Cyclical living is for everyone - making use of our inner cycles.

Insight into how cyclical living changed my life, and how it could for you, too.

Despite the calendar turning to February and the evenings creeping ever longer, we are still pretty deep in the trenches of winter. It is dusky when I wake up for my run, and it is dusky when I shut my laptop for the day. And as echoed in every coffee chat and email catch-up, we are bloody exhausted. 

We are constantly fighting against our natural tendency to curl up inside during the cold winter months, sleep looong hours, and minimise our interactions with the outside world. Thanks to the invention of light, electrical or otherwise, muffling our body's complaints that it is dark and it wants to sleep(!), we can work early in the morning, and stay awake late into the night, producing and consuming at an ever-increasing frequency. 

Our always-on, capitalist culture has forced us to push against our natural instincts to live in a permanent summer, all year round. We are taught to ignore our need for more sleep, our body's natural rhythms, and our inner yearnings to work hard, stay productive, and keep output at 100% at all points throughout the year. Not to mention the societal pull to fit in a full workout wherever possible, often forcing our bodies to exercise late into the evenings at 8, 9, or 10 o'clock when we need the rest the most. 

Put perfectly by the writer

Sophie Strand

in her newest book The Flowering Wand: “We are all increasingly strangers in the home of our own bodies: taught to ignore our subtle appetites and changing needs, taught to medicate symptoms rather than curiously inquiring into root causes. ( . . . ) People with wombs are told that their menstruation needs to be treated with medication as if it were a disease. Food is seen as fuel, not sacrament. We treat our bodies like vehicles we can drive into the ground and then replace. We work hard to abstract our minds from our most sacred physical hearths.” 

What could life be like if we could reconnect with our inner rhythms, allowing our bodies to guide us in our day-to-day lives, and the benefits this could provide? 

Cyclical living and the menstrual cycle

I, like thousands of other women, went on the contraceptive pill in my teenage years, because it was simply the done thing. There wasn't much discussion about other contraceptive options, and at a time when pregnancy was the worst imaginable outcome, the pill sounded like a pretty magical little solution. Within a few months, though, my periods had stopped completely and I was living each month ignorant of the inner workings of my own body. 

Thanks to a burgeoning interest, inspired by the book Wild Power, in the online community I was part of at the time, and the slowed-down life of the UK’s 2020 lockdown, I made the decision to come off the pill and tentatively welcome back my menstrual cycle for the first time in years.  

This felt like a radical proposition at the time, apart from mutterings between close friends about PMS or cramps, the effects of this cycle on my mood, energy levels, confidence, creativity, and focus were an alien concept to me. But by following the motion of their menstrual cycle, many women (and menstruating people) have found a tangible way to live rhythmically. 

Working with the inner seasons act as a kind of map of the cycle, using different Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter energies to pace ourselves and gain insight into our overall well-being. By recognising and predicting these patterns, we get the opportunity to plan our work for when it will suit us mentally and emotionally–not just following an outside deadline or a higher-up’s expectation on how we should work. 

This awareness has also taken the shame away from my menstrual cycle. Periods are often treated like a taboo, with many of us tucking tampons into our sleeves on the way to the bathroom, and hiding our symptoms from bosses, teachers, and loved ones. If we aren’t allowed to talk about periods without shame, how can we become advocates for our own health?

For those of you with partners, I invite you to be honest with them about your cycle. I always pre-warn my other half a few days before the crimson wave, asking for a wider breadth of understanding and to dial back on playfulness as I will be much more likely to snap back/shout/cry at a moment’s notice. I have also given myself permission to be unwieldy during these days, taking the guilt and expectations out of the picture, and allowing my body to not always be 100% at all times. 

This has led to an interest in the fertility awareness method, a scientific method whereby by tracking the body’s temperature and physical signs, we can discover a deeper understanding of our body’s inner workings and gain control of our own sexual and gynaecological health. An incredible topic that needs exploring on its own. 

How men and non-menstruators can live cyclically 

Cyclical living isn’t just for menstruating women, though, men and non-menstruators can live cyclically by aligning themselves with different aspects of our outside world. As Strand says “Our bodies, when we get to know them intimately, have a lot to tell us about what kind of medicine and movement might really benefit us”. 

The simplest way to invite cyclicality into your life is by becoming aware of and following the seasonal wheel of the year. By bringing intentionality into your day/week/month and appreciating the fact that it’s winter and you may be wishing to contract, or that it's summer and you’re feeling ready to jump into action, you can live a life with more flow and fulfilment. Whether this is by waking up with the sun, eating with the seasons, embracing seasonal activities, or keeping a journal or log of how you’re feeling in each particular month. 

For a more involved cycle, aligning yourself with the lunar phases gives you a reminder to work with periods of both high and low energy, set yourself boundaries, and give your mind and body the chance to rest every month before you begin anew. This uses a similar inner seasonal system to the menstrual cycle, with the new moon representing winter (similar to menstruation), the waxing moon spring, the full moon summer (similar ovulation), and the waning moon representing autumn. 

To a newcomer, cyclical living may be intimidating, especially as discovering patterns and predicting our energy levels can take some time, but through this daily habit, we can live a much more interconnected life which allows us to step out of society’s expectations and live a life better suited to our own inner being.  

---

A space which has really helped me explore cyclical living further is the Life Aligned Community run by Jen Wright. It’s a really lovely space on Mighty Networks full of people helping each other build their businesses in line with their own values and energies. Check it out. 💖

---