THE FOUR SEASONS OF YOUR MENSTRUAL CYCLE: FINDING YOUR UNIQUE RHYTHM
By Natalie Meree
You are four different women through every single menstrual cycle. What you see, how you perceive what’s around you, what you desire, and how you can show up for your work, family and community all change at least four times every single cycle.
Why? Because your hormones shift and change.
And as a feminine, cyclic being, you follow a cocktail of hormones that shift and move throughout each of your menstrual cycles. We call this the four seasons of your menstrual cycle.
What I desire for you is to see this as your power, rather than something you have to suppress. So let me explain the power of the four seasons of your menstrual cycle.
WINTER
Your inner Winter is the time in your cycle when you are bleeding. This, just like outer Winter, is a time to slow down and come back inward to restore. During this time you need to move slower, have more quiet in your life, bring in warmth and comfort through your food and what you wear and where you spend your time. Menstruation is the gift of release and restoration that your body gives you every 28 days or so.
SPRING
Your inner Spring is the time after you finish bleeding until ovulation. Your inner Spring is the essence of maiden energy; creativity, risk-taking, adventure, playfulness. As you come out of the rest space in your bleed you may want to get things done and the gift of your inner Spring is that you are able to handle and execute all the things you have put down while you rested when you bled.
SUMMER
Your inner Summer sets in after ovulation and is called the giving time. You want to connect. You want to give to your family, community and enhance relationships. You are in full bloom, so your confidence in your body and your abilities is at its highest. Your desire for connection is the gift to allow you to deepen relationships and share ideas and projects you have been working on with the confidence in what you have created.
AUTUMN
Your inner Autumn is the week before you bleed and can often be the hardest time for a woman in her cycle. This is the beginning of moving into the inward part of your cycle, and your body gifts you with the preparation energy for the slow part of your cycle by moving you into nesting energy at the beginning of your inner Autumn. This is the time when you rearrange the pantry and go crazy washing all the linen. You are preparing your home for rest.
The second part of your inner Autumn is when the heaviness sets into your body and the slowness really kicks in. This is a time when you need more space to yourself and not having that is the reason this time in your cycle can be hard. Creating space for yourself to move in quiet and slowness, even if it is for a small amount of time each day, is a beautiful way to bring in honouring of self during your menstrual cycle.
how to find your unique rhythm
Each cycle is unique to every woman. How you move through your cycle and experience each of these seasons is different to how I move through my cycle. I call it your Unique Rhythm. And your true power lies in understanding your Unique Rhythm and bringing this understanding into how you plan and experience your days.
To find your Unique Rhythm ask yourself
What was I drawn to today?
What didn’t I want to do today?
What were my needs today?
How do I feel in my physical body today?
Start from Day 1 in your cycle: the first day of your bleed. Ask yourself these questions every day until your next bleed. Do this again for the next two full menstrual cycles. Then go through the journalling you have done and analyse the data you collected.
What was the same on each day of your cycle?
For example, on Day 24 of your cycle for each of the three cycles you might have written down that your need was to be alone. So your Unique Rhythm is that on Day 24 you need more space to be alone.
You can then bring this into your everyday life planning (cycle planning changes everything!) and plan for someone else to have the kids or plan to work from home on Day 24 of your next cycle so you have more space to be alone.
Understanding how you flow through every day of your cycle allows you to create a life where your hormonal, cyclic needs align with how you plan out your days and also how you fortify yourself to show up in your days.
When you bring in the understanding that you flow through four different seasons every menstrual cycle, and you understand that this isn’t a weakness, and that your Unique Rhythm gives you everything you need to achieve and succeed from a place of honouring you first, you unlock a life of alignment and ease.
THE WOMAN BEHIND THE WORDS
Natalie Meree is the founder of Untamed Me, a passionate advocate for women's cycle awareness. Through her journey, she empowers women to connect with their unique rhythms and embrace their inner strength. Connect with her @untamedme_.
MUSE PAPER
ISSUE 06