This episode was previously recorded as part of an online e-course called Menstrual Magic. It is a deep dive into the basics of understanding the menstrual cycle including the stages of menstruality throughout our lives, the hormonal changes and fluctuations throughout the cycle and the inner seasons.

In these three episodes, there will be references made to activities and diagrams which I will try my best to include links to below - where relevant. Please note: a lot of what I speak about, especially relating to the inner seasons, are my own experiences of my cycle journey and the most important thing that I now teach in relation to menstrual cycle awareness is that connection to your own cycle overrules absolutely everything else.

For more information regarding menstruality and the inner seasons, I would highly recommend Red School who I trained with back in 2024 and became a Menstruality Mentor after completing their three month Menstruality Leadership Programme.

If you would like to complete the first period activity that is mentioned in this episode, you will find instructions below:

You can journal around this if that’s something you enjoy or you can simply take some time to sit and think about what this might bring up for you.

Think back to your first period.

Can you remember it? What was it like? Were you expecting it? Did you know what it was? Did anyone teach you about what was going to happen or what was happening when it did arrive? How did you feel about it? Did you speak to anyone about it?

In some cultures, the first period (also known as menarche) is seen to be sacred and would be celebrated with some kind of ritual or ceremony. For a lot of people, especially from my own culture, there is still a lot of stigma and shame around menstruation and it is often just not spoken about. It is really important to mark this moment and take some time to think about your own journey through menstruation - regardless of where you are with it now.

Find out more about Periods & Pleasure at: www.periodsandpleasure.com

Music credit:

Untamable Love by Kurtz Martin