we can reclaim our bodies ourselves
In light of our recent political climate and the real threat of losing our reproductive rights, I've been thinking about menstruation and the ways we can reclaim our bodies ourselves. I feel like one of the most radical things we can do as women is be more in tune with our bodies and natural processes. Most of us are brought up believing periods are a nuisance and something we are supposed to hide, even from ourselves. A lot of young girls get their first period without a clue about what it even is because our society does not celebrate this rite of passage. I imagine if men were the ones who began menstruating, there would be parties in their honor. (But we all know men could not deal with a monthly period). It's not a myth that our patriarchal society does not value women or care about women's health. They want us to stay uninformed about our true powers. They want us to believe periods are gross and dirty and that PMS just means a women is being a bitch. We are put on birth control without knowing the long-term consequences of not having a real period or not having a period at all. I was on hormonal birth control from the age of 15-30 and for most of those years never questioned how healthy/unhealthy it was for my body. We cannot trust the government or the modern health care industry to care about us. We are so disconnected from the natural world and our cyclic nature as women. When we become more in tune, we see that our cycles correlate with the waxing and waning of the moon. How fucking cool is that? Most women bleed on the new moon and ovulate during the full moon but some are the opposite and sometimes it changes. During our period, the hemispheres of our brain are actively communicating more with each other than any other time. What this means is that we are literally more intuitive. Ever notice how much more annoyed you are with things during your period? That's because every month we are given an opportunity to tune into our bodies and figure out what isn't serving us and release it and start over. We all need to find time to rest and reflect during our period even if it's just for one day or one hour. If we realize this is a gift from our bodies we can change the way we view our periods. There are certain times of the month where we may feel more confident or ugly or tired or energetic, etc and if we tune more into what each week looks like for us and begin to see patterns we are able to organize our lives in a way that helps us live better. Becoming more in tune with our monthly cycles is a radical act and a way to be empowered
