When you don't know what's going on with your body or how to improve your hormonal functioning then you're screwed. It's literally like being in the dark and when you're in the dark it's dangerous. That means you're in the dark about who you are. You're in the dark about who you really are, what you're capable of, not recognizing your gifts and talents, and ultimately, without even realizing it, you're giving away your power by allowing your biology to be a blind spot. You really don't even know how much you need this education yet because like I said, the miseducation and the miscommunication about the female cycle and our biology runs so deep. You can only get yourself out of the dark. Let's just get into these bullshit myths right now.
PMS is just part of having a period and being a woman.
There are so many premenstrual symptoms that we're told are normal. Well, I've got news for you and if you've been following me for a while, you know already that this myth just isn't true. Mood swings, bloating, cramping, breakouts, period headaches, and all the other PMS symptoms you have aren't normal. Say it louder for those in the back. Okay, I will these, symptoms are not normal. I know you're wondering what f, everyone went through this. I hear this so much and yes, you're right but not everyone. This is the thing statistically 80% of women experienced PMS. You've been conditioned to believe that there aren't any solutions so what happens is you leave it in the dark and you continue to kind of plug along, shrug your shoulders, accept the pain and the messy complication say and shit like, oh I always get like this. I mean, don't get me wrong, I was just like you, I went on plugged in and shrugging my shoulders for almost five years or so. No one should have their thoughts, feelings, or opinions dismissed as being hormonal. It is highly damaging. Men have hormones too. Why is that? Why is it that women are being devalued in this way?
If you look at the science, it shows that PMS only happens because of an imbalance of estrogen and progesterone during your luteal phase of your cycle. That's the second half of your cycle. This can be triggered by caffeine or sugar or dairy, alcohol, fad diets, and all these juice cleanses. I just wonder how your body feels when it knows that you're resisting change. The suppression of your feminine energy is what I'm trying to talk about here. Would you feel more balanced and peaceful when you surrender to the energy of change because that's what's actually happening? Your body is changing from week to week but you're resisting this. You're still pushing and forcing. I learned in the National Institute of Health's bio cycle study, the research says that the longer PMS is left untreated and unchecked, the greater the risk of developing cancer, heart disease, diabetes, dementia, post-menopause, this shit is so real.
I'm not here to sugarcoat this since living in alignment with my cycle and in sync with my cycle and eating the right food, honoring, recognizing, and celebrating my feminine energy, not only did my PMDD symptoms disappear, but all of my other PMS symptoms did too. Now, don't get me wrong, if a symptom crops up, which it does from time to time, it isn't a biggie anymore. It doesn't send me into a downward spiral trying to climb my way out of this dark space for days. It's not a biggie anymore because I know full well why it's happened and how to fix it. I might have eaten too much cheese. I might have had a bit too much alcohol. The thing is, I'm aware. Wouldn't it be incredible if you could experience this too? The thing is you have your PMS phase all wrong. It can actually provide you with new insights and understandings, your premenstrual phase.
The phase that comes before your bleed can actually help you get your house in order literally and metaphorically. I just love how Alisa Vitti the creator of cycle syncing describes PMS, she has made it into an acronym. She now calls it prioritizing myself. P- prioritizing, M - my, S - self. PMS is the time where you should be turning your attention inward and try to slow down on the social front and don't think you need to be everywhere and do all of these things for everyone because you'll end up feeling exhausted. Try and slow down on the social front so you don't feel so exhausted. That means fewer PMS symptoms.
2. Cramps are inevitable.
Cramps can always be a challenge and it's a good thing for you to feel shit about them. You're listening to me saying that cramps are not inevitable and you may be thinking yeah, okay Vianney, easy for you to say, you don't know about my cramps. My cramps made me feel sick, pass out, I can't even stand up. It may feel like my womb is literally going to fall out. I feel like I'm having a baby or even worse. The pain is worse than childbirth. I say I've been there, well not the childbirth part but I kid you not all of those descriptions were literally my life and it sucked.
