Celebrating our menstruation is a portal to finding inner guidance for a deeper self-acceptance

Today I painted. With the velvety dark red blood of my menstruation. I’ve just made love with a part of my innate feminine nature that I for many years I had shunned away as a mere nuisance. I was never taught that my blood is sacred and it connects me through etheric cords to my ancestors, lunar cycles of existence and to the wells of my intuitive power. Now I celebrate it and truly look forward to my menstruation as it empowers me and nourishes my very feminine essence.

Since the first time I found blood between my thighs when I was 11, it was always something discrete, taking place behind the closed toilet doors or in between the stained bed sheets. I remember myself juggling with all this plastic from sanitary towels and tampons in the toilet, hiding and covering up all the traces in the bin. When I had an office job, I would secretly hide a tampon in my fist whilst on my way to the bathroom – I was not even aware of this embarrassment and thought this is just how you feel when you menstruate! Do you remember the female hygiene product ads on TV showing our beautiful blood as some alien blue liquid?

Ignorance, aided by the even more oblivious media, has added to a chronic disconnection from our mysterious inner woman.

So much conditioning from our patriarchal societies and religious dogmas; there’re still many cultures where women are not allowed to enter a religious temple if she’s on her Moontime, for she’s considered “unclean”. Once I met a woman who was about to do an operation called “endometrial ablation” to remove the inner epithelial layer of her uterus so that her period ceases – she hated it so much. This goes in line with other absolutely atrocious things that women do to their bodies, such as “labiaplasty” or “genitalia bleaching” … My body shivers and contracts into nausea as I feel into the plethora of lack of self-love. Why no one taught us that we’re already whole, worthy and loved? Well, it’s simple – then we’d stop consuming things to “fix” us!

When a woman truly honours herself, there’s more creative energy available and her self-esteem is reclaimed. This is vital so that we’re confident to speak up and dare TAKE UP SPACE in the world. Celebrating our menstruation is a portal to finding inner guidance for a deeper self-acceptance, which will eventually replace the need for external validation and allow for more sexual sovereignty. Eventually, you’ll find that the serenity that dwells within is much vaster than all of the outer world. By the way, even though I’m sharing from a woman’s perspective, this quest for wholeness is also crucial for our fellow men so that we can empower each other and rise together.