Here’s Why You Should Rest When You Have Your Period

Do you feel guilty if you take a moment for yourself? If you’re a human with a menstrual cycle, you have a built-in to rest phase, it’s your period. But most of us don’t listen to our bodies invitation, so we feel shitty around ‘that time of the month’ and blame it on being hormonal. The truth is, if you rested when your body suggested you should, you wouldn’t have to deal with all the crappy symptoms of PMS.

But your body already has a build in rest phase, it’s called sleep, right!? We sleep when our circadian rhythm tells us we’re tired - melatonin rises and signals the brain it’s time for bed. Simple. Except there’s also ‘that time of the month’ when you feel more tired than usual - but that’s probably just because you’re cursed, or because you’re a women, right?

The rhythm that’s telling you to rest once a month is your infradian rhythm! It’s your ovulatory-menstrual cycle.

You’ve got your sleep-wake cycle (your circadian rhythm), that tells you to rest at night and your ovulatory-menstrual cycle (your infradian rhythm), that tells you to rest when you have your period. BUT ummm nobody told you about it right and nobody else seems to be resting!? True and if I told you to jump off a bridge…

If you haven’t been resting in the menstrual phase of your infradian rhythm and you have PMS, it’s no coincidence. If you didn’t rest in the sleep phase of your circadian rhythm you wouldn’t expect to feel good. So what’s the difference?

During your menstrual phase (when you bleed) your hormones are at their lowest and this is what should signal you to take it easy. BUT ain’t nobody got time for that! You’ve got to go to work, cook, clean, go to that thing you really don’t feel like going to anymore, oh and your mum insists on coming over for dinner, so more groceries, more cooking, more cleaning…. We have been raised in a society that ignores our infradian rhythm and as a result we google things like ‘should I rest more on my period?’ instead of listening to our bodies. We’ve completely lost the connection to our infradian rhythm and we end up feeling crappy and in PMS-land for a few weeks every month.

Make no mistake: resting in your menstrual phase is an act of rebellion.

Our modern, capitalist, patriarchal society certainly doesn’t allow us time or space to rest. But when you give yourself permission to rest in your menstrual phase you can lessen, maybe even eliminate your PMS related mood swings, anger and irritability.

Rest can be what ever you want it to be. The magic of this time in your cycle is that your hormones are at their lowest and to the two hemispheres of your brain in naturally more connect. That means the ‘go with the flow’ affects of estrogen are not yet playing into your decision making and progesterone your calming ‘get shit done’ hormone is also low. This combination means you will be the least ‘doer’ version of yourself and the most raw, real version, who’s connected to her intuition.

Energetically our energy is inward, I imagine it to be the like the super powers of Dr Strange, only the opposite direction. Instead of power expanding from him, our power is drawing inwards towards us, allowing us to be our most authentic selves. Dr Strange (the marvel super hero played by Benedict Cumberbatch) has the power to change time and space, he creates what he wants by using spells to conjure and move energy away from him. I imagine our feminine energy to move like his magic but in the inwards direction, drawing everything towards us. Everything we need to know, everything we’ve been struggling with and everything we need answers for is just waiting to be draw it back toward us. At this time of the month we have the ability to bring the magic towards us, we have the ability to see everything, know everything we need to know and create the best solution or outcome because we can hold all the knowledge, all the power, all at once.

Your menstrual phase can be a profound time. It’s a time for deep inward thinking and a time to become aware of unhelpful patterns in your life. Patterns like unhealthy relationship dynamics, work issues that keep coming up, an unhealthy relationship with food, the way you react to your parents or kids - literally anything you do that doesn’t feel good in the moment or creates stress and anxiety in your life can be addressed at this time. We’re usually too busy and don’t have the time do anything about our patterns in the moment. But when you give yourself time and space to rest in your menstrual phase, you can become aware of the patterns that are no longer serve you and begin to get the inspiration of what you can to do to untangle them. BUT the only way for you to truely connect to the power of your brains super-connection and the gifts of your intuition is through rest. Because these gifts are quiet, you can only hear them if you’re listening and observing.

In order to harness the power of these gifts you have to be still, quiet and relaxed - that means you need to rest. Which, as you remember is what your hormones are wanting you to do anyway! As a society we’ve forgotten how to ‘do’ the simple act of resting. I’m not taking about a massage or a mani-pedi, I’m talking about deep, restorative rest for your body and mind. A massage is lovely but there are other things you can do that cost nothing and connect you to yourself, so you can be still and quiet.

Here’s a list of things you can do to actively rest in your menstrual phase:

• walk in nature

• walk barefoot in nature, on the beach, or on the grass

• sun bake early in the morning (good for your circadian rhythm and ideal for lower UV levels)

• take a bath

• meditate

• lay on the floor and pay attention to your breathing

• become present with your food, eat in silence and appreciate every bite

• have a cup of tea in the sunshine

• gaze into the eyes of a lover or a child

• lay on the ground and watch the clouds go by

• watch the sun rise, or sunset

• moon gaze

• stars gaze

• watch the wind in the trees

• become mesmerised by an open fire

• swim in the ocean, a lake, or a river

• pat a dog, or a cat

• paint, draw, doodle, colour-in

• move to your favourite song

Deep restorative rest isn’t about getting fancy, it’s about being connect to your body and your mind in the moment. It’s about de-cluttering your mind and listening to the wisdom of your body and intuition. Resting in your menstrual phase does two things:

1) It puts you in sync with your female sex hormones, therefore lessening the severity of PMS mood related symptoms.

2) It allows you time and space to process your life and listen to your intuition.

Your menstrual phase is magic. It’s time for you to start to harness its power.

Sorry for ‘shoulding’ all over you by-the-way. I’m sure you don’t need any more ‘shoulds’ in your life BUT in my defence, if you do this one thing, the other ‘shoulds’ will get easier or become unnecessary.

So, are you ready to be a rebel and rest?

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Hi 👋 I’m Gemma, I’m a Period and Cycle Syncing coach.

If you want to learn more about living in sync with your cycle here’s 👉 3 ways I can help you 👈