Pillar · Traditional Chinese medicine
The rituals.
The small, warm, daily practices that run alongside the food, matched to the phase I am in.
Alongside what I eat, the protocol keeps a set of rituals that change with my cycle, and most of them come from traditional Chinese medicine: mainly eating warmer foods, keeping my body warm, getting acupuncture, warm foot baths, and practicing the four things below. None of it is a cure for anything. It is the part of the protocol that calms my nervous system and makes the rest of it stick, and I share it as my own practice rather than advice.
All phases
Herbal teas
Two loose-leaf blends in glass jars, one for me and one for him, drunk warm through every phase of the cycle, not just one: the herbs shift with the phase but the habit never stops. It replaced coffee, and it is the ritual that holds the others together.
The full tea page, blends and brewing →
First five days of the follicular phase
Yoni steams
Sitting over a warm herbal steam for twenty minutes or so, once the bleed has finished. A traditional practice for warmth and circulation, and I keep it strictly to the first five days of the follicular phase so it never runs anywhere near ovulation or a possible pregnancy.
How I do them: herbs, stool, method →
First five days of the follicular phase
Castor oil packs
A cloth soaked in cold-pressed castor oil over the lower belly with a heat pack on top, thirty to forty-five minutes. Same window, same reason: the first five days of follicular only, so there is no risk of running into ovulation.
How I do them, and why not longer →
Luteal phase
Wild yam cream
A small amount rubbed into thin skin daily through the luteal window, the second half of the cycle, part of the traditional toolkit for supporting hormone balance. I use Anna’s enriched wild yam cream.
Where I apply it, where I get it →