Resting while on your period is radical
Even though periods have historically (and more recently 🙄) been used as an excuse to keep those who menstruate out of workplaces and positions of power, resting while bleeding goes against the patriarchal and capitalist hustle culture that tells us to be going at 100% all the time.
Your work/study/creative projects are also missing out on the amazing power that can come from living in alignment with a cycle! By resting you make room for creative ideas to come to you, and for problems to work themselves out in the background without struggling to find an answer - resting is the 'ah ha' shower moment of your cycle
Resting while bleeding rather than pushing through also means you'll have a better experience of the rest of your cycle as you'll be pouring from a full cup. The bleed or winter phase of your cycle is the time to pause, reflect and recharge.
It's also important to acknowledge that rest is a privilege that not all of us have access to. Ideally we'd all get a week off for every bleed, but most of the time this isn't possible and we're expected to carry on as normal
So here's some tips for if you do need to leave your bed while bleeding
🔴 Focus your work around planning rather than doing - this is a great time in your cycle for tuning into intuition and coming up with ideas, all which can be done horizontally!
🔴 Put off as many physically demanding tasks as you can - skip the cardio this week and try and re-arrange any work or activities where you'll be on your feet a lot
🔴 Ask for help (and accept help that's offered) can someone else do the food shop this week?
🔴 Adjust your schedule so you have time to rest afterwards if you do need to something high energy
🔴 Make sure you have enough snacks & try and eat nutritious meals to keep your blood sugars level
If you liked this, you’ll probably like Flow Cycle Yoga
Learn to encorporate rest into your cycle through restorative yoga when you need it, and a more active practice in other phases. You'll get access to 4 recorded yoga classes tailored to each cycle phase as well as a community of like minded people to help you on your cycle awareness journey.