The Sacred Womb
Come home to your true nature; Embody The Wisdom Of Your Menstrual Cycle, Heal Across Your Soul’s Journey & Unify Your Divine Masculine and Feminine.
The Sacred Womb
Debunking 6 Menstrual Cycle Myths
Ready to debunk some myths about your menstrual cycle?
I talk about 6 of the most common myths in the realm of ‘womb work’ that are limiting our experience of what the menstrual cycle truly is, and get clear on what the antidotes are.
PMS is not a foregone conclusion!
Rather, it's an access point to our subconscious, a time to listen to and align with our truth. Our pre-menstrual time can be SO powerful, and is natures way of helping us to see what’s really going on. As we start to understand and clear the what caused the underlying rage, anger, frustration - and are able to into alignment with ourselves, PMS symptoms disappear.
Chasing the ‘perfect cycle’ is a fallacy.
Our menstrual cycle is a barometer of our our spiritual, physical and emotional health. In the absence of a genuine connection with the ever changing undercurrent of our menstrual cycle, we can take on ideals that our outside of us and try to conform to them, resulting in trying to ‘fit’ our cycle with expectations, that inevitably don’t match. The way forwards is to clear the trauma that is blocking a genuine connection.
Tired of battling your inner critic?
This is a wounded part of us that we don’t have to manage, put up with or work around. It’s a part of us the NEEDS our attention, connection and love. Criticism comes from fear and this needs processing and integrating so that we can see clearly. It’s totally possible to do this!
Bleeding On The New Or Full Moon Means Something Specific
Nope! Only we know how the interaction between our unique menstrual cycle and the moon cycle is both supporting and challenging us. Again, when we don’t have a genuine connection, we can take on external beliefs and structures that keep us stuck in a certain way of being. The antidote, as always is to do the work to get a genuine connection.
Blaming The Moon or Astrology On Our State Of Being
Not necessarily directly related to our menstrual cycle, but very popular in the work of cycle attunement and women’s work….Attributing our state of being solely to the moon phases or astrological climate blinds us to what is really going on within. The antidote again, is to look within, understand what’s going on and then look at how the moon phase or astrological climate is amplifying that.
The false premise that hormones are the only drivers of our health.
I discuss how factors like trauma, synthetic hormones, the pill and toxins affect our hormones, and that we need a wholistic approach to heal and take care of our menstrual cycle.
The antidote to all of this is to look within, attune to our unique cycle and listen to the information it’s giving us.
Melanie Swan is regarded as a leader in healing the physical womb, restoring the metaphysical womb, and connecting with the cosmic womb.
She’s a Womb Medicine Woman and Soul Worker with 20 year’s experience – who guides and empowers women to come home to their true nature.
She hosts The Sacred Womb Podcast and runs The Womb Healing Training, and is currently writing her first book The Sacred Womb, which is, at its core, a handbook for the empowerment of womankind; due for release in late 2025.
very warm welcome to this episode that is all about these six top myths about the menstrual cycle. So I just want to bust these, because I hear these quite a lot in circles and in the one-to-one work I do and I think it'd just be great to get that information out there. It's already out there sometimes, but I just wanted to put it nice and succinctly in this podcast. So here we go, the six top menstrual cycle myths. And so the first one is that PMS is inevitable. I'm here to tell you it's just not so. Pms is actually a build-up of unprocessed stuff in our psyche and what happens in our premenstrual time is our state of being shifts, so we have more access to our subconscious, so it's harder for us to kind of paste over it. So when we're in our ovulation zone we kind of generally more energize not always, but generally more energize. Our focus is different, there's sort of a different undercurrent of energy that we're embodying. But during our premenstrual time we've got more access to our subconscious and this is nature's way of helping us grow, helping us see what's within us really. So it's not inevitable that we have difficulty at this stage. It only happens when we try and be in a certain state of being and we resist being with our subconscious and just listening to it really. So it's really valuable for us because we can listen to ourselves more closely, listen to our truth more easily and then respond to that. If we're not used to responding to it, if we've got back-to-up trauma that's some process then it's going to be harder and what it does is it produces these symptoms in the body, and so these symptoms are usually an expression of stuff that's built up, that's unexpressed, and it can be kind of irritability, anger I mean they're all shades of the same thing really and rage can come as well. Shortness of temper and just really being fed up and we're actually really just fed up with ourselves, and also we've got rage to process, we've got anger to process from childhood usually and from the residue of the patterns in our adult life. So once we can clear a good amount of that doesn't have to be perfect, doesn't have to be everything Once we've cleared a good amount of that, those symptoms, they just clear up and what we're usually left with is greater access to our subconscious and an energy that destroys our own illusions.
