier on my heavy bleeding days. I feel really inspired now to write about this too!!! My break is definitely being fruitful and the energy is returning, ironically I’m coming to my inner autumn now so I suspect it will be after my bleed that the blossoming happens. Loved this piece abs the conversation it’s sparking! Xxx
I love Wild Power!!! It is so good. Please talk about it, I want to talk about it more. I find it to be so powerful for me as a way to listen to myself and guide my life. I love (and forgot) about the 1% rule, it is so good and practical as a mother.
Oh I’d love to talk about homeschool/hear your thoughts. The pandemic pushed us off the fence and into homeschooling. There is much I enjoy about it but I still feel tension at times because I haven’t “regained my life” as they started school as culture talks about.
Selfishly, that is my fear. I watch other people put their kids in school and gain that, and I fear not having that experience. But I also have the flexibility to homeschool and I want to. There’s a huge homeschooling community where I am. My only hesitation is I don’t get space like I would if he’s in school.
I started with a pilot year. Use the last year of preschool as your start year. Do your research, test out how homeschooling structures and see if it works for you and your family. I love the flexibility, the extra time outside, the (re)learning alongside my kids. What is challenging is learning to be a teacher, feeling as if I have to cover all subjects and activities for them to be “well-rounded,” managing class room behavior and then, as we said, not having time along during the day. I’m still of two minds about it. We’re committed to homeschool again next year (that will be my 4th year), but I don’t know if it will be right for us forever.
There is that piece too, of knowing to probably won't be the right choice forever. My son is only two and something tells me it will be the right choice for him. And I am honestly excited about the flexibility, being outside (and connecting a lot of teaching to that), and being with him while he learns and explores. I find it feels to me to be a big commitment and a step in motherhood asking me to surrender some of myself and embrace what he needs.
So much of motherhood for me had been the tension between when to surrender/embrace mothering and when to set boundaries for my independent self. I’m not sure there’s one answer nor an answer that lasts forever. Like homeschooling I suppose.
Yeah, that is definitely the journey. Surrender and setting boundaries. My post on Sunday is about exactly that!
I read Wild Power last year and it completely changed my relationship to my cycle. I love the deeper connection I feel to Mother Nature and the inner seasons. I was on birth control from early teens until I had my children so it wasn't until I finished breastfeeding my youngest that I actually felt the full spectrum of the menstrual cycle. There is a grief I feel for those 'lost years' on the pill but I'm grateful that I can now equip my daughter for menarche holistically when the time comes 💫
YES, there is definitely a deeper connection to Nature that emerges too! That is beautiful, thank you for being here!
Ahhh Emma!! This is my life right now!! I was on birth control for 12 years from 17-27 and my “cycle-awareness” was pre-programmed via a pack of pills. I came off the pills to have children and started to become more aware of my cycle for the purposes of conception. It is only now 2.5 years after my second child and after experiencing a ruptured ovarian cyst that I am going on A much deeper journey of cycle awareness and it has been absolutely profound. I wish this was taught to every young girl! I can’t say how motherhood has changed my cycle because I didn’t pay that close attention before but I can say that so much of my life makes more sense now that I’ve tuned in. Thank you for sharing your experience in a topic that is not talked about enough and often taboo!
Yes to being taught this as a young girl...I remember learning about it in health class, I am not sure my mom ever talked to me about it. I am excited to someday have a daughter and introduce it to her way sooner and with intention. I am glad the wisdom is supporting you, it is such a beautiful thing to tune into.
You had a way better health class than I did! The only thing I remember from health class was having to sign a chastity promise card 😂 we also had a male health teacher who happened to be the head coach of the football team so there was no way he was teaching cycle awareness 🤦🏻♀️
A chastity promise card?! Did you go to a religious school?! And to be clear, in health class, we learned what a period was and how it happens, that's it!
I don’t have cycles, thanks to my birth control, so it’s hard to tap into what is happening inside. However, I do resonante with the crest and fall of energy! I often feel out of control, in this respect. So frustrating. When you learn to care for yourself with a toddler, do share! Mine are 2 and 3 and their energies exhaust mine, more often than not.
I ask for a lot of help from my partner around my bleed, but other than that I have no idea. I try to go to bed early, but most days I’m tired and worn out.
An interesting parallel to consider because you don’t experience your own cycle is to pay attention to the lunar cycle. The lunar cycle mirrors the menstrual cycle from an energetic perspective (new moon is equivalent to the bleed; full moon equivalent to ovulation). I find the lunar cycle useful to track simply as a calendar invitation to check in with my own energy. 🙂
YES! I tried to do this when I was pregnant and not bleeding. It was not as simple as I would of liked, I swear pregnancy has its own cycle of energies!
Definitely. And our own energies won’t always align with the lunar cycle but I find it useful as a starting place to simply bring awareness to a tangible cycle. Then we have to overlay our own experience and figure out our own ebbs and flows.
Gosh I have to say this is something I miss about my maidenhood, I had a deeper connection to my natural cycle rhythms, I put my blood in the earth or on an altar and I felt like magic!
Lately I’ve started some of this again, now my child is nearly 3, although not every cycle, depends how stretched I am!
But when I put my blood in the earth last bleed, I stood taller and my heart felt stronger.
Oh how beautiful, something I need and want to try. There was a whole host of other feelings in maidenhood! Trying to reclaim some of that magic and power in motherhood.
Emma, I relate to this so much. I am tracking my hormones on an app and I have found it really helps me to be kinder to myself and be be gentler when I need to be. I usually have a huge surge of energy mid- cycle and it has been so rewarding to harness that power. 🙌🏻❤️ but in order to accept that gift I have to accept the anger and the tiredness of the other aspects of my cycle. I know what you mean too about having kids making you more in tune. I have certainly been more affected by it since the kids or at least more conscious of it.
Part of the process is accepting the anger and exhaustion at other places and learning how to navigate it with more ease! Thank you for sharing.