When I was a teenager, I was scared to start my menstrual cycle! I had only ever been told negative things about it, how it is an inconvenience, how it is painful and how something that we need to hide. The idea of using sanitary products, when I was on my cycle, indicated that it was something that was dirty and something we needed to be cleansed of.
How cleverly our power is twisted right in front of our eyes, because when we are on our cycle, we are indeed cleansing ourselves, but not in the way that the media or historically the church would have us believe. We do not need to be cleansed because of our cycle, because it is our cycle that cleanses us.
So much of our feminine power has been twisted and so many attempts have been made to take it from us.
I spend years not realizing the power that I harnessed within and the creative energy that I was suppressing each month. I had no idea how powerful and wondrous my body was.. Instead I feed into the oppressed mindset, that was woven over so many of us for centuries.
But I had inklings, whenever I was out in nature, I felt free and at peace. The first poem I ever wrote was outdoors, it was when I in my safe haven. As is the way, with our creative powers, they are more easily accessed when we feel safe and secure (something so important, in achieving natural birth). Birthing our creations, rebirthing ourselves, all connected in this cycle of life.
In my teens, my cycle's were painful, I always felt so embarrassed and heavy. I wanted to hide away from the world, to disappear. I saw these inconveniences as a curse almost and at times I wished I was born a boy!. I had no one to empower me, to take me aside and explain what exactly was happening in my body and how we as women, bleed to life!
How our menstrual blood is so potent, how we are meant to feed the soil with it, our monthly offerings to the earth. How bleeding into the earth is symbolic of the cleansing we are undergoing, how it is our opportunity to let go of those stagnant and negative energies that we have carried around with us. How in releasing those, we release our power within!
Once I discovered this for myself, I never experienced any more pain. Yes feelings of discomfort, but that is my bodies way of telling me to slow down, to connect with my inner self and feed my creative self. When we bleed, we need to travel within, to nurture ourselves, to go slow and connect with the earth's energies, to connect and release and grow.
Now I have 3 daughters and I have been given the opportunity to share this insight with them. To talk with them about the wisdom they each hold within, how they should embrace it and celebrate it instead of growing up and suppressing it. I have the opportunity to guide them as they grow to their full potential.
A few weeks ago, I went to a mother and daughter circle with my eldest girl. It was all about our moon cycle and how it correlates with the lunar cycle and seasonal cycle. How it is all connected.
We started by talking about our favourite seasons and how those seasons make us feel. Whether we are outgoing or feel the need retreat inwards and how important it is to listen to those instincts, to trust them, to trust ourselves.
The mothers shared their experience with cycles and then the girls had to opportunities to ask questions, whatever came to their mind. No one had to speak unless they wanted to, as this was a circle of respect.
There was 4 puzzle's of the female reproductive system, each representing the different weeks of our cycle and how our wombs change. The girls had to try and put them together and in the correct order. This was not about finishing, but more about exploring and showing them what our amazing organs look like and what they are capable of.
How amazing our Uterus or womb is and how much it changes in 4 short weeks. Why we experience such, a heavy feeling, because we are preparing to create new life, to hold and nurture new life.
It was a beautiful, magical circle, one that was done in such a relaxed and respectful way, and one in which we all educated one another. It was a circle in which we honoured the sacred feminine within and we had the honour of sharing that with our daughters. Ensuring that they get to step into their power,to tap into their sacred energy each month and create and grow, as it was always intended.