If you are getting premenstrual anxiety symptoms before your period, listen up. Here’s how I manage my PMS and mood swings including overthinking and panic symptoms.
Today, I want to talk to you about premenstrual anxiety. This is the anxiety that comes on just before your period, and there are lots of ways you can naturally fix anxiety during that time of the month.
Related: Grounding meditation
Watch the video or continue reading below…
What is premenstrual anxiety?
For some people, it can start coming on for two weeks before your period. And if you think that anxiety forms part of your PMS symptoms, then it’s likely that it does.
In today’s blog, I will go into a little bit more detail about why anxiety is a PMS symptom and what you can actually do about it.
So, as you know, as a lady, we go through hormonal cycles. There’s an egg released every month and if that egg isn’t fertilized and start turning into a baby, then your body takes steps to shed that egg every month.
This is good, this is healthy, this is a wonderful thing, that’s part of what makes us women and what makes us beautiful fertile beings.
And if you no longer have your period or if you don’t get a period for whatever reason, then we, as women, are regulated by the moon cycle.
So don’t think just because you don’t have a period that you’re exempt from this, you absolutely are still part of this wonderful lunar cycle which is the menstrual cycle.
So, in order to shed the egg, your body’s hormones change, they fluctuate and they go up and down and this can create havoc within your emotional body.
Your emotional body relies on kind of knowing what’s going on in order to remain balanced. And with hormones going up and down, this can just send things haywire.
That is why you find, before you get your period, you start to get the headaches, you get the bloating, you get the irritability, you cry a lot, you get depressed.
Sometimes women have problems sleeping before their period, back pain, pelvic pain, the list just goes on and on and one about premenstrual symptoms. And yes, anxiety is definitely one of them.
I’m one of those people that get different PMS symptoms every month. It’s really like Russian roulette for me. Some months, my period can arrive and I’ll be like, “Ah,” the only notice that I’ve had of it is that I’m tracking it on my calendar. More about that later.
And on other months, I know from two weeks before, from just after ovulation to the point where I start my bleed that I know it’s coming and I know it well and truly because I have trouble getting out of bed, I’m snappier than usual and my anxiety is generally through the roof and there’s no other reason for it.
Step 1: Know and understand your menstrual cycle
So, just really knowing that that’s what it is helps hugely with managing your anxiety symptoms when you are premenstrual.
You do that by just tracking where you are in your cycle.
And I know many, many women don’t do that and it just adds to the chaos if you don’t.
All it takes is, I have a calendar on my wall and I just put a little…write some letters on there.
So, I put “FB” for full bleed, when I start to bleed on the day of my period. You can also do this on your iPhone, like it doesn’t have to be overtly obvious what those symbols mean.
You don’t have to write, “I got my period today.” You can do a little smiley face or a little frowny face or draw a little picture. Whatever it is for you that will tell you, “This is the day I started my bleed.”
And then you track that through on the month. Every month, you look at what day it is and on the day that you bleed, you just quickly write it down. It takes two seconds.
Then as you start doing that over the months, you start to see a pattern emerge.
And if you are one of these people that are a little bit irregular in your cycle, you should be bleeding every 28 to 33, 35 days.
If that’s not happening, you can actually start to regulate your cycle by going outside and looking at the moon every single night.
How to regulate your cycle
You can regulate your cycle by just glancing at the moon every night for a month. That’s a little energetic hack for getting your cycles on track and in alignment.
The moon is what regulates our menstrual cycles, not just from an energetic perspective.
It regulates pretty much everything. The moon regulates the tides, it regulates our period.
The moon is blessed female energy. So if you want to regulate your cycles, just go outside and look at the moon every single and note down on your calendar when you bleed because that will tell you every month, if you start to feel a little bit anxious, you can go to your calendar and you can count the days until you’re due to bleed.
Step 2: Get some space and down-time
Cut yourself some slack because what you’re going through is normal and natural and it’s part of your energetic energy, it’s part of your sacred of contract that you’re here to fulfill.
You are a woman, this is part of being a woman.
So give yourself some space, honestly, just give yourself a big ol’ break.
Go really easy on yourself.
We demand a lot of ourselves as women, we’re mothers, we work, we look after a household, we do all the errands and the shopping and the housework and all the rest of it.
Give yourself a break from that. You’re not perfect, as hard as you try to be so just give yourself some time.
This is a time for imperfection, it’s a time of blessed imperfection.
Just affirm: “I’m allowed to have this time to myself, I’m allowed to express these premenstrual anxiety and the frustration that goes along with it. It’s totally, absolutely 100% okay.”
Step 3: Understand that it won’t last forever
So it’s not a permanent thing. You might experience anxiety as an underlying thing. It might be something that you’ve been diagnosed with, you might have generalized anxiety disorder.
But this premenstrual anxiety, this peak in your anxiety levels before your period, sometimes during your period, it’s a temporary thing. It will pass.
That’s the thing with PMS. It’s not a permanent thing because just as your hormone levels shift around and change and go a little bit haywire, they settle after your period.
So just understanding that while you are going through this PMS anxiety and these horrible premenstrual symptoms, what you’re experiencing right now is temporary. It will absolutely pass.
It’s horrible while you’re going through it but time heals everything. It really, really does.
So those are my three tips for dealing with premenstrual anxiety and I hoped they’ve helped you. If you’re looking for a little bit more support with dealing with your anxiety, take a look at my free guided meditations specifically for women just like you who are experiencing anxiety of all types.
Love + light,
Eva xo