Are you getting in a bad mood during your period? The ever-changing mood swings, muscle aches, everything getting on your nerves... And imagine being in a cluttered, gloomy, and chaotic environment on top of all that. Wouldn't everything be even more infuriating? Yet, engaging in activities that bring you peace in an environment that soothes you would calm you down and make you feel better. The environment we're in always matters for our mood, but it could be even more critical during our most turbulent phase: our period. In this post, I'll share some ideas with you on turning your place into a sanctuary that will make you feel much better during your period.
Understanding Your Needs
Recognizing Your Period Phases
Your menstrual cycle goes through distinct phases, each with its own needs. Understanding the menstrual cycle involves recognizing its distinct phases: the follicular phase, ovulation, the luteal phase, and menstruation. Each phase brings its own set of physical and emotional changes. During the follicular phase, energy levels tend to rise, and creativity peaks. Ovulation marks a surge in confidence and social activity. The luteal phase often brings mood swings and fatigue. Finally, menstruation can bring a need for rest and self-care. If you’re interested in the differences between these phases, read our other blog about menstrual phases and self-care advice for every phase.
Tailoring your home sanctuary to each phase can significantly impact your well-being. During the follicular phase, embrace your energy and clarity. Focus on organizing and energizing your space to match your heightened creativity. Try to illuminate your bedroom with bright colors and inspirational décor. As you approach ovulation, create a welcoming space for socializing and self-expression. During the luteal phase, prioritize comfort and relaxation in your surroundings to ease mood swings and fatigue. Relaxing music and dim lights can help. And during menstruation, create a cozy retreat with soft blankets and soothing scents to promote rest and healing. By adapting your home sanctuary to each phase, you can better support your physical and emotional needs throughout the menstrual cycle, but remember, there's no one-size-fits-all approach. Listen to your body, experiment, and create a sanctuary that empowers you throughout your unique cycle.
Here is a bonus tip: Prepare a separate playlist for each menstrual phase, and ensure that these songs play in your room when you enter these phases. For example, you can play more energetic songs during the follicular phase and more calming ones during the luteal phase to help you relax. Remember, you can decorate your room not only visually but also acoustically.
Identifying Comfort Essentials
Alright, let's equip our room with "comfort items" to feel better. But what are these comfort items, you ask? Don't worry, I'll list them for you right away!
• Menstrual Products: The basics but perhaps the most important. Stock up on pads, tampons, menstrual cups, or period underwear, depending on your preference, so you can feel mentally secure in your room.
• Pain Relief Medication: Determine the pain relievers that work best for you during this time by consulting your doctor and making sure you always have backups in your room. Knowing that your sanctuary is always prepared for pain will comfort you.
• Cosy Blankets and Pillows: Fill your bed with soft blankets and comfortable pillows with covers that make you feel good. Snuggling into your bed and its softness when needed will make you feel better.
• Heating Pad: A heating pad or hot water bottle can help you feel better during your pains. You can mentally feel better by ensuring they have cute shapes on their covers. Still, avoid placing high-temperature pads directly on your ovaries! You can opt to keep your feet warm or place it on your abdomen when it's at a warmer temperature.
• Comfortable Clothing: You can minimize discomfort by opting for the most comfortable clothes for you. I recommend avoiding clothes that squeeze your body. If you have the opportunity, prepare by getting aesthetically pleasing and comfortable clothes to wear during these times.
• Hydration: You may want to leave herbal teas in a corner of your room to help you relax. You can relax with a nice cup of lemon balm or chamomile tea and crown it with its aroma spreading in your room. Besides herbal teas, don't forget to drink water. Be careful to avoid caffeine and black tea during this time.
• Healthy Snacks: Keep nutritious snacks like fruits, nuts, and whole grains on hand to maintain energy levels and stabilize mood swings. I'll keep this brief since I'll talk about this in more detail later.
• Personal Care Products: Have gentle skincare products, wipes, and a soothing face mask for self-care moments when you need a little pampering. Scented candles or incense that you love also fall into this category.
