Latest / Healing Her Story with Riva Jean-Paul / Moon Phases & Feminine Power: Your Weekly Cycle Sync – Slow Down to Heal

Transcript

Moon Phases & Feminine Power: Your Weekly Cycle Sync – Slow Down to Heal · Healing Her Story with Riva Jean-Paul

• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to today's episode of the Healing Her Story Podcast.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Today we are gathering for our weekly cycle sync episode.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll talk a little bit more about the opportunities that we have this week.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: And before we do that, I do want to take a moment to acknowledge you and to witness you.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: I see you showing up for yourself, showing up for this work.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for choosing to press play.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for carving out even just a little bit of time out of your busy day to connect and to tune in not only to your inner rhythm, but to these larger rhythms and cycles that we are moving through as a collective.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I've said this before, and I'll say it again, and you'll probably hear me say it again and again.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I truly believe that when you show up to do this work, you are doing so much more than just sinking to cycles.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: You are exploring and embodying and making way for a new way of being in this modern world.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: A way that is cyclical, a way that honors the ups and the downs and the highs and the lows and the ebbs and the flows.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And as we do that, we create this ripple effect that twinkles down into our friendships, into our families, into our workplaces, into our communities.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: And this is how we create change.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: It starts with ourselves and the impact that that ripples out, then begins to maybe shift our collective consciousness.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: And as we begin to shift it, we begin to create space for something new, something more true, something more sustainable.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you for being here.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Whether this is your first time tuning in, or again, if you've been listening week after week, I see you.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm so grateful that you are here.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Before we go into this week's phase, I'm going to have us take our minute of silence as we do every week in these episodes.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And in this minute of silence, you are invited to come into more presence with yourself, whatever that may look like today, whether you're driving or doing some chores or doing something else in the background.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're able to stop and take a moment of stillness.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: And if it feels right, you can close your eyes and begin to connect with your breath and just beginning to notice that breath flowing in and flowing out.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: And as you do that, maybe noticing how the breath is this constant cycle of expansion and contraction.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so maybe if this process is modeled in our breath, maybe we can also begin to trust in this process when it comes to our healing and to how we live our lives, because everything expands and then it inevitably contracts before it can expand again.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: So if you'd like, you can reflect on that.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: And as you're reflecting on that, also maybe noticing where you are in your inner rhythm because we are moving through our own inner rhythms as well, sensing more of a spring-like energy, or maybe more of a summer-like energy, or maybe more of a fall or winter energy.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: So taking that minute now.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: For me today, I am, oh my gosh, what cycle day am I?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm having to reference my journal really quickly.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm cycle day 17, and now that I know what cycle day it makes sense, what I was noticing in my inner rhythm, I'm just kind of on the tail end of my inner summer, my ovulation time.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: And as I'm noticing how I'm feeling today compared to how I feel yesterday, I do feel like I'm heading to that drop-off, or maybe already I'm already in that drop-off.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about this in our last cycle check-in episode about that secret phase.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't had the chance to listen to it, I invite you to go back and give it a listen.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's something that I think can be easily missed when it comes to this cyclical work.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a real um, yeah, just a real sweet spot that I've really enjoyed working with in myself.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it seems that it is here.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I will be intentionally creating some time, whether that is later today or tomorrow, to connect a little bit deeper.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's also the Capricorn full moon, the day that I'm recording this.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I've got a lot of completions and culmination points, and um yeah, just a lot of really beautiful peak moments over the last couple of days.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just kind of basking in that and staying open to any more that might arise over the next couple of days.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And overall, it's been an okay cycle in spite of um getting a little bit less sleep uh and rest during my last bleed.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, had a nice day yesterday, very uh inner summery day on the beach with a dear sister of mine, and spent some time in the water, and ate a delicious watermelon salad, and went to this beautiful going-away party for one of my colleagues at the end of the day, and was invited to speak.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: And we talked a lot about the heart and mission and purpose, and so it's been a really beautiful, beautiful um week for me.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: So that's me.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I always like to kind of share one just to give you a little insight into my process and to also connect and and share a little bit about my cyclical experience.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Today we are gathering for our weekly cycle check-in for the week of July 21st, and we are attuning to the energy of the waning moon.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been here a while, you might already know what I'm about to say.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: We are being invited to slow down.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: Here's that message one more time for you.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not just a little, at least to me, it doesn't feel like just a little.