Menstrual cramping, though is not inevitable. Let me tell you why. More or less half of all women in their reproductive years aka when they experience a period so from puberty up until they go into menopause, say that they've had some period pain for one or two days a month. You thought to yourself that you're supposed to have cramps haven't you? As women we're destined to suffer has been a belief of yours, hasn't it? It's just life, ain't it? Here's the truth. Cramps are caused by prostaglandins. These are one of a number of hormone-like substances and your body produces one type of prostaglandin and PGE2, that causes uterine contractions that can lead to cramping. If there's an excess of this type of prostaglandin but here's the sick part. here's the clever part, our body actually creates two other types of prostaglandins, PGE1 and PGE3 that counteract those contractions. Thanks for these magical and might I add natural painkillers, your body effectively has twice the capacity to relieve pain than actually cause the cramps, drop the mic. This is a mind-blowing moment, let me just back this up for you. Your body can actually naturally release period pain. The good news is if you eat the right foods for your cycle, then you generate all the elements all building blocks your body needs to promote the production of the good prostaglandins that will ease your period pain. I'm telling you your body is a powerhouse.
3. Being on the pill helps you to regulate or fix your period.
It was just the other day, I was tagged in someone's Instagram post and the post is all about this girl who really been suffering from bad PMS, out of control symptoms that she was experiencing. I think she said around 10 to 14 days before her period. It sounded like PMDD to me, to be honest, but I went through the comments and I was reading what everyone was suggesting: evening primrose oil, starflower oil, Kiwi mango, vitamin D3, comments like their gynecologist was telling them that these symptoms were normal and just to take ibuprofen and just accept it. I was so irritated reading this, that not one person seemed to make the connection between hormonal imbalances or that their bodies not broken. They're just out of alignment and just making that connection. One comment in particular really got me going, it said contraceptive pills regulate your period and reduce period pain and it won't make you infertile. Oh my god, I was like deep breaths, take deep breaths. There were literally over 124 comments from all these women raising their hand saying me too, I'm suffering. I experienced this as well.
Please believe me when I say if you are on hormonal birth control, you are not alone in thinking that you're still having a period but you're still menstruating. Taking synthetic hormones in the form of contraception and birth control will not regulate your period because you aren't having one even if you see blood, this isn't your period. Here's the tea, when you're witnessing and experiencing seeing blood washed on birth control. This isn't a real period, it's a withdrawal bleed. From a physiological standpoint, it bears no resemblance whatsoever to a natural period that comes at the end of your monthly menstrual cycle. The sugar pill that you find in your pill packet is actually a marketing ploy. Back in the day, when the pill was being introduced, there was a bit of outrage from women who were disturbed by the idea that by taking the pill, they wouldn't actually bleed at all. That's not actually right what actually happened was the manufacturers that thought that women weren’t going to be buying the pill for that and they would be disturbed by the idea that they wouldn't bleed at all and that they wouldn't use the pill at all. So the manufacturers are the ones that were thinking if women don't bleed they might be a bit freaked out by this and they might think I don't want to buy it. I'm not going to use it. We spoke about money already. That's how the placebo week actually originated.
Menstruation only happens when you ovulate and the fact that the synthetic hormones in hormonal birth control suppress such an important phase of your cycle, ovulation, you cannot possibly have a period. It is impossible. Why are so many women hung up on the idea that the pill or hormonal birth control can regulate your period? We're back to that miscommunication again, aren't we? Birth control cannot correct, improve, or regulate hormonal imbalances. Hormonal birth control actually makes you shut down your own hormonal function. It allows you to go on like this for years, decades even without ever finding solutions or addressing the root cause of symptoms, which in the end, get you sick in the long term. I'm gonna keep it real with you. I always tried to keep it real here. I'm actually not sure what actually keeps it real with yourself. Did you read the side effects that you get in that little pamphlet when they give you your birth control prescription? When I was on hormonal birth control in my late teens in my early 20s, I barely skim read it. I just thought how bad can it be or it wouldn't happen to me. It happens to 1 in 10 or whatever the statistics were at that time. Since I was at a doctor's office, I assumed I was in safe hands. The irony. The side effects in the pamphlet are literally the tip of the iceberg. Your doctor or your gynecologist probably never told you that the pill drains your nutrients. It plays havoc with your microbiome, your gut health. Remember, your gut is your second brain. The pill and hormonal birth control escalate, depression. That's the real tea.
