Women’s Wisdom – Respecting the Cycles and Rhythms of Our Bodies

Connected to  a previous blog about expressing and doing your life purpose and sacred vision of work, if as women we do not learn to respect  and live in the beauty of our own creativity and our body cycles and rhythms that support us and our purpose and visions, we risk having health challenges like heart disease and cancer.   The expression of physical health challenges in our bodies often reflect places in our inner emotional, psychological, spiritual states where there are unhealed wounds that cause us to consistently behave or act in ways that are not healthy eg. not creatively expressing ourselves or doing the work we came to do.      As the blood of Mother Earth continues to spill into the Gulf day after day- we are facing the biggest ecological disaster in the history of humankind. We are bleeding as a civilization.  We bleed as women – and we can bleed in healthy (monthly moon time ) – in a way that nurtures ourselves and others –  as well as unhealthy ways. What ways do we allow ourselves to bleed in an unhealthy way? It is when we compromise our souls and our bodies to sing and dance to the rhythms and  tunes of others and not to our own rhythms and tune.  That is not to say we can’t sing and dance in harmony together but to do that you have to know your own songs and dance.

We live in families, a culture, a society, a civilization where we as women often seek approval from parents, partners, children without seeking first our own approval of our own deeds, actions and words.   In order to live in your own body rhythm and cycle, you must know what they are.  In the creation of a world where we drive ourselves with rigid work and personal schedules that do not necessarily respect our body rhythms and then dull the pain that goes with selling out our souls with drugs, alcohol, sex, work and media distractions, many people including women have no idea what their own natural cycle and rhythms are. 

When does your body  and your being wake up in the morning.  Do you like to get out of bed immediately when do you  want physical feeding, emotional release and nurturing, spiritual sustenance, how often, when do you get tired, when does your  being and body want exercise,   when is your best creative and work time?  When does your body and being want to just relax, when does your body and your being love to go to sleep?  How does that shift with the varying light in the locale where you live?   How does your cycle shift when you travel?  If you don’t know the answer to these questions, then this maybe some foundational work that you might like to consider for your own health and well-being.  

For a couple of weeks detach yourself from an alarm wakeup and your normal schedule. This may mean that you have to be away  on retreat from your family and friends so that you can reconnect with yourself, Spirit and Mother Earth.   The opportunity to learn more about you is always your choice and Spirit gives us that opportunity through every experience we choose for ourselves.  If you are reading this, then your consciousness has already opened to the opportunity to find out more about your natural cycles and rhythms. 

  During the time that some people would call “time out” – but I would call “time in” as in time to be in your body, time to be in your own creativity – move with the wisdom of your body and respect it –  from waking to sleeping.  If you have ignored and or neglected respecting your body and its rhythms and cycles for a long time –  then it may take you a while to learn how to listen and to respond to what it needs. That’s OK.  Spirit has ultimate patience for all of us – so we can certainly extend our own  patience to ourselves.  Often in the first few days or more of this process of discovery, women need to sleep for long hours or take naps during the day – because the truth of it is – we have driven ourselves to exhaustion – following something that is not our own.

If you like to feed your intellect – you might also read books on circadian rhythms and literature on larks (early morning risers) and night owls (those who love to stay up late) and those in between.    Again although our society suggests that we need to be a certain way – most work/school schedules are geared towards the early risers  (obviously it was an early riser who coined “The early bird catches the worm) ….in fact the scientific evidence shows that it is in fact late nighter who are ultimately the better performers.   Personally I feel what is important is finding out what’s right for you, as a woman. 

If you have had to take a sabbatical from your “normal “schedule to find out about your body rhythms and cycles; be sure to integrate as much of your newly found knowledge about yourself into your schedule.   If you after doing all this work to know yourself better and you don’t do this or you slip back into the “rat  race “and start living again without consciousness or respect of your own body rhythms, that’s also fine.  Information may be forgotten but your body  has its own knowing and wisdom. Your body never forgets and loves to be healthy, healed and healing.  It will keep sending you messages for your optimum health and welfare.  To women all over our world, Best of Spirit and Mother Earth in reconnecting to your natural cycles and rhythms and living them.  Your individual work in reclaiming your divine feminine including your natural cycles  and our collective work together as women will move us towards a more healthy, sustainable existence on this planet.