This post will be a mixture of the ‘Books that changed my life’ posts I have shared on my social media (check Instagram or Facebook) and a longer reflection on this subject and my experience.

I read ‘Code Red: Know your flow, unlock your monthly super powers and create a bloody amazing life. Period’ by Lisa Lister back in 2017. I don’t quite remember how the book came to me but when I read it, it changed my view of my menstrual cycle quite dramatically. What I once saw as a painful and uncomfortable monthly nuisance, I could now see as something different. I could see that by understanding my cycle I could understand myself better. My moods, my energy and how to harness this knowing into making time to honour the different stages of the cycle.

As I read the book, for the first time in my life, I actually had the time and disposition to observe my body better and try and identify all the phases of my menstrual cycle. As time went on, I started getting confused and then frustrated, because my cycle seemed to not conform to the descriptions in the book.

I’m not an expert, but this is what I understood from what I read. There are 4 parts of the cycle, they each can be related to the seasons. Before the fertile time of the cycle I understood I was meant to be feeling outgoing, energised and rearing to go. During the week before my period, I would be feeling quite focused but more withdrawn and during my period it was suggested as a time for introspection, quietness, reflection and mostly a withdrawal from the world, as much as possible.

For me, I noticed that most of the time I felt low and withdrawn before and during the fertile part of my cycle, sometimes even getting acne at that time. Then energised and full of beans right until the day before my period. On the first day of the period I felt slow and heavier but straight after I could feel my energy surging again. Me, being me, I got frustrated at the information in the book. Frustrated at what is now being talked about a lot in social media as more and more women learn to follow their cycle and their moods.

You see, I have a bit of a problem with being different. I don’t want to be different and felt frustrated that no one seemed to be talking about having different cycles and different moods and energy levels from what has been more widely shared.

I dismissed what was being shared as not being true for me and sulked. Well, kind of.

In the past, I have felt a constant and disruptive high and low in regards my energy and emotions. Longer lows and often feeling overwhelmed by constant change. This year, I decided to take a closer look at my energy and emotions. I have chosen to have as a theme for 2019: ‘From Stability to Expansion’. The first part of the year focused more on creating stability on as many parts of my life as possible and from stability, I am hoping to go into expanding what feels right to be expanded. In terms of energy, for example, creating a more stable level of energy within me and hoping to increase these levels in the second half of the year.

I have been using a period tracker for a few years already, but have changed apps a few times as some of the ones I was using were discontinued. A couple of months ago I added a moods app where I started logging my moods with the aim to find out if there are any patterns I could notice that could give me an understanding of how my very specific and personal cycle might work.

In conversation with someone I connected with recently, it was suggested that maybe I am more connected to the Lunar cycle. I decided to take a closer look at this and this is when the Moon comes into place in this post. I downloaded another app with the phases of the moon, and started looking back at my individual cycle.

In the Lunar cycle, again, as far as I understand it, the full moon is meant to represent the fertile part of the cycle and the new moon the period. The Lunar cycle is around 28.5 days. My cycle is around 25.5 days.

At the moment, my cycle is opposite to the Lunar cycle. Meaning that I had my fertile period around the new moon that happened last Monday and will be having my period around the full moon. My energy and mood were really affected during the days before and after this last new moon, for example. I have felt really low, withdrawn and generally not great.

The other thing I noticed is that with my cycle being shorter than the Lunar cycle, as the year progresses, I am probably going to shift my cycle again and eventually fit into having my period with the new moon and being fertile during the full moon.

It is still early days to draw any final conclusions, but I am starting to think that my energy levels and moods are mostly affected by the Lunar cycle than my own hormones. I have no clue how this is possible but I will continue to take note and being the Scientist of the Self*, Myself, that I am. Creating theories, noticing patterns and eventually finding out if my theory can be proven to be right or not, or if I have to come up with a different theory.

My energy and moods affect a lot how I work and relate to others. I tend to fight the lows, because I have had them for so long in the past and there is still fear or getting stuck in a long low, even though I have not had a long low for some time now. If, my theory is right and I learn to trust that my highs and lows are connected to something like the Lunar cycle, this will allow me to be able to be in the low, understanding that it is part of a cycle and not go into fear so much. I am hopping that at some point, I will just be able to be comfortable in these lows and gain from them all the riches and information they can provide, as I use this time to reflect. Understanding also, that these times I probably will be feeling more withdrawn and not have the energy to reach out both in my business as well as personal relationships. I can use this knowledge to plan how I offer my work as well as understanding why I do not want to go out or connect with others so much during certain times of my cycle, as well as really wanting to connect in other parts of it.

For those of you who have never noticed or looked at your cycle in this way, I would highly recommend this book as well as becoming Scientists of the Self*, Yourself, on this. The insights into yourself you can receive from reading more about it and noticing what happens within your own experience, can indeed be life changing.

For those of you who already track and know more about this subject. I would love to hear about your own personal experiences with this, if you would like to share, of course.

If like me, you are a bit different and feel happy to share some more on this either publicly or by private message, I would love to hear from you too.

Any other views and advice are welcomed.

The period tracker app I am currently using is called Clue (https://helloclue.com/) and I have just yesterday also found Moody Moon (https://moodymonth.com/app), which also allows you to register your moods.

The mood tracker app I’m is called Daylio (https://daylio.webflow.io/).

*Scientist of the Self: ‘Being a Scientist of the Self, means that you take a separate role within yourself and become an observer of your own living experience. After all, you are the most absolute expert at being you. No one else has a clue of what it truly means to be you. You do you in a way that no one else can.’ Pelagia Pais

If you would like to know more about the Scientist of the Self concept or get to know a bit more about my work, book yourself a 30 minute FREE Exploration Call here: https://www.pelagiapais.com/booking