Page 106 - Natural Health (February 2020)

FINE TUNE

YOUR FLOW

Grab a pen and paper and make your
monthly cycle work for you with author
and women’s health expert Maisie Hill

Cycle tracking can take as little as 15 ACE AN APP and Stanford universities. I’m also a fan
seconds, so it’s worth giving it a go. Phone apps such as Clue, Kindara and of Clue’s non-gendered interface.
It’s often the simplest methods that are Natural Cycles (all available on the app
easy for us to get on board with and store), have many beneits and come in PEN TO PAPER
commit to, and that’s what we want here; handy – they’re very user-friendly and the This is my favourite method because
a daily habit, so one word a day is great, alerts help if you’re prone to forgetting you can write as little or as much as you
truly it is, because it’ll be enough for you where you are in your cycle. However, like, colour code days (more on this in a
to start to spot patterns. Every day, just they do simplify and generalise experiences moment), and if you’re already into using a
write down one word that encompasses and it can be hard to make comparisons bullet journal (a system for using a notebook
how you feel. Keep a note on your month by month. Do your research though, to plan, organise and track diferent aspects
phone, or if you’re into spreadsheets as some apps sell the data they collect to of life). Then you can use it to rate some of
(apparently some people are) then you pharmaceutical companies, which is why the things you want to keep track of, such as
can easily create one that will give I often recommend using Clue because energy, appetite and sexual desire on your
you a neat way of comparing things they don’t sell data, instead they work with daily pages, or use a chart in the same way
month by month. research institutes at Oxford, Columbia, you’d use a habit tracker and either tick or

106 NATURAL HEALTH