"The body whispers to you then it starts to scream"

As a teen I suffered horrendous period pains month after month.

Doctors said it was normal and put me on the pill, this already didn’t feel right for me… But what was I supposed to know, after all I’m just a teen... in pain.

After several years of feeling like a marionette to a synthesised hormone, complete with sugar coating. I felt enough was enough and had to do something, as I wasn’t feeling any better. The pain was getting worse.

Each month was filled with dread, as my 24 day cycle was a numbered sentence. How would my body react this time? Would I pass out at work again? I finally was HEARD by a GP and she took her time and run through a bunch of questions. She finally asked me if i’d heard of endometriosis, I said no. After a number of tests I was finally diagnosed.

The more I spoke to women the more I realised there where more of me. Young women suffering everyday… here! Through the pain in a funny kind of way it bonded us.

All this time I was on various hormone treatments, it played with my libido, my periods stopped, my weight and moods where up and down and I remember feeling “I wasn’t a real woman.”  Everything that made me a women was being reformed, regurgitated into a dulled mould.

I wanted to work through things naturally and realised I don’t want to fit in to the cookie cutter of “societies, professional women role”. I never did!

Women don’t function like men, and heres where we’re getting it wrong!

There where 2 catalysts in my life, when I found yoga and when I learnt how the relationship with my body and surroundings, provided me with the chance to change.
It was all there I just had to listen!

I cant be anymore grateful to Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer a who run Red School.

I was re-educated to listen to my own body. I learnt to chart and respect how each “season” of my cycle had a different characteristic, it made me honour different parts of the cycle instead of fighting against it every month. Naturally stress dissolves, I allow myself to receive.

Here are some transformational teachings from Sjanie and Alexandra.

“It's a challenge to do less! We normally have a foot on the accelerator but our body through our symptoms like PMS or pain is telling you to slowdown.”

“To turn your attention inward...this is your cycle talking here”

“Listen to yourself!”

Not being attached to expectations people have on you, or even worse sometimes your own expectations! “The truth of your own experience, is to be on top of your game”

“You don't fight not sleeping, your natural circadian rhythm. Maybe for a bit you drink coffee, take drugs and stay awake but you soon start to feel crappy and can't sustain it. If you push through cycle by cycle you go out in the world with an empty tank.... Your soul, your energy will suffer. In your 20s you prob won't feel it … but in your 30s and 40s YOU FEEL IT”

"The body whispers to you then it starts to scream"

“Even if you try to slow down 1% in your life, I'm not saying to go to sleep every period. The world we live in is not set up in this way, we have family, work, laundry!”

“It soon makes you pretty uncool as you start to say no to things and do less. However you start to not care what other people think because you're taking care of yourself.”

I learnt that to execute change, it was not the case to just pop a pill now and then… this was a total lifestyle change and I want it more than anything!

Theses no way of sugar coating this one… IT TAKES COMMITMENT. 

BUT THE UNSHACKLING BENEFITS  ENDLESS!!!

EMPOWER YOURSELF and the women around you. Your daughters. Your mother. Your grandmother. Your friends. Your community! Through your menstrual cycle to menopause and beyond. Check out Red School 

5 Poses For Your Visit From Aunt Flow

…you can even do in your bed!!