Women's Inner Seasons

Here I explain briefly what are women's inner seasons and why it's so important to move our days accordingly. I give some small and simple tips that one can start practice right away in order to overcome PMS and learn how to connect within and without.
NOTE: This is the audio of a slideshow presentation.

Transcript

Hey, I'm Aiko. Welcome to this class. If you're here, I guess you want to learn a little bit more about your own menstrual cycle. I will break down for you what are our inner seasons and how you can establish your relationship with it. First of all, I would like to tell you how I get to this point. At the age of 13, I had my first period. At that time, I was living with my dad who is Japanese and he's very, Very strict. Like, I don't know if you know, Like in American movies, Often they show Chinese parents who are super strict and their kids can't do anything, Something like that. So my body moved accordingly and every 15th of the month I had my period didn't really matter if how many days the month had, Every 15th I had my period. At the age of 15, I moved to my mom and she's almost the opposite of my dad and my period starts to jump and be totally irregular like some months I had twice, Three times, Sometimes I didn't have, It was just a big mess but I didn't really pay much attention because I was teenager and you know. At the age of 24, I was a dieneus with about 20 cysts in my left ovary and nine or so in my right ovary and three of those were very big so the doctor suggested surgery. I thought about it and I really didn't want to do surgery so what I did instead, It was asking help to some friends and holistic doctors, Especially as I knew and long story short, Eventually all my cysts melted out. Some years ago, After a traumatic event in my life, The gynecologist found four myomas in my uterus, Two of those were very big and also there I was suggested to do surgery. So at that time I really thought okay now I really have to dig deep inside what my body is trying to tell me, What is happening, How can I have my relationship with my body in order to understand what are the messages. So this is how I start learning how to get in contact with my menstrual cycle. That's it, Let's get started. And welcome again to yoga and the menstrual cycle. The points that are we going to discuss today are what yoga means, What a menstrual cycle is, What are you beta is and these three topics are very broad. So we're gonna have only an introduction. I will do a longer workshop about three or five days, I'm still thinking about it in June, So if you're interested please stay tuned. Then we're gonna talk about what woman's inner seasons are, How to connect with your menstrual cycle and at the end I will show you some asanas that you can do during your inner seasons. I would like to start with a question. What do you know about yoga? Just think about it. I think that the answer is it can be anything because one of the beauty of this art and my point of view is that you never finish to learn enough about yoga. There is so much to learn and I love the idea to be a student for life. Like if you become a yoga student you definitely will be a student for life because it's never ending. But now I would like to focus about the meaning of the word yoga. What that means. Does the word yoga mean union? And I believe most of you say yes and the answer is yes. But let's dig more into that union. What that means? Union of what? I'm talking about this in a podcast episode with Tim Kente. So you should definitely check that out. But we can introduce it now. So it's a union between the original feminine and masculine. It's the union between the young and young, Between everything that exists, The connection between two living beings and the internal polarity of being. What that means? That means practically that yoga is the union between you and anything else. Right? So how you start that? What is the internal polarity of the being? You first start within yourself. You have to be united with yourself. And here the menstrual cycle comes because we literally live with menstrual cycle every day. As soon as one cycle ends another starts. So how much are you connected? How much are you united with your menstrual cycle? This is the other question I have for you. And the answer is probably something different from every one of us because we are so different. There's not like a recipe or something that works for everyone, A formula. This doesn't exist. Like we really have to learn to connect with our own menstrual cycle and then work accordingly. Like I guess most of you know what is PMS and I researched on Google and I just came out with the definition and this was the definition on internet. Premenstrual syndrome, PMS, Has a wide variety of signs and symptoms including mood swings, Tender breasts, Food craving, Fatigue, Irritability and depression. It's estimated that as many as three of every four menstruating women have experienced some form of premenstrual syndrome. So when I read that I was kind of relieved because it's just so beautiful to know that at least one-fourth of us doesn't have PMS. I thought we all had. So I'm very happy for these women who don't have. But I'm here for the ones who have or anyway who want to connect a little bit more with our menstrual cycle. So now other question, The question is why? Like if you see even in a description it's written has a wide variety of signs and symptoms. Why? Because we are all different. We are all different. We work different. We have a different relationship with our own menstrual cycle so the symptoms are different. And next question, How do we connect? And the key is yoga, Is union within and without. We first start within, Inside ourselves. So how do we get to know ourselves? There are many ways but the one that we are exploring today it's about Ayurveda. So we are starting to know ourselves with Ayurveda. I mean Ayurveda is helping us and I believe at least once in your life you have heard this word. So let's see what Ayurveda is if you don't know it. Ayurveda