Latest / Healing Her Story with Riva Jean-Paul / Moon Phases & Feminine Power: Your Weekly Cycle Sync | Stop Pushing Too Hard Too Fast: Waxing Moon Self-Care for a Sustainable Cycle

Transcript

Moon Phases & Feminine Power: Your Weekly Cycle Sync | Stop Pushing Too Hard Too Fast: Waxing Moon Self-Care for a Sustainable Cycle · 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: I am delighted to be here with you today.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Grateful for an opportunity to connect with you and to explore how we can work with this week's lunar energy.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: If this is your first time, welcome.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so grateful that you're here.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: So grateful that you have found this space, this community, which I hope can be a place where you can softly land, especially being a woman, living in a patriarchal world.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but I'm always so grateful to be in communities and rooms and spaces in environments where I can really sense there is understanding and belonging.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that is something that I really hope that you can sense here.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are returning, welcome back.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps that's why you are coming back is because you do gain value from these episodes.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: You do gain value from being here in this space, from being a part of this community.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I really want to thank you for having the courage to do this work, whatever your version of the work is.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: I believe that one of the most powerful things we can do as women in this modern world is to empower ourselves with understanding, is to reconnect with the power of our bodies.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, but if you live in a female body, I'm not sure if you're aware, but you hold some of the greatest power there is in the world.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Every single being came from.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: If that is not the most powerful thing in the world, I don't know what is.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Literally, life would not exist without this power.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the power that you hold within you.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: We all have creative power, regardless of gender or sex.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, clearly, this is what is this.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: This work that we're doing right here, learning how to really harness this power because unfortunately we aren't taught.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's maybe on purpose.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Women are much easier to control when they're uninformed and overwhelmed and exhausted and undernourished and disconnected.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: So the work that we are doing here is really intended to be an antidote to all of that.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I truly believe that women will save the world.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: No pressure.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what I truly believe.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: And apparently, I had a conversation, I believe, with a guest recently.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was in Serena's episode on In the Grill In the Grit, uh, in the guilt, and what it means to be biracial, uh, to be a second-generation immigrant.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't listened to that episode, I invite you to go and check it out.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: I've gotten a lot of great feedback from the episode so far, and many of you have found it fascinating and and interesting, and it definitely is.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I encourage you to go and give that a listen.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: But as I was saying, I sort of lost my train of thought there.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: All of that to say is I'm just grateful you're here.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Ah, yes, there it is.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: I remember it came back.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Serena shared that the Dalai Lama said that West the Western woman will save the world.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: So apparently this is what the Dalai Lama believes, too.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: So there's gotta be something there, right?
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I don't share that to hopefully I'm I'm I'm not intending to give you the idea that you know it's up to you to save the world.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Good luck with that.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: What I'm saying is that this work that we are doing here, it makes an impact.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it makes a significant impact personally, yes, on your quality of life and also collectively, because there is a ripple effect that goes out, a ripple effect that is created from a woman who truly understands her body from knows herself, who can then go and pass that down to the next generation.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I live for, y'all, clearly.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, all that to say is just I'm glad you're here.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, let's go ahead and dive into what we're working with this week.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: By the time this episode is airing, we are officially in cancer season.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And our last cycle sync episode is what sort of transitioned us into this season.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: So if you haven't listened to that episode, I invite you to go back and give that one a listen.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: And as we are in cancer season, our cycle sync episodes will be focused on self-care.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: And that's because cancer is associated with care, home, emotions.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be exploring these things and a few other themes throughout this season.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: But what I really wanted to do with these cycle sync episodes was to drop us into this idea of care.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because what I know within myself and what I've been witnessing within my clients is that care, the way we care for ourselves, changes as we change.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe this is in a different life cycle or a life, a phase of your life, such as your 20s or your 30s or 40s or 50s, or maybe you connect with maiden, mother, enchantress, crone.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: They also change, excuse me, care for ourselves also changes with the seasons of our life as well.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we're in a busier season of our life, or maybe you're in a more spacious season of your life.