Your PMS is talking to you (and how I navigated my own premenstrual symptoms last week)
Most people think PMS is somewhat random — some unlucky genetic glitch, a personality flaw, or a monthly emotional curse.
But last week, PMS hit me harder than usual… and it reminded me of something I teach all the time:
PMS isn’t random.
It’s responsive communication via your hormones. Your hormones responding to physical, emotional, and environmental stressors.
Premenstrual symptoms are your body opening a dialogue with you.
This blog is adapted from Episode 27 of the Oh My Menses podcast where I shared my raw, real-time PMS experience and walked through how I supported myself emotionally, physically, spiritually, kinda — without suppressing or numbing the signals my body was sending.
If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by your PMS, this is for you.
PMS isn’t the problem — it’s the messenger.
You don’t need a crystal ball to understand your body (check out my reel on instagram if you want a visual, including an actual crystal ball)
You already have one: your menstrual cycle.
Your hormones, including the ones that create the complex symphony that is your menstrual cycle, are your internal communication system. Whether you’re aware of it or not, your hormones are working around the clock, communicating between cells, tissues & organs, talking to your genes, meddling with your mitochondria.
Hormonal responses reflect:
how you slept
what & how you ate
how much stress you carried
how much sunlight you got
how many boundaries you upheld
even the emotional load you’ve been pushing aside
The only downside is that we don’t have an in-built translator to say, “your night of insomnia on cycle day 22 is telling us that your progesterone is insufficient. Please increase your dietary intake of zinc and B6 rich foods, avoid artificial light after sunset and get some morning sunlight first thing in the morning. Thanks!”
Instead, we’re left with frustrating symptoms, flare-ups and maybe feeling crazy for a week or two before our bleed arrives, with no clear next steps.
When symptoms flare — irritability, teariness, fatigue, breakouts, bloating — your body isn’t malfunctioning.
It’s responding.
Just like a smoke alarm going off when there’s a fire nearby… you wouldn’t get mad at the smoke alarm, right? You wouldn’t just take the batteries out without investigating.
You’d take a big whiff. You’d smell for smoke. You’d look for the source of danger. You’d check the environment.
We need the same approach when it comes to PMS.
What triggered my PMS this month
This cycle, my PMS was louder than usual. And when I zoomed out, I saw exactly why.
Note: I say “zoomed out”, two words, sounds so simple, right?! Ah. Rest assured that this is maybe the hardest step when it comes to supporting yourself through premenstrual symptoms. The symptoms themselves are specifically trying to zoom you in, keeping you stuck in your experience. Ultimately, your body is sending you important signals, it doesn’t want you to get distracted, it wants you honed in. But when it comes to supporting ourselves holistically through PMS, we kinda do need to zoom out, at least at first. Especially if you can’t yet identify it’s actually premenstrual stuff that you’re experiencing, we need to zoom out far enough to understand our cycle phase & inner hormonal terrain is impacting our thoughts, mood and actions.
Okay, back to the blog. Here were my personal triggers:
1. A few nights of poor sleep
Your luteal phase is sensitive — even one night of disrupted sleep raises cortisol and amplifies emotional reactivity. Progesterone, the dominant hormone of your luteal phase, supports one of your key neurotransmitters, GABA. This is a calming brain chemical. When progesterone is insufficient, it can result in altered mood, more anxiety and reduced ability to relax and self-regulate. And that can inhibit a good night’s sleep.
Equally, sufficient sleep & strong circadian rhythm is required for optimal progesterone production. More on that shortly.
2. Overextending myself emotionally
Saying “yes” when I needed rest, staying “on” for too long, holding space for others without replenishing my own space. Internal tabs were piling up, I was working on multiple projects at once while continuing to support clients, reply to emails & priority messages, interpret blood test results, record content, write newsletters, blogs, captions.
The kicker was, I wasn’t even feeling the ‘expected’ outcome from my efforts. I speak more to this in the podcast, but I made the ‘results’ or lack thereof about me, I took it personally. And this impacted my emotions. As a result, I was starting my days emotionally disconnected & seeking distraction or numbing, usually through putting my head down into some work.
3. Under-fuelled days
Lack of sleep + not enough protein = unstable blood sugar → hormonal irritability.
I was waking up at a reasonable hour, between 6-8am depending on the day, but again, over-focusing on work that wasn’t instantly rewarding me, starting the day with an empty cup, and delaying breakfast beyond 2 hours of waking. This is not a cute personality quirk, ladies. It’s a habit, and it’s been compromising our hormones from day dot.
