by Sandra Dallimore, Melbourne, Australia
At the Melbourne presentation for International Women’s Day 2013 titled; ‘Nurturing the woman within: Reclaiming your natural rhythm within our modern times’ Natalie Benhayon presented a new app for iPhone, iPad (and in future, Android) called ‘Our Cycles’.
Natalie had tried various apps to track her own symptoms, moods and feelings during her monthly menstrual cycle, and due to the limitations she found with these apps, and the emphasis on them being for a woman to either become pregnant or to prevent becoming pregnant, she decided to develop her own app and the ‘Our Cycles’ app was born.
The ‘Our Cycles’ app is not just for menstruating women, it is also for women in Menopause and for all men, as they too have a natural monthly cycle which follows the full moon cycle – the full moon being a time of healing and clearing, just as the bleeding is for a woman during her menstrual cycle, (For more information about the full moon cycle, visit www.ourcyclesapp.com).
We were asked to consider: “What if we were educated in school that having a cycle comes first and getting / not getting pregnant is second?”. Would we then be more prepared for some of the symptoms we may experience, such as cramping, changes in our moods or changes in what we eat when we have our period?
And, what if we were given a diary when we first got our period, so we could record what is going on for us throughout the month? Would it not give us a totally different relationship with our bodies?
Many women in the group acknowledged that they weren’t taught about ovulation, so were not prepared for symptoms or pain around this time. One woman, who in her teen years was rushed to hospital with a suspected burst appendix, on further questioning was told to go home and take painkillers as she had ovulation pain. She had no idea.
If we had the understanding that we do have a cycle, and to not only focus on when we have our period, and just dealing or putting up with symptoms and changes in our moods and behavior, we may then be easier on ourselves at other times during the month, for example, around ovulation time. At this time, we may feel more tired and in acknowledging this, we may not work as hard and take more care in how we eat, sleep and look after ourselves.
So, the App is a tool that we can use to track what’s going on for us on any given day.
It enables us to keep track of our feelings, moods and any physical symptoms we experience each day. We may see a pattern over the months where the week before our period (or full moon) we always reach for chocolate, or overeat, have trouble sleeping or are very emotional. We may see that mid-cycle when we are ovulating, we always feel very lovely and sexy, or we have pain. Or, we may see that during our period, and the full moon, we do in fact feel really lovely and we honour and nurture ourselves with deep rest, early morning bubble baths and simple, light meals.
On being asked whether we felt a diary would be beneficial, the consensus of the group was a resounding YES.
One woman who is post-menopausal reported that she had been keeping a diary for 8 months and that she had been astounded at just how much change she had made during this time. She had identified through her diary that she was overeating at certain times of the month, and that she often felt very tired around the full moon and realised that she was actually overtired from doing too much throughout the month. She had looked back over her diary to see any patterns and if anything had changed. She was able to see a pattern of overeating for example, and had asked herself why she was doing this. What was going on for her? Without any judgment or beating herself up, she had lovingly made changes throughout the following months. So when she looked back in her diary, she could see just how much change she had made and the pattern of overeating had lessened considerably.
The menstrual cycle and full moon cycle give us a wonderful opportunity to see where we are at and what needs to change. If we feel moody (sad, depressed, angry) or have symptoms such as period pain, cramping or food cravings before or during our period or the full moon, it gives us an opportunity to say to ourselves: “I can work on this during my next cycle”. We can stop and say: “I don’t like how I’m feeling during this time so let’s see what is going on during my cycle that contributes to this”. Using the app, and entering how we feel each day, we build up a picture for ourselves to see our patterns. It’s most definitely not about judging ourselves or beating ourselves up, and it’s not about setting goals to get rid of something either. It’s about being honest with how we’ve been with ourselves during the month and then setting ourselves on a program for the next month.
For example, if we regularly stay up late at night when we feel tired but push ourselves to keep going – whether to watch a TV program, keep our partner company, or to entertain family or friends, we may decide to look at this and see if this is contributing to what we experience during our period or full moon time.
Please visit www.ourcyclesapp.com where you’ll find information about the period, moon diary for women and the moon diary for men, how to purchase the App, blogs from people who have been keeping a diary and blogs from various medical and health practitioners.
Women in Livingness Blog 
This App is an invitation to be more honest with ourselves about how the way we live day to day impacts our body and thus we have the choice to make adjustments to support ourselves and feel more connected to our body’s constant communication.
Wow it has been five years since this was launched! Five years of having this amazing tool at our fingertips. Realising this now I haven’t used it to the fullest of its potential but have got so much out of tracking my period knowing exactly what days I am clearing and seeing all of how I have lived over the month.