4. You don't need to bleed.
Last year, I got really angry and so did some of my peers. In this field of study, when there was an article released in The Guardian newspaper headlines, we don't need to bleed., why so many women are giving up on their periods. I was fuming. I remember the day so clearly and to be honest, this wasn't the first article of its kind and it won't be lost and I know that. The thing is that we can outsmart our cycles and suppress ovulation and skip our periods. It's 2020 for God's sake but this is a really big but, just because we can do it doesn't mean that we should. Nature has been designed so perfectly and give your body some credit for being so intelligent, that the truth is right. Nature, God, the universe, whatever you want to call it, gave us this gift. Gave us this power source in a way to safeguard our long-term health and by messing around with it, by skipping your period because it's an inconvenience to you comes with dangerous consequences. Proper menstruation and actually ovulating protect you from a whole bunch of diseases. It protects you from heart disease and osteoporosis and breast cancer and dementia. Think of it this way, every time you have a period and you ovulate think of it as like you've got this health bank account and your period and that ovulation is being topped up. You're saving and the benefits you get from these two events happening it's protecting you. You're saving for your financial future, your healthy financial future.
The menstrual cycle is actually deemed as the fifth vital sign. What that means is that it's just as important as your pulse, your temperature, your breathing rate, your blood pressure. Have you seen your period go MIA, raise your hand because if you have there's a health issue there like low estrogen, which can lead to heart issues. Maybe you're missing your period because of PCOS, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. Irregular cycles are a signal that your hormones are messed the eff up and you have symptoms like PMS and mood swings. Like I mentioned earlier, acne, weight gain, remember I've been there, it's no fun so when I hear things or I read articles that say you don't need to bleed and why you can give up on your period, I think, I'm gonna get real deep here but you're disrupting, you are actually causing long term health issues.
5. If you have a bad period, you can't do shit about it.
Earlier this year, I was having a conversation with one of my makeup artist friends while I was on a job. One of them said to me that she had been having her period for three weeks and just shrugged her shoulders and said these things always happen to me. I'm not joking inside I was screaming, I wanted to shake her but instead, I did my job. I asked her powerful questions as a coach. One thing I said to her was if you had a nosebleed for three weeks, would you just shrug your shoulders and say these things always happen to me? No, you fucking wouldn't. I understand that we bleed from our vaginas but it's a rhythm lasting approximately typically three to seven days. That amount of time I heard that she was bleeding for ladies, please wake up what has caused you to ignore these things and not look for solutions? You could get a cold and you need to up your vitamin C intake right to get better so you can look after yourself quicker, am I right? So I find it so strange when we have period-related issues and we ignore them and just hope that they will sort themselves out. We have been conditioned to believe that the wonders of being a woman are to have painful disruptive periods and that's it, case closed. If that's what you believe, what happens is you end up not doing anything about it.
Here's my last bit of tea for you, the truth is you've been educated on how your cycle works to such an inadequate degree and you know what, it’s not your fault. It is not your fault. I'm not here to blame or shame. I'm here to educate and to raise awareness, the system is broken. But my point is because of the miseducation or the lack thereof, it's prevented you from taking action, from creating change and changing your reality, knowing how to support your hormones so that you can have peaceful and pain-free periods. These bad periods don't have to be your reality, it’s as simple as that. Integrating a few lifestyle changes based around your cycle like food, exercise, taking the right supplements, and knowing how to manage your energy is a game-changer. Wouldn't it feel so good to free yourself from this vicious cycle?
I have a free masterclass for you and you can watch it on-demand right now. Watch my free masterclass, It's called the Power of your Menstrual Cycle. It's a jam-packed free training that will take you from pain to peace and then onto a journey of unleashing your true creativity and aligned and sustainable productivity that works for you, your unique design, your unique flow, and rhythm. It's laced with so much magic and I am so excited to share this with you. Watch it instantly now and tell a friend to tell a friend. Click HERE to watch it now.
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