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: So the way you care for yourself may change.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then look in regards to the menstrual cycle, our hormones are ebbing and flowing and changing and fluctuating all of the time, as I know you know.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: And with those ebb and flows, the way we care for ourselves during those phases also ebbs and flows.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna be kind of walking you through how to support yourself through those ebbs and flows.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: So before we dive into today's episode, I'm gonna invite you into our minute of silence.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're new here, this is something we do every episode.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's an opportunity that you have to pause, to slow down, to look within.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Especially, I know so many of us, we live such busy and full lives.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And how often do we take a minute to just sit and breathe and be without looking at our phones, without jumping into the next thing?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Just a chance to be.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna give you a moment to do that now.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, I'm also gonna invite you to bring your awareness inside and to notice what's here, noticing what your energy level is like, noticing what your mood is like.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: And as you sense into an energy and a mood, you may also start to gather more information about where you are in your own inner rhythm, whether you're bleeding or not.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: We all have our own inner rhythm that we follow as well.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll start my timer here and put my mic on mute and give you a moment to just sit and be starting now.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Taking a moment to note anything that may have stood out to you.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: For me, I felt like I could have sat in that stillness and silence for probably like 30 more minutes.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm cycle day 14 today, and I'm definitely in my inner summer.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a pretty chill summer so far, I will say.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've been in it for a while, you might know that I've been using the Mira hormone tracking device.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Still loving it, and continuing to get more data.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: And also now starting to sort of shift my curiosity from what I initially went in with.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, in that sense, it's been illuminating and it's really invited me to reprioritize things a bit, which I'll talk about a little bit more in this episode.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: And all of that to say is that there's a bit of uncertainty during this time because the data shows that I did have my, I believe, what is your LH peak, if I'm remembering that correctly.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still learning.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's like so much to uh go really deep with.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like there's layers to this, and so I'm reaching kind of like these deeper layers.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, my LH peak was detected two days ago, which indicates ovulation.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I also don't feel that I ovulated.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I've also learned from my chart that I can have double peaks, which from what I understand doesn't affect ovulation, but it is something interesting happening in my cycle.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm a little unsure if I've ovulated or not.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: My Mira app is suggesting that I did based off of that LHP two days ago.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: But I sense I'm not there yet.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: So just staying open and curious, which is something I've really had to embrace more of as I collect more data.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: I noticed that it created a lot of kind of that like going into fixing energy as opposed to an openness and a curiosity about the data that I'm collecting.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: And my supervisor really helped me land into that.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, quite I'm not quite sure where I am exactly, and also is going back to that felt sense, right?
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that felt sense for me right now is that inner summertime, especially since I've been noticing the sticky cervical mucus as well.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a little bit about where I am hormonally.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Personally, I'm in a fuller season of my life, my work life specifically, that just started today.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, there's a lot there.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: It'll be a quite demanding couple of weeks.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: So just doing my best to take care and to support myself as I move through this fuller season.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: So if you notice a shift in my energy, then that might be why.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm also doing some really interesting things I haven't talked about much on the show to Vina and I, our last guest episode.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: We had a conversation briefly about this as we were wrapping up the episode.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: So perhaps I'll share more when the time is right.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: But for now, let's get into this week's lunar energy.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: This week we're tuning to the energy of the waxing moon.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: The waxing moon is associated with the season of spring, and in the menstrual cycle, it maps to the follicular phase, that beautiful window after the new moon or your bleeding time when energy begins to return.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Estrogen starts to rise in the body, the light comes back into the sky, and our focus naturally begins to shift from the inner world toward the external world.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is a transitioning energy, and because of that, it comes with an inherent tenderness.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: In my experience, this is actually one of the most delicate parts of the cycle, one that requires real awareness and honestly some gentleness too.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because what I hear from so many women and what I've experienced within myself is that we come out of our bleeding time or the new moon rest and we push too hard, too fast, and before we even reach the full moon, or before we even get to ovulation, we're already overwhelmed, anxious, and burnt out.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Does that sound familiar?