Thanks for sharing how supportive the Our Cycles App is; I love understanding my body more and its connection with the moon.
Yes the more we build a relationship with our body, the more we can choose to align to the moon cycle and make supportive choices from the wisdom that we open up to.
To have the awareness of how we have been living maybe contributing to some of our ill symptoms is great, because then we can make new and more loving choices in how we choose to live.
I also had a friend who was rushed to hospital with suspected appendicitis in her teens which was actually ovulation pain which I had never heard of. It was only many years later when another friend was describing how she knew when she ovulated that I realised I too was aware of my own ovulation. I had sometimes found the symptoms a bit scary and it would have been great to learn about them at the start of menstruation along with suggestions for how to take more loving care of myself but awesome that so many young women are now benefitting from the dedication of Natalie Benhayon to support other women with their cycles.
“We were asked to consider: “What if we were educated in school that having a cycle comes first and getting / not getting pregnant is second?”. When I was at school periods weren’t even discussed, and if they were it was probably in a biology class in a very functional and uncaring way. I agree offering young girls at school the opportunity to know and understand their periods as a cycle and not just a functional thing that happens to their body once a month will allow them to deepen their connection with themselves as women and have a greater understanding of what a period is and means to them.
“What if we were educated in school that having a cycle comes first and getting / not getting pregnant is second?”. Would we then be more prepared …..” What a great question to take into schools. A discussion around supporting women’s health could then ensue. Diet, sleep and general lifestyle issues could then be introduced.
All of us would have loved this kind of conversation when we started menstruating. I only paid particular attention to my period or ovulating when it came to wanting or not wanting to get pregnant. Other than that it was a nonevent. I didn’t enjoy it but I didn’t hate it either, I was just super scared when pregnant to see blood. To have more of an understanding about our cycles, ovulation, menstruating is like a blessing and gift to truly see how much as women we are shown and supported through our cycles, at any stage of life.
By going deeper in the understanding of our cycles, we go deeper in the understanding of our life
To see how we are, and how those things we do affect us, without judgement or a need to fix them, that is truly amazing, and something that can truly support us to more clearly understand ourselves, what happens around us and with us and how we are in the world. It is such an amazing support to have an app which simply allow us to do this, and to step back and get a birds eye view on how we are and the outplay of it.
The focus of tracking our cycle so often is about either avoiding or wanting pregnancy. We reduce our rhythm to it’s functional aspect and when we do that, we reduce ourselves to mere human beings leaving aside our multidimensionality.
I love the awareness that the app supports women with so that they can acknowledge what they feel and then honour this accordingly through how they then move through life… learning from patterns and constantly adjusting the way they are with themselves. Gorgeous.
The reflection of the Full Moon shines a light on how I have been living and the effect my choices have on my physical body.
The app provides a systematic approach to knowing you are in a cycle and personally developing a rhythm that fits into this either at the end of the day or during creates the potential for an honest reflection whereby truth can reveal itself. Getting to the bottom of behavioral patterns I find is a blessing. It’s amazing how many I was not aware I was in and cleverly managed until my body showed me the painful side effects that this way of living no longer supports me. The app supports you in knowing you and what works for you to feel the joy we all deserve consistently throughout your day.
I was not aware that a woman can experience pain at the time of ovulation but by being educated in school about the changes in a woman’s body but more importantly how a woman feels when these changes are taking place throughout the month can support a woman enormously to be aware of what is happening in her body. One of the things I am finding is that the app confirms how I am feeling eg. around the time of ovulation I feel more sexy and womanly and I am confirmed on those dates when I am due to ovulate. Also I feel supported just by being reminded what day of my cycle I am on. They may be simple reflections but by gently becoming more connected to the app I feel more connected to me.
Just like the moon reflects the light of the sun, it seems a period or cycles diary can reflect much to us.
I am over 60 and post menopausal so now have a moon cycle that I can observe and observe it I do but after reading this I am feeling to keep a diary again as it really does expose patterns and behaviours in the month that we are often blind to. In the past this has worked well for me and I have been re-inspired by this blog.Thanks Sandra.
This is an amazingly supportive app for revealing deep seated patterns in our cycles that are preventing us from living in connection with our bodies. I have not been consistent in my use of it but one thing I love about it is the lack of judgement with which I can observe what is going on for me and recognise that I have a choice to continue certain behaviours or not. The more awareness that I build the more I am able to adjust my behaviour and support myself more lovingly.
I love this app but since the latest update I feel like I don’t know how to use it anymore, I am not very savvy with these things though, anyone that feels confident please I need help, it just feels a little foreign now and I really want to use it to all its capabilities.
