If you’ve ever swam in the ocean, then you know how powerful currents can be. Swim in favor of their direction, and you’ll feel as though you’re being effortlessly carried towards your destination. Swim against them, and you’ll feel like no matter what you do, you won’t advance an inch.
It won’t help that around you everything will look the same: the water will be the same temperature, the sun will beat down at you from the same angle, the sand will be the same color, all will be as if nothing has truly changed… only it has.
We just can’t see it.
I love this metaphor because it perfectly encapsulates the feeling of being a woman. We ebb and flow.
If a woman is an ocean, then her hormones are the tides. They are those invisible forces that change directions within our bodies without really giving us a heads up. Yet we feel their effect in everything we do.
Therefore, it’s up to us to understand their patterns.
Learning to swim with my tides, instead of against them, has been one of the most liberating, empowering, and healing things I’ve ever done as a woman.
However, it wasn’t always this way. I went through life thinking I needed to feel exactly the same way every single day, not recognizing that the female physiology is not designed to do this. And so, every single month I was devastated to discover that, like clockwork, one morning I’d wake up and feel like a weaker, weepier, less attractive version of myself.
From the day I’d wake up feeling a little “off” to the day I’d finally bleed: my days would be a mix of negative self-talk, forced workouts, obsessive body checking, pity parties, and intense cravings that would lead to negative self-talk, which would then start the vicious cycle all over again.
I didn’t know it then, but I was fighting against my nature, and it was exhausting me to my core.
I was swimming against my tides.
Finally understanding that it’s okay to not feel the same every day, that it’s normal to fluctuate, and that these changes are a part of who I am as a woman has allowed me to harness the power of my tides and use them to become my strongest, most capable self. And to my surprise, working with my body has almost completely eliminated all of the exhausting things I used to think were a natural part of having a monthly period.
I no longer feel guilty for needing to slow down or miss a workout. I no longer suppress my cravings until they turn to binges: I honor them instead. I no longer feel bloated and heavy because I’ve learned to implement some simple changes in my diet to help mitigate this natural “puffy” effect. I’ve learned to accept the changes with love, instead of fight them with judgement.
So without further ado: here’s what I’ve learned about swimming with the tides: