Cycle Charting
Whether your cycle is regular or not, whether you love it or it brings you frustration or discomfort, and even whether you bleed or not, cycle charting is a beautiful practice for you to use to explore the ebb and flow of womanhood. Here are some points to guide you:
Record which day of the cycle you’re on. (If you bleed, Day 1 is the first day of bleeding; this doesn’t include the spotting that can occur for some women before the full flow begins. If you don’t bleed, you can make Day 1 each full moon.)
You can add the date, day, and moon phases (full and new moons), or other cycle-rhythms you may have like yoni steaming or nourishing yourself in specific ways.
At the end of each day of your cycle, record on your chart your dominant feelings, dreams, energy levels, libido, insights, and so on.
Don’t worry if you forget the odd day. Just pick it up again and keep going.
Download a chart here! (Made by Cycle Coach Claire Baker.)
Inner Seasons
One of my fave things about charting is that it grounds us in what the divas at Red School have coined the “inner seasons”:
Winter: Menstruation, your bleeding time; hormone levels are low; a time for rest (see more below)
Spring: Pre-ovulation; estrogen starts to rise ahead of ovulation; you might feel more energized
Summer: Ovulation and post-ovulation; estrogen and testosterone peak and progesterone starts rising; you might feel full of life!
Fall: Pre-menstrual; you might feel “the void” as all hormones start to drop.
The chart linked above overlays the inner seasons on the cycle. What do you notice about how you feel at each inner season? Does it correspond with the seasons?
Re-claiming Rest
To re-claim REST at the beginning of each menstrual cycle, are here some tips:
awareness: cycle chart to forecast your inner winter season;
practice: work up to taking the day off by taking advantage of when Days 1-3 fall on naturally less busy times, like weekends;
assessment: use cycle charting to see how rest at the start of your cycle affects how you feel during your inner spring/summer;
stack: small acts count too; make yourself tea and grab the heating pad - and then add more each cycle.
Why rest? Rest in the first few days of your cycle honours the work your body is doing to bleed and re-charges you to fully enjoy the energy-filled time of your inner spring and summer seasons.
I truly believe we could start a revolution if we supported ourselves and each other (including our daughters!) to take back the cycles and rhythms we need as women. Everyone would benefit because we’d be much more happy, healthy, and horny ❤️