Podcast Highlights:
To hear the elaborated details listen to the audio recording.
What Day are you on?
Today I am Day 3. After a very light night of sleep, I have found my way to my She-Shed. The day itself is warm and sunny for a winter day. I’m going to do a quick check-in just to give you an idea about what winter entails for me. If you are following along my cycle and are also in your winter week. I’m glad you are here. For all others, including the men, here is Winter week awareness.
The inner Winter begins with Day 1 of the first menstrual bleed. The true bleed for those not in perimenopause. For those in perimenopause, sometimes very light bleeding is the only true bleed sign, in which case count it as Day 1.
For many women, this is the hardest physical and mental week and maybe emotional time, of the whole month. The hardest most challenging day because for many this is not a day to take off, to rest, to hibernate from the workplace, world, or family. Nor is it planned for or forecasted. Many women feel like their period just shows up out of nowhere catching them off guard at the worst possible times, like during a business meeting or big performance.
This is not however the natural design of things. In our infradian rhythm this is the equivalent of the night for those whose rhythm is tightly run by the circadian rhythm (yes, I’m speaking of the men, whose hormonal clock is circadian).
Women experience the menstrual week 1 (inner Winter) like the darkness of night, the darkness of winter and the darkness of the new moon and the completely receeded oceanic tide.
Does the earth take a pause and rest during this time? Yes.
Should we follow that design and rest? Yes.
Will you adapt your life to find those moments of solitude, say no to trudging through and sit or lie down?
Why don’t we? Why won’t we?
This by far has been the most challenging part of this women’s cycle awareness practice.
It sounds good in theory:
How in the heck can we slow down?
Why is it so important?
Can’t I just keep trudging? Pop the ibuprofen, buckets of coffee and glasses of wine to end it at night?
What our hormones do for us and why do they crash at the end every month?
In our other 3 phases (late follicular, ovulation and early luteal), estrogen is building the lining of the endometrium to make things all cozy for the egg.
Estrogen is peaking and dropping to signal ovulation and release the egg.
Progesterone is signalled by the release of the egg and progesterone keeps the lining of the uterus just right. It also keeps estrogen in check so that it doesn’t grow lining to thick or in places it shouldn’t (endometriosis).
LH and FSH also play a dance at ovulation to grow and release the follicle that contains the egg. And little ol’ testosterone is there at ovulation to bring that sexual drive. There is a lot of energy production happening on all levels in the rest of our bodies because of this hoop-la.
Everything is harmonious and then all the levels drop off the planet which signals the uterus that all that commotion was for a potential fertilized egg. When the released egg is not fertilized, the body yells, “shut it down”, “shut it down people” and prostaglandins are signaled to break down and contract the uterus to shed the lining. No more building. The cycle has ended. With this end of hormonal flow, begins the menstrual flow. All systems down.
If estrogen (that go get it hormone) never took a break and just kept on going and trudging through no matter what, we would be sick with a capital S. All that grow on girl hormone would and does wreak havoc if it goes unchecked. This is also why research has found that estrogen only hormone therapy is not a good idea.
What I’m saying here is that just like it is not healthy for our hormones to be in a constant state of “go-mode”, it is also not healthy for us to live our lives in a constant state of “go-mode”.
Years ago, before I understood my cycle, I caught viruses all the time. One thing I knew for sure was that I always seemed to get sick in my late Fall (end of my cycle) or during my Winter (week 1). Now I know this is because I stayed in go mode. At the end of the cycle as all the hormones drop and so does the immune system.
I’m not here to lecture you on changing your life in one fell swoop. But I do hope that you will learn a little bit about what your body is asking of you during this beautiful time of rest. If we stop fighting the flow and listen, it is telling us a lot about our state of health.
Where’s my energy?
All energy levels are inward working hard to shed the lining of the uterus. This has an affect on everything.
Physical energy- low
Mental energy- low
Emotional energy- low
Sexual energy- low
Social energy- low
If we consistantly ignore these states of energy, we will at some point crash and burn. Without allowing rest, we may miss the next week’s beautiful Spring energy phase which can literally feel like bursting energy. What we do now will impact what comes later. This is also true of the life phase. What we do in this life phase (mine is Fall perimenopause) will affect how we experience the next one (Winter post-menopause).
