Let’s face it… Women have been menstruating since the beginning of time. Women have bodies that, like most natural things, are in tune with a certain cycle or rhythm. If you identify as human, and are equipped with female reproductive organs, you most likely experience menstrual cycles… Blood, cramps, hormones gone haywire, and that whole shebang is what keeps your body healthy and ready for a kicking screaming baby of your own to be born some day. If that whole mommy-to-be deal just isn’t your scene, that’s great too. Every woman has the power to decide her destiny. Check out below to learn more about finding your fiercely woman side.
The way we think of it here, at Maxim Hy, is that women all over the world react to their natural menstrual rhythm in many different ways. Whether you deem your period to be unclean or the closest your womanly body comes to pristine, we are not here to judge. But above all, what the staff of Maxim Hy is most passionate about (other than the quality and betterment of our product) is educating women of all ages and creeds about the power of their period and womanly being. We believe in making responsible and informed decisions, and that’s where our idea of fierce women comes in.
A fierce woman is a glorious female creature whose idea of beauty is hinged upon the idea that she can change the world with each choice, each moment, and each breath of her life. The word beautiful serves to encompass all areas of mind, body, and soul. Beauty is an element that guides her actions, and her actions are always in tune with a foundation of morals and convictions that come from a lifelong appreciation of learning. And by learning we don’t mean simply reading books and burying oneself in the depths of the Internet searching for all kinds of articles. No, learning is the creative ability to see beyond the surface, beyond what is presented to you in the mainstream, and recognize the power that you have the power as the beholder. A fierce woman is not a bystander in her own life. A fierce woman will use her wisdom, intuition, and imagination to exact change and choice in the world around her.
We’ve invested a lot of time into bringing you our product so that you can have a choice, an alternative choice to what’s on the market. Be fierce and take it! To read about some real life fierce women, check out our Fierce Women Blog Series at our blog and if you know of any fierce women you want us to feature on our blog, please email us with their story at info@maximhy.com
The Angry Reds
Has your period got you feeling zany? Do you think the only way out of this angsty state of crises is ten bars of Godiva chocolate stat? If any of these situations applies to you, well we’ve got you covered. Here’s a new kind of remedy that doesn’t involve swallowing milligrams of anything. Yes, we’re talking natural therapy.Writing in Red
It’s easy to think that you look ugly with all that bloating or blotchy pale skin. And it’s even easier to feel like you should just take it easy for however many days it takes your period to run its course, but you know what’s even better than giving up? - Knowing, understanding, and believing in your strength as a woman. We all go through this. And there is no concrete reason to do nothing for a half-a-week. Mind over matter! Cease the day! This is your life, for crying out loud! Use your hormones and that pain. Use that extra sensitivity that every woman is blessed with. Write it out! Turn all that pent up intellect and emotion into words.Expressing Your Emotional Self
Do you feel that angst? That inconvenient force that might just make you explode! Let it go. Let it out. Reason with yourself. Is what you’re feeling rational?If you’re just fuming or pissed and you don’t have the patience to reason it out. Just put your pen down on the page. Seriously, just date it and then let yourself go. Say anything at all, even if you know it makes zero sense to think this way. And when you feel ready, read what you wrote and answer these questions:
* Who and what got me so worked up?
* Why did I react the way I did?
* If there really is a problem, how can I make this better?
Asking yourself these questions, will give you a chance to understand yourself and what may be bothering you. Or maybe what you think is a big deal, really isn’t and it’s just those hormones giving you a hard time. Either way, taking the time out to write about it, will make you feel relieved. If that doesn’t work, check out the Angry Reds section for Other Natural Remedies, but most of all have faith in the world around you because things will get better if you want them to and have confidence in yourself. Really believe that you have the ability to make your life worthwhile.
Yoga Positions
Think of how much energy your body’s got to be producing during your period just for the sake of renewing one of your organs. Your body’s focus is on creating hormones, distributing hormones to the right places, expanding and contracting, and generally conserving all other stores of energy for this process. That’s why you might be feeling so drowsy and tired. Your body wants to feel balance, but menstruation is a gruesome and tiring process that demands a lot of energy. Yoga can help you put those hormones in check and balance your body out. Not all yoga positions are made to be done during your menstrual cycle. In fact, some are strictly forbidden, but we found a few you might want to know about.Click here to review and read about a list of poses that’ll help deal with menstrual cramps and fatigue. Also, check out this cool video for follow-along instructions on yoga positions to help heal those period cramps.
