How to Practice Cycle Awareness for Greater Resilience

Can cycle-awareness and the skill of cycle-syncing make you more resilient? The short answer is YES.

I used to confuse resilience with the ability to apply strength and push through regardless of cycle phases. This confusion eventually led to exactly the opposite: exhaustion, poor health, damaged communication, and a heavy sense of isolation.

In my early thirties, I began to wander: How can I be resilient without pushing through? How do I build resilience while respecting the emotional rhythms of my menstrual cycle?

Resilience is not a single trait or a single act. It is an intentional practice of following:

• Self-awareness. For women and people assigned female at birth, awareness of the cycle is an essential part of self-awareness. As estrogen levels decrease or increase, my self-perception differs (ovulation vs. premenstrual phase).” Where am I at my cycle?” and “What does my normal today look like?” are questions to ask.

• Mindfulness, or being reflective vs. reactive. Mindfulness intensity changes too from one phase to another, and I’ve learned to anticipate this natural mindfulness decrease around the premenstrual phase, and don’t worry about that.

• Self-care. The way we care for ourselves should look different, too, as our needs change at different phases of the cycle. Physical energy, self-confidence, and social capacity fluctuate, and so should our approach to self-care. With the cycle in mind, self-care is less about having a fixed routine and more about adjusting to honor each phase and its needs.

• Positive relationships. For greater resilience, it is important to establish what positive relationships look like at each phase of the cycle, with ourselves and others. During the premenstrual phase, instead of silently pushing through to meet others’ expectations, help them form realistic expectations of you. Establishing a positive, shame- and judgment-free relationship with yourself is one of the most important factors in staying resilient.

• Finally, to stay resilient, one needs a purpose that would give direction and meaning to why we move through each day. And purpose, like everything else, looks unique for each of us, and it takes time to find its flow.