When I had my first shamanic reiki session with Mariola at Awakening in Greenpoint in Jan 2018, a session that changed my life, one of the things she told me was that I needed to connect more with my feminine energy.
I didn’t even know what that meant at the time.
When my therapist asked what I thought it was, I thought, “well feminine is light and flowery and weak… and masculine is strong and powerful.” And I realized how silly that sounded and how actually, I didn’t even know. I was saying what I was conditioned to think and believe.
Part of the awakening journey is to discover what those energies mean and connecting more and more to their meanings. For me personally the journey has been connecting to the feminine energy within me, because as a society guess what: WE’RE LIVING IN A VERY MASCULINE WORLD. I was even a tomboy when I was a kid!
Honoring the cyclical nature of the feminine energy within me
I’ve mentioned before that I’m no longer a fan of the 9-5 hamster wheel of life, and hopping off two years ago (Jan 2020 I went to Costa Rica for a year) was the best thing I could have done for myself. Now I actually have time to B-R-E-A-T-H-E, think for myself, and create new pathways that are unique to ME and MY gifts and MY purpose, rather than what society has made me believe it was supposed to be, where I just do do do for the sake of capitalism and society as we knew it. I speak more about what I mean further down in this post.
Now I have time to honor and respect my menstrual cycle.
In the last couple of months especially, I’ve been learning and experimenting in really connecting with my feminine cycle. A month ago, I led a workshop called “Eating for Energy” two days before my period came. [In PachaMama, we called our period our ‘Moon’.] What I realized during that workshop, is that I had 0 energy to lead that workshop at that time and I told myself I will never do this again and really honor my cycle from now on. I will only create and lead workshops before and after that time of the month. While it may occur perhaps as limiting, honoring myself and my cycle actually will be more efficient and productive because there’s a time to be inspired, brainstorm and birth new ideas, there’s a time to do the work and take action, and there’s a time for introspection and a time of rest.
Going against your cycle, is like going against the flow and swimming against the current. Can you imagine what your life would be like living in FLOW?!
I remember hearing this The Highest Self podcast episode years ago about connecting to the female menstrual cycle, which is, in essence, the same as a MOON cycle, and it always stayed with me. Years later, now, I’m finally reading Alisa Vitti’s book WomanCode: Perfect Your Cycle, Amplify Your Fertility, Supercharge Your Sex Drive, and Become a Power Source which talks about how living in flow with your cycle can literally change your life and give the woman the power she carries inside herself, while also healing from issues that can come from hormonal imbalances or female womb challenges (like PCOS & fertility).
Did you know that more and more women are having fertility issues these days than EVER BEFORE? (Hint: Take a look at what you’re eating and your lifestyle.)
Click here to check out the podcast I listened to:
"I was never looking for the menstrual cycle to be the holy grail of my life. I came at this strictly from the standpoint of needing to heal myself physically. But what I found from honoring the four phases of my cycle, and what I see in the women I work with every day who learn these same skills, is that doing so gives a woman access to so much more than a healthier, more fertile, more energetic body. Women who partner with their hormones live more efficiently and strategically. These women end up becoming the fullest expression of themselves and live as leaders and change-agents in their own lives and communities." - Alissa Vitti, WomanCode
And from Alissa Vitt’s website:
“One of my most significant discoveries was that you and your body have cyclical needs. They shift as your hormones shift in your regular cycle. And they shift as you move from your teens to your twenties to your thirties and forties and beyond.
For you to live at your most vibrant level at any stage, you have to feed yourself the things that nurture and protect what makes you uniquely female — your hormones. Everything that’s inside allows you to manifest outside. You can’t be fully who you are until you’re fully embodied.”
The world operates in cyclical nature
We have Winter, then comes Spring, then Summer, then Fall. The flowers bloom, the leaves grow, then they fall and then we have snow. We are born, and then we die. The sun rises, the sun sets, the moon rises, the moon sets. When it is full moon, the ocean is activated, waves get activated, there's a lot more water at the shore. The moon shines on the earth and this is naturally when things are most active in the world because the moon is shining in the night. Emotions are on the rise, there is more violence happening. I tend to have ALOT more energy around the full moon to the point where sometimes my sleep is affected.
