Very interesting topic, and especially the connections you've been proposing, truth seeker.
truth seeker said:
Ana said:
Mrs.Tigersoap said:
This last part had struck me at the time but I did not really know what to make of it. So, maybe during this special time of the month, women are more capable of conquering the predator's mind. This could be part of the reason why women wanted to isolate themselves during this time, to be able to observe it and conquering it?
Well if I look at my own experience while menstruating, I see there is a significant change in me, first of all my body sensations became stronger,
I have a great feeling of being inside my body, of being in intimate relationship and "possesion" if that makes sense. I feel charged with force wich decreases as I menstruum.
Also my perception is sharpened, it is easier to pick up hostile presences and underlying dynamics.
I even feel between two worlds sometimes and I need to put a clear intent in mind to not feel dragged by any of them and stay in the middle. With this, some way, the "playing nice" program is countered by a strong sense of self, of staying my ground, of inner freedom to be.
So, I'm aware of a clear distinctive state, which I used to decline in the past trying to eliminate the pain and forgeting the need of connection with my body.
Absolutely! For many years now, I have thought of this time, particularly just before - premenstrual - as being particularly beneficial. For me, I've noticed that all the stuff I was willing to put up with, I was now no longer able or willing to. I am most in my right mind. Funny how this has been co-opted into making women seem crazy when it's really the reverse that seems to be the case! It's as if you are no longer able to deny what your life was showing you all along.
Same here. However, menstruating only became a positive experience, once I got rid of the misogynist associations, which before I'd been carrying around with me, and which in my mind were being reinforced by a very exhausting first day of menses, with pain, depression, bloating, need for isolation, being hypersensitive to the world 'outside'.
Interestingly, and which confirms the relations to diet being a causative factor, my problems with menses were especially bad when I was vegetarian and living almost solely on dried figs and other fruits, and bread. But my own experience with the general theme of 'womanhood' makes me think that apart from wrong diet and the havoc it wreaks, the psychological attitude plays an important role as well. Once I started to consciously accept what was happening during mens (that still being on a very high carb diet), and adjusting my negative, contracting attitude towards an open one, I was beginning to experience these states described by Ana and truth seeker and in the quoted article, of being more in touch with myself, more grounded, intolerant of things I would put up with when not menstruating, very receptive emotionally and crying much more easily when being confronted with the agony of someone else or something about the state of the world. It does feel like I'm more my-self, e.g. programs of negative introject which also get projected on others, are pretty much absent and I'm filled up with a generous, loving, accepting attitude; and also the make-nice-program is much lessened, or, more accurately, it makes me feel sick if I catch myself acting on it - as Ana said, seems the ability to capture the predator's mind is heightened.
I had my menarche at the end of age 16. Like others reported, I was so happy about it finally coming, because I was very late in comparison to others and felt that something was wrong with me. It has most of the times been regular once a month, lasting about 5 days each time.
Since adjusting my diet, namely eliminating gluten, dairy and high carb content, the pain I usually had simply vanished :) and, as Gertudes mentioned in one of the first posts of this thread, menses has a few times started without me even noticing and without experiencing any negative symptoms at all.
There was one quote posted here about a woman reporting how her menses is affected by carb consumption, which I can also confirm. When I have more carbs than advised negative symptoms of menses reappear, especially on the first day.
I'm really interested in further findings concerning this topic and what changes we paleo women will observe in the times to come, as our bodies increasingly adapt and regenerate due to improved diet.
One thing makes perfect sense to me: that the rule of patriarchy must have felt threatened by the creative and nurturing potential of women (or: 4DSTS by the creative principle of "Goddess"), which is why they had to
demonize menstruation, making sure it's being associated with "filthy", "contagious", "to be kept isolated and scorned".
I find it mind-boggling what a massive and concerted effort has been institutionalized - for millenia! - in order to degrade women and what they stand for. Psychopathic mindset indeed.
I think this to be very a propos:
If it is ever shown conclusively and accepted that women's actual performance is not affected by the menstrual cycle, we might still be left with women's experiential statements that they function differently during certain days, in ways that make it harder for them to tolerate the discipline required by work in our society. We could then perhaps hear these statements not as warnings of biological flaws inside women that need to be fixed but insights into flaws in society that need to be addressed.
...
Amid the losses that form the center of most accounts of PMS, these women seem to be describing experiences that. for them, represent increased capacities of emotional responsiveness and sensitivity, creativity, and physical sensuality. If these capacities are there, they are certainly not ones that would be given a chance to flourish or even be an advantage in the ordinary dual work day of most women.
Oxajil said:
Here is one thing from Bringers of the Dawn that I was reminded of when thinking about all of this:
P's said:
How do they benefit? They keep women from uniting with each other and
men from uniting with each other here in the United States. They keep
people in fear. They convince you, by continuously putting these issues
before you, that a woman has no control over the birthing process in her
body. You don't need abortion: you never need to get pregnant in the
first place if you don't desire it. How? By will. A woman can say to
herself, "I am not prepared at this time for a child." Or, alternately,
"I am in receptivity of a child." When you own yourself, you will not
need permission from the government about what you can do with your own
body.
I find this to be interesting as well. I could always tell when I was about to get my menses (except for the exceptions mentioned above, when it took me by surprise) and I also, on many occasions could delay menses from coming by some sort of mental willing, e.g. when I knew I'd be having a long and stressful day, I'd mentally say something like "No, not now - tonight is okay", and it worked. Often it did not come at the time I "told" my body when it would be ok; it would then come on the next day or during the night, or sometimes a few days after. No hard data of course, so fwiw.
I doubt there will be any studies on women using their will as to whether they want to get pregnant or not, but it would be nice knowing whether this actually works. - Maybe this "willing" is a natural ability, which was suppressed by both an agricultural diet and degradation of women (believing lie = closing perception) and by returning to a healthy lifestyle, the 'broken link to above' can be mended, the 'uplink' re-established. (I guess it would certainly be threatening to psychopathic men to accept such a 'power' from a woman, which would openly confirm that they are not in charge.. as all their control revolves around attempting to control life itself, so of course the woman would then be the first to target.) Just thinking out loud.
One thing I heard in naturopathy school was women talking about how their menstrual cycles adapted to other womens' cycles when they were living in the same household, i.e. their menstrual cycles adapted to one another. Don't have any data for that though.
Yay! NOTHING! No bloating, no pain, no cramps/contractions, no gooey stuff, wow! 
