A New Womanly Habit

It’s a little late to be putting this new womanly habit in place. But better late than never, right?

I started listening to the Feel Better Live More podcast episode with Dr. Mindy Pelz. She talks about the dramatic hormone shifts that happen to us during perimenopause and highlights specific strategies we can put in place.

I’m honestly only at the beginning of the episode but had to pause it before continuing. There are already things I want to put in place! I wanted to stop and get things going rather than listening through the whole two hours and producing a really long, overwhelming list.

So, this new womanly habit is quite easy. And it’s not actually about perimenopause! But here it is:

When I go into my calendar to record when my period starts each month, I’m going to count 28 days ahead to estimate when I think my next period will be, and I will create a calendar invite for the whole week before that day. The event will be titled: Week of Rest.

I grew up as a feminist. As a younger woman, I never would have wanted to give up a fourth of my month to rest. It was very important to prove that I could do anything a man could do. It was taboo to talk about the ways in which our menstrual cycles might require some slowing down.

But I see now how that way of thinking is all part of the patriarchy. Thinking that I had to live in a “man’s world” in “manly ways” is actually sexism at its finest.

Failing to honor women’s bodies or to see that women can still contribute big things to the world is oppressive.

Oh well if it took me half my life (knock on wood) to figure it out?

(And I’m not going to dwell on the fact that this strategy will become less and less helpful as my perimenopausal period becomes more and more erratic). I’m going to do what I can.

It’s not like I won’t work or won’t accomplish big things in the week leading up to my period. However, I do want to have that extra little reminder about where I am in my cycle and to approach my day-to-day living with more mindfulness.

I’m looking forward to it!