2017 Reading, Week 1: Moon Time

As you may know, one of my New Years Intentions for 2017 was to read at least one book every week.

In order to hold myself accountable for this, I have decided to post a little bit about each book that I read on my blog.

The first book that I read is called Moon Time: Harness the Ever-Changing Energy of Your Menstrual Cycle by Lucy H. Pearce. In case the title and subtitle don't give it away, this is a book about understanding and embracing the monthly cycle that approximately half of the human population goes through in their lifetime, the menstrual cycle.

This book. Right here. 10/10 would recommend.

It's a relatively short book, but it's got a lot of information that we don't learn in school and that society seems to want to keep from menstruators. It's almost as if the world is not prepared for those who menstruate to embrace the power within them [because anyone who can bleed for 3-7 days a month and not die is obviously pretty powerful, right?] and harness it to change the world outside.

The book starts with a good biological explanation of what happens to the body during the menstrual cycle and then looks at how society treats humans who menstruate. Like many other books on the topic, it is good at pointing out the flaws that much of today's society exhibit regarding the treatment of menstruation; it is also good at pointing to different ways to work with the changes that the menstruating body experiences, for those who are not interested in using commonly prescribed pharmaceuticals for this.

One of the major things that I learned from the book is that birth control pills are highly over-prescribed in our society, and that many individuals who go on the pill do not get all of the information about it beforehand. I, for one, definitely did not know everything I should have known before I went on the pill in high school. While I am not sure if I believe everything negative about birth control pills that the book talks about (after all, tons of doctors tell you on a regular basis that birth control pills are completely safe, and I do have a good deal of trust in doctors), there are some things that I feel should be discussed more before putting humans on birth control, especially those that are young.

Overall, I think that this is a great book to read if you're interested in knowing more about your menstrual cycle in an intimate way, rather than just the clinical treatment that you get when you look it up. It does a great job of filling in some of the gaps that society has allowed and encouraged in the education on menstruation. It also has some fun activities and ways that you can embrace your menstrual cycle and plan your life around it in order to better use the varying energy levels that you are likely to experience throughout your cycle.

This is a book that I asked for and received for Christmas, and I elected to read it as my first book of 2017 because I wanted to enter the new year with a better understanding of my own body. I also selected it because my menstrual cycle began (i.e. my period started) on the first day of the new year, and it seemed fitting to read something related to moon time (the author uses "moon time" as a phrase for "period") while in my moon time, ya feel?

At the end of the day, I would recommend reading it, and taking from it what suits you the best, allowing yourself to read, acknowledge, and understand the different perspectives that are offered in the book, whether or not you elect to take all of the advice given.

Even if you are not a menstruating human, there is a lot to learn from this book. If you are a non-menstruating human who values the menstruating humans in your life (e.g. mother, sister, friend, partner), I would recommend reading this with one or more of those humans and discussing it as you go in order to better understand how the menstrual cycle affects them and your relationship with them.

#FoodForThoughtFriday Goodbye 2016

So, 2016 is almost at an end.

Which is kind of a relief, since this year has been full of ridiculous and sad things happening worldwide.

I mean, it wasn't all bad. I skimmed this article by The Guardian this morning about how some things are okay/better in the world this year; so if you need something positive to look at and remember that not everything sucks, here you go.

But anyway, I've been thinking more about this whole "New Years Resolutions" situation today, and I had more thoughts than those I wrote about a few weeks ago, and wanted to share that with you.

Also, my good friend Maggie, who runs a vlog posted a great video of 12 resolutions that aren't diet-related, which I think you should check out, because they were all great suggestions. So, here's the link for that. I fully support non-diet resolutions because, as Maggie says from the get-go, they're super difficult to do and when people make those, they often end up not keeping them and then feeling bad about it.

Also, today's yoga session has got me thinking about the use of the term "resolution." 

So, at the beginning of a lot of yoga sessions, the leader might set some intentions for the day, like "today I hope we'll all be grounded and feel good in our yoga" or something like that. Today was the first yoga class I've been to in a few years, and I really enjoyed it and left feeling pretty okay [note: the reason I wasn't feeling better was that I got some spring rolls last night and didn't realize they had shrimp in them until I was like halfway through one and my body is hardcore rejecting this because it's been like straight up 6 years since I've eaten any animal and it doesn't know what to do with it; this caused a lot of problems, and about halfway through the class I started feeling pretty nauseous from this and it was gross, but digestive issues aside, it was great yoga].