Let’s embrace inner Winter!
No matter how you feel about winter out in the actual seasons, you can prepare you inner winter. What associated word comes to mind? Even if it’s negative you can counter it with how to ease the discomforting parts of winter.
In the last few years I have begun to embrace decorating indoors during Fall and Winter seasons. This has really helped my transtition from the outward seasons of Spring and Summer where I spend most of my decorating outside with landscaping and outdoor lounging to bringing the energy inside my house, making it warm comforting and cozy. This has had a big impact on how I view the outer seasons of Fall and Winter and it has translated to how I view my inner seasons of Fall and Winter also.
Natural Abilities and Challenges of Winter:
Abilites
Going with your own flow.
Shift to the metaphorical slow lane. By slowing down we allow ourselves to see the world differently.
We have time to reflect.
Seeing your deepest values.
Tapping into your “Grandma” mode. Learning to let things go and enjoy the moment.
Discerning and making core choices in your life.
Dreaming
Accepting everything as it is.
Deep feeling of love for those in your community
Sifting through your energies and deciding what to do with them in the next month. What did I put my energy into last month? Do I want to continue this month or take another approach?
Listening becomes easier as your own thoughts are slower.
Rest and renewal
Natural ability to meditate.
Challenges: These will come as no surprise
Physical symptoms are most definitely a challenge. Everything from period pain and cramping, insomnia, migraines, body aches, heavy bleeding, acne, breast tenderness, stomach issues and mood swings and in perimenopause add night sweats, hot flashes, dizzy spells, anxiety, hair falling out and about 50+ other symptoms.
Finding space to rest is a challenge. Feelings of guilt over not doing enough tend to creep in.
Mental clarity is low
Emotional energy is low
Networking and social interactions
Working long hours
Physical exercise is limited
Lack of motivation
Possibly the biggest challenge not to be overlooked is the inability to say no and to slow down. Yet it is actually our natural ability because it goes with our hormonal flow.
There are alot of social factors that make this inner Winter (week 1) very difficult for many women. And some choose to go on birth control just to be done with it. While this is an option, please do some research on what hormonal birth control does and it’s long term effects on the entire body. I can, and will speak on this from experience in another post.
Can we go against the flow of the world to go with the flow of our own inner being?
This is a soul searching question perfect for your next winter phase.
Stearing the ship
If you find you are stuck in go-mode and your inner winter comes in like a blizzard you can make some small course setting changes.
Make a she-cave. Find a spot by yourself. A nook at the library, a tucked away corner of a coffee shop, your bed, your bathroom, your car. Make it cozy. Maybe bring a candle (unscented) and headphones to work with you. And don’t forget the heating pad and muscle balm.
Go incognito. If you are out and about adopt a ball cap and comfy clothes and of course head phones. This helps to move through the grocery line like a celebrity that doesn’t want to get caught on camera. Seriously, it allows for the inward energy to remain inward. Think wallflower.
Begin dropping the ball (not like quite your job, leave your kid at school kind of dropping the ball). Plan to do a little less.
Delegate. Wherever you can, ask for help and accept the help you get. It may not be the perfect way you always do things, but practice the surrender of this phase and let others help.
Surrender. Mentally let go of your expectations for the next few days and how it will all play out. Just let it be what it will be.
Rest. Rest whenever the day allows. Whether that is sleeping in 10 minutes later than usual (remember it’s a hat day you don’t have to wash your hair). Or maybe it’s a cat nap while in the school pick up line. Dont worry someone will eventually honk when it’s time to pull forward. If possible get straight into jammies or if on the weekend stay in them as long as possible.
After you have wintered for several months in a row, you will gain an understanding of your own unique needs for this time that can make all the difference for your month to come.
The Themes of Winter
Surrender. Stillness. Rest. Renewal. Sorting the seeds. Envision. Direction and Clarity. Making a plan. A fresh look at the month ahead.
Thanks for joining me.
Go With The Flow,
https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-022-02532-9
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