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Writer's pictureMiriam Dowd-Eller

Why Menstrual Cycle Awareness needs to be a critical part of Women's Yoga Classes and Retreats (Post #2)



Blog post about menstrual cycle awareness at Women's Retreats
Four Criteria of a yoga practice for women: Menstrual Cycle Awareness

In this second blog post in a series of 4, we will look at Menstrual cycle awareness (MCA) as one of the 4 criteria for a yoga practice for Women. 


We all have likely heard about the circadian rhythm, and it’s importance. (If you don’t know… it’s your 24-hour clock). Connecting to this circadian rhythm is even a health and wellness approach now. (Circadian medicine). In addition to having a circadian rhythm, women have something that men’s bodies do not. We have what’s called an Infradian rhythm. Aka, a 28 day (or so) cycle of hormonal changes. Every 7 (or so) days our hormones shift in drastic ways, but even their everyday codes and messages to our body-mind are slightly different than the day before. In short…a yoga practice that looks the same day-in and day out does not allow a woman to live in alignment with the way nature is working in her BodyMind. 


For a Yogini to practice yoga with cycle awareness is to look at many primary cycles that flow through a woman’s life and adjusting her practice to her body type and time of day/time of year (as Ayurveda suggests) accordingly. It is also important (and the topic of this post) to adjust according to the time of the month in her unique menstrual cycle (Menstrual Cycle Awareness).


Note: A huge percentage of women, especially young women, are on hormonal birth control and therefore don’t have normal menstrual cycle. In order to address this reality in brief, the actual practices of Womb yoga (or hormone-balancing yoga) can actually help ease the transition off the Pill and other contraceptives (that she might be on for many good reasons such a mood swings, pelvic pain, and of course…avoiding unwanted pregnancy!). 


If a yogini needs to be on hormonal contraceptives for any reason, she can still develop a cyclical awareness practice (or “inner-yoga”) that honors the four “inner seasons” by either choosing when she might bleed (as in with the pill), or by following the phases of the moon to kickstart a monthly rhythm. 


Menstrual cycle awareness (MCA) is similar (but different in intent) to the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM). A yogini might track her monthly hormonal changes via the tools used by the Fertility Awareness Method (waking body temp, cervical fluids, and cervix location)….though you need not track these to practice Menstrual Cycle Awareness. 


The key difference between MCA and FAM is intention for use. MCA does not necessarily need to include the three tools of FAM. A simple daily journal can be used to track mood, energy changes, and spiritual insights as they change throughout the month, and from month to month begin to see similarities throughout the days of her “menstrual month”. 


For more information on Fertility Awareness Method visit here >

For more information on Menstrual Cycle Awareness visit here >


Due to less women birthing and lactating, there are an unprecedented amount of women today menstruating more than their maternal ancestors ever did. This gives us a window into a new kind of “inner-yoga” for women. The cyclical rhythms of our cycles can be a portal into respecting nature and our bodies in way that wasn’t the reality for our maternal ancestors– for whom bearing and nursing multiple children in their lifetime (and therefore far less menstruation)–was much more common. 


A simple example of how a yoga practice might change over the course of a menstrual month (based on a 28 day cycle).


Week 1 (Day 1-7 of the menstrual cycle) INNER WINTER: Chanting/Mantra/Pranayama practices, Restorative Yoga or Yoga Nidra to deeply relax (with support) and find stillness. If you are a postpartum momma (in early motherhood and not bleeding), you can think of your postpartum as one extended time period of an “inner winter”, and wisely indulge in these “rest” practices in abundance. Yin Yoga (with little/no props) is not appropriate at this time due to the long time periods of stretch on the ligaments and tendons that are already prone to excess mobility due to the hormone Relaxin. We offer lots of these kinds of practices in our mother's retreats and mindfulness retreats at EarthWell, and prenatal and postnatal yoga series.


Week 2 & 3 (Day 8-20) INNER SPRING & INNER SUMMER: movement practices that include a faster pace, perhaps more “backbends” or practices that stimulate the legs and pelvis to keep energy (Prana) moving in the pelvis during pre-ovulatory and ovulatory phase. Also, however, keep doing meditative or yoga nidra practices throughout to keep an eye on not “burning out” on overly heating practices, or an overly extroverted lifestyle. 


Week 4 (Day 21-28) INNER AUTUMN: Practices that break up stagnant energy (similar to chi gong or kundalini yoga, and especially rotational or circular movements in the pelvis, and joints) might be helpful for the beginning half of your practice…to get out pent up energy, but also starting to slow down BEFORE your first day of bleeding, so as to not re-enter your “inner winter” time period from a sprint. Chanting/Mantra/Pranayama practices works well along with journaling to move out of the “head” (rumination), and into your “body” to make the most of any mood challenges of this time. 


In short, it is time to respectfully alter Yogic teachings that come from a teacher or lineage of teachers that did not personally experience the drastic changes that come with the onset (and ongoing experience of) things such as menstruation, ovulation, childbearing, birthing, lactating and perimenopause. At a minimum, with this knowledge anyone offering yoga retreats for women, or yoga classes can offer some basic ideas for adapative practices for folks who might be bleeding.


In our next blog post, we will look at the role that SANGHA (or community) plays especially for female yoga practitioners. 

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