Practitioner Articles
Flow with your menstrual cycle for optimum wellbeing by Sharon Sztar
Flow with your menstrual cycle for optimum wellbeing
I started my menstruating years like many women; curled up in pain in foetal position, holding a hot water bottle to my tummy and popping naprogesic and mersyndol tablets. This went on for a few years until my mum dragged me to a gynaecologist and I was put on the contraceptive pill. “Gentler than aspirin”, I recall her telling me as she handed mum the script.
So yes, the pains eased, my flow decreased, my emotional roller-coaster levelled out, I didn’t have to worry about falling pregnant and I could ‘get on with life’ instead of being stopped in my tracks once every 28 days. Yet I also spent the next 15 years of my life oblivious to my natural cycle. Oblivious to the truly amazing gifts this non-linear female hormonal world entails.
Fast forward to my late 30s, I developed a chronic illness and lost my menstrual cycle for 2.5 years. In this loss, I deeply mourned something. It was a profound mourning and in it I went on a mission to learn everything I could about menstruating with the hope of assisting the return of my own cycle. What I discovered changed my life and the way I lead it today.
For women, ‘to bleed’ has literally become like a wound.
We bleed too much or not enough. It hurts to bleed. It is inconvenient to bleed.
Yet it doesn’t need to be like that.
What if we could turn it around and see our menstrual cycle as healing. What if we could see the ebb and flow of our monthly hormonal cycle as a key part of our overall wellness regime. What if each week of our cycle comes packaged with its own unique gifts.
If bleeding is difficult for you; if bleeding is a mystery to you; if bleeding is a hassle for you; or if you’d just like to learn more about your cycle and how to work with each week of your cycle to enhance your overall wellness, join us at our Bleed: Own your Cycle workshop on Saturday, 19 May. In this nurturing and nourishing day, you’ll discover how to harmonise your cycles and life for optimum wellbeing.
