Latest / Healing Her Story with Riva Jean-Paul / Moon Phases & Feminine Power: Your Weekly Cycle Sync | Grounding, Stability, & The Earth Element

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Moon Phases & Feminine Power: Your Weekly Cycle Sync | Grounding, Stability, & The Earth Element · Healing Her Story with Riva Jean-Paul

• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, and welcome to today's episode of the Healing Her Story Podcast.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: If this is your first time here, welcome.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: It is such a privilege and a joy to be able to spend a little bit of time with you, really tuning into and exploring more about feminine wisdom and specifically as we are moving through Taurus season, exploring feminine wisdom, feminine wisdom through the lens of the elements.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you are returning and if you've been following along for this mini-series, welcome back.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: It is also such a joy and a privilege to have you here today as well.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And as I've mentioned, we've been exploring the elements through our mini-series.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: So if you haven't had the chance to go back and listen, uh those episodes will always be there for you to refer back to anytime you would like to explore how to work with the elements in each specific phase.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: So we are continuing that conversation today.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And our focus today is on the element of earth.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And this is one of my favorite elements, and it's hard to pick one.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: I really enjoy them all, and they all have such wisdom for us.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this is an especially potent one, particularly for the times that we find ourselves in.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Before we begin, I want to invite you to come into a place of presence, whatever that may look like for you, whether you're driving, doing something in the background, or perhaps you've got some time here to really drop in to this wisdom.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you want to listen to this episode on a walk, or just sitting somewhere out in nature.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: And wherever you may find yourself is perfect.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: And in any way that feels right for you, I'll invite you to begin slowing down, even if it's just one or two percent.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll continue with this practice that we talked about in one of our recent Friday episodes about using our senses.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And we've been doing this practice in our last few episodes as we've been more moving through Taurus seasons.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll offer it to you again today.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll start by using our sense of sight, our sense of seeing, and taking a look around the environment that you're in and noticing what you see.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then starting to tune in to four things that you hear.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then beginning to tune into three things that you can feel or sense in this moment.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then beginning to tune into two things that you can maybe smell.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe one thing that you can taste in your mouth.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And as you continue with this exploration, we'll move into a minute of silence and noticing what arises for you in that minute of silence, especially after doing our sensory practice.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Taking note of anything that stood out to you during that minute.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: For myself, I noticed almost immediately I began to yawn.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I noticed myself leaning back in my chair a bit more, and just continued to really notice the sounds of the environment that I'm in, and really taking in my environment and just noticing how settled I felt in that time.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll share a shorter cycle check-in today.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Today I am cycle day, I believe 18.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking at my mirror app right now.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, I was right.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so yes, day 18, which officially puts me in the luteal phase.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting, I was aligned perfectly with the moment that we're going to talk about today, just a day or two ago.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll share a little bit more about that.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: But I really had the opportunity to spend a little bit more time with that moment that happens right after ovulation.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, I was able to really reflect on how much my experience of my cycle has changed over these last few weeks as I've implemented a few additional layers of support.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that was a really welcomed change.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Previously, in the past few months, I've felt a lot of fogginess and a sense of being bogged down and just not really feeling like myself during the follicular phase and around ovulation as well.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't have that this cycle.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: So it's confirmation to me that all of the adjustments that I've been making are working.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it's now a matter of continuing with those layers of support.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll mention here, I am just getting ready to finish up my menstrual cycle coaching certification.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: I went through the cycle coach certification with cycle coach school, not this past year, but the year before that.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: And the certification process is quite extensive, which I think is great.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's it's taking me a little bit of time to get through everything.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: However, I'm really close, and I recently had the opportunity to work with a dear friend offering some cycle coaching sessions to her.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it was really beautiful to see her experience and the changes that she was able to embody in just three short sessions.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so I mentioned this because I am getting ready to begin offering menstrual cycle coaching.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've really been enjoying these Monday episodes and you've been wanting to connect with your personal menstrual cycle in a deeper way, menstrual cycle coaching is a way to do that.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: And menstrual cycle coaching is something that I received as well.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Also part of the certification process.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: And it's also been very, I don't know if life, of course, life-changing.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: And you can learn a little bit more about what that session entails in the show notes.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll leave all of that for you there if this sparked a little bit of curiosity for you.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: As far as this week, specifically, the week of May 4th, happy May.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: May the 4th be with you, even though I'm not a Star Wars fan at all.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: I digress.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: We are attuning to the earth element.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what I call the secret phase of the cycle.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I call it the secret phase because it wasn't until I really started diving very deep into my menstrual cycle awareness that I began to learn about this phase.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's not one that's really explored much in the resources and episodes, podcast episodes, and blog posts and things that I have have read.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd be curious to know if there's any other resources that you've come across that do speak to this phase, because I learned about it in Cycle Coach School.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: And specifically, what really brought my awareness around this particular phase was traditional Chinese medicine, because through the lens of traditional Chinese medicine, they do honor this phase.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it's exactly what it sounds like.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: It can be really easy to miss, like you can blink and you'll move right past it.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you can think of this particular phase as kind of this particular moment in the process of a ball being tossed in the sky.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: So if it's helpful for you, you can maybe close your eyes and use your imagination here and picture a ball being tossed up in the sky.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's this moment just before the descent begins, where the momentum begins to shift.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly where we are right now.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's the earth element in the cyclical process.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been following along with the series and using it to track your own cycle, this is the moment right after ovulation.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: And if you move too quickly, you'll you'll likely miss it because I was missing it for many years until I really started to become more aware.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: And as I mentioned, I I really felt this, I experienced this in my body, this past ovulation, not being so bogged down with some of my other symptoms.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: I woke up one morning and after a couple days of really riding high and could really feel that shift in the momentum.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: And it's ironic because this phase is all about grounding.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: And today that's exactly where I'd like to focus.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: And not just as a feeling or a metaphor, but really as a practice that is backed by both ancient wisdom and emerging science.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about grounding itself.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what the earth element offers us because this is one of those practices that sits at the intersection of ancient intuition and modern research.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I find that so exciting.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: When you place your bare feet on the earth, and I'm sure we've all heard this before, go place your feet on the earth.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's grounding, it's good for you.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it's on grass or on soil, on sand or on stone.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: But there's there's science behind all of this.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: When your body makes direct electrical contact with the surface of the planet, the earth carries a mild negative charge, and your body, which is a conductive, absorbs free electrons through that contact.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: For most of human history, we were in constant connection with the earth.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: We walked barefoot, we slept on the ground.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: However, in the last sixty years or so, we have become so completely disconnected from the earth through our shoes, through elevated floors, through concrete.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: And some research researchers have started to get a little bit curious and have started to ask, is there anything that we've lost in this particular aspect of our evolution?
