In this article Vanessa McHardy reveals how the simple act of checking in with herself, via daily notes, has had a big affect on the quality of her monthly cycle.
Four months ago during my period the pain in my left hip was so painful that I was taking nurofen with no relief gained (I take painkillers once in a blue moon). My periods were so heavy on the first and second day it required me to change my pad every hour. They lasted four days max and I had PMT for a week before the period began. My last period I had slight pain for a few hours, it was only heavy for a few hours and lasted 7 days.
So what happened in those three months? I have taken no drugs, had no medical intervention, so what was it – how could there be such a significant change?
It was all inspired by Natalie Benhayon and Sara Williams and the Esoteric Women’s Presentations that occur once a month, when they started presenting the possibility of periods being a gift, a point to notice what’s going on for you, a reflection of how you have been living. One suggestion was to start a period diary which I did about 15 days before my next period after ‘the period from hell’ (tpfh). All I did was at the end of the day write on my icalendar a couple of bullet points of how I had felt, how my body felt that day, i.e. low energy levels, bit grumpy, felt good, so no lengthy essay or meaningfuls. The next period was amazing in that it was virtually pain free and instead of my usual four days it went for seven, a first in the 30 years of having my period, the flow was more consistent and with a usual heavy flow but not as intense. Well, I thought this was incredible and was inspired to go and get myself into the 21st century and bought an iPhone so I could have the period diary application. This followed the same requirement from ‘me to notice how I had been and felt that day’, just with charts, symptoms and moods to play with, I do love a chart so this made me very happy. Second period (since tpfh) was remarkable in that it was pain free, my flow was significantly reduced but again lasted seven days.
At this point I started to wonder if there actually was a link between how I am with myself and how my body is? So I also asked myself the question what would happen if I actually listened to how my body felt during the day, moment to moment? If my body had responded so significantly with only a minimal effort and commitment, what else was possible? And at that point I let in an old pattern of self-sabotage and created a situation that didn’t need creating so during my 3rd period (since tpfh) the pain in my hip returned but was slight and at the back not the front and as described in the opening paragraph the flow was so much lighter, with the blood being very bright red and clear; also I only had slight swelling of my breasts with no feelings of wanting to kill my beloved : ).
Well, this month I updated to another period app that lets me put in my own feelings and symptoms which is great and I’ve upped my commitment to morning and night checking in. So I know my next period is in 15 days, I have a fully stocked cupboard of pads to support me and I’m looking forward to what it will have to tell me about how I’ve been living this month. Suddenly, my relationship with my periods is an unfolding adventure, it’s more profound than that but I’m in a light mood so will go with that for now, tonight may be a different story, I’m committed to staying tuned!
On a more serious note, what I hope I have shown is how powerful we are when we tune into how we feel, when we honour ourselves, when we pay attention to ourselves and believe we are worth paying attention to. For so many women this is not the case and our body reflects this in how it communicates this disharmony through physical symptoms. We are not at the mercy of our lives and body, we don’t have to put up with exhaustion, pain, cysts or crippling period pain. The power to heal is truly available to you, you don’t need anybody else to do it for you, just the glorious you, paying attention and honouring how you feel.
by Vanessa McHardy (age 41), Integrative Child Psychotherapist, UK
Women in Livingness Blog 
“I’m committed to staying tuned” The truth is always flowing from our body just waiting for us to tune in.
Part of our education as young girls should absolutely be that we learn about how honouring our bodies is what allows us to live in greater connection to our inner-wisdom, our knowing of who we are and the power we hold. Learning how our cycles support our development and evolution is key to living with true confidence. I can feel how different my relationship with my menstrual cycle would have been if this was taught in school – ‘periods being a gift, a point to notice what’s going on for you, a reflection of how you have been living.’ Super honouring of who we are in essence and of the sacredness that is innate in us all to live in connection to.
Thank you for sharing your empowering and developing relationship with your body and your period. Our bodies are constantly communicating with us and it is remarkable how much changed for you just in the first month and then you have the opportunity to go deeper every month and respond to what your body is showing you. Banishing victimhood and committing to loving yourself every day is an amazing recipe for life and a beautiful reflection for all.
Reading this again gets me wondering, what if I don’t have to put up with feeling tired, having tension in relationships or feeling mediocre. How does my body feel in those moments and by paying attention to myself what can happen?
This is a beautiful sharing and shows how much we can support ourselves and in doing so how we can change how we relate to us, to life and in this instance our periods. One thing I especially loved in what is shared here is the acknowledgement of how you feel now but being willing to stay tuned and see how you feel later … so no attempt to own or try and keep how we feel, just an on-going observation of feeling. This allows us to observe life and be free in each and every moment.
Be aware and respond to what our body shares and we can live healthier and more vital lives, it is something I am learning and have been for some years…there is always more, much like our potential, it is unending and is solely dependent on our choice to be committed to caring for our bodies.
Our health is within our own hands: this is an amazing learning and a continuous unfolding and study- that we make decisions each day, each moment in how we are with ourselves, and our bodies, that have an influence on our health and vitality. Thank you for this call to go deeper, to really look at how I feel and the correlation between how I live every day.
I find that when I connect and honour my body in this way, it brings me back to a sacredness that I know deep within, there is a lovely and expansive feeling where I know a deep love.
Yes so true – It is incredibly beautiful to feel the power of our sacredness and inspiring to know that this is everything we are and the quality from which we can live.
How amazing and simple it actually is to honour bodies, crazy how we can spend most of our lives ignoring this fact, like you Vanessa I have found The Our Cycles App to be enormously supportive in helping me to be aware of my own cycle and the impact this has. Brining awareness to my body and my cycle has been fundamental for me in going from extremely painful periods every month to periods that are now most of the time pain free.
The absolute simplicity of checking in with our body and honouring it is not rocket science, but it is a science all of its own that each woman has the ability to explore, enjoy, play with with deep love, honour.
Yes we are offered the commitment to exploring the science of the body and deepening our relationship with ourselves.
The introductory paragraphs to this article are significant in themselves. For a woman to read and feel the difference between four months in a women’s cycle is enough to bring an awareness that the pain, and discomfort many live with during their period is not a life sentence. That there is choice and that that choice is up to each woman to individually choose.
Absolutely Vanessa, it is always great to hear how honouring ourselves can and does make such a big difference in our lives, ‘how powerful we are when we tune into how we feel, when we honour ourselves, when we pay attention to ourselves and believe we are worth paying attention to’.
Life totally changes and becomes so much richer when considering all these things you wrote about. What if our periods have to do with how we live? It can’t hurt to try this!
It is quite shocking to consider we are that powerful isn’t it?! That we negate our relationships with our bodies to the point they need to talk to us that loudly. It shock me anyhow.
What a great sharing Vanessa, and to hear how simple things can have such a profound effect, like noting how we feel daily thus allowing us to join the dots with the fact that how we are impacts our body and the biggest thing is that small changes can have such a huge impact, it shows how much we have in our own hands. And I love the inquisitiveness and joy you share in how you now are with your period, an adventure to see what it’s showing next, it had me smiling … I too have learned to embrace my periods and all they show me and I’m reminded not to stop exploring but to continue to feel and see what is next to be seen in what my body tells me.
” We are not at the mercy of our lives and body, we don’t have to put up with exhaustion, pain, cysts or crippling period pain.” Love this. We don’t have to give our power away to doctors and medicines – us them to support us maybe, but we also have a choice to make changes in our own lifestyles – and make a difference to our health.
Healing comes from honouring what I feel, thank you for this reminder Vanessa.
What you have shared highlights the power of developing a loving and honouring relationship with our bodies and the cycles we are part of, so we can discover all that we are and live the power of our sacredness as woman, in which we are a gift to the world.
An inspiring read and wise words Vanessa. Bringing ourself to a stop and truly be aware of what is going on within the body is a simple and profound key to self healing. “The power to heal is truly available to you, you don’t need anybody else to do it for you, just the glorious you, paying attention and honouring how you feel.”
