Cyclical Wisdom

A great entry point for understanding your monthly cycles is the simple modification of your yoga practice. This is often a huge paradigm shift for the women I teach. We have, by and large, grown up in a culture that teaches us to perform and expect to perform at a consistently high level all the time. Much like a machine. The problem here is that we are not only mechanical, but also chemical!

As our hormones fluctuate throughout the month, so does our energy, mood and focus. I’m sure you have observed this yourself, whether you track these changes or not, as we all experience monthly ups and downs. We have been marketed to a certain standard that we should just go about our business as usual. Even if your body is protesting the “business as usual” schedule.

Pushing Through

How often have you been exhausted or irritable in the days leading up to your period? Felt heavy, bloated and ready to hibernate when Aunt Flo came to visit? How often did you drag yourself around to all your regular commitments, because you felt like you had to? Probably quite a few times. The average woman has over 400 periods in her lifetime. Over 400!!! That’s a lot of times to push through our natural rhythms to satisfy the rest of the worlds expectations.

This creates a level of dissonance when our familial, work and personal obligations are not aligned with what we are experiencing on the inside.

We feel guilty about wanting to rest. Or we are portrayed as lazy if we take that rest. Called bitchy or PMS-y the week before our period. The week when our nerves are shot and tempers short because we have to keep up with the million things on our to-do list, and all we want to do is retreat.

The week preceding menstruation is often characterized by PMS, affecting your energy, mood, skin, cravings, and sex drive. On the flip side, this time immediately before your next cycle starts is a highly intuitive time. Your emotions are closer to the surface, and your inner knowledge strengthens. We can really capitalize on this stage of deep wisdom if we quiet down and listen.

Which is hard to do if you feel out of control and out of balance.

You may also notice that mid-cycle, you feel great! Energetic, happy, engaged with others, sexy…your best sort of self. Also the way the world likes us the best too and when you feel most uplifted and cooperative. To read a bit more about what is happening in your menstrual cycle and how yoga can support it, read my blog The Four Seasons.

It has been a failure of education that most women do not know what is going on hormonally to drive these changes. If she has learned of this, it is often because she is trying to conceive. This was my experience, and my lack of practical knowledge of my cycle all the way through age 29 was embarrassing. This isn’t our fault, but cyclical wisdom just isn’t taught in health class!

Proactive Health

As a result, we have a huge population of women desensitized to the natural cycles of their body. Women who are not getting to the root cause of their hormonal imbalances. We’ve created fertility issues by losing years of knowledge and wisdom about our bodies. All while we could have made simple but profound lifestyle changes to bring balance. Please don’t feel criticized or blamed if you have struggled with or are struggling now with hormones or fertility. We lost a lot of trust and wisdom in our bodies as we gained confidence in medicine, science and technology.

We often encounter this situation in the traditional medical model. The system isn’t about education or empowering the patient to take responsibility for their health. It is to treat your symptoms as quickly as possible with the tools available: diagnostic tests, pharmaceuticals, and surgeries. And because of the overwhelming patient to doctor ratio, our doctors are burdened with a very limited amount of time to consult with you. Even those doctors who want to spend more time engaging with their patients and delving deeper into your issues will be unable to in the allotted 10-minute appointment.

This is why it is so very important for us to take responsibility for our good health. Living in the information age as we do, there has never been a better time to know thyself. Sources of educational materials and guides are abundant, in the form of books, courses and programs. We can become proactive in our health, as opposed to reactive. The burden on the medical system will lighten as we become partners in health; freeing our doctors to perform their amazing, specialized care as needed.

But how can adapting your yoga practice serve as a gateway to tracking your cycle (which I recommend for all cycling women)?

Finding Balance

As I mentioned earlier, the common paradigm is that your movement or exercise routines should be at the highest level, pretty much all the time, to keep you in shape. Right? If we have weight loss goals, or cardiovascular goals, or bone strengthening goals – we want and need to push our bodies to get the maximum results.

Wrong!

This is a myth that often sends women into a flurry of unnecessary stress hormones releasing when she should be taking it more easy and finding rest.

And it can backfire in helping you achieve your fitness goals, instead, sending you into chronic overwhelm, fatigue or overdrive.

The key is finding the balance (as it is in everything!) that is suitable for you and your unique cycle. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating never working hard, pushing your limits, achieving new feats and advancing in your practice. As a matter of fact, I’m a big believer in setting goals and working towards them. It is simply that we often ignore what our body is saying is appropriate at a particular time, and move forth with blinders on at best, or a no-pain no-gain mentality at worst.

As you develop sensitivity to yourself, your cycles, and what is going on in your life (including family, work and other relationships), your yoga practice can support you and optimize the stage you are in.

Women’s Yoga

The Iyengar Yoga method has cultivated a rich treasury of wisdom in regard to Women’s Yoga, thanks to pioneers under the guidance BKS Iyengar, including his daughter Geeta Iyengar, and other senior instructors including, Lois Steinberg, Bobby Clennell, and Rita Keller to name a few.

I have personally found a path of deep self-discovery as my yogic practice aligned with my feminine wisdom. This carried me through pregnancies, births, breastfeeding, and many, many, many cycles. I find that as I begin my perimenopausal journey, this wisdom continues to support me and help me to navigate new and unfamiliar waters.

As an educator and yoga instructor, guiding women to discover their own bodies, and the balance that is unique to them, is my mission and my joy.

Obviously, we are more than just the hormonal fluctuations we experience, and there are many more aspects of life and self to consider, including, but certainly not limited to global pandemics, illness and injury, career and other life changes. 

The way we practice yoga is always individual.

This doesn’t mean that we can’t join group classes or push ourselves in the effort to learn new things. However, the over-arching goal, is a deeper union with yourself. The postures you take, the breath you engage, the awareness you cultivate in your inner landscape and physical body serves as tools to know yourself better, feel more connected, and promote your highest health.