I’ve received an array of messages and emails this week, some more panicked than others, regarding menstrual health. Many of my current hands-on clients are on herbal regimens for womb, hormonal or vaginal health. Suddenly, and seemingly out of nowhere, almost everyone is reporting longer cycles, pelvic pain, flare-ups, PMS... and asking what's wrong with my herbs? or worse: what's wrong with me? This is a perfect example of getting caught in linear thinking, or as I like to call it, "one way, and that's the highway" thinking. This kind of analysis attempts to break our female systems down in a mechanical, linear, "masculine" way. And if there were ever a time to step outside of that thinking, a time of global chaos is certainly it. Let's take this opportunity to reframe our perspectives in these circumstances.
Currently, all over the earth, chaos is doing its best work. Yet we're still responding in a linear or "masculine" fashion, as is our global custom: rationalize, mechanize, simplify. We refer to the cause as a mechanism: a virus, which works by XYZ principles. We take to stringent guidelines and operations, putting ourselves in a restricted social state. It makes sense that this is a course of action we respond to in panic mode (the masculine responds to threat, after all).
I want to remind you that, in our ancient past, rituals celebrating chaos were as important to wartime as war itself. Therefore I invite you to see your menstrual symptoms as a reflection of your mind and body's response to the state of the world: the state of chaos.
This is the moment to ask yourself: is your current experience the culmination of linear-thinking, or are you in a state of Allowing to be able to ride the wave of chaos?
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Female bodies are made to thrive in community. When in close proximity for an extended period of time we cycle together. We raise children together. We are built to support our small communities as healers and gatherers. When we menstruate we release the grievances of the world, emotionally and physically. Our wombs are meant for three actions: create, hold, and release. I mentioned in a post earlier this week that our bodies have never had the opportunity to adjust to the ways of the world as it is today. In a very short period of time we’ve gone from holding the grievances of small communities to responsibility to hold said grievances on a global scale. This is where we find ourselves dysregulated. And if you’re feeling it emotionally, you’d better believe you’ll feel it physically, sooner or later.
The beautiful thing about all this forced downtime is that we now have time to ask ourselves how we’re experiencing our bodies. Are your herbal formulas or exercise regimens suddenly not working, or is the weight of the world suddenly much heavier than the capacity of its container?
Feel your reaction to the each of these individual words: chaos… swirling… death… birth… creative… inconsistent… sudden…. crash… playful... erratic… new… This is the essence of the feminine. This is what’s being offered us. Let’s not shy away from it because it’s uncomfortable. Take this moment to embrace the unknown and fully be in chaos. Your female body will thank you for it.
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Grief Movement & Pelvic Grounding Workshop
Join me this Saturday, April 4th @ 10:00 AM Pacific Time for a FREE one hour online workshop!
We'll start with a discussion on grief and what it means to hold grief in the body, followed by movements to open the channels of the body that hold grief, and end with a deep pelvic floor grounding meditation.
A replay will be available for those who can't make it live.