How much fear do you have around your period?
It’s an interesting question that we often don’t think about.
For the most part, we’re told to ignore our periods. They’re dirty, messy, and not to be discussed.
At best, our periods are supposed to go by without us noticing, as if we don’t have a cycle at all. Shhh, don’t tell!
This is bad enough when we have normal period.
But it gets REALLY BAD when we have a contentious and fearful relationship with our period.
If you’re like us and have spent close to 20 years dealing with cramps so bad that they make you nauseous and won’t let you leave the house…you’ll know the fear we’re talking about.
Fearful Questions and Their Answers
Do you dread getting your period every month because you’re scared about how much it’s going to hurt this time? How bad it’ll be? Will you have to call into work? Will you have to be dedicate half your brain power just to make it through the day?
Do you also fear what having a painful period means? Will you be able to get pregnant in the future? Will you need surgery? Will you ever figure out what’s going on so that you can feel better?
These are a lot of important questions.
And in ignoring our periods, we never allow ourselves to dig deep and find out way out of the fear.
The menstrual cycle is broken up in 4 distinct phases and each allow you to naturally be guided into healing.
No one else can do this work for you, unfortunately. Which is why most of us have a supplement graveyard in our cabinets, half read books lining our shelves, and a million health care providers that we tried working with and found no help.
By aligning yourself with the ebbs and flow of your feminine reality and power, you can start to let some of these fears go…and learn valuable lessons from the others.
Beating Cramps Naturally
Here are some ideas of things you can do RIGHT NOW to give yourself some relief while you work on the long term picture:
- Raspberry leaf tea
When we feel really severe cramps heading our way, we brew up a huge cup of raspberry leaf tea. It’s been well studied in pregnancy and labor as being a good herb for healthy uterine tone (as in, can it function properly? Is it contracting as it should?) so many women have tried it for the same reason in menstrual cramps with positive results.
We have found that we get the best pain relieving results when we start drinking it several days before the onset of our periods and throughout the first 2 days.
- Valerian Root Tea or Tincture
In one study, researchers studied the effect of 225 mg of valerian root on dysmenorrhea (aka: cramps). They gave women 225 mg of valerian 3 times per day for the first 3 days of their cycle and found that those women had lower pain level scores as compared to the placebo group.
Since valerian root tends to make us sleepy, we focus our supplement intake of valerian over the second half of the day, although we do add dried valerian to our tea mixtures in the morning for add morning relief. We also like adding valerian root tincture to our elixirs as we come to the Release Phase of our cycles.
- Fennel plus Vitamin E
Another study compared the effects of fennel extract along with vitamin E, compared to ibuprofen in women with cramps. The study suggested that the fennel and vitamin E were equally as good as ibuprofen at controlling pain but with fewer side effects.
In keeping with our real food theme, we try to obtain ourvitamin E from green, leafy veggies and nuts/seeds and incorporate fennel into our recipes and tea mixtures (we will throw in dried fennel into whatever other teas we’re brewing).
- Coconut oil mixed with lavender, rose, peppermint, clary sage, chamomile, and/or cinnamon
Aromatherapy has been studied a surprising amount when it comes to menstrual pain relief. Luckily for all of is, there are quite a few essential oils that have been scientifically suggested to help and those include lavender, rose, peppermint, clary sage, chamomile, and lavender.
We normally take a scoop of coconut oil into our palms and then add 2-3 drops of each essential oil before mixing…then apply to our lower abdomen and back. You can use each individually or mix them all together. Trust us, it’s not a great smell when you mix them all together but we really have have gotten relief from that combination so we’re not going to be too picky about the smell.
Need More Help with Painful Periods?
If you’re new to living in sync with your cycle, you might like to grab our free Wild Feminine Cycle Guide.
It’s your one-stop shop to learning the phases of the menstrual cycle and learning how to implement ways to improve your relationship with your body and the beauty of your menstrual cycle.
By knowing WHEN and HOW to focus on detoxification and optimizing inflammation–among other important considerations like which foods to eat and how to best move your body–you will see just how quickly your health improves when your body and mind gets the support it needs at the right time.
Much love and healing!
XOXO,