Our body always responds honestly and clearly even to the slightest attention we offer to it.
For a long time I didn’t have a period, until I started to use the Our Cycles app daily and this allowed me to touch base with my body and get back into my ‘flow’ (pun intended) of life, checking in, building a rhythm etc.
Awesome and empowering blog, showing we can heal ourselves – in fact that is what the body is trying to do all of the time – heal and flourish – and when we start listening and paying attention to it, we make its job a million times easier.
I agree, tune into our feelings and the world, our bodies and understanding opens up to us.
This is quite wonderful and thank you for sharing Vanessa , is it not amazing the beautiful consequences that can unfold from taking personal responsibility.
I have been wondering for a while about checking if I am part of any cycles. Now I just have to do it.
I find it is in these moment of checking in with our bodies we find the most wisdom and we no longer see our periods as a nuisance and more of a blessing because we begin to understand the beauty of our cycle and how our every movement lays a foundation for our next .
Yes, I agree, we are no longer at the mercy of what we can see as buffeting winds and high seas but that we have a part to play in what we experience and there is a logic and flow to it. A cycle in our body within the cycle of life.
Awesome to feel how your commitment to becoming more aware of how your body is on a regular basis has been reflected in your periods so immediately. I no longer have periods but have recently had a cyst on my breast which was extremely painful and now I am left with the after affects of a small lump which I have been massaging morning and night with an essential oil blend. In the mornings it has almost disappeared now but in the evenings it reflects to me how I have been in my day and offers me the opportunity to review how to more lovingly support my whole body.
I loved what you have shared Vanessa how amazing is the body and as you say, I am worth paying attention to what my body is saying.
Our body is amazingly sensitive and responsive to every minute impulse it receives – good and bad. It’s wonderful when the body responds to what appears to be a small increment of love and care but I often forget how the same applies when a choice is made in the opposite direction – i.e. less care, less love – and behave with such mighty arrogance that my body should be able to handle any abuse.
As a man I have found it surprising how much my life is in cycles and how much opportunity these cycles present once I understand they exist, how they start and how they end.
The act of paying attention to ourselves, to caring for ourselves naturally allow us to shine and be in the spotlight without ever needing to be. We do not need anything or anyone to confirm us, and if we see others confirming us, we appreciate this reflection as what we have chosen to live ourselves. There is so much to appreciate of ourselves and our choices. What I have observed is in every start of my period, the joy that is felt is deeply apparent, it is such a joy to be a woman, to have the choice to clear, to discard more of what is not us, and to return to living deeper of what is truth.
I find I am within multiple cycles at any time – healing cycles, project cycles, short term cycles, long term cycles and to move with those cycles including finishing them at the right time makes life much more simple, effective and harmonious.
Vanessa, I could really understand what you have shared about not having a relationship with your periods, it isn’t described anywhere, our mothers certainly didn’t know it, you didn’t learn it at school either, the real importance of our periods and what we can offer us each and every month.
Yes, it sounds quite strange – something this important simply being ignored as much as possible.
So many of us believe that we are at the mercy of life or our bodies so it is deeply empowering to recognize the impact we can have when we choose to honour what we feel and then express that. Your story is a stunning testament of what we are capable of when we do.
Thank you Vanessa, it’s a pretty profound situation you have explored, that just by honouring and paying attention to your self has had this powerful healing effect on your menstrual cycle. I agree, if this small amount of time invested in ourselves could produce this result, what else could a more consistent connection and honouring of how we feel do for our health? It seems that our relationship to ourselves is truly a part of good medicine. And it’s something we can ever deepen.
There is something about the Ourcycles App which I cannot put aside no matter how much I try. I fill it in most days recording how I feel and on those days when I do make a choice to connect to the app I feel different. I can feel the support on a grander scale helping me to connect to myself and to deepen the connection while on the days when I am coming up with excuses to not connect to the app I observe how it is a reflection of where I am at and how I have been living up until that point in my day; this in itself can be quite exposing.
This is a great experiment that you are talking about here Vanessa and one that would be worthy of further research and study – does the quality of a woman’s period have anything to do with how she has been living in the preceding month? Could we all have more say and power over how our bodies feel than we realise?
‘I’m looking forward to what it will have to tell me about how I’ve been living this month’ – This is such a different attitude towards periods than the usual Vanessa, and could you imagine if we approached our entire anatomy like this; when we got sick, bloated, acne, tired, aches or pains etc., that they could be supportive in letting us see HOW we’re living and thus how we can change it in the next cycle or going forwards to be more loving.
Vanessa this blog – WOW – you you make it so simple for us all to have that same accessibility to healing – all you need to do is tune in and we can begin our own unfolding adventures with our cycle and our periods and everything in between.
Oh my gosh I loved reading this Vanessa, I laughed out loud and had tears from relating to so much of it. When we truly get this so much changes, “We are not at the mercy of our lives and body, we don’t have to put up with exhaustion, pain, cysts or crippling period pain.” I have my period at the moment, and for the last few I have had very painful breasts, like touchy them with a feather would upset me… to this time having hardly any pain. You have inspired me to start keeping track of how I am feeling on my ‘Our Cycles’ app.
Having a loving and tender relationship with our own body means that we are truly listening and responding to what it is telling us.
Paying attention to my body and how I’m feeling gives me the awareness to make clearer choices in how I choose to live, something that is a forever work in progress. I agree Vanessa it is worth making this connection, it benefits everyone around us too.
This was such a timely read. I was in a situation yesterday where everything around me was out of control and very intense. I got affected by it and then went to the supermarket and bought sugary food to numb what I was feeling. When I woke up the thoughts were there to go and get some more food as I was still feeling an unease in my body. I started to allow myself to feel what was going on around me and this allowed me to come back to honouring myself and my sensitivity and to then make choices to support myself.
I no longer a have periods to contend with but still check into my everyday living as menopausal women, as well as all men also have a tell-tale clearing day that shows us how we have lived in the preceding month. This is seven days before the full moon . . . and boy it is it great to note . . . also worthy of a diary or an app even though we don’t bleed we clear in every other way possible. Just take note of how tired or grumpy your male friends are around this time and you will know what I mean. Of course noting what one is feeling has great results with this also thanks to Esoteric Women’s Health and Natalie Benhayon and her app Our Cycles.
Great reminder Kathleen, living with 3 men I often forget because I have a period and am focused on my own clearing days I forget to keep an eye on the full moon. Every time without fail though when I do check in on the full moon, the men are all on cue with stuff coming up.
I always viewed my period as a menace, something I had to endure as a women. I was never connected to it or understood what really went on in my own body, which is quite a shameful thing to admit, but I didn’t. It just came along each month and that was it. But really connecting now to what it does in my body, has been a huge change in my life, when they are not flowing as they should, i know there is something bigger at play and take steps to look at my life choices instead of ignoring.
Our body tells us exactly what is going on, all we need to do is connect to and listen to it. It is so simple but the question is, do we utilize our body in this way? My answer would be that no – most of us do not take advantage of the gift we walk around in every single day.
I am amazed at how much of a refection our monthly cycles actually are. Before Esoteric Woman’s Health I was very angry in the lead up to my period, often lashing out at my beloved one. I would bleed heavy for 3 days but it would often end after 4 or 5, the blood was darker and often clotted. I felt that periody feeling in my tummy the entire time, I would feel heavy and I would eat heaps of junk food under the banner of “I have my period” Im allowed to indulge!
I have a very different monthly cycle now, I am grumpy sometimes in the lead up, no pain or heavy feeling and no eating junk under that ridiculous banner. My period is light , the blood is bright red and clear, my cycle is very consistent and lasts for seven days, extremely light, really only one day of needing a full size pad.
I have the app and have attended as many talks as I can on this subject, these talks have mostly been free of charge and or 5 dollars to cover hall costs, every woman should attend, your life will change as you know it. I do not take notes anymore and sometimes my period comes and I am shocked, even though its at the same time as last month, I loose track, I am shocked because there is zero lead up.
