A Blessing Not a Curse: a mother-daughter guide to the transition from child to woman

Girls who have a positive experience of menarche and their ongoing menstrual cycle are able to grow into the in-drawing centredness, the confidence, the groundedness, that conscious, positive and healthy menstruating can offer. Menstruation is an aspect of their blossoming sexuality – an inward time to be with themselves, a time to explore their changes and start to get to know the fertile and infertile times of their menstrual cycle – before they embark on sexual relationships.

As health practitioners, educators and carers we can explore our own experiences of menarche, menstruation and fertility, and the influences of family and culture, and by getting to know, make friends with and honour our own cycle we are able to help the girls in our care, to achieve a healthy menstrual experience. By honouring menstruation, in practical and philosophic ways, we can vastly improve our own experiences, discover the hidden creative potentials of riding our emotional and energetic rhythms, and support girls toward an experience of menstruation as a blessing, rather than a curse.

 This book includes:

• A cultural, historical and modern day review of menstruation
• Support for girls through the onset of puberty and the approach of menarche
• Support for girls as they establish and maintain menstrual awareness
• Self-help therapies for common teen menstrual problems
• A detailed understanding of the physiology of the menstrual cycle
• How we can support girls and ourselves by honouring menstruation