It’s time we start embracing our monthly bleed and celebrating it for what it is. We are cyclic beings and our bodies go through seasons each month. Harriet Roberts joins me to talk about menstruation and what happens when we embrace our cyclic nature.

About Harriet Roberts

Harriet Roberts works in the realms of movement, massage, and menstruation. Coming originally from a dance background, her research is body-based, driven by tactility, and a sense of trust in the rhythms that exist beneath us.

In the last few years, the undeniable current of the hormonal rhythms has come to be a deep fascination. Upon researching her own menstrual body, she knew that this work was not for her alone, but to share with others.

Harriet’s wish is to provide a lost, or at least neglected, education of the body’s cyclical rhythm and how we may exist in accordance with it; aligning with our inner and outer spheres, transforming burden to ease, and engaging with creativity at all levels. Her work’s focus is to encourage menstrual bodies to embrace their cycle in its entirety and hopefully learn to love their cycling self.

About Embracing Your Menstruation & Learning to Love Your Cycling Self

Harriet Roberts brings a wealth of knowledge about menstruation and what it means to be a cyclic being, which all of us are. When we start tuning in to our cyclic nature, we become more in tune not just with what our bodies needs, but also the wider world and Universe.

Harriet gives some incredible advice for how you can start healing your womb and menstrual cycle. And yes, it can be as simple as starting to track your cycle and journaling about your mood, emotions, and how your body feels on those days. This truly unlocks so much information that you should really find out about your body.

It’s not by accident that we’re feeling so disconnected from our menstrual cycles, though. We’ve been brought up in a way that believes our monthly bleeds are shameful and something we should hide. But we talk about why we need to break from this shame and not only embrace our bleed but start to structure our lives around our menstrual cycles.

Personally, I spend the first days of my menstrual cycle slowly, spending time connecting with my body. Harriet shares how she likes to have a long shower to cleanse her body externally, symbolising the cleanse her internal body is going through. Please know that if you don’t have the ability to spend the entire day in communion with your body, even your intention is wonderful.

Both Harriet and I absolutely agree that we should educate everyone in our lives about our own cycles, including the men. We believe that by opening these conversations, we help men understand a woman’s cyclic nature. And, more than this, it will help to call back innate knowledge that, yes, even men used to know before the patriarchy destroyed and made this knowledge shameful.

Finally, Harriet briefly shares what the seasons of our cycle look like. She also explains why it’s important for our health that we treat our bodies in accordance with these cycles.

I’d love it if you share this episode, not only with the girlfriends in your life but also your partners. It’s so important that we open this conversation up to men, as well, so that we can approach a more cyclic lifestyle once again. Let me know how this feels to you in the comments, lovely!

In This Episode

What happens when we tune in to our cyclic nature [13:00]
Where to start healing your womb and cycle [17:00]
Why women feel so disconnected from their menstrual cycle [19:00]
What happens when you structure your life around your menstrual cycle [22:30]
Why you should chart your menstrual cycle [28:30]
How you might want to spend the first days of your menstrual cycle and bleed [36:30]
Why we should educate men about menstruation [42:00]
What your cyclic seasons look like [47:00]

Quotes

“The returning of my menstrual cycle really deepened my connection to other women in my life, children, nurturing, caring, almost like a whole different side of my appeared in the returning of my cycle.” [5:50]

“Although we are inconsistent in the sense of a daily practice, we have this inconsistency, we are very predictable when we begin to engage with our cycle.” [31:00]

“Planting those really small seeds is actually expanding into the general collective consciousness, expanding into our community, just to open this topic more and more. So that girls that are coming after us, young women who are rising and growing, they won’t have the same experience of us as having to hide and be ashamed.” [43:15]