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: If it does, you're in the right place.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if it doesn't, I wouldn't be surprised if you're still here listening, because this is the work.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: Learning to move with the cycle so that this doesn't have to feel so depleting.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: I believe the waxy moon and the follicular phase are some of the most potent creative windows we have in the whole cycle.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is where we can start putting real energy towards what we desire, what we want to experience, maybe what we want to create.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: There's a building here and momentum that's just beginning to gather.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, because of that rising energy, what I find most supportive during this time, after many lessons learned, is grounding.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: I could offer you a long list of grounding practices, but the truth is what grounds one woman may not ground another.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, as always, the invitation here is to explore and discern for yourself.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a grounding meditation.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's putting your feet on the earth.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's something completely unexpected.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: For me, lately, it's been slow strength training.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Really slow, deliberate strength training has kept me deeply connected to my body in a way that feels stabilizing rather than depleting.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: My morning routine has also become a deeper anchor.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: I've been making some adjustments as I was sharing in my check-in here.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: And now my morning routine looks like wake up, meditate, and then I go make breakfast.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: That last part is what's the new part for me.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: As I've been tracking with the mirror app and getting curious about my progesterone, and one thing I've learned is that progesterone loves steadiness and consistency.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: And eating breakfast within the first hour and a half of waking is one of the most supportive things we can do for our overall hormonal balance.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: I have noticed a real increase in steadiness in my system since I've started prioritizing this just a couple weeks ago.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like I can already start to feel the difference.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: I will also try to get in some morning sun, and if time allows, morning walk.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that combination with the meal, the light, the gentle movement really allows me to start the day from a full place, and I can carry that groundedness and that fullness forward.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is also a wonderful time in the cycle to explore.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you've had a curiosity about a new healing modality, such as acupuncture or a new breath work style, or a practitioner you've been meaning to reach out to, the follicular phase and the waxing moon is a genuinely good time to book that appointment or to at least start gathering information.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: In this part of the cycle, there's generally more openness and more curiosity.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe you're not quite ready to take action yet.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's totally okay.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: But perhaps you could start doing a little research.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you pick up a new book or have a conversation with a friend who's been doing something interesting.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: I invite you to let yourself be curious without the pressure to commit.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you can almost kind of think of it as like a gathering information.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Something else that I also want to touch on is movement because I have some thoughts here.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: When I first started working with the cycles, I would read online that follicula that the follicular phase was the time for HIIT workouts and intense cardio.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: I even had a coach tell me that.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I tried that.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, it didn't work for me.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: On a nervous system level, that intensity during such a tender new part of the cycle was actually doing me more harm than good.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it just goes to show y'all that you can't just take everything you read online as the whole truth.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps there is truth to it, but what works for one person may not work for you.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: And we are all so deeply unique and individual.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: So what I'm sharing here is my own experience.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: But again, do you know what you need to do?
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: You'll need to discern what feels most supportive for you and for your body.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: But what I have found is that this time of new growth, of tender beginnings, it responds quite well to gentle, joyful movement.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, that looks like hula hooping, walking, swimming, dancing around in the kitchen while my lunch warms up.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: Movement that just makes you feel good.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: That cultivates energy rather than depleting it.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: I have so many women come to me who are doing way too much, way too soon in this phase, and they're wondering why they're crashing out before ovulation or before the full moon.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: And this is this is why.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the goal here, it's really not about maximizing the energy.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's more about uh sustainability and a cultivating of energy as we move through cancer season, again, which is so deeply about care, about home, about nourishment.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna offer you a reflection question for this week.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: How can you tend to yourself the way you tend to everyone else?
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: And that's also gonna be a really beautiful sort of warm-up for the conversation on Friday.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a bit of a spicier one for you.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope that you'll join me then.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Before I go, I do want to share something that I'm really excited about.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: I have a new menstrual cycle coach coaching package, and I'm calling it synchronize.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: I believe, as I've stated here many times, that menstrual cycle awareness is one of the most powerful tools a woman can have.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I could talk about this on the podcast every single week, which I basically do.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: But there is something different about going deeper with your own cycle in a supported, personalized way.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what synchronize is designed for.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, I have two spots available at the pilot rate, and I'm holding that rate through August.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: In September, the investment will increase.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've been loving these episodes and you're feeling ready to go deeper, this is your window.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: The next step is quite simple.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: Go to the link in the show notes and book a somatic assessment and care planning session.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is where we'll do your intake, where you'll have the chance to meet me and ask any questions you have, and where we'll create your intention and a plan for working together.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Whether that winds up being with synchronize or something else entirely that fits better for where you are.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Either way, you're leaving the session with a clear plan and clear next best steps.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: In these sessions, you also get the chance to experience a little bit of the somatic work.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because somatic work can actually kind of be hard to explain, which makes sense because it's not about our thinking, it's about our sensing, about our feeling.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so in the session, you do get a chance to just feel into it rather than trying to understand intellectually.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a beautiful way to get a little taste before you decide on anything.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: So again, I have two spots available with the pilot rate through August, and you can find that link in the show notes.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: Until then, I look forward to connecting with you in the next episode.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: Take care.