PMS & Kali Ma
I recently did an Ayurvedic training for Women’s Health, and it was a delicious day of basking in the presence of a group of women ranging in age from maiden to crone while we discussed all things about what it is to be a woman at this time on planet earth. One thing that kept reverberating for me, was the importance of being in touch with our bodies and how, when we are, we are also more in tune with (and more able to truly respect and honor) the great feminine body, our beautiful mother, EARTH.
And how each stage in our cycles serves a purpose and is important, even the ones that we shy away from, or have difficulty with. Like PMS, and bleeding. And it makes sense, in a culture that reveres all things shiny, that the darker aspects of womanhood, shiiiit, of HUMANHOOD, are often swept under the rug because they make us uncomfortable. Well, I’m here, straight outta PMS land, to say F that.
When women bleed, they are given a report card of how they treated their bodies that month. If their cycle is rough, there are direct reasons why. Reasons that range from the gross (physical) like diet and exercise allll the way to the subtle (mental/emotional/spiritual) like too much technology, not enough time around nourishing company, not enough time in nature, giving our power away to f boi’s, and not speaking up to honor our own boundaries.
LUCKILY before we get our report card, we also get a visit from mama progesterone the week before we bleed AKA parent teacher conferences! It’s a little chance to course correct before we screw the pooch entirely. You might have heard of this little phenomenon, it’s called PMS. Progesterone pulls us into a self reflective state, gives us CLARITY OF VISION, and a Kali Ma worthy internal BS detector. It also makes us less tolerant, and more likely to speak up, and reach for what we actually need to balance the scales of all we have been repressing or ignoring.
There’s a beautiful story about Kali Ma (the Indian goddess of death and rebirth) and Lord Shiva. In a nutshell, Shiva has about had it with the state of the world and decides he’s just gonna pull the plug and hit the big red destruct button on our little experiment here on planet earth. And Kali Ma, in her infinite wisdom, stops him. And Shiva is the Big Kahuna, nobody messes with him, but Kali, with her deep level of clarity, and feminine knowingness, is an unstoppable force (can you say PMS?!?!?!) It turns out she is the only force powerful enough to override Shiva (Get it Lady!)
So the next time some misinformed so and so tells you, beesh you must be PMSing, remember that your body and cycles of information it contains, are LITERAL gifts from the divine sent to guide you. And don’t let no f boi convince you to crawl into a small labeled box just to make them more comfortable. Treat yourself with respect and love, the rest will take care of itself.
