Balancing the energy of your cycle and the Moon Cycle
Applying a cyclical approach can be challenging if you are paying attention to both your cycle and the Moon Cycle and they don’t align. What do you pay attention to?
This is a follow-on from my previous post outlining the different types of cycle you can have in terms of where the moon is when you bleed. It is written assuming you have a physical menstrual cycle, but will still be insightful even if you don’t.
So I am a Red Witch most cycles…
I ovulate just before the New Moon and bleed about a week before the Full Moon. This means that for most of the cycle, my energy is going in the opposite direction to the Moon. As I come into my inner Autumn, the Moon is building up and waxing and growing in energy.
This is a question that often comes up:
What do you pay attention to- your cycle or the Moon cycle when planning your work and when you have down time etc?
Well the answer is that I do pay attention to both cycles and I’ve reflected on it a lot- here are a few snippets of my thoughts:
The way I work with the Moon cycle is the way I often am in life. Whilst many people prefer to get work done in the mornings, I prefer to take down time and start later (i.e. like the Moon cycle, I am a reflection of the current energy not a match)
When the collective energy is one of going internal and being quiet, my energy is the opposite- it is said that as a red witch, I am a teacher as the Moon energy is about connecting with our intuition and my energy is about sharing my insights
I always take down time around days 28-3 of my cycle- normally just before the full Moon. I know that it feels intense and challenging for me, so you’ll often not see me show my face on social media for that whole week around the Full Moon.
For me the combination of my inner winter and the push/pull of the Moon being in the opposite sign to the Sun is often emotional. BUT I know that I can gain incredible insights and learnings if I slow down and listen
I feel it much more than I used to- I used to just push through in my 20s and early 30s, but now I do need to slow down and I know any work I do try to push through with now won’t be my best quality (sending emails with the wrong links, typos, that sort of thing)
I use the day of the New Moon to connect with what I truly want to share- this is the best time for me to journal and free write- what comes out is often strange diagrams, drawings and ideas that will form the basis of my work in the coming months.
How to visualise it
If you can visualise the two different directions of energy – that is how I think of it- when we are headed towards a full moon, we feel a ‘yang’ active kind of collective pull. When we are headed towards a new moon, we feel a more ‘yin’ restful kind of collective pull. When we ignore those energies, we are missing the chance to be more in flow and alignment with the energy around us.
It is often described as a spiral- we journey through spirals in our collective energy and our own energy.
So I use my cycle to form the basis of my plan what work and activities I am doing- I do tasks I find the hardest in terms of energy levels needed in the yang part of my cycle (giving workshops and presentation or running events or launches).
I find around the quarter moons and a few days either side to be my most externally ‘productive’ parts of the cycle.
The Full Moon is my down time, and the New Moon is my intense journalling and connecting to source and downloads point in the cycle. Whilst my personal energy is high, the collective energy is really still- it’s like being able to concentrate in a nice quiet library vs. trying to do this in a banging nightclub when it’s the full moon! For me, the Full Moon is the best time to listen to Podcasts, learn, and absorb- to receive instead of give.
Summary of how I apply my red cycle:
The few days before the New Moon: share my work, launch, run events
New Moon- Connect to source and journal
First Quarter Moon- Use to wrap up tasks, focus on completion, analyse the numbers, complete organisational tasks
Full Moon- Down time, what lesson am I learning this month? Self-development work (gentle approach)
Last quarter- my most ‘productive’ externally. I plan any complex or high energy tasks around this time.
Over time my cycle may sync differently with the moon and I may experience each phase a little differently
I’ve created this approach over years of cycle tracking, so it can take a bit of time to tune into your personal rhythm and what works for you.
What if my cycle varies or isn’t the same number of days as a moon cycle?
This means you may have a different experience each month, but as you keep track over time, you may be able to recognise- oh that month was a ‘red cycle’ month as I bled with the full moon, now a few months later, I’m on a white cycle. I’d say it’s even more important for you to track your symptoms as you’ll experience different kinds of cycles over the year so the time you need to allow yourself to rest will vary. If you have a short cycle e.g. around 21 days, I would still recommend dividing your time into the 4 phases of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, each phase will just be shorter than a week. If that feels a bit tricky, you could also try instead to simply divide into 2: Yang energy- the time between bleeding and ovulation, and Yin time, the time after ovulation and start of the next cycle.
Free Moon Cycle tracker download
If you want to start tracking your energy, mood, productivity etc over the moon cycle, I do have a free download where you can track day by day by adding a few words in a segment for each day of the month.
Access on my free downloads page here- https://lauren-jane.com/free-stuff
Journal prompts:
How do I intuitively feel my cycle tracks against the moon cycle- does it vary, does it sync, somewhere inbetween or opposite?
Can I see how it is a reflection of my life from a broader perspective? (How you do one thing is how you do everything)
What steps can I take to tune into this more?
