Making Your Menstrual Cycle Work for You

Jamie Watkins: Learning how to live in-flow with your cyclical nature unlocks secret gateways to health and personal growth.

To be honest, I have a hard time with my menstrual cycle. I often envy men because their biology does not follow a 28-day clock run by nature. At certain times of the month, I struggle with balancing all my commitments on top of the natural ebb and flow of my hormone levels. My cycle can make me tired, happy, prone to headaches and insomnia (sometimes all in the same day!). All of this fluctuation happens while trying to meet daily life, work, and relationship commitments. To be really honest, I struggle about 10 days of every month. About a week before my period is due I will start getting my symptoms. I can feel very negative and down; all my positivity, hard work, and life goals will seem like dust in the wind; unsubstantial, futile, and sweeping. My emotional state tends to focus on all the things that have gone wrong lately or all the regrets I have in my life. Sometimes it’s very hard to rise above the emotions and convince yourself that this will be a temporary state, life will move along and the dark cloud overhead will lift. As someone who thrives on being busy and productive, feeling like a failure and lacking the motivational energy to change it is a challenge. I’ve calculated that I have around another 17 years of this living this cycle. That’s potentially another 204 PMS cycles to endure. (PSA: You do not have to do your own math and calculate the misery still to come.)

To cope, I have learned to adjust and adapt my life for those 10 days every month. I want to share with you somethings I do that help me navigate this ebb and flow.

1. Do track your cycle. This cannot be underestimated. This is self-knowledge at its most basic level. For example, do you know if you have a 28-day cycle or a longer one like 33 days? Tracking your cycle matters because you can anticipate the symptoms that come along with every phase. Note: There are 4 per cycle. You can read more about each cycle phase here.
2. Download the Flo app. This app is available for IOS or Android (and you can download it for free!). This app asks you to make a profile and then allows you to record your period start and end date. You can also input your symptoms and then click an analyze button. This feature takes note of your symptoms and then explains why your body is biologically responding this way at this time. So helpful! We often don’t understand why we are feeling such strong symptoms at certain times of the month or forget they could be related to our cycle. Trust me, they are always related! The app is kind of like a good friend that is always there to listen to your struggles and then remind you of why life has all the feelings right now.
3. Listen to your cycle. Look at your body as a biological being that does and feels things that are out of your control sometimes. It’s not always coinciding with your deadlines and commitments, but it’s always in sync with nature.
4. Plan for success. Depending on your cycle phase, symptoms, and respective needs, plan accordingly for the week and month. For example, about 10 days before I start my period, I am more susceptible to impatience, tiredness, pessimism, insomnia, and get intense cravings for salt, sugar, and high carb foods to name a few things. I know that I have to give myself more time to accomplish daily tasks I was easily rocking just a few days before. I will need more rest time and less social-centric activities with my friends. This could mean declining some invitations and can even include turning off your phone for a while. This is ok; don’t feel bad. Remember this is only temporary and then you will be back to feeling more like yourself. I make a conscious choice to schedule important things like interviews, meetings, and travel at different times of the month than the week of my period. Putting the pressure to be your best self and remember all the important details necessary for these meetings is a fool’s game that I have learned the hard way not to play anymore.
5. Be kind to yourself. I find more time to take Epsom salt baths just because they make me feel good at this time. I will indulge a little bit more in dessert for a couple days. And-this is huge-don’t be so critical of your appearance! Yes, it will be hard to recognize yourself: you will have more pimples than normal and feel like you have gained 10 pounds without even trying. You may feel so socially averse you will only want to step out into the light of day just to stock up on more salty carbs and then quickly retire back to the comfort of your room with Netflix. These things are ok and necessary to do. They are necessary because self-care should be your number one priority. How do you get better at self-care? Spending time to with your body by tracking your cycle and changing needs is a great place to start. This will increase your self- knowledge and eventually self-love, because you will see the amazing things your body accomplishes every month and learn to work with its ebb and flow and stop fighting it.