You’ve got your mindfulness practice down. You do a body scan when you wake up. You do a guided meditation before bed every night. You check in with yourself and do breathing exercises when you catch yourself starting to spiral. You journal and take your mental health walks.
And then your period ruins it.
And it’s not just when you get your period. It’s the whole week before, when luteal phase (otherwise known as the week PMS hits) tanks your mood and makes your body feel like it’s been thrown down a mountain. Let’s talk about how you can adjust your mindfulness routine for your period without fully abandoning your practice.
What Makes Mindfulness Hard During Your Period?
Even the most solid mindfulness practice can fall apart in the face of PMS and PMDD, a severe and debilitating form of PMS. It’s harder to start your day and keep up with the routine you’ve set for yourself when you’re dealing with fatigue, cramps, digestive woes, and waffling between feeling like you might cry and wanting to snap at everyone (or both at the same time).
So you wake up and reach for your phone, doomscroll, and never get around to meditating. Or you don’t feel well enough for that mental health walk.
And if you think (before luteal phase hits, of course) you can power through it because you know what’s coming…think again.
Fluctuating hormones change the way your brain and body work. Your estrogen drops, your progesterone rises, and suddenly serotonin and dopamine (the happy hormones) bail on you. It causes brain fog that leaves you distracted, exhausted, and irritable. Your head hurts, your body aches, and for some people, having their period feels like they’ve caught the flu or a stomach bug.
When you’re sick, you need rest. Getting through the day on its own is a feat when you’re dealing with all these symptoms. The good news is, they’re temporary, and there are still practices you can do, even if you need to slow down.
How to Do Mindfulness During Menstruation
Your period and all the symptoms before it can make your usual practices feel like they aren’t working anymore. If that happens, don’t beat yourself up. You’re not failing if you can’t do everything you normally do. If you need some ideas for how to adjust your mindfulness routine, here’s what you can try:
- Take a break. First, take an honest look at how you’re feeling. Do a quick body scan or ask, “How am I feeling right now?” Be real with yourself, and listen to your own answer.
- Identify joyful practices. Most of your mindfulness activities help with maintaining your mood and overall wellbeing. But how many of them make you think, “I can’t wait to do this today?” Prioritize those for a little hit of dopamine.
- Think of your symptoms. Feeling down? Try journaling. Fatigue hitting hard today? Focus on deep breathing. Bloated or crampy? Try light yoga. Listen to what your body needs, and adjust your practice accordingly.
- Go easy on yourself. If you can’t do the mindfulness work you normally do, that’s okay. Let yourself have a rest, or stick with the one or two things that help you most.
Mindfulness doesn’t always mean blocking off time for specific activities. It’s enough to notice how you’re feeling, what your body is doing, and what currently feels good or doesn’t. Mindfulness is about connecting your body, mind, and spirit and doing what you can to support each level of yourself.
Can Mindfulness Help Your Period Symptoms?
Even before your period or luteal phase symptoms hit, mindfulness can prepare you for them. It regulates you in the day-to-day, so you have more awareness of what’s happening in your body and mind and can respond accordingly. Mindfulness helps with:
- Emotional responses. You’re more aware of how you’re feeling, what’s causing it, and can identify how to act and resolve problems.
- Releasing stress. Breathwork, yoga, and meditation calm your nervous system and make it easier for you to break harmful thought spirals. Journaling helps you process your thoughts and feelings, so you understand them better.
- Self-awareness, compassion, and acceptance. Mindfulness helps you notice your feelings and habits without judgment. From there, you create new habits of being kind and accepting toward yourself as the person you are now.
- Pain relief. By lowering the tension in your body, mindfulness practices help you relax through pain and observe it. It can distract you and make you feel safer in your body, even during painful sensations like body aches or cramps.
- Communication. When you can take a step back to understand how you’re feeling, you can communicate that with other people. Instead of snapping at someone (because who among us hasn’t done that during PMS week?), you have more tools to talk about what’s happening.
- Sleep. Breathing exercises, meditation, and reading before bed can help calm your nervous system and tell your body it’s time to rest. You might still have some trouble sleeping around your period, but doing your best to get quality rest can make a difference in how you feel.
Mindfulness helps most when you do it consistently. If you notice these kinds of benefits over the course of the month, you’re more likely to have an easier time during your period.
It’s Okay to Pause for Your Period
Mindfulness isn’t magic (at least not when it comes to curing PMS and PMDD). But it does help, especially if you do it all month long. It can prepare you for your period, and its effects last, even if you need to take a short break during that part of your cycle. If you’re not sure what works for you yet, experiment and see what feels good when you aren’t feeling your best.
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