Latest / Healing Her Story with Riva Jean-Paul / Weekly Cycle Check In: Full Moon Myths & Working with ‘The Cs’ for Sustainable Healing

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Weekly Cycle Check In: Full Moon Myths & Working with ‘The Cs’ for Sustainable Healing · Healing Her Story with Riva Jean-Paul

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Trusting the phases of the moving living.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome to the Healing Her Story podcast.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: My name is Reva Jean Paul.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a trauma-informed somatic practitioner, coach for women, and host for your show.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: Today we are doing our weekly cycle check-in.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: This is a shorter and sweeter episode meant to help you align with this week's lunar energy.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: This week we are talking about the week of February 10th and the three to five days that follow.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: We are working with the waxing Gibbus moon phase working its way into the full moon.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: The full moon comes on Wednesday, I will say.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: So Monday, we're pretty much in the full moon energy, which I'll talk a little bit more about in a moment.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: If you are new to working with the moon phases or new to tracking your menstrual cycle and doing what is called cycle syncing, where you are matching your life and your food and your exercise and your obligations and social plans with your menstrual cycle, I encourage you to come to these shows and to take as much as you can.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: And again, if this is new, uh I encourage you to start small and to maybe pick one or two things to play with from each episode.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: I know that when I first started my cycle syncing journey, it was a bit overwhelming.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, it's definitely not meant to be and doesn't have to be if you don't want it to be.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: You can start small and just working with these energies in small ways can go a long way.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: Again, if you are new, you'll find this particular part of the episode extra helpful.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're not new, I hope you still find it helpful.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: But I'll I'll also be sharing at the start of each episode how the moon phase connects with the other cycles and rhythms that are happening in the female body specifically and in the natural world.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: As I said this week, we're working with the waxing gibbous phase of the moon, working our way into the full moon phase.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: This in the mental cycle, specific to the female body, is associated with the time of pre-ovulation to ovulation.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: When we're talking about the rhythms of the seasons, we are talking about a late spring into a summer.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: So full moon being the summer.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: And if we're looking at this through the lens of traditional Chinese medicine, we are working with the wood element.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's in the season of spring.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I talked in last week's episode a little bit more about the wood element, what it represents, how to work with it.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: And as we make our way into the full moon, we are now working with the element of fire.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: In the life cycle of a plant, I love bringing in this piece of the life cycle of the plant because I feel like it can be a really accessible way to understand these cyclical rhythms if you're still understanding.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: This can be a really helpful visualization.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: We are in the blooming phase of the life cycle of the plant.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: So last week we talked about that little bud, right?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: That little bud that has all this, all this potential, unexpressed potential inside.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: And it's tight and it's closed.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: And as the weeks go by or as the days go by, the bud begins to slowly open up until it has reached its full blossom.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: That is the full moon, that is summer, that is the element of fire.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: So that is the energy that we are working with this week and how it connects to the other rhythms and cycles that are happening.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: If you are in your pre-ovulatory, into ovulatory part of your cycle, this episode is going to be extra juicy for you because you get to work with this stuff in a different way, maybe a deeper way, but just in a different way, where you're actually able to interact with this inside of you in some way instead of outside of you.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: If you do not know where you are in your menstrual cycle, that is okay.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: In future episodes, I will talk about how to understand where you are in your cycle and how to track it.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: Again, if this is new and you're fascinated, just keep coming back and taking what you can week by week.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: And with time, all of this stuff will begin to build and slowly become more natural.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's less of a teaching and more of a remembering because you already know, because you have this beautiful rhythm happening in you and around you all of the time.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: We just live in a very patriarchal linear world that often disconnects us from these rhythms.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I've heard it from women before.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's more of a remembering.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk about it.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm really excited today to bust a big myth about this point of the cycle.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: In spiritual spaces and communities that I've been into over the years, what I typically see is the full moon being all about releasing.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm releasing fear or self-judgment or doubt or worry or whatever it is.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: That can be helpful.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: And for me, maybe for me, it was a little helpful.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: And with time, I did notice it becoming very unhelpful.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I think if we're not careful, we can get ourselves stuck in these loops where we're always trying to fix or change something about ourselves.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: And that's not to say we're not here to grow and improve and try to be the best we can be to reach our full potential.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we're here to do.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: And there's a balance that has to come with it, I believe.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: At least I know that I really needed this balance.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: And as I begun to study feminine wisdom more and work with these rhythms a bit more, I came to see that the full moon to me is not about releasing at all.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if that's working for you, great.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: However, if you've let's say you released self-doubt for the past four moon phases now and you're still finding yourself feeling doubtful of yourself, is that helpful for you?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: Something to consider.