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Your emotions can get tricky. Especially around certain parts of your cycle.
We've all been there when you're just out living life, happy one day and then BOOM everything irritates you. Including when your partner looks at you the wrong way or when you only had five minutes to grab lunch and there's a huge line at your favorite grab n'go restaurant. Let's not even talk about your mood when you're having a bad hair day.
As you tune more into your cycle and become mindful of your natural mood shifts, you'll start picking up some powerful patterns with your emotions. Your cycle is set up in a very specific way, which provides great insight into how you can direct your life - including feeling more in charge of all your feels.
The ebb and flow of our emotions is one of my favorite parts to cycle syncing! I'm obsessed with psychology and love knowing how our hormonal health impacts our emotions. Your mood directs what you need in any situation.
As I was working to balance my body, I soon realized how I felt during each of our four cycle phases. This sense of mindfulness made me feel more empowered in how I responded to what was happening in my day. Rather then fall into feeling like the experiences were driving me.
Each of your cycle phases provide insight into how you can expect to think and feel. My hope is that this awareness takes your cycle syncing efforts to the next level! It's my favorite way to help women KEEP their hormies balanced. If we can't honor our emotions and use our mood to our advantage, everything we've been working for doesn't stick.
FOLLICULAR PHASE - the 7-10 days after your period ends
After your period is over, you may still feel a little tired. This is normal and naturally goes along with how estrogen and progesterone (two sex hormones that run your cycle) were at their lowest levels during your period. As you move through the follicular phase, you will notice your energy levels slowly start to increase.
This can be a frustrating feeling for many women. You just felt fatigue before your period, during your period, and now you might still have a little bit post period?!
As you work on strengthening your hormones from the inside, and truly listening to your body when you need a break (all month long, not when you've already hit exhaustion), your energy levels will increase along with this balance.
For example, I get very high energy DURING my period. Which is not the norm for most menstruating women. It didn't use to be this way. It has everything to do with listening to my body. So after my period is over, I may feel slightly tired for a day or two, but that's about it.
Emotionally during your follicular phase, your mind is in full on strategy mode.
You had a lot of AHA moments during your period - what you want to do next and changes you need to make in your life.
Remember, your body is always guiding you to live your best life. When you get these insights into what you want, you must start taking action on them.
The best time to layout your action plan is in your follicular phase. Your brain naturally wants to do this.
It'll become a very calming practice to sit down with your journal and your calendar. You'll actually create the space you need to reach out to those you need to talk to. This can be friends or family you need to have a heart-to-heart with. Coworkers you need a little extra help with on a project. A connection you'd like to reach out to for networking.
It can even be sitting down to meal plan and taking the time to research new healthy recipes! Anything goes here.
These may seem small, but they're a little action step in the direction you've been craving. This practice will put you on the path you want and create more calm and ease in your cycle.
You may notice when you do this work you're able to breathe easier. That's because you're matching strategy and taking action to the time of the month your body pushes you to do so.
OVULATION PHASE - the time of the month you love people
During your ovulation phase, you'll feel energetic and crave being around people. If you're feeling tired or overstimulated, your hormone levels could be off.
Estrogen is a very stimulating hormone and peaks in ovulation. She's meant to make you feel energetic and charismatic. I personally struggled with estrogen dominance, which can make your estrogen levels a bit too high. I use to notice during my ovulation phase that my energy was so high, it almost felt like I couldn't calm down. I felt overstimulated. It impacted my sleep and mood, which explains why I'd often feel a bit agitated.
When your ovulation phase is balanced, you will feel like you're walking on cloud nine. You love everything and everyone.
Stress rolls right off your shoulders and you're able to easily flow from one activity to the next.
This phase can be confusing for the rest of the month because we do have the most energy.
Before I understood our phases, I used this time of the month as my holy grail. Why don't I feel as energetic as last week? Why could I crush that hard workout a week ago but right now I can barely get through it?
It left me feeling like something was wrong with me and I'd seek outside sources for quick energy. When I was younger it was too much sugar. When I was in an office it was too much caffeine. It made so much sense when I finally learned this information. I'm not meant to be as energetic all month long and that's ok.
Those bad habits caused hormone imbalances in other areas - my stress hormones, gut health, appetite hormones, blood sugar and lowered my anti-aging hormone... which was not fun. But sometimes you need to come up against resistance to have the motivation you need to find what will work for you.
All of your habits have a reaction. You might not feel it in one phase, like ovulation, but you'll feel it right before and during your period (your monthly check in point to see how you're doing).