is one of the world's oldest form of holistic medicine and is still widely used today. It has its roots in India and Ayurvedic medicine is based on the idea that the world is made up of five elements like in science Akash space or ether, Jala water, Prithvi earth, Teja fire and Vayu air. So Ayurveda combine them in three main groups called doshas. One and it's Vata there is Vata dosa which is air and ether. Pitta fire and water, Kappa earth and water. If you don't know what your dosa are you definitely should check it on internet. There are many websites where you can see which dosa you are in order to learn how you work. What are the main energy that are elements that are in your body and knowing that you can go and work even more and get your own formula to connect with yourself. So here the element of earth and water so Kappa regulates the functions of the endocrine system. The fire element regulates the function of the digestive system. The air and the ether regulates the nervous system. When these three systems are balanced automatically we are balanced and if someone is some of you is skeptic I just advise you to try just try. Go in some Ayurvedic website and see what your doshas are. See what they suggest in order to balance more your doshas and see the results. So the definition of Ayurveda translates as the sacred knowledge of life. This involves learning about your relationship with the elements and the unique combinations of doshas. Now that we have all this in small introduction the question is what do you need to do in order to balance as we say to unite with your own self. We say that yoga is union within and without. So understanding where we are in the cycle our master cycle helps us to make better decisions. When you're alone energy you want to preserve it and avoid actions that to train you. When you're spread too thin you want to take a step back and this is so important because as soon as we see this as soon as we know this then we have to help ourselves. We have to I feel tired I am in my big flow day I'm gonna rest and I have all the right to do that. So let's see now what are the inner seasons. Inside of our menstrual cycle we can find the energies of our seasons of the seasons. So we have the winter starting with the first day of our period then we have the spring the summer and the autumn. During the moon time our menstrual time we are more reflective it's the same energies that reflects that reflects with the new moon and it contains the elements of earth water air and ether. The bleeding phase is approximately between day 27 to day 5. The progesterone and the oestrogen levels decreases and the skin gets dry you have weak defense system and winter is a time of inward reflection a time of metaphorical death. Just think about the winter outside we have that same kind of energy in our days of our inner winter in our during our period. So after that we have the pre-evolution our inner spring. In this phase we are more dynamic it's reflect with the waxing crescent moon phase and contains the elements of earth and water. In the follicular phase the inner spring is approximately between day 6 to day 11. I always say approximately because we don't know some of us might have way more days of spring some less we really have to learn to understand in which phase we are and this we will definitely see in our mood and in our energies. So this inner spring it's a rebirth you feel productive independent strong able to take on challenges so it's very advice in this phase of your menstrual cycle if you have like work interviews or like friends gathering to do it during this phase. Then we have our summer our summer is the ovulatory phase and is approximately between day 12 to day 19. In this phase we are really expressive and it's reflected with the full moon energy it contains the element of fire very dominant and water. The summer phase is when things begin to heat up literally and metaphorically progesterone slowly decreases estrogen level reaches optimal levels and the skin is in its best condition. You have high body temperature the appetite increases and slowly you you take some social withdrawal we going into that direction from the spring where you are very much into social people socializing. So I talked about the skin before and now also saying that skin is in its best condition. Do remember if I say before about the the the spring but during the spring the skin is at optimal level of absorption. What that means? That means that if you do some kind of mask nutrition nutrient mask for your skin that's the best time. I'm following moon cycle calendar where they're saying they're telling you when it's good time to cut your fingers, Not your fingers, Your names, Cut your hair, Use some cosmetics and again as mentioned about Ayurveda just try it yourself and you definitely see the difference. So summertime is when our skin is in its best condition so if you have a date or you're dating someone for the first time definitely do it during your inner summer. Then we have our autumn. The premenstrual phase our inner autumn is the luteal phase approximately between day 20 and day 26. In this phase you are creative and this is the word I want you to focus on. It reflects with the morning crescent moon energy, Contains air and ether. Ether. Ether. Fall is where things start to wind down. You become moody, Your legs focus, Less concentrate but you want to create. This is where the PMS starts to occur and where I always put most of my attention because it's very delicate. Like I said you feel moody, You're less focused so I'm kind of not so positive emotions but if you focus on your creativity there is the key power of the autumn. Like I lived in South Tyrol which is near Austria and in all this era during autumn they create such a wonderful like artworks with like leaves or things from nature or paper or this or that and they decorate everything like their houses, Their balconies, Their gardens and it's so beautiful and this is how you show that you really got the best out of your autumn. In this phase the progesterone