Creating a Cozy Space
Soft Lighting and Ambiance
The light in your environment not only serves the purpose of illuminating objects for better visibility but also leads to significant changes in your body. The light in your surroundings affects many aspects of your daily life, from your eating habits to the quality of your sleep. Perhaps most interestingly, it even influences your hormone balance! For instance, brighter lights suppress your melatonin levels and boost your serotonin levels, while dimmer lights increase melatonin levels, helping your body relax and prepare for sleep.
It's not just the brightness or dimness that matters; the color of your light is also crucial for your mood. Different colors can evoke different emotions. Warm colors like red, orange, and yellow create a cozy feeling, while cool colors like blue and green help increase concentration. During your period, lighting your room with warmer colors can help you relax and unwind in bed comfortably. If you have colored LEDs, switch them to orange and settle into your bed. Enjoy the coziness.
Comfortable Seating and Relaxation Zones
We've sorted out the lighting, so let's start decorating your room. If there's enough space in your room, we can begin with space planning. For example, place the yoga mat and sports equipment by the window and your music player by the bed. Set aside a corner for your makeup and grooming items; this will be your skincare area. I think you've got the idea; you can design your room according to different activities by arranging the space as much as possible, similar to the examples I gave.
Furniture selection is crucial at this stage. Make sure to pay attention to both aesthetics and comfort. For instance, last year, I was going to buy an office chair for my room and ended up getting one that was very stylish but uncomfortable, just because I focused solely on its appearance. I'm incredibly regretful, so changing it is among my goals this year. I recommend trying out furniture in person rather than buying it online when shopping for furniture. Don't forget to check out products for decoration during this process. You may consider using decoration items that bring the tranquility of nature into your room. We talked about the effect of colors on our mood, so don't forget to take that into account.
Aromatherapy for Relaxation
Essential Oils for Stress Relief
Now that we've organized our room, we can move on to discussing things we can do here to relax. Our first stop will be aromatherapy. You might feel much more stressed and irritable than usual because you're on your period, and that's very natural. Your hormones are constantly fluctuating, which can lead to tension in your nerves. You can help your body relax with the essential oils and scents you use in your room. Some of the most commonly used oils for relaxation include lavender, chamomile, ylang-ylang, sandalwood, rose, and sage.
You can use these oils in many different ways. The simplest is, of course, to apply them by massaging them into your body. Before doing this, make sure to check if you have any allergies. You can also use oils that help you fall asleep, like lavender and chamomile, by dropping a few drops onto your pillowcase. Another option is to drip a few drops of oil onto a candle you burn in your room to spread the scent throughout the room. Another recommendation is to use them in your bath. A warm bath helps relax your muscles, and you can support this with essential oils. Please make sure you're not allergic to oils and scents before applying them, and don't forget to consult your doctor.
DIY Relaxing Scents
Wouldn't it be wonderful if your sanctuary had a completely unique scent just for you? With a few simple steps, you can create your custom-scented oil blend and further personalize your sanctuary.
As a first step, decide what kind of scents you enjoy and what type of relaxation you prefer. Do you prefer woody scents like sandalwood or tea tree or floral scents like chamomile and lavender? While all these scents are inherently relaxing, they each have their areas of focus, so researching them could be a good idea. For example, if you have anxiety issues, you might prefer sandalwood, or if you struggle with depression, you might prefer jasmine. Or you can mix both. Don't be afraid to experiment to find the best matching scents through trial and error.
Once you've chosen your unique scents, the next step is to select a carrier oil. Since essential oils are very concentrated, they need to be mixed with carrier oils like jojoba, avocado, or apricot. After choosing your carrier oil, you'll need to dilute the oil blend based on where you'll use it. For a 1% dilution, you'll need to add 6 drops of carrier oil to 30 ml of essential oil. If you're going to use the oil blend on your skin, a 1-3% dilution is recommended, while a 3-5% dilution is recommended for diffusing into the air. After mixing and diluting, your custom scent is ready, and you can use it as desired!
Meditation and Mindfulness
Now that we've personalized your sanctuary enough, we can start talking about activities to do inside. Of course, the first suggestion that comes to mind is meditation. Meditation is a wonderful tool for finding inner peace and obtaining tranquility, especially during periods when you are prone to stress. Trying out different types of meditation can help you find the one that suits you best and turn it into a routine.
