A radical view on PMS
Image: Debashis RC Biswas via Unsplash
Here’s something that will change your understanding of PMS, help you work through it and leave you feeling powerful in your premenstrual phase.
When you think about the cycle from a purely biological perspective, the premenstrual phase is kind of like the incubation phase for your hopefully fertilised egg. Because remember, whether you’re actively trying to conceive or not, making a baby is what your body is trying to do, all of the time. Ovulation has just happened, and this is a time called the ‘two week wait.’
Our hormones are smart - way more so than we give them credit for. So smart, in fact, that if we have indeed become pregnant in this cycle, it’s our jobs as future mums to make sure our lives are baby-ready.
This means evaluating our jobs, finances, homes and even partners. Are they up to the task once your little human is in the world?
This is the reason why we get so antsy and judgy in the premenstruum. We’re cleaning house (sometimes literally getting the nesting urge to declutter and clean). The person you may have just been super attracted to in your pre- and ovulatory stages might have great genes for procreation, but lacking when it comes to being able to hold a relationship and actually provide. Your job might be pulling more energy from you than you can afford with a little one on the way.
All of these reasons are very real, very valid and, can be very valuable when you look through the lens of getting your act together for something so huge.
Whether you want children or not, the gifts of this phase can still be unpacked. The cycle is about creation and destruction, and that creation can be humans, art, projects or just about anything else. The trick is, making sure you’re not letting that inner guidance run riot.
If you want to truly harness the power of your premenstruum, listen to what it has to say. While this can be scary - especially if its heralding big change - the more you ignore it, the louder your PMS will be.
Your feelings are valid - the anger, judgments, frustrations and criticisms - all of them.
You are allowed to feel these things, and more. The question is, what is purely about venting, and what really needs addressing? Keeping an autumn list is a practice my mentor, Claire Baker, shares. Essentially, you write down alllllll of the things that are grating on you in your inner autumn (but not acting on them just yet!). Is there a topic or theme that keeps on coming up? Is there something you can no longer keep on ignoring? What isn’t up to scratch in your world, and who or what do you need to consider letting go of?
These can be big questions to answer, but once this is how we start to work the alchemy of transforming PMS into power. This is literally your body’s way of making sure you’re sticking to your true north, keeping yourself authentic and aligned to what it is you’re here for.
If you're struggling with your premenstrual phase and wand to see how coaching can help, schedule your free 30min call with me or check out my menstrual cycle coaching space.