As far as I’m concerned, the cycling wisdom of nature is the most intelligent being on this planet. We are all a part of it and when we acknowledge, accept and appreciate our own cycling nature, and allow it to inspire and inform our lives, everything falls almost effortlessly into place.
This awareness and respect for our innate cycling nature is a smart choice.
Whether it’s the grand sweep of the seasons, the waxing and waning of the moon, the birth and death cycles of our lives or the intricate rhythms of our hormones, we are built to respond to this cyclical way of being.
There are some old technologies that can help us navigate our lives to this powerful ebb and flow: marking the turning of the light through the solstices and equinoxes, planting by the moon, the birth and death rituals of various cultures around the world…
…but I am here to share a more recent technology, one that is emerging rapidly in the field of conscious human evolution– the brilliant, simple and potent wisdom of Menstrual Cycle Awareness.
I stumbled across the seeds of this practice in 2014 when I was doing a random websearch for local Red Tents and came up with Red School, the gestation hub in the UK for everything Menstruality.
Just a short glimpse into this beautifully crafted practice and I had a language and tools to tether me to this a way of being with myself and a world that I had always known existed but lacked clarity in communicating.
It is infinitely supportive, grounds me in a moment by moment felt sense of myself and keeps me attuned to the intricate cycles of being alive.
I have taken Menstrual Cycle Awareness and woven it into the fabric of my life. It is at the heart of my personal development, it informs how I show up in the world: in relationships and work and it has become the lens that helps me deepen into my understanding and embrace of being alive and human.
Life Cycles
Every human is held within the great sweep of the Cycles of Life. Birth, Puberty, Midlife, Elderhood and eventually Death are the natural arc of every life. Cycle Awareness plugs us into accepting and acknowledging the value of each aspect of our life journey as initiations that give us insight into who we are and what motivates us. It buffers us when we are challenged and gives us the resilience to meet them. It helps us find meaning and purpose even as old identities give rise to the new. It connects us to ourselves, others and the world so that we may live well.
Menstrual Cycles
For women, Menstrual Cycle Awareness is a natural architecture, a language and a daily practice that allows us to tap into these layers of Cyclicity to build an intimate relationship with ourselves as we move through our menstrual years. Whether we like it or not, there is an intimate relationship between our hormones and the way we choose to live our lives. Menstruality gives us a platform, a map, a reference point to meet the real time dance between our biological chemistry and the way we create ourselves and our lives.
The journey into all things Cyclical continues. This time though, I journey alongside many great elders who have shaped a path to follow and my sisters who have also chosen this natural, wild, empowered way to inform their lives.
Leaning into the wisdom of my cycling nature and the cycling nature of everything has bought me a moment by moment, visceral sense of peace.
It is this serenity that I wish for you and all the world.