increases, The estrogen level is high and the skin is in its worst condition so it's kind of dry but I mean you know you're in your autumn so you don't care so much. You maybe have some breast tenderness, Increased appetite causing binging but as I said before just focus on the creative part. If you're an artist just kill it. So that said I think are a lot of important information I just told you. So we go back to the Union. This is the main point, Union between you and the world and how you do that. You do this with yoga, With body awareness, With reflection and knowledge because you can't only trust only your intuition. Sometimes your intuition it might not be real or good. So to have some knowledge where you can base your thoughts and feelings is very important. Of course you can do, You can unite with yourself with anything, Literally anything you do every day and in the next workshop I will talk about also stones, Crystals, Food, Very very important how you eat during the seasons also according to the elements that you eat, You drink and essential oils. But as just said many times you can use anything to unite that you feel like it. So here I want to give you as mentioned before I want to show you some asanas that you can do during every season. So during the moon time, Our inner time, Sorry our inner winter, Is the time for regeneration of vital forces. A dynamic sequence that increase the energy of the air element. In this case the dorsal arches will hinder the concentration that you need for regeneration because the element of air also is related to the nervous system as mentioned before. So here I have a Surya Namaskar which is the sun salutation and it's really really powerful if you learn to do it properly like with every move not just like a gymnastic exercise but with awareness for every movement, The breath, The muscles. Of course during your big flow I never suggest anyone to do yoga dynamic or asanas yoga just sit and meditate that's also yoga. Then I give you a bhujanga asana which is cobra, Pose, Side plank and leg lifts. Leg lifts viparita karani is definitely my favorite during the cycle. And then let's go to the inner spring. So for the inner spring the predominant elements are earth and water and when these are in balance there is excess and accumulation. In fact there is heaviness of the body and mind. Just think about your spring it's very very very similar. So in this case we will try to practice opposite qualities the qualities of earth and water. The qualities of the air and fire will bring heat and lightness to reactivate the metabolism and supporting the process of purification. So here I give you a Gendesurya Namaskar which as I said it's very powerful, Valasana child pose and lower prayer twist. Parivrtta anjanai asana is one asana and it's the lower prayer twist. Why I underline parivrtta? Because that means twist. Any kind of twist asana are really helpful during spring. Who is my student of you know that know this? Because in our classes now that is spring we are doing a lot of twist in order to help our body in the process of detoxing that we are in during the spring. Then we have the ovulation, The inner summer. Here I give you supported fish, A cat cow pose, Half pigeon and knee to chest. During the summer as I mentioned before the fire is the predominant element so we need to cool down. We need all asanas that are cooling down so we keep them. We definitely don't do dynamic asanas series but we try to be in the pose for many breaths for minutes if it's possible in order to cool down. Then we have the premenstrual inner autumn which we were just saying it's very delicate so I definitely pay way more attention to my inner autumn than other seasons. And here how can you the autumn also is cool, It's light, It's dry, It's windy. Just think about the autumn outside. So if you fill it with warmth, Oiliness, Deep nourishment, Loving relationships then we can balance this energy. Then we can really get the best out of it. So we can work on the lungs, On breathing, On the opening of the chest. So a lot of pranayama here is very important. I mean pranayama before in practicing yoga it's always suggested and also before meditation but give an extra attention during autumn. Do some extra pranayama. It's very important here I give you the Uttanasana which is standing forward bend that doesn't seem like but when you are down you really have to open the chest you have to activate your abdomen even when you are folded. So then the head to knee triangle and eagle pose. This was just some brief introduction to the topic which it's very huge and broad and I really really hope that I give you some useful information in order for you to unite within yourself and without. That's the main point that's the why I'm doing this now because I think it's so important and every woman in the world should know this and should learn how to embrace our menstrual cycle. I found myself so many times saying why I have menses I don't even want kids at the moment but instead if you take the power we find it's just such a big gift. So one last thing I just want would like to mention is that I'm using menstrual cup and washable pads. Never before than now Mother Earth needs our help because we are just destroying it not you and I but maybe you and I also in some way but it's also the amount of garbage that now hospitals are creating because of the COVID situation is just ridiculously crazy and really for us to use a menstrual cup and washable pads is not a big deal but we definitely give an important significant imprinting to Mother Nature. So be gentle not only with yourself but also with Mother Nature. I personally think that tampons are the most comfortable things there's nothing comfortable about menstrual cup at the beginning but try to do that I really suggest you to do that not for me not for you for Mother Earth. So that said I again thank you very much for being here I really hope that this was useful in some way and don't hesitate to contact me I will definitely answer you and I will love to be in touch with you.