Last week, I spoke about my favourite cycle habits that anchor my day, week, month and year within the unfolding cycles of nature. A cyclical way of life brings an incredibly nourishing cadence to life, and helps you work with your own energy more intentionally. As promised, here are some of my favourite resources and tools that are a beautiful on-ramp to understanding what a cyclical way of life could look like for you. They are practical, inspiring, beautiful and very easy to get started with.

 

Menstrual Cycle Awareness Books

There are so many fabulous books that have been written on the fertility awareness method and menstrual cycle awareness. But in the name of simplicity, these two are great to get you started.

“50 Things You Need To Know About Periods: Know Your Flow” – by Claire Baker

“Talking you through her 50 best pieces of advice, Claire explains the ‘four seasons’ of our menstrual cycle and how they vary hormonally to affect everything from mood, motivation and memory, to energy levels, focus and stress.”

Claire Baker is a period coach and author (and has also become a dear friend through the wonderful world of the internet). Claire has such a talent for making menstrual cycle awareness accessible, fun, and soulful. This book takes you through the phases of the menstrual cycle and includes tips on aligning your food, self-care rituals, exercise and sex with your cycle.

It makes for a lovely bedside table book that you can refer to regularly. It’s also an excellent book to share with a partner who’s just beginning to understand what cycle awarenesses is. I was lucky enough to see this book before its publication and helped review some of the more scientific elements of the book too!.

You can purchase on Amazon or bookstores.

“Weaving Cycles” – by Dörte Stanek

“Weaving Cycles combines calendar and diary and supports women creatively in the conscious experience of the menstrual cycle and menopause. The journal works on the principle of twelve annual lunar cycles, to help attain a deeper understanding of your own cyclic nature and solidarity with all rhythms in life.” – Dörte Stanek

Dörte is an illustrator based in Germany and is the creator of this exquisite notebook that effortlessly guides you towards a cyclical understanding of yourself and the world around you. The charts are the perfect size for recording several cycle elements.

I like to be able to log my fertile signs, mood, focus, and any significant observations I’ve made during the day. One of my favourite features is the prompts at the beginning of each cycle to set your intentions for the coming month, and at the end, you’re prompted to name what you wish to let go of. By spending a couple of minutes a day with this book, you’ll uncover an incredible amount of insight into your cyclical self.

Explore Weaving Cycles 2020 Over Here.

 

Making your Bleed Nourishing and Sacred

Kitchen Period Food Prep with Ambrosia’s Kitchen

“I will be prioritising, warming foods, nutrient dense foods, foods that calm inflammation and combat constipation. In this video I am going to be showing you how to meal prep for your period.” – Lucia Mazzella

I love Lucia’s YouTube channel: Ambrosia’s Kitchen. She is such a nourishing cook, and her delicious kitchen creations are shared in such an eloquent way. This is one of my favourite videos of hers, taking you through preparing food ahead of time for your period. A couple of hours in the kitchen will allow you to fully surrender and rest for that first couple of days of your period and not having to worry about what to do in the kitchen. Think herbal laced cacao, kangaroo shepherd’s pie, golden milk chia puddings and chicken broth!

Watch the video over here and then go and binge the rest of her channel!

Menstrual Cycle Awareness Meditations – by Clara Bailey

These are a creation of mine. Each journey meditation guides you to explore and receive the spiritual medicine that each phase of the menstrual cycle offers. It takes you through a journey of resting deeply in your inner-winter (menstruation) and preparing the soil. In your inner-spring (pre-ovulation) you’ll be guided in planting some intentions that you wish to cultivate throughout your cycle. In your inner-summer (ovulation) it’s about harnessing that fiery energy and being able to direct your ambitions to work in the right direction.

In your inner late summer (post-ovulation), is the harvest season and is about giving gratitude and holding yourself steady to follow through on all that you planned to do in that cycle.

Your inner autumn (your premenstrum) is a time where you can experience your emotions more acutely. It’s a great time to do Shadow Work. In this meditation, you’ll travel to the shadow realm to meet with a shadow spirit. You’ll open a dialogue about what it is you need to learn about a habit, a belief or pattern that you’re currently stuck in.

Browse the The Cycle Wisdom Series over here.

Menstrual Cycle Awareness Tools

Kindara App

“Goodbye surprise periods, mysterious fertile windows, and confusion. We provide tools backed by science so you can become the master of your reproductive health. It’s time for empowerment, community, and accuracy.” – Kindara

I have been using the free version of the Kindara app very happily for over four years now. What I love about this app is that it provides such an intuitive and clean user experience. It captures exactly what I would be capturing if I was using pen and paper. I recommend turning off all the predictive functions and simply use it to record your cervical mucus and your basal body temperature each day. You can also include several other metrics that you may like to track, such as sleep, energy or any symptoms that you are trying to decipher if they have a cyclical pattern.

Check out Kindara over here.

iSnow Thermometer

“Specially designed for Basal Body Temperature, great for monitoring your Ovulation Cycle. It is a real measurement, not an algorithm value.”

I have used several thermometers over the years, ranging from a very cheap basal body thermometer from the pharmacy all the way to more fancy Bluetooth devices. However, my iSnow has been my favourite purchase so far! It’s a $45, small battery-operated basal body thermometer. My favourite feature is that you can use it as an alarm which naturally prompts you to take your temperature first thing in the morning.

It also stores 60 readings on its memory card – which means you can take your temperature and not have to worry about remembering the reading or writing it down straight away. Then later that day, you can then enter it into Kindara (or your chart of choice).

Explore iSnow-Med Basal Thermometer for Ovulation with Large Memory (60 Days).

Spinning Wheels by Jane Hardwicke Collings

“The Spinning Wheels is a wealth of information in one handy card that tells you the characteristics of each phase of each cycle. On any particular day you can be aware of all the energies that are effecting you and you are more likely to understand the way you feel.”

This little beauty sits on my desk, where I see it every day. It’s a cycle ready reckoner that visualises where you are in your menstrual cycle, the lunar cycle, the seasonal cycle, and then your life’s stage cycle. It’s a lovely little check in to remind you where you’re at in each of these phases. Over the last couple of years, I’ve been slowly attuning the way that I run my practice and everything in my life, to my menstrual cycle. Now I’m doing it much more to the outer seasonal cycles as well. This is a fantastic tool to keep me aware of where we’re at and where we’re going to.

Explore Spinning Wheels over here.

 

Menstrual Cycle Awareness is Here to Stay

Over the years, there has been a growing interest in – and dare I say it a revolution of – menstrual cycle awareness. I hope this list helps you find a couple of ways to get started in awakening the great depths available to you through your cycle.

If you’d love to dive deeply into becoming a cycle conscious womxn, my online course Moon School is open for enrollment!

It’s a six-week course where you’re guided in becoming a fully equipped, cycle conscious being! If you would like to learn more, come take a visit over here.