It’s actually a big shift for many women to even consider how they feel, because our focus is often very much on others or what is there to be done. When the focus comes back to ourselves our body really reflects how essential this is for our wellbeing. This really exposes just how detrimental societal expectations, beliefs and ideals are – they literally mess up the body. And, for women, being with herself and honouring her needs keeps her in harmony with her body and menstrual cycle – something key to really notice about our true rhythms as women.
For me this is an absolute classic blog Vanessa. What a great demonstration of how we can change the way our body works and responds by tuning in to how we feel, paying attention and honouring this. Things clearly change “when we pay attention to ourselves and believe we are worth paying attention to.”
We are indeed very powerful, ‘ when we tune into how we feel, when we honour ourselves, when we pay attention to ourselves and believe we are worth paying attention to.’
I love how simple it was for you to start getting results from such a little investment in yourself every day. I agree its a fascinating question to ponder, what else could happen if you committed to honouring your body even more?
“At this point I started to wonder if there actually was a link between how I am with myself and how my body is?” This is ground breaking – I love how you became your own detective and discovered that yes indeed, there was a connection between how you are with yourself, in thought, word, and deed…. and how your body plays out its symptoms during the accumulative clearing phase known as a period. If we all approached health like this, how different would our lives and relationships with our bodies be?
I love the title of this blog and can feel how empowering it would be for women to be willing to invest in their relationship with their periods rather than seeing them as something to be endured. Being post menopausal I have been humbled to note how the deeper I am willing to go with my self-care is reflected in my relationship with my body and the stability of my moods.
Wow Vanessa that is power-full; thus is the power of the Soul through honouring the body and all it tells.
I am also writing most evenings in OurCycles App but am inspired to write in the mornings too after reading Vanessa’s blog. The OurCycles App is a great means of support to check in with myself how I am and have been feeling throughout the day.
What an awesome reflection of the way you had been with yourself for the two weeks leading up to your period after tpfh: steady, consistent, not intense… “The next period was amazing in that it was virtually pain free and instead of my usual four days it went for seven, a first in the 30 years of having my period, the flow was more consistent and with a usual heavy flow but not as intense.”
I have had an experiment going myself with the OurCycles App, I have chosen to see what would happen if I checked in every day and write how my body felt consistently and I too am amazed at the results so far. I am in the process of being taken care of by medical professionals and they have noticed that the information I am able to offer about my body and my cycle is detailed and very supportive for them and makes their job a little less like trying to find a needle in a haystack!
Have really enjoyed coming back to this blog Vanessa and the joy you found in connecting to yourself in this way. “I’m committed to staying tuned!” I’m taking this into my day too.
My periods are a bit irregular at the moment since I am going through the menopause. Its great to have that Our Cylcles App to help me track the time between periods and how I’ve been feeling. It gives me a sense of having an overview of what’s happening, provides me with a stop during busy days and give me time to reflect on how I can better support myself.
Nothing short of a miracle Vanessa…and yet what you explain here is the most normal and natural way for us to be. We are designed to been in and with the flow of cycles, not fighting against them! Love this blog! Thank you
It really is an incredible experiment, I have used the Our Cycles app for years now but lately because my phone broke and I lost all my info on it, I felt a bit disheartened and stopped using it. I have noticed that I am getting pain for the first time in years during and before my period and PMS and swollen sore breasts. I was wondering what was going on as it has been so long since anything like this has presented in my body. What I appreciated about this article is it points out the simplicity and power of a pen and paper, if the app is not something that you can access, this simple method can hold just has much power, thank you for inspiring me to get back on the period train diary!
This is awesome Vanessa- a good reminder for me to come back to paying this level of attention to myself.
I love the fact that you began to see your period as an unfolding adventure rather than a curse or a painful inconvenience. My periods finished 3 years ago and I am in the moon cycle now, and I sometimes feel that I have missed the opportunity to really feel into where my body was at during my menstrual cycle, but thanks to the OurCycles App I can track my feelings and symptoms in line with the moon and this supports me in my everyday choices and connects me to my body on a deeper level.
So often we look outside, even with good intentions to look for other people to heal us, but even with the best of practitioners it doesn’t work that way, yes they can support us to heal and clear stuff we have accumulated, but the truth is it comes down to how we live our lives each day.
It is true – true healing comes from simply listening to how you feel.
Thank you Vanessa – I recently had the worst lead up to a period they I have had in a long time with a not so good week of anger, tears and tantrums. I had been using the our cycles so but had slipped with using it each day to the point where I wasn’t even able to distinguish that my symptoms were related to my period. Being aware of why we feel the way we feel allows us to bring much more love and understanding to ourselves.
I love being connected to my monthly cycle,. I feel so much more in tune with the rhythms of my body and the changes I experience on a daily basis than I was in the past. I am aware of how much deeper I can go with this as the way we are on a moment to moment basis matters and our bodies are communicating to us all the time, it is our responsibility to listen.
I am familiar with self sabotage and have recently gone through an extended period of not truly looking after myself. I had stopped doing the things that I know supported me, one of which was checking in on how I am feeling with the our cycles app. Thank you for the nudge as I too found the app hugely supportive to reflect back to me the truth of who I am and that I am much more than my self sabotaging thoughts.
Connection starts with body awareness.
I love how you point out that its so simple- you didn’t write essays, you simply noted daily how you felt. That was all that was required! and the body responds so easily and readily to even this small amount of focus- imagine if how the body felt was noted daily as being important and worth noting? we might have a revolution going on!
I really appreciate how you are enjoying learning about your life via your monthly cycle. this in itself is revolutionary- and you are doing it so simply.
Thanks for showing how you began this journey of self discovery.
Vanessa there is lot you share I can relate too. I had similar experience with my periods a few years ago, intense heavy and painful periods lasted 4 days, once I started to listen to my body and make some notes they changed with lighter flow, longer days and pain free. I am now in pre-menopause, the months I have periods they are light and pain free. It does Make a big difference when we listen to our body.
Vanessa thank you for sharing your experience, I feel we do not necessarily have enough open conversation with each other about subjects that we might feel either uncomfortable about sharing or from our upbringing we class them as private. When we do share with each other we are all empowered by the sharing, thank-you.
Thankyou Vanessa, I have really enjoyed reading your story and sharing in the connection you have made between self honouring and how your body and period feels. This line really stood out for me “…..how powerful we are when we tune into how we feel, when we honour ourselves, when we pay attention to ourselves and believe we are worth paying attention to.” A woman’s attention is usually on anyone and anything but herself, this is certainly something I’m still working on, including the understanding that I don’t need to do anything for anyone and just being myself is enough. The belief that a woman’s worth is in what she does for others is so untrue, because as your body showed your self focus brought harmony and health back to your body.
Melinda I agree, as women we are very good at putting others before ourselves, and by taking time to connect with ourselves and feel how our body is truly feeling can give us an opportunity to make changes that support us in our everyday living.
How amazing is a woman’s body when you can have such a vast change in a few short months of honouring and self-love. The period is such an awesome reflection of how we are living. Working with this beautiful monthly cycle brings us to more of the love we are.
It’s amazing Vanessa how much we can actually do to help ourselves in regards to how our bodies work. With effort and openness we can discover so much about ourselves and how we are currently living, which then creates enormous opportunity to adjust as needs be. Yet the reality is we often find excuse after excuse for dismissing what is going on and ‘putting up with it’ for the sake of not disrupting the way we choose to run our lives. What I am constantly learning is that nothing is worth more devotion than me caring for me.
Vanessa, you bring a true understanding of what real healing is all about.
This should be required reading for all Vanessa. “The power to heal is truly available to you, you don’t need anybody else to do it for you, just the glorious you, paying attention and honoring how you feel”.
Indeed Vanessa, you have shown how powerful listening to one’s body is.
