Making Eden Energy Medicine Our Own

Eliminating menstrual cramps

I had been on the pill for almost 20 years except for 5 years of that while I had the norplant implants for methods of birth control. During those years I had very light periods, and no menstrual cramping to speak of.  Life was good.

Then when I was in my mid-thirties, I decided to give my body a break from the chemicals.  I stopped taking the pill. It felt good to be free from the chemicals, but what I didn’t realize was the side effects I would experience from discontinuing them. After a few months of being off the pill, my periods became heavier and the cramping began.

The pain increased with every cycle, until the cramps were so bad they would make me drop to a ball on the floor where I could only focus on breathing to try to make the pain stop. Luckily the pain came in waves, so I could feel it coming on and try to stop it. I tried Ibuprofen and the pain laughed at it. Then I tried acupuncture which helped, but I wasn’t able to receive the relief at the beginning of my cycle which always started in the middle of the night (and usually on a weekend). Finally my OBGYN gave me a muscle relaxer sample which would finally make the pain stop, but then I was doped and useless. Besides, I had stopped taking the pill to avoid putting chemicals in my body!

Calming the stress response in our fast paced world

I have always been proud of my ability to multi-task while maintaining attention to detail in my fast-paced life. What I didn’t realize was that, although I felt like I was able to do it all, I was actually surviving in adrenal overload mode. I kept telling myself that when I was finished with whatever I was tied up with doing I would finally be able to take a break and “breathe”, but that time never came. It seemed that just when I was done with one all-consuming task, another was already revving up to take its place. Because of this I was always too busy to relax and enjoy life in real time. However, I was oblivious to this fact because I was moving too fast to see it, and the world around me was spinning right along with me. Our society encourages us to move faster and do more (at whatever cost), and rewards those of us who have these traits, and I had bought into the belief that this was what I was to do if I wanted to get ahead in life.