8 Practices for Working with Your Menstruating Body
How we think and feel about menstruation is deeply connected to culture and societal patterns and expectations. Our personal cultures, mindsets within our own homes (childhood and adult) and our early life experiences also impact our view of menstruation. In other words, we are each arriving at this topic with different education (or lack thereof) and values around menstruation.
For many humans, menstruation can be a complex experience. There are beliefs and attitudes that are helpful, and others that are harmful. Furthermore, menstruation is not just a physiological experience; for many folks, it’s a whole-person experience that impacts body, mind, and emotions.
BADT is always seeking to demystify and destigmatize conversations about the complexity of the human experience, especially in regards to reproductive and family building experiences.
In this blog and in our Menstrual Education Handouts, we offer community care workers direct and succinct information to share with folks who menstruate. These resources offer birth workers and the families we serve the opportunity to reflect on personal and cultural experiences with bleeding, as well as explore tools for understanding their cycles.
Practices and Reflections for Working with Your Menstruating Body
Below you will find 8 Practices for working with your menstruating body. We’ve also included some reflection questions for folks who bleed to consider as they explore their relationship to menstruation. These are simply ideas for you to consider. Keep what works and throw out the rest!
Track your cycles. This may include tracking emotions, physical symptoms, cravings, energy, and so on. We offer some ideas in our forms, and there are tons of apps out there that you might like to explore, as well as bullet journal ideas. What has been working or not working about the ways you’ve been tracking your cycles currently? What do you need to feel more informed, aware, and supported?
Use affirmations to support and care for yourself. Check out our menstruation forms for some ideas. Consider the words you’d like to hear from a loved one, and say these to yourself. Or perhaps you consider the words you’d offer a friend who is seeking comfort. What words or phrases would feel supportive and comforting during the different parts of your cycle?
Rest and/or go inward when you need/want. Menstruation is a physiological process that requires energy. You may find that you need more time to be quiet and still, restful and cozy. When possible, prioritize these needs and desires. Cancel plans, keep your schedule more open, and make a goal of listening and responding to your body’s needs. What is your relationship to rest? Which forms of rest do you prefer? Which forms of rest do you want to add in or incorporate?
Spend time with loved ones. Prioritize spending time with people who feel supportive, nurturing, and loving. You may find you have less energy for new connections or things in the outside world. Thus, the time with your nearest and dearest may be both necessary and helpful. Who can you be your whole self with? Who can you gain energy, comfort, or support from?
Eat nourishing foods. Many people find that more easily digestible foods, such as soups and other cooked foods, feel a little gentler on the body during menstruation. That said, you are the expert of your body, so eat what sounds and feels good to YOU. When possible, respond by feeding yourself the things you crave. Which foods sound and/or feel good to you when you are bleeding?
Create! At BADT we are big fans of finding ways to express yourself and feel like your whole self, and there are no right or wrong ways to do this. Because menstruation often invites us to slow down, some folks may feel called to process through creative expressions like writing, art, crafts, puzzles, and so on. What are the ways you feel called to express, process, or release? How does expression or creation support your cycle health?
Allow for emotional releases as needed. During the luteal phase, during which many people experience PMS or premenstrual syndrome, and/or during menstruation, you may experience heightened emotions and sensations. What are the ways that you can allow yourself to release, let go, and/or process these emotions?
Make space to talk about menstruation, as needed. Whether this be with young folks in your life, friends, or family, you may find support and comfort in talking about menstruation. Especially because this topic carries quite a bit of stigma in our dominant culture, it can be freeing to shift the conversation and/or your relationship to the conversation. Are there people you’d like to process with or unpack this conversation with? Are there resources you’d like to plug into to support your continued learning (or unlearning) around menstruation?
An Acknowledgement
This topic-- menstruation-- is one that has deep and rich history across cultures and societies. We want to acknowledge that there is a range of practices that folks engage in as they prepare for and experience bleeding. Likewise, there are stigmas that have been passed down through different cultural practices.
We invite and encourage you to explore various traditions and practices around menstruation. When exploring different approaches to menstrual health, education, and caring for oneself consider: What power structures underlie the ideas presented? What do you want to keep? What will you move away from? What resonates and what doesn't?
CW: If you begin researching and exploring menstruation history, many resources available use limited and gendered language.
Additional Menstrual Education Tools
We just released our menstrual education handouts, which include templates for birth workers to adapt for their own use, as well as fillable forms to guide clients through understanding their cycle, symptoms, dysphoria, products, and tracking. We are excited for you to join us in this work!
Also, BADT Canada’s Lead Teacher, Deirdre Bain, offers a class called Demystifying your Cycle: a Close Look at Menstruation through Community Doula Access. Follow them here!