That is amazing Vanessa, the turn around from a life time of painful periods to loving your periods. No medication just an awareness of how you are in your day throughout the month. What a simple and lovely way to honour your period
This is an amazing sharing, Vanessa. I too have been keeping a diary of my monthly cycle for about a year now and it hasn’t quite had the same affects on me. However, I do recognise that I could still go deeper with the connection that I have with my body and keeping the diary. However, what I have noticed and would never have believed is that what I eat and how gentle I am in my day does seriously affect my body, especially my uterus, ovaries and breasts. My period cramping is much heavier when I eat gluten, wheat, dairy and sugar and my breasts become swollen and sore. Also when I am not self-nurturing my breasts become swollen and sore and the colour of the blood is darker and the flow a lot heavier. It’s an incredible journey of discovery that we are on. Thank you Natalie Benhayon, Sara Williams and Universal Medicine for your insight!
I know Belinda it is incredible the direct correlation between how we live and how our cycle clears those choices out of our bodies. When you think of it that way it really is such a blessing and healing offered every month and billions of women are walking around oblivious to this fact!
Belinda thank you for sharing your experiences. In the past I particularly noticed the very negative effect of dairy in my period, sore breasts were one symptom and the cycle itself would be more erratic when it usually went like clockwork. I’ve also noticed how stressed I am affects my period profoundly. If I have a very full on month and I allow the stress and do not nurture myself then the period will be heavy and painful and my body will also swell and bloat more prior.
I feel even as a man it is important to check in and make notes of your feeling in chronological order. Otherwise we are oblivious to the cycle and seemingly helpless victims of inevitable change.
Exactly Luke it really does lift the veil of illusion that we are under that we are in some way powerless. It is the ultimate freedom to realise that you are actually amazing and powerful but due to the responsibility that comes with we can shirk that knowing and pretend we are leaves on the wind rather than mighty oaks.
Yes we choose to eat the mushroom that makes us shrink or makes us giant ;P (Alice in Wonderland)
What a wonderful subject to ponder on…”At this point I started to wonder if there actually was a link between how I am with myself and how my body is?” I can remember having this thought and feeling how profound it was and yet so simple, it continues to come up again and again was I have deepened my relationship with my own body. Pondering this and following through with being responsible for ‘how I am with myself’ has changed my life.
Yes, the relationship we have with ourselves and our body is so powerful for our health and wellbeing.
We are indeed truly powerful when we work in partnership with the body, tuning into how it’s feeling, how it responds to all manner of things we subject it to. Our whole menstrual cycle and indeed our journey into, through and beyond menopause provides us with a regular feedback loop on how we’re treating ourselves and gives us an opportunity for change if we choose to heed it. Key though is that we believe we are worth it. That’s the starting point, often the stumbling block but certainly the gateway to a truly magical discovery that the body clearly communicates any disharmony through physical symptoms. As you say, ‘the power to heal is truly available to you’. All we have to do is feel.
It is incredible what changes can take place with our cycle when we begin to understand how the world works with cycles and how there is an enormous amount to learn. Such growth is available when we pay attention to these cycles. It never felt right to experience pain, sweating or bloating and other symptoms and I often wondered why sometimes I didn’t have any symptoms, or less and other times were quite difficult. It seems so obvious now but looking back I didn’t make the connection that the way I was living was impacting on how my period would unfold. It is beautiful to now see my period as a gift and to look at the messages that are to be heard from how it is each month. There is so much to learn and grow from when we listen to our body and the messages it is constantly communicating with us
So true Tracy – when we understand and connect to what our body is trying to tell us it all begins to make sense.
That’s right Deborah. It all makes such amazing yet simple sense when we listen to our body and connect to the messages it is sending us.
I enjoy reading such an open discussion on periods and how they way we live each month is reflected in the monthly period. While I was growing up, and as a mature woman, no one talked openly about periods so that it became something to keep quiet about with a slight sense of embarrassment that woman had to undergo this aspect of their body.
It is empowering to see change taking place and women’s periods being discussed more openly. This change will support many new young girls getting their period for the first time. With this will unravel the truth of what our periods are truly about and how they are in fact a gift for us and not a punishment.
Thank you for sharing your experience Mary. It is really refreshing to be able to talk about periods in such an open and honouring way and worth appreciating the fact we are able to do this.
We men get away with a lot more, because we don’t have this monthly feedback as strong. But it is there and worth looking at to become more consistently joyful.
Vanessa, great article and view on a subject that is rarely heard. Most women dread their period and have many tpfh kinda moments. It is great to hear you singing the praises of your period and showing that taking time to check in with your body can reap such amazing benefits.
I loved the question in regards to – what if I listened to how my body felt during the day, moment to moment? Which brings me back to a recent question – what if I accepted that I am enough? in each moment (without perfectionism) What if I accepted that within my body are the answers, explanations and understandings to and of my life? Even just on the surface feeling these questions there is a sense of ‘finally I can stop trying!’. Thank you for this reminder Vanessa.
I can so very much relate here Leigh, the pressure that I have placed on myself over the years is huge and yet understanding that it is my own doing based on what I see on the outside and what I have created to be the way is me just trying to fit into this world and be part of it rather then just being me, the tender me that has no need for anyone or anything. Instead to just allow this natural way of being to be.
Yes it is such a great thing to do, checking in with myself every moment of the day. When I look at it it is incredible how we can live in so much disconnection from ourselves during the days when we are in fact with ourselves every moment of the day. Realising this has really inspired me to check in with myself more during the day and really live with me, conscious of my feelings, choices and thoughts.
This is a really beautiful, simple, and straight forward blog! What a great foundation and introduction this is for connecting the dots between how we live and how our body and period feels from how we have treated ourselves. I love how you have noticed that a little bit of care goes a long way – so what can a lot of care do?
I love what you have shared about not being at the mercy of our bodies for most of society feels like illness and discomfort is something that happens to them rather than something that can be avoided through addressing choices. We absolutely have the power to heal as you have so clearly experienced through honouring your body and what it is showing you. This is a truly inspiring article that asks people to consider the possibility that what their bodies are communicating to them may be in fact a blessing and a guide in how to live in a more aware and supportive way.
One woman sharing the Truth of what she has learnt from listening to her body and taking more loving care of herself, goes a long way in enabling other women to do the same. This is what reading this blog did for me and has been pivotal in my period returning after a long period of absence. Thank you Vanessa Mc Hardy.
There is a lot of joy coming through from just you embracing your period and what it is showing you. Not only is there a strong foundation of love in the body but also a deeper embrace of what it truly means to live at the beautiful glorious woman that you naturally are. Thank you for sharing.
“The power to heal is truly available to you, you don’t need anybody else to do it for you, just the glorious you, paying attention and honouring how you feel.” The glory & joy of self empowerment is abundant if we are willing to listen to the body and begin to relate to life from the inside out.
Vanessa this was a lovely light but profound read and very revealing that even with a minimum of commitment our bodies already respond. I haven’t had periods for years now but recently charted my moon cycle in much the same way as you describe and found it quite amazing what my body had to say to me. It’s magical rediscovering my body at this level, and the start of a beautiful relationship that will only ever get deeper.
I love your blog Vanessa and with an openness and lightness you show how women’s periods can change from the ‘period from hell’ to an enjoyable experience. We do forget that we don’t have to be at the mercy of our lives and bodies and that we can do something about it, and that it can be as simple as being more aware of what is going on in our bodies and taking note of those feelings.
This was great to read never been a fan of hearing how someone’s period was or went for them or me in fact … But it is so revealing different parts of the body aching at different times might not be so much fun, sometimes feels like another language always wanted to learn one this is definitely it.
A really important point you have raised here Vanessa is about seeing ourselves at the ‘mercy’ of our lives and bodies. When we actually see that we have choices in every moment that govern what our life is and will be, as well as what our body is and will be – it brings whole new perspective, as well as responsibility. It’s empowering to know the power of our choices, and how responsive our bodies can be when we are truly self loving with them.
