How to Work With Your Cycle: A Sacred Guide to the 4 Menstrual Phases

What if your cycle wasn’t something to manage, but something to live by?

What if your hormones weren’t a nuisance, but a roadmap?

At Mother Oak and in the Moonwoven Planner, we honor the menstrual cycle as a sacred rhythm—a personal moon tide that offers clarity, rest, energy, and intuition when we know how to listen.

Below, you’ll find a gentle guide to the four phases of your cycle, along with ways to align your energy, creativity, and care during each one.

Menstrual Phase (Days 1–7) — The Inner Winter

This is your bleed week—a time of rest, reflection, and deep release. Hormones are at their lowest, and your body is asking for softness, warmth, and space.

Energy Focus:

• Rest + retreat

• Journaling, visioning, dreaming

• Saying no without explanation

• Feeling feelings and letting go

Ask yourself:

• What am I releasing?

• What am I making space for?

Let this be your reset. Less doing, more being. This is where clarity begins.

Follicular Phase (Days 7–14) — The Inner Spring

As your bleed ends, estrogen begins to rise—and so does your energy, optimism, and motivation. This is a time for planning, starting, exploring, and trying new things.

Energy Focus:

• Brainstorming, goal-setting, creating

• Light movement (walking, dancing, strength work)

• Saying yes to possibility

• Initiating projects or social plans

Ask yourself:

• What do I want to create?

• What feels fresh and alive in me?

This is the time to plant seeds. Trust your ideas and enjoy your rising clarity.

Ovulatory Phase (Days 14–21) — The Inner Summer

This is your peak energy phase—your full moon moment. Communication is clear, charisma is high, and your body is primed for connection, collaboration, and expression.

Energy Focus:

• Sharing your work, pitching, networking

• Holding gatherings, interviews, meetings

• Bold action and high-output tasks

• Pleasure, visibility, magnetism

Ask yourself:

• Where am I ready to be seen?

• What does it feel like to fully express myself?

This is your season of radiance. Say the thing. Wear the dress. Be big.

Luteal Phase (Days 21–28) — The Inner Autumn

After ovulation, progesterone rises and your body prepares to rest. Energy begins to shift inward again. You might feel more sensitive, reflective, or irritable—and that’s okay.

Energy Focus:

• Editing, finishing, refining

• Clearing out clutter (physically + emotionally)

• Slowing down, checking in

• Saying no, creating boundaries

Ask yourself:

• What needs tending?

• What am I holding that’s no longer mine to carry?

This is your phase of discernment and truth-telling. Trust what’s no longer aligned—and let it fall away.

You Are the Cycle

Living cyclically doesn’t mean doing everything perfectly.

It means honoring your body’s truth—day by day, phase by phase.

Some seasons are for blooming.

Some are for resting.

All of it is sacred.

You don’t need to push through.

You don’t need to shrink or override.

You were designed to live in rhythm—and you get to begin again each month.