How wonderful this would be, to build a deeper, more loving, and understanding relationship with our body, ‘what if we were given a diary when we first got our period, so we could record what is going on for us throughout the month? Would it not give us a totally different relationship with our bodies?’
I had no idea about ovulation pain till I connected to it with the OurCycles App, it has been Anna absolute eye opener. This app is a great support and the more I use it the more aware I am of the importance of connecting to my cycle, way beyond pregnancy and fertility.
This inspires me to take a deeper look at my own cycle. Feeling that it is a true support to have this opportunity to track how I am feeling. And take this on in my life, it feels like a deeper commitment to my own health and well-being.
I have been using a diary to record changes in my body for some time and I am loving how much more in tune I now am with my body’s natural cycles and the how this is changing the relationship I have with me.
Recording what is going on for me in the our cycles app at the end of my day has given me a moment to stop and connect to me and what my body is feeling. It gives me a time for appreciation, surrender and honesty.
My period used to be “my cycle” and how many days it took to arrive, now using the Our Cycles app and listening to Natalie Benhayon’s presentations, I am much more aware that every day is part of a greater cycle. Yes my period is a part of that but I can now feel that life is about cycles and every day is a powerful contribution.
This is all really good advice Sandra. It is so important that we use this diary as a supportive tool and appreciate where we are at rather than to see what is happening as another reason to be critical of ourselves. Where we are is where we are and bringing awareness to this is very powerful and nurturing.
I have found the ‘nurturing journal’ part of the app particularly helpful to track what is happening for me. It helps me to work through things that are going on at the time and to also record when things are going very well when otherwise I might skip over that time without appreciating it. Also as I go through the moods and feelings in another part of the app I find that it’s a moment to stop and reflect on how I am really going at that time. i would highly recommend the app to anyone.
I can really see the benefit of keeping a daily journal. Even if it only includes daily events such as mood, sleep & eating. Tracking ourselves in cycles can be one of the most supporting activities that we can do. Lets start!
One of the Aha moments I had with the presentations of monthly cycles App. was that it is just that, a full monthly cycle. I had always just thought of my period as ‘it’ and did not have any awareness of changes in my body and that this was just part of the whole cycle. Now that my cycle follows the moon cycle the full moon is a time to shine a light on how I have been living during the whole of the previous month.
This is an awesome and inspiring piece, it made me again more aware of the cycles we all go trough, and how good it will be to look into them and follow the progress.
Sandra thank you for a really informative introduction to the Our Cycles App, a brilliant way of supporting ourselves no matter whether we are in a menstrual cycle, or following the moon cycle, in menopauses, or as a man. It is a blessing to be provided with such a supportive App.
The testimony of adult women is conclusive. Had they been educated differently about the cycle, in a way that they could understand and appreciate it and learn to live in a way that honours it, their live would had been different. This says quite a bit about both the status quo and the caliber of what Natalie Benhayon has been presenting on this subject.
Thank you Sandra, I really appreciate how you shared the benefits not only of the app but the deeper connection to be had to our bodies and how much they share with us each and every month.
Due to having an android I have only had the pleasure of seeing the app and all it has to offer but have not personally had the opportunity to use it myself. It has left no stone unturned in allowing people to deepen the awareness they have of themselves throughout the month and as such has been the catalyst in people making some transformational changes in their lives just from committing to themselves and taking responsibility of what their body is showing them. It is undeniably a blessing for all who use it.
Fabulous article Sandra. I have been using the Our Cycles App on and off for about 2 years now with no consistency, and yet when I do use it regularly I find I develop a deeper connection with myself just by virtue of the fact I am taking notice of how I feel on a regular basis. I have been willing and open to what is being offered by tracking my cycle but have not been committed to doing this. Making it a daily commitment is the only way to really get to the nitty gritty of how we hold ourselves back from being our awesome selves.
We are all part of many cycles which is inescapable and I have found that understanding and bringing awareness to my menstrual cycle has been super empowering. I have always had a certain awareness about my cycle but through attending women’s presentations with Natalie Benhayon I have been inspired to bring a deeper awareness to the details and claim the gift that it is and offers us as women. This has brought a deeper understanding to how I am living and observe the choices that I make during the month as I am shown through the quality of my cycle. And this then presents the opportunity to refine my rhythm and make choices that honour and support how I truly feel with what is going on for me a particular time. That it is us and how we chose to live that determines the quality of how we feel during our menstrual cycle.
