I think change is good.
Every year we go through 4 seasons (sometimes it feels like they all happen in one day). Every year there are endings and there are beginnings.
There is always an opportunity for renewal
I find this exciting and inspiring. There are opportunities for new starts. To rethink our life, our routine, our self care, our goals and ambitions, our career, our relationships.
New starts don’t need to be about breaking everything and starting again, it can simply mean an opportunity to withdraw a little to reconsider and to work out what needs to be improved or strengthened.
It’s one of the reasons I love the autumn. Not only can the weather be perfect for outdoors activity, the trees be beautiful and the start of a school year be a great excuse for new stationery, but it’s also a reminder of those annual cycles of renewal.
But this year I’ve been discovering much more about my own personal seasons and how to harness these for my own health and life and harness my own inner seasons of renewal and withdrawal.
Seasons in the monthly menstrual cycle
I started down the path of looking at the monthly cycle due to my interest in the perimenopause and how hormonal change affects women’s physical and mental health. I needed a better understanding of the hormonal ebb and flow as it happens in a ‘normal’ cycle.
The ups and downs of oestrogen and progesterone are something we experience every month. It’s a dance of ebb and flow - with hormones increasing towards and around ovulation and then decreasing as we head towards menstruation.
And we can also track our seasons each month. As our hormones decline after ovulation we experience our own autumn and winter. That progesterone drop that can cause us to feel irritable and anxious. The lowering of oestrogen that can lead to a low mood and achy joints. And then after menstruation, after our monthly bleed we get the gradual renewal of spring-like energy and almost superwoman ability to achieve SO much before breakfast we astound ourselves.
Your own inner indicator
That tracking can also be a really useful health indicator. If you feel completely flat through out the first half of your cycle then it could be that stress is having an impact on hormone production. If your cycle lengthens or shortens and with that your mood changes, there could be some other symptom at play.
Perimenopause and the seasons
In perimenopause we may experience additional symptoms of this ebb and flow as hormone levels gradually decline and as external factors (stress being a big one) also have an impact.
Perimenopause is like our own personal autumn, but it can also be a great time for renewal. It’s an opportunity to look forward, to a new stage of our womanhood. We can reflect on what in our lives we want to keep and what has served it’s time. We can step up and into our power and start to put ourselves at the top of the list.
I run regular workshops, courses and retreats to explore hormonal health, understanding the perimenopause AND actions you can take to support your hormones and ease the ride through this part of you life. I’ll talk you through tracking your cycle, walk you through the hormonal symptoms of perimenopause and take you into creating your own action plan.
Find out more on here.
Photo by Erik Witsoe on Unsplash