This piece is the third of a multi-part Future of Cyclical Work essay series written by a number of different authors exploring the intersection of cycle literacy and organizational design.
It was 2023. I was pursuing a Master’s in Cultural Anthropology and Sustainable Citizenship at Utrecht University and had decided to write my thesis on women’s alignment of work with their menstrual cycle. My study was titled “Cyclically Embodied Work: Aligning with The Menstrual Cycle to Experience Work Consciously”.
In the couple of years that preceded my Master’s, I had been deepening my personal connection with my menstrual cycle and grew more and more fascinated with the wonders of the female body. I was practicing natural contraception through a method called Fertility Awareness, which had taught me in-depth body literacy and opened my eyes to a whole new (internal) universe. Rediscovering my own cyclicality after three years on the pill had fundamentally deepened my level of self-knowledge and self-acceptance - I had never felt more intimately connected to my core self.
The study consisted of an (auto)ethnographic research that involved ten participants, including myself, who observed how their menstrual cycle interacted with their experience of work and documented it in a menstrual diary. The results of my study laid the foundation for what is now my vision and the philosophy of life - and work - I’d like to invite you in through this article.
Let’s start with the following premise: we live in a time where dedicating our time and energy to a job that doesn’t serve us, or the collective, is simply no longer an option.
Experiencing work as meaningful, and more precisely, as Calling, has become imperative in a world that is plagued by separation, individualism, and consumerism. Our wholeness and active participation in restoring a sense of union, peace and collectivity has never been more necessary. My belief is that conscious work is how we play our part. Learning how to align our work with our menstrual cycle is what allows us to find meaning in our professional journey, and hence, be of service.
It all Starts with Our Relationship with Time
The widespread adoption of time as linear - on both a conceptual and practical level - is responsible for many of the issues we are facing today as a society, on planet Earth. We are living through systemic crises - overproduction, burnout, resource exhaustion, environmental collapse, social disconnection, fragmentation - that are the direct result of an extreme imbalance toward linear, extractive, hyper-rational, individualist, patriarchal modes of operating.
The working world as we know it today has been organized and built around the very notion of linear time. So, if linearity is essential to the way we do work, how does our experience of work change if we build it around cyclicality instead, and what are the implications of such change?
Here’s where it gets juicy.
Aligning Work with the Menstrual Cycle Births New Configurations of Work
Having established that the way we do work is highly reliant upon a linear conception of time, it comes as no surprise that women’s cyclical nature tends not to be appreciated in most traditional workplaces - and in fact, its concealment is highly encouraged.
Cyclicality implies a continuous shift between two main energy currents:
- one of expansion and creation (from menstruation to ovulation) and
- one of contraction and release (from ovulation to menstruation).
Periods of activity require to be followed by periods of rest. Capitalistic societies don’t like that. And yet, that is the very pattern that sustains life on Earth.
Traditional discourses on professional success identify linear productivity - measured in quantitative terms - as the one desirable outcome of work as a human experience.
While drafting my research proposal, I initially selected productivity as the relevant variable for understanding an ideal experience of work, but I quickly realized that this lens limited the depth of participants’ observations. Their assessments of the interaction between their cycle and work were reduced to a quantitative understanding of physical energy and confidence: they either had enough to perform, or they didn’t.
This made clear that framing experiences of cyclical work through productivity was both reductive and profoundly incongruent, as it tried to put cyclicality at the service of linearity. About a month into the study, I informed participants that I would drop the term productivity and shift to professional satisfaction instead, a change that opened a new phase of the research and implied a profound questioning and re-evaluation of work itself as a concept and human experience.
The Menstrual Cycle as Portal to Experiencing Work as Calling
Throughout the research, one thing became clear: the extent to which a woman could align her work with her menstrual cycle depended on whether her job had personal meaning to her. More specifically, the women who could benefit most from such alignment were the ones who experienced work as Calling.
Work as Calling is an approach to work that consists not only of finding individual meaning and overall purpose in our work, but also of helping others or contributing to the common good, and feeling compelled towards that work, “called” to it.
From an organizational perspective, this is significant: research consistently links calling-oriented and meaningful work with higher engagement, stronger commitment, improved morale, and greater employee retention.
What emerged through my study is that work as Calling is both a requirement for and a consequence of the conscious alignment of a woman’s work to her menstrual cycle.
Namely, a woman needs to have a purpose, a calling, connected to her work, in order to experience her menstrual cycle as truly beneficial to her professional journey. At the same time, a woman’s full embodiment of her menstrual cycle in connection to her work will naturally lead her to find that very purpose and calling.
In essence, I came to see the menstrual cycle as a built-in mechanism for finding and living one’s Calling. That’s when I realized the embodiment of cyclicality at work is a revolutionary act: it empowers us to reclaim agency over our experience of work, and determine, on an autonomous level, what professional success means to us.
More specifically, I started thinking of the menstrual cycle as Dream Incubator.
The Menstrual Cycle as Container of Your Desires and Path to Meaningful Work
Going back to the premise I made at the beginning of this article - we can no longer afford to do meaningless work - I’d like to add that I believe all individuals, deep down, cultivate a desire to do something that matters to them.
Because when we live in alignment, in a state of connection, integrity, and coherence, the Vision or Calling we tap into is one that naturally, inevitably benefits the collective. This level of participation and redefinition of purpose, that is both individual and collective, has never been more urgent.
For women, the path of reconnection to their Calling is through the practice of Menstrual Cycle Awareness or Cyclical Living.
Through Cyclical Embodiment, women reconnect to their desire, their truth, their inner direction, their Vision, their Calling and therefore… their Dream. The menstrual cycle thus becomes not just a physiological rhythm, but a dream-organizing system - a built-in template for discovering and expressing meaningful work.
So how do we align our work with our menstrual cycle?