Speaker 1:It makes us look, and that's really really useful because then we can see where we're out of alignment. And one thing I will say has remained is my just to share my own experience is that our sense is heightened. So hearing, sense of smell, ability to see beyond what is, heightens. And if we try and engage with the world like we engage with the world when we're ovulating, when the natural energy of that current is more kind of upwards and outwardly engaging, if we try and continue that, when our senses have suddenly become heightened, then we're going to get irritated with our environment. And as soon as we withdraw from that, you know somewhat, we don't have to completely withdraw from it and start listening within, turn those senses to within, then the irritability goes. So yeah, pms is not inevitable. Our premenstrual time is so, so powerful, but we've just generally forgotten how to use it and generally forgotten that of course, if we're out of alignment with ourselves, of course, if we've got back to trauma, it's going to show up somewhere and that is where it shows up. So, yeah, it's not inevitable. It can be really, really, really powerful.
Speaker 1:Okay, number two is chasing the perfect cycle. So there's so much written now, or there's a fair bit written about the four seasons of the menstrual cycle and, yes, there are certain phases that our cycle tends to universally follow. However, our cycle is a barometer of our health, our emotions, our trauma, our ability to embody love. It's everything, it contains everything within it. It's a great compass, it's a great barometer, and so, for that reason, there is no perfect cycle, because the cycle is perfect as it is now, because it's given us feedback on where we're at.
Speaker 1:And, of course, the thing that stops us connecting genuinely with our own undercurrent is unprocessed trauma, and given we've experienced a lot within the womb, collectively as well as individually, then our psyche just draws us away from that pain. And in the absence of that genuine connection, what's happening is women are taking these four seasons or reading a book and thinking there is an ideal cycle and there just isn't, because the cycle anyway changes. When we're in our 20s and when we're in our 30s and we're in our 40s, we change, our relationship to our bodies changes, naturally, our energy levels change, and so all that needs to be taken into account and what we're aiming for is a genuine connection with ourselves, an ability to attune to our own undercurrent and an ability to bring that into our daily lives. So it's trauma that disconnects us in the first place. It is trauma that stops us connecting and it is also trauma that even in when we've got connection, that stops us really living in alignment with one who we truly are, because we've forgotten that too generally. So I don't want to be all doom and gloom, but where we're at is there's a good amount of people sort of chasing the perfect cycle and it's becoming more of a sort of tyrant or another thing to adhere to or achieve, because women have got that, we've got that conditioning with each other anyway. So if that's you and you're listening and you're finding that you aren't really getting a genuine connection and that you're trying to be all zippy at ovulation or you can't find this Super Woman Day, or it's not a criticism of the work or the books you've read or you, it's just that there's someone processed trauma there. That means it's in the way of a genuine connection. Okay dope.
Speaker 1:Well, this next one. I love the myth of the Inner Critic. Again, this has been banded round like a tennis ball at Wimbledon. The Inner Critic, the Inner Critic is an unhealed state. We're not meant to manage it. We're not meant to live with it. We're not meant to put up with it. We're not meant to just make friends with it and have it there. It is an unhealed state of being. It needs looking at that. That Inner Critic is trying to help us in a certain way.
Speaker 1:But being critical is not helpful. It's not coming from a place of love. You don't have to put up with that, you don't have to manage it. So when it comes up, it's usually there. It's usually a part of us that gets created, that is trying to help us get love and is trying to help us adapt and adjust and be a certain way so that we get love. So it's a coping mechanism actually, and it needs working with and engaging with in a way that brings it closer, that brings that energy closer, so that that part becomes understood for how it's tried to help truly and then it will transform and actually help us in a different way Once that part realizes, hey, we don't need to adapt and do things to get love anymore. We're not living with mom and dad or whoever, so we don't have to do those things. So it needs some good trauma processing and parts work to bring in and actually be integrated.
Speaker 1:If you are suffering with an inner critic, that is totally possible. It's totally possible to heal it. You don't have to put up with it and live with it and just manage it. I understand I haven't read them books written about it and it is being banded around as almost a badge sometimes, while my inner critic said and it's bullshit, you don't have to live with that. You can come from a place of love and it does tend to come up at a premenstrual time. Again, we've got more access to our subconscious and we're more irritated if there is unprocessed anger and rage there, like I said. So it does tend to come up at that time. And when the PMS is cleared, when the trauma is mostly cleared, when the inner critic is transformed and is working with us in a loving way and is integrated, what we're actually left with is this lovely ability to just discern and analyze from a place of love. And it feels good. And it can feel difficult sometimes because maybe sometimes we've taken decisions and then have to backtrack on them or talk to some people about some things, but that's okay. It feels very different than critical. It feels loving and supportive and clear.
Speaker 1:So the next one is bleeding on the new moon or full moon means something specific. So this is again something. This is banded around a huge amount more and it's very Instagrammable. It's very social media friendly and very click bait friendly. It doesn't mean anything if we bleed on the new or full moon, that I can tell you, that somebody else can tell you. Only you know what that means. So you'll need to work that out. You'll need a genuine connection with your womb, the consciousness of the womb, and be able to feel the cycles of the moon as well and just feel the interaction. That's as simple as it is Feel the interaction. How is the interaction supporting you? How is the interaction challenging you or how do you feel challenged by it, and what steps need to be taken? And that's it. So it comes back down to again just having a genuine connection, doing the work to get a genuine connection, and then you'll know.
