Dear friend,

If you have tried the previous two challenges, thank you. It means that you have sat with a full rest day (or two or hopefully more), you have rebuilt your meals around real digestion and you have maybe eaten more eggs this month than you have in your entire adult life. Your local grocer probably wants to know what's going on. And if you haven't tried them yet, that's completely okay too. No guilt or no gold star either. Still, I would love for you to try this third one.

Before we get there, I want to share something with you. I recovered from 3 years of hypothalamic amenorrhea and 19 years of non-ovulation using yoga and an Ayurvedic lifestyle, not by counting calories, not by weighing myself daily but by learning to tune into what my body actually needed, instead of what my head kept insisting I should (or shouldn't) do. My head, for the record, was not a reliable narrator.

I know a lot of you are skeptical about Ayurveda. I get it, I was too. Cue the mental image of incense, chanting and someone telling you to "just manifest your period." Fair skepticism. It wasn't until I started meeting Ayurvedic doctors and studying this tradition properly that I truly understood something so basic it's almost embarrassing we forget it: we are nature. Nothing more, nothing less.

Treating ourselves with love, peace, and an understanding of our own dosha, that's the real core of Ayurveda. It was never about forcing ourselves to become someone else, someone calmer, someone more "zen," someone who drinks celery juice and never raises her voice. It's about finally allowing ourselves to just be, mess, moods and all.

This week, I want to talk about the thing that's closest to my heart, yoga. Because here's a truth that surprises a lot of women in recovery: the wrong kind of yoga can be part of the problem.

I have been a yoga teacher since 2018 and practicing since 2013. My asana practice has always been a huge part of my life, I'm deeply dedicated to it, because it's what helps me feel grounded, happier, calmer, and connected to something bigger than myself (I like to call it the higher divine, you can call it whatever works for you). Until I lost my period.

Here's what I want you to understand: the problem was never the practice itself. It was everything I was piling on top of it, the restrictions, the pressure, the "no days off, ever, under any circumstances, including flu."

When I became a full-time yoga teacher, I had just moved to a new country. Suddenly I was teaching several classes a day, on top of my own two-hour daily practice, with zero rest days. My diet got poorer and poorer because I was too busy to properly nourish myself and at the same time, I just had my contraceptive implant removed. No period. No warning email. Just silence.

That's when I started reassessing everything: my lifestyle, my eating habits, my entire relationship with "discipline." Life led me toward all kinds of holistic healing methods and slowly, I realized: it was simply too much. Too much for my nervous system. Too much for my physical body. I was exhausted, even though I didn't fully recognize it as exhaustion at the time, I just called it "being productive."

So I started to slow down, in everything. It was so hard. Genuinely, embarrassingly hard, for someone who taught relaxation for a living. What actually helped wasn't giving up my practice but staying grounded in it differently: different breathing, different movement, a completely different pace.

I know exactly what some of you are thinking: but I feel so great after I work out. I completely understand, that post-workout high is real and I am not here to take it from you. Endorphins, adrenaline, dopamine, your brain rewards intense movement and it genuinely feels good in the moment. Nobody is saying that feeling is fake.

But here's the part that matters for HA: your body doesn't just register how you feel, it registers the physiological stress the movement created, whether or not you enjoyed it. Intense or prolonged exercise activates your sympathetic nervous system — your fight-or-flight response — and raises cortisol, regardless of how good you felt afterward or how many compliments your leggings got.

Your hypothalamus is constantly reading these signals: cortisol levels, energy availability, perceived stress, whether there is enough fuel in the tank to justify keeping the reproduction department open. When it detects sustained "danger" — whether that's from under-eating, over-exercising, or emotional stress, it makes a very old, very intelligent survival decision: it reduces the pulsatile release of GnRH (gonadotropin-releasing hormone). Less GnRH means less signaling to your ovaries. Less signaling means no ovulation, and eventually, no period. This is literally why it's called hypothalamic amenorrhea, the shutdown starts in the hypothalamus, in response to how safe or unsafe your body believes your environment to be.

This is why I needed to activate my parasympathetic nervous system instead, the "rest and digest" state, which is biologically the opposite of fight-or-flight and the only state in which your hypothalamus can start trusting that it's safe enough to bring GnRH back online.

What actually helps recovery, then, is shifting toward practices that support that parasympathetic state: restorative yoga, yin, long-held supported poses, breathwork. Stillness that isn't punishment. It's medicine, even if it doesn't come with a heart-rate calorie count at the end to brag about.

For the next 5 days, give yourself 10 minutes of restorative practice. No flow, no sequence to "get through," no counting how many poses you did like some kind of yoga bingo card.

Here's your simple option if you don't know where to start:

Legs up the wall (5 minutes)

Sit sideways next to a wall, then swing your legs up the wall as you lower your back down onto the floor, so you end up lying on your back with your legs resting straight up against the wall. Your bottom can be right against the wall, or a few inches away if that's more comfortable. Arms rest wherever feels natural, palms up. That´s it.

Reclined butterfly (5 minutes)

Lie down on your back. Bring the soles of your feet together and let your knees fall open to either side, like a book gently opening. If your hips or inner thighs feel tight (completely normal, don't force it), place a pillow, cushion, or folded blanket under each knee for support, so your legs are resting rather than straining. You can also put a pillow under your head if lying flat feels like too much. Hands can rest on your belly or by your sides.

Breathe slowly through the nose the whole time, in both poses. Try to make your exhale a little longer than your inhale if you can, this alone helps nudge your nervous system toward "rest and digest."

That's the whole challenge. No app, no equipment beyond a wall and possibly a pillow, no advanced version to work toward. The goal isn't to do more, it's to let your body confirm, day after day, that it's finally safe to stop doing.

Over these three challenges, we have touched the three things I believe matter most in HA recovery: rest, nourishment and a nervous system that finally feels safe. You have experienced small pieces of each. And I hope you have noticed, even in small ways, how different your body feels when it's not constantly being asked to prove something.

Here's the truth: a newsletter challenge can open a door. But real recovery, the kind that actually brings your cycle back, rarely happens through information alone, no matter how many good sentences I write you. It happens with structure, consistency and someone in your corner helping you apply all of this to your specific body, your specific patterns, your specific fears (and your specific relationship with rest days, which, let's be honest, might still need some work).

That's exactly why I created the 6-Week Guided Support program.

It's built for women exactly where you are right now, ready to stop guessing and start following a path that's actually designed for your recovery, rather than another Google rabbit hole at midnight. Over six weeks, you get:

•      A weekly 1:1 consultation with me, so we can adjust your rest, food, and practice to what your body actually needs

•      A consultation with an Ayurveda doctor to determine your dosha and go deeper into your needs.

•      A structure that turns everything from these three challenges into a real, sustainable rhythm, not just a few good weeks before old habits quietly creep back in through the side door

•      Breath-work and Yoga sessions with me

It's €420 for the full six weeks, less than what most people spend chasing supplements, wellness gadgets and diets that never actually address the cause.

If you're ready, I would love to talk before you commit to anything. Book your free 30-minute discovery call here: https://calendly.com/yogawithaudrey64-6nse/30min. We will talk through where you're at and I will tell you honestly whether this program is the right fit for you.

You've already done the hardest part: you have started paying attention. Let's finish this together.

With love,

Audrey

P.S. Even if now isn't the right time for the program, I am genuinely glad you've been here for these three weeks. Keep resting, keep nourishing, keep breathing. Your body is listening, even when it feels like it's given up on you completely. It hasn't.