I had always been aware of my moods in relation to my period and for years kept a diary and could see and feel the cycle but was at a loss as to know how to change my devastating behaviour from month to month. I didn’t have the awareness or understanding that it was how I was living which was determining the ease or not of each period and the lead up to it and nor did the doctors I consulted. The best they could offer me was evening primrose oil and vitamin B6. It’s really quite sad that as women we haven’t had access to this information before now and that many relationships are suffering as a result. Although I suppose you could say that as women we do know deep within but yet somehow we’ve lost our way. What Natalie Benhayon and others are presenting is such a blessing and every woman needs to have access to this invaluable information.
This is a key point you make Deborah, how with all the dedication you had to chart your cycle you still did not make the link between your symptoms and how you were living and neither did the doctors! It seems so simple and obvious now but most women are in the dark about this, and it is up to us who do know to make that information available as widely as we can.
Thank you Vanessa!! I felt the power in the period diary in that: when we express what is truly going on for us 1) it is released, 2) we become aware of it and are able to make change and 3) we are more consistently in tune with our bodies. I have held back expressing about the “period diary”, in fear of people’s reactions, but seriously: with such a glorious and life-changing effect a period diary can NEVER be underestimated…I agree with the benefits, from my experience, I feel there is now another level to go. 🙂
Your blog is a testament Vanessa to the grand self empowerment we can bring to ourselves – forget being the MD of a corporate institution, the business woman, mother and sex bomb rolled into one – this is where empowerment truly begins, “paying attention and honouring how you feel.”
I agree Lucinda, paying attention to and honouring ourselves and our bodies is key to unlocking and new and wonderful way of being as women. It does take commitment, particularly in the beginning as we deal with old drives and momentums, but so worth the effort.
It’s such a support to read how you started to connect to your body more deeply Vanessa. So simple and yet so profound. The changes in you are inspirational.
Wow that is super cool. I remember when I first was presented with the same tools that if you were to keep a period diary what would happen and alone came the Ourcycle App. At first I found it weird as I hadnt written a diary since I was 12yrs or so and it definitely wasn’t about my body or my period. I have found it fasicnating to record how I am feeling, what my body is telling me and sharing this openly with Women at the Women in Livingness presentations has been extraordernary. This is a powerful way and supported rhythm to connect deeper to the Woman that I am.
Paying attention to our body is the power of healing. I too had extremely painful periods for over 25yrs. When I started to listen to my body and understand the momentum I was living in, I was not surprised, how my body was reflecting back to me how abusive I was to my self. As I started to take more care of myself and began to make notes of how I felt each day, my periods changed, from heavy dark, intense periods to light, bright and not as intense but longer periods. This gave me a greater understanding of how our period cycles reflect the way we have been living and we have a choice to change it.
I love this Vanessa and I’m sure your beloved loves it too. It is amazingly simple to do some seemingly minor things to honour ourselves that make a big difference. I so appreciate you sharing your journey.
Wow, I really get a sense of how every ‘body’ is different and how everybody has a different experience when they receive their period. You ability to track your cycle and note down what your body is feelings and the moods it goes through is lovely… and what is more lovely is the cataclysmic change that this has had within your life. Its incredible in understanding how much this small ‘our cycles app tool’ has revolutionised the way you feel about your periods and have your periods.
Thanks Vanessa, so interesting that just noting recording your feelings during the day on a regular basis can have such a powerful impact. You are certainly onto something here!
This is so relatable Vanessa and I love how you express this amazing experience you are sharing. I really thank you for your support as well because I have the diary app and don’t enter anything – this could be very telling of my relationship with myself – don’t want to hear or listen to my body perhaps? Or not feeling enough worth to honour myself with that time maybe? Tonight I shall start – and I’m feeling pretty light and playful at the moment but like you say – who knows what happens moment to moment. Thanks heaps for the support and inspiration!
I have been learning to observe my body and how it feels over the last few years and I have found it deeply empowering to see that I can make choices that truly support my health and well being…”The power to heal is truly available to you, you don’t need anybody else to do it for you, just the glorious you, paying attention and honouring how you feel.” I no longer consider my periods an inconvenience but rather a part for the natural cycle that supports me as a woman. This arose from paying attention to what was happening with my body rather than trying to ‘get on’ with life and so override the messages that it shares.
Oh Vanesaa what a great read. I loves the humour and will definitely have a go and what you are offering. Little check ins… I had better stock up 😳 but really 😀
I enjoyed reading this blog Vanessa and had a laugh about you not wanting to kill your beloved, but then on a serious note PMT can be so severe that women can get violent with this condition and can ruin relationships.
The great thing here is, what you have done is so simple, costs nothing, no pain killers or sedation required.
Women have an amazing opportunity to get a very palpable feedback on how they have lived during a 28 days cycle. Whatever this feedback may be, women have such an easy access to almost permanent opportunities to assess, take stock and re-imprint life if needed. For this reason, reassessing the relationship with the period makes a lot of sense.
Thank you Vanessa for talking about the period diary app. I don’t have an iphone so I have a hand written diary. I admit the diary was becoming like an essay and I was a bit hard on myself but it did help me connect with my body and my periods became more regular. From your blog I now have a better understanding as to why I am recording how I feel on a daily basis, so if anyone knows of a good android app I would really appreciate it.
I always love reading this blog as I can relate to every word and always seem to read it at a time when I want to understand more the messages from my body. What Vanessa’s blog encourages is developing that intimate relationship with ourselves, through our bodies, so that we get to know ourselves inside and out. I can’t thank you enough Vanessa for writing this as it was great support and very encouraging to read when my periods stopped. I was so inspired by what I read that it encouraged me to take myself a bit more seriously by taking notice of how I feel and making changes accordingly. Now my periods are flowing freely.
This blog has a great message… it’s actually something I have been doing recently is writing how I am feeling at the end of each day. For the last year my periods have been very irregular.. coming around once every 2 months or once I didn’t have my period for 5 months! but since I have been writing I have had my last period come only a month later and I was like woohoo! are my periods going to be regular again!? I feel that it was because I took the time to actually acknowledge to myself that my periods are irregular and I would like to work out why, I just had a natural thought that I need to write how I feel in my Our Cycles App which I did and bang, there we have it. I’m sure there are many different facets that come into play here but I can definitely pin point that when I started writing something was changing and my period came right on time.
Checking in with our bodies is such a powerful tool, and a great reminder, especially when the day gets going and the busyness takes over. I have to constantly remind myself to check in and listen to my body or I find myself racing ahead and thinking of all the things I need to do and then wonder why I am feeling anxious.
Vanessa, this is so very healing and offers to us all the possibility that by simply checking in with our bodies and taking note of what we feel there, is an amazing form of medicine. One that simply offers us the possibility that how we live has an important role in how we feel. And how we can adjust how we live by simply becoming aware of our bodies and giving our voice back to our body, letting our body tell us when we are doing something that doesn’t feel quite right.
When we understand the simplicity it seems bananas that we ever chose to override our feelings and what our bodies were telling us. However eons of living from our heads and not our bodies takes its toll and retraining our way of living requires practice, but it is well worth it.
I started writing a period diary a few years ago after attending a woman’s group in Australia where similar was presented. Prior to writing my period diary my periods used to come randomly between 4.5-7 weeks, with so called period headaches on 2nd day, and sometimes mild aches along with PMT symptoms of being irritated and hyper few days (5-7) prior to having my period. I knew few other women who had a similar symptoms, so I thought that was normal. I found out afterwards that in fact it was not normal. I started to write thoughts every single day for 3 months and was amazed to see change in my period and also see patterns in the way I was living and reacting to situations in life over and over again. Once I could see a repeating cycle there, I then had a choice on how I would live it differently next time. Over a period of 6 months, I saw how my period had now changed to 28 day cycle for 6-7days and with an easy flow without any period headaches or aches or pains or PMT.. all it needed was for me to connect to me and live from there. If I do have any of my old symptoms, it just allows me to check in how I was living prior to having my period. What a blessing to have that awareness in your body. How simple can it be?
