It’s the last week of school. Our schedule is FULL – end of year activities, 5th grade graduation, parties, sports, middle school prep, and everything else in life. It feels a bit like crawling to the finish line!
I probably won’t get a lot of work done this week. This would have frustrated me in the past, but now I see my life differently. As a woman, as a mom, I understand my life doesn’t follow a linear path. And I understand trying to make it so requires a lot of stressful, restrictive energy I’m no longer willing to expend.
I now understand that being hormonally female means being more rhythmic than the way our culture is designed. Our society, medicine and work world are largely reflective of the needs of the hormonally male body, which is more linear.
The hormonally female body has 4 foundational rhythms in which the energetics of our body, our nervous system, and our hormones move through cycles:
- Our daily rhythms
- Our monthly rhythms (menstrual)
- Our seasonal rhythms
- Our phase of life (menarche, fertile years, menopause)
Female health requires orientation. We have to understand where we’re at in life, the dominant energetics of our body during that time, and how to support ourselves.
I’m writing this at 10:30am, during the kapha hours of the morning. This is when I do my best mental work because I have the stamina of the water/earth elements (kapha). If I tried to sit down to write this at 3pm, it would take me much longer and I wouldn’t be as mentally grounded.
I’m in the luteal (pitta) phase of my cycle. I have a lot of mental clarity. I also have to be mindful of overexertion since I understand my nervous system won’t rebound from stress as easily as I would in the follicular or ovulatory phases. I’m feeling more introverted. I need a little more rest or my nervous system may go into high alert. That may come out as frustration, anger or anxiety.
It’s spring (kapha season). As someone whose tendency is to be more pitta/vata imbalanced, I always feel great this time of year, with the stamina and grounding of kapha (water/earth element). Vata season (late fall/early winter) is when more of my imbalances tend to kick up so I need extra care then.
At 49, I’m also in perimenopause. My operating system is quite literally changing! I believe it’s an upleveling. But I have to go through the portal first. During this transition, I understand I can’t buffer stress in the same way I did before. And as bonding hormones like estrogen naturally decrease, I have to stay mindful of how my previous focus on tending to others is naturally changing.
Why is this so important? Because when we believe life should be linear and we don’t know how to stay embodied through these rhythms, we end up comparing ourselves to the linear design. We believe our value is rooted in “productivity”. We can easily fall into shame and chronically override our natural rhythms. And that creates stress. And chronic stress is the root of so many of the issues modern women face. It’s a vicious cycle.
So where do you start? I’m working on a new self-guided course called The Feminine Code: Hormones, The Nervous System & Your Female Body Rhythms, I’ll teach you a simple system for understanding your female body rhythms and how tend to yourself, so you can live on Source energy rather than stress energy.
In the meantime, if you haven’t already, you can download some free resources:
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.
Much love,
Courtney