Thank you Sandra, for this introduction and description of the Our cycles App, lets me recognize a behavior of avoiding being in contact with my wise body and the cyclical feedback it provides and offers me to get deeper known to myself and of being a woman – on earth. You have inspired me to get known to the Our cycles App. I have bought it, when it was released but still avoiding to open up to it, what means still avoiding to open up to me. So thank you for this inspiration today.
I agree. This app really is a must if you are in any way interested in committing to knowing yourself over time and deepening your perspective on your relationship with your own body.
I love the level of detailed care I can bring to myself now by noting what goes on for me day to day each month using the Our Cycles app. Great to read this blog and get some deeper insight into how I can further use the app to increase my wellbeing. Thanks Sandra.
Thank you Sandra, your blog reminds me how powerful and supportive this tool is. It’s a lovely way to check in with my body before I go to bed at night and look back on the preceding weeks to gain an understanding as to why I may be feeling tired. I have been able to identify patterns, symptoms and certain triggers that make me feel unwell such as the full moon, food, or shutting people out. Sometimes when I’m busy, I get lazy and neglect my diary, but you have reminded me how healing it truly is! Thank you!
Thank you Sandra with is a really supportive article for women, to help bring more understanding to what is going on for us over our monthly cycles. I feel women are aware of the symptoms that they have over the course of their cycles, but perhaps don’t necessarily ask what is underneath what I am feeling? I know this was the case for myself and now I find myself exploring what’s going on if I get any symptoms within my cycle. The OurCycles App is a great support for this too, where we can track our cycles and the patterns we have developed over time, so that we find new ways to really support and nurture ourselves.
I have been using this app (inconsistently) for a while now. It’s interesting as that is a bit of a theme for me, not being consistently supportive of myself and so right there the app has already offered me a healing by reflection. Lately I have made a deeper commitment to getting to know myself, to seeing how much deeper I can go with nurturing and really caring for me, both in practical terms, and also looking at the type of thoughts and emotions I allow. The app is supporting me to see where I make different choices (the unloving kind) and the chain reaction this sets off before I am able to recognise and come back to more loving choices. It is certainly serving its purpose and mine, that of deepening my relationship with myself. Hats off to OurCycles and I look forward to sharing more as the months evolve.
How many of us give ourselves a hard time for ill-behaviours we repeat time after time after time? I for one. And yet what you have written here Sandra just exposes how crazy this is “It’s most definitely not about judging ourselves or beating ourselves up, and it’s not about setting goals to get rid of something either. It’s about being honest with how we’ve been with ourselves during the month and then setting ourselves on a program for the next month.” If we are able to observe our behaviours without going into judgement then we can see that we are repeating them for a reason. This reason can be addressed which supports us to then look at it with understanding and let go of it. No drama, no self-flagellation, just simply stepping of the hamster wheel we’d placed ourselves on.
Sandra, I love this question – “What if we were educated in school that having a cycle comes first and getting / not getting pregnant is second?” If the focus was on our cycle and building a relationship with our body, I’m guessing there would be far more responsibility, respect and love for ourselves from the outset. I treasure what I have now in forever developing my relationship with my cycle and would have loved this support as a young woman.
This is a great overview of a very important app for our times. Keeping a record of how I am within my monthly cycle has been invaluable to me and has allowed me to connect more deeply with myself and my period which I now realise is so relevant to my overall health.
Sandra this is a great explanation of the incredible benefits of the OurCycle app. Thanks for sharing it with us all.
Thanks Sandra. A good reminder at how inconsistent I have been using the app myself. I would love to re-address how I use the app, as in the past it’s been something I’ve used to record my days of pain or feeling awful, and hardly ever used when I’m feeling light or joyful. This focus on recording only the negative, I have no doubt, only feeds further negativity. If I recorded a bit more appreciation of myself, I’m sure more of that will be reflected back at me.
Thanks Sandra for sharing this insightful blog ,bringing awareness to the body and cycles and what choices we are making is gold.
Great introduction Sandra, the Our Cycle App gives both men and women an opportunity to track periods or moon cycles and how we feel every day. It has been interesting to notice the patterns that develop which have a direct correlation to our cycles.
Such a great introduction to the Our Cycles App. I am using it and it is an awesome tool for building body awareness and a deeper quality in being a woman. To know that we live in cycles has been revolutionary for me and I love the consistency that I am building with the app.
Using the Our Cycles app has been very valuable for helping me to take a moment to reflect on what is going on and how I am currently feeling, any symptoms etc. I am finding it is helping to clarify issues much faster than if I otherwise tried to sort them out. It is well worth the time and small financial investment!
Great write up Sandra. I use the ‘Our Cycles’ app daily and have loved looking at how I’ve lived and looked after myself can affect my period – and as you say, it’s not to judge but just an opportunity to make some different choices the following month.
