Exploring the concept of menstrual cycle awareness: definition and benefits

Menstrual cycle awareness (commonly referred to by its abbreviation MCA) is a term coined by Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer, Founders of Red School and authors of Wild Power. They define menstrual cycle awareness as the “practice of paying attention to where you are in your cycle each day, what you are experiencing and how to care for your changing cyclical needs”.

When you engage in the practice of menstrual cycle awareness, you develop a connection to your own unique cyclical expression, and a deeper understanding of your cyclical experience. This connection and understanding offers you the opportunity to gain insight into how your cyclical experience affects your day-to-day life on a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level. It supports you to identify and understand cyclical patterns, and adopt that knowledge into your day-to-day life to create a cyclical experience that works for you.

It is important to note in their book Wild Power, Alexandra and Sjanie discuss how in the practice of menstrual cycle awareness there are no rules, except one, the Big Red Rule. The Big Red Rule "asks you really feel and experience the cycle you have - with all its complexity, challenge and eccentricity and to craft meaning from that. There is no perfect cycle. It is your experience of your own cycle, your process of engagement with it, that overtimes generates the real magic".

There are a number of benefits to practicing menstrual cycle awareness, such as:

• Gaining greater knowledge about your body and how it functions.

• Tracking your health and supporting a diagnosis.

• Cultivating a nurturing and nourishing cycle self-care practice that sustains you throughout the entire cycle.

• Fertility tracking and natural contraception, when menstrual cycle awareness is coupled with a fertility awareness method.

• A supportive lifestyle framework that may be applied across various areas of life, such as how you show up for yourself and others; how you take care of your happiness and wellbeing; how you parent; how you do business, or how you express your creativity.

The preceding text is taken from Embrace Your Flow, a beginner's guide to menstrual cycle awareness and cyclical living - you can access and download the full guide here.

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Reference: Alexandra Pope & Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer (2017), Wild Power - Discover the Magic of Your Menstrual Cycle and Awaken the Feminine Path to Power - access reference here.