LUTEAL - Turn inward & focus on your to-do list
During the first half of your luteal phase, you'll most likely feel high energy and can withstand stress. Your estrogen levels are starting to decline and your progesterone levels are starting to increase.
As progesterone picks up in the second half of your cycle. you should feel calm and relaxed.
The Office of Women's Health at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services reports that over 90% of women struggle with some form of PMS. Two of these symptoms include irritability and fatigue before their period.
This is actually not how you're "suppose" to feel. It's become so common for women to have PMS that its now considered "normal". Common doesn't mean normal. Personally, this illustrates how many women are struggling with hormone balances and are not getting the help they need.
I use to struggle with PMDD (premenstrual dysfunctional disorder), which is a more intense version of PMS. I had a short depression period before menstruation. My mood sucked. Everything irritated me and I walked around in a complete state of overwhelm.
Now that I balanced every cycle phase and hack my hormones based on my individual biochemistry, I feel extremely calm and balanced before my period. Stress rolls off my shoulders. I feel relaxed and focused. Exactly one week out from my period I'll have a day where I feel my energy go from high to lower. It's a shift I have come to know well and its a message for me to start scaling back and take more breaks. The months I do this, I have a fantastic period.
If you feel overwhelmed and agitated during this phase, it could mean your stress levels are too high.
Cortisol, one of your stress hormones competes for the receptors of progesterone, which is a very calming hormone. So cortisol attaches where progesterone is suppose to go and you don't feel calm and relaxed.
The Balanced Bombshells Lifestyle Plan is the only plan set up to biohack and master your hormones in 8 weeks. I walk you through step-by-step how to find what works for YOU! I still live by this every day, even during pregnancy!
There are lifestyle swaps you can make, foods you can eat, but I found the most success came by listening to my emotions and what caused me stress.
It can be as simple as realizing you have been pleasing everyone else but yourself. Your body tells you this by getting angry. You physically can't bend for yet another person when you haven't fully taken care of yourself.
The message I hope you leave with today is that you can not take care of anyone else unless you take care of yourself. Being selfish is actually extremely important to a woman's health. When you make yourself top priority, that love you show for yourself overflows to those around you. You may find you can do even more for people! You'll also learn the boundaries you need in order to be happy.
Do you really need to check social media first thing in the morning? Or your email during breakfast? NO.
You need to get your workout in, allow your mind space to enter your day and have a healthy breakfast.
Do you really need to have plans every night of the week? Sure, as long as some of those nights includes taking a bath and chilling by yourself. Or cooking a relaxing meal at home instead of going out (you save time on driving and limit your sodium intake).
Being happy and healthy means knowing what works for you and what doesn't. I teach women exactly how to figure out your barriers to success, all while balancing your hormies, inside the Lifestyle Plan. Or if you notice your mood is really suffering, you'll love my PMDD Program.
MENTSTRUAL PHASE - Rest & Reflect
I put the menstrual phase last on purpose. Technically its the start of your cycle, and I wanted to show you how your energy and mood, ebbs and flows throughout the month.
During your period your mind will feel very reflective. You might feel irritable if you're trying to focus on what needs to change in your life and what you need to be happy. This inward focus can get interrupted by the demands of every day life, making you more likely to snap at friends and loved ones.
Maybe you're deep in thought when your husband walks into the room to ask what's for dinner (can't he see you're doing amazing work right now?!) Or when you're at work and the phone rings right when you're on the cusp of figuring out how to deal with next month's big launch.
Life happens and it does get in the way of how our bodies are designed. When we're not able to take the space we need, we do feel more agitated. It causes stress and you're taken out of the dreamlike state your mind truly desires.
It's up to you to CREATE that space.
I go on a walk every single day for this very purpose. It's an opportunity to not listen to anyone else by me. I can be deep in thought. I can listen to music. I'm able to take that alone time and know I'm doing something of great value for the people in my life.
For other women I work with, its journaling at night or in the morning. The simple act of putting pen to paper can relax your body and lower stress. Do anything that feels good to you during your period and you will soon find your emotions all month long feel more balanced and stable.
There is power in honoring our emotions and taking action on our desires.
You are not selfish for wanting more or to change something. You were put on this Earth to live a happy life and using your cycle to understand your emotions will direct your life far more easily than trying to "make things happen".
Emotions direct our life. The more you get comfortable with yours, the more ease you'll experience in your day.
Is there a cycle phase causing you the most stress? For me, it use to be luteal!