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: It feels like a real deep intentional invitation to slow down.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: This time of the cycle is associated with the season of autumn and the element of metal and the pre-menstruum time of the menstrual cycle.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: And for many women, this becomes a hot spot in the month.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I often think that it's not because something is quote unquote wrong, it's more because you're still trying to perform and produce and show up as if you're in the peak of your energy.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: But just as the moon's light dims, our own capacity starts to dim too.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: In the episode I shared a few weeks back on the female nervous system, we talked about the science behind this, how our window of tolerance literally shrinks during the pre-menstruum phase.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: And while that episode focused on the menstrual cycle, I can't help but wonder if this same thing applies to the lunar cycle.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: After all, the moon governs the tides, and those tides exist inside of us too.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: So if the moon is holding less light, maybe we're meant to hold less too.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe it's not because you're broken or lazy or behind, it's just because you're in rhythm.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: I see so many women, students, clients, friends, colleagues sharing with me this message to slow down.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And as much as I hear this message, I'm not actually sure if any of them, maybe a few of them, understand what that means or how to even do it.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: And again, it's not because you're stupid or you're broken or something's wrong with you.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's maybe because you've had no example, no reference point.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: And to me, that makes a lot of sense in our fast-paced world.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: Most people talk fast, work fast, react fast, and they want their growth and healing to happen fast too.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: Why the fuck are we all in such a rush?
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: We're all reaching, striving to go to some place.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: And where do we think we're going?
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Is there something wrong with being where we are right here, right now?
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but I can feel this pressure to keep pushing, doing, striving.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: It comes from the outside and it also comes from inside of me, too.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: But that pressure inside to me is more because the pressure outside has penetrated my nervous system and my psyche so deeply.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I'm not alone in that.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: Many people resist slowing down, and when it comes time to actually do it, they don't know how.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I get it, it's hard.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: I still live a very full life.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you you might consider me to be a fairly busy person.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: I try not to use that word because to me, the way that I'm living now is so much slower than where I was three, four, five years ago.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: And as I've transitioned into this way of being, it's shown me that just because you slow down and you're living slower doesn't mean that life has to stop.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: You can get ready slower, brush your teeth slower, respond to emails slower, move on to your next activity slower.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: And guess what happens when you slow down?
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: You start to heal faster because healing really requires time and space.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: If your schedule is packed to the brim every day, week after week, it can make it so much harder to heal.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Your nervous system doesn't move at the speed of Instagram or reels and TikToks.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: It moves at the pace of the earth.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: The pace of the body and the nervous system is slow, and the mind is very fast.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: So, in order to access that inner healing intelligence, you must slow down.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: We're also now in a mercury retrograde.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, this invitation to slow down is even more amplified.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: As we're closing out this cancer season and moon cycle, it's a wonderful time to reflect on how you might begin to care for yourself differently after the conversations we've had over the last few weeks.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't had the chance, I invite you to tune in and then to maybe assess how you might want to do things differently in this next cycle.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: We have our next new moon arriving at the end of the week, and it will be time to begin again.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: For me, I've started going back to somatic therapy after having some things come up.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: I've added in some extra acupuncture sessions to balance out all of the output that I'll be um yeah, putting out over the next few weeks as I'm running my summer program with a nonprofit I work here for locally in Sacramento.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: And something that I hadn't done before, I decided to block out the two weeks where I think I'll start my bleed instead of expecting it to start on the exact day that I think it's gonna start, whether it's day 28 or 29 or 30 or 31 or 32 or 33 or 34 or 35 is as um long as it's gotten over the last couple of weeks.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've just blocked out that whole period until I know um a little bit more um, yeah, until I just have a better sense of like what day it's actually going to be on, so that I don't put myself in that same situation with my last bleed where I had expected to be starting on a certain day, and I planned things like that, and my cycle threw me for a loop and started on a different day.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so, anyway, um, yeah, just a shift that I'm exploring and playing with in this next cycle too.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that on the other side of my next bleed, I'll be able to share that I was able to get some more rest, even with running this summer program.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: We'll also be shifting our focus here on the show to creativity, and I'm very excited for some special guests and for some powerful conversations.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: We will have our first conversation around creativity this Friday, and I very much look forward to connecting with you then.