So true Pinky. What yourself and Vanessa have described is so simple. What this shows us is how complicated something so natural as feeling and honoring our body has become. Once we see through the ideals and beliefs that get in the way, what is left is the simplicity once again.
I myself used to be happy when “this period” was over. Today I’m looking forward to the cleansing my body offers me. I’m not perfect, so I let myself be hard on me or rush from time to time. And this stores in my body. And I can feel the surrendering when my period starts and supports my body to clear.
What an amazing and inspiring sharing. It is incredible from just checking in with yourself at the end of everyday and jotting down a few points you had such strong changes in the way you menstruate. I agree what would happen if we were to commit to checking in with ourselves all throughout our day, what kind of changes would we see in our bodies then and how would our vitality change.
Vanessa, it is amazing – I have seen lots of such testimonials of people just stopping and nominating how they feel and their life changes for the better. It is so strange that something so simple can have such an effect.
I love this blog Vanessa and am inspired to deepen my relationship with my cycle. Thank you dearly for your expression 🙂
Amazing Vanessa! Your blog and the many comments are a real blessing for all women. Who would have thought that it could be that simple to change a painful body condition. I always had very tender and sometimes painfully swollen breasts before my period, but since I was introduced to the Women’s Groups with Natalie Benhayon and the Our Cycles App, that has almost disappeared.
Whenever I get pain in my body now I start to reflect upon my choices and this usually tells me a lot about why it is happening.
Paying attention and honoring how you feel, those words are gold. I write in my diary about my period and cycle every evening for nearly three months now and it is truly wonderful. The relationship with myself has deepened and I get to know by body so much better. I know exactly where I am in regards to my cycle and I enjoy every part of my cycle, including my period. I live more with my cycle and this feels very natural and loving.
Dear Vanessa, the simplicity you present here of noting truthfully how you feel is very beautiful. There is much for me to ponder on in what you have written. Thank you.
“How powerful we are when we tune into how we feel, when we honour ourselves, when we pay attention to ourselves and believe we are worth paying attention to” – I totally agree. Even though periods are often regarded as a nuisance by a lot of us women, something that stops us from the ‘usual’ activities, through loving observation we are able to develop a deeper relationship that paves the way for a more self-loving way of being.
This sentence stayed with me the most after reading this article “We are not at the mercy of our lives and body”. Nobody teaches us this and explains what it means. In fact the only true education we get about our body when we are younger is that we need to exercise it, eat well and get to bed early and that anything that was going on with our periods could be managed with contraceptive pills. This is so far from what Esoteric Women’s Health shares, that we can live in a way connected with our body, as Vanessa has so simply outlined here. My feeling of what living connected to my body means is to check in regularly and feel how every choice I make effects my body. It can be a challenging way to live, to be honest about what we feel, but it is a much much more grander and whole way of living. Living connected with and listening to my body I am not only more present and less racy or fast paced with any stress or anxiety, but I am more open to connecting and being open with other people, with a greater confidence to be myself. This is all totally amazing and how to live connected with our body and our periods should be shared with every young and older women.
I felt to reread this blog as I have found it very challenging to record my moods and what is going on for me each day despite the fact that I have the very supportive OurCycles App on my iPhone and every intention of giving myself the gift of a daily check in. Just now rereading this blog I realised that I am always judging myself to be ‘not good enough’ so the thought of writing down things about my day is something I avoided fiercely as I do not want to feel that judgement.
I can see this is all an illusion that is invested in keeping me stuck because my periods have been far better lately due to the fact that I am allowing myself to connect to the truth more and deal with my issues. It’s not about being perfect or aspiring to perfection. Checking in daily doesn’t have to be a report card and I am missing out on a great opportunity to appreciate myself and my body.
So with insight I commit to my daily check in again. Thank you Vanessa.
Your comment Leonne has enabled me to have greater understanding about my own way of being. My periods too are much less painful, they flow with ease. Yet I like you have been struggling with the notion that I have to do more, that there is something else to get to, underlying this thinking is the notion that I am not enough as I am. In your comment you have awoken within me this insidious sneaky energy and I am super grateful, for it is not who I really am. Sitting here connecting to my essence I can feel the fullness, and a depth of understanding and love for myself that totally wipes the lie I have been believing, that there is more to do. What I feel is that I am already everything I am trying to be. The simplicity now feels to me to surrender deeply to this feeling and let it fill my body. Words cannot describe my gratefulness to you for expressing as you do.
Likewise Leigh. It is amazing what healing is possible when we just allow ourselves to be honest. I can feel such surrender in what you have written Leigh. It is like receiving a gentle and tender hug that allows me to stop trying and simply be. Thank you.
Leigh, you have really nailed what is happening for me and your words ‘… struggling with the notion that I have to do more, that there is something else to get to, underlying this thinking is the notion that I am not enough as I am.’ which have created a light bulb moment. I can now see why I’m off track as there is no lightness and ease to my life at present. I now feel the urge to commit more consistently to using the Our Cycles Period App to track myself more closely but with kindness and curiosity; not with judgement. Thanks!
Have loved reading this thread Leigh, Leonne and Helen. I know too well the criticism and not good enough game. What surprised me so much was how by just being honest, not going into anything, simply writing it down, here it is this is how I feel that was the gold, the not wanting me to be something else or feel anything else but just accept me as I was on that day. In the last year I have been committing to writing in a journal more and feeling my breasts and ovaries at first I rarely felt anything now every time I tune into that area of my body I feel an expansive warmth that is consistent and truly joyous. When things have gone a bit crap on a day or I feel racy etc I just write that down and then feel again and there it is that yummy feeling inside my body same as always. I am now developing connecting to this more in my day and actually making that a conscious choice – why leave it to bed time or on waking! It’s too yummy to compartmentalise!
Great insight that self-judgment is keeping you from being with yourself. I also find that the idea that “I have” to be loving and caring with myself gets in the way, like it is a chore or something. How ridiculous, and when on earth did being lovely with myself become a chore…? No more!
Great point Heather. I can relate to this a lot. It really is ridiculous that I often approach self love as though it is a chore. Great to be able to see this and feel the potential that a truly loving relationship with me can unfold.
Leonne, what you have expressed is gold, thankyou. I was also able to connect to the dreaded spectre of perfectionism looming over me like a shadow, making me feel unable to fully and joyfully relay my moods to the Our Cycles app. It’s the subtle self beat up or disappointment that comes with that, instead of simply accepting myself wherever I am at in a loving way. Then the striving comes in “more things to work on (issues)” instead of the celebration first of myself and appreciating all I am. I may now start with the Feelings section of the app and after confirming and celebrating look at the little stuff in the Moods section I make so big. 🙂
Enjoyed your blog Vanessa, keeping it simple with self love and paying attention to what our bodies are telling us.
Awesome sharing Vanessa, its so amazing how the simple choice to take care of yourself already changes a lot. And then through deepening our self-care we reach a quality that connects us to our body and we start to live from our body and not in reaction to our body. Our body then becomes our best friend and guide in all what we do.
Vanessa what you share here is gold for every woman. Your share that we as woman can through taking responsibility for our bodies heal our periods pain and PMS. That is great because with that we are also a great role models for our daughters. They learn from young age that they are worth it to take care of and so don’t need the experience of getting painful periods.
I agree that our young can begin their periods in connection to their bodies and what an amazing difference that will make to how they live their day to day lives and that then would impact greatly on all around them. Such amazing possibilities when we allow what is within to be our everyday.
A beautiful blog Vanessa, thank you for sharing so honestly. I love the commitment you have to write about how you feel everyday. So important to tune into our bodies and listen to the messages we are constantly receiving. I know how empowering it feels for me when I have allowed this, your blog is a great reminder to keep honouring myself and truly listen to the messages from my body.
Such an awesome and inspiring blog Vanessa, you’ve reminded me to pay closer attention to the way I feel, as you said “The power to heal is truly available to you, you don’t need anybody else to do it for you, just the glorious you, paying attention and honouring how you feel.” I love this as it is that simple, no need for complication, just simply making the time to be with ourselves and listen to the amazing way our body communicates.