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: And the research on this has been very interesting.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: Study suggests that grounding, even for 20 to 40 minutes a day, which I think is actually quite long.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: I suppose if you're doing some yard work or you've got an activity that you're doing out there for that amount of time, it might be easier to obtain that 20 to 40 minutes.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: But during this time, that connection to the earth can help shift the nervous system from a more sympathetic or activated uh dominance, that more flight or flight state, more towards a parasympathetic state, which is our rest and digest, our rest and repair state.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Grounding has also been associated with improvements in heart rate variability, which is a key marker of nervous system resilience and our capacity for stress.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: And this is something that I also work on with my clients through my somatic breath work sessions.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: There's been a randomized study that found that people who slept on grounding mats, maybe you've seen some of those online before, these mats actually did show improvements in sleep quality, in insomnia severity, and in overall stress experienced during the daytime.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Other studies have shown that grounding helps to normalize our cortisol rhythms as well.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: This research is still quite early, and the studies are often small, and scientists are still working to understand the mechanisms.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: But even with that, there is a consistency across the findings, and maybe you'll experience this in your own body as well.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: But it really does point to something real.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: What this means for you in this particular phase and this moment of time that we're in right now is that grounding is more than just a nice idea.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: It really is a physiological intervention that can be an incredible layer of support for you.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: And especially for the times that we are in right now, where we live in great instability, uncertainty.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: There is a lot of suffering happening in the world right now.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it really does have an effect on all of our nervous systems, even if we aren't specifically going through it ourselves.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: And with all of the planets in the Aries over these last uh several weeks, as the time uh the time that we're in right now, there is a lot of extra activation.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: And in the lens of the moon cycles, the full moon is such an activating time that really illuminates and stirs things up.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so grounding and really leaning into the medicine of the earth element can be such a beautiful antidote for all of that.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: So you may be wondering, how do I actually do it?
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the simplest answer is to take your shoes off and go stand on the earth, whether it's grass, soil, sand, stone, whether it's in your backyard, or maybe you are able to get to a park or a lake or somewhere out in nature that you enjoy.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: And starting with five, maybe 10, maybe 20 minutes.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: And if you can, another way that you could explore this is putting your hands in the soil.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you plant something or weed something, or maybe you've got a local community garden where you can go contribute your time and your hands.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you live near water, you can wade in it.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: These are natural bodies of water because natural bodies of water is also conductive as well.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I've mentioned that the outer world is incredibly unstable right now.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: And while there is the sense of grounding and the sense of connecting to the actual earth beneath you, the earth element also makes me reflect on a bigger question.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: And something that I'll invite you to explore is how do you create stability within yourself when the world around you is unstable?
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: How do I create stability within myself when the world around me is unstable?
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm gonna give you my answer.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: However, this is not a framework that's gonna work for everyone.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: This is a deeply personal question and an exploration that I'll invite you to sit with this week.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: For me, the answer is routine.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not about a rigid routine where nothing can change.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's more about creating a container, something that holds me through my day, no matter what's happening around me.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: I have had a morning practice for probably like 15 years now, honestly.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what I do has changed completely since I first started my morning practices.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: It looks nothing like it did five or 10 years ago.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: But what has stayed the same is that I have one every morning, even if I'm traveling, I know I have at least an hour.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's a little less if I've got to be somewhere early.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: Ideally, it's three.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't always happen, but that's my ideal.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I really use this time to care for myself, for my body.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: Lately, I'm either doing a yin yoga or a qigong practice inspired by the elements.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: And another thing that I'll offer you this week, I'll link a couple videos for those in the show notes for you for the Earth phase for you to explore this week.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: And most recently, as I've been having a lot of um astrological activity in this area of my chart, I've been building out middle of day and evening anchors too.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Three points in my day that I can count on.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what begins to create stability for me, knowing that no matter what arrives, there are moments in the day that don't move.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, my invitation for you for this brief and easy-to-miss phase over the next couple of days is to choose one grounding practice and one anchor in your routine.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: They can be small, five minutes barefoot in the morning, a cup of tea at the same time in each afternoon, a stretch before bed.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's about the steadiness and the regularity and the container that you create for yourself.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: And in this, I believe that we can begin to create that same solid ground that we feel when we make contact with the earth.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: We can begin to create that same solid ground within ourselves as well when we have these anchors throughout our day.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: Again, this phase will pass within a day or two.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: And next week we'll explore the metal element as we'll move a little bit deeper into this energy over the next couple of days.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll have a deeper exploration of the element of metal, and that will conclude our mini series on the elements through Taurus season.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: I look forward to connecting with you in the next episode.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: And until then, take care of yourselves.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're able to, maybe taking care of others.