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When “Aunt Flow” Visits and There’s no Door to Knock On

Jun20

How do you handle your period?

Me, I like to curl up in bed, sweats on, heating pad on high, nice hot cup of tea and the darkest of dark chocolate. The comforts of home during that time of my cycle are everything I need.

The average woman uses 16,800 feminine products in a lifetime.  If you’re reading this, chances are pretty good you can go to the store, purchase what you need, take a shower every day, and put on clean clothes regularly.

Unfortunately, many women aren’t so privileged when it comes to periods. Never mind basic comfort, women experiencing homelessness face much worse when “aunt flow” comes to visit. They face a losing battle every month when it comes to their periods:

  • Lack of sanitary products: A lot of shelters don’t keep these products stocked, yet they are the most requested, and least donated, items. Many women are left choosing between pads or tampons and a meal.
  • Lack of clean running water: Women experiencing homelessness have largely interrupted access to running water. A nice hot bath or shower is not an option.  Imagine having your period and not being able to bathe properly.
  • Health risks due to unhygienic practices: Without access to proper products, women who are homeless resort to using newspapers, rags, cut up pads as tampons. With limited access to facilities, it’s difficult to clean up, leading to infections.

Menstrual products are a necessity, not a luxury. That’s why Metamorphic Massage for Women and The North Raleigh Well Nest teamed up to make the women in our community a little more comfortable. Throughout the summer of 2018, we collected donations of personal care items for The Women’s Center of Wake County.

-Team Member Contribution

Stress Management Tip – Change the Scenery

Oct23

Although it is important to establish a routine in our daily lives, it is equally important to have outlets and change up the scenery once in a while.  Whether you are in the same office every day, or take the same route to work, things can become tedious and seemingly mundane.  Making a few changes here and there is good and keeps you from losing sight of the good things in life.  Here are a few you change the scenery in your daily life and improve your mood in the process.

Take a walk

Chances are, like many Americans you drive your car everywhere.  Our world is such a fast-paced place, we always feel the pressure of time upon us and feel the need to rush through everything.  However, it’s very good for us to slow down the pace and gain some perspective from time to time.  Infusing walking into your day is a great way to do this.  Get out during a lunch break and breather in the air.  Enjoy the weather, watch people as they go about their business.  Doing this can greatly help your outlook and reduce stress at the same time.

Go to a park

We spend so much time indoors that we all too often forget about enjoying parks, trails, and other areas available for public use.  Watching children play and seeing families together is quite inspiring and relaxing to watch and helps us to reconsider the things we place importance upon.

Take a long drive

Sometimes, just the feeling of taking a trip is the same as actually going out of town.  If you like driving, go explore some roads you’ve never been down.  Turn the music up, roll the windows down and spend some quality time just driving around.  Although this may not be very cost-effective considering gas prices, the feeling of driving down the open road is something many find relaxing and something many people rarely get the opportunity to do anymore.

Visit friends or family

Make a spontaneous visit and go see someone you really care about.  Often we get too busy to stay in touch with the people who really matter to us, so take some time to physically go visit someone.  Make plans or just drop in, depending upon the schedule of the person.  Visiting with people you have a special bond with can really help put things in perspective.

This post was contributed by Kelly Kilpatrick, who writes on the subject of massage therapy jobs. She invites your feedback at kellykilpatrick24@gmail.com