Amy experiences related ro this is very interesting to me. Any thoughts about syncronisations of the menstrual cycle?

That happens. I'm not saying that hormonal changes lead to insight, but they can definitely give ample opportunity for seeing the mind be caught up in its usual loops of dependent origination, and that causes the phenomenology to unfold. If we manage to see it clearly enough, then there is also insight from it. 

Awsome! Thank you. cycles in general are coming up a lot for me lately: the seasons/working with the elements, life/death, nurture, motherhood, my period, tides, the moon... etc. 

Thanks for replying, Linda

Hi Andrea,

I know a few ladies who've mentioned a connection between the menstrual cycle and insight stages, and in particular, some who have clearly noticed it being heavily affected by getting stream entry specifically (as in: period moved by two weeks and the likes). I could connect you if you want to chat with them ?

Best,

Olivier

Yep, the topic has been raised numerous times on this forum. I obviously have no personal experience on this one, so just validating that those who do have often noted there are some correlations.

I have this second-hand notion that if the wave-surfing skills, meta-persepctives about mood, and comfort with cyclic effects that having menstural cycles can provide the opportunity to learn are applied to insight cycles, it can enhance the ability to navigate insight cycles, which clearly share some common themes with hormonal cycles.

Speaking of cycles: Happy New Year, everyone!

Yes, please get me in touch with them. 

And one more thing related to hormones.... Does anyone have any ecperiences with hormonal birth control? I'm not on it myself, and am a bit hesitant to get on it. I think it is related to this belief i have that taking external medicine is supressive and "regressive" in some way, and that it is a bad thing. 

It is also related to the fact that i'm on anti-psychotics and valium for my psychosis/kundalini (see another post of mine for the reasoning)

My conclution atm is that it's just all just experiment, but i must admit i am a bit worried.

Any thoughts on birth control, and medicine control?

Sent an email, feel free to remove your address from that previous message as this is publicly accessible currently. Happy new year !

I got my period on a recent 2 week concentration retreat and instead of the usual "three days of bleeding and cramps" I had "one day of meditation where every time I sat it felt like my entire body was engulfed in actual fiery flames" - no pain outside of meditation time and hardly a drop of blood was evident. It literally felt like the meditation was burning up both the blood and the pain, with my own inner energy rushing upward and sweeping the blood/pain away from my lower chakras. 

My teacher is a woman and she confirmed that menstrual changes are common for female practitioners. The Taoists know a lot about this topic, and actually have terms and methods for women to control their periods through chi gong and meditation- making it disappear for a time period during the fertile stage of life and how to make fertility return once menopause has been reached. I have read about women past menopause getting their periods back after times of intensive practice- it makes sense to me because meditation does effect melatonin, which is a master hormone that effects other hormones. Sounds wild, and I am not anywhere near that level of mastery, but I've had enough experiences that I believe someone might be able to do it.

As for hormonal birth control and medication, I can only say medicine is very much trial and error- take it and see how it makes you feel, give it a chance to really work and you can always get off of it (with input from your doctors) if it isn't helping. People react totally differently to things. 

Hi,
I would like to add my experience to this discussion, as I was searching around looking for info on spontaneous menstruation on retreat and couldn't find anything.
I just got back from a 10 day vipassana retreat.
After a peak, intense experience in the afternoon of Day 5 I got a gushing, very heavy, very tissue laden period (unusual for me) upon waking on Day 8. My period was not due until approx 10 days later, which has more or less been pretty regular, so it was notable and did seem connected to my practice. 
I wonder if this has been the experience of anyone else?

Such a cool and rad question.

Yes, I too have observed interesting things at the intersection of the menstrual cycle and my practice!

1) I experienced stream entry at the ''peak'' of my menstrual cycle; when I have the most energy. This is just at the beginning of ovulation, I see it as my internal ''full moon''. Also, it was a few days after the actual full moon. I have noticed that a lot of awakening stories of masters mention it being the full moon when they experience a cessation. (Is there structured data around that?)

2) I have noticed that my cycle has been trailing the moon in a way that I feel is ''symbolically aligned'' since I started to attempt to do daily practice.
This means that just after new moon happens, I get my period, and just after full moon happens, I ovulate. My personal inner energy cycles match up to the lunar ones with approx 48h-72h trailing time, as if it was the time for my body to ''receive the cue''. At least it's how I've been thinking about it. It may change -- I'm not sure what it would mean, but I like to watch and notice. 

3) I have a light period and it's been like this forevew. However, I experienced a VERY heavy period, just once, immediately following a 10 day retreat. I don't know why. Then I did not have stream entry. Following that retreat and coinciding with the heavy period, I experienced a very intense (for me) dark night for about 2 months following that retreat, which only lifted when I went back to the retreat center to volunteer for a few days.