The moon and menstrual cycle awareness
I love the moon and working with it, so too working with my menstrual cycle. I know that idea freaks some people out, I could see the eyebrows raised when I announced the release of our online moon and menstrual cycle awareness course, as it is out of the comfort zone for many. So too, some just don’t get it. Why would anyone want to connect with the moon, to help them connect with their own cycle, and why would they want to connect more deeply with their own cycle anyway?
I see it with yoni yoga from time to time too. Yoni means amongst other things vulva, cunt, womb and place to call home. Yoni yoga is all about coming home to yourself, but when I mention womb wisdom for the first time, I can sense some women having a hard time accepting that. If I mention bleeding then this totally freaks some out. Yet they have experience of it, monthly on the whole. But sadly the shame runs too deep, so too, the effect of patriarchy on women’s own perception of their bodies, wisdom and power.
But the course is now available for those who want to explore further. My life has been infinitely enriched by inviting the moon into it, and as for getting intimate with my menstrual cycle, well that has been deeply empowering and helpful too. I bleed on the earth each full moon and I make no apology if that freaks you out. We are all nature. My second cousin bleeds on her plants, to give them greater vitality. I like to swim naked in the sea too if I can and especially when menstruating, it just feels right.
E’s more than used to it all now, doesn’t phase him. The boys too, know no different. We do laugh though, about how things change generation to generation. Fortunately my parents were always open with me, there was no shame around menstruation. It was never celebrated as I might do if I had a daughter of my own, but nor was it brushed aside. I’m grateful to my parents for that, amongst many other things I’m grateful to them about. It seems a pity to me that women can have such a hard time with it. But such is the depth of our societal, generational, cultural, educational and parental conditioning, to say nothing of our discomfort at truly knowing our own body and getting intimate with it.
So often I see people who are so out of touch with their body, it’s literally screaming at them for help, but they would rather give it a pill then try and listen. I see it all the time in yoga too, people who have injuries, say an issue with a shoulder for example, who are dead beat on pushing through with plank and chattaranga, even though their shoulder is screaming at them to stop. I’ve stopped teaching those postures regularly, simply to prevent people further damaging themselves. I did it for years myself, pushed through even though my body was saying rest, for example. Eventually the body finds a way to make us listen, albeit for many it can be too late and surgery is required, or another form of medical intervention, I’ve learned the hard way with this too.
I write a lot more about this in my book From Darkness Comes Light, which has finally been professionally edited, Now the hard work begins and this is where my energy will no doubt rest the next few months. That and with the family. And getting our Plant a Tree project off the ground this Saturday - do feel you can come and collect a tree to plant and do your bit (another bit, I know) for positive climate change and making this world a better place to live. We could do with something positive to watch grow and flourish in the years ahead. Let’s hope us humans grow and flourish too.
Trees help bring some continuity in an ever changing world. It’s been noticeable these last 18 months, how uncertain our lives can be and how easy it is to experience a change of heart and perspective depending on what happens to us and how we are affected by it. For many of us life will never be the same. There is greater depth somehow in living more presently and moment to moment, less able to plan ahead, at least with any certainty. This is one of the gifts I take from Covid, and there have been many.
Finally managing to get the moon and menstrual cycle awareness course off the ground has been another. I know it can help, that it works, that there is power in embracing the moon cycle and our menstrual cycle too and I really hope that some of you will take the plunge and immerse yourself in it. You can find out more about it here https://www.beinspiredby.co.uk/courses/the-moon-and-menstrual-cycle-pack, but for now I am off to bed.
Love Emma x
