Our tendency to get our protractors and measure how we’re doing against some standard of perfection never ceases to astound me.

The desire to do it right is pretty darn pervasive in our culture.

Why? There are so many places where we’re taught that there’s a limited supply of success, and in order to get our fair share, we need to check a bunch of boxes and follow the rules that someone we don’t even know (and likely doesn’t really exist, or at least died a long time ago) made up.

Grades, sports, anything related to awards or rankings, just to name a few.

Witnessing people learn about the way the menstrual cycle mirrors the lunar cycle is such a gift. The look of awe on their faces and the deep feeling of remembrance is visible in their bodies.

If you’ve not yet had that moment, here’s the skinny on how the menstrual phases align energetically with the phases of the moon:

Menstrual = New Moon = Rest + Reflect
Follicular = Waxing Moon = Plan + Initiate
Ovulation = Full Moon = Connect + Be Visible
Luteal = Waning Moon = Focus + Complete

More often than not, following the sweet moment of cosmic/biological remembrance is a knee-jerk assessment of whether or not they’re doing their period right.

They wonder, Well, what if I don’t get my period at the new moon?

What if I get it during the waxing moon or full moon or waning moon?

Am I doing it wrong?

How do I know what I should schedule in my Do Less Planner if my period doesn’t line up with the moon phase it mirrors?

Once or twice a year I get a period on the new moon. That’s it. The rest of the time it’s at different phases.

Each period has a different experience and different lessons to deliver to us. It’s our monthly(ish) teacher. And we get to use our bodies and the moon to decode the message.

It’s actually really fun once you put away the protractor and stop trying to do it right.

The way I think of it is that whatever phase of my menstrual cycle I’m experiencing is the primary energy I’ll be experiencing at any given time. (If you don’t have a period and want to know how to practice cyclical alignment, I wrote about that right here.)

Then the lunar phase simply adds a flavor to the experience.

I think of my menstrual phase as my outfit (like a black dress) and then the lunar phase as an accessory giving it a slightly different feel.

For example, if you have your period at the full moon, the full moon energy is an added element of intensity and higher energy to your period. You might get a more intense intuitive download that month (you’ll always have the most access to your intuition when you have your period, no matter what the moon is doing).

Some say that when you bleed on the full moon, your downloads may be more about your leadership and public life, and when you bleed near the new moon, they’re more for you in your private life. When I’m super focused on my business and public life, I often bleed closer to the full moon, whereas when my focus is turned more within or more on my private life, my period comes closer to the new moon.

If you’re ovulating on a waning moon, as another example, your primary energy (black dress) is about magnetism and connection, but it will have a flavor of focus, detail orientation, and completion. If you’re scheduling around this, perhaps you’d think about what outreach you could do that’s related to completing a project.

And for a final example, if you’re in your luteal phase during a waxing moon, your primary energy will be on turning within and focusing, but it has an additional flavor of initiation energy. You could experiment with using your focused mental energy to plan out some of the more minute details of an upcoming project to optimize this energetic combo.

Sometimes you might like a latte straight up. Sometimes you might like it with oat milk. Sometimes you go pumpkin spice.

Your period and the moon are kind of like that.

There’s no right time to have a period when it comes to the moon.

You’ll get different flavor combos throughout different seasons of your life depending on what you need the most at that time.

The phase of your menstrual cycle is the primary energy. The phase of the moon adds a flavor.

Don’t obsess about this. There’s no right way to do it. Stay in the discovery and allow yourself to receive the gift of getting to know yourself better and better, cycle after cycle.

Have questions or a-ha’s? I’d love to hear what you’ve got on this, so leave a comment!

Happy cycling!

P.S. Want to take your cyclical planning to the next level so that you can achieve more by doing less? Grab yourself a Do Less Planner!