🌸 What Are Your 4 Words?

by | Jun 24, 2025 | Ayurveda & Motherhood, Ayurveda & Women's Health, Ayurveda + Menopause, Ayurveda + Menstruation, Ayurveda + Postpartum, Ayurveda + Pregnancy, Ayurveda and Personal Growth, Circadian Rhythms, Cycle Syncing, Seasonal Diet, Treating Common Health Issues with Ayurveda

Are you ready for a quick word association? I’ll give you 4 words/phrases. Write down the very first word that comes to mind for each. Don’t overthink it. Be honest!

Ready? 

  1. Teenage girl going through puberty
  2. Your period
  3. Childbirth & postpartum
  4. Menopause

Got your words? (Feel free to email them to me!)

I posted this on social media yesterday and these are some of the responses I got:

🌸Teenage girl going through puberty

  • Scary
  • Middle School
  • Teenage pregnancy
  • Self-harm
  • Hormones
  • Unsupported

🌸 Your period

  • Meh
  • Pain
  • Maxi-pad
  • Unsupported

🌸Childbirth & postpartum

  • Ugh
  • Scary
  • Painful and hell
  • Depression
  • Unprepared
  • Unsupported

🌸Menopause

  • Hormones
  • Old
  • Scary
  • Heaven
  • Unsupported

These collective negative beliefs about our female physiology didn’t surprise me. I don’t share these to judge at all. The truth is, women are struggling and suffering. And we need to be able to hold that reality, while also recognizing the reason for it is not because our bodies are inherently broken. 

The female body is rhythmic but our culture and medicine are largely designed around the needs of the hormonally male. That creates a lot of collective stress, disease, self-judgment, and even self-hatred in women. When one body is the norm, the one struggling to conform to that will feel that pathology and will be pathologized if we don’t understand the power of its design and how to attend to our needs.

In traditional medicine we look at root cause. One of the root causes of female suffering is because we have forgotten how to tend to these rhythms – our circadian, menstrual, seasonal and life phases. We have forgotten that menarche, menstruation, childbirth, postpartum and menopause are actually portals that connect us to our vitality, power, wisdom and intuition. 

Now, you may feel like your period IS a portal, but more like the portal to hell! Or your perimenopause is making you feel old and weak. 

And I would encourage you to imagine that there’s wisdom available to you to teach you how to move through these in a different way. And that your body is not actually not broken, and is in fact, very powerful. 

But here’s how healing our body and nervous system works: even if we have been victimized, or we are struggling, or we don’t trust or understand our body, we cannot heal without holding on to some sense of agency. We can’t renegotiate our terrible feelings and experiences unless we find even the tiniest spot of good – in our body or in the world. 

Ayurveda and Somatics can offer us this glimmer of hope, to heal the root cause of your health issues, and help women to feel on a cellular level the kind of world we need to create so we can all thrive. 

If you haven’t downloaded them yet, I’ve created two free resources to help you support your female body rhythms. 

For your monthly rhythms: FLOW: A Menstrual Cycle Healing Guide. This is a great resource if you…

  • Are looking for a holistic mind-body-spirit understanding of your menstrual cycle
  • Are seeking a natural way to manage symptoms and find relief
  • Want to understand your body better, regardless of your birth control choice
  • Want to feel more connected to and empowered in your body
  • Want to align your activities with your cycle to reduce stress and increase energy
  • Want to support and educate the girls, young women, and hormonally female people in your life
  • Are curious about incorporating Ayurvedic and Somatic principles into your menstrual cycle health

For your seasonal rhythms: Seasonal Eating Guide with Shopping Lists. In the guide you’ll get: 

  • An “Intro to Ayurveda” and how to support your health with it
  • What foods to favor each season
  • What foods to reduce or avoid each season
  • Signs of imbalance that tend to arise during each season
  • A detailed shopping list for each season, including veggies, fruits, fats, animal proteins/fats, beans, grains, spices, sweeteners and other supportive foods
  • An understanding of the seasons and their energetics 
  • Why seasonal eating is so important
  • How we support balance in our body and mind through the seasons with the foods we eat

One thing to remember: The Ayurvedic “rules” are there to help you get into rhythm. Once you start to follow a few, you start to feel this rhythm in your body intuitively. 

Don’t forget to send me your 4 words!

Much love, 

CourtneyÂ