Fasting for longer than 12 hours overnight, all sorts of metabolic markers & stress hormones can start to kick in. Your body is unsure about getting fed, and so it slowly starts processes to generate energy, like breaking muscle down to make sugar for your cells or increasing cortisol output to increase activity.
But this isn’t real fuel. It’s sending your body into deficit — especially when repeated over and over again.
4. Sunlight deprivation
Artificial lighting (in general, but especially after sunset) dysregulates circadian rhythm → destabilises progesterone → worsens PMS.
I was spending long hours indoors throughout the day, while also dropping off my habit of getting outside first thing in the morning (only for a couple of days, but probably when I needed it most).
I was staying up late scrolling, granted, with a red light filter on my phone, but still, staring directly at artificial light for far too long when my body was trying to make melatonin to get a restful, solid sleep.
None of this was “bad.” It just made my hormones more communicative than usual.
How I supported myself (instead of suppressing the symptoms)
1. I slowed down and listened
Noticing the first signal — irritation — helped me interrupt the spiral instead of drowning in it.
Slowing down is easier said than done. It’s taken YEARS of practice. In a world that demands the most of us, even if it’s our loved ones, our children, our partners & lovers, our friends, it can be SO easy to bypass our own needs and cater primarily to those around us.
Not asking you to ditch your family or your job. But I want you to seriously consider a couple of things.
(1) What is your body asking for?
(2) Is your body receiving what it needs?
(3) Based on how you communicate and see to your needs, what are you teaching those around you (e.g. your kids) about how important your & their needs are?
(4) What is the cost of not slowing down, not listening to your body, or ignoring your needs?
If any of your answers to the above sparked up a strong emotion or realisation within you, it might be worth taking 2, 5, 15, 30, or 60 minutes each day to pause. Stop what you’re doing. Take a few moments to check in how you feel internally: an emotional, mental and physical check in. After tuning into your body, then ask, “what do I need right now?”. Don’t think of an answer, just listen, be soft, be still. An answer will come.
2. I anchored myself with simple nervous system support
A few minutes of deep breathing, a walk outside, and grounding practices helped my whole system soften.
Yes, an hour or two of these activities can be phenomenal and make a huge difference. But don’t let perfection be the killer of good. A few minutes of an activity that promotes safety within YOUR body, can be a game changer.
For my patients with strong trauma history, C-PTSD, neurodivergence or frequent emotional dysregulation, I encourage them to look for the micro-signals of safety. It’s okay if you can’t “stay calm”, relaxed or regulated for more than a few moments at a time. The micro-signals matter to your body. Lean into them, expand into them however you can.
Some ideas of what could work for you:
Meditation — guided, unguided, listening to meditative music. Shamanic drumming is my favourite while I’m bleeding, and I generally like flute or handpan music.
Emotional Freedom Technique Tapping (EFT)
Havening
Gentle self-touch, especially over your lower belly/womb
Colouring, painting, drawing — let it be messy and imperfect
Breathwork. Admittedly I do like Wim Hof’s guidance, and a couple of rounds can totally change my mindset and nervous system state
Mindfulness practice — noticing 5 things you can see, touch, taste, smell and hear wherever you are. Great pause to take during work
Gentle somatic exercises, like butterfly tapping, floor rocking or pelvic circles on all fours.
Don’t try everything at once, nope. Start with 1 thing, and try it for 5 days in a row before deciding whether it can help you or not.
3. I brought my blood sugar back to stability
In short: more protein, more minerals, less grazing. My mood steadied almost instantly.
Blood sugar dysregulation, whether you’re prone to low or high blood sugar spikes, can result in more anxiety, less stress resilience and mood swings. AKA: prime bait for PMS.
I started prioritising eating breakfast within 90 minutes of waking. Definitely no coffee, but if you can’t go without, please make sure there’s some brekky in your stomach first (coffee ain’t a meal, and without food, it’ll generally spike your cortisol & nervous system).
Make sure your breakfast has a good protein base. Honestly, the easiest way my clients can boost their protein intake in the mornings is actually a perspective shift. I tell them to throw ‘conventional breakfast meals’ out the window. There are no breakfast foods just as there are no dinner foods. Food is food. But this kind of thinking has convinced us to eat cereals, breads, grains, croissants, baked goods, fruits, pancakes & all sorts for breakfasts.
4. I went outside
Don’t skip it because it sounds too simple!
Sunlight is medicine for hormones, mitochondria, metabolism and cortisol balance.
I’m pretty passionate about circadian rhythm and the importance of getting regular, daily sunshine. I firmly believe we’ve been corrupted by cosmetic marketing & well-intentioned anti-cancer campaigns to be afraid of the sun.
