Honouring our cycles in a culture that doesn't

As we progress through our menopause tapping I’m finding myself more and more uncomfortable with the ways in which we are expected, at this time of huge transition and upheaval, to continue to fit in with society’s requirements.

If we had the space and permission to meet our own needs, how much of our menopausal transition would actually be a problem? How much of the physical pain, the difficulty of our experiences would ease off if we were able to rest?

Our video theme this week is all about the long heavy periods that some of us experience during peri-menopause and managing the stress we face when we’re expected to carry on as normal despite them. But what if we didn’t have to carry on as normal, ignoring our bodies and trying to perform like robots? If we could rest at home and manage our activities in accordance with our energy levels, honouring the needs of our bodies, how would that feel?

At this time in my life the course of each day varies dramatically. Some days involve travelling 50 miles to spend all day working with a group, others involve staying indoors writing at my laptop, perhaps punctuated with a walk to the beach. Although I would love to say that I’ve started factoring my cycle in when I make plans, I sometimes forget, sometimes can’t and sometimes choose not to (if there’s an event I really want to be part of at a time that’s not ideal in my cycle for example).

This means I’m able to notice the difference between having a period at home and having one when I’m out being social. Predicatably, when I’m at home and have a plan for the day that’s flexible, my period isn’t problematic, when I’m out and about it often is, both in terms of the inconvenience of managing it on a practical level and the impact it has on my energy levels. I just want to take a moment to unpick what I mean by ‘not problematic’ because in our society it could unfortunately be taken to mean ‘not stopping me from working’ or ‘something I can ignore’. Even at home my period does still considerably reduce the amount I get done in a day and to my mind that is because it’s supposed to. I could drug myself and push on but I am a cyclical being, my body evolved to have some down time each month just like half of the population. I also evolved to have some down time each day and each year, just like every other human.

We do ourselves, each other and, yes even our work a massive disservice when we fail to honour these natural cycles because what I often find when I do honour them is that these seemingly unproductive periods contain all the wisdom, all the insight, inspiration, creativity and fuel for the rest of our month. In ignoring and denying what’s needed at these times, we deprive ourselves of what we need next.

Bringing this wisdom to menopause, the same applies but on a much bigger scale, we need to rest. Approaches like tapping, managing our nutrition and our stress levels and so on can have a huge and life changing impact and the changes we can make for ourselves will only ever be half of the story. Most of us don’t have the luxury of just not going to work when we have our period or when we need to hibernate in winter. The shift that’s needed on a cultural level is so huge it feels beyond imagining for me, what would life be like if we all honoured our cycles, our bodies and our energy levels? If workplaces factored these times in to their rotas and schedules? I have no idea, but I feel the time has come to find out! The more we have these conversations the more we discover opportunities to move towards a new way of being so let’s keep talking about it!

Find this week's tapping at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e99WF5srpDY&t=238s

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