Charting the Feminine Cycle - Part One

We focus so much on listening to the body in our Paula Method sessions. Learning how to notice and respond to our bodies’ messages helps us live our lives with more awareness and better balance. It allows us to address health issues on the go and seek professional help when needed.

A powerful tool for this, which I believe women should use daily, is charting the menstrual cycle. Charting our cycles reveals our physical, emotional, and spiritual patterns. It also allows us to predict, prepare and live in harmony with our individual tendencies.

As women, we are greatly affected by the Moon and its changes. Have you ever been to the beach at night during a full moon or a new moon? If you haven’t yet, I highly recommend it. When we see how greatly the moon affects the tides, the light, the animals, and our emotions, we can appreciate the changes in us more.

During a full moon, the sky is so bright it can sometimes look almost like daylight. You might feel like dancing, singing, celebrating life in its full glory. The tide is so high, it looks like the ocean wants to celebrate the moon as well, perhaps even touch it?

In Sandy Hook reservation, where I like to go to watch the moon rise, I have noticed that the deer have different energy and behavior depending on whether the moon is full or new. It might only be my imagination, but I think it reflects how deeply the moon affects my experience.

When the moon is full, the deer all come out at night and walk on the paths. The males climb high on rocks and walls (perhaps they want to be close to the moon, too?). They also seem more aggressively protective of the females. The tide is very high under the full moon. It feels as if there’s no beach, just ocean. The water comes so close to the boardwalk there is no sand to walk on.

In contrast, when a new moon rises, the tide is extremely low. The darkness may be intimidating. We feel like staying home, protected. The deer, on the other hand, seem to feel comfortable in the complete darkness. They look relaxed as they walk on the paths and graze in the parking lots. I once found myself almost touching a deer’s nose (as it was so dark, I couldn’t see it). The tide is so low you can walk and walk towards the water and never get there. Together with the complete darkness of the new moon, it can be an unsettling experience. Where has the water gone? Perhaps it’s hiding at home, too?

In our daily lives, we women are very sensitive to the environment around us. Our hormones constantly change during the month, and each cycle uniquely reflects our emotional and physical states as well as the effects of our environment. In part two of this post we’ll explore ways to chart these changes in a way that can help us know our bodies better. Charting allows us to gain more clarity to predict these changes and live in harmony with our bodies and the world around us.