Sandra I also love the fact that the Our Cycles App is a self-awareness raising tool as well as a working tool to help deepen the connection and relationship with oneself as a woman. I couldn’t be without it now, each day I write on an aspect I’ve been experiencing, and have found the support of the App’s structure, with all it’s applications, so incredibly supportive and even life changing. Awesome, and highly recommended.
Sandra it is amazing that a simple App can given us so much into our life and patterns and behaviours we go into.
A great blog Sandra, the ‘our cycles’ app is very supportive for woman, the app looks and feels amazing. Feeling inspired to use it daily now after reading your blog!
I have been using Our Cycles for quite some time now. At times I wanted the app to magically fix my life, and other times I just couldn’t be bothered with it. Whatever it is, the app does the tracking, and I do the living, that I cannot change.
Great point Fumiyo – the Our Cycles App is the tool (and a brilliant one at that) but it is we who need to ‘do the living’ and make the commitment to using it.
Beautiful, to-the-point article Sandra. In fact, I found myself becoming aware, through the honesty presented, of patterns within my own cycle!
I’ve been using the App now for 2 years as a post-menopausal woman following the moon cycle. Re-reading my blog about the App and the comments left has inspired me to re-visit how I am using the App and to take my awareness of my cycle much deeper…more to come.
I have never before considered such an app, I had no major issues with my cycle, but now I can see how much more there is to connect to with the our cycles app, showing the links between how I have been living and what I am feeling.
Dear Sandra,
Thank you for explaining this app. I am not an app girl, but I definitely feel this will benefit me. Thank you for sharing.
How I live and care for myself is directly reflected in how my body feels. I agree Sandra, the ‘Our Cycles app’ is a true blessing and an absolutely awesome support to our everyday livingness. It makes me stop (something I do find challenging) and be responsible for all my choices and to feel the effect of those choices in my body. It supports me to be responsible and reveal my unsupportive patterns, behaviours and beliefs so I can lay the foundations to change them. Most of all, it inspires me to observe and feel the many wonderful revelations and experiences that happen every day. Experiences that you may not truly appreciate and can easily miss when you are caught in the frantic pace of modern life. Thankyou Sandra for sharing such a lovely article.
I agree Suse – keeping a diary of our cycle every day really does allow us to appreciate more what happens in our every day that truly is amazing. I was introduced to keeping a journal every day through Esoteric Women’s Health and this has been a beautiful way for me to observe all that goes on in my life. It has allowed me to get to know my body more, take further responsibility for the choices I am making and ultimately have more love in my life. What more could you want?
I always used to keep a diary, and mark my period in it, just the days that I bleed though and mainly because my periods are quite irregular. I now keep a diary through out the whole of my cycle to bring more awareness about various symptoms that I experience before, during and after it. It is especially helpful at the moment to address the moods and reactions that come up before I bleed as I get overwhelmed by the tension that I feel around this time. The awareness helps me to prepare and remind me that I can actually be more gentle and understanding with myself and take more care around this time. I’m starting to get to know my body a lot more by looking at my whole cycle and not just the days I have my period. I can feel there is a lot more to discover…
Thank you Sandra for your lovingly clear and inclusive introduction to the Our Cycles app which offers everyone the opportunity to be more in tune with their bodies.
The Our Cycles app is beautiful to use, I love the colours and artwork and ease with which you can navigate round all the different functions. And I especially like that the emphasis isn’t around getting pregnant or not but about supporting more self-awareness.
A great introduction
Our Cycles App is sooo supportive in deepening my connection with myself. Best £2.49 I ever spent.
Thank you Sandra, I am finding your blog really helpfull as I have recently bought an ipad and have downloaded Our Cycles App. Your clear introduction to this app has been really benificial to me.
Sandra, thank you for this article. I have downloaded the ‘Our Cycles’ app and am enjoying the time I spend reflecting on my day and using the daily notes section to record what is going on. My daughter has it, my husband has it and I have been showing it to friends. It is a joy to be deepening the connection to myself as I get more of a sense of what is going on within my natural rhythm over the course of a month.
That’s awesome sallyscott2012, your whole family is on it, I like that! The OurCycles app is not just for women, it’s for men too as the cycles of the moon affects everyone, whether they have periods or not.
I also have kept track of how I am in my month and I am really looking forward to when this app is made available for android phones.
Thank you Sandra for noting the Our Cycles App introduction so clearly.
An awesomely informative ‘introduction’ to this beautiful app – not just as a piece of ‘technology’, but all the depth that tracking our cycles can truly bring to us. Thank you Sandra.