Women these day's seem to have it all-  a family, a career, money. We are driven, we have achieved great things and great things have been accomplished. We have burned our bra's and we have fought long and hard for women's rights. But has the pendulum swung too far?

Do we really want it all?

The issue is often when we keep going, running ourselves into the ground until we reach empty. And that is when our health starts to decline. We might stop cooking the nutritious meals because we get home from work too late. We might have one too many cups of coffee to ‘get us going in the morning'.  We might get to bed too late, to get that deadline in, or get the kid's clothes washed. But what we are really doing, is not listening to our intuition.

Are you suffering from period pain every month? Do you get cranky every month? Do you yell and scream? Do you need to take time off work? Are you doubled over in pain?

Do you listen to your intuition?

It is really important that we start to listen to our intuition. We need to listen to our body so that  we know when we have had enough . We need to make sure  we get some "Me Time". Me Time might be focusing on our breath for a minute each day or it might be reading our favorite magazine for 10 minutes before bed. Or it might be taking a walk along the beach.

It's about creating boundaries. Boundaries help to create balance. Being "Balanced" is a concept and term thrown around in our language these days like sand through the hour glass. It is something else that we now have to obtain. And something that a lot of people feel that they "fail" at, thus , ironically, it becomes another stress in our lives.  Here are 3 Steps to help you create more Boundaries, and therefore balance in your life so you can listen to your intuition more.

1)Write a list of all the things that you enjoy doing. You might not have time to do all of them, but pick one or two and write them in your diary as if they were an appointment.  If your boss rings you up and asks you to do a morning shift on Wednesday, you can check your diary and genuinely say that you have something on- your boss doesn't need to know that it is a morning walk.

2)Write a list of the things that you don't enjoy doing. Of course there may be some things that you have to do (ie. like cleaning), but can you change any of the things you don't enjoy doing? For example,   do you have to work back late every night? Or can you finish at 5pm two nights a week. Every small boundary you create, will help you achieve some balance.

3)Draw a mind map of the essences of you. For example, it might say Me- laughter, likes drawing, calmness, happy. Pin it up somewhere where you can look at it frequently to make sure that you are living in alignment with who you really are. If you feel you are not living your life in congruency with yourself, work towards making changes so you can.

You might be asking, what does this have to do with intuition and period pain? When we get caught up in a daily grind that doesn't serve us well , our radiant spirit and our intuition can decline. We stop listening to ourselves as much. This often leads to female health problems. In clinical practice, I often see that period pain is associated with the stress from our daily lives, the stress that stops us from listening to our intuition. From looking at the human biochemistry, we can track why we get period pain when we are highly stressed. It is because our stress hormone called cortisol robs one of our female balancing hormones called progesterone. When we don't have enough progesterone, we can experience period pain.

So how are your stress levels? Do you need to listen to your intuition? Do you need to create some boundaries? This is one of the steps in helping to decrease your period pain and live your life the whole month through.