Something I have been really interested in over the past year is understanding how my monthly cycle impacts my mood and energy levels. This isn’t just a blog post for women, I think this stuff is really useful for men to get their head around too. I don’t know if I am late to the party and people just generally know this stuff but I really love how I have tapped into it and have a better understanding of myself.
Last year I started to recognise that I was pretty emotionally all over the place before my period and wondered if there was anything proactive I could do to balance out my mood. I found a book called The Hormone Cure which talked a lot about how your diet can have an enormous impact on your hormone levels, mood and overall wellness. Some of this stuff is obvious, but there were nuggets of information that really inspired me. Alongside this I read a book called Crazy Sexy Diet and fell a little bit in love with food and wellness blogger Deliciously Ella.
Around the same time I read an article (something similar to this) about how women will feel different across the four weeks of her cycle. So in week one of my cycle I am full of beans, have high energy, my emails are super chipper and life feels pretty peachy. I love it when I have social gatherings in this week as I am open and have the energy to engage with others.
Fast forward to low energy week four. I will cry at some point in this week, chocolate becomes my friend and please don’t piss me off….nope too late, you’ve pissed me off. Cortisol levels tend to be higher so stressful situations can feel magnified. I become insular and introverted, I want to be on my own. I know not to book anything with big groups of people if I can in this week. I know to give myself permission to experience these less lovely emotions and can predict when a bloody good cry on day 28 will happen.
So my point is that I have learnt that it is pretty normal for a woman to feel up and down and I have a little bit of a better understanding when these up and down times are likely to be. I can be proactive about the food that I eat in different weeks to compliment where I am in my cycle as well as being a bit more conscious of what I book in my diary. I’ve learnt that loving yourself means that I can give myself permission to embrace the delicious high mood emotions of week one as well as experiencing the messier emotions at the end of my cycle.
Ladies, I encourage you to pay a little bit of attention to your monthly cycle.
Get a bit playful with it and see what you discover and learn about yourself, I bookmark in my diary day one of my cycle so that I can keep track. So tonight I had my epic day 28 cry and am sat here with my peppermint tea and thanking the universe for the hormone clouds clearing and week one starting all over again tomorrow. Halle-bloody-lujah ♥
Photo by Christian Van Bebber on Unsplash
Love this post! I’m usually sulky whenever I’m on my period, especially during the first two days where my menstrual flow is heavy and sometimes it affects how I interact with people. I also tend to overeat when I’m nearing the end of my menstruation period. It’s just great to know that I’m not the only one who feels this way.
Hi Aika – you most certainly are not alone – that is the thing I love most about Menstrual Cycle Awareness – there are universal themes that women experience….by understanding and sharing our experiences then a shared language emerges, we feel in connection, supported and our changing inner landscape becomes normalised. Big love to you on your journey ♥