About 1.5 hours into the most recent Aladdin movie, we see Princess Jasmine (played by Naomi Scott) sing the song 'Speechless'.  I'm going to assume that people know the general story of Aladdin, so you'll understand the next few sentences.  Jafar (the bad guy) has just taken ownership of the lamp, ordering the genie to make him sultan instead of Jasmine's father.  Now they are all at the mercy of Jafar.  He orders the guards to take Jasmine away.  Throughout the movie, Jasmine has felt constrained and not able to use her voice and now the circumstances have amplified that lack of freedom.  Things have transpired that she will now be locked away.  While we may not be princesses being ordered to the dungeon by a bad guy who has just taken over our dad's job, we will likely have experienced external circumstances and obstacles shutting down our creative process.

Connecting with and aligning with your menstrual cycle is a revolutionary act, because it means that a woman places her unique natural energy flow as a key organising principle of her life.  Aligning with the menstrual cycle means that a woman recognises she isn’t a robot and doesn’t need to be; that life is not just about being ‘productive’.  She comes to better understand and appreciate the wisdom of her natural body.

Practically speaking, I would define it as being aware of where you are at in your cycle, having an understanding of how you uniquely move through your cycle and making plans that fit with your cycle, where possible.

I like to do some simple daily practices as they help me to centre and they can be little pockets of pleasure and connection to self.  They help to set things up for my day.  After I became a Mum my desire and ability to do lengthy practices that were very structured and based on discipline and 'shoulds' really dwindled.  One of the practices I love to do is called 'dropping into innocence'.  I learnt this technique through intuitive coaching and I also found that the meditations included in A Course in Miracles (ACIM) offer a similar purpose and effects. 

I'm not talking about innocence as the absence of wrong-doing or confessing sins or being perfect.  It is about dropping my habituated thinking and learned reactions and all the assumptions that I have made up about myself, others and the world, to connect more fully with my child-like sense of wonder, bringing that freshness to the forefront of my awareness.