Breathe In, Breathe Out
Another way to deal with the pain and stress that your body goes through during your period is through counter-stimulation, meaning switching your focus from the pain you are experiencing to a different stimulus, and in this case we suggest using breathing techniques. It’s really simple… Instead of immediately reaching in to the medicine cabinet for some kind of painkiller, remember that what you’re experiencing is not the result of an accident or an injury. Your period is your body’s natural way of running it’s course, and the pain you’re feeling is natural as well. If you take a moment to be patient, and recognize this, then you could also try an alternative method to deal with pain, and that’s where meditation comes in.For a few simple instructional videos and articles on meditation visit the following sites:
Breathing Methods
Meditation Tips
Stress Relief Techniques
Other Natural Remedies
No, we’re not going to suggest you cook up together some strange, icky tasting ingredients, but if the suggestions found in the other links in this section were not enough, we also suggest thinking about these other natural PMS remedies, before opening up that medicine cabinet. Yes, it’s so easy to just pop a pill and get some instant gratification, but before there were pills there were some cool ladies with cool remedies that actually work and help soothe those cramps and other PMS pains. Here are just a few suggestions:1. Heat It Up: Expose your abdomen to some heat. Whether it’s a warm shower, extra blankets, or an electric heat pad, your abdominal pains/cramps will feel much better after being exposed to warmth. The heat helps increase blood flow providing additional oxygen and nutrients to help heal your shedding uterine lining. The heat also helps stimulate sensation in the skin, and therefore distracting the amount of pain being signaled and sent to your brain from your uterus. Also, our tendency is to tighten and tense up our muscles when we’re in pain; the heat will help relax those tightened muscles.
2. Watch Your Food Intake: Sugar and salt are big no nos, especially if you’re trying to reduce that overwhelming amount of bloating and swelling of the hands and feet. Forget that morning coffee; any caffeine can sometimes aggravate anxiety and depression that comes along with that time of month. Tea, specifically chamomile and peppermint, on the other hand, although it contains caffeine, can make for a good alternative.
3. Minerals, Minerals and more Minerals: Ok, we said no pill popping, but we meant no non-natural pill popping. There are some minerals in the form of pills/supplements that we highly recommend to help reduce those PMS Pains. Magnesium, Vitamin B6, and Calcium are our top three picks; here’s why:
a) Magnesium: Magnesium supplementation is best known for helping with balancing mood and fluid retention. It has been found that 360 mg three times a day, starting from day 15 to the start of the menstrual period significantly improves PMS mood changes.
b) Vitamin B6: If the magnesium can’t cure your mood, maybe the recommended daily dose of 100mg of Vitamin B6 will help with your premenstrual blues. The body needs B6 to make serotonin out of the amino acid tryptophan, and many people may be low in B6 because of high levels of stress that deplete your body of B6.
c) Calcium: Studies correlate the levels of calcium found in women with stronger symptoms of PMS are lower than those women who do no experience PMS. It is suggested that 300 mg of calcium carbonate four times a day can help reduce bloating, depression, pain, mood swings and food cravings. Most people automatically think milk is the best source of calcium, but you might be surprised to find out that green leafy vegetables, sardines and seeds are also a good source of calcium, so if you’re not a cookies and milk kind of girl, break out your recipe for sautéed spinach.
4. Herbal Remedies: Although there’s contradicting evidence about the benefits of using herbal remedies to help ease your PMS symptoms, it’s still worth a shot. Here some age old herbal treatments:
a) Chasteberry – this fruit coming from a small shrub-like tree has been used by women for thousands of years. It has been linked to balancing hormone levels created by the pituitary gland.
b) Evening Primrose Oil – Some research has shown that a dietary deficiency in fatty acids may contribute to PMS. Evening primrose oil is rich in essential fatty acids; taking a 500 mg supplement per day can help improve mood swings, irritability, cramps and inflammation and swelling in the body.
