The Seasons of the Menstrual Cycle

Everyone lives within cycles - your circadian rhythm tells you when to be awake and when to go to sleep, your breath cycle tells you when to inhale and exhale, and you might feel different at different points of the lunar cycle, to name a few. If you have a menstrual cycle, this is just another cycle you live by. Even though it can be taboo to talk about, I think it’s worth getting to know yours so you can live in harmony with it rather than fight against it.

So here are the basics

In scientific terms there are 4 phases of the menstrual cycle:

• Menstrual - when you’re bleeding

• Pre-ovulatory

• Ovulatory

• Pre-menstrual

Due to hormone changes across the phases, you’ll feel different - this might be subtle or it could be quite a dramatic change for you.

These phases are equated to the 4 seasons of the year to reflect how people usually feel in each phase, and to give us more relatable ways to describe them.

• Menstrual = Winter

• Pre-ovulatory = Spring

• Ovulatory = Summer

• Pre-menstrual = Autumn

Generally speaking winter is a time for stillness, rest and turning inwards (imagine cozying up with a book on a winter evening) and summer is a time to be sociable, and when you’ll feel most energetic (think long days, BBQs, and summer holidays). Spring and autumn are in between seasons where you’re ramping up for summer or slowing down for winter. This is a huge generalisation and everyone will experience their cycles differently - I’ll go into detail of each season in future posts.

There are also a couple of days where you’ll transition between each season, known as transition days. They might feel quite pronounced, like the rug has been pulled from beneath you and you just feel a bit off, or you might move between seasons with ease.

In my latest vlog I mentioned that I was in my inner spring of my menstrual cycle and I think the 3 days that I captured in that video pretty accurately show a spring day, a transition day and a summer day. At the time I wasn’t sure what was going on but watching it back it’s so clear to me! Can you notice the changes in how I was feeling in each phase? Does this sound similar to your experience?

So what has all this got to do with yoga?

By learning about your cycle you can start to live in tune with it - this doesn’t mean being a slave to your hormones but rather using the benefits of each phase intentionally. This can also inform your yoga practice - it’ll help you know when you need a more active practice (summer) and when you need something more restorative (winter).

Menstrual cycle awareness is a holistic practice which helps improve your self awareness and give your body what it needs - just like yoga. Yoga can help you practice tuning in to your body (along with a whole host of other benefits to your menstrual health) and cycle awareness can help you practice yoga with integrity and honour your body - your yoga practice & cycle awareness practices support and complement each other.

I’m currently working on creating a membership of cycle informed yoga which will feature recorded yoga classes tailored to each menstrual cycle season, as well as live sharing circles and lots of bonus information to get you started in your cycle awareness practice.

If this is something you’d be interested in, sign up to my mailing list to be the first to hear about it!