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: In a moment, we'll talk about what to do in STEM.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: But for now, I want to give another example to help you understand how this maybe isn't the right way to approach this cycle.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe not the right way, but I just want to offer you a different way to work with this full moon energy.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Now, as we said, full moon is connected with the season of summer.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I want you to think about, or rather, I invite you to reflect upon what you do in the summer.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I know for me, I'm usually traveling.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: Last summer I was the camp coordinator at a performing arts summer camp for youth, and we were having so much fun, and we were fully immersed in our creativity and our creative expression.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: I went to Colorado, I was traveling, I was going on adventures, I was socializing, maybe going to weddings.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: It was a full fun summer last year.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: Now, what I don't find myself doing is worrying about releasing and clearing space out in the summer.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: I find I do that more in the fall.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: So if that resonates for you, you might be wondering how we can then change the full moon to align more with those energies of summer.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll talk about how to do that here in a moment.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: This is the peak of the cycle, it is the main event of the cycle, especially if we're talking about the menstrual cycle in the female body.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: Ovulatory time, ovulation is the main event.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: Everything is building up to this point of the cycle.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so, with that, we have the opportunity here for illumination and culmination.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: The full moon is bright, it's beautiful, it's shining, it's light.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: If you go outside and the night is clear, you will see the full moon.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: And that light is here to put a spotlight to highlight the things that are culminating in your life.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: And also perhaps to highlight the things that are working.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: And yes, maybe even the things that aren't working as well.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: I find if there's an area out of balance in my life, whether it's related to my health or to friendships or work, then the full moon's gonna let me know.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like, hey, you are out of balance in this area.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: Something's going to happen.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to have a conversation, or I'm going to get an email, or something is going to happen.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Someone will show up in my life.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: I've gotten job offers on the full moon before.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: If that's something I've really been working on, I've had some of my clients had really big breakthroughs on full moons.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: I myself have had really big breakthroughs on full moons.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: So with that illumination, it's important to pay attention to what is being illuminated.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I really encourage you to pay attention to notice what is standing out to you during this time.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: If you've been working on a creative project or a particular goal or an intention that you may have set with the new moon, or maybe even that you might have set several new moons ago, the full moon can be a culmination point where things are really starting to come together.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like I said, I've gotten job offers on full moons.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, sometimes I'll get some unexpected money coming in on a full moon.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: There's lots of ways that this can show up, especially if we've been actively working on ourselves and working on bringing our creative vision for our lives into the world.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: This is where things will start to kind of like come into its fully more formed uh physical form.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: Think of the the blossoming flower, right?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: And how much beauty that part of the life cycle of the plant involves.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, there's beauty throughout all of it.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: And we we all love to see that big, beautiful blooming flower, right?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: So think of like your flowers, the flowers of your life beginning to really open and blossom here.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: And with this illumination and the culmination and with this being the peak of the cycle, I want to invite you to explore the three C's.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: If you are feeling like this is more of an authentic expression of the full moon for you, here are a couple ways you can play.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: The first C is to celebrate, to celebrate yourself.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: Celebrate how far you've come, celebrate everything you've created, whether it's small or medium or big.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: I don't care.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: Take a moment to celebrate yourself, especially if you are on a healing journey where you are working with some of the deepest, most tender, most painful wounds.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: We need these moments of acknowledgement that, like, okay, things are working.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe they're not to their fullest express potential yet.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: But can I take something here that gives me that sense of feeling like, okay, when I'm studying with my teacher, uh Tira Tan, who I really hope to have on the podcast one day, she calls them resources.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's these moments that give us that sense of feeling like, yeah, okay, okay, yeah.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: I can keep moving forward then, because I have a little bit more reassurance, or um rather for me, it's a it gives me this resilience, the sense that I can continue moving forward.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you are on, and chances are you're here, so that means that you are on some sort of healing journey, then you know that those moments of celebration are gonna be so important.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, we just get lost in the heaviness and the grief and all of the sorrow.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: And that's not to say that we don't want to acknowledge that and welcome that in and hold space for that.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: We definitely do.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: And it makes it a lot easier to sit compassionately and lovingly, lovingly with those parts of ourselves when we're also like acknowledging acknowledging how amazing we are, too.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: Some ways that you can celebrate yourself.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: One thing that I'm gonna be doing in the next day or so as I'm in my inner summer, is to write a celebration list or wins list.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: Write down some things that went really well the past couple of weeks.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: And again, these these don't have to be big things, they can be small moments.