And with the New moon, the sky is dark. It’s a time for introspection. To retreat into our homes, into ourselves, and reflect on all that’s happened. Set new intentions. The ocean is calmer. It’s a time to go inward. I am in this state right now and this article of introspection is pouring itself out of me.
In ancient traditions, the moon has been associated with fertility and female energy, so maybe it’s unsurprising that the menstrual cycle has also been linked to the lunar phases.
Just imagine what it was like before the lightbulb was invented, before artificial light and the computer screens and TV screens threw us out of sync with the natural rhythm of earth… all of these things affect us. Humans were MUCH more connected and in tune before all of our technological advances started pulling us further and further away from nature, from mother earth, from the same place we come from.
“Remember why you came here,
Remember your life is sacred”
— Peia from the song Blessed We Are
The Masculine imbalance of the world and how I started to listen to my body.
When I used to work 9-5 as a graphic designer I was so in the matrix I really did love what I did for the most part because it was creative and I loved problem-solving and that's exactly what I still like to do — just not for capitalism or for projects I don't believe in or in toxic work environments and dynamics — and in the end it was doing work for others’ businesses and ideas AND the whole time I had dreams to create my own business and always felt like I had a bigger purpose in the world. (BTW I had SO much anxiety in some jobs.)
Working day in and day out, week after week, month after month, it’s a masculine energy always DOING, a ‘GO GO GO DO DO DO energy state’. Feminine energy is more of a ‘go with the flow creative state’. You need both. Ideally, they are both balanced! Life is all about balance.
Here are some words that describe both energies that you can take in a bit:
Masculine Energy: Fire, Action, Strong, Protective, Building, Fixing, Direction, Competitive, Fast, Logical, Independent, Analytical, Clarity, Focus, Righteousness, Linear, Left-brained
Feminine Energy: Water, Creative, Inspiring, Beauty, Nurturing, Soft, Intuitive, Receptive, Fluid, Stormy, Emotional, Passionate, Compassion, Empathy, Truth, Non-linear, Right-brained
Read more about the two energies here.
My challenge with the 9-5 system for women as it currently stands, is that you are required to work like a man and completely ignore our feminine cycle. I remember I ignored my body so much that on days when I had my period, I’d drink a ton of coffee, work my ass off as normal AND then even go and bust a sweat at a vinyasa class at Laughing Lotus after work. I didn’t know at the time, that the time was just before your period and during is a time TO REST AND GO INWARD. No wonder my Thyroid took a toll. I am feeling this so much these last 2 months especially as I have put even more focus on syncing than ever before. This is why I’m reflecting on this now so much and having a desire to speak up about it.
I don’t have kids, but how also inconsiderate for new mothers to go straight back to work rather than honoring their time with the kids. And then juggling work and kids. Yikes. The system we were born into does not respect the natural order of life.
Not to mention there’s a lot of taboo talking about the women’s cycle. We shame it. We hide it with pills and IUDs even. When I got the IUD back in the day, I was excited about the possibility of not having my period. What a pain in the butt! Can you relate?
My moon cycle shifted when I moved to Costa Rica from NYC
Wanna hear something wild? When I was in NYC and first started to think about my cycle, I realized I was getting my period on the Full Moon. Typically, most women get it around the new moon. They say there are different meanings around which time you are synced with the moon (naturally).
This blog post talks a bit about the Red Moon and White Moon cycle. I also love what she says here:
“In ancient times, a woman’s cycle was honored and celebrated, while her bleeding phase was ritualized. Women of all ages came together in sacred circles and moon lodges. Getting your moon (period) was seen as a beautiful gift.”
“Bleeding would be a time for resting, journeying inwards, and tuning in to your intuition. Letting go of anything that didn’t serve you, resetting, and starting anew.
