blood deficiency is a bitch (and… a blessing)

Did you know that your cycle can give you tangible signs of anemia before bloodwork levels would reflect it?

From a menstrual cycle analysis lens, we have the ability to gather the signs and symptoms of “scanty” bleeding that then eventually can lead to anemia diagnoses. It can be tricky, because blood deficiency can sometimes be masked by other imbalances — but once we’re aware of this, we are then able to decide how to respond to our body’s request for nourishment.

This one is a particularly intimate topic for me, because I’ve been there. No, I’m there. This is where I’ve been the past few weeks — receiving the very very bold and clear messages of my body.

Heavy, weak, unsteady hand grip, noodley arm muscles, and shakey knees — feeling hesitant to carry things. Debilitating head tension, exhaustion, a complete inability to think and just be present. Cold. Chilled to the bone. And frustrated at it all.

It is… rough.

I’m not here today to tell you, “This is what I did, take these things, this is how you come out of it” — but rather, I want to offer some of the insights I’ve gained through this reckoning of sitting and listening to what my body has had to say.

For instance — “Dear one, this did not happen overnight.”

The patterns and pieces that led to this place trail much further back. Those tough teenage years, where so much was out of our hands, but still so foundational. As an early adult, pushing so freaking hard — long days, long nights. Running toward the dream. Along the way, those “random” missing periods (while not pregnant.) And more — as I sat in quiet and welcomed them, so many little details came to memory, leading me along the storyline of how I came to this place, here and now of having a lack of nutrients (iron, ferritin, hemoglobin, really this could include so many things depending on how you look at it.)

And so obvious yet often overlooked, I must add that 4 pregnancies and 5+ cumulative years of breastfeeding really asks a lot of the body. Only in my most recent pregnancy, birth, and postpartum did I know how to truly replenish. But still, there’s so much I need to give back to my body to come out of the nourishmental deficit.

Whispers, to suggestions, to commands, to pleads, to wailing cries.

Our body always tells the truth, even if we’re not listening well enough to hear.

This experience has been my reminder, that for me to embody all of the parts of my self — I too need to receive nourishment in all it’s forms.

This is where self-awareness becomes the teacher, the guide, and the medicine.

As we move away from the thought patterns such as, “my body is doing this thing to me,” we’re able to receive the wisdom that is so generously coming through for us.

It’s had me thinking also about the bigger picture of women’s health and the issue of undernourishing — intentionally, unintentionally, or maybe even without awareness that their bodies are needing more. This could be nourishment in the form of food, touch, relationship and connection, quality self-care time, you name it.

And ultimately, when brought to its simplest form, women are undernourished largely due to isolation.

Women are undernourishing because of body image and social comparisons (the root of this being a deep lack of self security and self worth), or because a literal lack of nutritional resources (real food, knowing how to prepare real food, what even to eat per their body type), the time needed to invest in the preparing, cooking, and eating of this food, plus the finance it takes to obtain the resources needed to make nourishing meals. And then food fear.. the confusion and lack of desire for foods because there is so much contrasting and conflicting information about what is “good” for us and what is “not good” for us.

All of which is remedied, cared for, and acknowledged within genuine, consistent connection within a community of loving, supportive, wise people.

Modern women are living in an unreal amount of internal and external pressure — while food famine and struggle have certainly been major parts of history, women now wrestle with the additional beasts that are all social media platforms. Constant judgement, little true connection, and not nearly enough parasympathetic down-regulation to match and counter the sympathetic overdrive.

It is just so much.

We’re all in survival mode when we’re all in our own lone ships trying to sail the sea.

And when women and mothers are undernourished, everyone feels the effects of this.

Men, you want your woman interested in you? Feed her. Her natural desire for sex tanks when her body is not nourished with real nutrients. This is one of the pieces to measuring health — if her libido has gone MIA, her body may be literally shutting it down as self protection of her energetic stores.

Severely blood deficient women often won’t even ovulate as another form of self protection — pregnancy, when there is already so much lack, would be devastating on her system.

Women who are not well cannot indefinitely rise to meet the needs of their families, careers, or life goals. At some point, the body speaks and demands to be heard.

This all really highlights that we’re not meant to do this alone — mothering is designed to be done in community.

This is the long term impact of generations of women “getting right back to it” after birthing their babies and then going on to mother in solitude.

And then, looking even bigger picture.

If women are the soil from which all of humanity grows, what does a society of hungry, depleted, nutritionally void women tell us about the current state of humanity and its current practices?

We’re out of alignment with our original design.

Big farming, big pharma, big imports — faster, forceful, further and further away.

We’re now talking about generations of growing on ground that has become nutritionally lacking, which transfers to the fruits, the veggies, the livestock.

This is the exact opposite of what brings wellness — locally grown, small scale food sources, sustainable practices, individualized health care, and being in relationship with the ground that nourishes the foods that nourish us, and in relationship with each other.

Slower, with more ease, in close proximity, connection, and awareness.

Our bodies are directly mirroring the wellness of Mother Earth.

There is soooo much depth, variation, and nuance that comes with this conversation. I don’t have all of the answers, try as I may. And maybe that’s not my role anyway.

But what I can offer is an invitation. I invite you into intentional relationship with your foods. That whatever you may take in, your body may receive its nutrients, metabolize them well, and transfer it into sustainable energy — and from there, may you use it do to great and beautiful things.

• take a moment of gratitude for the food on your plate, breathe it in before it meets your lips — receive it with warmth in your heart

• envision the energy it is about to bring into your cells and how this energy will transfer to your people as well (you being cared for = you having the energy to care for others)

• chew, nice and slow, taking in the flavors and textures, enjoying the life energy it’s bringing into your being

And more, if you’d like, some questions to ask yourself. I encourage you to hold an open, curious, compassionate mind for whatever may surface for you. Remembering that self awareness can be a teacher, a healer, a guide.

What am I not digesting in my life?

What would help me receive nourishment more effectively?

How can I come into relationship and deeper intention with my food?

As always, I’d love to hear from you. As it goes, rising tides raise all ships.

With love and nourishing warmth,

G