Menstruation is a time of intuition and deep insight, so embrace this reflective energy and just be with yourself.

Next time you’re menstruating, use this time for relaxation and practise the art of non-doing.

There’s a time to be active and a time to rest and I’ve always been a strong believer that menstruation is a time for resting, restoring and doing little or no physical exercise. During my teens, I’d skip school if I was menstruating on sports days, as there were rarely any non-physically demanding sports offered. Having to be at school at all during my period, sports day or not, was a blur of discomfort. I was usually in so much pain the first day or two I could barely focus mentally, let alone endure high jump relays.

Later, when I was studying my yoga teacher-training course, I developed my own premenstrual and menstruation sequence out of necessity, as there was no way I could last a dynamic 90-minute yoga class on heavy bleeding days. Even if I wanted to, my body refused and literally had me pinned to the floor!

Thankfully, those extreme tension days have subsided. My period is still regular with consistent flow but the bloating, cramps, sore lower back and excess heat have greatly reduced. I haven’t had to send my partner out to buy pain-numbing drugs in years and I’ve found that regular yoga with lots of restorative postures has helped balance my hormones.

Taking calcium and magnesium has decreased the bloating a lot, evening primrose oil has reduced the sore breasts and eating lots of iron-rich foods building up to and through my period helps keep my energy levels from completely bottoming out.

Looking back, however, I’m grateful for those painful years, as they taught me to go easy on myself, on my mind and my body. I had no choice but to stop and rest, to surrender. Today, I don’t practise yoga postures at all for the first couple of days of menstruation. On day three, I introduce some gentle sitting, hip-opening and forward-bending postures and by day four I’m usually feeling OK to do some non-strenuous standing postures. If, before my period, I’m feeling particularly premenstrual, I practise a lot of inversions, especially the shoulder stand, which really helps to release tension and heat from the body and calm the mind, often bringing on the menstrual flow.

Menstruation and physical exercise

Having taught yoga to a variety of women of all ages over the years, I’ve heard many different opinions on menstruation and physical exercise. I’ve seen many ways people change or don’t change their exercise and yoga practice during menstruation and I’m still surprised at how many women choose to push themselves physically during this part of their cycle.

As the uterine lining is shed in a downward flow from the body each month, it seems logical to be in postures that support the blood’s outward movement during menstruation. If the body is worked strongly during this time of releasing waste, to a point where the abdominal muscles and internal organs are tightened, the outflow can be restricted. If the body is inverted, such as in the shoulder stand, head stand or hand stand postures, the menstrual blood momentarily stops flowing. With this short-term restriction of the body’s natural inclination to move the blood out must come some long-term effects, so it seems unwise to continue strong exercise and dynamic yoga, especially the inverted postures. Some women I’ve spoken with, including yoga teachers, say they experience little or no changes in their energy levels during their period and often continue on with their normal dynamic exercise or yoga practice, including inversions. Then there are the majority of women who experience fatigue, heaviness and the desire to take it easy just before and during all or at least the first day or two of their menstrual period.