Lunch Party
“You probably noticed, but this last week, I've been a raging bitch”
- Angela Martin
Should I be making decisions while on PMS? One decision was to write this blog post on this very topic: PMS, why it happens, and what I can do to stop it. Every month, I want to Google strategies to mitigate the irrational thoughts that go through my mind and how to stop the mood swings, and every month, I don’t.
I’m the only woman living with my husband and two boys in this house. I wonder if they notice how mom is around this time. Every month, it’s like I channel my inner Angela Martin. I’m fully aware, too, that I am acting some way, but sometimes the words just come out without even thinking.
This is especially hard to control when I’m at work. I believe that every month, I go through this song and dance of wanting to quit my job, hating my company, and going on an internal rant about corporate America. It happens only one day, sometimes a week before my period. Days later, I can only laugh at myself, but then a thought came to me. Maybe these thoughts aren’t so irrational. Perhaps this time of the month is when women become bold enough to voice their true feelings; the rest of the month, we suppress our true feelings to make those around us feel more comfortable. Then I thought, or maybe I’m just being irrational. I will never know.
I watched The Office today and was on season 4, episodes 5 & 6, Launch Party parts 1 and 2. In these two episodes, we get to see Angela Martin in action. My headline quote at the beginning of this post is actually from season 4, episode 3, but it felt so fitting for this post. Seeing this episode before my period was so funny because I felt like I understood Angela. Phyllis is constantly letting her down, and I get Angela’s frustration. Internally, I am Angela Martin, but externally, I'm Pam. I love how Phyllis googled “How to Deal with Difficult People.” Did you know that if you google that today, you will find the same article Phyllis found?
“Learning to Deal with Difficult People”
The bottom line is that difficult people can make your workday less enjoyable. With the right strategies, you can learn to deal with them effectively.
The first technique she tried was to ask Angela how she felt when Phyllis did something wrong. Ask someone why they feel the way they do makes them stop and think about why they reacted the way they did. However, I don’t think this works for a PMS person. The best thing for me is for you not to talk to me, but I’ll talk to you when I’m ready. Am I being irrational? 🫠
Then when Angela talked at Phyllis about spoons and forks, Phyllis came back with the following:
"I want to understand what you're saying, but it's difficult for me when you use that tone."
- Phyllis Lapin
Then Angela talked slowly and explained it again. Okay, that was really rude, and if someone did that to me, I would be livid. Have I spoken in this tone with my husband before? Yes, I have, and I hated that I did, and I don’t do that anymore. Sometimes, I feel it coming out, and I quickly change my tone. See, I can sometimes control it. You would think that after 32 years or so, I would know how to deal with PMS.
The last thing Phyllis did was not on that list, but it was effective. She crumpled up all the sticky notes of to-dos that Angela gave to her and threw them in Angela’s face. That seemed to shut her up. That would not work on me, PMS or not. I would not like that at all.
How to Get Rid of PMS Symptoms
It took writing this blog post to get me to research the very topic that may have helped me years ago. Let's go to how to get rid of PMS symptoms. Okay, I’m back from reading this article, and basically, the answer to relieving PMS symptoms is the same answer to everything else health-related.
Get enough sleep
Eat healthy foods
Exercise
Reduce stress
Wow, earth-shattering advice. Why are the solutions always more complex than they sound? I can’t even rank these tips as the hardest to do because they’re all hard. My answer to these tips is to implement them one at a time. Trying to do it all at once is a recipe for failure. It might even stress you out more.
The one thing on this list that helps reduce mood swings is getting enough sleep. I will say that I have been getting 7 ½ to 8 hours of sleep each month. Maybe that’s why my PMS has been reduced to one day only sometime in the week before my period. If I lacked sleep, perhaps the moodiness would last a few more days.
I’ve also been doing well with walking daily. I work from home, so I sit a lot during the day. I bought a standing desk a year ago with Christmas money, and I have a treadmill that can fit underneath. This has helped me get steps in. I didn’t see anything about vitamins helping with PMS, but I feel more energized with B12, vitamin C, and D. Oh, and drinking lots of water. I had to start drinking more for other health reasons. I think if you are experiencing significant PMS symptoms and you’re looking for some solutions, try tackling one thing at a time. Look at what you may already be doing on the list and keep at it.
If I were not doing these things, I’d probably be an angry monster no one would want to be around.
I guess I’ve been lucky lately not to experience the painful cramping like I did when I was younger. I think this means I’m closer to menopause. I’m not looking forward to that blog post. One of my favorite quotes from this episode, the superfan edition, comes from Dwight. I could relate this to what a woman in PMS pain would say.
“Am I in pain? Hell yeah. But I'll tell you something. I thrive in pain. I love pain. To me, pain is not pain at all. No, it is pure pleasure. And I hate pleasure, almost as much as I love pain. So yeah, I'm in pain.” - Dwight Schrute.
Easier Solutions
If you read my resolutions blog post, you might recall my word of the year is Focus. That can cover a lot of areas in my life. Focusing on less stress, especially before and during my period, is one thing I want to try and tackle this year. Hopefully, it will set me up for success in this area for the rest of my life until menopause. 🥴
My Health and Wellness Planner has been entertaining and valuable for me, that is when I use it. I’m forgetful, so trying to remind myself to take time out throughout the day and plan and reflect on my day has been missing. I’m trying to focus on doing that more because it makes me feel good to write things out, like what I’m feeling, daily affirmations, checking things off my list, and being more self-aware. If you want to track your moods and habits, I recommend my Wellness Journal. That’s the difference between the two.
You can get a copy of both my digital Health and Wellness Planner and my digital Wellness Journal from my shop. Both are $7 each, but if you made it to the end of this blog post, use code 332XVZ2 to get for $5 each. Both digital products work great if you have an iPad or tablet, and you can use apps like Goodnotes or Notability to import the digital PDF file. These apps allow you to duplicate pages and add to them as needed. You’re also welcome to print it out if you prefer. It works great both ways.
Final Thoughts
Lastly, I’ll end this blog post with another great excerpt from this episode.
Dwight tries to sell more paper than the computer, so Jim and Pam decide to play a prank on him. They pretend to be the computer and send Dwight instant messages to mess with him. One of Dwight's lines from the chat exchange is in binary, which I guess is computer language.
Dwight: “Why don’t you just 011, 1111, 011, 011”
According to Dunderpedia, that translates to “Why don’t you just F off.”
I wonder if my colleagues would know what I mean if I randomly said these numbers. Before you decide to do that, try out one of my digital products to help you with reflection and self-awareness both during and after PMS.
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