But anyway, I think that the word resolution is a strong word and puts a lot of pressure on those who make goals for the new year because you're like "ahhh I have to do this it's important," and I think that makes it harder to stick to the goals we set.

So, I'd like to advocate for calling them our new years intentions instead of resolutions. That way, it's more like, this is something I'd like to do, something I intend to do, but I'm not putting all this unnecessary pressure on myself to do it. That way the whole process would be less stressful and people might be more likely to succeed in their intentions than they are in their resolutions.

So, let's take a look at some new years intentions that we can all set for ourselves

One really good one is to read. This one was included on my previous post as well as in Maggie's vlog, and I can't express how great it is to set reading goals!

This doesn't mean that you have to like read a whole book every day or every week or even every month, but it's a really good idea to set an intention to do at least a little bit of reading every day. Maybe you don't have a lot of time, and you can set a goal to read, like, a chapter a day. One of my favorite professors in college said that he would set aside time first thing in the morning when he woke up every day to read a chapter in a book. This was for lots of good reasons, including that it's one way to make sure that no matter what your day looks like, you've done something for you first (I think his statement included the phrase "stick it to the man," but don't quote me on that) and that's a really great attitude. I think I mentioned in my other post about new years goals that I plan to try and read a book every week in 2017 (books ranging from 100 to 300 pages, mostly) but that's an ambitious goal, so if you don't think you're at that level of bibliophile, then no worries, set a goal that is attainable for you. My 2016 goal was a list of 14 very specific books and I read 13 of those books and a bunch of other books, but by picking specific books, I limited myself and as the end of the year approached, I lost the motivation to read those books, so I'm giving myself a looser goal for 2017.

Another one, this one was featured on Maggie's vlog, but not my earlier post, is to make a habit of writing and sending letters to people you care about.

This is just a great way to spread love and positivity into the world, and it's something you can customize for your personal preferences/time constraints, etc. And it'll spread joy to others, so what's not to love about that?

My next intention is to move more.

My goal for 2017 with this one is to do at least a mile a day and to run a race each month. For the daily mile, this can be running, walking, jogging, biking, canoeing, kayaking, hiking, anything that involves moving a mile. The race goal is just to get me out into the running community more; I recently started running and want to embrace that as a healthy lifestyle for me. Movement can mean all sorts of things though. Maggie suggests walking more bc walking is honestly so wonderful like I can't even put in words how good walking is for you, mentally and physically and emotionally. But you could do yoga or pilates or any kind of thing. I also really enjoy jumping rope, and I have a friend who kickboxes and one of my coworkers is really into martial arts. There are so many ways to move and anyone can find something they enjoy, so like, find something that works for you, and don't forget to set attainable goals and just follow through on an intention to move more for well-being.

I'm also going into 2017 with the intention of practising mindfulness more.

Mindfulness is the practice of just living in the moment that exists right here and right now. It's about acknowledging, accepting, and embracing where you are in this moment. And it's really good for your mental health. And it's harder than you would think; the idea of just experiencing the sights, smells, sounds, tastes, and feels that surround you at any given moment sounds like it would be easy, but it takes a lot of practice. That's why making it an intention, rather than a resolution makes all the difference. If you struggle to turn all the thoughts off and just be, even for a moment, mindfulness will not come easily to you; you'll have to work at it, but it is so worthwhile to have even just a few moments of silence to just be. You can do this through yoga, meditation, or even just taking a moment to stop thinking about whatever is in your head and just focus on your 5 senses and experiencing what's around you, instead of worrying about what might happen tomorrow or the next day or what happened yesterday. 

And there are tons of other things that you can set as intentions for 2017

Some good ones include:

Take care of yourself (by visiting your appropriate health professionals when you should)

Share more of yourself (by donating items, time, or money to causes you care about)

Snuggle more (snuggling has many health benefits)

Practice positivity (verbal affirmations, little written affirmations, etc.)

Celebrate more (celebrate little things as well as big things--anything good; you can also celebrate bad things bc they give you perspective)

Let love in (for example, adopting a new animal friend is a great way to let love into your life)

Don't hold things in (esp. negative things like anger, hate, sadness--let it all out)

So, go forth into 2017 with intentions that are workable and attainable for you to live your life in the way that's best for you.

xx,

Sienna

The Fierce Feminist