Peace with our Period

Ladies, have you ever had that awful, embarrassing moment when your period starts and you have no back up plan?

Or have you ever flooded through your favorite jeans in the middle of a get together?

Or has your cramps and bloating stopped you from enjoying your life?

Well friends, I have been in your boat and let me tell you, these moments suck, and we’re not alone. Quite the contrary, according to HealthyWomen.com, 75% of women suffer from PMS (premenstrual syndrome).

And the thing is, most of us think that PMS and menstrual discomfort are actually normal, when in fact they’re not normal.

I remember growing up and hearing about The Rag.

An annoying, painful, and wildly uncomfortable “thing” we must endure every month until we hit that age where we dry up and have hot flashes for life.

Firstly, THAT’S NOT REALITY!

That’s the reality of feminine “hygiene” product manufacturers plaguing women and men with the idea that periods are gross and bad all for the sake of their profits. “Clean and seamless”, “Light and airy scent”, “Pesticide-filled, endo-causing, hormone-disrupting hoohaw plugs”.

Ok, that last one may be a description of my own LOL.

But for many years there has been this anti-woman agenda to belittle and bash on our glorious and miraculous cycle that our body has the privilege of experiencing. It’s a wonder that through the process of hormones, brain-body communication, preparation, and execution, our bodies can go through a whole morphosis, and yet we live our lives like nothing is going on.

And I wonder if that’s the root to all this misinformation and misleading regarding our periods.

We want to act like nothing is going on, and maybe our uterus is tired of being ignored! 

So we start making noise. Hormone imbalances, water retention, skin ailments, emotional roller coaster, you know, the regular stuff.

But what if I were to tell you that this is all disharmony in the body? What if I were to tell you that you actually have the power and resources to change that disharmony today?

Well, today if you have all the resources--but trust, if you’re on a healing and nourishing path, you may have these allies on you already or closer to you than you thought.

Ready for some period-loving fun?

Check out The Living Danimal Style Period Podcast Episode Here!

1. Start moving daily

I know we hear this all the time and some are probably thinking “Oh brother, here comes another ‘get active’ gimmick”. But wait! I have some science to show that with just 2 minutes of walking after 30 minutes of sitting, you can move lymph 2-3x more than just sitting. 

Lymph is soooo important for bile movement (think body waste picked up by bile and moved through lymph nodes) and it’s THE biggest circulatory system AND it doesn’t even have a pump! So what gets our lymph moving? Movement! Walking, doing little tricep dips on a chair, calf raises for a few seconds--anything to get muscles and bones to move everything around. And by moving frequently, we can assure that the movement is consistent and fluent.

By moving the body and lymph, we are removing and circulating the toxins, molds, fungi, and any pathogenic foods and/or outside bacteria and viruses that otherwise would be staying in our body without movement and re-absorbing it into our system. This is what can cause disharmony in our bodies, and especially during our cycles.

So it's important to move! Not only will it bring us internal happiness, help our joints and bones stay elastic and healthy, it may even start to shape the way we look and feel, and it'll bring back harmony to our central system. And by association, our menstrual cycle as well.

Homemade krauts and kombucha

2. Start Eating Fermented Foods

Whether it's sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, yogurt, miso, tempeh--anything fermented, it is going to help you. In the gut, uterus and vagina, liver and not to mention the all-around hormonal environment in your body.

The bacteria found in fermented foods (like Lactobacillus spp. And L. acidophilus) are supreme allies for the gut bugs and microflora in our gut also in our reproductive system. Lactobacillus for one has shown to drastically improve depressive and anxious moods in people, along with supporting ailments like leaky gut, IBS, Crohn’s, and many other microflora-pertaining ailments.

2. Try ‘Liver Lover Tea’

The main reason why I created this blog post was really to highlight the benefits of this delicious tea I formulated while trying to find a supportive endocrine, uterine, and liver tea to start working with for my period. All while not drying me out, or cooling me off too much. 

In western herbalism we call things “cool” and “dry”, “damp” and “hot” as a way to describe certain constitutions of self. We call these “Energetics”.

For instance, growing up I was warm and damp, and now I feel I am cold and dry (though as of recent, I have a theory I am considered a “false cold” person and we can get into how that all happened in the next pod episode) in Western Herbalism.

At first, it was a challenge to recognize that I needed some period support, but with the help of my wonderful herbal resources I was able to find a great formula that supports all the wonderful menstrual systems.

Herbs:

1 part Tarxeum off. (Dandelion) root

1 part Arctium lappa (Burdock) root

1 part Astragalus root

¼-½ part Glycyrrhiza glabra root

Recipe: 

Combine all parts of the recipe in a small/medium sized pot and fill with filtered water. Turn heat on high till the water boils. Reduce heat to simmer and let the herbs macerate for 40 min- 1 hour. Once finished, strain liquid into a jar and enjoy throughout the day! 

You can add honey, milk of choice, or maple syrup to add more flavor. Though the cinnamon and licorice are quite sweet :)

The goal is to have about a quart (32oz) of fluid -- more or less is fine -- and have about 1-2 cups 2-3x a day. You can start to take this up to 2 weeks before your normal cycle. Or if your cycle isn’t regular, you can start the tea, movement, and fermented foods as a trinity and see where it takes you.

Remember friends, I am not a doctor. I’m not “prescribing” this tea and lifestyle to you. These are simply homeopathic insights and ideas to take the steps to regulating and bringing loving, nurturing awareness to the body. Self-healing. Self-love. All that good stuff :)

May your cycle be grand!