Moon time. 🌝🌓🌚

Menstrual cycle.

Periods. That time of the month. Whatever you want to call it, us females have it!

It is thought that our periods go with the ebbs and flow of the lunar cycle, because the lunar cycle is 29.5 days, which coincides with the average length of a woman’s cycle. Pretty magic huh. 

This is just another reminder of the whole concept of Ayurveda, and how we should work alongside nature, as we are very much a part of it!

First of all, for women that don’t have a regular cycle, I highly recommend reading the book ’Woman Code’, by Alisa Vitti- it helped me massively when I was without a period for four years and my hormones were all over the place.  I blame taking the pill and other hormonal methods of contraception, as well as running too much (over exercising can put too much stress on the body to produce the regularity of hormones it needs to complete a cycle).

It’s taken a while to get back into balance, but thankfully I am now a healthy body, and each time my period comes I totally embrace it and actually really enjoy it.  Can I say that? Well I just did. 

It makes me feel womanly and in control of my body, after feeling a little out of control for quite some time. 

I hope for people struggling with getting their period back that they find out what works for them, but I recommend that book to all the women in my life because it is such a fantastic resource.

It educates you on the four stages of your cycle (menstruation, follicular, luteal & ovulation) and gives you recommendations on what you should be doing, eating, drinking, exercising and even how your mind works during each phase.  It feels silly to think that I didn’t know this before, but a lot of us are out of touch with how our bodies actually work.

It’s a total bible and I wish we were taught about this in more detail at school, because it’s just so vital. 

I feel like when we were younger we were conditioned to think our periods were a nuisance, weren’t taught a lot about periods in general, just what to do when you got them and dear god don’t get pregnant. And doctors would give you the pill for period pains and see you on your way.  

I knew loads of women who would keep taking the pill just so that they didn’t have a period for a certain number of weeks because it was an inconvenience.  Why did we think that this was an acceptable thing to put our bodies through, when having a period is the most natural, essential process our bodies go through?

I think more people are becoming aware of how putting synthetic hormones in your body disrupts the natural flow of everything going on inside. I’ve been hormone free for four years now and will never go back.

Back to the post though; I wanted to go into more detail on how a woman’s period is seen in Ayurveda. 

In India, for centuries long, women take their period as a time of rest and recuperation. 

In Ayurveda, the recommendations prescribed for a woman menstruating in India are similar to that of someone with an injury; to assist with fast healing of a wound (because of the uterus shedding blood.) 

They are advised to eat light, avoid intercourse, avoid sleeping during the day and avoid physical activities. 

They are alleviated of all daily duties, work, cooking and looking after the children; and are encouraged to sleep, eat, and just focus on rest! What a dream. 

I’m pretty sure it’s still the same for the villages and smaller towns in India, but with the Modern age and Western influence on society, this isn’t the case everywhere you go; and in the bigger cities women carry on with working and their day to day lives as per…But I’m pretty sure they’re a bit more connected to their health and lifestyle during this time, than we are over here! 

This shows just how important rest really is for a woman during her menstruation.  Our bodies are going through a lot at this time, and it’s a time of cleansing. 

As a society, we are all go go go, and put pressure on ourselves to continue to do everything the same, even when our situation and state of health has changed.  We seem to measure our success by how busy we are.

I think us folk over in the Western world forget about that and most likely aren’t even taught that we should slow down the pace during this time. But we absolutely should and need to! 

We can actually look at the various symptoms a woman might go through when on her period and see how Ayurveda and the Doshas fit in with that.

Once you know what symptoms you're going through, you can work out what Dosha it's related to and how to counteract what's going on inside.

This has helped me SO much since studying Ayurveda, in fact this is probably the biggest thing I learnt for myself when studying in India, which I am forever grateful for, and now my periods are pretty darn cushy! Symptoms only rear their ugly heads in when I'm not looking after myself like I should be, but I know exactly what I need to do to alleviate them. Once you have the tools, you know what to do!

In Ayurveda, normal menstruation occurs when all three Doshas are in balance with one another.

An imbalance with any one, will cause abnormal menstruation.  Periods should not be painful, no burning sensations, dull aches, acne or mood swings- any of those fun things that some people experience, shouldn't occur if you are in balance. 

I suffered with the worst acne, body over-heating and sharp, burning period pains for a while when I did get my period back, as well as water retention- and that’s because my Pitta was totally out of balance as well as Kapha at times, and I wasn’t helping myself with my diet and lifestyle. Oh how I have learnt! Acne no more!

So, different symptoms mean different imbalances:

Typical Vata imbalances: 

Anxiety

Nervousness

Fear

Mood swings

Feeling “spaced out”

Spasmodic pain (often in lower back or abdomen) 

Stiffness

Because Vata is dry, fast and unstable, you need to counteract the imbalances by doing the opposite.

So for any of those Vata symptoms during your period, you need to create heaviness, warmth and stability to balance it. 

Eat dense, warm, earthy foods such as root vegetables in a hearty stew or soup.  Slow down your pace and bring calmness into your life.

Do some gentle yoga and breathing exercises.  Grounding spices, food and activities. 

Typical Pitta imbalances:

Anger

Irritation

Increased body temperature

Burning sensation

Headaches

Tender breasts

Acne

Nausea 

Diarreah 

Because Pitta is hot, oily and sharp; you need to counteract all these symptoms with the opposite. 

Stick to cooling and soft qualities to cool down the fire.

Eat cooling foods, surround yourself with calm, don’t get into heated debates! Oily spicy foods will irritate (hello where I was going wrong for so long!).  Gentle yoga and breathing to keep the body calm and mindful.

Typical Kapha imbalances: 

Lethargy

Swelling

Water retention

Bloating

Depression

Emotional eating 

Because Kapha is wet, heavy and slow, you need to do the opposite of those things to get back into balance.

Kapha is all about eating light, hot, stimulating foods to fire up the agni. Get that black pepper, ginger and spices in all the things you eat and even drink!

A little movement will be good for you, it's important to stay active and energised.

Wake up early, don’t sleep in the day. 

You need to stimulate yourself. Yoga and walking. 

I hope this post helps any of my ladies out there that go through weird symptoms every time their period comes around.  It really doesn't need to be this way, it's not normal to go through these symptoms and there is an answer!

The menstrual cycle is a gift that is unique to us females, and should totally be viewed as this, instead of as an inconvenience!

It is very telling of how our bodies are working inside and our general health… I won’t go into the real nitty gritty, but even physically looking at your flow you can determine what’s going on and if you’re in balance or not…. But I’ll let you guys work that out for yourself!

Basically, stay hydrated, do yoga, eat light and well, slow down & REST.

For someone that likes to be doing ALL the things, running 10k's and has an extreme love of spicy food, this is even a reminder to myself that I need to practice what I preach! And I have been successfully for a year now 😊 But I constantly have to remind myself.

Ayurveda is a constant balancing act- we learn as we go, we change, the world around us changes, and we will always constantly be reassessing what works and what doesn't in the state of wellness that we are in right now. 

Ayurveda reminds us to live in the present, because we were not the same as we were before and we won't know what we're going to be like in the future- all we have is now! 

Health & love & happy periods to all! 

Ali xx