Tracking Your Menstrual Cycle and Understanding Your Inner Seasons

The free Life, Aligned Cycle by Cycle Tracker - available here.

There are a few myths/misconceptions that come up regularly when I first start speaking to clients and community members about tracking their cycles that I wanted to cover:

• Myth: Most menstrual cycles are 28 days.

  • Though the "average" cycle is 28 days, that only adds up to about 11% of menstruators.

• Myth: Our inner seasons/phases of our menstrual cycle are equal length - one week each to add up to 28 days?

  • Nope, the phases of our cycle are different lengths and these can also shift, cycle to cycle (nothing is ever simple, eh!).

• Myth: Others say (for example) day 14 is their summer, so day 14 must be my inner summer too.

  • Nope, it depends on the overall length of your cycle!

How your inner seasons may actually play out 

Please note, these are just examples 😊 And if you're new to this, you can read an introduction to the inner seasons on my blog here.

Based on 28 days:

• Menstrual/bleed/inner winter - Day 1-5  (5 days)

• Follicular/inner spring - Day 6-11  (6 days)

• Ovulatory/inner summer - Day 12-15  (4 days)

• Luteal/inner autumn - Day 16-28  (13 days)

A short cycle of 21 days:

• Menstrual/bleed/inner winter - Day 1-3  (3 days)

• Follicular/inner spring - Day 4-7  (4 days)

• Ovulatory/inner summer - Day 8-10  (3 days)

• Luteal/inner autumn - Day 11-21  (11 days)

A longer cycle of 45 days:

• Menstrual/bleed/inner winter - Day 1-6  (6 days)

• Follicular/inner spring - Day 7-26  (20 days)

• Ovulatory/inner summer - Day 27-30  (4 days)

• Luteal/inner autumn - Day 31-45  (15 days)

As you can see each phase can flex, though if you are experiencing very long cycles, it is the follicular phase that will be the longest for you. Our luteal phase is usually a more reliable two weeks in length (an average of 11-17 days).

As always, the best way to learn where your seasons start and finish, where your energy ebbs and flows, is by tracking your cycle. You can download my free cycle tracker here.

And if through tracking you find that your cycles are becoming less and less regular, more painful or heavier than usual, please don’t wait to seek support. Don’t suffer in silence, and don’t be afraid to get a second (or third) opinion if your GP doesn’t take you seriously.

Reminder: You are not a machine

Therefore you cannot create a blueprint in order to plan everything down to the day. You are a living organism and even the most regular of cycles will vary, but learning more about your body is always a good thing 😊

Track, learn, and give yourself grace with whatever comes up.

I hope that this is helpful!