Breath meditation: This meditation type, probably one of the simplest among them, maybe something you're already doing without realizing it. Focusing on your breath to calm yourself down, this type of meditation is a simple yet effective option.
Mantra meditation: By repeating a mantra that helps you calm down and focus internally, you can practice this type of meditation. You can also use an audio source to repeat the mantra while maintaining the correct position, or simply listen to it.
Vipassana meditation: It's a method of self-transformation through self-observation and introspection. It aims to increase your awareness by focusing on the sensations in your body.
Metta meditation: By sending love and well-wishes to yourself, your loved ones, and all beings, this meditation strengthens positive feelings and helps improve your mood by addressing internal conflicts.
Body scan meditation: It increases your physical awareness by paying attention to different parts of your body. You might be unknowingly tensing up, preventing yourself from relaxing. With this type of meditation, you can relax by scanning your entire body from head to toe.
If this topic interests you, don't forget to read my previous blog post on the benefits of combining your meditation routine with your menstrual cycle. Now, let's move on to the next step.
Nourishing Your Body
Healthy Snack Ideas
Of course, taking care of your physical needs is just as important as using meditation to nourish your soul. Consuming healthy foods during your menstrual period is not enough to support your body alone. Setting up a regular and healthy eating regimen and adhering to it is an important step. During your period, your body needs a lot of vitamin and mineral support, especially iron, as your body loses blood, and without regular nutrition, you may face various negative conditions such as fatigue.
When preparing your diet plan, you can include antioxidant- and protein-rich foods as well as delicious fruits like berries, oranges, and bananas. When you crave sweets, you can satisfy your iron and magnesium needs by opting for dark chocolate. Especially vegetables rich in iron, such as dark leafy greens and broccoli, and protein sources such as fish and chicken, particularly salmon, can be added to meet your protein needs for dinner. Healthy snacks like nuts, yogurt, tofu, and quinoa will always be great options for you as well.
Hydration for Well-being
You may experience cramps and bloating during your period. It's possible to alleviate this by staying hydrated. Most importantly, never overlook the importance of drinking water. Make sure you drink at least two liters of water per day. In addition to water, let's briefly look at some beverages you can consume.
Consuming ginger, renowned for its anti-inflammatory, pain-relieving, and antispasmodic properties, in the form of tea or shots can be a fantastic idea. Its anti-inflammatory properties will not only help with period pains but also contribute to healthier-looking skin. Beet juice, rich in anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, is another delicious option. Green tea, a staple in diets, can help with your bloating sensation and also reduce the risk of depression, making you feel better mentally. Chamomile, with its soothing effects, is another option that can help with period pains.
In addition to these delicious and healthy options, it's worth mentioning beverages to avoid. Especially, staying away from processed beverages with extra sugar or salt added is important to prevent further bloating. Caffeine and alcohol, which can trigger anxiety, are also among the beverages I recommend avoiding for both your sleep schedule and overall health.
Explore Cybele: Your Companion for Well-being
We talked about creating a sanctuary just for you where you can feel safe and free from all the stresses that your period brings, allowing you to relax.
Now, wouldn't it be perfect if you had a helper who tracked your period for you and offered personalized meditations without you having to lift a finger? Absolutely!
Well, that companion is right here: the Cybele App. Cybele App not only tracks your period for you but also predicts how you're feeling and what you need based on your hormone levels, offering personalized meditations just for you. Sounds amazing, doesn't it? If you want to easily access those meditations that will make you feel better with just a few clicks in your specially prepared sanctuary, subscribe to Cybele’s Early Access List now. We would be more than happy to welcome you among us and help you.
Conclusion
Now you know the key points to turn your room into your safe sanctuary. Mood-appropriate lighting, decorations that make you happy and comfortable, keeping emergency supplies close by, pleasant scents, activities, and healthy eating. I hope this article helps you feel much better in your room during your next period. If you create your unique scent and are satisfied with it, don't forget to share your special recipe with us and remember us every time you take a whiff. 😊 Remember, self-care is a deserving gift each month.
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