Speaker 1:I wonder what this month you know and we can attune each cycle. Okay, so maybe it's the full moon and I am bleeding. Well, for me, that usually means my bleed is a bit more creative. I'm a bit more creative in my bleed. If I'm bleeding in tune with the dark moon, then it usually means that I'm more internal and more cave like and might sleep loads or just rest, rest more for a couple of days or I'm less creative or just need more space. That's me and that's what I've worked out over the years is a general pattern. But again, it's always down to attunement with each cycle, attunement with each moment, and that's what our womb and our menstrual cycle is trying to pull us into.
Speaker 1:The next one is kind of a follow on from the other one, really blaming the moon or astrology and our state of being. Again, this just comes from a lack of genuine connection and trauma is in the way of that. So we just need to process it. But yeah, it's the full moon, so I'm feeling ungrounded, or I mean, that's quite a popular one the full moon merely amplifies our current state of being. It shines a light on it, so to speak. So if we're feeling ungrounded anyway, it's going to amplify that. It doesn't actually cause it.
Speaker 1:Or astrology I mean the classic is the Mercury retrograde, so I can't work out anything on my computer. I mean, I just I don't know what to say about this. I feel I don't work with astrology in that way because I think it's been so bloody watered down. What's banded about on the general blog posts and Instagrammable social media quotes is, I feel, so watered down and so far from what it is truly that I just I don't think it's helpful. I think it's becoming another bypass and I just can't see how it's helping. However, I know why it's happening it's because there is a lack of genuine connection there. And again, this is not criticism of what things, what's going on. It's more like just a real calling out actually of how we're operating in general as women, in that we need to do our work, we need to do our trauma processing and some of these things are helpful in a way because it gives us an anchor point. But we need the anchor point within. So it's just becoming a bit like fluffy and what we're aiming for is depth and genuine connection. So, basically, the moon doesn't make us any particular way. An astrology doesn't make us any particular way. It tends to amplify and support us and we can either engage with that or blame it.
Speaker 1:Okay, so the last one is solely focusing on hormones for a healthy cycle or for a diagnosis of what's going on within us. So hormones respond to trauma. So I've heard time and time again in my private practice that there's stuff going on with the womb, there's PCOS. There's irregular cycles, there's missing cycles, all that sort of range, but the test results are okay, the hormones are okay, the hormone tests come back all fine and the hormones are okay. And I mean the tests need upgrading or something because they're not working.
Speaker 1:I've found, and also we've got a load of false hormones in our body from, apparently, the hormones even in the water, if you meet this. Hormones in there and also women have been on and off the pill now for a while and they're false hormones, they're synthetic hormones. So it's fair to say that we've got a load of hormones running through our bodies that aren't really ours, that aren't originating with us, and our genuine hormones respond to trauma as well. So it doesn't work is what I found. That's it. I don't know what else to say about it. It just it doesn't seem to work is a conclusion I've come to from my experience working with loads and loads of women.
Speaker 1:But what does seem to work is looking at it from every angle. I know this probably sounds a bit cheesy, but a holistic approach. We need a whole approach to heal right. So hormones, fine, if you want to look at them, if you want to understand them. Look at your cycling that way, fair enough, but we need to look at hormones and trauma and healing and our lifestyle and how much stress we're under and what we're eating as well. So if you're looking to, if you've got something going on with your cycle and you're looking to heal, I'd recommend you look at all different ways, all different aspects. Right, okay, so that's it. I felt like I was in a good mood. Right, okay, so that's it. Was that a bit doom and gloomy? I hope not.
Speaker 1:I hope the antidote, the underlying antidote to all of this is to develop a genuine connection with the consciousness of our womb, with the undercurrent of our menstrual cycle. It's all totally possible, but that does mean we need to do the work to process that. You know what was previously unbearable and come home to ourselves and restore the love within. And it works. Our cycle balances. It works every time. I'll just run over them again.
Speaker 1:Pms is not inevitable. Our premenstrual time is a very powerful time. There is no perfect cycle. Your cycle is already perfect and giving you the perfect feedback. It's going to change every seven years anyway. The myth of the inner critic it is a myth. It's an unhealed state and you can totally integrate that and just be left with discernment and analysis.
Speaker 1:Bleeding on the new or full moon means something specific. Again, just the antidote is to connect genuinely. Blaming the moon or astrology on a state of being let's stop doing that. Let's just get a good, genuine connection again. And focusing on hormones solely just doesn't work. Holistic approach is more effective. There we go. I guess I could have done that in five minutes actually. Anyway, I hope it's helpful. I'd love to hear how this lands with you. I realize that you know I've said those things in circle and we've worked on it sometimes, and sometimes it hasn't landed very well and women feel like, oh, they're criticized or like they've been doing it wrong. I just invite you to, if you do feel that, take a few deep breaths, breathe through it and put your hands on your womb and ask your womb the truth, because really that's the only thing that matters. Okay, all right, see you next time.