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe there was just something new you've been learning and finally clicked the other day.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you had been thinking about reaching out to a friend you hadn't reached out to in a long time, and you finally reached out to them and they responded, and you met up and you had tea, and it was great.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: Celebrate that.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: The next seed that you can play with and explore in this part of the moon phase is to create.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: So when you use a light dimmer to turn on the light, the light slowly comes on and it reaches the peak of its light.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: And then when you turn it off with the dimmer, it slowly fades out and reaches its darkest point.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: That is more how the new moon and the full moon energies work specifically.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: So you can feel these energies up and work with these energies up to three days before and up to three days after.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: So let's say the full moon's on Wednesday and it's Thursday, and you're like, oh my gosh, like full moon's done.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: I can't work with this energy.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: You can, yeah, for up to three days after.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so as we are in these kind of like portals around the full moon, studies have shown that there's people generally get about 30% less deep sleep around this time.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: So if you find you're having a hard time sleeping all the way through the night or you're waking up in the middle of the night, this is very common around the full moon.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: And to me, it's because like there's just so much energy.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: I notice, like, if I'm at home on a full moon, there's like ambulances driving by and just all sorts of like it feels and sounds like chaos sometimes.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: And it just really encourages me, invites me to just like hunker down at my home because it's just it can get to be a lot out there.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so, with all of that energy, especially if we deal with anxiety, this can be a beautiful time to lean into creation, into creativity, and to channel that energy in some sort of creative modality, whether it's writing or singing or dancing or painting or whatever your creative expression is.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: I encourage you and invite you to block out one to two hours if you're able to, sometime around the full moon, to devote to your creative expression.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: Creativity is such a beautiful way to get what we're feeling on the inside on the outside.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I have found it to be so helpful in my own healing journey and my growth journey.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I encourage you to do that if you can, to create and to lean into your creative expression.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: The third C is connect, connect with yourself and connect with others.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: This can be a really beautiful time to gather in community, to meet up with a girlfriend, to try a new women's circle, to have a date night with your partner, to have a date night with yourself.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: Why not?
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: This is a really wonderful thing, and something that we we need for our health and for our well-being.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: We are biological beings, hardwired, or excuse me, we are biological beings.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I think.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: We have connection hardwired into our biology.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I meant to say.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: And this comes from Brene Brown.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: We are hardwired for connection, we need connection for optimal health and well-being, real and authentic connection, I will say.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: Connection with the right people.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, this isn't connection just for connection, just to connect, because I know I need it.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: This is because sometimes if you're connecting with the with not quite the right person, then the connection can actually be hurtful and distressing.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: So connection with the right people and in the right ways that feel just right for you.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: If you are in your pre-ovulatory time, you may notice yourself feeling more social around this time.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: I notice myself being more open to meeting new people and to talking to new people.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas during the uh the pre-mentrum time, when I'm in my inner fall phase, I don't really want to go out and meet new people.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: No thank you.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: But around this time, I definitely do.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so I might spark new conversations with people.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: I might hop on a quick Zoom call with someone that I met on Instagram.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: I might meet up with a friend for some tea.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the third C to play with during this time.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm gonna leave that there for today.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: That feels like a lot of juicy stuff to play with over the next few days.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: To support your exploration of this full moon celebratory energy, I invite you to check out one of my meditations on Insight Timer.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: I believe it's feeling more confident or something like that.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna put the link in the show notes.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: This is a really beautiful meditation to do with the full moon, especially if you've been kind of stuck in this old way of just releasing things and releasing things and releasing things and not feeling like anything's being released.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: Switch it up a little bit, maybe, and see what celebrating yourself might do for you.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's very somatic as well, so it'll be very grounding if you find yourself feeling anxious or just really um, yeah, just really feeling all that extra energy coming out from the full moon.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: This is a very grounding, settling practice as well.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: I look forward to connecting with you again on Wednesday in the next solo episode, where I haven't quite decided what I'm gonna be discussing, but it's gonna be it's gonna be good no matter what I choose.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I will say if you have a question or a specific topic that you would like me to talk about on the show, you are very welcome to leave a comment over on Spotify if you're listening on Spotify.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're not listening on Spotify, that's okay.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: You can't leave comments on Apple Podcasts, but and you can send me an email and you can find my email address in the show notes.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: I look forward to connecting with you in our next episode.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: In the meantime, take care of yourself and take care of each other.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: Fighting for the voice of the woody baby, cleaving the pain from your woody living, creating new life from your woody plane, rebuilding with the faces of the moody living.