But the Patriarchy felt threatened by the power and magic that these women held within, which only magnified when they came together. So what was once seen as beautiful and pure became stigmatized and seen as taboo.
Women around the world today see their period as a hassle, a burden, and sometimes even a curse. Our sacred cycle has been belittled to no more than a means to reproduce.
But I can feel the energy beginning to shift. She is rising. We’re starting to fully awaken to the fierce power of our body and reclaim the magic of our moon.”
Anyways, when I moved to Costa Rica in January 2020, my period went from Full Moon to New Moon! I took it as a sign of healing… that it’s really good for me to be in nature. Because when I came back to NYC a year later, guess what? My period shifted back to Full Moon. And then guess what? Eight months later, when I left NYC and went to live in the Catskills in New York — back to nature — my period shifted back to the New Moon.
Magic happens when you pay attention to your cycle. Women have a lot of power connecting with the womb and our sacral energy and honestly, I am still at the beginning of this journey. But it’s noticeable. Very noticeable as I bring more and more awareness to it, rather than ignoring it and suppressing it like I used to.
My thoughts on the Pill and IUDs.
Look, everyone has their reasons for using contraceptives. I sure as hell tried many of them. And I even smoked the whole time, knowing I could get blood clots. (Can you believe I smoked for 20 years?!) The last contraceptive I tried was an IUD and prior to Costa Rica, I couldn’t wait to get it out. So I did. I always felt better when I was not on anything.
The hormonal contraceptives are disconnecting us from our femininity. From our power. If you’re taking the pill to suppress your PMS symptoms, etc…. well, you’re just suppressing your symptoms with it, but you’re not getting to the root cause. As a health coach, I want you to know that our bodies are trying to speak to us with all of their signals. What is your body trying to tell you? What’s your lifestyle like? What are you eating? Are you nourishing your body? Are you eating things that maybe your body doesn’t like? Are you drinking too much alcohol?
From the book WomenCode:
“
The Truth About Birth Control
Today, about twelve million U.S. women use oral contraception, commonly known as the Pill. For the right woman (someone without any hormonal disturbances), who’s using it for the right reason (to prevent pregnancy), the Pill can be a wonderful thing. The problem is that so many women today use hormonal contraception for the wrong reason: to mask the symptoms of an underlying hormonal issue. According to a 2011 study by the Guttmacher Institute, based on U.S. government data from the National Survey of Family Growth, 58 percent of women use hormonal birth control for purposes other than preventing pregnancy. Of those:
• 31 percent use it to reduce menstrual cramps or pain
• 28 percent use it to prevent migraines and other painful “side effects” of menstruation
• 14 percent use it to treat acne
• 4 percent use it to treat endometriosis
The catch? Birth control doesn’t actually cure any of these conditions. It simply alters hormone levels to diminish or eliminate the symptoms; the underlying hormonal problem persists. While on the Pill, you may very well be able to go about your life without having any of these symptoms crop up again. However, if you decide to become pregnant and go off the Pill, you may find that getting pregnant isn’t as easy as you thought it would be. That’s because the underlying hormonal issue whose symptoms the Pill was prescribed to mask—an issue that may have been there for well over a decade, since you first went on the Pill—has never been addressed, and it’s going to impede your ability to conceive. The longer a hormonal problem exists, the more complicated it is to treat. So now, having gone off the Pill, not only do you have to direct your energy toward healing the issue, but it may take longer to do so than had you addressed the real problem originally….”
“
You can read more in her book WomenCode.
I really recommend checking out the book! In the meantime, I created a little cheat sheet from her book regarding the cycles and how to connect to them. For myself and I’m sharing it with you. You’re welcome :)
If you don’t have your period, she recommends connecting with the cycle of the moon to start. And eventually you’ll get yourself more in sync with the natural rhythm.
Do let me know if you found this article helpful or how it goes once you start syncing with your cycle!.
Just start noticing your cycle and connecting with it. Honor it. Respect it.
<3
Masha