Writing this on the New Moon in Scorpio, it seemed a particularly fitting time to share the wisdom of your body as a cyclical being.
As women, there is a deep connection between our bodies, the seasons and the phases of the moon.
While we don’t always see the seasonal correlation, the lunar phases are right in step with our month.
It is no coincidence that our menstrual cycle is the same length as the lunar cycle.
The lunar calendar is 29.5 days in length. When our cycles are healthy, they arrive between 28-30 days.
Women’s cycles naturally synchronize quite often with the new moon or the full moon as the time they bleed with ovulation at the opposing lunar event.
Our society tells us that “action and motion” are valued characteristics and rest is seen as “lazy.”
I offer a different perspective.
Just like the amount of light during each phase of the lunar cycle, our energy as women changes during the month.
We experience our hormones in a 28-30 day cadence. It is normal to have periods where you are a woman on fire and stretches where you want to pull in and rest.
This is healthy, normal and a rhythm to be honored and celebrated.
Let’s use the light in the sky as our visual to represent how a healthy energetic flow should happen during the month.
New Moon/Dark Moon – this is like menstruation. The lack of light usually makes people feel sleepy and want to turn inward. This is the energy of your period time. While you are on your bleeding days, rest. If you feel like a little more sleep – honor it. This kind of care actually helps your energy and health the rest of your cycle.
Quarter Moon – this is like your follicular phase. As the light grows in the sky after the new moon so does your energy level as you come out of menstruation.
Full Moon – this is the energy of ovulation. You typically have the highest amount of energy and social desire (as well as sexual desire) of the entire month.
3rd Quarter Moon – as the light starts to diminish in the sky, so does your internal fire. As the days draw nearer to the new moon it gets darker. You feel more tired, less extroverted and quieter as you get closer to your period.
If we are aware that this is a healthy energetic flow during the month, it helps us to put things in perspective.
We no longer feel guilty for not going 1000 mph all the time all day long. Noticing how this energy shifts inside of us helps us to plan our work and honor the needs of our body to improve our health.
Working with this energetic cycle, we reduce the adverse symptoms of our periods and increase our productivity during the month.
It may sound counterintuitive that you get more work done with more rest being taken, but it really is true.
Our level of focus, productivity, social ability, execution and planning are so on point during our follicular and ovulatory phases we can accomplish twice the work with less effort.
Our introspection in the late luteal and menstrual phases helps us analyze, plan, address menial tasks we put on the back burner at other points during the month ensuring everything gets done.