Each phase in the menstrual cycle - menstruation, follicular, ovulation, luteal - plays a specific role in the unfolding of the Dream’s realization. Each phase is experienced with particular gifts and challenges that are unique to the individual, as they are meant to grow the particular skillset she needs to realize her Dream - not anybody else’s.
If a woman then experiences work as Calling, and has a chance to bring her Dream into her work, she will see that each phase transition ties into the evolution of her Calling, on a professional level.
Below is the framework I have developed to illustrate the interaction between our cyclical experience and professional journey through the notion of the Dream. I call this the 4 Es:
Menstruation: ENVISION
We are called to retreat to the menstrual cave. Let go, do nothing. Through rest, reflection and complete surrender, we enter a space in which we can make contact with the Dream. We stand at the center of what was and what will be.
Work-wise, this would be a great time for conceiving a new project.
Follicular: EXPLORE
As we emerge out of the menstrual cave, with newfound vitality and curiosity for the outside world, we start experimenting. We’re charting the route that is going to lead us to our Dream, and to do so, we explore different pathways. The farther we walk, the more one path begins to stand out, the more we’re asked to make a choice and commit.
Work-wise: experiment, brainstorm, test out different modalities, explore new collaborations.
Ovulation: EXPRESS
We’ve reached the summit. This is the moment we birth the Vision, share it with the world, allow ourselves to be fully seen. Our energy, proactivity and magnetism are at their peak.
Work-wise: project presentation, execution, public speaking, high-energy tasks.
Luteal: EXAMINE
We’ve created and expressed our Dream - it is now time to go inwards, review, analyze, distinguish what has worked throughout the cycle and what hasn’t. We let go of what no longer serves us or our Vision and make space for the new.
Work-wise: editing, refining, curating details, revisioning, delegating.
I should note, a woman’s freedom and autonomy at work largely determine how effectively she can align her work with her cycle, since job type, decision-making power, and the range of skills required shape how much of her cyclicality can be applied to her professional journey.
Yet, many women lack this autonomy, raising the question of how employers can create the conditions for aligning work with their cyclicality. Others simply have jobs that require their ongoing physical presence - such as teachers, nurses, athletes - leaving little room for individual flexibility.
That is why, integrating cyclicality in our experience of work really isn’t just up to women or the individual, but is rather a collective, structural matter, that requires our involvement and active participation. Implementing cyclical ways of being and working rests upon the fortification of supporting communities and a shared sense of responsibility, both of which are foundational to a regenerative society.
For the purpose of this article, I will focus on how employers can integrate cyclicality in their company’s culture and organizational norms, although I recognize the complexity of the subject may vary depending on the professional setting at hand.
Let’s get practical.
How to Bring Cyclicality into the Workplace, in Practice
The menstrual cycle does not just affect a woman’s “output”: it gives shape to her experience of work in the deepest, most granular way. A woman’s menstrual cycle influences her affective state, her social/ relational orientation, risk attitudes, decision-making, creativity and focus style.
Allowing women to become aware of how their personal experience of cyclicality interacts with their job is what enables them to capitalize on the gifts of the menstrual cycle to have an experience of work that is, yes, productive, and also meaningful and deeply satisfying. It’s a win-win situation.
These are policies, tools and organizational norms that can be explored to create space for Cyclical Embodiment in the workplace:
Leadership & Cultural Norms
- Menstrual Health Literacy Training
- Celebrate Cyclicality as a leadership asset and cultural value
- Normalize conversation without requiring disclosure
Flexible Work Timing
- Allow employees to shift their working hours during symptom-heavy days
- Menstrual Health Days (separate from sick days)
Structural Design for Cyclical Workflows
- Shifting to monthly timelines that allow employees to self-organize projects in stages that mirror the four phases of the menstrual cycle
- Adapting Performance Expectations and KPIs to a cyclical pattern
Cyclical Planning Tools
- A private cycle-tracking tool (optional, not shared)
- Templates for employees to map their own energy fluctuations
- Training on how to align workflow to personal rhythms
Physical & Sensory Space Adaptations
- Access to menstrual supplies
- Quiet rooms/ low-sensory spaces
- Temperature and lighting flexibility
Imagine a workplace where female-bodied employees are encouraged to align their workflow with their menstrual cycle - not only to unlock sustainable productivity, but to cultivate deeper work-life quality and offer an even more meaningful, high-impact contribution to the organization.
For generations, women have adapted and performed without this awareness, but adaptation is not the same as optimization.
What if honoring our biological rhythms and cyclical intelligence became the key to meeting today’s challenges with greater clarity, resilience, and cultural cohesion? What if Cyclical Embodiment was the catalyst for an evolutionary redirection toward a more intelligent and regenerative way of working?
Integrating cyclicality in our work systems is how we play our part in creating a world that channels work as a force for good. Will you join us?
About the Author
Alice Pfeiff is a Menstruality Mentor and Hormone Health Coach in training. She is the founder of DIV.IN, a project dedicated to supporting women in reconnecting with their Menstrual Cycle and reclaim their Cyclical Power. Her mission is to empower all womb-holders to find the greatest source of joy and liberation in a Conscious Female Experience. She is committed to restoring Cyclicality as a guiding principle in both our personal and professional lives, on both an individual and collective level.
Works Cited
Duffy, Dik, Douglass, England 3, Velez, July 2018
Work as a calling: A theoretical model
Liu, Zhang, W. Cao, H. Cao, November 2025
Who experiences work as meaningful? A meta-analysis of individual differences and work meaningfulness
Awu, Darius, Samuel, Lucky, June 2025
The Impact Of Employee Engagement On Job Performance And Retention Rates: Strategies For Organizational Success
People Element, Inside the 2025 Employee Engagement Report: Key Trends and Takeaway