Knowing your cycle: learn to love your lady landscape

Lisa Lister shows us how to explore, navigate and love your lady landscape

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Knowing your cycle: learn to love your lady landscape

Knowing your cycle is key to loving your body and experience as a woman โ€“ thatโ€™s a seriously radical and rebellious act in a world where billion dollar diet and beauty industries, which are reliant on your insecurities and self-loathing, exist.

Be radical. Love your body.

1. Get to know your menstrual cycle โ€“ this is done more effectively when not using hormone-controlled contraception methods. You can do this with a charting device like Daysy. Itโ€™s hormone-free and hassle-free, taking your temperature and charting your cycle. Itโ€™s 99.3 per cent effective and uses a light system to show you when youโ€™re fertile.

2. Chart your emotions โ€“ make note of your feelings in a diary each month. Do this for at least three months, and youโ€™ll start to notice patterns, hot spots and power days in your cycle. These will vary from woman to woman, but they will become a unique-to-you guidebook to how your body works.

3. Get familiar with your cervical fluid โ€“ taking note of the consistency and colour of this fluid throughout the menstrual month isnโ€™t just for those who want to get pregnant. It helps you to know how fertile and healthy your womb is, too. Milky + lumpy consistency = not fertile. Egg white + runny consistency = fertile.

4. Pay attention โ€“ be mindful of the natural processes your body is going through. Often, we try to block this out with painkillers and tampons so we can carry on as โ€˜normalโ€™. Try slowing down and noticing the effects of bleeding on your body and your mind, especially on the first day.

Adapted from Love Your Lady Landscape by Lisa Lister.

Illustration: iStock