An inspiring blog Vanessa. I am now post-menopausal and have long left my periods behind but even so it is amazing to begin to have the awareness of a period being a ‘gift’ that we can accept and honour or reject and just keep ‘doing’ life in the same old pattern. My pattern for so long has been one of ignoring my body and I am now totally amazed at how my body talks to me all of the time. It is allowing me to connect and understand my body in a way that I find awesome and inspiring.
” what I hope I have shown is how powerful we are when we tune into how we feel, when we honour ourselves, when we pay attention to ourselves and believe we are worth paying attention to.” Such golden words Vanessa thank you for sharing.
It is amazing how little it takes to turn our health and well-being around. Just a little bit of willingness to spend time with ourselves and honour where we are at can make such a difference. It poses the question if this is what we can do so easily then what more can we do? And I like it how you have already explored this for yourself.
So very true Judith. How body responds very quickly when we begin to surrender and nurture is cycles and rhythms.
Awesome blog Vanessa, Thank you for sharing, as it shows there is a relationship between how we live and that this does have effects on our body. For women, we get this monthly reflection, which serves as a great marker and a reminder of the choices we have made that either support or reduce our body. This really supports the developing an intimate relationship with ourselves.
You are glorious! It is so incredible how responsive our bodies can be when we start to pay attention and actually listen. I’m super glad I read this blog, for this is just what I needed to hear: “when we pay attention to ourselves and believe we are worth paying attention to.” How vital it is to build and develop our self-worth!
How cool Vanessa to witness such a swift change after 30 years of experiencing your body a certain way. Its really inspiring for me to read. Now I am feeling how I can choose to see every moment I live as a gift, and a lesson in self-healing.
Thanks Vanessa for sharing this, what you did was really simple but obviously very powerful too. You’ve inspired me to try out taking short daily notes as a support for checking in with my body more.
“I hope I have shown is how powerful we are when we tune into how we feel, when we honour ourselves, when we pay attention to ourselves and believe we are worth paying attention to.” Thank you Vanessa, you have reminded me again that I am worth to be with myself, feel my body in every moment of the day as its a source of Wisdom I carry with me always.
Hi Vanessa. It’s very beautiful when we begin to sense what an opportunity having period is, even if it’s unpleasant and uncomfortable and the observations that you make while uncovering what’s going on underneath the physical symptoms. Thank you.
Thanks Vanessa, I take much inspiration from your commitment to listening and honouring your body, and using your period as a guide with this.
I too have experienced this relationship with how I am during the month to how my period is…especially I have felt a correlation between my levels of pain & prior eating of sugar!
Needless to say I am actively working on letting sugar go!
Dear Vanessa, Thank you for sharing our relationship with our periods. It is empowering and connecting. It is a language I was not aware of until I too was introduced to Universal Medicine. I am continuously amazed how something as true and natural has remained hidden and untold. Blessings.
The choice to simply pay attention and listen to my body, has brought about tremendous change with my period also Vanessa, and well, everything in my life. It is amazing to read of the changes you have experienced already here – just how readily our bodies can respond to observation, truly listening and taking loving care.
Why were we not taught this in school? This is education in the truest sense.
I agree Vanessa and love how you have shared the truth that periods are indeed a gift. A gift that can show us exactly how we have lived and cared for ourselves in the previous month, and to give us hints on how we can better prepare ourselves for the coming month. Periods are indeed a blessing for us to rest and reflect on how we live each day and are definitely not the curse, inconvenience or annoyance that I used to think they were.
Suse and isn’t that an amazing place to find ourselves that our periods are gifts, imagine starting your cycle knowing this!
Thank you for sharing Vanessa, Loved your last sentence ” The power to heal is truly available to you, you don’t need anybody else to do it for you, just the glorious you, paying attention and honouring how you feel.”
Vanessa, I love the commitment you are showing us to honour how our body is feeling on a daily basis. So often we begin to write notes and a few weeks down the line we give up! I know this has been the case with me but after reading your blog it makes me realize that even when we have minor symptoms that instead of putting up with it (which most of us do) we can by tuning into our bodies have joyful, no pain what so ever periods. Thank you for sharing.
Reading this blog is perfect timing for me as I have decided that I want to understand and re-connect more to my period and what is happening in my body during my menstrual cycle. I know that if I tune in more to this my body will have a lot more to say to me.
This was great for me to read. I love how light and fun you are Vanessa, even tackling such a huge and profound topic. I also love feeling that beginning to pay attention to our periods is not difficult or time consuming at all as I have often found myself making excuses that I don’t have enough time to pay attention to this. Your blog makes it clear that I am avoiding this for another reason.
It is clear that small daily check ins can have a huge impact on the way our body feels and I feel inspired to work out what is really going on for me.
I feel inspired to have these daily check ins too Leonne, ‘It is clear that small daily check ins can have a huge impact on the way our body feels and I feel inspired to work out what is really going on for me.’
Thank you Vanessa. I am having my period at the moment and loved reading this blog. ‘…they started presenting the possibility of periods being a gift, a point to notice what’s going on for you, a reflection of how you have been living’. I love this way of seeing my period and this feels very true to me, all what I am feeling in my body at the moment is very related to how I have been living last month. This gives me a great opportunity to choose how I want to live coming month and see how it goes with honouring how my body feels everyday.
This is a truly amazing story. Through the simple choices to connect and feel what is happening in the body and through the use of a simple, practical tools such as a period diary, we can change our period cycles and symptoms.
Rather than feeling governed by our periods, we can see them as the opportunity or marker that truly they are.
“At this point I started to wonder if there actually was a link between how I am with myself and how my body is?” How lovely to share a moment in your life where you felt a new awareness, to consider that how we are with our bodies impacts on what they share with us…illuminating and very practical. I am very inquisitive about cycles and committing to understanding mine, I have definitely become reacquainted and understand my body more over the last few years, but I feel there is much more there to find out..
Thank you Vanessa, You say “We are not at the mercy of our lives and body…” I too have learned that by listening to and paying attention to what my cycle is showing me with bodily symptoms I do not need to suffer pain every month.
My periods were horrendous & debilitating for 23 years! But with this simple commitment to myself this is No more! Self honoring in the place of pain and suffering; I’ll take it!
Thank you Natalie Benhayon, Serge Benhayon and all who make Universal Medicine the True support it is.
Such a tender sharing Vanessa.
Although a little late for me to reclaim my relationship with my period, what has been a joy is reclaiming my relationship with a long forgotten connection to the Moon cycles ! The monthly feelings can be similar, although no bleed. It is so vital to continue to honour these rhythms and listen to our bodies as we age.
I bought an ipad so that I could use the Our Cycles app by Natalie Benhayon. It was amazing to begin to journal again and to have a focus on moods and feelings and then nurturing also. I love to look back and see the pattern that emerges over time as to our moods and feelings. It’s like I can imagine a graph of how I’ve been and it is always very telling. There was a time when I missed a couple of days, I had gotten too fixed and the joy had gone out of writing. I am back on track now and look forward to my time with our cycles app. Thanks to Natalie Benhayon for creating this and thanks Vanessa for your beautifully expressive blog.
A very inspiring blog showing the healing effects of listening to our body and taking care of ourselves. Thank you Vanessa.
An inspirational and supportive blog. A great reminder that we have everything we require available within us and that we can make huge shifts toward true health and well being through honouring how we feel. Thank you.
Vanessa,
I find that periods are something that isn’t really talked about between women.
I have a lot of female friends who will shake it off as ‘that time of the month’ and that is all that is said.
Another close friend can go months without having it but just dismiss it because she has complications with her uterus anyway.
I went along with this mentality and didn’t really talk about it. But now with the support of the app and me contributing every day, I’m actually able to track where I am in my cycle. And feel it too! This is only my second cycle where I’ve been tracking my period, and for the first time in my life, I felt a cramp the day I was due.
