Women Are Not Linear
I know many of you have probably seen me share this image from Jessica Ennis before but I wanted to share it again as a reminder. And because I love it so much. Because it highlights perfectly how different men and women are.
But it's not a men Vs women situation. It's simply that, as women, we have expectations of ourselves to be consistent day in, day out. Just like in the male image.
We try to live our lives in a male-dominated world – where we push and strive, hustle and grind. Where we fear stopping or pausing for a second, even when our bodies are screaming at us to do so.
As a consequence, so many of us are feeling stressed and burned out. We are suffering with our health, mentally and physically.
But we are not consistent. We are not linear. We are cyclical. We ebb and we flow.
How we are and what we like this week is not the same as it was last week. And it’s definitely not the same as it will be next week.
And that – well, that is not only normal – it’s also flipping awesome for so many reasons!
Despite what many of us think, our menstrual cycle and our hormones are not the problem. It’s our cultural and personal perception that we, as women, should be a certain way all the time.
Yes, our menstrual cycles do set natural limits in our lives. That’s what they’re designed to do. After all, we can’t be all things, to all people, all of the time. We can’t keep going 24/7, just as most of us have been doing.
So again, yes, our menstrual cycle provides us with limits. But limits are not limitations.
And actually, when we learn to work with our cycle, we can thrive more than we ever thought possible. Understanding and aligning with our cycle can help us to be who we are and let go of who we're not.
We can let go of the expectations that we need to be consistent all the time. And instead, enjoy the ebb and flow that our cycle brings.