I won’t bore you with the quantum biology of it all (though, it’s actually not at all boring!), but here’s my take-home guidance:
Get sunlight first thing in the morning, even if it’s for 5 minutes. This supports your cortisol awakening response and sets your hormonal rhythm for the day. Bonus if you download a Circadian app to know when the UVA rise is in your area — get outside at the time of that rise.
Turns out there needs to be congruence between your EYES and your SKIN, in terms of receiving sunlight. This means, avoid glasses, contact lenses and sunscreen when you get your morning sunlight.
Take regular sunlight breaks throughout your day, especially if you work indoors, and especially if you work under artificial lighting. Yes, I hear you, “what if I work in front of a window or a well-lit office?”. The data demonstrates that it’s not entirely pointless, but most glass, depending on the glazing they have, can distort the light signature from the sun. It’s just not the same as getting outside and receiving the full-spectrum light.
Getting sunlight is only half the picture. Avoiding artificial light, especially after sunset is crucial for optimal melatonin production. I very happily use & promote these glasses from Block Blue Light, if you’re interested in an easy way to reduce your nighttime light exposure without changing all the lightbulbs in your house.
5. I reminded myself, “my body is not broken. My body is responding.”
This alone removes 50% of the emotional overwhelm.
Your PMS is a conversation, not a curse
Your body communicates long before it “breaks.”
Those emotional waves in your luteal phase? They’re not signs of weakness.
They’re signs of:
unmet needs
chronic stress
emotional suppression
nutritional gaps
misaligned boundaries
and a nervous system asking for safety
PMS becomes less terrifying when you understand that your symptoms are messages, not enemies.
The truth is, your body isn’t trying to sabotage you.
She’s trying to get your attention in the only language she has:
sensations, symptoms, emotional intensity, shifts in energy, cravings, tenderness, internal friction.
This is why understanding PMS through a holistic, cyclical, and nervous-system-aware lens matters so deeply.
Because once you start recognising those signals as communication — not character flaws — everything softens.
Your decisions become cleaner. Your boundaries become clearer. Your self-compassion expands. Your symptoms begin to make sense in context instead of feeling like random chaos.
And this is where the magic really lives: in the moment you stop pathologising your body and start partnering with her.
If your PMS feels louder than usual, you’re not “failing.”
You’re not “overly emotional.”
You’re not “too sensitive.”
You’re aware.
You’re listening.
And awareness — annoying, uncomfortable, inconvenient awareness — is the first step toward hormonal repair, emotional regulation, and cyclical alignment.
Can you start to see your PMS experience as an invitation?
An invitation to:
nourish more deeply (protein, fats & minerals)
rest more actively (doomscrolling ≠ rest)
honour your thresholds (practice saying ‘no’)
regulate your nervous system with softness rather than force
reconnect with sunlight, sleep and steady routines
speak your truth instead of swallowing it
pause before you spiral
return to yourself
Your hormones respond to both the tiny decisions and the big ones.
They respond to your lived reality.
They respond to how you treat yourself.
They tell the truth even when you don’t want to.
And that’s why they’re not the problem — they’re the compass.
If your PMS has been feeling like a tidal wave lately… maybe it’s not because your body is broken.
Maybe it’s because she trusts you enough to speak loudly, hoping that she will be heard.
And if you’re ready to truly understand what your hormones are saying — not just manage symptoms, but translate them — that’s exactly what I guide women through in Harmonised Hormones, my high-touch, hands-on(line) journey to restore hormonal balance to your being, whether you’re experiencing PMS, endometriosis, PCOS or any period- or hormone-related symptoms.
Together, we look beyond the surface symptoms.
We decode your internal landscape and we rebuild your hormonal safety, your nervous system resilience, your metabolic foundations, and your emotional bandwidth.
Not through quick fixes or punishing protocols.
Instead, through grounded, personalised, compassionate work that respects your biology and honours your inner rhythms.
The process is slow, steady and sustainable.
Remember: Your body isn’t dysfunctional — she’s responding appropriately to a dysfunctional world.
If you’re ready to stop guessing and start understanding, book your free Connection Call here. Or, for my No Stress PMS eBook, Learning to Love Your Luteal Phase Guide, customisable Cycle & Symptom Tracker and 17+ other resources for your menstrual cycle health & hormones, check out my $27 Cycle Power Bundle.
Yours in whole health & slowwww luteal phases,
Karinda
Keyword focus: PMs symptoms, holistic PMS support, hormonal imbalance, menstrual cycle health, emotional PMS, holistic hormones, PMS stress response, luteal phase support.