It tells me that I have been so numb and dismissive in the past to my cycle, that I had no symptoms leading up to my period.
But as I become more aware, and actually more open about my period to people, I can feel so much more of where I am in my cycle.
How amazing is that!
What has been shared so clearly shows that in being willing to see our cycle as a way to support ourselves as women, changes can happen rather than our periods being an event to dread every month. I too have learnt and experienced, through listening to these presentations, how my relationship with my cycle, and therefore myself, has changed. Thank you Vanessa.
Great sharing Vanessa on how important it is to pay attention to what our body is really telling us, and then to honour that.
‘We are not at the mercy of our lives and body’ – I love this paragraph, so many women I speak to today genuinely think periods need to be a painful and exhausting and unpleasant experience, which I have found like you to be untrue. With some care and attention our periods can be an awesome, very different experience.
Thank you for sharing your commitment to listening to your body. It is beautiful to read how you turned around your experiences of periods by taking notice of the messages your body was communicating with you. I had been using the Full Moon cycle to recognise patterns in my cycle but have recently let this lapse and now feel inspired to re-commit to my body and myself.
It’s great what you have shared here and really inspiring we can ‘tune’ into our bodies it is just a choice and willingness. A timely reminder for me. I have loved what you have shared and this is key “The power to heal is truly available to you, you don’t need anybody else to do it for you, just the glorious you, paying attention and honouring how you feel.” Thank you.
The simplicity of this is awesome, just paying a little bit of attention to my body and how it feels makes such a difference. I’ve been using the our cycles app for almost two years and have been getting to know myself much better because I’m taking more notice of myself. I never before considered my cycle in full and how I feel at other times in the month, not just when I bleed. I never ever considered when I ovulate! This process of simply recording how I feel is really helping me to build a new relationship with my obdy as a woman, and it’s very exciting.
Hi Vanessa, this was so great for me to read, I am just at the beginning of really learning what my period cycle has to offer, and I feel so similarly to what you described. It is like a profound adventure and I am fascinated with what my body is showing me and what I am learning about myself, and also, instead of dreading my next period I am looking forward to it and learning and discovering more. Thank you for sharing your experiences 🙂
Your own honest observations and the ease of practicality of the Our Cycles app make a daily check in sound nothing but supportive. That you noticed an immediate turn around in your cycle just by becoming more aware of the signs your body is amazing and an inspiration to many.
Hi Vanessa, it’s quite clear that you committed to listening to your body and responded in self-nurturing which allowed an unfolding in your cycle and it’s really inspiring to read how you turned your period from pain and discomfort to an adventure, something here for us all to learn from, thank you.
Beautiful and honest blog Vanessa, really showing the power of our choices and how simple choices to check in and pay attention to us and our bodies have huge impacts. Thank you for this sharing.
This is a brilliant blog, demonstrating the power in being honest with ourselves and what we are feeling.
Periods are very much a thing of the past as I am now in my 60s, but I do remember they were painful when they first started. I also remember that in later years I used to be particularly ‘ditsy’ and wasn’t safe driving on certain days. Now I am definitely in a full moon cycle – I can feel changes in my body and my mental state when the full moon is due. I use the Our Cycles App to track my moods, feelings and symptoms, it’s very revealing.
Your blog is an awesome revelation of the power we have when we connect to our bodies and really take notice of whats going on. Thank you for sharing your amazing experience Vanessa
I agree completely Beverley. Our bodies are always communicating to us if we take time to listen.
Vanessa you are so very right how amazing it is when we tune into our bodies and actually listen. I find that by listening and checking in with myself life becomes more simple. Thank you Vanessa for this beauty-full reflection.
This is a wonderful story to share. When I heard from my gynaecologist about 5 or 6 years ago that it’s not normal to have painful periods, I just about fell off my chair (or the examining table, really). I couldn’t believe it was even possible to be pain free. This past spring, I started using the period diary that Natalie shared, but then dropped it a few months later. I really feel to start it up again, and one of the things that helps and inspires me, are your words above Natalie: “…when we pay attention to ourselves and believe we are worth paying attention to”. Wow. That is a powerful sentence and is all I need to hear. I am definitely worth paying attention to !! 🙂
Great comments – I thought painful periods were normal too! It’s very true that significantly things change when we believe we are worth paying attention to. I love how simply Vanessa has shown this.
Julie, What a brilliant Gynaecologist to say “it’s not normal to have painful periods.” ! I never heard anyone say that until Uni. Med. and by simply committing to honoring myself more my periods have gone from horrendously painful to a time when I need to rest a bit more and allow myself to feel delicate; there is NO MORE PAIN.
This message struck me too, that we can really turn things around for ourselves “..when we pay attention to ourselves and believe we are worth paying attention to”. Throughout my life I have observed myself and so many other women putting ourselves last and not being self supportive! That we are worth our own loving attention feels feels so true and so impowering!
Thanks Vanessa – awesome post. It’s amazing how much is there to discover when we tune into our bodies deeply. And it’s so simple to do.
I simply love being a woman now and I look forward to my cycle every month knowing how powerful I am, and how much I can clear at that time, awesome!
Thank you Vanessa, you have indeed shown us how powerful it is when we allow ourselves to tune in, pay attention to ourselves and honour what we find. This is inspirational, I have read it again today – partly because I enjoyed your lightness and humour but also because I wanted to say thank you for sharing this with us.
Thank you for sharing Vanessa. I loved your comment “my relationship with my periods is an unfolding adventure” as I feel it beautifully describes the opportunity that we have as women to lovingly develop a relationship with our bodies and ourselves that can become deeper as we connect to ourselves more lovingly and gently – and in a way that truly honours us as the beautiful and amazing women we are!
Thank You Vanessa for sharing your experience with your period, I too have connected so much more deeply by doing the Period Diary app after Natalie Benhayon spoke about it. I have had some profound experiences that I could not have ever imagined so I totally recommend the Period Diary.
Awesome beauty-full. Thank you for sharing. Amazing and inspiring. With love Nikita.
Yes! I am enjoying the process and my growing awareness too. 🙂
This post makes me want to have my periods again! But being post menopausal is not so arduous anymore since the presentations by Natalie Benhayon and the fact that women after menopause can still clear (or accumulate stuff! – if they so choose) on a monthly basis through the way we live and nurture ourselves.
I agree we are very powerful and your story demonstrates this beautifully. It is in the listening, stopping, slowing down, honouring, paying attention, feeling and loving the body that we can change how our periods are. I now have a relationship with my body everyday. I love having my period as it shows me how I have been living and gives me an opportunity to change how I am being with my body and supports me to celebrate me.
Reading your post made me want to have periods! I went through menopause a few years ago, so I cannot exercise my power to choose, however, I have opted for a period diary! No, I have not gone mad in my ‘longing’ for real periods that I am now making them up. Since Natalie’s presentation, I have become aware that when we stop bleeding, our period cycles do not cease (they are always around the time of the full moon). I was surprised when I first heard it, but over the last few months I have come to realise how true that is and it made sense once I paid close attention to what was going on in my body. At times, I experience exactly the same symptoms I once had when bleeding was present, particularly that feeling of a certain intensity before the period, like an ‘ascent’, and then the ‘descent’ afterwards. Coincidence? I don’t think so. I know so.
I know so”. I agree with you Dragana, I am aware now of a definite cycle even though I am in menopause and similar symptoms are particularly obvious when I haven’t been as nurturing and caring of myself as I could be. The body speaks loud when we take moments to listen. I love what Vanessa has recorded here and the lightness she brought to the subject.
Thank you for sharing your experience with your periods – this is very inspiring. I loved what you said about it all starting with only a minimum effort and commitment (and I may say a very simple technique) and how it’s proven to be very supportive and has expanded.
Love it, Vanessa. from one single focus of observation (our periods) so much can be learnt, and, we have so much opportunity to observe, and then make changes in the way we are living. Deeply (and tenderly) empowering…