When i was growing up in 19XX, we were discarding all that was traditional and adopting all western technologies and mindsets. Everything west brought was modern, everything our culture threw up was toxic, superstitious and quackery. I was in 9th standard when my mom introduced me to tampons so i could do Taekwondo and swimming with ease.
Cut 201x and I was a mom with two girls and also a horrified waste volunteer looking at our footprint and its resultant impact on our health. I found a single tampon could create 1 ton blockage in the drain and clearing of these drains was killing people! My elder one started her periods early and after a cycle with disposables she started using cloth pads. 18 months later, a “life skill class” in school and she started using disposables and also experiencing severe cramps. So bad that she would faint and had to be rushed to emergency. Trip to gynecologists told me that it was a common complaint among young girls and a tablet could help control pain. Elimination of it was not a possibility. And that is when I started looking for alternatives and found Ayurveda and Yoga. Today she has pain free and trash free periods normally (stress and overthinking according to her does bring a little pain occasionally!) She has also discovered that her best timings are during her periods. So from one mom to another, have created this list that was useful to take my daughter from pain to joyful periods.
- Positive attitude towards periods. When we make a song and dance about it, celebrate it, like it was done traditionally in so many states of India - from Assam to Tamil Nadu,, then girls look forward to it. All little girls want to be in the big girl club! Look again at video again https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hlMSr6boa0. Notice the emotions on face of the young girl - there is no fabled shame, just shyness, coyness, and joy. As I told my daughter period positive stories, I had an unexpected listener - my younger one. By the time she was 9.5, she was demanding her periods!
- Yoga exercises. Please watch this video for other yoga asanas that work for menstrual hygiene. My personal favorite is moola bandha - it also helped me rid of mild incontinence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4AyONHC3O0
- Eating sour - pickles, curd, etc doesn’t work for my elder daughter though it makes no difference to me and my younger one. We do have different body types, with her being dry skin type while I have oil wells!
- On advice of my colleague, continuous heavy bleeding and banana flower did magic for me. Twice. Eat with caution.
- Eat food cooked in iron pan and some food with jaggery.
- Not to do during periods
- Surya namaskar
- Hrid Gati
- Agnisar kriya
- Vajrasana
- Ustrasana
Author- Malini Parmar, Co-Founder of Stonesoup.in
www.stonesoup.in
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